Albert Lacombe -- 1827-1916, Missions -- Canadian Northwest, Missions, Canada -- Canadian Northwest 

"In the year 1849, almost twenty years before Confederation, an ambitious young priest arrived in the West, eager to begin his ministry among the free-spirited Métis and the proud Cree and Blackfoot of the prairies and parklands. Before that ministry ended with his death some sixty-seven years later, Father Albert Lacombe was to play many roles — peacemaker between warring tribes, confessor to rowdy construction gangs along the CPR line, beggar and diplomat for his bishop, confidant of politicians and prime ministers — and his influence on the course of western history would far outdistance his expectations as a novice Indian missionary.

James G. MacGregor's account of the life of this legendary figure offers a finely detailed portrait of the West during an era of irreversible change, a period which saw the prairies transformed from an empty wilderness to a land of prosperous towns and homesteads. And he illuminates the personalities of a group of remarkable men about which all too little is known, the rival pioneer missionaries who competed for converts among the Indian and Métis: the sturdy Methodists John and George McDougall, the saintly Grandin, the aggressive Taché and a score of others.

Lacombe's extraordinary career encompassed the major social and political events of western Canadian history to 1916; in this well-illustrated volume they are captured in the fresh perspective and entertaining style of one of the West's most popular historians."--Book jacket. 

300 pages : illustrations, map ; 23 cm. 

Includes index.