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Post by peacekeeper on May 27, 2006 8:31:20 GMT -5
Excerpts from: Project Canterbury
First Annual Report of The Missionary Bishop of Niobrara.
To the Board of Missions of the Protestant Episcopal Church:
I was elected to be Missionary Bishop of Niobrara on All Saints' Day, 1872. I accepted the appointment early in December, and was consecrated January 9th, 1873. After three months spent in winding up my personal affairs, in discharging the duties of Secretary of the Foreign Committee, and in presenting in various churches the claims of the Indian work, I departed for the Indian Country April 7th, and now, preserved through my travels by the goodness of GOD and confirmed by what I have seen in my hope for the Indian, have the privilege of presenting my FIRST ANNUAL REPORT.
BOUNDS OF THE JURISDICTION.
The Jurisdiction proper of the Missionary Bishop of Niobrara, is a tract of country bounded "on the East by the Missouri River; on the South by the State of Nebraska; on the west by the 104th Meridian, the Territory of Wyoming, and Nebraska; on the North by the 46th degree of north latitude; including also the several Indian Reservations on the left bank of the Missouri, North and East of said river."
In order, however, to give unity and compactness to the effort of the Church for the Indian tribes, the House of Bishops passed the following resolution:
"Resolved, That the Missionary Bishop of Niobrara be authorized to take charge of such work among the Indians east of the Rocky Mountains, as may be transferred to his oversight by the Bishops within whose Jurisdiction such work may lie."
MISSIONS ON THE MISSOURI RIVER.
The main body of the Missionary enterprise of our Church among the Indians is located among the tribes on the upper Missouri. The whole number of main stations on the River is six. There are besides two sub-stations connected with the Santee Mission and three with the Yankton Mission. I have visited all these stations twice during the six months I have been in the field, and have found in the joy of meeting with the Missionary brethren and sisters engaged there, more than a reward for any trials that I have encountered by the way. Our Missions are strung along the river. They can there do their work more advantageously, for the reason that the Government Agencies are located on the river front. These agencies are points of occasional resort by all the Indians, because the benefactions of the Government are dispensed there. They are also the residence of the better disposed Indians, because they have there both protection and encouragement in learning the white man's ways. Thus, Missions placed at these points not only benefit the people who are settled there, but attract the attention of the wilder roving bands, who examine them with an amusing curiosity, (sometimes with undisguised disgust), and in their wanderings interiorward, gossip over them at their camp fires with all they meet. Said a shrewd Yankton chief, White Swan, as I was about to leave the chapel which has been erected among Ms people, "Stop, friend, I have a few words to say. I am glad to hear you are going to visit the wild, upper tribes. Companies of them often come down to visit my band, and I always take them to see this chapel. I think a good deal depends upon the impression my chapel makes on them. I think if it was put in better order it would make a better impression than it does. The rain and snow come through that roof. This floor is not even. Now, you are called an Apostle. That is a good name. I believe it means, "one sent." But there are many people to whom you are sent to whom you cannot go; for they are wild people. But these visitors of mine go everywhere and tell everywhere what they have seen."
THE SANTEE MISSION.
The first of our Missions in age and in the progress of the people, the first also that a visitor comes upon in going up the Missouri River, is the Santee Mission. It is about thirty miles above the town of Yankton. This Mission was the first Christian effort among the Santees and was begun years ago, when they were living at Red Wood in Minnesota, by Bishop Whipple, who placed among them the Rev. Sam. D. Hinman, who has labored for them and shared their miseries in their forced wanderings until now it is his reward to see a marvellous change. A whole people who, a few years ago, decked themselves in savage attire now wear the white man's dress. The Indian village, a cluster of lodges thronged with idlers and resonant with the drummings of the heathen "medicine man," has disappeared. The people have entered claims wherever the land promised to reward their labors, and are scattered over their Reservation in log houses of their own construction. A considerable number of the more enterprising men have surrendered all the rights to annuities and rations and have gone off to an inviting locality some one hundred miles distant on the Sioux River, have entered farms of one hundred and sixty acres each, formed a settlement of their own and taken the steps necessary to become citizens of the United States. It is from the Santees that the Gospel has been sounded out to the other tribes. On Sundays the Santees may be seen gathering from all directions on foot, on horseback, and in wagons, to attend the Services of the House of GOD. There are among them 289 communicants. It was my privilege to confirm nine on the occasion of my first visit. Much has been written by delighted visitors of the heartiness and reverence with which the Service of the Church are rendered by these humble people. And all that was ever written I found more than realized, when it was my happy lot to kneel with them in their beautiful sanctuary. I could understand how the Apostle could exclaim, as he thought of his converts, "What thank can we render to GOD for all the joy wherewith we joy for your sakes before our GOD?"
