State/Province: Colorado

As far back as the late 18th century, Chief Shining Shirt of the Pend d’Oreille tribe in Mission Valley, Montana, had visions that one day men would come in black robes and teach important new truths about religion. That prophecy was fulfilled when, at the urging of Native people, Fr. Peter DeSmet, a Belgian Jesuit, worked to establish missions with the Flatheads in 1841, the Coeur d’Alenes in 1842, the Kalispels in 1844 and the Colviles in 1845.