The Interior States.—The whole interior region of
the United States, stretching from the English seaboard colonies to the
main divide of the Rocky Mountains, was included under the French rule in
the two provinces of Canada and Louisiana, and with one or two exceptions
the mission was in charge of French
Jesuits from the first occupancy up into the American period. The very
first mission worker, however, within this great region was the heroic
Spanish Franciscan, Father Juan de Padilla, who gave up his life for souls
on the Kansas prairies, as narrated elsewhere, nearly as early as 1542
(see New Mexico,
Arizona, and
California). The first
mission west of the Huron country was established in 1660, probably on
Keweenaw Bay, Mich., by the veteran Huron missionary, the Jesuit René
Menard, in response to repeated requests of visiting
Chippewa and
Ottawa.
In the next year, while attempting to reach a colony of fugitive
Hurons
who had called him from Green Bay, he was lost in the forest and is
believed to have been murdered by the Indians. In 1665 Father Claude
Allouez established the mission of Sainct Esprit on the south shore of
Lake Superior, at La Pointe - Chegoimegon (Shaugwaumikong), now Bayfield,
Wis. Besides working here among the Ottawa and Huron refugees from the
older missions destroyed by the Iroquois, he visited all the other tribes
of the upper lake region from the
Miami and the
Illinois to the
Sioux. Within the next few years
other missions were established at Sault Ste Marie (Sainte Marie),
Mackinaw (St Ignace), Green Bay (St Francois Xavier), and among the Foxes
(St Marc) and Mascoutens (St Jacques), two last named being about the
southern Wisconsin line. Among other workers of this period were Dablon,
Druillettes, and the noted discoverer, Marquette. The mission of St Joseph
on the river of that name, near the present South Bend, Ind., was
established by Allouez among the
Potawatomi in 1688. It
continued, with interruptions, until the removal of the tribe to the west
in 1839-41, when the missionaries accompanied the Indians and
reestablished the work in the new field. To this later period, in Indiana,
belong the names of Fathers Rézé,
Badin, Desseille, and Petit. The mission at Lapointe was abandoned in 1671
on account of the hostility of the Sioux, but most of the others
continued, with some interruptions, down to the temporary expulsion of the
Jesuits in 1764. A mission begun among the Sioux in 1728 was brought to a
close soon after in consequence of the war with the
Foxes.
The first regular mission among the Illinois
(Immaculate Conception) was founded by Marquette in 1674 near the present
Rockfort, Ill., where at that time 8 confederate tribes were camped in a
great village of 350 communal houses. It was known later as the Kaskaskia
mission. Other missions were established also among the Peoria, on Peoria
lake and at Cahokia, opposite St Louis, with such work result that by 1725
the entire Illinois nation was civilized and Christian. Besides Marquette,
the most prominent of the Illinois missionaries were Râle,
noted elsewhere in connection with the Abnaki mission, and Father James
Gravier, who arrived in 1693 and died 12 years later of wounds received
from hostile Indians, leaving as his monument the great manuscript Peoria
dictionary of 22,000 words. Despite apparent success, the final
result in Illinois was the same as elsewhere. The
Natchez and
Chickasaw wars interrupted the mission work for some years, and gave
opportunity for invasion by hostile northern tribes. The dissipations
consequent upon the proximity of garrison posts completed the
demoralization, and by 1750 the former powerful Illinois nation was
reduced to some 1,000 souls, with apparently but one mission. The Indiana
missions at St Joseph (Potawatomi and Miami), Vincennes (Piankashaw),
and on the Wabash (Miami) continued to flourish until the decree of
expulsion, when the mission property was confiscated by the French
government, although the Jesuits generally chose to remain as secular
priests until their death. Their successors continued to minister to
Indians as well as to whites until the disruption and removal of the
tribes to the west, between 1820 and 1840, when the work was taken up in
their new homes by missionaries already on the ground.
The majority of the
Indians of Michigan and Wisconsin remained in their old homes at missions
in those states, kept in existence either as regular establishments or as
visiting stations served by secular priests. The most distinguished of
these later missionaries was the noted author and philologist, Bishop
Frederick Baraga, of the imperial house of Hapsburg, who, after having
voluntarily forfeited his estates to devote his life to the Indians, came
to America in 1830, and for 36 years there after until his death labored
with success, first among the Ottawa at Arbre Croche in lower Michigan,
and afterward at St Joseph, Green Bay, Lapointe, and other stations along
the upper lakes, more particularly at the
Chippewa village of L'Anse, on
Keweenaw bay, which he converted into a prosperous Christian settlement.
