LACOMBE, ALBERT

Missionary; b. St. Sulpice, Montreal, Canada, Feb. 28, 1827; d. Midnapore, Alberta, Canada, Dec. 12, 1916. He was the son of Albert and Agathe (Duhamel) Lacombe. After ordination on June 13, 1849, he first exercised his ministry at Pembina, North Dakota (1849–51) and then returned to Canada as a curate in Berthierville (1851–52). He offered his services to Bp. Alexandre tachÉ, OMI, of Red River, and went with him to Saint Boniface in 1852. From there he left for Edmonton and worked among the Cree and métis of Lake LaBiche, wintering at Fort Edmonton. In 1853 he took up residence at Lake St. Anne and visited Fort Jasper, and in 1855 he undertook an extensive trip to Small Slave Lake and Peace River. Upon his return to Lake St. Anne he joined the Oblates of Mary Immaculate and made his profession on Sept. 28, 1856. He founded the mission of St. Joachim in Edmonton (1858), and with Taché he determined the site of St. Albert mission, which bears his name (1861). From 1865 to 1872 he roamed the Plains and evangelized the Cree and Black Feet, founding (1866) St. Paul of the Cree in Brosseau, Alberta, the first attempt at agricultural colonization of the natives of the West.

He was named an official government intermediary during Louis riel's revolution (1873–74), served as pastor in Winnipeg (1874–80), attended to the care of the construction gangs of the Canadian Pacific railroad, and succeeded in preventing the Black Feet from slaughtering the workers (1883). Because of this he was named president of the Pacific for one hour when the first train arrived in Calgary in 1884. He founded the first industrial school for indigenous peoples at Dunbow, Alberta (1884), and opened a hospital (1893) and a school (1898) at Blood Reserve. From 1886 to 1892 he was a member of the Board of Education of the Northwest Territories. He founded a colony for the métis at St. Paul, Alberta, the source of many parishes. Between 1893 and 1895 he was frequently sent to the government at Ottawa to see justice done in the Catholic school question of the West. He was part of the government commission entrusted with making a treaty with the natives (1899) and traveled to Hungary (1900) and to Austria (1904) to enlist Ruthenian rite priests. In 1909 he founded a hospital at Midnapore, Alberta. He was the author of many important works in the native language.

Bibliography: k. hughes, Father Lacombe: The Black-Robe Voyageur (New York 1911). Le Père Lacombe … d'après ses memoires … par une soeur de la Providence (Montreal 1916). p. e. breton, The Big Chief of the Prairies: The Life of Father Lacombe (Montreal 1956).

[g. carriÈre]