address you, because I do believe that if the hedges which have been
builded in the garden of the Lord are ever taken away, it will be by
hearty, believing work for our Saviour. The history of the North
American Indians is a sad story of wrongs. You may begin far back in the
days of our Puritan fathers, when Christian men marched to the music of
a fife and drum, with the head of King Philip on a pole, and then after
prayer, decided that the sins of the father ought to be visited on the
children, and therefore sold his son as a slave to Bermuda; and you may
follow down to where the saintly Worcester, a Congregational missionary,
was tried, sentenced, and went to the Penitentiary in Georgia for
teaching Indians to read; and so on to where a Moravian church of
Christian Indians were cruelly tortured and murdered; and so on to the
last of our Indian wars, and it is a dark story of robbery and
wrongs--we have spent five hundred millions on Indian wars, and have
killed ten of our own people to every one killed of the Indians. Thank
God that by the efforts of Christian men, the heart of the Nation has
been touched, and to-day willing hands and hearts are laboring for their
Christian civilization.
When I went to my diocese thirty years ago, there were over twenty
thousand Indians in Minnesota. They had sunk to a depth of degradation
their heathen fathers had not known. Friends told me it was hopeless,
that they were a perishing race. I said if they are perishing, the more
reason to make haste to give to them the gospel. The picture was dark,
but not darker than that drawn by the pen of divine Inspiration in the
first chapter of Romans. I carried it where I have learned to take all
which troubles me, and at my blessed Saviour's feet I promised I would
never turn my back on the Indian whom God had placed at my door, and I
have tried to keep the vow.
I can tell you the story of Indian missions by relating one incident.
Some years ago, Rev. Lord Charles Hervey went with me to the Indian
country. We had delightful services. After the Holy Communion we were
sitting on the green-sward near a house. The head chief said, "Your
friend came from across the great water; does he know the Indian's
history?" I said "No." He said "I will tell him."
"Before the white man came, the forests and prairies were full of game,
the rivers and lakes were full of fish, the wild rice was Manidou gift
to the red man. Would you like to see one of these Indians?" There
stepped out on the porch an Indian man and woman dressed in furs,
ornamented with porcupine quills. "There," said the chief, "my people
were like those before the white man came."
"Shall I tell you what the white man did for us? He came and told us we
had no fire horses, no fire canoes, no houses. He said if we would sell
him our land, he would make us like white men. Shall I tell you what he
did? No, you had better see it." The door opened, and out stepped a
poor, degraded looking Indian, his face besmeared with mud, his blanket
in rags, no leggins, and by his side a poor, wretched looking woman in a
torn calico dress. The chief raised his hands and said, "Manido Manido,
is this an Indian?" The man bowed his head. "How came this?" The Indian
held up a black bottle and said, "This was the white man's gift." Some
of us bowed our heads in shame.
Said the chief, "If this were all, I would not have told you. Long years
ago a pale-faced man came to our country. He spoke kindly, and seemed to
want to help us, but our hearts were hard. We hated the white man and
would not listen. Every summer when the sun was so high, he came. We
always looked to see his tall form coming through the forest. One year I
said to my fellows, 'what does this man come for? He does not trade with
us, he never asks anything of us. Perhaps the Great Spirit sent him.' We
stopped to listen. Some of us have that story in our hearts. Shall I
tell you what it has done for us?" The door opened and out stepped a
young man--a clergyman--in a black frock coat, and by his side a woman
neatly dressed in a black alpaca dress. Said the chief, "There is only
one religion in the world which can lift a man out of the mire and tell
him to call God 'Father,' and that is the religion of Jesus Christ."
