Griva's Native Relations

Father Griva’s diary lists many of the jobs we associate with Priests today. He often attended or preached at Mass, and for the sake of the tribes he worked with, Father Griva often wrote that it was spoken in both English and what he calls “Indian”— a specific indigenous dialect is not listed.

 As aforementioned, Father Griva heard numerous confessions while serving at his mission in the Inland Northwest. In one of his journals (pictured below), he created a guide which would allow him to translate questions from English to the Native languages quickly, during confession. Some examples of these questions include “Did ever tell a lie to the priest when you confessed?” and “Did you look at the bad dance?” or even “The in last time you confessed did you conceal some mortal sin within you committed?”

 Father Griva records that celebrating the Feast of Corpus Christi in 1927 was “spent from beginning to end in glorifying our Lord”. In this entry, he reports having celebrated with five missions “to please as many as he could”, and indeed, the celebrations seem to have been celebrated by many. Aside from listening to several more confessions throughout the Corpus Christi celebration, Father Griva also reports that he baptized children and witnessed a marriage in between processions. It truly appears to have been a successful celebration in Father Griva’s terms.

Overall, Griva devoted many years to the Mission on the Inland Northwest, and he believe whole-heartedly that he was doing the Lord's work.