Chief Garry - Return To Spokane

Return To Spokane

Upon their return to Spokane in the fall of 1829, Garry passed on what he had learned at Fort Garry to both his people and to the neighboring peoples of the Columbia Plateau. They returned to the mission the next spring, bringing five other students with them. In 1831 Garry was sent back to the West to notify the Kootenais of Pelly's death, which had taken place at Easter; instead of returning to the Red River afterwards as expected, however, he travelled on to Spokane and never returned.

Garry spent much of the next few years preaching his simple Anglican faith in the Columbia Plateau and teaching his people methods of agriculture which he had picked up at the Red River settlement. He found that his new position within the tribal hierarchy created a stronger sense of duty to his people and a need to ensure their peaceful co-existence with white settlers. At this time he married a woman who he renamed Lucy.

In the 1840s the Spokanes were visited by a number of missionaries. Rev. Samuel Parker of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions was impressed by the piety of the peoples of the region, but other Protestant missionaries thought less highly of the Indians' typical activities, while Catholic missionaries were hostile to both. None were successful in converting the Spokanes to their denominations of Christianity. However, the missionaries' denunciation of Spokane Garry's simple but "primitive" faith was said to have lessened his reputation among the Christians and possibly among his people. His decision to take a second wife was also viewed negatively.