We have had many deferred hopes, and sometimes it has been dark as
midnight. After nearly three years of hard work, I had both of my Indian
missions destroyed, church and mission house burned, and our western
border for three hundred miles desolated by an Indian massacre, which
destroyed the fairest portion of our State, and left eight hundred of
our citizens sleeping in nameless graves. It was needed to teach us that
nations as well as individuals reap exactly what they sow. We began
again. Here and there some Indian would listen, and the gospel was the
same to him as to us. One day an Indian came to our missionary and said,
"I know this religion is true. The men who have walked in this new trail
are better and happier. But I have always been a warrior, and my hands
are full of blood. Could I be a Christian?" The missionary repeated the
story of God's love. To test the man he said, "May I cut your hair?" The
Indian wears his scalp lock for his enemy--when it is cut it is a sign
he will never go on the war-path again. The man said, "Yes, you may cut
it; I shall throw my old life away." It was cut. He started for home and
met some wild Indians who shouted with laughter, and with taunts said:
"Yesterday you were a warrior, to-day you are a squaw." It stung the man
to madness, and he rushed to his home and threw himself on the floor and
burst into tears. His wife was a Christian, and came and put her arms
about his neck and said: "Yesterday there was not a man in the world
who dared call you a coward. Can't you be as brave for Him who died for
you as you were to kill the Sioux?" He sprang to his feet and said, "I
can and I will." I have known many brave, fearless servants of Christ,
but I never knew one braver than this chief who is now in Paradise.
I wish I could take you to a Christian Indian's home. You might see
nothing but a plain log house, and you might wonder why the tears came
in my eyes as he said to me, "That is my daughter's room; the boys sleep
up stairs; this is for me and my wife." They are tears of joy, for I
knew them when they herded as swine, in a wigwam. It is the religion of
Christ which has brought respect for womanhood.
I want to take you far away in the forest to Red Lake. The head chief,
Mah-dwah-go-no-wind, was a remarkable man as a wild man, true, honest
and brave. He came and asked me to give him a missionary. I loved him
and we were warm friends. I said "I cannot give you a missionary for the
American Missionary Association has a missionary now in that field." The
chief came again and again to see me. He said: "I want your religion. If
you refuse I will ask the Roman Catholics." I wrote Rev. Dr. Strieby,
and told him the situation. I said "The field is in my diocese. I have
the right to send a missionary there, but ask your consent because I
will never be a party to present Christian divisions to heathen men."
After due deliberation, the Association consented. I am happy to tell
you that that old chief and nearly all the adults of his band are
faithful communicants. At my last visit, the chief came to me and said,
"My Father, since you were here, my old wife with whom I have lived
fifty years, has gone to sleep in the grave. I shall go to lie by her
side. I have heard that white Christians bless the place where they
sleep as belonging to God. Will you bless the place where my wife sleeps
and ask God to care for it until he calls his children out of the
grave?" We formed a procession of the Indians, the clergy and the old
chief and myself, and marched around the place singing in Ojibway,
"Jesus lover of my soul"; then I read appropriate scripture, made an
address and offered prayer, and asked blessing on this "acre of God."
After the service the chief said: "I thank you for telling me I have a
Saviour. I thank you for blessing the place where my wife sleeps. I have
your face on my heart. Good bye."
I could keep you longer than I ought telling you of the lights and
shadows of missionary life. The North American Indian is the noblest
type of a wild man on the earth. He recognizes a Great Spirit, he loves
his home, he is passionately devoted to his people, and believes in a
future life. The Ojibway language is a marvel. The verb has inflections
by thousands. If an Indian says "I love" and stops, you can tell by the
inflection of the verb whether he loves an animate or inanimate object,
a man or a woman. The nicest shade of meaning in St. Paul's Epistles
could be conveyed in Ojibway, and I have heard a missionary say, "A
classic Greek temple standing in the forest would not be more marvelous
than this wonderful language."
The Indians are heathen folk and will often come to the Christian life
fettered by old heathen ideas, and some may stumble and fall; they did
in St. Paul's time; but I can say that some of the noblest instances of
the power of religion I have ever known have been among these poor red
men. I can recall death-beds where an Indian looked up in my face and
said, "The Great Spirit has called me to go on the last journey. I am
not afraid to go, for Jesus is going with me, and I shall not be
lonesome on the road."
