Not far from a landmark built by Mother Joseph, a historian will discuss an overlooked aspect of the nun’s life: her native tongue, and those who shared it.
Mother Joseph was a prominent example of the French-speaking people who helped settle the West.
Robert Foxcurran will discuss their influence on April 7 in Vancouver. He is the author of “Songs Upon the Rivers: The Buried History of the French-Speaking Canadiens and M?tis from the Great Lakes and the Mississippi across to the Pacific.”
The free presentation will be at 2 p.m. at the Fort Vancouver Visitor Center, 1501 E. Evergreen Blvd. That’s less than a mile east of Providence Academy, built by the pioneering nun, who arrived in 1856.
“Mother Joseph and the other Sisters of Providence were all from Montreal, and French-speaking,” Foxcurran said. “At first, only a couple were bilingual.”
Pacific Northwest history was heavily influenced by French-speaking people known as les Canadiens, Foxcurran said.
Most of the lands where they settled became American territory. So, their story was never part of modern Canadian history, and it never became an element of U.S. history, he said.
They included members of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, which passed through what now is Vancouver in 1805 and 1806: George Drouillard, Toussaint Charbonneau, Francois Labiche, Jean Baptiste Lapage and Pierre Cruzatte.
More French Canadian engag?s were employed on the trek’s earlier Missouri River segment.
Many French speakers came at the invitation of the Hudson’s Bay Company as trappers, traders and farm workers. To serve the Catholics among that work force, missions and schools were founded by French-speaking priests and nuns.
Two priests, Francis N. Blanchet and Modeste Demers, left Montreal with a Hudson’s Bay Company expedition and arrived at Fort Vancouver in 1838. The mission led to the first Catholic cathedral north of the Columbia River. Along with A.M.A. Blanchet, the brother of Francis, they became the first three bishops of the Pacific Northwest.
Many French geographic names are on Oregon and Washington maps.
Foxcurran is a retired Boeing historian.
The event is hosted by the Friends of Fort Vancouver.
