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Father Constantine Scollen

Constantine Michael Scollen (4th April 1841 – 8th November 1902) was an Irish Roman Catholic missionary who lived among and evangelised the Blackfoot, Cree and Metis peoples on the Canadian Prairies and Montana. Later he worked among the native peoples of the USA on missions in what is now, North Dakota, Wyoming, Nebraska and Kansas. He is particularly remembered for having the first building erected (by Alexis Cardinal) in what is now, Calgary, Alberta. In 1876 he was an interpreter for the Cree and witness to Treaty 6 between the Cree and the Canadian government. He was a consultant to the Canadian government prior to the signing of Treaty 7 with the Blackfoot Confederacy, in 1877 and was also an interpreter and witness. In 1870, he spent the winter at Rocky Mountain House, co-writing a Cree language grammar and dictionary with his mentor, fellow Oblate and friend, Albert Lacombe. His considerable contribution was not acknowledged on publication in 1873. He also wrote a book of 75 sermons in Cree, for Fr Dupin. He had an extraordinary talent for languages. In addition to his bi-lingual childhood tongues of Erse (Irish) and English he spoke, Latin, French and the First Nation languages/dialects of Piegan, Cree, Blackfoot, Michif (Metis), Stoney, Ojibwe and Arapaho. He taught English to his fellow missionaries (who were all native French speakers) and First Nation languages to new arrivals. He was the the only Oblate priest to speak Blackfoot and was also the only native English speaker among his exclusively French and French Canadian fellow priests.

'''His autobiography, “ Thirty Five Years Experience Among the Indians of the North West “ extending to 250 pages, was never published. On his death in Dayton Ohio, in 1902, the precious manuscript was taken into the safekeeping of his friend, Rev Fr Anthony  Stanislaus  Siebenfoercher, pastor of Immaculate Conception Church, Kenton, Hardin County, Ohio. Fr Siebenfoercher died in Dayton Ohio on 8th November 1911. Since then, no-one has been able to discover the whereabouts of this important historical and anthropological document.'''

Constantine Michael Scollen was born in the civil parish of Galloon, in the village of Newtonbutler, County Fermanagh, Ireland on 4th April 1841. His parents were Patrick Scollen and Margaret Scollen, (nee MacDermott). Margaret died while Constantine was still a small child. Patrick later remarried and moved his family to Crook, County Durham, England where he worked as a coal-miner. Constantine hoped  to become a priest  but the cost was beyond his family’s means  so he  decided to become a lay brother in the hope of studying for the priesthood, later.( His uncle, Msg. Thomas L.  Connolly was Archbishop of Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada.) On 14th August 1858, at the age of 17, he entered the Oblates of Mary Immaculate (a French order) as a scholastic lay brother. Their Novitiate,” Lys Marie”, was in nearby North Yorkshire in the village of Sicklinghall, close to Wetherby. He took his initial vows on 14th August  1859 and then travelled to Dublin where he taught at the Oblate establishment at Inchicore until early 1862.

In April 1862 he and another Irish scholastic-brother, Br John Duffy, travelled with  Mgr.A.A. Tache on his return to Canada  following his visit to a General Chapter in Rome. They arrived in St Boniface ( Winnipeg) on 26th May 1862. Fr Albert Lacombe promptly took him to St. Albert. Constantine opened a school for children of the employees of the Hudson’s Bay Company, at nearby Fort Edmonton and ran it until 1868. He took his solemn vows as a scholastic in 1865 on the understanding that he would be allowed to study for the priesthood. After some delays and interruptions caused by long periods out on the prairies living with the native peoples, he was able to complete his studies under Fr Fourmond and was ordained in 1873. He immediately left St Albert to begin his mission on the Prairies. For the next nine years he remained among the Blackfoot, living their hard life without break apart from  brief  spring and autumn visits to St Albert, for supplies. In 1882, he was recalled from his mission, his body exhausted by the brutally hard life. He was appalled by the attitude of the Canadian government towards the native peoples and it's failure to adhere to it's obligations under the various treaties.(These failures contributed to the 1885 North West Rebellion/Resistance) He had seen the lives of the native peoples being destroyed by starvation and  their lands being taken over by European/Canadian settlers. He was an outspoken advocate on their behalf. In 1884-1885, along with Fr Gabillion, he was missionary to the Cree people at Bear Hills Mission (now Hobbema near Edmonton). During the "1885 Rebellion" he dissuaded the Cree Chief, Bobtail, from joining the hostilities. Some of the younger men had looted the nearby Hudson's Bay Company trading post but he was able to return the stolen items and persuade the Canadian Militia not to take punitive action against the people. He decided to become a secular priest and resigned from the Oblates in late 1885. He was destitute and asked the Canadian government for help. They granted him 150 dollars in recognition of his work at Bear Hills, preventing hostilities during the rebellion. He then worked, for two years with his old tutor, Fr Emile Fourmond,  among  the Metis people at St Laurent de Grandin and at Duck Bay on Lake Manitoba. In 1887 he crossed into the USA to work among the native peoples of the Great Plains for the next 10 years, in established missions. 1887/1888 at St John mission, Turtle Mountain, North Dakota, 1889/1892 St Stephen Mission, near Arapahoe, Freemont, Wyoming (Wind River Reservation) 1892/1894 St John the Baptist (now Holy Name Mission) Sheridan, Wyoming, 1895/1896 St Mary, Orleans, Harlan, Nebraska, 1897/1898 Our Lady of Perpetual Help, Concordia, Kansas. He then left the "Indian" missions and stayed a few months at St Joseph's Chicago. After a period on parish missions in New England, his three final years were spent working in the parishes of Kenton and Urbana in Ohio (late 1889 - 1902) and conducting parish missions throughout Ohio. He died in St Elizabeth Hospital, Dayton, Ohio having been a TB patient there, for eight months.