I am happy to tell you that the clouds are breaking. Thousands of this
poor race are rejoicing in the light of the Gospel. The heart of the
nation has been touched, and thousands are laboring for their salvation.
The Indians are not decreasing. It is due to the absence of internecine
wars, to their protection from dangerous contagious diseases, to better
medical care and a wiser administration. In the future, Indians must
have citizenship, but not until they are prepared for this precious
boon. The ballot cannot redeem humanity. I was asked by President
Cleveland what I thought of making the Indian a voter. I said, "It has
been tried." Under an old territorial law, any Indian who wore the
civilized dress could vote. I have heard of an election where a tribe of
Indians were put through a hickory shirt and pair of pants, and we know
how that election went. The Indian must have the protection of law. In
his wild state he has the "lex talionis." He becomes a Christian. A
drunken wild man kills his cow or insults his wife. He could punish the
brute, but we have taught him that he must not revenge his wrongs, and
so the Christian Indian is pitiably helpless. I can take you to an
Indian village where property and life are safe, where childhood,
womanhood, and old age are cared for, and it is due to the Gospel of
Christ.
While missionary work must be carried on in the native tongue, the
schools ought to teach the English language--if schools are conducted
only in the heathen tongue, you not only have no Christian ideas, but
when the child has learned to read, he has no books. He should be taught
in a language which opens to him the literature, the science and the
Christian teaching of the Christian world. The Gospel of Jesus Christ
will do for the Indian what it has done for others through all the
ages--give him home, manhood and freedom.
Lastly--we are living in eventful times. One hundred years ago the
people who spoke the English tongue were less numerous than some of the
Latin races of Europe. To-day one hundred and fifty millions of people
speak the English language. When we remember how God made the Greek
tongue the language of the world to prepare for the first preaching of
the Gospel of His Son, may we not believe he designs to use our English
tongue to prepare for the second coming of our Lord?
Brethren, we hear a great deal about Indian problems, Negro problems,
and problems which hinder all work for God and man. When General Sherman
and other officers of the army were sent out to investigate that awful
massacre in Colorado, they wrote in their report: "The Indian problem,
like all other human problems, can be solved by one sentence in an old
book--'Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.'"
* * * * *
LETTER FROM MISS COLLINS.
I went to Oahe to take two girls to school, and was gone eleven days. I
travelled nearly three hundred miles, driving my ponies myself, and last
Sabbath held the services for Spotted Bear in the morning, as Mr. Riggs
was absent; taught a class in the afternoon, and returned to Cheyenne
agency on Monday, to find that the Indian man who went with me had
returned home. I visited the Government school there, and witnessed
Major McChesney issue the annuities to the Indians; found a party of
Indians coming this way as far as the Itazipco camp on the Moreau; came
with them so far--about forty-five miles from here--and from there
Bessie, Jumbo (my ponies) and I came on alone. I drove the forty-five
miles in one day, arriving here at dark.
At Cheyenne a number of fine-looking, well-dressed young Indian men came
up to me and addressed me in English. I did not recognize some of them,
and they told me they went to school to me in '75, '76 and '77. I
remember them as dirty little long-haired, blanket Indians. It made my
heart strong to take these manly young men by the hand and to hear them
say, "You were my first teacher."
One night, when I was coming home, we got into camp, and the Indian tent
had on one side a man and his wife, his son and daughter, and his baby
twins. On the other side of the fire, another man, wife and child, four
dogs, two puppies, and back of the fire a man and his wife and two young
men and myself. When supper was ready, the dogs were put outside, the
children hushed, and the head man said, "Winona pray." They were all
strangers to me but two of them, so you may know I was surprised. I
prayed, and when I finished, all said, "Ho, ho, ho," that is, all the
men. I was again surprised at the universal consent or endorsement of
the petition. I had some rich experiences, many hardships new to me, but
I sowed seed which I doubt not will spring up. A half-breed Indian, Joe
Hodgkiss, and his wife, were very kind to me.
