Book: The American Missionary, Vol. 43, No. 7, July, 1889
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Various >> The American Missionary, Vol. 43, No. 7, July, 1889
THE INDIANS.
A TRIP AMONG THE OUT-STATIONS.
The out-station work among the Indians is a feature almost
peculiar to the Indian Missions of the A.M.A. These stations are
the picket-lines pushed forward into the Reservations beyond the
line of established schools and missions. Each one consists of a
cheap home connected sometimes with a cheap school-house, and
these are occupied by one or two native Indian missionaries who
teach and preach, and thus accomplish an immediate good and lay
the foundation for the more permanent church and school. The
Association has about twenty such stations on the Cheyenne and
other rivers in Dakota. One of the teachers from Oahe gives a
racy sketch of a trip among some of the out-stations. We make
room for a large extract, regretting that we have not space for
more.
THE JOURNEY.
We started Thursday morning, going about seven miles above the Mission
to cross the river. We took dinner at the house of a white man who has
an Indian wife, and then started out on the long drive. Our direction
was almost due west, a little south toward the Cheyenne River. We
reached an out-station on the Cheyenne about dark, where James Brown, a
Santee Indian, is stationed. Two of our Santee school-girls are here,
and it was encouraging to see their neat dress, and hear them use their
English, though they so seldom see any one with whom they have occasion
to use it that it is not easy for them. The next morning, the girls had
classes in reading and writing. Some of the children were ragged and
dirty, with faces unwashed, and hair uncombed, one little boy with both
knees coming through his trousers, but their faces were, almost without
exception, bright and intelligent, with the intelligence of childhood,
which would inevitably change to the stolid indifference of ignorance,
were it not for the influence which this Christian household among them
may exert. To be sure, the girls are young and inexperienced, but that
they do their best means a great deal. Two young men were learning to
read the Dakota Bible. Soon after eleven, we were on our way again,
keeping the Cheyenne River in sight. We stopped at one of the villages
on the Cheyenne, where a Frenchman with an Indian wife has built up
quite a little colony, all related to one another. Several of our pupils
come from here, and the mode of life at their home has been modified by
their influence.
We reached Plum Creek, where Edwin Phelps is stationed, about dark, and
after two long days' ride I was glad when bed time came. Ellen Kitto and
Elizabeth Winyan had come up from the Cheyenne, and I felt sure that
Elizabeth had given up her bed for me. The next morning I asked Ellen if
we could go out to some of the houses, but she said the people were all
on the other side of the river, that there was a dance there. This was a
disappointment to me, as I wanted to see the homes of the people, but
after dinner Edwin offered to take Elizabeth, Ellen and me across the
river to Cherry Creek, so that I gained rather than lost.
THE DANCE.
As we drew near the dance-house I could hear the monotonous yet rythmic
beat of the drum, and get glimpses through the door-way of the feathered
heads moving in time to the music. Outside there was a crowd of women,
girls, and young men, the young men wrapped in white sheets under which
they carry off, and make love to, the dusky maidens. This is the way a
Titon "makes love." As a recent writer describes this dance, bringing
before one only its poetry, and that which may be perhaps really
beautiful, it does not seem shocking or revolting in the least; but the
reality is simply dreadful. Not so much in itself, perhaps, though that
is bad enough, as in its influence, its consequences, all that it means
and all that it leads to.
THE CONTRAST.
Just beyond the dance house is the mission station where Clarence Ward
and his wife are; a civilized Christian family in the midst of this
heathenism.
Sunday was to be the eventful day, and as early as half past nine the
congregation began to arrive. When the bell rang for service, the
school-room was filled almost immediately. Everything possible was
utilized for seats; trunks, boxes, wagon-seats, kegs, and those who
could not be provided with seats sat on the floor. There were probably a
hundred in all. The weight of so many people on the floor was too much
for the sleepers. Some of them gave way, and the floor settled somewhat,
but the audience was not "nervous" and was only amused. As I sat at the
organ, a group outside the door attracted my attention; several bright
faced girls, their shawls drawn over their heads with a grace a white
girl might envy, but could not hope to attain, and beyond them a face
that would pass on the most perfectly appointed stage for one of
Macbeth's witches, without being "made-up." The faces of some of the men
were as wooden and expressionless as the figures in front of a tobacco
shop, but these are they into whose lives the power of the Gospel of the
Son of God has not come. After this service came the church meeting, and
a Cheyenne River branch church was established which still has
connection with the mother church at Oahe.
