By the REV. WM. H. LEWIS.
No one familiar with the spiritual obstacles that missionaries encounter
expects that characters that shall be Christian from highest principle,
and through and through, will be formed in the first, or even the second
generation of converts, as a rule, though every mission field furnishes
shining exceptions to this rule. We shall not be disheartened, then,
when we come to look into the history of Alaska, if the present state of
society there is found to be slightly savage still.
Dall, in his work, “Alaska and its Resources,” speaking of the Indian
character, says: “They are hospitable, good humored, but not always
trustworthy. They will steal, and have sometimes attacked small vessels
in the straits.… They sometimes have as many as five wives, though one or
two is the usual number. Drunkenness is a common vice among them. They
have an uncontrollable passion for alcohol, which is plentifully supplied
them by the whalers and traders. They hate the Russians, and will not
trade with them.… Their customs in regard to the treatment of the old and
infirm are, from a civilized point of view, brutal and inhuman.… When an
old person was sick for more than seven days the others put a rope around
his body and dragged him by it around the house over the stones. If this
did not kill or cure, the sick person was taken to the place of the
dead.… Here the individual was stoned or speared, and the body left for
the dogs to devour, the latter being themselves eaten by the natives.”
Of the Aleuts proper he says: “Since the time of their first intercourse
with the Russians, their character, habits, mode of life, and even their
very name, have been totally changed. Originally they were active,
sprightly, and fond of dances and festivals. Their mode of worship
partook more of the character of religion than that of any of the tribes,
which still remain unchanged. Ground into the very dust by the oppression
of ruthless invaders, their religious rights, gay festivals and
determined character have all passed away. A shade of melancholy is now
one of their national characteristics. All speak some Russian, and many
of them can converse fluently in that language. The Aleuts are light, and
nearly the same color as the Innuits of the Northwest. Their features,
perhaps from the great admixture of Russian blood, are more intelligent
and pleasing. They are all nominally Greek Catholics, but there is very
little knowledge of the principles of true Christianity amongst them.
While further advanced than any other native American tribe, they are far
from civilized, except in dress, and require careful guardianship and
improved methods of education to preserve them from the rapacity of the
traders. The reality of their devotion to a religion which they do not
comprehend may well be doubted.” He then quotes Veniamínoff’s description
of the native character, with the comment that it is marked by partiality
confessed, and that it is mainly due to his goodness of heart and love
for the people.… In another place, speaking of mission work not Russian,
he says; “In the evening, the Indians, old and young, gathered in the
fort yard and sang several hymns with excellent effect. Altogether, it
was a scene which would have delighted the hearts of many very good
people who know nothing of Indian character, and as such will doubtless
figure in some missionary report. To any one who at all understood the
situation, however, the absurdity of the proceeding was so palpable
that it appeared almost like blasphemy. Old Sakhuiti, who has at least
eighteen wives, whose hands are bloody with repeated and most atrocious
murders, who knows nothing of what we understand by right and wrong, by a
future state of rewards and punishments, or by a Supreme Being—this old
heathen was singing as sweetly as his voice would allow, and with quite
as much comprehension of the hymn as the dogs in the yard. Indians are
fond of singing; they are also fond of tobacco; and, for a pipeful apiece
you may baptize a whole tribe of them. Why will intelligent men still go
on, talking three or four times a year to Indians on doctrinal subjects
by means of a jargon which can not express an abstract idea, and the use
of which only throws ridicule on sacred things, and still call such work
spreading the truths of Christianity? When the missionary will leave the
trading posts, strike out into the wilderness, live with the Indians,
teach them cleanliness first, morality next, and by slow and simple
teaching lead their thoughts above the hunt or the camp—then, and not
until then, will they be competent to comprehend the simplest principles
of right and wrong.”
The history of the early dealings of the Russian expeditions with the
natives is one of continued outrages and retaliations. Almost every
record of voyages for discovery or trading from 1648-1800 tells of
atrocities committed by the sailors, and of wholesale massacres by the
natives. The sole purpose of these expeditions was gain, and no attempt
was made even to conciliate, much less to evangelize, the Indians. It
was not until 1793 that a ukase was issued by the Empress of Russia,
authorizing the introduction of missionaries into the American colonies,
but unfortunately the same ukase ordered the shipment thither of convicts
from Russia, and was obeyed in the proportion of a hundred convicts
to one missionary. In 1794 (May) Shílikoff brought over 190 emigrant
convicts, two overseers and eleven monks, and Ióasaph, elder of the
Augustine Friars, was invited to settle in the colony. All the monks
were obliged to support themselves by constant work, as no provision was
made for them by the government, and Ióasaph complained bitterly of the
treatment they received from the Shílikoff Trading Company’s officials.