When I got in sight of the house here, men stood all along the road
waiting to shake hands with me. I should not have undertaken the trip,
but the girls were about fifteen years old, and if they were not in
school this winter they never would be. I could not see the good
material in them wasted. Mr. Reed could not go, and he did not want
Elias to leave his school to go. So I hired a team and went. I am glad
I did. God meant me to get into the homes and hearts of those strangers,
and I had no fear but that he planned it all.
* * * * *
GRAND VIEW, TENN.
A teacher writes: "Doubtless you have learned how full our school is. We
all feel that we _must_ do something in some way to have more buildings.
Several were obliged to go away last week, being unable to secure
boarding-places. The dormitory is more than full. There are sixteen boys
in four small rooms; three boys occupy one end of the old store house
near the railroad. This warm weather is certainly favorable for them.
Twenty new pupils came one day. Others are expected to-morrow. Where
shall we put them? Nine in the main room are now without seats; chairs
were placed in the aisle. In the primary room it is just as full,
forty-two being crowded into space intended for thirty-two."
Another: "We are blessed with a deep religious awakening, which has
reached many of the students."
* * * * *
BUREAU OF WOMAN'S WORK.
MISS D.E. EMERSON, SECRETARY.
In reading our list of Missionaries and Mission Stations, ladies will
recognize many familiar names of those in whom they have become
particularly interested through contributions to the work.
Maine ladies will find their four teachers for whose support they have
become responsible.
Vermont ladies will look at the McIntosh School with a sense of
proprietorship, and rejoice in its enlargement.
Massachusetts and Rhode Island may find their four teachers sustained by
the Woman's Home Missionary Association, and many Massachusetts ladies
who have been especially interested in the school at Tougaloo may
rejoice to be connected with such an institution.
Connecticut ladies have done much for their school at Thomasville, Ga.,
although not as largely through their State Union. This school was begun
through the liberality of a Connecticut lady, and for its continuance
and development this Association depends upon the Bureau of Woman's
Work. Contributions from all sources are solicited.
The New York Union abides by its principles to increase its contribution
each year, and in addition to the support of three missionaries, pledges
six hundred dollars to the general work.
The Ohio Union comes forward also with an appropriation to the general
work, additional to the support of four missionaries.
The Illinois Union continues its support to two missionaries, and hopes
for a third during the year.
If the ladies of Michigan will look at the Athens, Ala., Trinity School
in our list, they will see their own State represented there, an
incentive, we trust, to special effort toward the sum recommended by the
officers of their Union.
The ladies of Minnesota have the opportunity to aid the school at
Jonesboro, Tennessee, and if they carry out the recommendation of their
Minnesota Missionary Society, they will this year sustain in full the
two lady teachers.
The other Missionary Unions represented in our list have shown especial
interest, and nearly all have made such pledge of help as will soon
secure them a special representative in the field.
A Children's Missionary is sustained by ladies and children, and special
work is also assigned to Christian Endeavor Societies.
* * * * *
Thus it will be seen that the long list of Ladies' Societies shown each
month as co-operating with us, is not merely in name. We really have
their help, and a careful reading of our list of missionaries will make
clear that we not only need their help, but can give them much more to
do.
A lady recently brought to us five hundred dollars as the result of her
personal effort, and when we expressed to her our thanks she exclaimed,
"Don't say a word; it is _my_ work as well as yours." Let us be workers
together.
In sending your money to your State officers, do not fail to designate
it as for the _American Missionary Association_.
* * * * *
The Way One Mission Band in Iowa raised its money--"Our society was
organized in 1888, and the first year we sent twenty dollars for Beach
Institute. We have about twenty members, from five to thirteen years of
age. We meet once a month through the summer, but close for the winter.
