No. 600 fAM. N. AMEA. i THE FIRST AMERICANS A 5KLTCH OF OUR CHURCH WORK AMONG THL INDIANS \ r “X- oi. r c '■ DEPARTMENT OF MISSIONS AND CHURCH EXTENSION OF THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH 281 FOURTH AVENUE • NEW YORK ■ INDIAN reservations Missionary Stations Marked + THE CHURCH AMONG THE INDIANS THE INDIAN PROBLEM T he Indian problem is not solved, but only in the process of being solved. The government has adopted a policy whereby the reservation system, which has so long laid a repressive hand upon the Indian, is to be abolished. This system was probably necessary in the past, but few peoples could have endured such isolation and restraint and continue to exist. The fact that the Indian has fairly well survived the reservation system, is proof of the virile character which he possesses. The time has come when, if the Indian is to survive, if he is to retain a foothold on the face of the earth at all, and keep his self-respect, he mu.st take his chance with the other citizens of the republic. He is like a boy who is going out into life. He has been under tutelage — an unwilling ward of an unwilling government — for many years, and now we say that it is time for him to go out and take care of himself. The Indians will become citizens, and sooner or later be amalgamated with the general ])opulation. Then only will the Indian problem be solved. Meanwhile, the present problem is to make the Indian ready for Christian citizenship. This the government cannot do by itself. None too successful in its efforts to give secular training to the Indian, it is markedly inefficient in his moral and spiritual development. Nor could it be otherwise, for the Indian is naturally religious, and the government is no teacher of religion. The Christian Church is the only agency which can save the situation and re- deem a people of sterling characteristics whose claim upon our sympathy and aid is a very real one. For surely we should give to the Indian, quite as much •as to the Chinaman, the best which is to be had in our civilization. Living, as he must do, in the midst 3 of our highly-developed and keenly-acquisitive civili- zation, he needs, even more than does the man in a foreign land, the safeguards and helps of the Christian religion. In aiding the Indian now we pay, so far as we can, an old debt. The wealth of our nation is builded upon the Indian possessions. Without discussing the vexed question of government treatment of the Indian race, this cannot reasonably be denied. The least we can do, surely, is to give him the chance to make a man of himself in the struggle which lies before him. Nor is this a matter of tardy justice only — it is a patriotic opportunity. No aboriginal race has shown finer native qualities than the Indian. If he can be preserved from degradation, and stimulated in his development, he will contribute useful and important elements to the future citizenship of our land. At the same time that we are encouraging the immi- gration of foreigners and their assimilation into our life, we should not neglect a like process in the case of the original Americans, who have far more prom- ising qualities than many of the foreigners who seek our shores. A PART OF THF. MISSION BUILDINGS AT ONEIDA. WISCONSIN Our oldest Indian work. The fine stone church was built by the Indians themselres WHAT HAS THE CHURCH DONE? The story of the Church’s work among the Indians began early in our history. Among the chief purposes avowed by the Virginia Company in making settle- ments in this new land, was that of converting to the Christian faith the inhabitants thereof. This was honestly and sincerely undertaken by some of our earlier clergj' — as witness the baptism of Pocahontas and others. The difficulties and disagreements which early developed between the Colonies and the Indians disastrously affected this missionary enter- j)rise and changed the point of view of the colonizing comj)anies. Nevertheless, by individual initiative, many Indians were baptized and early in its history the venerable Society for the Propagation of the Gospel began an organized work among the natives of this country. The most con- si)icuous examples were found among the Iroquois, and our present mis- sions in New York State and among the Oneidas of Wis- consin are indirect fruits of these early undertakings. The rapidity with which the middle and the far west were settled, and the immense de- mands upon the missionary re- sources of the Church which were i.xdian women are good mothers 5 \ OUR MISSIONARY AT WHIRLWIND. OKLAHOMA PAYING A PARISH CALL inevitably made by this enormous expansion, natu- rally concentrated attention upon the work among white people. Nevertheless, wherever the Church went, and found the Indians at her doors, some effort was made to reach them with the message of faith. Conspicuously was this true in Minnesota, where the Rev. Dr. James Lloyd Breck, two years after the first organized Church work in the territory was begun, opened at Gull Lake the first Church mission for Indians west of the Mississippi River. Seven years later, on his consecration as first Bishop of INIinnesota, Henry Benjamin Whipple threw him- self into the cause of the Indians, and throughout his long life was their friend and champion. Following the Sioux Massacre in 1863, many of the Minnesota Indians were deported to South Dakota, and there Bishop Hare, consecrated as Bishop of Niobrara, found them when he went out to undertake what has proved to be the greatest missionary work ever accomplished among the aborigines of this country. Not only have the Sioux Indians been brought into the Church in large numbers, but methods of wmrk have been established which have largely influenced our Indian w'ork throughout the country. 