[Illustration: APRIL, 1883.
VOL. XXXVII.
NO. 4.
The American Missionary]
CONTENTS
PAGE.
EDITORIAL.
THIS NUMBER—FINANCIAL 97
PARAGRAPHS 98
DEATH OF MRS. G. S. POPE—PARAGRAPHS 99
COLOR PREJUDICE—BENEFACTIONS 100
GENERAL NOTES—AFRICA—THE CHINESE 101
THE INDIANS.
WORK TRANSFERRED BY THE AM. BOARD 102
SUGGESTIONS OF ENLARGEMENT 103
SANTEE NORMAL TRAINING SCHOOL (cut) 104
ASPECTS OF THE INDIAN PROBLEM, BY HON. CARL SCHURZ 105
WORK AT CARLISLE, BY CAPT. R. H. PRATT 108
MANDAN HUT, DAKOTA (cut) 111
HISTORY AND OUTLOOK OF THE INDIAN WORK TRANSFERRED
TO THE A. M. A., PROF. ALFRED L. RIGGS 111
SISSETON GIRLS, WITH TEACHER (cut) 114
INDIAN INDUSTRIES AT HAMPTON, GEN. S. C. ARMSTRONG 115
REVIVAL WORK AMONG INDIANS AT HAMPTON, MISS ISABEL
B. EUSTIS 117
CHILDREN’S PAGE.
INDIAN HUT (cut) 118
THE LITTLE INDIAN OF CLEAR LAKE 118
RECEIPTS 120
AIM AND WORK—STATISTICS—WANTS 123
* * * * *
NEW YORK.
PUBLISHED BY THE AMERICAN MISSIONARY ASSOCIATION,
Rooms, 56 Reade Street.
* * * * *
Price 50 Cents a Year, in Advance.
Entered at the Post-Office at New York, N.Y.,
as second-class matter.
THE AMERICAN MISSIONARY ASSOCIATION.
* * * * *
PRESIDENT.
HON. WM. B. WASHBURN, LL.D., Mass.
CORRESPONDING SECRETARY.
Rev. M. E. STRIEBY, D.D., _56 Reade Street, N.Y._
TREASURER.
H. W. HUBBARD, Esq., _56 Reade Street, N.Y._
AUDITORS.
M. F. READING.
WM. A. NASH.
EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE.
JOHN H. WASHBURN, Chairman; A. P. FOSTER, Secretary; LYMAN
ABBOTT, ALONZO S. BALL, A. S. BARNES, C. T. CHRISTENSEN, FRANKLIN
FAIRBANKS, CLINTON B. FISK, S. B. HALLIDAY, SAMUEL HOLMES, CHARLES
A. HULL, _Samuel S. Marples_, CHARLES L. MEAD, WM. H. WARD, A. L.
WILLISTON.
DISTRICT SECRETARIES
Rev. C. L. WOODWORTH, _Boston_.
Rev. G. D. PIKE, D.D., _New York_.
Rev. JAMES POWELL, _Chicago_.
COMMUNICATIONS
relating to the work of the Association may be addressed to the
Corresponding Secretary; those relating to the collecting fields,
to the District Secretaries; letters for the Editor of the
“American Missionary,” to Rev. G. D. Pike, D.D., at the New York
Office.
DONATIONS AND SUBSCRIPTIONS
may be sent to H. W. Hubbard, Treasurer, 56 Reade Street, New York,
or, when more convenient, to either of the Branch Offices, 21
Congregational House, Boston, Mass., or 112 West Washington Street,
Chicago, Ill. A payment of thirty dollars at one time constitutes a
Life Member.
FORM OF A BEQUEST.
“I BEQUEATH to my executor (or executors) the sum of —— dollars, in
trust, to pay the same in —— days after my decease to the person
who, when the same is payable, shall act as Treasurer of the
‘American Missionary Association’ of New York City, to be applied,
under the direction of the Executive Committee of the Association,
to its charitable uses and purposes.” The Will should be attested
by three witnesses.
* * * * *
“I THINK I’D LIKE TEN THOUSAND DOLLARS WHEN I’M SIXTY.”
The gentleman who made the above remark carries a $10,000 endowment
policy in the STATE MUTUAL LIFE ASSURANCE COMPANY, of Worcester,
Mass. That sum will be paid to _him_ at “sixty,” or to his family
if he dies before reaching that age.
Thousands of men now living will _need_ $10,000 when they become
“sixty”—and their families will need it should they die before
attaining that age. Both of these objects can be secured by the
payment of a small sum each year to
THE STATE MUTUAL LIFE ASSURANCE CO., OF WORCESTER, MASS.,
Which is one of the OLDEST, STRONGEST and BEST companies in the
United States.
This Company guarantees a CASH-SURRENDER value of every policy it
issues after the second annual payment.
EXAMPLE.
1. An ordinary life policy, issued at the age of 30 for $10,000,
annual premium $226.30. (The second and all subsequent premiums
will be reduced by dividends.) After ten annual premiums have been
paid, the guaranteed cash-surrender value is $909.80; the paid-up
value $2,387.70, or more than gross premiums paid. The _net_ cost
for the past ten years of all similar policies has been $1,692.77,
which reduced the cost of the insurance to $7.83 per $1,000 for
each year.