The school-room being too small for the afternoon communion service,
this was held out of doors. There must have been a hundred and fifty
present, perhaps more. First came a marriage ceremony, then the
admission of four new members, and the baptism of two children. Probably
four-fifths of the congregation had been drawn thither merely from
curiosity, and on the faces of many of these were the traces of
yesterday's paint. The simple service, which the new communion set made
perfect, could not fail to impress them that there is something better
than they have known. At its close, Edwin Phelps's scholars stood and
sang "Whiter than Snow," in Dakota. Have not those girls gained a great
moral victory, when in native dress, with their shawls worn after the
native fashion, they stand up among their own people and proclaim
themselves on the side of right? It was a day full of new experiences
and new impressions for me. The contrast between this scene and the one
of the day before, presented itself to me over and over again.
DAKOTA WIND.
The next morning we started out for the return to Oahe. The day was warm
and pleasant and uneventful. I was comfortable and happy, and as we
stopped for lunch when we got hungry, I began to wonder where the
hardships of my journey were coming in, but people who are never so
happy as when they are uncomfortable, _ought_ to get their just deserts.
I got mine. After we started from James Brown's, the wind rose. It rose
and it rose. It kept rising. How that wind did blow! It blew us up hill
and threw us down hill. It fairly hurled us along. It blew Mr. Riggs's
hat off and we chased it for half a mile. It blew my hat off; it blew my
hair down; we put into a ravine for repairs. We went through long
stretches of burned prairie, and clouds of fire-black dust were flying.
We hoped when we got down into the ravine it would not be so bad. Vain
hope. It was worse. The dust was blacker and thicker and more dusty. The
gravel stung our faces and blinded our eyes. For the entire distance of
thirty-five miles, that wind howled and raved and tore. It almost took
the ponies off their feet. I have not exaggerated it one bit. It would
be impossible to exaggerate. When we reached the house where we had
taken dinner going up, we found the dirt blown from the roof, likewise
the tar-paper, leaving great cracks through which the dirt rattled.
Everything was an inch deep in dirt, but we were welcomed to the shelter
of the four walls, and what was left of the roof. The dirt did not
matter. We were already done in charcoal. Mr. Collins was here, caught
by the wind, and before dark the Agency farmer came. It was impossible
to cross the river in such a gale, and here I knew we must stay.
The next morning was still and clear and beautiful. It was difficult to
realize that the elements had been on such a tear the day before, so
after breakfast we embarked for home, going the seven miles by water
this time, and I reached the mission a gladder and a wiser woman.
This glimpse of out-station work is something I have long wanted, and
anyone who does not believe in Indian education should see the results
of it as they appear here. In the audience on Sunday, were three young
women former students, one at Hampton, one at Santee, one at Oahe. Their
dress, the expression of their faces, their whole appearance proclaimed
the power of Christian education, and it is only in the faces of the
Christian Indians that there is any expression of gladness. There is no
gladness in their life outside of this. Oh, that the work at these
stations may be blessed! There are hundreds and hundreds, yes, thousands
of Indians who will never be reached by Hampton, Carlisle, Santee, by
all the Indian schools put together, and who will never be Christianized
or civilized by "edict from Washington." Christ must be taken to them,
lived among them in such a way that his true loveliness may be made
apparent to them. Without this, all else goes for naught; with this,
life and light must come, and darkness and ignorance and superstition
must flee away.--_Word-Carrier._
* * * * *
THE CHINESE.
* * * * *
THE CHINESE WORK.
BY REV. M. McG. DANA, D.D., LOWELL, MASS.
I never read any report of this, without feeling both humiliated and
inspired. Humiliated, because I have regarded the field so unpromising;
inspired, because such glimpses of gracious possibilities and
achievements are caught. We have been so incredulous as to certain alien
races, that we have only partially and feebly brought to bear upon them
the saving influences of the Gospel. We are not, indeed, responsible for
the presence of these Orientals in our land. Ours is a different
responsibility; it is for their evangelization, now that they have been
led to our shores. This work is laid upon us, and never was it more
urgent or hopeful than at this hour. It was one of the methods of our
Lord to arouse men to noblest service by reminding them of the
obligations imposed upon them by their circumstances and opportunities.
