The Washo have been exposed to Christianity from two main sources.
Missionary groups have maintained representatives from time to time at one
or another of the Washo colonies. A church dominates the appallingly
dreary landscape of Dresslerville. Weather and neglect have caused the
building to deteriorate. Permanent missionizing efforts apparently have
been abandoned. One church group carries on a summer Bible class for
children and sewing classes for women. Funerals are generally conducted by
a Christian minister, but this appears to be a sop to white opinion rather
than the result of any real desire on the part of the Washo to become
Christians. At best they seem to have simply incorporated Christian
services as another source of power. It is less than surprising that a
people whose main religious emphasis seems to have been on curing or
subsistence ritual should have found white doctors useful but white
ministers a rather mysterious and superfluous bit of white culture.
The other main source of Christian ideas has been the peyote cult, which
includes a roughly Christian version of God and Christ visualized as the
father and the brother. The cross, pictures of Christ, and references to
Jesus play a role in peyote ceremonialism. Other investigators (d’Azevedo
and Merriam 1951; Stewart 1944) have noted a shift toward Indian tradition
in the Washo peyote cult, with an attending reduction of Christian ideas.
The attitude of one Washo woman sums the question up quite well: “I think
them peyote people [she was not a peyotist but had encouraged her son to
attend a meeting to cure a back injury] believe more what they doing than
the white preacher.” Her own religion is summed up in her actions. In
addition to sending her son to peyote meetings, she had taken her
granddaughter to the shaman and is a regular attendant at the church
sewing school. She was also the person who waited until the minister left
the church to repeat ancient funeral prayers.