481 |
The work of Roger Williams (q.v.), begun in 1636, may be considered thA first Protestant mission work for American Indians, with the exception 2. In New that a clergyman of the Church of England. England is said to have baptized an Indian convert in 1587. The story of Williams' work among the Pequots and Narragansetts is closely interwoven with the early colonial history of Massachusetts and Rhode Island. Williams speedily acquired the language of the tribes among whom he labored, published a "key" to it, and soon carried the Gospel to large numbers of Indians about Providence. His work, however, seems to have been of purely personal initiative, and on his death in 1683 was not continued by any organization. It was greatly reinforced and extended by the labors of the Congregational missionaries, Experience Mayhew and John Eliot (qq.v.), who entered the same field in 1646. Eliot applied to the General Court of Massachusetts and obtained a grant of land on which the Indians might build a town where they could live together, cultivate the arts of civilized life, and enjoy the benefits of religious instruction. In less than twenty-five years there were fourteen such settlements, to all of which Eliot extended his labors, and in 1660 the Indians at Natick were formed into a church. During these years he got together twenty-four regular congregations in Massachusetts and had gathered about him and trained more than twenty native preachers from various tribes, besides translating both the Old and New Testament into one of the Indian tongues-the first Bible to be given to the Red Man. This period of wonderful advance was sued by King Philip's War; Eliot's "praying Indians" were scattered, and the twentyfour congregations were reduced to four. A time of great hardship for the Indians followed when the General Court collected the remnant and removed them to the islands in the bay. Following the labors of Eliot, Congregational work was carried on among the Nauset Indians of Cape Cod and other tribes in eastern Massachusetts. About 1651 a mission was begun among the Qumnipism in Con_ necticut, and during the next century the Congregational Church carried on a most sucoessful work among many of the tribal remnants of New England.
In 1643-48 a Lutheran minister, John Campanius Holm, chaplain of a Swedish colony in Delaware, did some mission work among the neighboring Indians.
In 1682 William Penn made his celebrated treaty with the Indians under the elm at Shackamaxon, on the banks of the Delaware River, presaging mutual "good faith and good will, openness, brotherhood, and love." As early as 1791 3. The the noted Seneca chief, Complanter, Quakers. sent greetings to the Philadelphia yearly meeting, saying "we wish our children to be taught the same principles by which your fathers were guided, and such other things as you teach your children, especially the love of peace." Two years later the Delawares told certain Friends who visited them that they wished to be of their religion, and asked for teachers. In 1796 the yearly meeting began regular work among the Iroquois in New York, and established three workers among the Oneidas and the Tuscaroras. In 1798 they began a mission to the Senecas, and, later, at Cattaraugus and Tunesassah, with good results. In 1807 the New York meeting started schools among the Stockbridge and Brotherton tribes. During the past century, through the work under taken by various yearly meetings, and later through the Associated Executive Committee, a delegate body representing ultimately all the yearly meet ings, mission stations have been established among many tribes, and the record is one of loyal faithfulness, on the part of Friend and Indian alike, to the compact of brotherly love entered into on the banks of the Delaware River two hundred and twenty-five years ago. The Indian work of the Friends for the past few years has. been largely confined to ten mission stations among the Modoc, Seneca, Wyan dotte, Ottawa, Otoe, Iowa, Kickapoo, and Shawnee tribes in Oklahoma and Indian Territory.
With the possible exception of the baptism of an Indian convert mentioned above, the efforts of the Anglican Church to evangelize the 4. The Indians began in 1702, when the So- Church of ciety for the Propagation of the Gospel England sent to America a missionary to the and Prot- Six Nations in the Mohawk valley. estant Six years later four Iroquois sachems Episcopal crossed the Atlantic and presented an Church. address to Queen Anne with belts of wampum as a token of the sincerity of the Six Nations. In that address occurs the following: " Since we were in covenant with our great Queen's children we have had some knowledge of the Savior of the world. If Qur great Queen would send us instructors they should find a hearty welcome." This address was referred to the Society, and it was at once resolved to send missionaries, to provide translations in Mohawk, and to endeavor to stop the introduction of intoxicating liquors among the Indians-this being the earnest request of the sachems themselves. The work met with varying success. At one time there appears " a regular sober congregation of five hundred Christians among the Mohawks, of whom fifty were devout communicants of the Episcopal Church." During the Revolution the Mohawks and some others of the tribes belonging to the"" Long House " (a federation of tribes) abandoned their possessions under a sense of loyalty to the crown, and finally took shelter in tea. Those who remained were without religious influences for several years until, in 1811, Bishop Hobart of New York gave atten-
482 |
