What a story Fr Pierre De Smet 1801 1873 is mentioned in U S history books almost as a footnote but there was in the mid 19th century America no single person the American Indians trusted as they did this Jesuit Priest He was more powerful than an army at a huge treaty conference of U S officials and the Western Indian nations near Laramie in 1851 and he was the chief negotiator at another with the Sioux in 1868 He was invited to the White House in 1867 to a conference with the Indians As a young Belgian seminarian headed for the American Mission lands in 1823 he literally had to escape out of Europe to begin his apostolate but in time through his numerous letters to friends which they published he became the best known missionary in the world and even met Pope Gregory XVI in private audience and many of the most famous people of his time Eight times he returned to Europe to raise funds and beg supplies for the Indians He travelled through the wilderness in