Catholicism

Father Marquette National Memorial

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At 36, Jacques Marquette was already a famous explorer and missionary. He spoke at least half a dozen Native American dialects and languages, had helped found Sault (‘Soo’) Ste. Marie, and he helped others settle and avoid conflicts. But then he embarked on a trip through Green Bay, down the Mississippi, to the Arkansas and back up the Illinois, greatly enhancing settlers’ understanding of central North America. The return route, suggested by native guides, proved the pivotal Chicago Portage. Beyond his importance to French Catholics and their descendants, he introduced Christianity to many Native American tribes, and his explorations and settlements helped determine the future of trade and growth in the Great Lakes, on both sides of the border.

Missionaries also brought deadly diseases into the lives of many people with no natural immunity, and their practices of baptizing babies, distributing bread at Communion, and gathering closely together weekly for songs and prayers were lethal for many native communities. But Marquette traveled among the tribes a few years before Leeuwenhoek discovered bacteria. Marquette himself died after contracting dysentery at 37, and his memorial is on the north side of the above Mackinac Bridge—which connects upper and lower Michigan—in the touristy town of St. Ignace which Marquette founded. There’s honestly not much to see in this affiliated park site (since the small museum burned down years ago) except for a few plaques and a short trail, but nearby there’s a nice view of the Mackinac Bridge (above) over the straights that Marquette explored and traveled through often.

San Antonio Missions National Historical Park

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The first and most famous mission on the San Antonio River was San Antonio de Valero, better known as the Alamo, which is owned by Texas and managed by a non-profit. I grew up thinking of the Alamo as a fort, but it was a Franciscan mission, first of a chain built along the river with irrigation aqueducts, ranches, orchards, farms and homes. The riverwalk that connects the World Heritage missions is a pleasant place to explore the architecture, history, and culture of the area that’s known as the heart of Texas. Alamo actually means ‘poplar’ and refers to the Cottonwood trees along the banks.

Unlike their experience with the Pueblo Revolt at Pecos and across what’s now New Mexico and Arizona, here the Spanish missionaries largely completed their religious conversion and integration of most local Native Americans, aided by intermarriage over time. In return for Catholicism, disease and obedience to the crown, Native Americans built these missions, worked in the fields and defended their new communities. In the early 1800’s Napoleon invaded Spain and put his brother on the throne, opening the door to the independence of Mexico. By 1824, Mexico was a federal Republic and the missions were secularized.

General Santa Anna had trouble maintaining control of Mexico’s northern states. American merchants sold guns to the Comanche, and then the American settlers blamed the Mexican government for not defending against Comanche raids. The Mexican government insisted that settlers convert to Catholicism and tried to ban slavery, but American colonizers like Stephen Austin promised 80 acres of land for each slave new settlers brought. Slavery was an underlying reason for the Texas Revolution, as the settlers could use them to grow cotton and didn’t want the Mexican government to halt the immoral practice. Texas statehood legalized slavery, which subsequently boomed, and then they seceded and joined the confederacy.

While I grew up hearing heroic stories of Davy Crockett, it’s impossible to ignore the legacy of both Native American and slave exploitation represented by the Alamo, first as a Spanish mission and then as a rallying cry for Texas and for slavery. The Alamo website portrays pro-slavery Texan founders Stephen Austin and Sam Houston as freedom fighters for liberty and ignores the people they enslaved. Lying to our children about the dark truth of the founding of Texas is deeply wrong, perpetuates the injustice of racism, and prevents atonement and reparations. I did not visit the Alamo.