This Company never disputes, or resists, an honest claim. It has
been a party to only four suits in thirty-eight years—and in _no
case_ have the courts held a claim, resisted by the company, _to be
valid_.
For full explanations, please call on or address
C. W. ANDERSON, General Agent,
145 BROADWAY, NEW YORK.
THE
AMERICAN MISSIONARY.
* * * * *
Vol. XXXVII. APRIL, 1883. No. 4.
* * * * *
AMERICAN MISSIONARY ASSOCIATION.
* * * * *
We devote the greater part of this number of the MISSIONARY to the
Indian problem. Communications will be found from Capt. Pratt,
Gen. Armstrong, Hon. Carl Schurz and Prof. Riggs. These gentlemen
have made the condition of the Indian a study for some years, and,
by experience in public service, in the army, and by educational
and religious endeavors, have had rare opportunities to test
their theories and principles by practical efforts in behalf of
the Indians. We know of no men more competent to speak on the
subject or more worthy of the confidence of the public. Statistics
relating to our Indian work, including that recently transferred
to us by the American Board, are given. As we now are charged with
the entire work done by the Congregationalists for the American
aborigines, we trust we shall have the prayers and help needful for
doing it efficiently.
* * * * *
FINANCIAL.
Our _receipts_ show a falling off. Five months of the fiscal year
are ended, and the receipts from donations are $20,774.39 less
than for the corresponding months of last year; from legacies
only $17,471.44 more. The decrease is in the contributions of
living donors, and upon these rather than upon legacies, which
are fluctuating and uncertain, must the Association rely for its
regular support. Its _work_ was never more successful or needed.
The kind of schools and churches it establishes, and the preachers
and teachers it sends forth, are becoming more fully appreciated.
We are urgently invited to enter new and unusually promising
openings for an enlarged church work. The valuable service rendered
by our increased corps of lady missionaries makes a strong demand
for large additions to their number. The Indian work received by
the Association from the American Board will add about $20,000
to the expenditures of the year, without the enlargement which
it so greatly needs. The Chinese work makes a strong appeal for
additional accommodations for the increasing number of pupils in
the schools.
Without an increase of receipts, or the creation of a debt,
the Association cannot enlarge its work, or even sustain it in
its present condition. Our Executive Committee feel themselves
pledged against a debt by their promises to the public and by
their own deep convictions of duty. But they confidently believe
that the conscientious donors who have stood by the Association
so faithfully in the past will promptly render such efficient
assistance as will not only save it from debt or curtailment, but
will authorize enlargement.
* * * * *
MUST HAVES.
The following “must haves” sent us in a private letter from
President Ware, of Atlanta, illustrate the urgency of the appeals
that constantly come to us from our different workers South.
Mr. Ware says: “We must have buildings; we must have endowments
for running expenses; we must or go to the wall; we must have
building for grade B; for model school building, $8,000; we must
have cottage in girls’ lot for housekeeping instruction, $5,000;
we must have new hall for girls, $25,000, that will give room for
100 girls; we must have shop for industries, carpenter, etc., and
endowment for support of man in that department, about $50,000 for
both;” a batch, it will be seen, of $88,000, with no estimate of
the amount needed for general endowment. We believe that it has
been found so far by those who have put their money into Atlanta
University that it has yielded “some thirty, some sixty, and some
an hundred fold.” The stock is not all taken. We invite investors
to examine the “points” in this venture, and trust that the merits
of the security will warrant a speedy absorption of the entire
amount called for.
* * * * *
We are cheered by many kind words relating to the AMERICAN
MISSIONARY, and believe that those interested in the nation’s
welfare, and especially in the redemption of the South, find in
it much to encourage them to hope and to give in behalf of the
people for whom we labor. Nothing, however, gives more evidence
of appreciation than the steady response to our appeals for paid
subscriptions. So far this year these have been very gratifying.
The price is fifty cents, and we hope there will be no abatement
of interest on the part of our friends in helping us place the
magazine on a paying basis.
* * * * *
In the list of the teachers at Hampton, as reported in the February
_Missionary_, the name of Miss Waldron should have been put as Miss
M. M. Waldron, M.D., School Physician.
* * * * *
DEATH OF MRS. G. S. POPE.
After an illness of ten days, terminating in malarial pneumonia,
Mrs. Pope died Feb. 2, at Tougaloo University, Tougaloo, Miss. For
the past fifteen years she had been engaged in missionary work
under the A. M. A., laboring in Montgomery, Louisville, Selma,
Talladega and Tougaloo. Mrs. Pope brought into her work rare
qualities of mind and heart. Her good judgment, her readiness in
emergencies and her kindly interest in every one was an inspiration
to all. Her death will be sorely felt, not only by her husband and
two little boys, but by the large corps of workers, and the pupils
with whom she has been associated for so many years.
* * * * *
The conventions held in Connecticut by the Congregational
benevolent societies during February were well attended. One
hundred and eleven churches were invited and eighty-eight
represented. The meetings for April will be held in the following
order: Tuesday, the 3d, Thomaston, morning and afternoon;
Wednesday, the 4th, Waterbury, 2d church, morning and afternoon;
Thursday, the 5th, New Britain, afternoon and evening; Tuesday,
the 10th, New Haven, Davenport Church, afternoon and evening;
Wednesday, the 11th, Rockville, 1st church, morning and afternoon;
Thursday, the 12th, Putnam, morning and afternoon; Tuesday,
the 17th, Norfolk, morning and afternoon; Wednesday, the 18th,
Torrington, 3d church, morning and afternoon; Thursday, the
19th, West Winsted, morning and afternoon; Tuesday, the 24th,
Danielsonville, morning and afternoon; Wednesday, the 25th,
Norwich, 2d church, morning and afternoon; Thursday, the 26th, New
London, 1st church, morning and afternoon; Friday, the 27th, New
Haven, Fair Haven, 1st church, morning and afternoon.
