St. Peters Mission

St. Peter’s Mission lies approximately 15 miles northwest of Cascade.  It was the 4^th site chosen by the Jesuit Priests after 3 previous attempts to settle among the Blackfoot Indians proved to be impractical.  In the fall of 1865, Father Giorda, Superior of St. Peter’s Mission, sent Father Imoda and several workmen to erect buildings for a mission near Birdtail Rock on the old Mullin Road.  Forced to abandon the site because of harassment by the Indians for eight years, the Priests returned to stay in 1874.  A few weeks after the Fathers’ return to the Mission, the U.S. Congress moved the boundary of the Blackfoot reservation to the Birch-Creek-Marias River line, which placed the reservation over 60 miles from St. Peter’s.

The government also turned the Blackfoot tribe over to the Protestant missionaries.  In order to continue operation, the mission was converted into a boys’ school.  In 1882 the boys’ school was erected and located near the chapel, which still stands today.

In October 1884 Mother Amadeus and four nuns came and occupied the small log cabins formerly used by the Fathers.  The log cabins were their home and school until the three story stone convent, Mt. Angela, was finished in December 1891.

On January 1, 1892 mass was said for the first time in the chapel of Mt. Angela.  Mt. Angela was designated the Motherhouse of the Ursulines of the West.  White girls were now accepted as students and the U.S. Indian Department began paying for the Indian children.  By 1895 the mission was flourishing.

In 1895 the government adopted the policy of taking over the education of the Indian children by opening government schools.  By 1898 the Jesuit Fathers realized they would have to close the boys’ school.  In May 1898 the Fathers departed for other missions operated in Montana.

The Ursulines felt they must remain as this was the Motherhouse and the school for white girls was flourishing.  They continued to run the boys’ school until the Jesuit buildings burned in January 1908.

In 1911 the Ursulines were given land in Great Falls.  In 1912 a new building was built on the land and the school for white girls was moved to Great Falls.  Only the Indian School remained at St. Peter’s.  During the night of November 16, 1918 Mt. Angela, the last of the stone buildings, burned to the ground.  Only a large wooden building called the Opera House remained and it was unsuitable for a school.

Today only the small chapel remains among the ruins of what was once St. Peter’s Mission.  In 1932 the land owned by the Ursuline sisters was sold to the Rex Bower family, who still own it.

In Lessen’s “History of Montana -1885” it states: “the Mission is a prosperous little settlement with 300 head of cattle to provide milk, butter and meat.  There are, also fine grain fields and pastures.  149 people are living at St. Peter’s Mission.”

By Sister Genevieve McBride