Father Pierre Jean De Smet

The Latin tablet under the English tribute says De Smet's thirty years of labor brought the Indians beyond the Rocky Mountains from barbarism to religion and civilized life, the missionary framing of his age; the English softens it to service. Neither mentions 1868. Asked by the government that spring, De Smet, at sixty-seven, traveled to Sitting Bull's camp on the Powder River and was received there on June 19. Sitting Bull would not sign a treaty himself but agreed to send a lesser chief, and the Fort Laramie Treaty followed. He died in St. Louis in 1873.

What the plaque says

As a lasting tribute to the memory of Father Pierre Jean De Smet of the Society of Jesus, who for over thirty years offered his life in the service of the Indian people traveling far beyond the Rocky Mountains and sharing with them his deep love of God and country. Petrus Joannes De Smet e Societate Jesu perpetuitate laudis vivet quod XXX annorum laboribus Indos ultra Montes Saxosos a barbarie ad religionem civilemque cultum traduxit

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Ingalls Homestead and the De Smet Historic Homes — 1.6 mi
  The quarter section a mile from De Smet that Charles Ingalls filed on in 1880 and proved up in 1886, the house in town he built, and the cottonwoods he planted.

More markers nearby

• St. Petri Lutheran Church — steps away
• Site of the Ingalls Homestead 1880 — 1.2 mi
• Charles and Caroline Ingalls Homestead — 1.5 mi
• De Smet Forest / De Smet — 1.6 mi