* * * * *
“SERMONS AND SPEECHES,” by Rev. Atticus G. Haygood, D.D., is the
title of a neat volume issued by the Southern Methodist Publishing
House, Nashville. It contains 428 pages, and is offered at the low
price of $1.25. The sermon likely to attract the most attention is
on “The New South, Gratitude, Amendment, Hope.” It was preached
on Thanksgiving Day, 1880, and circulated extensively in pamphlet
form. “A Christian Citizen,” another sermon, is perhaps of equal
merit, and especially pertinent to the condition of affairs South.
The addresses of special interest to the general reader relate
to “The Negro—A Citizen” and “The New South from a Southern
Standpoint.” These addresses are comprehensive, catholic and kindly
in spirit. Dr. Haygood convinces his readers of his sincerity, and
charms them by the vigor and freshness of his style. Every word he
utters indicates his purpose to do good. The circulation of these
sermons and speeches will do much to create better feeling between
well-disposed people North and South. We wish the book the success
it merits.
* * * * *
Pursuant to the action taken at our last Annual Meeting relating
to a petition requesting a report on the policy of the Association
in regard to race or color prejudice in the support of schools or
churches, our Executive Committee, to whom the matter was referred,
have passed the following minutes.
I. That in accordance with the New Testament doctrine upon which
the Association was founded, and by which it has from the beginning
been governed, that God has made of one blood all the nations of
men, we reiterate the rule, which we believe that fidelity to
Christ requires, that all our churches and schools shall open their
doors impartially to persons of every class, race and color.
II. That in obedience to the same New Testament doctrine, we shall
require that all churches aided by us shall unite with neighboring
churches of the same faith and order in Christian fellowship in
the same conferences or associations, and in other usual means of
fraternity and fellowship, making no distinctions on account of
race or color.
III. That this Association will not enter upon any new church work
in any city or town where the American Home Missionary Society has
already established a church work, without previous conference with
the officers of its sister Society.
Minutes similar in purport to the above have been passed by the
Home Missionary Society.
* * * * *
BENEFACTIONS.
Mr. William Backnell, of Philadelphia, has given $60,000 to the
University of Lewisburg, Pa., for endowment purposes.
Westminster College is to receive $2,000 from the estate of Miss
Jane A. Thompson, of Missouri.
The late Mr. Samuel Willets gave $100,000 to Swarthmore College, a
Quaker institution, near Philadelphia.
Dartmouth College is to receive $50,000 from the estate of the late
George T. Wilson, of Providence, R.I.
It is reported that Wm. H. Vanderbilt has recently given $100,000
to Vanderbilt University, at Nashville, Tenn.
Mrs. Mary Young has given $500,000 to Fall River, Mass., for the
establishment of a school of high rank. The gift is made in memory
of an only son.
Washburn College received a Christmas gift of $1,000 from Mrs.
Emily G. Williston, of East Hampton, Mass., and a New Year’s
offering of $1,000 from Hon. Wm. Hyde, of Ware, Mass.
By the will of the late Wm. E. Dodge, of New York, the Syrian
Protestant College is to receive $20,000; Lincoln University,
$10,000; Howard University, Atlanta University and Hampton
Institute, $5,000 each.
Miss Baxter has given $50,000 to provide a laboratory for a college
at Dundee, Scotland, which was founded by herself and her cousin,
Dr. Baxter, some years ago, at an expense of $750,000.
Mrs. Adeline Smith, of Oak Park, Ill., recently gave $11,000 for
the founding of a Philander Smith chair in the University of Little
Rock, Ark., to be a perpetual memorial of her husband, who died
about a year ago.
_Permanent endowments are needed in order that the institutions of
the American Missionary Association may achieve that larger success
which is rightly expected of them. Every consideration of the past,
of the present and of the future, enforces the demand that these
endowments should be provided at once._
* * * * *
GENERAL NOTES.
AFRICA.
—The German Reichstag has voted an appropriation of one million
marks to defray the expenses of an expedition now being fitted out
for the exploration of Central Africa.
—The Church Missionary Society have received tidings from their
Uganda Mission at Mtesa’s capital that five young men have been
baptized, the first fruits of the mission.
—Notwithstanding the presence of General Matthews with the troops
of the Sultan of Zanzibar, a brisk trade in slaves is going on at
Mombassa. General Matthews is now fighting with a rebel chieftain
who has a settlement not far from Mombassa where he receives
runaway slaves.
—The Church Missionary Society of England is about to begin
missionary operations in Egypt. It is to be under the care of Rev.
F. A. Klein, an able Arabic scholar. The same society had a station
at Cairo in the beginning of this century, but abandoned it in 1824.
—The English Baptists have established a station at Stanley Pool.