Whether the call came to them from a promising or unpromising field, on
them rested the duty of responding. In the great Sermon on the Mount,
our Lord, after finishing with his gentle and sweet benedictions,
abruptly turned and, with changed tone and impressive words, said to his
disciples, "Ye are the salt of the earth." On you rests the obligation
of becoming the conservative element in society. Confronting as they did
a decadent civilization and a vanishing religious faith and a general
heart-despair, they were to be the saviors of men. Pungent and
preservative as salt, are ye to be in the midst of a putrid age. Few,
too, as they were in numbers, and without honor as well, yet they were
to be the light of the world. On their luminousness depended their power
to influence. The radiancy of their life and teaching was to penetrate
the surrounding gloom. Later on follows the divine imperative to "Go
forth and disciple all nations."
However unfavorable the outlook, however inadequate they seemed for the
undertaking, they were to attempt what was enjoined. It lifted them to
an altitude never before reached, and made them conscious of a power
never before possessed.
This is the principle which we need to apply to the emergencies in which
we are called to act. We get from others what we tell them we expect.
There is something in human nature that likes to be trusted with
responsibility; something in us that responds to great occasions. You
remember when Nelson fought that pivotal naval engagement at Trafalgar
against the combined fleets of France and Spain, he gave to his command
as a motto to inspire them to do their best, "England expects every man
to do his duty." That brought every soldier and sailor under the eyes of
the country whose interests they were upholding, and nerved each one to
deeds of valor. It awakened a sense of responsibility and called forth
their noblest service. So our Lord seems to be saying to American
churches and to the constituency of this Society, "'Ye are the light of
the world.' On you depends the evangelization of these despised Chinese.
Treating them now contemptuously and now even brutally, ye are called to
be salt to them, thus saving them from moral deterioration, and
inoculating them with the spirit of the Gospel. Ye are to illuminate
them with the light you have to shed as followers of Christ, and the
responsibility is laid upon you to carry to them the principles of that
faith which has given to us whatever excellence we have as a Nation. I
expect you to Christianize these representatives of the Orient, to
convert them to the worship of the God of the Bible." In this
expectation of the Master, lies at once our obligation and our
privilege. Much is laid upon us, but the trust brings with it honor, and
inspires to grandest service.
The progress already made in this work, the cheering tokens of success
that are reported by all laborers in this field, ought to awaken a far
greater sympathy for those in whose behalf we are called to make our
Christ-like expenditures. It is time we rose above the mean political
enmities which have embarrassed not a little this imperative evangelism.
Our treatment of these people is but another chapter in our history on
which other and larger hearted generations will look with shame and
sorrow. In the animosities born of our commercial greed, we have acted
as if our religion had made us neither in life nor doctrine better than
they. Eager to send the Gospel to distant heathen, we have been
reluctant to exemplify, and slow to practically apply, to the heathen in
our midst the teaching of Christianity. Now has come a new era, and the
evangelistic efforts among the Chinese are assuming greater proportions
than ever, and are engirt with every sign of gracious success. We have
yet to learn to respect the manhood in these emigrants from the great
kingdom beyond the Pacific. It is said of our Lord, when he came across
the Publican Matthew, sitting at the receipt of custom, that "he saw a
man," and it was oftentimes the lowly, the shunned, the socially
despised he called to become his disciples. It is a great art, this of
seeing in a man the ideal, the possible man. When Jesus Christ looks
upon a man, he looks him into a nobler manhood. We need to rise above
class distinctions, to regard no one common or unclean, to speak of no
one as hopeless or worthless.
One word as to opportunity. God always matches opportunity with ability,
and when we stand face to face with opportunity, we must go forward or
be recreant to every trust.
Here is this man--the Chinaman--on our coast, for whom we are doing
exactly the same work that this Society has been urging us to do for the
black race, in raising up preachers amongst them to go back to the homes
in their own country and there become the proper evangels to their own
people. When we realize that this is our work, and this is the
opportunity before us, we shall talk of the Chinese question with more
seriousness.
We are like the two American boys. One says to the other: "My father is
a Christian; is your father a Christian?" The other boy replies, not
wishing to be outdone, "Oh, yes, my father is a Christian, but he is not
working much at it just now." That is about the way with this nation,
nominally a Christian nation; we are not working much at it in the way
we are treating the Indian, Chinese and colored man. We want the nation
to act out the principles it believes in.
Mr. Gladstone said he divided the English nation into classes and
masses. The masses, he added, have as little regard for the doctrines of
the Gospel, as the upper classes have for its precepts. Now we have not
only to give the precepts of the Gospel to the Chinaman, but we must
inculcate its principles in the heart beyond all danger of eradication.