Last summer I gave to all over ten years of age a nickel, and those
under ten a penny to see how much they could gain. These are a few of
the reports. One little boy with his nickel bought a sitting of eggs
from which he raised eleven chickens, which he sold for two dollars and
twenty cents. Another raised nine chickens which he sold for two
dollars. Another bought a little turkey, which he sold at Thanksgiving
for a dollar and ten cents. Another with a penny bought a squash vine,
from which he sold five large squashes for fifty-five cents. Another
bought a row of potatoes for which he received fifty cents, and so the
pennies multiplied. I gave mite-boxes to all in the spring, and so at
the end of the year we are able again to send you the neat little sum of
twenty-five dollars."
* * * * *
WOMAN'S STATE ORGANIZATIONS.
CO-OPERATING WITH THE AMERICAN MISSIONARY ASSOCIATION.
MAINE.
WOMAN'S AID TO A.M.A.
Chairman of Committee--Mrs. C.A. Woodbury, Woodfords, Me.
VERMONT.
WOMAN'S HOME MISSIONARY UNION.
President--Mrs. A.B. Swift, 167 King St., Burlington.
Secretary--Mrs. E.C. Osgood, 14 First Ave., Montpelier.
Treasurer--Mrs. Wm. P. Fairbanks, St. Johnsbury.
MASSACHUSETTS AND RHODE ISLAND.
[1]WOMAN'S HOME MISSIONARY ASSOCIATION.
President--Mrs. Alice Freeman Palmer, Cambridge, Mass.
Secretary--Miss Nathalie Lord, 32 Congregational House, Boston.
Treasurer--Miss Ella A. Leland, 32 Congregational House, Boston.
[Footnote 1: For the purpose of exact information, we note that while
the W.H.M.A. appears in this list as a State body for Mass. and R.I., it
has certain auxiliaries elsewhere.]
CONNECTICUT.
WOMAN'S HOME MISSIONARY UNION.
President--Mrs. Francis B. Cooley, Hartford.
Secretary--Mrs. S.M. Hotchkiss, 171 Capitol Ave., Hartford.
Treasurer--Mrs. W.W. Jacobs, 19 Spring St., Hartford.
NEW YORK.
WOMAN'S HOME MISSIONARY UNION.
President--Mrs. Wm. Kincaid, 483 Greene Ave., Brooklyn.
Secretary--Mrs. Wm. Spalding, 6 Salmon Block, Syracuse.
Treasurer--Mrs. W.W. Jacobs, 19 Spring St., Hartford.
OHIO.
WOMAN'S HOME MISSIONARY UNION.
President--Mrs. J.G.W. Cowles, 417 Sibley St, Cleveland.
Secretary--Mrs. Flora K. Regal, Oberlin.
Treasurer--Mrs. F.L. Fairchild, Box 932, Mt. Vernon, Ohio.
INDIANA.
WOMAN'S HOME MISSIONARY UNION.
President--Mrs. C.B. Safford, Elkhart.
Secretary--W.E. Mossman, Fort Wayne.
Treasurer--Mrs. C. Evans, Indianapolis.
ILLINOIS.
WOMAN'S HOME MISSIONARY UNION.
President--Mrs. B.F. Leavitt, 409 Orchard St, Chicago.
Secretary--C.H. Taintor, 151 Washington St. Chicago.
Treasurer--Mrs. C.E. Maltby, Champaign.
IOWA.
WOMAN'S HOME MISSIONARY UNION.
President--Mrs. T.O. Douglass, Grinnell.
Secretary--Miss Ella E. Marsh, Box 232, Grinnell.
Treasurer--Mrs. M.J. Nichoson, 1513 Main St., Dubuque.
MICHIGAN.
WOMAN'S HOME MISSIONARY UNION.
President--Mrs. George M. Lane, 47 Miami Ave., Detroit.
Secretary--Mrs. Leroy Warren, Lansing.
Treasurer--Mrs. E.F. Grabill, Greenville.
WISCONSIN.
WOMAN'S HOME MISSIONARY UNION.
President--Mrs. H.A. Miner, Madison.
Secretary--Mrs. C. Matter, Brodhead.
Treasurer--Mrs. C.C. Keeler, Beloit.
MINNESOTA.