The new missionary ship “Peace” is now ready to be shipped to the
Congo. Mr. Stanley is about to publish an account of the results of
his explorations. The French government has recently appropriated
about $300,000 to defray the expenses of De Brassa’s expedition.
—The famous work of Miss Whately, daughter of Archbishop Whately,
who for years carried on her work at Cairo, at her own charges,
is a very interesting branch of Egyptian missions. The Khedive
presented Miss Whately with land for her buildings, and her Cairo
schools number 300 boys and 200 girls, more than two-thirds of the
girls and half the boys being Moslems. She has a branch school of
ninety pupils at Damietta.
THE CHINESE.
—There are now between three and four hundred Christian schools in
China, containing over six thousand pupils.
—It is pointed out as a significant fact that the missions
in Japan, which have been so prosperous, were started by a
contribution sent by Christian converts of the Hawaiian Islands.
—There are in New York City and vicinity 500 Chinese laundries,
managed by about 2,000 Chinamen. No foreigners are more
industrious, more peaceable, or more anxious to conform to the laws
of the land. None are so reliable in their business arrangements or
so desirous for instruction in mission schools.
—There are at present in connection with Protestant missions in
China more than 600 stations and out stations; more than 300
organized churches, a goodly number of them self-supporting, and
some 20,000 communicants.
* * * * *
THE INDIANS.
* * * * *
WORK TRANSFERRED BY THE AMERICAN BOARD.
By vote of the Prudential Committee of the American Board, the
entire Dakota Mission was transferred to the American Missionary
Association, to take effect Jan. 1, 1883. We give the statistics
of the Mission as published in the last Annual Report of the
Board. But some of the churches in the list (especially those at
the Sisseton Agency) are reported as having transferred themselves
to the Presbyterian Board of Home Missions, prior to Jan. 1,
1883. When the Prudential Committee of the American Board and the
officers of the Presbyterian Board of Home Missions have decided
the questions on this subject, which seem to be at issue between
them, we will correct the list accordingly, if any change shall be
found necessary.
Fort Berthold (Dakota Territory).—Chas. L. Hall, _Missionary_; Miss
Eda L. Ward, Miss Sophronia B. Pike, _Assistant Missionaries_. One
church at Devil’s Lake, sixteen members.
Fort Sully (Dakota Territory). Peoria Bottom.—Thomas L. Riggs,
_Missionary_; Miss Mary C. Collins, Miss Louisa M. Irvine,
_Assistant Missionaries_. One church, twenty-four members.
Cheyenne River.—Isaac Renville, Stephen Yellow Hawk, David Lee,
_Native Pastors_; Mrs. Renville, Samuel Hopkins, Mrs. Hopkins, Mrs.
Elizabeth Winyan, _Native Teachers_.
Santee Agency (Nebraska).—Alfred L. Riggs, _Missionary_; James C.
Robbins, Joseph H. Steer, Mrs. Mary B. Riggs, Mrs. Maria L. Steer,
Miss Martha M. Paddock, Miss Susan Webb, Miss Sarah L. Voorhees,
Miss Harriet B. Ilsley, _Assistant Missionaries_; Miss Harriet A.
Brown, Miss Lizzie Glisan, Miss ——, _Teachers_; Artemas Ehnamini,
_Native Pastor_; Eli Abraham. _Native Teacher_; John Cetanmani,
Dennis Mazaadidi, James Brown, James Redwing, _Catechists_. One
church, one hundred and seventy members.
Sisseton Agency (Dakota Territory).—Stephen R. Riggs, LL.D.,
_Missionary_; W. K. Morris, Mrs. Annie B. Riggs, Mrs. Martha Riggs
Morris, _Assistant Missionaries_; Miss Thompson, Mrs. John B.
Renville, _Teachers_; John B. Renville, Daniel Renville, Louis
Mazawakinyanna, David Greycloud, Joseph Iron Door, Charles R.
Crawford, _Native Pastors_. Six churches, four hundred and ten
members.
4 stations; 9 out-stations; 9 churches; 4 missionaries; 3 American
male assistant missionaries; 12 female assistant missionaries; 5
other teachers; 10 native pastors; 9 native teachers and catechists.
We add the statistics of the Indian work as sustained by the
Association during the past year.
S’Kokomish Agency (Washington Territory).—Rev. Myron Eells,
_Missionary_.
Spokan Falls (Washington Territory).—Rev. H. T. Cowley,
_Missionary_.
Leech Lake Agency (Minnesota).—Rev. S. G. Wright, _Teacher_.
Hampton (Virginia).—Miss Isabel B. Eustis, _Teacher_; and
appropriation in aid of Indian students.
* * * * *
SUGGESTIONS OF ENLARGEMENT.
We believe that those who read in this number of the Missionary the
communications from Capt. Pratt, Gen. Armstrong and Prof. Riggs
may ask with good reason, Why not develop at Santee an industrial
school for the Indians, of like character to those at Hampton
and Carlisle? Already fair beginnings have been made. As will be
seen by a cut published herewith, we have good grounds, several
attractive and suitable buildings, with other improvements. By
an examination of a map with reference to the location of the
different Indian tribes, it will be found that Santee is accessible
to seven tribes, numbering over twenty thousand souls. The railroad
systems of the vicinity are such that no great difficulty or
expense would be experienced in bringing students together. The
tribes speaking the Dakota language number more than those speaking
any other Indian dialect on the continent. The churches already
established among them, with a membership of 847, are in full
sympathy with the Santee school. No difficulty is likely to come
from a lack of students, as already the institution has during the
present year been obliged to turn them away for want of room.
