Constantine Scollen

Father Con Scollen omi. (4 April 1841 – 8 November 1902) was an Irish Roman Catholic missionary who lived among and evangelised the Blackfoot, Cree and Metis peoples on the Canadian Prairies and in Montana. Later he worked among the native peoples of the USA on missions in what is now, North Dakota, Wyoming, Nebraska and Kansas. He is particularly remembered for having the first building erected (by Alexis Cardinal) in what is now, Calgary, Alberta, in 1875. In 1876 he was an interpreter for some of the Plains Cree Chiefs (Peter Erasmus was interpreter for the other chiefs and Governor Morris) and witness to Treaty 6 between the Cree and the Canadian government. (The Woods and Swampy Cree made a separate treaty with the Canadian government) He was a consultant to the Canadian government prior to the signing of Treaty 7 with the Blackfoot Confederacy, in 1877 and was also an interpreter and witness. In 1870, he had spent the winter at Rocky Mountain House, co-writing a Cree language grammar and dictionary with his mentor, fellow Oblate and friend, Albert Lacombe. His considerable contribution was not acknowledged on publication in 1873. He also wrote a book of 75 sermons in Cree, for Fr Dupin. In 1883, he wrote an unpublished Blackfoot/French dictionary and grammar for Fathers Doucet and Legal and to Fr Lacombe he gave a grammar, catechism and some hymns, in Blackfoot, all written and composed by him. Being a capable violinist, he also wrote the music. In Wyoming in 1892, he wrote an Arapaho/English dictionary and grammar and his original notebook is in the Smithsonian Institution, Washington. He had an extraordinary talent for languages and became the foremost linguist in the Oblates of Mary Immaculate, in Canada. In addition to his bi-lingual childhood tongues of Erse (Irish) and English he was fluent in Greek, Latin, French, Italian, German and the First Nation languages/dialects of Peigan, Cree, Blackfoot, Stoney, Ojibwe, Sarcee and Arapaho. (Most of these native languages belong to the Algonquin family) He taught English to his fellow missionaries (who were all native French speakers) and First Nation languages to new arrivals. He was the only native English speaking Oblate priest among his exclusively French and French Canadian fellow priests and was the first priest to live among the Blackfoot. (Albert Lacombe had been a visiting missionary to the Blackfoot prior to Scollen, but did not live among them). Scollen's intervention with Chief Crowfoot of the Blackfoot Confederacy in 1879 and again with Chief Bobtail of the Cree in 1885 resulted in both chiefs agreeing not to involve their peoples in the conflicts.

Scollen's autobiography, “ Thirty Years Experience Among the Indians of the North West “ extending to 250 pages, was never published. On his death in Dayton Ohio, in 1902, the precious manuscript was taken into the safekeeping of his friend, Rev Fr Anthony Stanislaus Siebenfoercher, pastor of Immaculate Conception Church, Kenton, Hardin County, Ohio. Fr Siebenfoercher died in Dayton Ohio on 8 November 1911. At the time he was taken ill, in 1908, he was the Spiritual Director of Mount St Mary Seminary, Cincinnati. His papers would also have included Father Scollen's manuscript. During his three years in St Elizabrth hospital, it is likely that the seminary would have placed his papers in safe storage, awaiting his return. Unfortunately, he died in 1911, still at the hospital and the seminary now has no record of what happened to them. To date, no-one has been able to discover the whereabouts of this important historical and anthropological document. ^[1]

Constantine Michael Scollen was born on Galloon Island, Upper Lough Erne, near the village of Newtonbutler, County Fermanagh, Ireland on 4th April 1841. His parents were Patrick Scollen and Margaret Scollen, (nee McDermott). His mother died in 1847 during the famine. Patrick moved to England and worked in a mill in Bradford, Yorkshire. He married Catherine Fitzpatrick and later moved his family to Crook, County Durham, England where he found work as a coal-miner. Scollen had hoped to become a priest but the cost (26 pounds per year for three years) was beyond his family’s means, so he decided to become a religious lay brother in the hope of studying for the priesthood, later.( His cousin, Msg. Thomas L. Connolly a Franciscan had become Archbishop of Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada in 1854.) On 14th Aug 1858, he entered the Oblates of Mary Immaculate (a French order) as a lay brother. He chose them because two of his friends, Fr Matthews and Br Tinnian had already joined. Their Noviciate,” Lys Marie”, was in nearby North Yorkshire in the village of Sicklinghall, close to Wetherby. He professed his provisional vows on 15th Aug 1859. He went to the Oblate retreat house, "Glenmary" in Inchicore village, south of Dublin and " took the habit", there. He taught there until March 1862. He had volunteered to join the missions in Canada when Mgr Tache visited there in late 1861, on his way to Rome. (Oblates were never posted abroad. They had to be volunteers.) On 25th March 1862, in Sicklinghall, he made his temporary vows as an Oblate brother under Fr Boisrame.

