Christian Hoecken

Christiaan Jacob Adriaan Hoeken, SJ (1808–1851) was a Jesuit missionary of Dutch origin who worked in the United States among the first nations.

[2] Christian attended two Dutch catholic seminaries in his region (the nowadays southern province North Brabant) namely Beekvliet (1821) and Herlaar (1829).

In 1836 Hoecken started helping the Flemish (Belgian) missionary Van Quickenborne and three of his assistant fathers (Andrew Mazella, Edmund Barry and George Miles) in founding a mission among the Kickapoos in nowadays Kansas.

In November 1838 Hoecken took over the charge of father Petit who had joined another group of Potawatomi in a forced 660 miles (1,060 km) march to new reservation lands.

St Mary's Mission at Sugar Creek, which he founded in 1839 by building a church and a school, was the true ending point of the Potawatomi Trail of Death.

Father Felix Verreydt succeeded Hoecken at Sugar Creek, enabling him to visit other tribes in Kansas and the upper-Missouri region.

He built a church thirty miles (48 km) above the mouth of Clark's River, and converted most of the tribe, at the same time teaching them to build log houses and sow grain.

From this station he visited the Zingomenes and four other tribes, and completed the conversion of the Shuyelpi Indians that had been begun by father De Smet.

Hoecken died of malaria at the age of 43 while sailing up the Missouri River back to his post in St. Louis, June 19, 1851.

Hoecken was in company of De Smet and a group of about 24 fur traders from Canada, Amerika, France, Ireland, Germany, Switzerland and Italy when 'different diseases' deployed, causing the death of nine passengers.

[8] From St. Louis University the latter wrote a detailed report of father Hoecken's death to Lyon and Paris, the Jezuit centres in France.

[13] A statue of Christian Hoecken was erected in Fort Pierre and his name is found on a memorial to St Mary's Mission at Sugar Creek.