[Illustration: SANTEE NORMAL TRAINING SCHOOL.]
Mr. Thomas L. Riggs, who collected a company of Indian youth for
Gen. Armstrong’s school last autumn, reports that he could have
secured several times as many, if he had been seeking students for
Santee. The variety of industries that it would be desirable to
promote would be limited only by the wants of the people in a new
country. Carpentering, blacksmithing, shoemaking, broommaking and
basketmaking, are trades that well might receive early attention.
It would be no part of the plan to interfere with the religious or
normal school work by the more general introduction of industrial
training. We believe that Christian nurture is promoted rather
than retarded by attention to industrial pursuits among students,
when wise oversight is given for the sake of useful achievements.
The plan of locating the students in cottages, so that each home
may have a quiet and healthful influence upon the untutored youth
from wigwam life, is already inaugurated, and can be extended to
meet all emergencies. The land at the agency is controlled by the
government, but no difficulty is anticipated in securing all that
may be needed for the use of the school. Scholarships may also be
had in numbers and amount sufficient to warrant preparations on a
large scale for a first grade normal and industrial institute. It
is the purpose of this Association to weigh carefully the above
considerations, and if found practicable, to develop at an early
day a training school in Nebraska that shall be equal in its
facilities and enterprises to the demands of the new era in the
progress of Indian civilization.
* * * * *
ASPECTS OF THE INDIAN PROBLEM.
BY HON. CARL SCHURZ.
The increased interest of public-spirited citizens in the education
of Indian children is one of the best, if not the best result,
of recent discussions of the Indian question. The success of the
schools at Hampton, in Virginia, Carlisle, in Pennsylvania, and
Forest Grove, in Oregon, have amply demonstrated what can be
accomplished if such schools be organized on the right principle
and conducted with ability and energy. That this is more and more
generally appreciated is all the more fortunate, as the Indian
question is no longer one the solution of which can be trusted to
time.
As the progress of settlement and enterprise in the far western
regions, or, as it is called in a general way, “the development
of the country,” advances, the old methods of providing for the
Indians become obsolete. Large reservations of wild land, on
which the Indian can freely roam and support himself, partly by
hunting, will soon be things of the past. Even now an “Indian
frontier” does no longer exist. The abiding places of the
Indians are almost everywhere surrounded by rapidly increasing
populations of white men eagerly pressing upon the Indian lands.
One reservation after another is broken up to make room for new
lines of communication and for agricultural and mining enterprises.
However conscientious the government may be in its intention and
endeavor to protect the rights of the Indians at all points, it
is evident that the Indians will soon, in every part of the
country, be interspersed with an aggressive force, constantly
growing in volume and power, which will threaten to overwhelm them
like a rising flood. Their circumstances are essentially changed.
The alternative of civilization or extermination is immediately
before them—civilization enabling them to become in all important
respects a part of the population among which they are to live; or
extermination in a vain struggle to maintain the habits of savage
life against the progress of superior forces, or rapid decay as
miserable paupers and outcasts by the failure of self-sustaining
ability. This alternative presents itself not as a question looming
up in the distant future, to be solved by coming generations, but
as a question involving the existence of the young generation of
Indians now living. It is, in one word, a question of immediate
urgency.
If the Indians are to live at all, they must learn to live like
white men. They can no longer stand in the way of the development
of the country, but they must be enabled to become part of that
development, and thus to be benefited by it. The “white man’s
way” of which they are in the habit of speaking, must not, as
heretofore, remain to them a mere vague, shadowy idea, but they
must acquire a practical conception of what the white man’s way
really is, what its objects are, and by what means those objects
are attained. They must acquire that conception soon, for they will
need it soon. The education of the young generation of Indians
is therefore an immediately pressing necessity. And it must be
an education that takes them out of their traditional ways of
thinking, out of their old ambitions and habits of life. They must
not only learn some reading and writing, but they must learn what
reading and writing is for in the practical competitions of human
existence. They must learn how to work and how to make their work
useful. They must learn to love work by seeing and appreciating the
fruits of it. Industrial training of a thoroughly practical kind
must therefore go hand-in-hand with the ordinary rudimentary school
education. The two things must be carried on with constant regard
to the unity of aim.
The schools at Hampton, Carlisle and Forest Grove are conducted
upon this principle, and the results attained there prove that
Indian youths can be taught the things required to provide for the
necessities of life and to lift the Indian above the state of the
pauper as well as of the savage. Of course we must not expect too
much of them. We must not expect that they will issue from these
schools as model men and model women in every respect. We must not
expect that on the average they will be better than the average of
white boys and girls, raised under the same circumstances and with
the same advantages or disadvantages, would be. In point of fact,
the reports about the young men and women who, after having gone
through their three years’ term at Hampton or Carlisle, returned
to their people in the western country, have been as different as
reports would be about white boys and girls similarly situated.
Some were bright, active and industrious, others dull and indolent.
But a large majority of them have been doing well and showed a
marked superiority in character, ambition and conduct over other
young Indians who had not enjoyed the same kind of education. There
is no doubt that their presence among their people as teachers
and examples and as a moving force generally will exercise a most
healthy and elevating influence, provided the number of Indians so
educated be large enough to make them among the rising generation
the rule, instead of their remaining exceptional cases, as they now
are. It is, therefore, essential that such schools and the number
of pupils in them be multiplied as much as possible.
