896 



MISSIONS 



[b. a. e. 



other, San Pedro y Pablo de Bicuner, being 

 8 or 10 m. lower down, possibly just across 

 the present Mexican border. Pun'sima 

 mission was placed in charge of Father 

 Francisco Garces, the explorer, with 

 Father Juan Barreneche as his assistant, 

 while the other was given over tu Fathers 

 Diaz and Moreno. The event was as pre- 

 dicted. Within a year the Yuma were 

 roused to hostility by the methods and 

 broken promises of the military com- 

 mander. In July, 1781 , both settlements 

 were attacked almost simultaneously, the 

 buildings plundered and burned, the 

 comiriander and every man of tlie small 

 garrison killed afteradesperate resistance, 

 the four missionaries and nearly all the 

 men of the colonies also l)utchered, and 

 the women and several others carried off 

 as captives. A sul)sequent expedition 

 rescued the captives and buried the dead, 

 but the Yuma remained unsubdued and 

 the colony undertaking was not renewed. 

 (See Calif orxio, Indians of; 3fisRio7i In- 

 dians of California.) 



Alaska. — Alaska wasdiscovered by tlie 

 Russians in 1 741 and remained a possession 

 of Russia until transferred to the United 

 States in 18(57. In 1794 regular missionary 

 work was begun among the Aleut on Ko- 

 diak id. by monks of the Greek Catholic 

 (Russian orthodox) church, under the 

 Archimandrite Joassaf, with marked suc- 

 cess among the islanders, l)ut with smaller 

 result among the more warlike tribes of 

 the mainland. Within a few years the 

 savage Aleut were transformed to civilized 

 Christians, many of whom were able to 

 read, write,- and speak the Russian lan- 

 guage. Among the pioneer workers were 

 Fathers Juvenal^ murdered in 1796 by the 

 Eskimo for his opposition to polygamy, 

 and the distinguished John Veniaminof, 

 1823 to about 1840, the historian and phi- 

 lologist of the Alaskan tribes, and author 

 of a numl)er of religious and educational 

 works in the Aleut and Tlingit languages, 

 including an Aleut grammar and a brief 

 dictionary. Fathers Jacob Netzvietoff 

 and Elias Tishnoff also have made several 

 translations into the Aleut language. 

 About the time of the transfer to the 

 United States the Christian natives num- 

 bered 12,000, served by 27 priests and 

 deacons, with several schools, including 

 a seminary at Sitka. Chapels had been 

 established in every important settlement 

 from Prince William id. to the outermost 

 of the Aleutian ids., a distance of 1,800 m., 

 besides other stations on the Y'ukon, Kus- 

 kokwim, and Nushagak rs., and regular 

 churches at Sitka, Killisnoo, and Juneau. 

 In 1902 the Greek church had 18 minis- 

 ters at work in Alaska. (See Russian in- 

 fluence. ) 



The first Protestant missions after the 

 transfer to the United States were begun by 



the Presbyterians in 1877, under thesuper- 

 visionof Rev. Sheldon Jackson and Mrs 

 A. R. IMcFarland, with headquarters at Ft 

 Wrangell, where a school had already 

 been organized by some Christian Indians 

 from the Methodist station at Ft Simp- 

 son, Brit. Col. Within the next 18 years 

 some 15 stations had been estaljlished 

 among the Indians of the s. coast and 

 islands, besides two among the Eskimo, 

 at Pt Barrow and on St Lawrence id. 

 Among the earliest workers, besides those 

 already named, were Rev. J. G. Bradv, 

 Rev. P:. S. Willard, and Mr Walter Stile"s. 

 The principal schools were at Sitka (1878) 

 and Juneau (1886). At Pt Barrowa henl 

 of imported reindeer added to the means 

 of sul)sistence. The majority of these 

 missions are still in successful ojieration. 



The next upon the ground were the 

 Catholics, who made their first establish- 

 ment at Wrangell in 1878, following with 

 others at Sitka, Jum-au, and Skagway. In 

 1886-87 they entered the Y'ukon region, 

 with missions at Nulato on the Yukon, 

 St Ignatius on the Kuskokwim, St Mary's 

 (Akularak), St INlichael, Nome, Kusilvak 

 id.. Nelson id., Holy Cross (Koserefsky), 

 and others, the largest schools being those 

 at Koserefsky and Nulato. With the ex- 

 ception of Nulato all were in Eskimo ter- 

 ritory. In 1903 the work was in charge 

 of 12 Jesuits and lay brothers, assisted by 

 11 sisters of St Anne. The Innuit gram- 

 mar and dictionary of Father Francis 

 Barnum (1901) ranks as one of the most 

 important contributions to Eskimo phil- 

 ology. 



In 1884 the Moravians, pioneer workers 

 among the eastern F.skimo, sent a com- 

 mission to look over the ground in Alaska, 

 and as a result a mission was established 

 at Kevinak among the Eskimo of Kus- 

 kokwim r. in the next year by Revs. W. H. 

 W^einiand and J. H. Killjuck, with their 

 wives. In the same year other stations 

 were established at Kolmakof, on the 

 upper Kuskokwim, for Eskimo and In- 

 dians together, and farther s., at Carmel, 

 on Nushagak r. In 1903 there were 5 

 mission stations in Eskimo territory, in 

 charge of 13 white workers, having 21 

 native assistants, with Rev. Adolf Stecker 

 as superintendent. The reindeer herd 

 numbered nearly 400. 



In 1886 the Episcopaliavs began work 

 with a school at St IVIichael, on the coast 

 (Eskimo), which was removed next year 

 to Anvik, on the Yukon, in charge of 

 Rev. and Mrs Octavius Parker and Rev. 

 J. H. Chapman. In 1890 a mission 

 school was started at Pt Hope (Eskimo), 

 under Dr J. B. Driggs, and about the 

 same time another among the Tanana 

 Indians in the middle Yukon vallev, by 

 Rev. and Mrs T. H. Canham. In" 1903 

 the Episcopalians in Alaska, white and 