It should, however, be remembered that the emotional side of Christianity is more easily acquired by a heathen people than its moral, and that Indians, whether Oneidas or Santees, are but children yet, making; childish essays in the path of duty.
SUB-STATIONS.
There are two of these connected with the main Station. The first is about twelve miles distant, on the Bazille River, established to meet the wants of the people who have taken up farms on that stream. The other Sub-station is about five miles below the Mission, on the bottom land near the Missouri River. At both these Stations we have neat chapels; that at the former Station being the gift of a Society of ladies in New York known as "The Society of the Double Temple," and the other of Mr. and Mrs. Samuel Nettleton, of Watertown, Connecticut.
The chapel on the Bazille was the scene until lately of the labors of Paul Mazakute, a faithful native Presbyter, well known to many in the Church. His Christian enterprise as a loving herald of the Gospel among his own people and among neighboring tribes, and his humble, earnest, consistent life, made him invaluable to the Mission. His good report is on the lips of all who knew him. After prolonged infirmity, against which he struggled manfully, that he might die in the harness, he gently fell asleep May 12th. His memory will long be cherished as evidence of the good things God is ready to do for the Indian.
Paul has been succeeded in charge of the chapel on the Bazille, by the Rev. Dan'l Hemans, for several years a faithful Deacon, and ordained by me to the Priesthood in August last.
CONVOCATION.
In pursuance of my call, a meeting of the Convocation of Niobrara was held at the Santee Mission in August last. All the Clergy of the Jurisdiction were present, with the exception of the Rev. Mr. Burt of the Crow Creek Mission, who had gone East, and the Rev. Mr. Dorsey of the Ponca Mission, who was detained at home. It was an occasion of great interest. Love burns bright, when brethren from widely-separated parts meet together after long separation, and are permitted to declare, as was done in the early Church, what GOD has done with them, and how He has opened the door of faith unto the Gentiles. There, too, every grade of Indian progress was represented in the Convocation, from the lay delegates of the Santees, the foremost in improvement, to the Yanktonnais delegates, but just awakened to the fact that there is a better way, and hardly recovered from bewilderment at the discovery. And, lastly, the animation with which some of the native delegates joined in our counsels, and questioned me as to my plans, showed that the Church, in taking away their wildness, had not destroyed their spirit, while the ardor with which some of them pleaded that the Missionaries would be earnest in urging the people to a higher morality, was a pleasing evidence that, however immature these Christian Indians may be, they are not sunk in moral ideas to one dead level of apathetic mediocrity.
The crowning event of the Convocation was an Ordination, the first I was permitted to hold, at which Mr. William A. Schubert was ordained Deacon and the Rev. William J. Cleveland and the Rev. Daniel Hemans (a native) were advanced to the Priesthood. The Honorable Commissioner of Indian Affairs, being on the Reservation at the time, accepted our invitation and was present at the Service.
THE YANKTON MISSION.
The next of our Missions in order, as one advances up the river, is the Yankton Mission. The Rev. Joseph W. Cook is the Missionary and sees in the three congregations which have been gathered (one at the central church and two at out stations), and in the general progress of the people, the evidence that labor for the Red man is not in vain. Much of the progress of the people is due to the efficient administration of the Agent, the Rev. John G. Gasmann, a Clergyman of our Church, disabled from performing the duties of the Ministry. Mr. Cook is aided by the Rev. Luke C. Walker, a Santee Deacon, who has also of late been my constant companion in my Visitations, and my interpreter when I have preached to the people. Miss Baker continues her efficient and cheerful labors in teaching, and in ministering to the sick.