The schools at Hampton and Carlisle are mentioned here in
preference to the schools established at the different agencies,
partly because the former are superior as to the force of teachers
employed there, as well as to their equipment in other respects,
and partly because they offer to their Indian pupils the peculiar
advantage of withdrawing them entirely from the savage influences
of the Indian camps and placing them under the immediate influence
of civilized surroundings, where they can learn the “white
man’s way,” by seeing civilization at work. But as this method
of educating young Indians is expensive, and Congress rather
parsimonious as to appropriations for such purposes, the number of
Indians profiting from it is necessarily very small in proportion
to the whole population, while it ought to be very large. The
establishment of an Indian school on the same plan near the Santee
agency in Nebraska, as contemplated by the American Missionary
Association, is therefore all the more to be welcomed. Although the
surroundings of that school will not be quite as civilized as those
of Hampton and Carlisle, yet the Santee reservation is at least on
all sides easily accessible to civilized influences. It is a small
tract, encircled by settlements of white people. At the same time,
a school established there will be able to draw its pupils from the
great Sioux reserve in Dakota at small cost, the distance being
inconsiderable and the means of communication cheap and convenient.
The American Missionary Association could scarcely render a more
valuable service to the Indian race or do more credit to its own
good judgment and benevolent impulses than by making so valuable an
addition to the educational forces among the red men.
* * * * *
—A difficulty in prosecuting the work among the Indians in British
Columbia is found in the fact that the tribes speak distinct
languages. Not less than seven different dialects are used in the
range of country embraced by missionary effort.
ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF WORK AT CARLISLE.
BY CAPT. R. H. PRATT.
In compliance with your request I herewith furnish you with a brief
history of the Carlisle School, and some account of its industrial
features. It originated in the sending to Florida from the Indian
Territory of 74 Indian prisoners in the spring of 1875. At the
instance of General Sheridan I was selected by the War Department
and placed in charge of those prisoners, they having been under my
care at Fort Sill. They were from the Cheyenne, Arapahoe, Kiowa
and Comanche tribes and were selected for this banishment because
of well-known offenses against the peace of the frontier. Some
of them were guilty of the most outrageous crimes. Years of army
service among the Indians and observation of their treatment had
led me to change my views for opinions in favor of giving to the
Indian a broader chance and a desire that he might be brought more
in contact with the peaceful and industrious side of civilized
life, and so before the prisoners were started from Fort Sill I
wrote to my superiors urging that they be educated and trained
industrially during their imprisonment. Soon after reaching St.
Augustine I wrote repeatedly to the War Department urging that
some locality with more industrial surroundings be selected and
the prisoners be transferred. This was denied, and I then set
to work to make the best use of the elements to be found in the
sleepy old Spanish town. With no means, I was forced to seek the
co-operation of charitable and missionary folks. Miss S. A. Mather,
Miss Perit, Mrs. King Gibbs, Mrs. Couper Gibbs, of St. Augustine,
and Mrs. Dr. Caruthers of Tarrytown, N.Y., winter resident of St.
Augustine, volunteered to teach and did teach the classes of those
grown Indian men for two years and a half, giving them about one
hour’s instruction daily. Industrially there was little practical
opportunity, but numbers were placed for different periods to work
on saw mills, at picking oranges, as hostlers, grubbing the land,
boating and whatever could be found in connection with their own
necessities and comfort in the old fort. Twice we boated pine
logs from a distance and constructed log houses within the fort,
riving the clap-boards, building stick chimneys, chinking and
daubing that they might learn to construct their own homes. Some
of them advanced rapidly in acquiring literary, English speaking
and industrial knowledge. Others were very stupid. The greatest
success in the labor line was in placing five men to grub five
acres that had intimidated other laborers both white and black.
The undergrowth and roots to be removed were of the most dense and
appalling kind, and yet the Indians stuck to it until they had made
a complete success of it.
Another of the best evidences of the success of our labor efforts
was a petition signed by a very considerable number of laborers and
others of the community asking that I be estopped in the putting
of the Indians out to labor in competition with other classes, as
I was taking bread from the mouths of those who were dependent
upon such labor for their living, etc. In the spring of 1878 the
authorities at Washington determined to release the prisoners and
permit them to return to their homes. There were 22 of them who
preferred to remain East and get a better knowledge of civilized
life and more education before going home. The expenses of these
22 young men were undertaken by different charitable people. Gen.
S. C. Armstrong, of the Hampton Normal Institute, received 17 into
his institution, while four went to Paris Hill, near Utica, N.Y.,
under the immediate charge of Rev. J. B. Wickes, an Episcopal
clergyman, encouraged by Bishop Huntington, all the expenses being
undertaken by Mrs. Burnham. One was taken to Tarrytown, N.Y., in
Dr. Caruther’s own family. Hampton Institute being an industrial
school, furnished the most seasonable and practical education of
any institution I was able to find. The remainder of the party were
returned to their respective agencies, and such was the effect of
their training in Florida during their three years’ absence, that
they at once became the best element for progress in their tribes.