Even when past 60 years of age, this scion of Austrian nobility slept upon
the ground and sometimes walked 40 miles a day on snowshoes to minister to
his Indians. Besides numerous devotional works in Ottawa and Chippewa, as
well as other volumes in German and Slavonic, he is the author of the
great Grammar and Dictionary of the Chippewa Language, which after half it
century still remains the standard authority, having passed through three
editions.
In 1818 was begun, near Pembina, on Red River, just
inside the U. S. boundary, the Chippewa mission, afterward known as
Assumption, which became the central station for work among the Chippewa
of Minnesota and the Mandan and others of the upper Missouri. The most
noted name in this connection is that of Rev. G. A. Belcourt, author of a
dictionary of the Chippewa language, second in importance only to that of
Baraga. In 1837 Father Augustin Ravoux established a mission among the
Santee Sioux at Faribault's trading post in east Minnesota, learning the
language and ministering to the eastern bands for a number of years. In
1843 (or 1844) he published a devotional work in that dialect, which has
passed through two editions. The first regular mission station among the
Menominee of Wisconsin was
established in 1844, and among the
Winnebago, then at Long
Prairie, Minn., in 1850, For 20 years earlier missionary work had been
done among them, notably by Father Samuel Mazzuchelli, whose Winnebago
Prayer Book, published in 1833, is mentioned by Pilling as "the first
publication, so far as I know, of a text in any of the dialects in the
Siouan family." In the farther west work was carried on among all of the
immigrant, and the principal of the native, tribes, the chief laborers
again being the Jesuits, whose order had been restored to full privilege
in 1814. A the whole country was now explored and organized on a permanent
governmental basis, and the Indian day was rapidly waning, these later
missions have not the same historic interest that attaches to those of the
colonial period, and may be passed over with briefer notice. Chief among
there were the
Potawatomi missions of St Stanislaus and St Mary, in Kansas, founded
in 1836 by the Belgian Jesuits Von Quickenborne, Hoecken, Peter J. de Smet,
and others, working together, and the Osage mission of St Francis
Hieronymo, founded about 1847 by Fathers Shoenmaker and Bax. The girls of
these two mission schools were in charge respectively of the Sisters of
the Sacred Heart and the Sisters of Loretto. Temporary missions were also
established in 1836 and 1847 respectively among the
Kickapoo and the Miami.
The remote Flatheads in the mountains at the head of
Missouri River had heard of Christianity and had been taught the
rudimentary doctrines by some adopted
Caughnawaga
Indians, and in 1831 they sent a delegation all the long and dangerous way
to St Louis to ask of Indian Superintendent Clark that missionaries be
sent among them. To do this was not possible at the time, but with
persevering desire other delegations were sent on the same errand, some of
the envoys dying on the road and others being murdered by tho Sioux, until
the request met response. In 1834 the Methodist missionary, Jason
Lee, with several assistants, accompanied a trading expedition across the
mountains, but, changing his original purpose, passed by without visiting
the Flatheads and established himself in the vicinity of the trading post
of Ft Vancouver, nearly opposite the mouth of the Willamette, in
Washington. Another embassy from the Flatheads, in 1839, was successful,
and in the next year the noted Belgian Jesuit, Peter John de Smet, priest,
explorer, and author, was on the ground, 1,600 Indians of the confederated
tribes being gathered to await his coming. In 1841 he founded the mission
of St Mary on Bitterroot River, western Montana, making it a starting
point for other missions farther to the west, to be noted elsewhere. On
account of the hostility of the Blackfeet the mission was abandoned in
1850, to be succeeded by that of St Ignatius on Flathead lake, within the
present Flathead reservation, which still exists in successful operation,
practically all of the confederated tribes of the reservation having been
Christian for half a century. The principal co-workers in the Flathead
mission were the Jesuits Canestrelli, Giorda, Mengarini, Point, and
Ravalli. The first three of these have made important contributions to
philology, chief among which are the Salish Grammar of Mengarini, 1861,
and the Kalispel Dictionary, 1877, of Giorda, of whom it is said that he
preached in six Indian languages.