At the same time, in 1795, one year after his landing, he reported the
conversion of 1,200 natives, thus quite justifying the hard criticisms
quoted above. The census of this colony of Kadiák in the same year gave
a population of 3,600 natives. In 1796 Father Ióasaph was made bishop
by imperial ukase, and returned to Irkútsk to receive his consecration.
Father Iuvenáti was murdered by the natives for attempting to put down
polygamy. The first Russo-Greek Church was built at Kadiák during this
year. In 1799 Bishop Ióasaph, with a company of clergy, set sail for his
new diocese in the ship “Fenie,” which was lost at sea with all on board,
and from this time to 1810 only one monk was left in the colonies. On the
10th of June, 1810, Captain Golófnin brought one priest to Sitka in his
sloop of war “Diana,” and in 1816 Father Sòlokoff arrived from Moscow,
and took charge of all the mission work in the colonies. There were at
the death of Governor Baránoff in 1819 five colonies of the company in
the Aleutian Isles, four on Cook’s Inlet, two on Chujách Gulf, and one
on Baránoff Island, in Sitka Bay, with three priests in charge, three
chapels and several schools, where, however, nothing was taught except
reading and writing in the ecclesiastical characters. Father Mordóffski
reached Kadiák in 1823, and in 1824 the real history of the mission
begins with the arrival of the noble and devoted Innocentius Veniamínoff,
the Russian Selwyn, at Unaláshka, and the commencement of his life-long
labors among the Aleuts. He was made bishop and transferred to Sitka in
1834, and the record of his life gives all that there is to be said about
the progress of religious work among the natives, so far as the Russian
Church is concerned, up to the time of the transfer of the territory
to the United States. Mr. Dall’s estimate of his labors is well worth
quoting here to counterbalance some other quotations that have been made
from his book. He says, “Whatever of good is ingrained in their (the
natives’) characters may be in great part traced to the persevering
efforts of one man. This person was the Rev. Father Innocentius
Veniamínoff, of the Irkútsk Seminary, since Bishop of Kamchatka. He alone
of the Greek missionaries to Alaska has left behind him an undying record
of devotion, self-sacrifice and love, both to God and man, combined with
the true missionary fire.”
John Veniamínoff was born September 1st, 1797, graduated from the
seminary at Irkútsk in 1817, and was ordained in May of that year. He was
advanced to the priesthood in 1821, made Bishop of Kamchatka in 1840,
and took the title of Innocent. In 1850 his see was made archiepiscopal,
and in 1868 he was recalled to Russia and made successor of Philaret as
Metropolitan of Moscow. In 1823 he offered himself as a missionary, and
was sent by his bishop to Unaláshka. The following extracts from his own
published account of his mission (“The Founding of the Orthodox Church in
Russian America,” St. Petersburg, 1840) will give the best idea of what
he had to do, and how well he did it:
Although the Aleuts willingly embraced the Christian religion,
and prayed to God as they were taught, it must be confessed
that, until a priest was settled amongst them they worshiped one
who was almost an unknown God. For Father Macarius, from the
shortness of time that he was with them, and from the lack of
competent interpreters, was able to give them but very general
ideas about religion, such as of God’s omnipotence, His goodness,
etc. Notwithstanding all of which the Aleutines remained
Christians, and after baptism completely renounced Shamanism,
and not only destroyed all the masks which they used in their
heathen worship, but also allowed the songs which might in any
way remind them of their heathen worship to fall into disuse, so
that when, on my arrival amongst them, I through curiosity made
inquiry after these songs, I could not hear of one. But of all
good qualities of the Aleutines, nothing so pleased and delighted
my heart as their desire, or to speak more justly, _thirst_, for
the Word of God, so that sooner would an indefatigable missionary
tire of _preaching_ than they of _hearing_ the Word.
