Award-winning author Sally Thompson has written a book intertwining the lives of Jesuit missionary Father De Smet and Chief Charlo in the Rocky Mountains.  

Thompson has a Ph.D in Anthropology and moved to Missoula in 1980 to work as an archaeologist. She has a long resume of accomplishments and projects, one of which includes being an expert witness for the Confederated Salish & Kootenai Tribes on the ARCO lawsuit in 1997.  

This was the year she started her “life work” on this book, “Black Robes Enter Coyote’s World: Chief Charlo and Father De Smet in the Rocky Mountains.” The book is a historical narrative between Euro Americans and Native Americans through the lives of real people.  

“I worked with tribal elders and heard oral histories and then needed to read everything I could read that was written about observations by white people," Thompson said as she explained the beginning of her research for the book. “So that's when I encountered Father De Smet’s writings, and much there was, how many details there were, from the 1840s.”  

Thompson starts the story through the Salish peoples and missionaries at the Potawatomi mission on the Missouri in 1839. She moves through the life of Chief Charlo and his efforts to protect his homeland during the forced removal from their Bitterroot Valley homeland.  

“I just kept following it to Belgium. I went to Rome, to the Jesuit archives in Montreal and all over the western U.S., to places they have this kind of information,” Thompson said. 

But despite all her research, she explained she didn’t want to write the book as an academic book. Instead she chose to write it as an intimate story that people can relate to.   

“It took me many years to get to that kind of approach, because really what it's about is trying to understand the difference between the way Euro-Americans and Native Americans relate to land in Egypt and each other,” she said.  

Thompson continued this intimate connection on Oct. 9 with an author's reading and public discussion in Arlee and Polson. At the Arlee Community Development Corporation, Thompson started the conversation by getting to know the crowd and learning why they came to the event.  

While some had been in Montana for several years and others only a few, many were eager to learn the history of the land they lived on. This led Thompson to start her discussion off by explaining why she, as a non-native, started looking into the roots of Euro-Americans.  

She recalled a time when she was interviewing a tribal elder whose grandmother was baptized by Father De Smet.  

“That just hit me that this is not old history for them. This is his grandmother. He never left his home. So, these stories are alive, everything's intact,” she said during her discussion in Arlee. “I came from a family whose parents are from two parts of the country, and then moved to the West, and now I've moved north. No roots, at all.” 

Thompson continued explaining how she wanted something that rooted people have.

“That's what has driven me to know more about the past because I'm lacking something,” Thompson said.  

The discussion continued with a book reading and then a lively conversation with the crowd about the rich history of the area and the lack of roots in Euro-Americans.  

The book was published in December of 2024 and just won the Big Sky Award at the 2025 High Plains International Book Awards.  

The book was published through the University of Nebraska Press and can be purchased through the press, at Missoula bookstores and other bookstores.  

    Sally Thompson sits at the table selling and signing books at the Arlee Community Development Corporation on Oct. 9. (Emily Messer/Leader)