Next in chronologic order in the central region, after
the Catholics, come the Moravians. Their work among the
Delawares
and associated tribes in Ohio, and later in Ontario and Kansas, was a
continuation of that begun among the same people in New York and
Pennsylvania as early as 1740, and has been already noted.
After them came the Friends, or, as more commonly
known, the Quakers. In all their missionary effort they seem to have given
first place to the practical things of civilization, holding the doctrinal
teaching somewhat in reserve until the Indians had learned from experience
to value the advice of the teacher. In accord also with the Quaker
principle, their method was essentially democratic, strict regard being
given to the wishes of the Indians as expressed through their chiefs,
their opinions being frequently invited, with a view to educating them to
a point of self-government. In 1804 the Maryland yearly meeting, after
long councils with the Indians, established an industrial farm on upper
Wabash River in Indiana, where several families from the neighboring
Miami, Shawnee, and others soon gathered for instruction in farming. For
several years it flourished with increasing usefulness, until forced to
discontinue by an opposition led by the Shawnee prophet (see
Tenskwatawa). The work
was transferred to the main Shawnee settlement at Wapakoneta, Ohio, where,
in 1812, a saw mill and grist mill were built, tools distributed, and a
farm colony was successfully inaugurated. The war compelled a suspension
until 1815, when work was resumed. In 1822 a boarding school was opened,
and both farm and school continued, with some interruptions, until the
final removal of the tribe to the west in 1832-33. The teachers followed,
and by 1837 the Shawnee mission was reestablished on the reservation in
Kansas, about 9 miles west from the present Kansas City. It was
represented as flourishing in 1843, being then perhaps the most important
among the immigrant tribes, but suffered the inevitable result on the
later removal of the Shawnee to the present Oklahoma. The work was
conducted under the joint auspices of the Indiana, Ohio, and Maryland
yearly meetings, aided in the earlier years by liberal contributions from
members of the society in England and Ireland. The most noted of the
teachers were Isaac Harvey and his son, Henry Harvey, whose work covers
the period from 1819 to 1842. During the period of the "peace policy"
administration of Indian affairs, for a term of about a dozen years
beginning in 1870, considerable work was done by laborers of the same
denomination among the Caddo,
Kiowa,
Cheyenne, and other tribes of Oklahoma, but without any regular
mission or school establishment. The best known of these workers was
Thomas C. Battey, author of 'A Quaker among the Indians,' who conducted a
camp school among the Kiowa in 1873.
The Presbyterians, who now stand second in the
number of their mission establishments in the United States, began their
labors in the Central states about the same time as the Friends, with a
mission farm among the Wyandot on Sandusky river in Ohio, in charge of
Rev. Joseph Badger. It continued until 1810, when it was abandoned in
consequence of the opposition of the traders and the conservative party
led by the Shawnee prophet. Morse's report on the condition of the tribes
in 1822 makes no mention of any Presbyterian mission work at that time
excepting among the Cherokee (see Southern States). A few years later the
Rev. Isaac Van Tassel, under authority from the American Board, was in
charge of a mission among the Ottawa, at Maumee, Ohio. He compiled an
elementary reading book, printed in 1829, the first publication in the
Ottawa language.
In 1827, under the auspices of the American Board of
Commissioners for Foreign Missions, a Congregational mission was begun
among the Chippewa on Mackinaw Island, upper Michigan, by Rev. J. D.
Stevens and wife, who with others afterward extended their labors into
northern Wisconsin, and later were transferred to the Sioux mission. In
1829 Rev. Frederick Ayer joined the Mackinaw station, and, after two
years' study of the language, opened among the Chippewa at Sandy Lake,
Minn., in 1831, what is said to have been the first school in Minnesota.
He is the author of a small text-book in the language. Other stations were
established soon after among the same tribe, at Lapointe, Avis., Pokegama
lake, and Leech lake, Minn., but seem to have been discontinued about
1845. The Mackinaw mission had already been abandoned. Rev. Peter
Dougherty, under the direct auspices of the Presbyterian mission board,
labored among the Chippewa and the Ottawa at Grand Traverse bay, lower
Michigan, in 1843-47+ and is the author of several text-books and small
religious works in the language of the former tribe.