If we do not do this, we shall act little better than the Chinese do
themselves. A man was once asked how much he weighed. He replied, "I
weigh 160, but when I am mad I weigh a ton." We need the madness born of
a great zeal, the enthusiasm kindled by the Gospel, then shall we be
able to lift up all classes and conditions of men.
When we get anointed for this work, and carry the Gospel with all the
earnestness of our faith, and all the patience born of the example of
Christ, then we shall realize our fondest hopes for the Christianization
of the Chinese and of other races in our country.
We have only a few thousands of Chinese in our country, and whenever one
of these becomes a Christian he is much like a Christian in apostolic
days. He is raised above his former life, loses largely the sympathy of
his own people, and is regarded as an apostate from his ancestral faith.
It costs, therefore, a great deal to become a Christian under such
circumstances, yet there are joyous, devoted Chinese Christians
preaching, with signal power, the Gospel to their brethren, and living
so as to be Christian luminaries among their idolatrous kindred.
I consider it no inferior part of this Association's work that it is
expending its efforts among the Chinese now resident on the coast. We
have, however, only made a beginning; much, very much, remains to be
done. We have to conquer political prejudices, and invite to our faith
with warmest welcomes those for whom Christianity has such priceless
boons. If we raise up amongst them missionaries to go back to the
crowded Mongolian Empire, this society will become an institution not
only for Christianizing the conscience of our nation, but also an agency
for training up and sending forth missionaries for the neediest of
lands. Let it be ours to evince a friendly fellowship and true devotion
to the despised, and kindle a manlier faith and larger Christian
service.
* * * * *
BUREAU OF WOMAN'S WORK.
MISS D.E. EMERSON, SECRETARY.
* * * * *
WOMAN'S STATE ORGANIZATIONS.
CO-OPERATING WITH THE AMERICAN MISSIONARY ASSOCIATION.
ME.--Woman's Aid to A.M.A.,
Chairman of Committee, Mrs. C.A. Woodbury, Woodfords, Me.
VT.--Woman's Aid to A.M.A.,
Chairman of Committee, Mrs. Henry Fairbanks, St. Johnsbury, Vt.
VT.--Woman's Home Miss. Union,
Secretary, Mrs. Ellen Osgood, Montpelier, Vt.
CONN.--Woman's Home Miss. Union,
Secretary, Mrs. S.M. Hotchkiss, 171 Capitol Ave., Hartford, Conn.
MASS. and R.I.--Woman's Home Miss. Association,
Secretary, Miss Natalie Lord, Boston, Mass.[1]
N.Y.--Woman's Home Miss. Union,
Secretary, Mrs. William Spalding, Salmon Block, Syracuse, N.Y.
ALA.--Woman's Missionary Union,
Secretary, Miss S.S. Evans, Birmingham, Ala.
MISS.--Woman's Miss. Union,
Secretary, Miss Sarah J. Humphrey, Tougaloo, Miss.
TENN. and ARK.--Woman's Missionary Union of Central South Conference,
Secretary, Miss Anna M. Cahill, Nashville, Tenn.
LA.--Woman's Miss. Union,
Secretary, Miss Jennie Fyfe, 490 Canal St., New Orleans. La.
FLA.--Woman's Home Miss. Union,
Secretary, Mrs. Nathan Barrows, Winter Park, Fla.
OHIO.--Woman's Home Miss. Union,
Secretary, Mrs. Flora K. Regal, Oberlin, Ohio.
IND.--Woman's Home Miss. Union,
Secretary, Mrs. W.B. Mossman, Fort Wayne, Ind.
ILL.--Woman's Home Miss. Union,
Secretary, Mrs. C.H. Taintor, 151 Washington St., Chicago, Ill.
MINN.--Woman's Home Miss. Society,
Secretary, Miss Katharine Plant, 2651 Portland Avenue,
Minneapolis, Minn.
IOWA.--Woman's Home Miss. Union,
Secretary, Miss Ella E. Marsh, Grinnell, Iowa.
KANSAS.--Woman's Home Miss. Society,
Secretary, Mrs. G.L. Epps. Topeka, Kan.
MICH.--Woman's Home Miss. Union,
Secretary, Mrs. Mary B. Warren, Lansing, Mich.
WIS.--Woman's Home Miss. Union,
Secretary, Mrs. C. Matter, Brodhead, Wis.
NEB.--Woman's Home Miss. Union,
Secretary, Mrs. L.F. Berry, 724 N. Broad St., Fremont, Neb.