There are three chapels on this Reserve, beside the central church. The Chapel of the Holy Name, Choteau Creek, is under the immediate care of Mr. John Robinson, a candidate for the Ministry, and of a native Catechist. At the Chapel of St. Philip the Deacon, Service is held by another of the native Catechists. I had hoped to provide this point, which is quite an important one, with a white Minister by the Ordination of Mr. Wm. A. Schubert, who came out in June to devote himself to the work; but he was called East by alarming illness in his family shortly after his Ordination, and has not been able, as yet, to return. The Chapel at Botin's, five miles from the central Station, will be provided with Services from that point.
THE CHAPEL AT THE YANKTON AGENCY
will be the Bishop's Church. The simple and pretty log building in which the congregation now worship has become dear to me, who have known it but a few months. How much more dear it must be to those to whom it has been the scene of the first triumphs of the Gospel, they only can describe. But it is altogether inadequate for those who wish to assemble there, and of course this inconvenience will be felt much more when our schools begin. A new building is a necessity, and I hope that I shall hear of friends who will furnish the few thousand dollars which will be required to build such a structure as is needed.
SISTERS' HOUSE.
There is another want on which I must be permitted to dwell for a moment. There will be a number of Christian women (Sisters from the Bishop Potter Memorial House and others), engaged in work at the Yankton Agency, and a home is very much needed where they may live by themselves. There are several rooms connected with the present chapel, which have served hitherto as the residence of the Mission family. By an addition, which would not cost more than $1,500, this part of the chapel building could be altered into a Sisters' House, where the ladies engaged in Missionary work could live together, and where they could carry on an Industrial School for girls, an institution which is greatly needed. Will not some of those who believe in Woman's work in the Church furnish the necessary funds?
UP-RIVER MISSIONS.
The other Missions within the Missionary Jurisdiction of Niobrara are considerably farther up the river, that among the Lower Yanktonnais at Crow Creek Agency, under the Rev. H. Burt, and that among the lower Brulés, ten miles distant, under the Rev. William J. Cleveland, "being each about one hundred miles above the Yankton Mission, and that at the Cheyenne Agency, among the people of Spotted Cloud's band, under the Rev. H. Swift, being about one hundred miles further still. These Missions answer in our Missionary work to the blockhouses of the early days of our frontier Settlements. They are the outposts of the Missionary enterprise. They are among tribes who have hardly taken their first lesson in civilization, who are roving and unsettled, and contain within them a considerable element of those who love and glory in lawlessness and violence, and whose contact with the white man has as yet been so little with good men, and so frequently with the vicious, that its tendency has been rather to confirm than to shake their conceit that their own, and not the white man's, is the better way.
The Missionaries among them have it as their lot to see attention on the qui vive when they speak of rations, and flagging when they tell of the Bread which endureth unto eternal life; to be daily frustrated in their efforts to enlighten, by finding that the maxims which are axioms with them are to their auditors strange and even incomprehensible; and to spend months in winning a reputation for common decency of life, because the representatives of their race who preceded them have generally forfeited it. Had they their pretty little chapels, and little congregations of regular worshippers, however few in number, there would be something to catch the eye of sense and reward endeavor--but though some kind friends have provided the necessary funds, it has not seemed to me prudent to invest money in churches, until the people have settled down enough to indicate their final abode: nor by the erection of a chapel to tie a Missionary down to one point before he has thoroughly made up his mind what that point should be; nor to give a people a church, as well as a Mission house and family, before they have any intelligent desire for it. In this opinion each of these brethren has cheerfully acquiesced. If they are human they must have hours in which, like their Divine human MASTER, they cry out, "I have labored in vain and spent my strength for nought." But I pray GOD they may not flinch. I know that every one of these Missions was, in its inception, and has been in its prosecution, a noble venture of Christian faith. I know that without steady self-reliance, high-strung courage, and readiness to do good and lend hoping for nothing again, the workers had retreated months ago. They are heroes and heroines, and that not in the lower realms of courage. I record their names with tears of thankfulness that GOD has given them such grace, and blessed me with the privilege of hearing them call me their Bishop. They are the Rev. William J. Cleveland, Mrs. Cleveland, Miss Leigh, and Mr. Walter S. Hall, among the Lower Brulés, the Rev. H. Burt, and Sister Anna Pritchard, among the Yanktonnais, and the Rev. Henry Swift, among the Indians connected with the Cheyenne Agency. What I know of the history of Missionary work in other lands, what I have seen of the progress of other Indians, and what I have seen of signs of awakening among the very people among whom these brethren labor, produce in me the happy conviction that their day of reward is surely coming. I trust that the Boarding Schools which they will conduct this winter will be both present comforts to the laborers and potent means to the end for which they yearn.