6 THE PRESENT WORK ONEIDA Aside from the missions conducted in behalf of those remnants of tribes which have remained in the eastern states near their original hunting grounds, our oldest Indian work is on the Oneida Reservation near Green Bay, in northern Wisconsin. Hither in 18'23 six or seven hundred of the Oneida tribe were removed, under the leadership of the Rev. Eleazar Williams, himself probably an Iroquois, though the claim was made that he was Louis XVII, the lost Dauj)hin of France. Here, on a reservation nine miles by twelve, these sturdy Indians took up their home, blessed and protected by the constant care of the Church. Devoted missionaries have given long lives in their behalf. Always, both in educational and spiritual matters the Church has been their mother. Bishop Hobart himself visited them and preached in their original log church. Hither the young deacons who founded Nashotah came to receive priest's orders at the hands of Bishop Kemper, this being at the time the only consecrated church building in the northwest. This building has had three successors. Now a stately stone church with a commodious parish hou.se, lil)rary and reading room, hospital and mis- sion building, ministers to a community of about two thoiKsand Indians, six hundred of whom are communicants of the Church. SOUTH IftheOnei- DAKOTA da mission be cited as an example of intensive achievement, South Dakota is certainly our greatest extensive work. Here it was that for 37 years the Rt. Rev. 7 1 HENRY BENJAMIN WHIPPLE First Bishop of Minnesota and Life-long Friend of the Indian S Wiliam Hobart Hare, D.D., labored ceaselessly to up- lift his red brothers. When chosen, in 1873, he was the young secretary of the Foreign Committee of the Board of Missions. He was a man of fine culture, and scholarly tastes, the product of a highly organized civilization, and many of his friends mourned when he was sent to the wild men of the plains. His juris- diction included 80,000 sfjuare miles, in which were nine stations and two sub-stations. Immediately he formed a consistent policy for developing the mission work, and aimed definitely at two things; (a) The education of the children; ih) the raising up of a native ministry. In both he was unusually successful. At the time of his death, among the !^5,000 Indians resi- dent in South Dakota, there were 10,000 baptized Churchmen, nearly 100 Indian congregations, 1(5 native clergy, and over 4,000 communicants. He had established and maintained (5 schools for Indian children and had himself confirmed 7,000 Indians. Under Bishop John.son, who was later translated to Missouri, and Bishop Biller, who died after three years of .service, the work in South Dakota was faith- fully carried forward. Now Bishop Burleson and Bishop-suffragan Remington have taken it up. No- where, perhaps, in the civilized world is the percentage of communicants .so high in proportion to the popula- tion as on the reservations of South Dakota. To hold and to deepen this Churchman.ship when the reservation passes, and relate the Indian religiously to the white population, is the delicate and difficult problem of today. The sincere devotion and simple faith of these Da- kota Indians, and their generous gifts to the work of the Church, set a standard equalled by few among white Christians. PL.AYTIME AT OXE OF BISHOP HARE’S SCHOOLS CHRIST CHURCH, ANVIK, ALASKA ALASKA A third missionarj^ enterprise among In- dians may well find special mention — the work being done among the natives of Alaska. Scat- tered over that land, especially throughout the great Yukon basin, live 30,000 Indians. The American Church found her access to them partially prepared by the previous splendid work of the Church of England missionaries. Our first post in Alaska was at Anvik, and our first missionary went to live among the Indians. Ever since that time the Church has consistently labored to serve, on equal terms, the native Indian and the immigrant white man. The mission now includes twelve active stations among the Indians, with many other points where services are held by one or another of the missionaries. And to these central places the people come from all the surrounding country. There are four hospitals for Indians, two boarding schools and a number of day schools. At present most of the medical work is done by nurses, there being but one missionary phy- sician; at Fort Yukon we have our only hospital north of the Arctic Circle. It is impossible to give the number of adherents and baptized persons among a people so scattered and remote, but the communi- cants are reported as numbering 1,000. 10 DULUTH The Diocese of Duluth in northern ^lin- nesota has on its Ojibway reservation a long-settled and efficient work under the general care of a white archdeacon, assisted by 8 native clergy and 2 women workers. There are 14 stations, about 500 communicants and 1200 baptized persons. Here we find the results of Bishop Whipple’s early work in Minnesota on the White Earth reservation. Under the shadow of St. Columba’s Church rests the body of John Johnson Enmegahbowh, the first Indian priest of our Church, who for more than forty years set an exam- ple of faithful and consistent service for God and his people. About this mi.ssion gather the memories of Peake and Hinman, Gil- fillan, Appleby and others who in the past have helped to work out the Indian problem for the Church. Be- fore long the reser- vations will be ob- literated; the for- mer conditions will have passed away, and the Indians have ceased to be a separate people; but the fruitage of the past will remain in some lives at least, proving that the Church has done well in carrying Christ’s message to the red man of the forest. OTHER FIELDS Limitations of space forbid fur- ther elaboration. We might visit the Shoshones and Arapahoes in Wyoming, the home of old Chief Washakie, and the scene of the devoted labors of the Rev. John