WOMAN'S HOME MISSIONARY SOCIETY.
President--Mrs. E.S. Williams, Box 464, Minneapolis.
Secretary--Miss Gertude A. Keith, 1350, Nicollet Ave., Minneapolis.
Treasurer--Mrs. M.W. Skinner, Northfield.
NORTH DAKOTA.
WOMAN'S HOME MISSIONARY SOCIETY.
President--Mrs. A.J. Pike, Dwight.
Secretary--Mrs. Silas Daggett, Harwood.
Treasurer--Mrs. J.M. Fisher, Fargo.
SOUTH DAKOTA.
WOMAN'S HOME MISSIONARY UNION.
President--Mrs. A.H. Robbins, Bowdle.
Secretary--Mrs. T.M. Jeffris, Huron.
Treasurer--Mrs. S.E. Fifield, Lake Preston.
NEBRASKA.
WOMAN'S HOME MISSIONARY UNION.
President--Mrs. T.H. Leavitt, 1216 H. St., Lincoln.
Secretary--Mrs. L.F. Berry, 724 No. Broad St., Fremont.
Treasurer--Mrs. D.E. Perry, Crete.
MISSOURI.
WOMAN'S HOME MISSIONARY UNION.
President--Mrs. C.L. Goodell, 3006 Pine St., St. Louis.
Secretary--Mrs. E.P. Bronson, 3100 Chestnut St., St. Louis.
Treasurer--Mrs. A.E. Cook, 4145 Bell Ave., St. Louis.
KANSAS.
WOMAN'S HOME MISSIONARY SOCIETY.
President--Mrs. F.J. Storrs, Topeka.
Secretary--Mrs. George L. Epps, Topeka.
Treasurer--Mrs. J.G. Dougherty, Ottawa.
COLORADO AND WYOMING.
WOMAN'S HOME MISSIONARY UNION.
President--Mrs. J.W. Pickett, White Water, Colorado.
Secretary--Miss Mary L. Martin, 106 Platte Ave., Colorado Springs,
Colorado.
Treasurer--Mrs. S.A. Sawyer, Boulder, Colorado.
Treasurer--Mrs. W.L. Whipple, Cheyenne, Wyoming.
SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA.
WOMAN'S HOME MISSIONARY UNION.
President--Mrs. Elijah Cash, 937 Temple St., Los Angeles.
Secretary--Mrs. H.K.W. Bent, Box 426, Pasadena.
Treasurer--Mrs. H.W. Mills, So. Olive St., Los Angeles.
CALIFORNIA.
WOMAN'S HOME MISSIONARY SOCIETY.
President--Mrs. H.L. Merritt, 686 34th St., Oakland.
Secretary--Miss Grace E. Barnard, 677 21st. St., Oakland.
Treasurer--Mrs. J.M. Havens, 1339 Harrison St., Oakland.
LOUISIANA.
WOMAN'S MISSIONARY UNION.
President--Mrs. R.D. Hitchcock, New Orleans.
Secretary--Miss Jennie Fyfe, 490 Canal St., New Orleans.
Treasurer--Mrs. C.S. Shattuck, Hammond.
MISSISSIPPI.
WOMAN'S MISSIONARY UNION.
President--Mrs. A.F. Whiting, Tougaloo.
Secretary--Miss Sarah J. Humphrey, Tougaloo.
Treasurer--Miss S.L. Emerson, Tougaloo.
ALABAMA.
WOMAN'S MISSIONARY UNION.
President--Mrs. H.W. Andrews, Talladega.
Secretary--Miss S.S. Evans, 2612 Fifth Ave., Birmingham.
Treasurer--Mrs. E.J. Ponney, Selma.
FLORIDA.
WOMAN'S HOME MISSIONARY UNION.
President--Mrs. S.P. Gale, Jacksonville.
Secretary--Mrs. Nathan Barrows, Winter Park.
Treasurer--Mrs. L.C. Partridge, Longwood.
TENNESSEE AND ARKANSAS.