tion to the religious instruction of the Indians within his jurisdiction. In 1821 the Oneidas left New York under the leadership of the Rev. Eleazer Williams and went to Green Bay, Wisconsin. Religious work among them prospered, and within a few years a stone church edifice was erected by the Indians themselves. In 1852 the Episcopal Church began work among the Indians in Minnesota, and in 1860 among the Santee Sioux. Henry Benjamin Whipple (q.v.), bishop of Minnesota, especially devoted himself to this work. In 1868 a mission was established among the Yanktons, and shortly afterward the full charge of Indian missions of the Protestant Episcopal Church was assumed by its domestic committee. In 1877 Bishop Hare held his first confirmation among the Upper Bru16 Sioux, the Yanktonnais, and the Cheyenne River Indians in South Dakota. One year later missions were started among the Shoshones and Bannocks in Idaho, and, in 1881, among the Cheyennes in Indian Territory. In 1886 a mission in Alaska was organized, and in the same year work was undertaken among some of the tribes in Wyoming. This was followed six years later by a mission to the Seminoles in southern Florida. In 1906 the Protestant Episcopal Church was carrying on work among Indians in a field covering a vast area, including the Indians living along the banks of the Yukon River in Alaska; the Shoshones, Bannocks, and Arapahoes in Idaho and Wyoming; the Pillager Cass Lake, and Red Lake Pillager Chippewas in Minnesota; the Hupas of California; and the Oneidas in Wisconsin. In North Dakota the Church has centers of work at Fort Totten, Cannon Ball, and at Turtle Mountain reservation, while in South Dakota, under Bishop Hare, the work is divided into ten departments with a clergyman in charge of each. In Oklahoma and Indian Territory the work is largely among the Cheyennes and Arapahoes at the reservation at Whirlwind, and in southern Florida among the Seminoles living in the Everglades. A notable feature of this Church's work is the lace-making industry for which ten schools are maintained at various points.
In 1735 a band of Moravians from Germany under Augustus Gottlieb Spangenberg (q.v.) began religious work among the Yamacraw
g. Mo- Creeks, a few miles above Savannah, raviana Ga. In 1739 they were forced to with draw on their refusal to take up arms against the Spaniards. Settling on the Lehigh River about fifty miles from Philadelphia, they founded the town of Bethlehem, which soon became a center of missions to various Indian tribes. Their mission aries worked first among the Six Nations, but their efforts met with small success. In Pennsylvania, however, their work among the Delawares and portions of various other tribes scattered throughout that State was very encouraging. In some of the New England States, notably Connecticut and Massachusetts, their labors were eminently success ful. From 1746 to 1798 twenty-five settlements were established. In 1801 the Cherokee mission at Spring Place, Ga., was begun, and in 1821 a mission was started at Oothcaloga in the same section. Both of these continued until the missions werebroken up by the State of Georgia in 1843. Among missionaries to the Indians in those early days none are more worthy of honor for their lofty heroism than some of the Moravians, notably Rauch, Heckewelder, Count Zinzendorf, and David Zeisberger, the "Apostle to the Delawares." Since those days the Moravian Church has missioned various tribes, but within the past few years has confined its work to the so-called "Mission Indiana" of California. In 1906 the Church had three mission stations in southern California-on the Morongo, the Torres, and the Rincon reservations.
In 1741 the Presbyterian Church began its Indian work, when the Rev. Azariah Horton was sent to the Indians on Long Island, New York.
6. Pree- Two years later David Brainerd (q.v.) byterians. began his missionary work, which was continued after his death, in 1747, by his brother John (q.v.). In 1751 the Synod of New York "enjoined" all churches to take collections for the purpose of sending missionaries to the In dians, and missions were begun among the Dela wares and neighboring tribes. On the breaking out of the Revolutionary War in 1775, the Indians be came restless and suspicious, and most missionary efforts among them were suspended. Early in the nineteenth century the Presbyterian Church began missions in South Carolina and Georgia, and schools for the education of the youth of the Catawba and Cherokee tribes were opened. Up to 1812 these missions were conducted by individual churches and by one or two synods. Between 1812 and 1831 the Presbyterian Church carried on its Indian work through the American Board, organized in 1810. Within a few years the Board began missions among the Cherokees, Choctaws, and Chickasaws, supple menting the work of the Presbyterian synods of South Carolina and Georgia. By 1830 there were eight churches in Georgia, a Cherokee alphabet and written language had been prepared, and a large number of Cherokees were able to read. These tribes rapidly adopted the ways of civilized life; schools, courts, and a legislature were established, and stringent laws against intemperance enforced. But the injustice of Georgia, confirmed by the national government, took from these Indians the lands made theirs in perpetuity by treaty. The lands were sold by lottery to white men, and after sixteen years of suffering and struggle to obtain their rights, 16,000 of these Indians were driven forth from their homes, their churches and schools, to the wilderness of the far West, several mission aries accompanying them to their new home in Indian Territory. One after another of the tribes followed until the settlement in the Indian Territory was completed in 1832 by the removal of the Sem inoles from Florida. In addition, other tribes were afterward sent to the Indian Territory by the government, and among them the Presbyterian Church opened missions. Most of the mission sta tions had to be abandoned during the Civil War, and many of the churches, school-houses, and missionaries' homes were destroyed. At the close of the war the work was resumed, though under conditions less favorable, owing to the influx of bad white elements into the Territory, which
