224 OUR FEDERAL LANDS 



passing through the hands of the missionaries, until 

 the year 1870. It was about this time that the In- 

 dian country was apportioned among the missionary 

 societies, both Catholic and Protestant, each society 

 having its own particular field of labor. 



The report of the Indian Office shows that in 

 1925 there were 400 Protestant and 200 Catholic 

 missionaries engaged in work among the Indians, 

 and a total of 50,000 Protestant and 60,000 Catho- 

 lic church-going Indians attending a thousand 

 churches. These statistics do not include the Five 

 Civilized Tribes of Oklahoma, who are Protestant. 



A hundred or two thousand still maintain in 

 whole or part their ancient religion, the fundamental 

 concept of which is the existence of magic power in 

 objects, animals and men. This is known by name 

 of Manito, Tamanaos and others, but, contrary to 

 common belief, Indians rarely clothe the idea in per- 

 sonality. The "Great Spirit" popularly assigned as 

 the Indian deity exists to most tribes only as a vague 

 influence, visualized usually, if visualized at all, as 

 large animals or inanimate objects like rocks, cliffs or 

 mountains. In the Havasupai Reservation in the 

 Grand Canyon, I found the deity idea visualized in 

 a detached column of red rock rising several hun- 

 dred feet from the south wall of the Canyon which 

 the Indians called "Man." 



The invocation of this vague, mysterious power 

 through prayers, charms, incantations, fetishes, 

 prayer sticks, offerings, sacrifices, dances and the 



