FootNote
The new kid on the block, FootNote is known for digitizing historical
documents... many of which are genealogical gems. With naturalizations,
city directories, war records, newspapers, town records, etc... this new
kid is quickly being recognized as an alternative to Ancestry.
While we know our northern friends may not feel it, in the South, Spring is
here. So we thought we'd share a few of our gardening sites appropriate
for this time of the year. Along with gardening, there's grilling, and getting
ready to diet so that you can fit back into that bathing suit this summer!
My Dear Sir:——Will you
Please I have got your letter and I was vey
glad—and vey Good letter—and I tell My
Indian friends all good men and We are vey
glad to see your good paper. And, Now, We
Mandans Indian We are maken houses this
River south sides and We are farmes And we
have Great fields—and We like Vey much the
White man Ways—and We are White mans—and We
are a Friends to the White, and We hear much
talk of you and we are good Indians Mandans.
We do not do foolish to the Whites, and We
are a good Friends to the Whites——And now I
wants to know the Great Fathers Wishes to
us. Please good tell me the Great fathers
what he say to us—When you get this letter
Please Write to me Very soon. Good buy—
I am Very your truly friends,
MR. WOLFE, Chief.
Fort Berthold West, 30 miles from here I
live and have 16 acres and I am glad. I have
a cow, 6 horses, a wagon, a plow. I have
three houses and a store. I live south side
this River. Yours,
A good deal of ingenious ciphering has been
done in endeavoring to solve this problem,
and, withal, there has been a good deal of
honest and efficient work. The Government
has largely increased its appropriations
from year to year, the Dawes Bill and other
valuable legislation have been secured, so
that steps looking towards the citizenship
of the Indian have been attained.
Appropriations have been granted to aid him
in farming and other industrial pursuits,
and it is not unlikely that in a short time
provision will be made for the education in
the common English branches of every Indian
child.
But all this is not sufficient. The Indian
may have lands and citizenship and an
English education, and yet, if he has no
strong impulse towards civilization, no
motive in his heart impelling him to be an
industrious, self-supporting citizen—in
short, if he has not a new heart looking to
a new life as a citizen and a man, he will
become a vagabond on the land granted him,
and a skeptic in the school in which he is
taught. The next few years will constitute a
crisis in the rapidly changing condition of
the Indian, and it is precisely at this
point where the vital element of the
Christian life must be infused into his
character. To the Christian public, all
other questions subordinate themselves to
this, and this needs, not speculation, but
hard work; legislation cannot do it, the
church must; time will not do it, Christian
teaching and example alone can. The
vernacular question, so much agitated
recently, is important only as it may hinder
this practical work.
The Indian problem is not perpetual. The
Indian must soon be merged into the
American, and whether this shall be for good
or for ill, the church must decide, and
decide speedily. We trust, therefore, that
our constituents will aid us to extend, as
rapidly as possible, that part of the work
entrusted to us. We do not ask for expensive
buildings or costly plant. We ask for the
means to push forward with the teacher and
the preacher among these uncivilized people
till, when they come forth from their
present anomalous condition, they shall come
forth practical Christians, as well as
intelligent and industrious citizens.
Mr.
Moody's Missionary Meetings have been a
marvel in their conception, in their
remarkably large audiences and in the still
more remarkably able and interesting class
of speakers—some of them from distant
mission fields. They show how broad and
many-sided is Mr. Moody's mind and heart.
At the meeting held August 8th, Rev. C.W.
Shelton, the Financial Secretary for Indian
Missions of the American Missionary
Association, was invited to address the
meeting. We condense from the Springfield
Union an outline of Mr. Shelton's stirring
address, and its effect upon Mr. Moody and
others in attendance, with the practical
results.
The most stirring address of the morning was
delivered by Rev. Chas. W. Shelton of New
York City, on the Indian problem. He stated
the problem with simplicity and dignity, but
when he got worked into his theme, he became
eloquent in his description of the position
of the Indian people and their strong desire
to receive the gospel. While he was
illustrating his argument with pathetic
incidents in his experience, there were many
of his audience in tears.
The speaker described the Indians
themselves; their first characteristic was
the deep religious nature which swayed their
whole life. They prayed oftener and more
fervently than Christians, worshipping
everything that was unknown and mysterious;
of which the saddest thing was that the
Indian's gods were all gods of anger,
involving sacrifices. To show the extent to
which the Indians would sacrifice themselves
to appease their god's anger, a very
touching story was told of a boy torturing
himself for the recovery of his sick mother.
At the close of the Mohonk Conference, two
years ago, our committee went to President
Cleveland to petition in regard to methods.
