Born in France, Father Morice served as an Oblate missionary to the Indians of British Columbia for twenty years. He meticulously collected cultural information from the Dene people living near his mission at Stuart Lake and wrote a pioneering history of the interior of the province. With only the crudest of instruments he produced remarkably accurate maps of this rugged region. In 1903 Father Morice, who had ruled his flock with an autocratic yet paternal hand, was transferred to Manitoba. There he compiled the first Carrier dictionary and wrote scholarly works on ethnology and western history.