483 |
The Indian work of the American Board (Con gregational) rapidly extended. In 1820 it estab lished a mission station for the Ar- 7. Congre- kansas Cherokees on Illinois Creek, gationalists. Arkansas. This grew to be one of the most important mission stations in the Southwest until the removal of the tribe to Indian Territory. The following year a mission was opened among the Choctaws at Eliot, Miss. In 1834 the great work of the Congregational Church among the Sioux was begun by the starting of a mission to the Santee Sioux on Lake Calhoun, near what is now St. Paul, Minn., by two brothers named Pond. They began as volunteer workers, but afterward became regularly ordained missionaries of the American Board. Other mission stations were established from time to time among the Santee Sioux at other points. The work was eminently successful until the Sioux outbreak in 1862, when the missions had to be abandoned. As a result of the outbreak the Santee Sioux were removed to Niobrara, Nebraska. A mission was started among them in 1866, and the work was gradually extended to all the neighboring bands of Sioux. Among missionaries to the Great Sioux nation none perhaps are more widely known than the Williameons and the Riggses, fathers and sons. To Congregational work, and the various missionaries engaged in it, most of present knowledge of the Sioux language is due. In 1843 the Board began work among the Creeks, and, a few years later, among the removed Seminoles. By 1852 it had twenty-one missionaries among the Indians in the Northwest. In 1882 the Indian work as a whole was committed to the American Missionary Association. Including their well known missions at Standing Rock and Cheyenne River agencies, North Dakota, Fort Berthold in South Dakota, and Skomish, Washington, and their work for Alaskan Indians, the Association had in 1906 twenty-two Indian churches, fifty-seven missionary out-stations, and eighty-five missionarieb and teachers on the field.
Organized work by Baptists for Indian tribes began in 1801, when the Shaftesbury Association of
Vermont appointed missionaries to
484 |
Among missions begun in recent years are those of the Reformed Church in America, which began work among the Arapahoes and Cheyennes at Colony, Oklahoma, in 1895, under the care of the Women's Executive Committee of the Church. Four years later work was begun among the Apache prisoners at Fort Sill, and in 1903 the Church opened a mission to the Comanches.
Bibliography: A work of value is Handbook of American Indians, part 1, Washington, 1907 (a descriptive list of the stocks, tribes and settlements of Indians north of Mexico, of their manners, arts, customs and institutions, and of mission work among them, published by the Smithsonian Institution). Not to be neglected is the great body of sources now available for the history of Catholic missions in Jesuit Relations and Allied Documents: Travels and Explorations of the Jesuit Missionaries in New France, 1810-1791, 73 vols. and index, 2 vols., Cleveland, 1896-1902. Books which deal either with the history of missions or with the state of civilization among the Indians are: J. Heckewelder, A Narrative of the Missions of the United Brethren among the Delaware and Mohepan Indians, Philadelphia, 1820 republished 1882 (charmingly quaint); P. Everhard, Hist. of Indian Baptist Missions in North America, Boston, 1831; I. McCoy. Hist. of Baptist Indian Missions, Washington, 1840; C. Campbell, Historical Sketch of Early Missions among the Indians of Maryland, Baltimore, 1846; J. G. Shea, Hist. of Catholic Missions
485 |
Reports and pamphlets dealing with the subject are: J. B. A. Brouillet, The Work of the Decade ending Dec. 31, 1883, Washington, 1884 (report of the Bureau of Catholic Indian Missions); M. T Richards, Indian Missions of the Churches, New York, 1886 (leaflet of the National Indian Association, gives brief survey of denominational work up to 1885); F. M. Ellis' The Nation's Wards, Baltimore, 1890 (sketch of Indian origins, relation of the Indians to the government, and early mission work); the Reports of the yearly meetings of the Friends for 1866 and 1891 give data of Friends' missions, as do the Minutes of the Associated Executive Committee of Friends on Indian Affairs for 1905-06; T. G. John, Indian Missions, Nashville, 1891 (on missions of the Methodist Episcopal Church South); H. L. Morehouse, in Baptist Home Mission Monthly, Nov., 1900; G. F. McAfee, Missions among the North American Indians, New York, 1903 (on the work of the Presbyte ' n Church); J. W. Johnston, The Home Missions of the ethodist Episcopal Church, ib.,1906 (deals with John ,te mission to the Wyandottes); Report of the Dome ic Section of the Domestic and Foreign Missionary S sty of the Protestant Episcopal Church, 1906; the Reports of the Bureau of Catholic Indian Missions, 190Statistics of Work for Indians of the American Missionary Association, 1905-06; A. S. Quinton, A Glimpse of our Missions, New York, 1907 (issued by the National Indian Association, gives details of its work and of transfer to denominational boards).
Calvin College. Last modified on 08/11/06. Contact the CCEL. |