Reverend Albert Lacombe, O.M.I. 1827-1916

Born at St. Sulpice, Quebec, and ordained in 1849, Father Lacombe took up mission work at Fort Edmonton in 1852. The following year he founded Ste. Anne, first of several Oblate missions he established in what is now Alberta. He won the confidence of the region's Indians and, on occasion, averted serious inter-tribal warfare. Father Lacombe ministered to C.P.R. construction crews, 1880-82, from mission headquarters at Rat Portage (Kenora), where he began construction of a church in 1881. He helped restrain the Blackfoot Indians from joining the Northwest rebellion of 1885, and did much to ease the impact of white settlement on the Indians and Métis of the prairies. He died in Calgary, Alberta.