PAM. 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 in 2016 
 
 https://archive.org/details/indianprogressioOOpier 
 
INDIAN PROGRESSION 
 
 By EMELINE G. PIERSON 
 
 j^=^HE work of the Presbyterian Church 
 among the Indians is a long and in- 
 spiring story, from early Colonial ef- 
 forts beginning with the Long Island In- 
 dians. to this end of the nineteenth cen- 
 tury, when at least thirty-five tribes have 
 been reached by it and one hundred and 
 twenty missions and schools arc in suc- 
 cessful operation in the great West. But 
 the end of the century sees also the sig- 
 nificant spectacle of a tribal interchange of 
 the blessings of the Gospel — when one 
 band of Christian Indians carries the good 
 news to another tribe, and the Red Man 
 reads the Church a lesson in giving and 
 telling. 
 
 Back in the thirties, four Xez Perce 
 braves came across the mountains of the 
 Northwest looking for the Book of heaven. 
 Marcus Whitman was the answer to their 
 appeal, and all the world knows his story 
 if not theirs. The martyred Whitman, the 
 Snauldings and the Cowleys served and 
 suffered and com|ucred for Christ and the 
 Xez Pcrces came into the light. Overlap- 
 
()ing the last eventful years of the Spauld- 
 ing ministry the ^IcBeth sisters entered 
 into the very heart and life of this w'on- 
 derful mission, and when at last Miss 
 Sue went to her reward, Jonah, the sub- 
 chief, brokenly said to General Howard, of 
 her work: ‘‘ It make Indians stop buying 
 
 and selling wives, stop gambling and horse 
 racing for money, stop getting drunk and 
 running about, stop all time lazj' and make 
 them all time work.” It did more, for she 
 was the " theological seminary ” that pre- 
 pared Xez Perce young men for the min- 
 istrj'. 
 
 Her sister Kate, entering into her labors, 
 carries on this unique work, and nine na 
 live pastors and more elders thus trained 
 minister to hundreds of Nez Perce church 
 members in Idaho alone. 
 
 But so enlightened are these awakened 
 Indians that they are reaching out helping 
 hands to the tribes that sit in darkness 
 about them. Two years ago two Indians 
 from the Fort Hall Reservation, Idaho, 
 where 1,500 Bannocks and Shoshones have 
 settlements around the agency, traveled to 
 the Nez Perces for help to worship God 
 as, long ago. the Nez Perces had appealed 
 to the white men of the East. Then did 
 James Hayes, a native pastor, leave his 
 church at the bidding of his people, and 
 go over to the more warlike Bannocks and 
 Shoshones to preach — an Indian to his 
 
 4 
 
brother Indians. His was not a new mes- 
 sage, for a good Presbyterian woman had 
 for years been dropping seed into their 
 hearts as she did a quiet work in a school 
 at one point on the Reservation. The call 
 to the Nez Perces was echoed through 
 Presbytery and Synod till it reached the 
 Hoard of Home Missions in the following 
 statement : 
 
 “ The committee on the Indian work on 
 the Fort Hall Reservation herewith present 
 the following facts and conclusions to the 
 Synod of Utah: 
 
 1st. Miss .-Kmelia J. Frost, a member of 
 the Presbyterian Church, at Lero}', N. V., 
 was sent to the Reservation twelve j'ears 
 ago to take charge of the missionary work 
 of the Connecticut Indian Association. 
 This is an interdenominational association, 
 and has furnished her support up to the 
 present time (1899). 
 
 “ 2d. .After years of self-denial and con- 
 secration to the best interests of these 
 dark-minded heathen, she has fully gained 
 their confidence and has been able to teach 
 them the rudiments of the Gospel. She has 
 induced a number of them, who were living 
 with wives after the custom of the heathen, 
 to abandon their wild habits, accept the 
 customs of civilization, secure a license and 
 enter the marriage state according to the 
 laws and pledges of the state. They aban- 
 doned their Indian habits, threw away their 
 
blankets, moccasins, paint and feathers, and 
 put on the garb of civilization. 
 
 “ 3d. A }-ear or more ago two of these 
 men made the journey to the Xez Perce 
 Indians to learn how to worship God. 
 
 “ The Presbyterian Indians of the Nez 
 Perce tribe became deeply interested in the 
 •Bannock and Shoshone visitors. They 
 sent their pastor, the Rev. James Hayes, 
 and his elder, Solomon Whitman, to spend 
 a few months in preaching the Gospel to 
 the Bannock and Shoshone Indians this last 
 summer. 
 