But Veniamínoff, true missionary that he was, was not content with his
quiet, peaceful labors among the Aleuts. There was a fierce tribe that
hunted the Russians like wild beasts in the neighborhood of Sitka, and
to them he determined to carry the gospel. He began to get ready for
his mission to these Koloshes in 1834, but was detained a year, and at
last, ashamed of himself for his cowardice, he resolved that immediately
upon the close of the Christmas holidays he would take his life in his
hand and go. “Four days before I came to these Koloshes,” he says, “the
small-pox broke out among them. Had I begun my instruction before the
appearance of the small-pox they would certainly have blamed me for
all the evil which came upon them, as if I were a Russian Shaman or
sorcerer, who sent such plagues amongst them. But glory be to God, who
orders all things for good.” (Think of thanking God for opening such _a
door of entrance_, a door from whose opening in such a place any one but
a man of iron nerves and complete self-surrender would have fled away
and thanked God for his escape!) “The Koloshes were not what they were
two years previously” (when he _meant_ to come among them). “Few were
baptized then, for, while I proclaimed the truth to them, I never urged
upon them, or wished to urge upon them, the immediate reception of holy
baptism, but, seeking to convince their judgment, I awaited a request
from them. Those who expressed a desire to be baptised I received with
full satisfaction.” After sixteen years of missionary toil in such a
field Veniamínoff was sent to St. Petersburg to plead for help for the
mission. The Czar proposed to the Synod to send him back as a bishop, but
that body objected, because, though he was an excellent man, he had “no
cathedral, no body of clergy, and no episcopal residence.” “The more,
then, like an apostle,” said the Czar, and he was consecrated. No sooner
was he consecrated than he was impatient to get back to his see, and on
April 30th, 1842, he writes: “At last, thank the Lord God, in America!
Our doings since we came to Sitka (September 26th) have not yet been
very important. A mission was sent to Noushtau, which will reach its
destination not sooner than the _middle_ of _next June_. December 17th
a sort of Theological School was opened, containing now twenty-three
persons, creoles and natives. The theological student I. T. was sent
to Kadiák to learn the language, and in four months has had wonderful
success. The monk M. has been preaching to the Koloshes, and ⸺ has about
eighty candidates for holy baptism, and asks it for them; but I do not
care to be over hasty with them. The more and the better they are taught,
the more can they be depended upon. I went this spring to Kadiák to
examine into the affairs of the Church there, and was comforted beyond
expectation. The church is full every holy day, and Lent was kept by more
than four hundred of them, some coming from distant places.”
_April 5, 1844._—“The children here (at Sitka) between the ages of
one and eighteen are very numerous. In the Theological School, in the
Company’s School, and in two girls’ schools, there are about one hundred
and forty, and yet I gathered about one hundred and fifty others.” He
reports four hundred children under instruction, and thirty-five adults
baptized at their own request. 1845.—The Kwichpak Church numbered two
hundred and seventy natives and thirty foreigners. Priests visited the
Kenai and Koetchan tribes, staying with them some months and baptizing
several converts. And so the good bishop went on from year to year, as
the Russian Mouravieff says, “Sailing over the ocean, or driving in
reindeer sledges over his vast, but thinly settled diocese, thousands
of miles in extent, everywhere baptizing the natives, for whom he has
introduced the use of letters and translated the gospel into the tongue
of the Aleutines.”
“The good bishop has little to say of himself. We are told he became
master of six dialects, spoken in the field committed to his charge. He
himself translated, or assisted others in translating, large parts of
God’s Word and the liturgy of his church for the use of the natives.
For forty-five years, ten of them as Bishop of Kamchatka, eighteen more
as its archbishop, he labored on, in season and out of season.” (Hale’s
“Innocent of Moscow.”) And when, in 1867, Philaret died and Innocent was
chosen Patriarch of Moscow, one of the first works he undertook was the
organization of the Orthodox Missionary Society, which was the cause of
as much good at home in awakening the spirit of missions in the church as
it was abroad in supporting the work in distant fields. This society in
1877 raised and expended 141,698.65¾ roubles in missionary work.