COLORADO.--Woman's Home Miss. Union,
Secretary, Mrs. S.M. Packard, Pueblo, Colo.
DAKOTA.--Woman's Home Miss. Union,
President, Mrs. T.M. Hills, Sioux Falls;
Secretary, Mrs. W.R. Dawes, Redfield;
Treasurer, Mrs. S.E. Fifield, Lake Preston.
[Footnote 1: For the purpose of exact information, we note
that while the W.H.M.A. appears in this list as a State body
for Mass, and R.I., it has certain auxiliaries elsewhere.]
We would suggest to all ladies connected with the auxiliaries of State
Missionary Unions, that funds for the American Missionary Association
be sent to us through the treasurers of the Union. Care, however,
should be taken to designate the money as for the American Missionary
Association, since _undesignated funds will not reach us_.
* * * * *
The meeting of the officers of the Home Missionary Unions of the
Congregational Churches held at Saratoga, June 4th, was well attended.
Twelve States were there represented, and the occasion was one of great
interest and of encouragement to the cause of missions. The suggestive
and forceful papers presented, indicate that our ladies are in earnest
for the evangelization of our country, and that they will give their
best effort toward extending the influence of our National Societies by
the financial help which they will endeavor to render.
The next meeting of these State organizations will be held in Chicago,
Ill., at the time of the annual meeting of the American Missionary
Association the latter part of next October.
* * * * *
MERIDIAN, MISS.
A little of our industrial work of this first year I would like to
present to you. Our girls, on the closing day, exhibited fourteen pieced
quilts all completed, and twenty were well along toward completion.
Twenty garments have been finished and disposed of. All of the material
has been sent from Northern friends and homes, and some of the girls
have learned the first things of needlework, having learned to use
needle, thread and thimble. One little girl when first given a needle
said, "O see! there is a hole in one end of it." One old lady learned to
knit.
We feel happy in the thought of the spiritual growth in our school.
Several young men and some of our girls have openly expressed themselves
as desirous of being Christians, and have started, I am sure, to follow
Jesus. Another hopeful thing is the zeal with which they attend to the
duties of the Band of Hope. Our young people who are to teach in the
country are quite determined to organize bands and to fight for "God and
home and native land," on the line of temperance. We have given all the
instruction and illustrations we could, and the little ones are becoming
leaders of the older members in the families. One little boy urged his
old grandmother to stop using snuff, and she has given it up after using
it more than twoscore years. She said he used to say, "Don't chew,
grandma; the teachers say it is poison." Some mothers who have been in
the habit of using ruinous alcohol medicines for their children, assured
me they would stop it, after seeing the amount of alcohol contained, as
was shown by our little experiments in evaporating and burning. One
young man of twenty years old passed an examination in the country, and
obtained a second grade certificate, and at sixteen years of age he did
not know his letters. Are there many boys at the North who can show a
better record in four years?
H.I. MILLER.
* * * * *
MACON, GA.
I am sure you want to hear about the closing exercises of our cooking
class. The teacher had given the seven girls comprising the class the
privilege of getting a dinner and each one inviting a guest. One of the
lovely things about the affair was that the guests were the mothers and
teachers of the girls. So at three o'clock one day a company of eighteen
sat down to a dinner that was all cooked and served by these girls. The
white, puffy biscuits, well-cooked meat and vegetables, and the quiet
lady-like serving, all testified to the excellence of the instruction
received. Prouder mothers I never saw than those who then partook of
their daughter's cookery. I was told that every Saturday it had been the
custom for the girls at home to repeat in their own kitchens the work of
the day previous, as it had been done under their teacher's
instructions.
We hope next year with our boarding pupils to do more than we could with
only day pupils. Our sewing classes are this week finishing their work
for the year. There has been sewing in five rooms. The primaries have
pieced blocks for outsides for two quilts, over-hand work. The next
grade has put together four outsides (running). The upper classes have
made fifty pillow-cases, twelve sheets, forty aprons, hemstitched three
tray cloths, outlined one tidy and made three night-dresses. Darning,
button-hole making and hem-stitching were taught in one class. The girls
in another room have tied six comfortables. The boys in the carpenter
shop are doing excellent work, and they like it very much. One class of
five or six come every morning at seven o'clock, and they do this to get
more instruction. Most of this class are country boys who cannot stay at
school all of the year. In one of the primary rooms, we have the
kitchen-garden material. There, with the twenty-four sets of toy dishes,
the little ones are taught how to set and clear off table, and a great
many useful things in reference to table manners and customs.