 “4th. Miss Frost had so well prepared 
 the ground, and had so thoroughly won the 
 confidence of the people that when they 
 learned from her that the Xez Perce minis- 
 ter and elder worshipped the same God 
 that she had been preaching to them, and 
 belonged to the same denomination, they 
 gladly received the minister and his elder. 
 The Spirit of God accompanied the preach- 
 ing of the \\’ord. Souls were born again 
 and wished to make a public profession of 
 their faith. 
 
 “ 5th. The Presbytery of Walla Walla, 
 from which the Rev. ]\Ir. Hayes and his 
 elder came, then gave them authority to or- 
 ganize a Presbyterian Church. They there- 
 fore proceeded, in due form, after instruct- 
 ing the converts in reference to doctrine 
 a.nd church government, to organize the 
 r, 
 
First Presbyterian Church of Fort Hall, 
 consisting of eighteen members. 
 
 “The Nez Perce Indians, who are Pres- 
 byterians. furnished the money to provide 
 for Mr. Hayes while on his mission. In 
 addition they raised $298.80 to assist their 
 new found brethren in building a house of 
 worship. Miss Frost and her friends un- 
 dertook to secure means to erect a building 
 for the Presbyterian Church at Fort Hall. 
 -A.bout $800 has been secured for this house 
 of worship. 
 
 “ Four members of this Synod have, at 
 different times, visited this little company 
 of new-born brethren. We have been 
 deeply interested in this precious work of 
 God, the result of the long and faithful la- 
 bors of Miss Frost, and of the Nez Perce 
 brethren who have come to her assistance. 
 She has planted, the coming missionaries 
 have watered and God has given the in- 
 crease. 
 
 “ We are profoundly convinced that God 
 has laid these little ones of -His kingdom 
 on the bosom of the Presbyterian Church. 
 One of our Home Missionary brethren, 
 who knows the preciou'^ness of this work, 
 offers to contribute one hundred dollars of 
 his own support to the support of a Presby- 
 terian missionary from the Nez Perce In- 
 rlians. Only S3C0 more will be needed to 
 rare for these trusting cues who are look- 
 ing to our Church for Gospel nurture. 
 
“ Your committee, therefore, recommend 
 that the claims of these converted Indians 
 be laid before the Board of Home Mis- 
 sions, and that we ask for S*oo to make 
 ];rovision for their spiritual life and 
 growth.” 
 
 The first step taken was the adoption of 
 Miss Frost by the Woman's Board, with 
 the hope that the Nez Perce pastor might 
 be raised up according to the call of the 
 Synod of Utah. Then began her struggle 
 in church building and raising the neces- 
 sary funds. As the official presentment 
 through the Synod of Utah coidd not give 
 the picturesque touches of that gathering 
 of funds by the Nez Perces, first to send 
 their pastor and elder, and then, as an after- 
 thought, to provide that the pastor’s wife 
 should go too, to encourage her Indian sis- 
 ters, following up this visit with the sub- 
 stantial collection out of their own narrow 
 resources, to start the church building fund; 
 so the stimulating efforts of Miss Frost 
 herself among her Indian people and her 
 friends, with all the pathetic detail of her 
 own sacrifices and experiences, could not 
 be told in the limits of this article. It is 
 another chapter of heroic history- for the 
 great Indian epic of the future. 
 
 The Bannock and the Shoshone Church 
 walls are going up, but the brave heart of 
 the missionary trembles before the fact that 
 the money is not equal to the cost. Living 
 
 S 
 
in a tent far into the cold weather, ill 
 though she has been, she watches and di- 
 rects, writes her appealing letters and prays 
 for help. Hear her own words: “ I am 
 
 willing to do without help in furnishing 
 the house — fcr this year — if we can only- 
 get the building paid for. I was taught as 
 a child to abhor debt. Perhaps I took too 
 much risk on the building, but I felt it was 
 what the work here demanded. I have 
 counted every dollar of expense. It’s only' 
 a plain, substantial building — no more room 
 than our work seems to demand. At our 
 great distance from towns where the work- 
 men live, it seemed imperative to have all 
 the work done at one time. I felt we could 
 do without a tower. Then word came from 
 the Government School that the Christian 
 Endeavor Society (Indian) and the Junior 
 Endeavors and employes were trying to get 
 a bell. It is the Lord’s work — ‘The silver 
 and the gold are his ’ — and from the first 
 I’ve prayed over the matter every step. 
 