At this time, while a few have gone back to the blanket condition,
most likely from necessity, because no other way was open to them,
there is abundant testimony in the reports of their respective
agents during the past four years that they are still a useful and
leading industrious element among their people.
A few weeks after the arrival of the party at Hampton Institute,
General Armstrong was so favorably impressed by the conduct and
progress of the 17 he had undertaken, that he was willing to
increase the number by adding 50 more, and including girls. Mr.
Schurz and Mr. McCrary, then Secretaries of the Interior and War
Departments, accepted the proposition, and I was sent, in the fall
of 1878, to Dakota, and brought away 49 children from six different
agencies of the Sioux, Gros Ventre, Mandan and Arickeree tribes.
These, together with the former Florida prisoners, were placed
under training in all the varied systems of literary and industrial
pursuits. Hampton Institute provides liberally for its colored
students, and side by side with those colored pupils the Indian
boys and girls, in perfect harmony with the new life, demonstrated
their capacity to hold their own in improving the best of chances.
It was very much desired by the friends of this new movement, and
particularly General Armstrong, that I should remain with it, and a
clause was introduced in the army appropriation bill, which passed
Congress in the spring of 1879, for the detail of one officer,
not above the rank of captain, for duty with reference to Indian
education.
It was a plan which I had urged for several years that to get the
best results in our educational work among Indian children as
many as possible should be removed from reservation and tribal
influences and placed in the atmosphere of civilized life, and
to this end I had urged the use of vacant military posts and
barracks as furnishing, without much cost in changing and improving
buildings, places to make a beginning, and I proposed to the
Interior and War Departments that I would undertake the education
of 250 or 300 children at the old military buildings at Carlisle.
This proposition was accepted, and after many preliminaries I was
sent in September, 1879, to the Rosebud and Pine Ridge Agencies in
Dakota and brought away 84 children, and immediately after went to
the Indian Territory and from the Kiowa, Cheyenne, Pawnee and other
tribes brought 52 more. To these were added 11 from the Hampton
Institute of the young men who had been with me in Florida. The
school was opened on the first of November with 147 students. To
these were added from time to time children from various Western
tribes, and at the end of July, 1880, we numbered 239 children,
about one-third of whom were girls. At the end of the second
year, October, 1881, we had increased to 295. At the present
writing we number 379—132 girls and 247 boys. From the beginning
our principle has been to place the most emphasis on industrial
training, next English speaking and then literary training.
To accomplish the first we very early in the work established
shops for mechanical instruction in carpentry, blacksmithing,
wagon-making, harness-making, tailoring, tinsmithing, shoemaking,
printing, baking and on our farm of 115 acres gave some scope for
agricultural training. We have avoided theory in our industries and
adhered to practice, being governed to a great extent by the old
apprentice system. We have at the head of each branch a skilled
mechanic as practical instructor, and as nearly as possible we
pursue the methods of trades people in their instructions to
apprentices. We give half of each day to work and the other half to
school, and have found that our progress is proportionately greater
in each than it would be if the attention was directed to either
the one or the other for the whole time. Under this system we have
in training as carpenters 13 boys; as wagon-makers and blacksmiths,
15; as harness-makers, 15; as shoemakers, 19; as tailors, 12;
as turners, 11; as printers, 5; as bakers, 3; and every boy not
engaged at some trade is required to work during the season upon
the farm. Such products of our labors as we are not able to make
use of for the school are purchased by the Indian Department and
shipped to agencies. We think our boys as forward in capacity
for receiving instruction on each of the several branches as the
average white boy. In the blacksmith shop our apprentice boys after
two years’ instruction, are able to iron a wagon, repair a plow,
shoe a horse, etc. In the wood-working department able to get out
all the different wood parts of the wagon ready for the blacksmith.
In the tin-smithing to construct coffee pots, buckets, pails,
pans, cups, etc. In the harness-making to cut out and manufacture
harness. In the tailoring to cut out and manufacture clothing. In
shoemaking to repair and manufacture boots and shoes. In printing
to set up and distribute type and make up forms. In baking we have
no other help than Indians. We give to our girls instruction in the
various industries of the sex and find no general lack. In cooking,
sewing, house work, laundry work, etc., they are apt pupils.
One of the most useful features of our work has been the placing of
our boys and girls in private families, principally among farmers,
where they perform the same kind of labor and are subjected to the
same home and labor influences that white children of their own
ages receive. This has the most beneficial results. The children
take on English speaking and the industries of civilized life very
speedily. During vacation we place out all we can spare from our
own work, and during the winter we allow a considerable number to
remain and attend the public schools in the several neighborhoods,
they being required to do such work mornings and evenings as they
are capable of and so pay for their board and clothes. By this
course we are enabled to carry a very considerable number more
pupils than we are allowed appropriation for. It is plain that the
real hindrance to Indian progress is found in their being kept
entirely separated from the other masses of our population, and
by every act of our government and every sentiment of its people,
societies, missionary and others, made to feel that they are a
separate people and must so remain forever. Through their education
in separate schools, their home life upon prison reservations with
their liberty of coming and going abridged to these reservations,
with all their aspirations and ambitions so limited, there can be
no healthy growth. To overcome these difficulties the Indian mind
and the mind of the public as well as Congress must be educated to
grant to them the enlarged privileges accorded to all other races.