In 1834 two volunteer workers, Mr. Samuel W. Pond and
his brother Gideon, took up their residence in a village of the
Santee
Sioux on Lake Calhoun, near the present St Paul, Minn. They afterward
became regularly ordained missionaries under the American Board,
continuing in the work for 78 years. In the same year Rev. Thomas S.
Williamson, "the father of the Dakota mission," made a reconnaissance of
the field for the same Board, and on his favorable report two mission
stations were established in 1835—one at Lake Harriet, near St Paul, under
Rev. J. D. Stevens, formerly of the Mackinaw mission, the other under
Williamson himself at Lacquiparle, high up on Minnesota River. With Mr.
Williamson then or later were his wife, his daughter, and his two sons,
all of whom became efficient partners in the work. In 1837 Rev. Stephen R.
Riggs, with his wife, Mary, and his son, Alfred L.—all known in mission
annals—joined the station at Lac-qui-parle. In the next 10 or 12 years, as
the good will of the Indians was gradually won and the working force
increased, other stations were established, all among the Santee Sioux in
Minnesota. Among these was the one started by Rev. John F. Aiton, in 1848,
at Redwing, where Revs. Francis Denton and Daniel Gavan, for the
Evangelical Missionary Society of Lucerne, had established the "Swiss
mission" in 1837, these two missionaries now combining forces with the
American workers. In 1852, in consequence of a cession of Indian land, the
eastern station, then at Kapoia, was removed by Williamson to Yellow
Medicine on the upper Minnesota, and two years later, in consequence of
the burning of the Lac-qui-pane station, that mission also was removed to
Hazelwood, in the same neighborhood.
The work continued with varying success until
interrupted by the Sioux out break in the summer of 1862, when the
missions were abandoned and the missionaries sought safety within the
older settlements. Throughout the troubles the Christian Sioux generally
remained friendly and did good service in behalf of the endangered
settlers. As a result of the outbreak the Santee Sioux were removed to
Niobrara, north east Nebraska, where they now reside. The missionaries
followed, and in 1866 the "Niobrara mission" was organized, the work being
extended to other neighboring bands of Sioux, and the principal workers
being Revs. John P. Williamson and Alfred L. Riggs, sons of the earlier
missionaries. Nearly all the earlier Presbyterian work among the Sioux, as
among the Cherokee, was conducted through the American Board of
Commissioners for Foreign Missions.
To the Congregational missionaries we owe most of our
knowledge of the Sioux language, their work being almost entirely in the
Santee or eastern dialect. Stevens, the Pond brothers, all of the
Williamsons, and Stephen and Alfred Riggs have all made important
contributions, ranging from school text-books and small devotional works
up to dictionaries, besides adapting the Roman alpha-bet to the
peculiarities of the language with such success that the Sioux have become
a literary people, the majority of the men being able to read and write in
their own language. It is impossible to estimate the effect this
acquisition has had in stimulating the self-respect and ambition of the
tribe. Among the most important of these philologic productions are Riggs'
Grammar and Dictionary of the Dakota
Language, published by the Smithsonian Institution in 1852, with a later
revision by Dorsey, and Riggs and Williamson's Dakota Bible, published in
1880, being then, in Pilling's opinion, with two exceptions, the only
complete Bible translation in any Indian language since Eliot's Bible in
1663. In much of the earlier linguistic work the missionaries had the
efficient cooperation of
Joseph Renville, an
educated half-blood. As an adjunct to the educational work, a monthly
journal was conducted for about 2 years by Rev. G. H. Pond, chiefly in the
native language, under the title of 'The Dakota Friend,' while its modern
successor, Iapi Oaye' ('The Word Carrier'), has been conducted under the
auspices of the Niobrara mission since 1871.
In 1821 two Presbyterian missions were
established among the Osage by the
United Foreign Missionary Society. One of these, Harmony, was near the
junction of the Marais des Cygnes with the Osage River, not far from the
present Rich Hill, Missouri; the other, Union, was on the west bank of
Neosho River, about midway between the present Muskogee and Ft Gibson,
Okla. Both were established upon an extensive scale, with boarding schools
and a full corps of workers; but in consequence of differences with the
agent and an opposition instigated by the traders, the Osage field was
abandoned after about 15 years of discouraging effort (McCoy). One of
these workers, Rev. William B. Montgomery, compiled an Osage reading book,
published in 1834. Among others connected with the mission were the Revs.
