4/23/2011:
Born on this date in 1803, Father George Anthony Belcourt was gifted with unusual linguistic abilities and a heart for Native Americans.
In 1848, Father Belcourt built a mission at Pembina and from there successfully carried the Gospel to the region’s Native Americans and Métis. He trained missionaries in the Chippewa language; evangelized the Turtle Mountain region; published a dictionary and textbooks in the Chippewa language; and established several missions. At St. Joseph he constructed a church, school, presbytery and the first flour mill in North Dakota. As Bishop Tache observed; “Where ever hard work and total sacrifice of self were demanded, there Belcourt was sent and there he gladly went. A true soldier of the cross…”
Dakota Datebook written by Richard Campbell
Soures:
The Founding of the Catholic Church in North Dakota, by Right Reverend John Shanley, Bishop of Fargo. Report of the State Historical Society of North Dakota Vol. 2, 1908.
http://www.lngplants.com/George_Anthoine_Belcourt.html
Robinson, Elwyn B. History of North Dakota. University of Nebraska Press, 1993