 “ When this word came I felt is was an 
 indication that I ought to have the tower 
 built, for if the building was finished with- 
 out, it would be three days’ work of car- 
 penter to cut out the cornice, etc., before 
 commencing construction of tower. The 
 children wouldn’t want to put their money- 
 in the building — they- want to hear the bell 
 ring out, ‘ Come to church,’ ‘ Come to 
 church,' as our Government Inspector's 
 
 9 
 
wife had tohl them when speaking in Chris 
 tian Endeavor meeting. I know all the 
 dear boys and girls, and when I was there 
 I told them I hoped they would hear it 
 ring, ‘ Come to Jesus.’ 
 
 “ I have written letters soliciting funds 
 whenever I have had strength to do so af- 
 ter the ‘ at hand ’ work was done. One of 
 the men came to my tent, summoned me 
 out, and pointing to the framework, just 
 raised, of our tower and spire, said, ‘ 'Vhat 
 this day you call it ? ’ I replied. ‘ 26th day 
 of October,’ and he raid, ‘ .\11 time j'ou heap 
 savvy this day — first time any house talk 
 our Father on this Reservation.’ Pointing 
 his finger upward, to indicate the spire, point- 
 ing heavenward, he said, translated from 
 Indian, ‘ .\ny man on train, any man on 
 wagon road seeing that, know Indians are 
 Christians on this Reservation.’ My heart 
 is glad now, all the people passing will 
 know now that is an ‘ Our Father's ’ house. 
 I don’t know where a dollar to pay 
 for it is coming from, but I believe the 
 Lord does and I cannot but feel I was 
 right in having it built. The estimate on 
 tower, with no arrangement as to hanging 
 bell, is $238.” 
 
 Does it not seem as if some one would 
 wish to help that valiant builder — a solitary 
 woman, another Sue IMcBeth for the Ban- 
 nocks and Shoshones? 
 
 .•\nd there is a sequel. While the light 
 
 10 
 
is just dawning over Fort Hall Reserva- 
 tion, there is a crj' out of heathen darkness 
 five hundred miles south of these tribes of 
 the Northwest. A Government teacher at 
 the Shevwitts’ School at St. George, Utan, 
 was until recently a Presbyterian mission- 
 ary in a mission school among the Mor- 
 mons. Once a missionary, always a mis- 
 sionary. She writes to Miss Frost, who is 
 going in and out among the Bannocks and 
 Shoshones in their new capacity as Pres- 
 byterian Church members, of the need of 
 her Shevwitts, and of the scattered tribes 
 over the border of Nevada. W'ill the new 
 made elders of the little church come down 
 to these Indian brethren with the Gospel 
 message as the Nez Perces came to them? 
 What a request, when their own church 
 building was struggling up! But they 
 went, and Miss Frost with them, and Nez 
 Perce James Hayes after them. !Miss 
 Work, the Government teacher, writing of 
 the visiting Indians from Nevada points — 
 the Kaibabs, Muddies, Cedars and others, 
 says: “ !Miss Frost, with Hubert and Alex- 
 ander Watson, two of her elders, came 
 down from Fort Hall, and James Hayes 
 of the Nez Perces is to follow. I cannot 
 cxpre.'s the joy that is ours as we see the 
 people struggling so patiently to under- 
 stand and coming so faithfully night after 
 night with all the children to hear the 
 great ‘ te guin ap ’ (story). The St. George 
 
 11 
 
paper last week announced that a Presby- 
 terian mission has been established at Con- 
 ger’s Farm (their name for this place), by 
 what authority I do not know, but I begin 
 to think it may prove a prophecy of what 
 is coming.” 
 
 .And so from Xez Perces to Bannocks 
 and Shoshones, from Bannocks and Sho- 
 shones to Utah and Nevada tribes, the Gos- 
 pel progression lights up the dark corners 
 of our country, while the dusky torchbear- 
 ers show to a lagging church how the lignt 
 might be turned on were its own response 
 as prompt and earnest. 
 
 New York, .April, igoi. 
 
 Xo. — 3d Kd.— 8, 1!)0S. 
 
 Two cents each, l?l.oO per 100. 
 
 The Wolfer Press, X. Y.