In April 1862 he and another Irish scholastic-brother, Br John Duffy, travelled by steamer with Mgr. Tache on his return to Canada following his visit to a General Chapter in Rome. They arrived in St Boniface (Winnipeg) on 26 May 1862.^[2] Fr Albert Lacombe took Scollen to St. Albert. He opened an English language school for children of the employees of the Hudson’s Bay Company, at nearby Fort Edmonton and ran it until 1868. He took his perpetual vows as a scholastic on 15th Aug 1865 on the understanding that he would be allowed to study for the priesthood. After some delays and interruptions caused by long periods out on the prairies living with the native peoples, he was able to complete his studies under Fr Fourmond and was ordained in April 1873. He immediately left St Albert to begin his mission on the Prairies. He was accompanied by fellow Oblate priest Fr Fourmond as his superior. The group included Louis Daze, a French Canadian whose brother was an Oblate priest in Ottawa, who acted as a lay brother.(Daze died in a blizzard a year later while attempting to recover straying horses.) The group also included two others, Alexis Cardinal and Jean L'heureux, who acted as hunters, guides, interpreters (Scollen was in the early stages of learning Blackfoot) and catechists. For the next nine years he remained mainly with Chief Crowfoot, among the Blackfoot (Siksika) people on the plains of South Alberta and Northern Montana, living their hard nomadic life without break apart from brief spring and autumn visits to St Albert, for supplies. In Oct 1881, he left his mission, both mentally and physically exhausted by the brutally hard life. He was appalled by the attitude of the Canadian government towards the native peoples and it's failure to adhere to it's obligations under the various treaties.(These failures contributed to the 1885 North West Rebellion/Resistance) He had seen the lives of the native peoples being destroyed by starvation and their lands being taken over by European/Canadian settlers. He was an outspoken advocate on their behalf and this combined with being an Irish Catholic caused him great difficulties with the Orange Order influenced Canadian authorities both civil and military. Around that time, there were groups of Irish Republicans (mainly Catholic) living in the United States who threatened to invade Canada. These people were known as "Fenians" in Canada.

In December 1882, he was appointed to parish duties in St Joachim, Edmonton but was stricken by cholera. On recovery, he returned to St Albert, ministering and travelling among the local native peoples. In November 1884, along with Fr Gabillion, he establish a mission to the Cree people at Bears Hill (now Hobbema near Edmonton). During the "1885 Rebellion", at the request of the Lt-Governor Dewdney, he dissuaded the Cree Chief, Bobtail, from joining the hostilities. Some of the younger men had looted the nearby Hudson's Bay Company trading post at Wolf Creek but he was able to return the stolen items and persuade the Canadian Militia not to take punitive action against the people. From around 1880, his relationship with the Oblate hierarchy, but not his fellow missionaries, had been strained. His mental health had deteriorated and his behaviour had become erratic. He decided to become a secular priest and eventually resigned from the Oblates in July 1885. He was destitute and asked the Canadian government for help. They granted him 150 dollars in recognition of his work at Bear Hills, preventing hostilities during the rebellion.( Fr Lacombe had been granted 1000 dollars for similar activities among the Blackfoot.) In November 1885, he asked to be allowed to return to the Oblates and Bishop Grandin sent him to the Oblate noviciate in Tewksbury, Lowell, Massachusetts, USA for rehabilitation and to renew his vocation. He failed to complete his noviciate and in 1886 went to nearby Boston. Grandin ordered him to go to Lachine, Quebec but instead Scollen went to see Bishop Tache in St Boniface (Winnipeg). Tache sent him to St Laurent to stay with his old tutor, Fr Fourmond, pending a decision. He spent two years as a secular priest, among the Irish, French and Metis people at St Laurent de Grandin and at Duck Bay on Lake Manitoba. In 1887, having had his application rejected and having recovered from his mental health problems, he crossed into the USA to work among the native peoples of the Great Plains for the next 10 years, on established missions. 1887/1888 among the Turtle Mountain Chippewa people at St John Mission, North Dakota, 1889/1892 among the Arapaho and Shoshone peoples at St Stephen Mission, near Arapahoe, Freemont, Wyoming (Wind River Reservation) 1892/1894 the same peoples at St John the Baptist (now Holy Name Mission) Sheridan, Wyoming, 1895/1896 St Mary, Orleans, Harlan, Nebraska, 1897/1898 the Potawatami and Shawnee peoples at Our Lady of Perpetual Help, Concordia, Kansas. He then left the "Indian" missions and stayed a few months at St Joseph's Chicago. After a period on parish missions in New England, his three final years were spent working in the parishes of St Joseph, Dayton, Immaculate Conception, Kenton and St Mary, Urbana, all in Ohio (late 1889 - 1902) and conducting parish missions throughout Ohio. He died in St Elizabeth Hospital, Dayton, Ohio 1902 having been a TB patient there, for some months. Scollen had remained in contact with his fellow Oblates, particularly Fr Lacombe, up until his death. Shortly before he died, Mgr Adelard Langevin, Archbishop of St Boniface, Manitoba, recognised that Scollen had always remained an Oblate, in heart, and made him an honoury member of the order.

In 1939, a cairn was built at Jumping Pound to mark the site of the original chapel built by Alexis Cardinal. It used some of the stones which were part of the original chimney and is just south of the town of Cochrane, Calgary, Alberta. In 1976, it was designated as a National Historic site.

The Father Scollen School, Scollen Street and Scollen Bridge, all in Calgary, Alberta, Canada were named in his honour.

References

1. ^ Museum, Glenbow. "Scollen Collection". M-8873-43,44 and52. 
2. ^ Petitot, Fr Emile (1888). En Route pour La Mer Glaciale. Paris: Letouzey et Ane. 

External links

• wix.com/thefletchers/constantine-scollen