SPOTTED TAIL'S AND RED CLOUD'S BANDS.
Two important bodies of Indians which are embraced within the Missionary Jurisdiction of Niobrara, and which have been placed under the supervision of our Church and therefore claim a place in her Missionary enterprise at the earliest possible date, remain yet to be noticed. They are Spotted Tail's and Red Cloud's bands--their Agencies being known respectively as the Whetstone and the Red Cloud Agencies.
The Indians connected with the first of these bands are estimated at several thousands. Those belonging to the other are set down at a little less than 10,000. I have been exceedingly desirous to visit these people, but their Agencies are in the extreme western part of the Jurisdiction, at a long distance from the present Missions; my time and strength have been taxed to the utmost with duties to the Missions now in operation, above reported, and I have had reason to believe that, on account of changes in their Agents and projects for removing the Agencies, there has not, until within two months past, been any promise that I could accomplish much by a visit. The new Agents are now, however, at their posts, both of them men nominated by the Executive Committee of the Indian Commission, and both giving promise of being conscientious and efficient officers. The Indians have, in a degree, settled down in their new homes; they are reported as ready for Christian Ministers and teachers; indeed, the Rev. Mr. Hinman, who visited them recently, reports the opening among Spotted Tail's people one of peculiar promise. I shall visit them, therefore, God willing, as soon as the winter breaks up, if not before; and I trust that the same Providence, Who opens these fields to our charitable enterprise, will also stir up two men of genuine Missionary spirit and practical knowledge of human nature and the common things of life, to enter into them and do His work.
THE NIOBRARA STORE-ROOM.
Early last Spring, I established for the Jurisdiction a Central storeroom, and invited the friends of the Mission who were making up boxes for its benefit, to make this store-room their destination. I supposed that the advantages which would accrue from the establishment of such a store-room would be such as these:
a. A place ready for the reception of boxes at any time when it may suit the convenience of donors to forward them.
b. Safe storage for all goods sent until actually used.
c. The possession of a supply of goods ready for all emergencies, instead of the delay occasioned by the necessity of writing to the East in case of need, and waiting until a box of goods can be made up and forwarded. Succor thus obtained must often come too late.
d. Economy in distribution. Goods can be sorted out. What would be useless at one station might be useful at another.
e. A fair, constant and systematic provision for the wants of all stations, rather than a spasmodic flooding of some stations and a neglect of others.
The establishment of this store-room commended itself to all the Missionaries, and its actual working has been very satisfactory. Thanks to the kind interest of our friends, it has been well supplied, and from its abundance such stores as were needed have been shipped, from time to time, to the various Missions. I do not know what we should have done without it in the emergency produced by the breaking out of small pox among the Santees. And the establishment of our Boarding Schools had hardly been practicable had I not been able to reckon upon stores of clothing, etc., now there, and upon supplies with which, I do not doubt, the store-room will yet be replenished, as they are needed. Would that I could express adequately, for my brethren and myself, our sense of the loving interest of all those individuals and Societies who have, by their contributions to this store-room, and in other ways, committed themselves as friends of our work! They have furnished us with everything useful which the ingenuity of love could devise. Their prayers and blessings have filled often, when the impulse of zeal lulled, the sails of our bark, and, when baffled and in gloom, we have been helped by their sympathy to feel that the MASTER Himself was near us, walking on the sea.
Respectfully submitted,
WILLIAM H. HARE, Missionary Bishop of Niobrara.
September 30, 1873. Project Canterbury
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