Chapman, Pixley, Newton, Sprague, Palmer, Vaill, Belcher, and Requa. The
missions conducted by the same denomination among the removed Southern
tribes in Oklahoma are noted in connection with the Southern states.
In 1834 two Presbyterian workers, Revs. John Dunbar and
Samuel Allis, began work among the
Pawnee of Nebraska under the auspices of the American Board, and later
were joined by Dr Satterlee. After some time spent in getting acquainted
with the people and the language, a permanent station was selected on Plum
Creek, a small tributary of Loup River, in 1838, by consent of the Pawnee,
who in the meantime had also acknowledged the authority of the Government.
Circumstances delayed the work until 1844, when a considerable mission and
a Government station were began, and a number of families from the
different bands took up their residence adjacent thereto. Inconsequence,
however, of the repeated destructive inroads of the Sioux, the ancient
enemies of the Pawnee, the mission effort was abandoned in 1847 and the
tribe returned to its former wild life.
About the year 1835 work was begun by the Presbyterian
Board of Foreign Missions among the Iowa and Sauk, then residing on
Missouri River in eastern Nebraska. Attention was given also to some
others of the removed tribes, and about 10 years later a mission was
established among the
Omaha and the
Oto
at Bellevue, near the present Omaha, Nebraska, where, in 1850, Rev. Edward
McKenney compiled a small Omaha primer, the first publication in that
language. Both missions continued down to the modern period, despite the
shifting fortunes of the tribes. Other prominent workers were Rev. Samuel
Irvin, who gave 30 years of his life, beginning in 1837, to the first
tribes named; and Rev. William Hamilton, who, beginning also in 1837, with
the same tribes, was transferred to the Bellevue mission in 1853, rounding
out a long life with a record of half a century spent in the service
Working in collaboration these two produced several religions and
linguistic works in the Iowa language, published by the Mission press from
1843 to 1850, besides a collection of Omaha hymns and some manuscript
translations by Mr. Hamilton alone at a later period.
The pioneer Methodist mission work in the
central region appears to have been inaugurated by a volunteer Negro
minister, Rev. Mr. Stewart, who in 1816 began preaching among the Wyandot,
about Sandusky, in Ohio, and continued with such success that 3 years
later a regular mission was established under Rev. James B. Finley. This
is the only work by that denomination noted in Morse's Report of 1822. In
1835, with liberal aid from the Government, as was then customary, the
Southern branch established a mission about 12 miles from the present
Kansas City, in Kansas, among the immigrant Shawnee. In 1839 it was in
charge of Rev. Thomas Johnson, and 3 years later was reported in
flourishing condition, with boarding school and industrial farm. In 1855
both this mission and another, established by the Northern branch, were in
operation. Smaller missions were established between 1835 and 1840 among
the Kickapoo (Rev. Berryman in charge in 1839),
Kansa
( Rev. AC. Johnson in charge in 1839), Delawares, Potawatomi, and united
Peoria and Kaskaskia, all but
the last-named being in Kansas. A small volume in the Shawnee language and
an-other in the Kansa were prepared and printed for their use by Mr.
Lykins, of the Shawnee Baptist mission The work just outlined, with some
work among the immigrant Southern tribes (see Southern States), seems to
be the sum of Methodist mission labors outside of the Chippewa territory
until a recent period. In 1837 a mission was started by Rev. Alfred
Brunson among the Santee Sioux at Kaposia, or Little Crow's village, a few
miles below the present St Paul. Minn., which existed until 1841, when, on
the demand of the Indians, it was discontinued.
In 1823 the Wesleyan Methodist Society of England began
work among the Chippewa and related bands in Ontario (see Canada, East),
and some 20 years later the American Methodists began work in the same
tribe along the south shore of Lake Superior in upper Michigan. In 1843
Rev. J. H. Pitezel took charge of the work, with headquarters at Sault Ste
Marie as the principal station. Another station was established at
Keweenaw Point about the same time by Rev. John Clark. Others were
established later at Sandy lake and Mille Lac, Mum., also among the
Chippewa, and all of these were in successful operation in 1852.