The following statistics are taken from a report in the _Mission Journal_
of Irkútsk: “There are in the diocese of the Aleutian Islands and Alaska,
including about two hundred Sclaves and Greeks at San Francisco, eleven
thousand five hundred and seventy two members of the Eastern Church. The
church buildings are nine—viz., at San Francisco, at Sitka (where there
are about three hundred orthodox), at Kadiák, at Renai, at Bielkoffsky,
at Ounalashka, at Nonschatchak, on the Island of St. Paul, and at the
Michaeloffsky Redoubt at Kwichpak. There are two vacancies among the
clergy at Sitka and at the Kenai Mission.”
Bishop Iohn succeeded Innocent, but soon returned to Russia. Bishop
Nestor, a man of ability, went out in 1879. He died in 1880, and has
had no successor. The most influential Russians left the country when
the territory was ceded, and interest in the missions has largely been
withdrawn, so that in the last two reports of the Orthodox Missionary
Society no mention whatever is made of Alaskan Missions.
And this brings us to speak of another work going on there, viz., the
mission of the Presbyterians. On the 10th of August, 1877, the Rev.
Sheldon Jackson and Mrs. McFarland reached Fort Wrangel as the first
missionaries of the Presbyterian body to Alaska. Mr. Jackson reports
that one of the first sights he saw was an Indian ringing a bell to call
the people to school. The Indian was Clah, from Fort Simpson, and about
twenty pupils attended. The Lord’s Prayer was recited in Chinook jargon
(a mixture of French-Canadian, English, and Indian words), and the long
meter doxology was sung at closing. The book stock inventoried four
Bibles, four hymn books (Moody and Sankey), three primers, thirteen First
Readers, and one wall chart. Twelve thousand dollars were raised as a
special fund by Mr. Jackson’s efforts at home, and two other missionaries
were sent out in 1878. In 1880 one missionary and one teacher went
to Alaska. In 1879 the mission buildings were erected, and the First
Presbyterian Church of Fort Wrangel organized. The mission includes
a church building, a Girls’ Industrial Home and school houses, with
stations among the Chilcats, Hydahs and Hoonyahs, neighboring tribes.
There are at present three ministers and five male and female teachers at
the different stations.
To provide for the Swedes and Germans in the employ of the Russian
American Fur Company, a Lutheran minister was sent to Sitka in 1845 and
remained till 1852. He was succeeded by the Rev. Mr. Nintec, preaching in
Swedish and German, who remained until the transfer in 1867, when, his
support being withdrawn by the Russian government, he returned to Europe.
A Roman Catholic bishop, with one priest, also came to Fort Wrangel in
1879 to establish a mission, but it is believed that the work has now
been stopped and the priest withdrawn.
It must be remembered that all that has been cited of the missions so far
has only to do with the Indians in the neighborhood of Sitka and Fort
Wrangel, along the southern coast, and on the Lower Yukon. So far, the
great continent, with its vast and almost unexplored interior, has only
been trimmed around the edges. Full 40,000 of the possible 60,000 natives
are yet without Christianity, and one might as well establish a mission
in Cuba to evangelize Spain, or in the Jerseys to reach the Mahometans,
as to sit down in a mission at Sitka and hope to reach the scattered
tribes of Alaska. If we should send missionaries to that neighborhood
it would only be to make of it a Fort _Wrangel_ indeed, but the whole
country is open to us, and on the Grand Yukon and its tributaries and
among the Eskimos of the northern coast there is work enough, yet
untouched, for all the men the church could send.
Here, then, in as small a compass as possible, is the field, its
past history and its present condition; a few Greek priests, whose
congregations are decreased by removals and will eventually die out;
eight or ten Presbyterians, men and women, who confine their labors to
Sitka and Fort Wrangel, and have enough to do there; and one clergyman
of the Church of England, on a river 2,500 miles long, whose banks from
end to end are his parish; 11,000 members of the Greek Church, 700 or
800 Presbyterians, and between 2,000 and 3,000 Church of England folk
familiar with her services and loving her ritual; and at the very least
calculation 5,500 natives that might be reached and cared for, and
_should_ be cared for. Here is a chance to show the people of America
that the church does know how to deal with the Indian question. There
will be a clear field and no favor for several years to come. A fund of
$15,000 appropriated by Congress in 1878 for educational purposes, but
never called for, might be claimed by any party proving to Congress by
their works that they meant to educate the people. A government of some
sort, military perhaps, will soon be established. Prospectors after
everything valuable will overrun the country as soon as it is safe and
profitable to do so. What shall be done by Christian people for all these
heathen souls?