Little Faro

Little Faro was a Bitterroot Salish Indian born in or around what is now western Montana in about the year 1810. When European missionaries arrived in the area in 1841, Little Faro was baptized Peter John after his mentor, the famous Flemish Jesuit Pierre-Jean De Smet. Little Faro impressed the missionaries by the zeal with which he took to memorizing the new Christian prayers and was quickly considered an exemplary convert. In 1847, however, he turned against the mission, arguing that it had failed to live up to the priests’ initial promises. George and Polly’s powerful portrait of the influential Salish warrior is based on rigorous archival research into his appearance and habitual dress. The vivid portrayal commemorates the complex legacy of a talented, ambitious, and complicated individual who played an active role in the introduction of Christianity to the Rocky Mountain West.