The earliest Baptist worker in the central
region was Rev. Isaac McCoy, afterward for nearly 30 years the general
agent in the Indian mission work of that denomination. In 1818 he began
preaching among the Wea in Indiana, and
in 1820 organized at Ft Wayne, Ind., a small school for the children of
the neighboring tribes, then in the lowest state of demoralization from
wars, removals, drunken-ness, and the increasing pressure of a hostile
white population. His earliest associate was Mr. Johnston Lykins, then a
boy of 19, but later distinguished as a voluminous translator and author
of a system of Indian orthography. Two years later this school was
discontinued, and by treaty arrangement with the Government, which assumed
a large part of the expense, two regular missions were established, viz:
Carey (1822) for the Potawatomi, on St Joseph River near the present South
Bend, Ind., and Thomas (1823) among the Ottawa, on Grand River, Mich. Mr.
Lykins took charge among the Ottawa, to whom he was soon able to preach in
their own language, while Mr. McCoy continued with the Potawatomi. In
consequence of the inauguration of the Government plan for the removal of
the Indians to the west, both missions were abolished in 1830, the work
being resumed among the Indians in their new homes in Kansas. A small
mission established among the Chippewa at Sault Ste Marie, Mich., under
Rev. A. Bingham about 1824, continued a successful existence in charge of
its founder for about 25 years.
In 1831, while the removal of the Indians was still in
progress, the Shawnee Mission was established under Mr. Lykins about 10
miles south west from the present Kansas (City, among the Shawnee. In the
fall of 1833 Rev. Jotham Meeker, one of the former assistants in the east,
arrived with a printing press and types, with which it was proposed to
print for distribution among the various neighboring tribes educational
and devotional works in their own languages according to a new phonetic
system devised by Mr. Meeker. The work of translating and printing was
actively taken up, the first issue being a Delaware printer in 1834,
believed to he the first book printed in Kansas. Within the next few years
small volumes by various missionary workers were printed in the
Shawnee,
Delaware,
Potawatomi,
Ottawa,
Wea,
Kansa, Osage,
Iowa,
Oto,
Creek, and
Choctaw languages, besides a
small journal in the Shawnee language. Not alone the Baptists, but also
Methodists and Presbyterians working in the same field, availed themselves
of the services of the Shawnee mission press. In the meantime other
missions were established among the Delawares (Mr. Ira D. Blanchard,
1833), Oto (Rev. Moses Merrill, 18:13), Iowa (1834?), Ottawa (Rev. Jotham
Meeker, 1837), and Potawatomi (Mr. Robert Simerwell, 1837), besides
stations among the removed southern tribes of Indian Territory. (See
Southern States.) All of these
first named were within what is now Kansas excepting the Oto mission known
as Bellevue, which was at the mouth of Platte River, near the present
Omaha, Nebraska. At this station Mr. Merrill, who had previously worked
among the Chippewa, made such study of the language that within 3 years he
was able to preach to the Indians without an interpreter, besides
compiling a book of hymns and one or two other small works in Oto. He died
in 1840. The various missions remained in successful operation until about
1855, when, in consequence of the disturbed condition of affairs in
Kansas, they were discontinued. All of the tribes have since been removed
to Indian Territory.
The Episcopalians appear to have done no work in
the interior until about 1830, when they had a station in the vicinity of
Sault Ste Marie, Mich., among the Chippewa. In 1852 a mission was
established among the Chippewa of Gull lake, Mimi., by Rev. J. L. Breck,
and in 1856 at Leech lake by the same worker. In 1860, through the efforts
of Bishop H. B. Whipple, a mission was established among the Santee Sioux
at the lower Sioux agency, Redwood, Minn., in charge of Rev. Samuel D.
Hinman. The work was interrupted by the outbreak of 1862, but on the final
transfer of the Indians to Niobrara, Nebraska, in 1866, was resumed by Mr.
