886 



MISSIONS 



[b. a. b. 



couver, nearly opposite the mouth of the 

 Willamette, in Washington. Another 

 embassy from the Flatheads, in 1839, was 

 successful, and in the next year the noted 

 Belgian Jesuit, Peter John de Smet, priest, 

 explorer, and author, was on the ground, 

 1,600 Indians of the confederated tribes 

 being gathered to await his coming. In 

 1841 he founded the mission of St Mary 

 on Bitter-root r., w. Mont., making it a 

 starting point for other missions farther to 

 the w., to be noted elsewhere. On ac- 

 count of the hostility of the Blackfeet the 

 mission was abandoned in 18.50, to be suc- 

 ceeded by that of St Ignatius on Flathead 

 lake, within the present Flathead reserva- 

 tion, which still exists in successful opera- 

 tion, practically all of the confederated 

 tribes of the reservation having been 

 Christian for lialf a century. The principal 

 co-workers in the Flathead mLssion were 

 the Jesuits Canestrelli, Giorda, Mengarini, 

 Point, and Ravalli. The first three of 

 these have made important contributions 

 to philology, chief among which are the 

 Salish Grammar of Mengarini, 1861, and 

 the Kalispel Dictionary, 1877, of Giorda, 

 of whom it is said that he preached in 

 six Indian languages. 



Next in chronologic order in the cen- 

 tral region, after the Catholics, come the 

 Moravians. Their work among the Dela- 

 wares and associated tribes in Ohio, and 

 later in Ontario and Kansas, was a con- 

 tinuation of that begun among the same 

 people in New York and Pennsylvania 

 as early as 1740, and has been already 

 noted. 



After them came the Friends, or, as 

 more commonly known, the Quakers. 

 In all their missionary effort they seem 

 to have given first place to the practical 

 things of civilization, holding the doc- 

 trinal teaching somewhat in reserve until 

 the Indians had learned from experience 

 to value the advice of the teacher. In 

 accord also with the Quaker principle, 

 their method was essentially democratic, 

 strict regard being given to the wishes of 

 the Indians as expressed through their 

 chiefs, their opinions being frequently in- 

 vited, with a view to educating them to 

 a point of self-government. In 1804 .the 

 Maryland yearly meeting, after long 

 councils with the Indians, established an 

 industrial farm on upper Wabash r. in 

 Indiana, where several families from the 

 neighboring Miami, Shawnee, and others 

 soon gathered for instruction in farming. 

 For several years it flourished with in- 

 creasing usefulness, until forced to discon- 

 tinue by an opposition led by the Shawnee 

 prophet (see Tenskwatawa). The work 

 was transferred to the main Shawnee set- 

 tlement at Wapakoneta, Ohio, where, in 

 1812, a saw mill and grist mill were built, 

 tools distributed, and a farm colony was 



successfully inaugurated. The war com- 

 pelled a suspension until 1815, when work 

 was resumed. In 1822 a boarding school 

 was opened, and both farm and school 

 continued, with some interruptions, until 

 the final removal of the tribe to the W. in 

 1832-33. The teachers followed, and by 

 1837 the Shawnee mission was reestab- 

 lished on the reservation in Kansas, 

 about 9 m. w. from the present Kansas 

 City. It was represented as flourishing 

 in 1843, being then perhaps the most 

 important among the immigrant tribes, 

 but suffered the inevital)le result on the 

 later removal of the Shawnee to the 

 present Oklahoma. The work was con- 

 ducted under the joint auspices of the 

 Indiana, Ohio, and Maryland yearly 

 meetings, aided in the earlier years by 

 lil)eral contributions from members of 

 the society in England and Ireland. The 

 most noted of the teachers were Isaac 

 Harvey and his son, Henry Harvey, 

 whose work covers the period from 1819 

 to 1 842. During the period of the " peace 

 policy" administration of Indian affairs, 

 for a term of about a dozen years begin- 

 ning in 1870, considerable work was done 

 by laborers of the same denomination 

 among the Caddo, Kiowa, Cheyenne, 

 and other tribes of Oklahoma, but with- 

 out any regular mission or school estab- 

 lishment. The best known of these 

 workers was Thomas C. Battey, author 

 of 'A Quaker among the Indians,' who 

 conducted a camp school among the 

 Kiowa in 1873. 



The Presbyleria7is,yv\\onow stand second 

 in the number of their mission establish- 

 ments in the United States, began their 

 labors in the Central states about the 

 same time as the Friends, with a mission 

 farm among the Wyandot on Sandusky r. 

 in Ohio, in charge of Rev. Joseph Badger. 

 It continued until 1810, when it was aban- 

 doned in consequence of the opposition 

 of the traders and the conservative party 

 led by the Shawnee prophet. Morse's 

 rejKjrt on the condition of the tribes in 

 1822 makes no mention of any Presby- 

 terian mission work at that time excep- 

 ting among the Cherokee (see Southern 

 States) . A few years later the Rev. Isaac 

 Van Tassel, under authority from the 

 American Board, was in charge of a mis- 

 sion among the Ottawa, at Maumee, Ohio. 

 He compiled an elementary reading book, 

 printed in 1829, the first publication in 

 the Ottawa language. 



In 1827, under the auspices of the 

 American Board of Commissioners for 

 Foreign Missions, a Congregational mission 

 was begun among the Chippewa on Macki- 

 naw id., upper Michigan, by Rev. J. D. 

 Stevens and wife, who with others after- 

 ward extended their labors into n. Wis- 

 consin, and later were transferred to the 