Roberts. Here we should find Bishop Thomas working out a thorough educational 11 12 ST. ELIZABETH’S CHURCH AXD HOSPITAL, WHITE ROCKS. UTAH plan, supported by the gifts of the Church. ^Ye might go to Sacramento, where work is being carried on among the neglected Karoks,who are hearing the story of Christ, and are responding eagerly. We might go to Southern Florida, where, among the Seminoles of the Everglades, the Rev. Dr. W. J. Godden, after years of lonely work, laid down his life, leaving at least the beginnings of a Christian mission for one who shall come after him. We might visit the Hospital of the Good Samaritan in Arizona — our only work among 8,000 Navajos, but so wise and thorough a C'hristian enterprise that it has attracted the favorable comment of the highest government officials. We might go to North Dakota, Idaho, Oklahoma and Utah, and we should also find faithful and interesting work being done. The facts concerning all this are summarized elsewhere.* Indian tribes are located in twenty-seven states of the Union. We have mission work in only twelve of these. The most recent figures show 330,000 Indians in the United States. We reach not more than 50,000, and out of the total there is another 50,000 who are under no Christian influence whatever. This is the sit- uation which presents its appeal to faithful Christians. *On page 16 appears a list of our missions among Indians and a statement of the work carried on among them. 1.1 u A STATEMENT OF THE QUESTION o 1. This is not a question which leill settle itself by inaction. The Indians are not a dying race. Some authorities claim that there are as many in the United States today as when America was discovered. It is certainly true that although some tribes are decreas- ing, others are multiplying. The ancient drain caused by intertribal wars has ceased, and to some extent at least, the white man’s lessons of hygiene and sanita- tion have had their effect. 2. This is a critical period in the problem. The United States has adopted the policy of assigning land in severalty. This means the eventual break-up of the reservations and the amalgamation of the In- dian with the mass of the population. The Indian’s greatest danger will come within the next few years, when he has to meet the white man on his own ground. lie must be prepared for this trial if he is to survive. 3. We have reached the third j)eriod of the Indian problem, and are facing the fourth. The first was (a) the period of conflict, when the Indian still be- lieved he had a chance to win back or to defend his own; the second was (6) the period of concpiest, when we herded them upon reservations and surrounded them with soldiers; the third (c), the present period, is that of co-operation, for the Indian’s problem is his problem, and he must work it out, but he can- not do it without our aid; the fourth neriod (d) is that of amalgamation. 15 MISSION WORK AMONG THE INDIANS ALASKA — Thirty thousand Indians scattered along the coast and in the interior. Work began with the Rev. Messrs. Parker and Chapman in 1886-87. Now 12 stations with about 1,000 communicants. ARIZONA — The Indian Hospital of the Good Shepherd at Fort Defiance, established 1895, cares for the Navajos. DULUTH — Under the archdeacon, assisted by five native priests, two native deacons, and two women. Fourteen different points reached. About 500 communicants, and 1,200 baptized. (Ojibways). FOND DU LAC — Near Green Bay are about 2,500 Oneidas, of whom nearly 650 are communicants. They have a church, erected by themselves, and a hospital near it. Two resident priests, two sisters, and a teacher. IDAHO — Among Shoshones, Bannocks, and Arapahoes on Fort Hall Reser- vation. About 100 communicants, MINNESOTA — -Sioux Mission at Birch Coulee, under an Indian priest. Regular services also held at Prairie Island, NEBRASKA — Work on the Winnebago Reserv'ation, w’here the Church ministers to 100 Indians. Appropriation is made for a resident priest. NEVADA — Work was begun 25 years ago upon the Pyramid Lake Reser\’a- tion, containing one-third of the Reservation Indians of the state. There is a church and school. The communicants number 100. NEW MEXICO — Work begun in 1917 among 30,000 Navajos. Mission House includes two hospital wards and dispensary. Three women workers. NORTH D.4KOTA — Seven thousand Indians on four reservations — Standing Rock, Fort Berthold, Turtle Mountain and Fort Totten. The Church has encouraging work on each. OKLAHOMA — Mission at Whirlwind, with about 100 communicants. Ser- vices also held at the Indian schools at Chilo'cco and Cheyenne. SOUTH DAKOTA — Our largest Indian mission — 97 stations, ministering to 25,000 Sioux, of whom 5,000 are communicants and 12,000 baptized members of the Church. Gifts to the Church for the support of their own work, $10,000 per annum. Two large schools for Indian children — Saint Mary’s and Saint Elizabeth’s. The majority of the clergy are Indians. SACRAMENTO — The Karok Indians in the northern mountains are being evangelized. The work was begun in 1912. There have been about 200 baptisms. SOUTHERN FLORIDA — Work was carried on for a number of years among the Seminoles in the Everglades. Since the death of the missionary no one has taken his place. UTAH — Work among the Utes at Randlett, Whiterocks and Fort Duchesne. W’YOMING — At Wind River Saint Michael’s Mission is developing indus- trial and agricultural work among the Arapahoes. There is also a large school here for the Shoshones. Interesting illustrated articles on all the mission fields of the Episco- pal Church will be found in The Spirit of Missions. Published monthly. 281 Fourth Avenue. New York. $1.00 a year, Copies of this leaflet may he obtained from the Literature Department, Church Missions House, 281 Fourth Avenue, New York, by asking for No. 600. 8 Ed. 5*20, loM. KI. PI.