The boy will never learn to swim until he goes into the water,
and the experiences of industrial life and civilized life through
its associations and competitions will determine for the Indian
and white the true status. We have had quite enough of the Sioux,
Cheyenne, Comanche, etc., as Sioux, Cheyenne, Comanche, etc. We can
end their existence among us as such separate people by a broad
and generous system of English education and training, which will
reach all the 50,000 children and in a very few years remove all
our trouble from them as a separate people and as separate tribes
among us, and instead of feeding clothing and caring for them from
year to year, put them in condition to feed clothe and care for
themselves. Our experiences in many individual cases in the last
few years make it very evident that not only may we fit the Indian
to take care of himself in his own home, but may fit him to go and
come and abide in the land wherever he may choose, and so lose his
identity.
[Illustration: MANDAN HUT, DAKOTA.]
THE HISTORY AND OUTLOOK OF THE INDIAN WORK TRANSFERRED TO THE A. M.
A.
PROF. ALFRED L. RIGGS.
Just fifty years ago two Congregational young men from Connecticut,
the Messrs. Samuel and Gideon Pond, pressed on into the heart
of the then unknown continent to see what they could do for the
Indian. They landed at Fort Snelling, in what is now Minnesota, and
began their volunteer mission among an Eastern branch of the Dakota
or Sioux nation.
One year later the American Board sent out the Rev. Dr. Williamson
on a tour of exploration, and the next year after that a mission
was regularly established. The organized work gathered in the
volunteers, and, moreover, according to the fashion of the times,
Congregational relations disappeared and work was started on the
Presbyterian basis.
For years it was a slow, hard lift against the weight of heathenism
and pride of race. Nowhere is race pride stronger than among the
Indians. As is often the case, those who have least to be proud of
vaunt themselves the most. So, while the Indian has to acknowledge
that the white man is possessor of gifts that class him with the
gods (the Dakota name for white man being the same as that he
applies to his gods), and thus for the sake of his mysterious power
he fears him, yet personally he despises him as different from
himself and effeminate.
And heathenism! Some would have us believe that it did not exist;
that the Indian naturally was as good a Christian as need be. The
courtesy of the Indian perhaps leads to this deceptive view. He
will assent to everything you say rather than be so impolite as
to contradict you. Then, too, his pantheism easily makes room for
another god. So the white man’s god soon had his banner set up at
their sacred rites together with the Stone god, the Day god, the
Night god, the Thunder god, and the god of the North.
But when Christ claims the whole of their worship, and belief
in him is seen to require the giving up of their other faiths,
and the casting away of their charms and incantations, then the
antagonism of the unregenerate heart breaks out here as everywhere.
And the magicians and “medicine men” are stirred up to bitter and
unremitting warfare as soon as they discover that their craft is in
danger.
As if here were not enough obstacles to meet, there comes in
the opposition begotten of the selfishness and dissoluteness of
unprincipled white men. For years the fur trade was almost as
much the enemy of missions as was the slave trade. The agents of
this great enterprise were bound to keep the Indians hunters and
trappers in order that their warehouses might be filled with furs.
The fur trade also controlled the government, and even to-day its
power is felt through laws made then for its benefit and that yet
remain on the statute book. Hence in its day the fur trade was
a foe to be dreaded, for it could exert its power in a thousand
secret ways. It could break up schools, scare people away from
religious meetings, and put a ban on the Christian teacher, if
content to leave him alive.
After thirty years of patient labor the reward seemed about
to come. Christianity was proving its power to disintegrate
heathenism, break down prejudice and survive the enmity of
unprincipled white men.
Then the outbreak and massacres of 1862 occurred, seemingly
sweeping everything away. It was the death-struggle of heathenism,
alarmed at the steady advance of Christianity. Other political
causes and conditions merely made this outbreak possible. And yet
what seemed annihilation was only multiplication and dissemination.
Again was fulfilled the Scripture: “They that were scattered abroad
went preaching the word.” And the conversion in the military
prisons of hundreds as it were in a day, is one of the notable
instances of the power of God’s spirit.
Twenty years ago the field of Christian missions among the Dakotas
was confined to a small section of the nation then dwelling in
a corner of Minnesota. But now the field extends over the great
Missouri valley and on northward toward the Saskatchawan in the
British Possessions.
The work whose beginnings we have noted, originally one under the
American Board, has since been divided. In 1871, at the time of
the general division of the missions of the American Board, that
part of the Dakota Mission immediately under the charge of the
venerable Dr. Williamson and his son, Rev. John P. Williamson,
was transferred to the care of the Presbyterian Board of Foreign
Missions. But the larger portion remained with the other veteran
of the mission, Rev. Stephen B. Riggs, under the care of the
American Board. And now with the year 1883 another transfer is
made to the American Missionary Association. But the five native
churches, with a membership of 340, that had meanwhile grown up
about Sisseton Agency are graduated from foreign missions into a
home mission connection, and so naturally pass under the care of
the Presbyterian Home Mission Board. It is not within the scope
of this short article to speak of the work accomplished by the
Episcopal Mission in the same field, which had its beginning
about thirty years later than the original Dakota Mission, and in
recent years has had very considerable success. Nor can we speak
particularly of the portion of our great field lying across the
British line, for though we have furnished the native laborers it
is not organically connected with us. But as for the rest of the
original mission, even though divided, it works as one. It has one
General Conference, and in all its publications and matters of
common concern acts as one mission still.