He said that he sympathized with all our
methods and ideas. "But," he said,
"gentlemen, you may do all you can at
Mohonk, I may do all I can here in the White
House, and Congress may do all that they can
over there, but," and he turned and picked
up a Bible, "gentlemen, after all, that book
has got to settle the Indian problem."
(Applause.) And the President was right.
Before you can do anything for the
preservation of the Indian you've got to
give him a new hope, a new salvation. I have
studied many tribes, and have never found a
tribe or village of Indians or a single
Indian civilized before he was
Christianized.
The speaker next considered the question
whether the Christianization of the Indians
was possible. This he answered by the case
of the 400 Indians taken captive in the
Sioux war which followed the Minnesota
massacre of 1862. In the fall of that year,
a missionary went to their prison, and in
the next six months taught 392 to read and
established a church with 295 members.
Subsequently President Lincoln pardoned all
but 39 and the survivors went among the
Sioux, and the speaker considered the ten
Christian churches and 2,000 Christians
among the 40,000 Sioux to be owing to this
church of prisoners. In Dakota, every one of
the 40,000 Indians was ready to receive the
gospel.
On Mr. Moody's asking how much he wanted, he
said that it took $400 to start a station,
and $300 a year to keep it up. He then
related a very pathetic story of an old
Indian who traveled 150 miles across the
Territory seven times to get a missionary
sent among his people. The difficulty in
getting one arose from the society sending
the missionaries, whose debt was so large
that the executive board had refused to send
out any more. ("Board wants more faith," put
in Mr. Moody.) The old man finally went back
to his people, saying sadly: "They must die
in their darkness; the Christian people of
America haven't interest enough in the poor
dying Indian to try and help him."
Mr. Moody, who had been apparently deep in
thought ever since the speaker had mentioned
the sum necessary to start a station, now
broke out, "Got a mission started where that
old man wanted it?" in such an earnest way
that it brought down the house. But Mr.
Moody wasn't satisfied till Mr. Shelton
answered in the affirmative, and added that
what he said of the Sioux was true of the
other tribes, 68 of whom were untouched by
any missionary efforts. At this point, $300
was handed to the platform to establish a
station, and the audience grew enthusiastic.
The speaker continued, illustrating the need
of Christian work among the Indians and
their willingness to receive it by telling a
story of a little Indian girl who was
converted while dying. She asked of her
teacher: "But, lady, how long have you known
of this beautiful story?" "Many years,"
replied the missionary. "And how long has
white man known of this?" "Oh, very many
years." "Lady, if white man has known about
God and about heaven so long, what for, why
has he not told poor dying Indian about this
before? If I could only get well, I would go
and tell all my people this beautiful story
about Jesus and home," and with those words,
"Jesus and home," her eyes closed forever.
In answer to Mr. Moody's questions, he
described the stations, little buildings of
three rooms, and the missionaries' life, at
home, and teaching the Indians to cultivate
the soil, as well as preaching to them; his
wife also teaching the women. The audience
had become quite enthusiastic by the time he
finished his eloquent appeal, and at this
moment Mr. Sankey offered $700 to start one
station, and shortly after Mr. Moody pledged
an equal amount. A lady then handed in $400
to go with the $300 subscribed during the
address. Mr. Moody himself then made a brief
appeal, speaking of the Indian boys and
girls in his school and the high rank they
had taken. He offered a short prayer and
then dismissed the audience, telling Mr.
Shelton to "make himself plenty" around the
buildings during the afternoon, and
doubtless he would receive more money.
Mr. Shelton did "make himself plenty" around
the building, and the result has been that
nearly $3,000 were contributed either in
cash or in pledges that have since been
redeemed. Still other contributions are
anticipated as the outcome of this fine
address. Three out-stations will be started
at once in Dakota, one of them bearing the
name of Mr. Moody, another of Mr. Sankey,
and the third may be named Northfield or it
may bear the name designated by the donor.
A Sketch Of Mission Life On
The
Frontier
Fort Yates, Dakota
I am alone
once more, all my company have gone. The
plasterer has just been here and I had to
dismantle my house entirely for him; I am
therefore too tired to write. I have been
putting up bulberry jelly and am trying to
get ready for my company, which will come
the first of September and stay until we all
go together down to Oahe to the meeting.
I feel that aside from the pleasure so much
company gives me it will help our work. This
is the station farthest out in the
wilderness, and now that people know that
soon the "native wild man" will be no more,
they all want to see him. I have two beds.