Hinman, who had kept in close touch with them during the period of
disturbance. A large mission house, known as St Mary's, was erected, which
later became the central station for the work of this denomination among
the Sioux and neighboring tribes. In 1870 St Paul's mission was
established at the Yankton Sioux
agency, South Dakota, by Rev. Joseph W. Cook, and in 1872 work was begun
at the Lower Brulé
Sioux agency, South Dakota, by Rev. W. J. Cleveland, and extended
later to the Upper Brule and Oglala
Sioux of Rosebud and Pine Ridge agencies, South Dakota. In the
meantime Rev. J. Owen Dorsey had begun to labor arming the
Ponca, also in South Dakota, in
1871. The work is still being actively carried on in the same field. All
of the Sioux missionaries named have rendered valuable service to
philology in the preparation of hymnals, prayer books, etc, in the native
language, together with a small mission journal 'Anpao' ('The Daybreak'),
issued for a number of years in the Yankton Sioux dialect. The ethnologic
researches of Mr. Dorsey place hint in the front. rank of investigators,
chief among his many contributions being his great monograph upon the
Dhegiha (Omaha and Ponca) language, published under direction of the
Bureau of American Ethnology, in whose service he spent the last years of
his life. In connection with the Episcopal mission may be noted the
lace-making industry for Indian women instituted by Miss Sibyl Carter,
chiefly among the Chippewa.
In 1847 the Lutherans, under the auspices of the
Evangelical Lutheran Missionary Society of Dresden, Germany, began work
among the Chippewa in lower Michigan, principally in the present Saginaw
and Gratiot Counties. The first mission school was opened in that year at
Frankenmuth, on Cass River, by Rev. A. Craemer. In 1847 he was joined by
Rev. Edward Baierlein, who, a year or two later, established a second
station at Bethany, on Pine River, in Gratiot County. Here Mr. Baierlein
compiled a small volume of reading lessons and Scripture stories,
published in 1852. In the next year he was recalled and we hear no more of
the mission, which was probably discontinued soon after.
In 1846 the first Mormon emigrants crossed the
plains from Illinois and, after a long and toilsome journey, settled at
Great Salt lake, Utah, where they have since transformed the desert into a
garden and built up a religious commonwealth which now exercises a
dominant influence over large portions of the Mountain states. Their
religious tradition regards the Indians as the descendants of the
so called Lost Ten Tribes of Israel, and while no statistics are available
it is known that their unsalaried missionaries from the first have given
special attention to the Indian tribes, with the result that many among
the Ute, Shoshoni, Paiute, and
others at least nominally belong to that denomination. In 1905–6 their
missionary effort was extended to the Cheyenne and other tribes of
Oklahoma.
One of the most recent mission enterprises undertaken
in the middle west is that of the Mennonites, a small but
influential denomination of German origin, professing the principles of
peace and nonresistance common to the Moravians and the Quakers. After a
short preliminary sojourn in 1877, regular work was begun among the
Arapaho at Darlington, Okla., by
Rev. Samuel D. Haury in 1880, the enterprise being aided by the active
cooperation of the Government and local Indian agent. In 1883 another
station was opened at Cantonment, about 70 miles north west, among the
Cheyenne, by Mr. Maury, while Rev. H. R. Voth took charge of the work at
Darlington and continued with it until transferred to a new field of duty
in Arizona about 10 years later. Two other stations were afterward
established among the same tribes, and provision was made for the
industrial training of Indian boys in schools and private homes in Kansas.
In 1890 the Cantonment mission received an important accession in the
arrival of Rev. Rudolph Petter and wife from Switzerland, who at once
devoted themselves to a systematic study of the Cheyenne language in the
tipi camps. The schools at both principal stations were in flourishing
condition until the withdrawal of Government aid compelled their
discontinuance in 1902. The Cantonment mission is still kept up, the
Cheyenne work being in charge of Mr. Petter and his wife, assisted by Miss
Bertha Kinsinger, while Rev. John A. Funk ministers to the Arapaho. There
is also a small station among the Cheyenne at Hammon, in charge of Rev. H.
J. Kliewer, and an other among the Northern Cheyenne at Busby, Mont., in
charge of Rev, and Mrs Gustav Linscheid since its establishment in 1904.
To Mr. Petter we are indebted for our principal knowledge of the Cheyenne
language, into which he has translated some parts of the Bible, a number
of hymns, and the 'Pilgrim's Progress,' besides being the author of a
reading book and an extended manuscript grammar and dictionary.
