[4] Following ordination, he was sent west to Pembina, Minnesota Territory, where he worked from 1849 to 1851 with the Jesuit priest, Fr George Belcourt.

[4] Lacombe was dissatisfied in Canada East, and in 1852 he followed Monsignor Alexandre Taché, then suffragan bishop of Saint Boniface, to the Red River Colony.

Anne, Lacombe concerned himself during the period from 1853 to 1861 with expanding the mission and deepening his ties to the Indigenous population, eventually travelling as far north as the Lesser Slave Lake in search of converts.

[4] Despite his good relations with the Indigenous peoples, Father Lacombe had, by 1861, been unsuccessful in persuading the Cree near Lac Ste.

He therefore sought out a new mission site more suitable for agriculture, and in 1861 a settlement was established along the Sturgeon River at Saint Albert, Rupert's Land.

The Michel Reserve, land to the north of St. Albert, was arranged by Father Lacombe, and given to Yellowhead's Iroquois followers.

When the North-West Rebellion erupted in 1885, Prime Minister Sir John A. Macdonald enlisted Father Lacombe's assistance in assuring the neutrality of the Blackfoot.

[4] Although Cree braves commanded by Poundmaker and Big Bear were involved in the fighting, Crowfoot, believing the rebellion to be a lost cause, kept his warriors out of the conflict.

[11] Lacombe was portrayed by actor John Hamilton in a minor role in the 1949 Hollywood film Canadian Pacific.