S’KOKOMISH AGENCY—FIELD AND WORK.
REV. MYRON EELLS.
I propose to give some idea of the extent and character of my “parish,” and of the kind of work we are attempting to do.
1st. In the S’kokomish Reservation. Here are seven English-speaking families, and a school of from twenty-five to thirty scholars at the Agency, and about two hundred Indians in the vicinity. Besides pastoral work, I hold a service every Sabbath morning in Indian. Once a month, in the absence of the pastor, one of the lay members of the church takes his place. This congregation averages seventy. In the afternoon, the Agent and employees carry on the Sabbath-school with an average attendance of fifty-eight. Twice a month I preach in the evening in English to a congregation of employees and scholars, which averages about thirty-five. On Thursday evening the regular church prayer meeting is held, at which the male members take their turns in leading. Occasionally I meet the school-children and apprentices, generally once in a week or so, for some kind of an informal meeting.
2d. Three miles from the Agency is a small place, Union City, consisting of a store, hotel, saloon and five families, and a number of transient loggers. I can give them one evening a month without neglecting regular duties. The average attendance is about twenty-five on public worship and eighteen on Sabbath-school, the latter of which the ladies of the place keep up most of the time when I am not present.
3d. Thirty miles North is Seabeck, a saw-mill town of two or three hundred people, where I have charge of a small church organized last May. I generally visit them about once a month. There is a Sabbath-school which the church sustains for the Indians, about thirty of whom live there, gaining their support mainly by work in the mill—two of them being members of our church.
4th. Twenty miles further on is Port Gamble, a large milling town, which has a minister of its own, but near it are about a hundred Indians who belong to our Agency, most of whom are Catholics, but who receive me cordially when I go there, two or three times a year.
5th. Forty miles still further is Dunginess, a flourishing Indian colony, named Jamestown, which is the centre of an Indian population of about one hundred and forty. I generally visit them twice a year. Six of our church members live here; they have a small church built by themselves, a day school, and I also preach to them sometimes. They sustain a weekly prayer meeting most of the time, the only one in the county which has a white population of over six hundred, and they likewise have the only church building in this county, organized twenty-six years ago.
6th. Six miles from Jamestown is Sequim, a village of about forty Indians, most of whom are aged and infirm. These are tributary to Jamestown, sending their children to that school, some of whom travel the whole distance twice each school day, and also on the Sabbath.
7th. Between Port Gamble and Jamestown is Port Discovery, another saw-mill town, where nearly forty Indians make their home, whom I generally call to see on my journeys; but so much whisky is sold near them that it has been almost impossible to stop their drinking; they also live in a somewhat scattered condition, which makes it difficult to make any permanent religious impression on them.
8th. Once a year I calculate to go still farther; and twenty miles beyond Jamestown is Port Angelos, with about thirty nominal Indian residents. But few of them are settlers, and like those of Port Discovery they are diminishing.
9th. Seven miles further is Elkwa, with about seventy Indians. It has been the home of one of the most influential bands in years past, but owing to the fact that there have been but few white settlers from whom the Indians could obtain work, they have hitherto done very little about cultivating the soil for themselves; and as they could easily go across the straits to Victoria in British Columbia, where there is but little restraint in regard to their procuring whisky, because they are American Indians, they have been steadily losing in influence and numbers. Four families of them have “homesteaded” land, however, and others, moved by their example and success, are taking the preparatory steps to secure homes; but being scattered, and most of them back from the water, as it is now impossible to homestead good land on the beach, they will lose the benefits of school and church in a great measure; but still the old way of herding together will be broken up, and they will obtain more of their living from civilized pursuits.
10th. Thirty miles still further is Clallam Bay, the limit of the Indians belonging to our reservation, the home of some seventy more. Within a year they have bought about a hundred and sixty acres of land, and propose to follow somewhat the plan of the Jamestown Indians. This place promises to be an important point, as it is near a salmon cannery, and in the catching of salmon they are at home; it is also the nearest station of the tribe to the sea fisheries of the northwest coast of the Territory, by far the most lucrative business, in its season, which the Indians can follow.
Then there is call for work among the whites. In Clallam county, with its more than six hundred inhabitants, there is no resident minister, and I am repeatedly asked to preach to them, but can only give them a sermon during some hours of the Sabbath when I am not talking to Indians. In Mason county, here I live, with six hundred more people, I am the only resident minister, and call after call comes which I cannot in justice to the work of the A. M. A., answer; but I shall try shortly to give them a fifth Sabbath in the month.
Fourteen miles from Seabeck is another settlement where there has never been a sermon preached in the fifteen years of its existence, and four times, one young man, not a Christian, has asked me to go there, even offering to carry me over fifty miles in his boat. These are small places, with scattered people, and probably small congregations, yet it is hard to resist their appeals. If there were two Sabbaths every week I sometimes think I could manage the field better.