F. A. was a Clallam, and one of the earlier school-boys. He had left the
reservation previous to 1874 and lived and worked with his friends at
Port Discovery. In April, 1875, he returned with three of his Port
Discovery friends on a visit in good style. He said that he had worked
steadily, earned hundreds of dollars, and he gave a brother of his in
school quite a sum; that he had taught a small Indian school; that he
was trying to have church services on the Sabbath; that the Indians at
Port Discovery were about to buy some land for one hundred and fifty
dollars; and that he had now come for advice, religious instruction,
school-books, and the like. The agent furnished him with school-books
and papers, and I gave him four written prayers, two Chinook-jargon
songs, and a Testament. This was only a week after Balch and some of the
Indians at Jamestown had visited us, who were making good progress. One
of the employees on seeing F. A. come, just after the other (Clallam)
Indians had visited us, said: “The agent is making his influence felt
far and wide for good.” But before F. A. left he wanted to be made head
chief of the tribe. The agent said that the present chief was doing
well, that he had no good reason for removing him, and that he would not
do so unless a majority of the tribe desired it, but that he would make
F. A. a policeman if he wished so to be. But he did not want this. He
said that after what he had told his friends before leaving home, he
would be ashamed to go back without his being made chief. His three
friends said also that they wished him to be chief. This showed that
something was wrong, and by the time all was ferreted out, it was found
that he had procured the horses for his party at Olympia at a high
price, which he had said the agent would pay, that his style was all put
on, and that in reality he was very worthless. It cost his friends more
than twenty dollars to pay for the use of the horses, which he had
afterward to work out, as he had no money. He tried to run away with one
of the girls not long afterward, and never said any thing more about his
school, church, and land. In 1883 he returned to the reservation to
live, but does not help the Indians much in regard to Christianity.
L. was from Port Ludlow, fifty-five miles away, a half-breed, and was in
school for a year or two. In the fall of 1879 he took hold well in
prayer-meetings, and wished to join the church; but he was too desirous
for this, it seemed to me, and answered questions too readily. The
church deliberated long about him, for several were not fully satisfied,
yet, on the whole, it was thought best to receive him, and it was done
in January, 1880. The next summer he went home to remain, but while in
most respects he has been steady and industrious, having a good
reputation about not drinking or gambling, yet he does not honor a
Christian profession.
M. was a half-breed school-boy, and was brought up in school. After the
first three school-boys began to think that they were Christians, he
joined them. After having been a year on probation, he was received into
the church in July, 1878, when he was thirteen or fourteen years old. He
did fairly until he left the reservation, three or four years afterward,
when he went to a white logging-camp where his brother and
brother-in-law were at work. Logging-camps are not noted for their
morals, and their influence on a young man can not be good in this
respect. He remained steadier than most whites around him, and his
instruction is not lost, but his Christian life is sadly dwarfed, if it
can be seen at all.
W. was among the first three of the school-boys to join the church,
after a full year’s probation, at the age of about thirteen. He stood
well for about two years, while in school, as a Christian, endured
considerable persecution, and was especially conscientious. But as he
grew older he went the wrong way. His father was a medicine-man, and
this probably had something to do with his life, for when he went out
into the outer Indian world he seemed to grow peculiarly hardened, so
that he seldom came to church or Sabbath-school, and did not treat
religion with the respect which the older Indians did who made no
pretensions to Christianity. For immoral conduct we were at last obliged
to suspend him.
As I look over the church-roll I find that nearly all the first Indian
members were from the school; then came the earlier uneducated Indians,
and then the later ones. It makes me sad when I see how many of the
first ones who have been educated have been suspended before they were
settled in life. Yet it must be said that those school children
prepared the way for the earlier uneducated Indians, and these likewise
prepared the way for the later ones. This second class watching the
failures of the first learned wisdom and stood firmer, and the last
class learning more wisdom by further observation have stood still
firmer.
Simon Peter was one of the better Indian boys of the Twanas, and was in
school about as soon as he was old enough. A younger brother, Andrew,
was one of the first three of the school-boys to join us in January,
1877, and, like the brothers in the Bible, where Andrew first found
Christ and then led his brother Simon to him, so now Andrew evidently
led Simon along until, in January, 1878, he joined the church. He
belonged to a good family and was well respected and I hoped much from
him in the future, but in this I was doomed to disappointment, for
consumption had marked him as its own, and in June, 1879, he died. Just
before he died he took his brother’s hand, said he hoped this brother
would not turn back from Christianity as some boys had done, and thus
held him till he died. A young man of the Puyallup tribe, who is now an
Indian preacher, told me that he owed his conversion to a letter he
received from Simon Peter. Thus, “being dead, he yet speaketh.”