author
Pierre-Jean de Smet
1801–1873
A Belgian Jesuit who crossed the American West again and again, he became one of the best-known Catholic missionaries on the frontier. His travels, diplomacy, and vivid writings helped shape how 19th-century readers imagined the Rocky Mountains and Native nations.
3 Audiobooks
Flagg's The Far West, 1836-1837, part 2; and De Smet's Letters and Sketches, 1841-1842
by Edmund Flagg, Pierre-Jean de Smet
Farnham's Travels in the Great Western Prairies, etc., part 2, October 21-December 4, 1839 and De Smet's Oregon Missions and Travels over the Rocky Mountains, 1845-1846
by Thomas Jefferson Farnham, Pierre-Jean de Smet
About the author
Born in Dendermonde, Belgium, in 1801, Pierre-Jean De Smet entered the Jesuit order and came to the United States as a young man. He was ordained in Missouri and went on to spend decades traveling through the Great Plains, the Rocky Mountains, the Pacific Northwest, and western Canada as a missionary.
De Smet became especially known for his work among Native American communities, including the Salish, and for the trust he earned in regions where few Europeans could move so freely. He was also called on at times as a mediator between Native leaders and U.S. officials, a role that made him a visible figure in the turbulent politics of the American frontier.
Alongside his missionary work, he published letters and travel accounts that brought the landscapes and cultures of the West to a wide audience in Europe and America. Those books and journals remain an important part of his legacy, even as modern readers approach his life with a fuller awareness of the complicated history surrounding missions, colonization, and Indigenous peoples.