When ladies come they fill the bedrooms, and
so if distinguished gentlemen come. I sleep
either in the kitchen or laundry on a
blanket or robes. Several times this year my
bedrooms have both been full and I have made
"down" beds on my sitting-room floor for
from two to six gentlemen. As I only have
four very small rooms, the kitchen floor is
often covered, too, with beds. My table is
an extension table and my heart is an
extension heart, but alas for my dishes and
silver! When Prof. W—— of Oberlin was here
the dishes would not go 'round and had to be
pieced out; but, after all, the guests have
the best I can give them and have it freely,
and I gladly give them my services, and they
seem to enjoy it.
I put up a log house for a work room and
laundry; I helped an Indian boy to make a
shutter to the door and window and I did all
the dividing and helped lift the logs, and
we put up a pretty good room, and it only
cost me twenty dollars, I believe; and O!
what would I have done without it, with my
big washings and ironings and inexperienced
Indian woman to work! I secured a little
lime from the plasterer and I am going to
try to whitewash inside with a broom—I have
no brush. The Indians all came home without
signing either paper for the Commissioners.
They will not sell their land. I am very
sorry, for I think it the best thing for
them.
This Conference is unique in its character,
and in the place where it is held. Lake
Mohonk was born in a great earthquake that
sunk it in its solid rocky bed, and piled up
around it wonderful ranges of hills and vast
splintered rocks. The splendid summer resort
built on the margin of the Lake is the work
of Mr. A.K. Smiley, a man of creative
genius, and of kind manners and a warm
heart. The house, or rather the range of
houses, is picturesque, and the walks among
the hills and down the rocky gorges, and the
forty miles of excellent roads, give the
widest scope for walking and driving.
The Conference is the invention of Mr.
Smiley. To it, he invites annually a hundred
or more guests, giving them the freedom of
the house; and three days are spent in the
discussion of Indian affairs, interspersed
with afternoon drives amid the striking
scenery. The invitation is extended to those
who are supposed to be intelligently
interested in the Indians; but within that
limit there is the freest range—men and
women of all political parties and of all
religious denominations being included. The
acts of the Conference, like the utterances
of a Congregational Council, have only the
authority of the reason that is in them; yet
it is wonderful what an influence this
peculiar body has had on public sentiment.
Its utterances have been discussed and have
had their weight in the pulpit, the press,
in Congress and in the White House. The
Indian and the Nation owe much to the Mohonk
Conference.
The Sixth Annual Conference, which closed
September 28th, sustained the interest of
past years in the importance of the topics
discussed, in the divergency of opinion at
first, and in the complete harmony at the
end. The points agreed upon in the platform
were arranged under five heads. The first
relates to the establishment of Courts of
Justice in the Reservations and accessible
to the Indians; the second to the important
need of education, demanding that the
Government shall undertake at once the
entire task of providing primary and secular
education for all Indian children; the third
urges that this education shall be
compulsory, under proper limitations; the
fourth emphasizes the duty of the churches
to furnish religious instruction to the
Indians, and the immunity of their work from
all governmental interference where
sustained wholly by missionary funds; the
fifth approves of the co-operation of the
Government with the missionary societies in
contract schools during the present
transitional condition of the Indians. We
append the last two items of the report.
In view of the great work
which the Christian Churches have done in
the past in inaugurating and maintaining
schools among the Indians, and of the
essential importance of religious as
distinguished from secular education, for
their civil, political and moral well-being,
an element of education which, in the nature
of the case, the National Government cannot
afford, the churches should be allowed the
largest liberty, not, indeed, to take away
the responsibility from the Government in
its legitimate sphere of educational work,
but to supplement it to the fullest extent
in their power, by such schools, whether
primary, normal or theological, as are at
the sole cost of the benevolent or
missionary societies. And it is the
deliberate judgment of this Conference that
in the crisis of the Indian transitional
movement the churches should arouse
themselves to the magnitude and emergency of
the duty thus laid upon them in the
providence of God.
Nothing should be done to
impair or weaken the agencies at present
engaged in the work of Indian education.
Every such agency should be encouraged and
promoted, except as other and better
agencies are provided for the work. In
particular, owing to the anomalous condition
of the Indians and the fact that the
Government is administering trust funds that
belong to them, what is known as the
"contract system"—by which the nation aids
by appropriations private and missionary
societies in the work of Indian
education—ought to be maintained by a
continuance of such aid, until the
Government is prepared, with adequate
buildings and competent teachers, to assume
the entire work of secular education. In no
case should the Government establish schools
to compete with private or church schools
which are already doing a good work, so long
as there are thousands of Indian children
for whose education no provision is made.
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