FAITH CAME TO THEM 300 YEARS AGO A grand powwow of the Ohjihway, Ottawa and Potawatomi Indian Tribes was held on the Garden River Reserve six miles east of Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, from September 12 until September 14. This threeday celebration commemorates the 300th anniversary of the arrival of the first missionaries to the Indians of the northwest—' the Jesuit Fathers, St. Isaac Jogues and Charles Raymbault.
The great Catholic Indian Congress was officially opened by Bishop Dignan who celebrated Pontifical High Mass, more than fifty Indian chiefs and sub-chiefs, with numerous delegates from the leading bands of Ontario and Michigan being in attendance.
In 1641 two thousand pagan Indians greeted the first missionaries. The 1941 celebration assembled more than two thousand fervent Catholic. Indians to honour the memory of those who were the vanguard of the zealous missionaries who have planted the seed of the true faith so firmly in the hearts of the Northern Ontario Indians.
Visitors heard Indian chiefs making speeches in the native tongue. Indian choirs sang their native hymns as well as the traditional Latin chants of the sacred liturgy.