AMONG THE INDIANS.
Missionary Work in Out-Stations.
REV. G. W. REED, NORTH DAKOTA.
In some of our Indian mission fields the name out-station is a misnomer. It is especially so on the Standing Rock Reservation where there has never been a mission boarding-school to make prominent a central station. Ten years ago all of the 3,700 Indians came to the agency every two weeks for their rations of meat, flour, etc. For four or five days, including Sunday, they all camped in a radius of five miles. Here was a fine opportunity for religious work. Here naturally was built the first chapel which was the home of the first church organization though the original members lived in South Dakota, 32 miles from their chapel, which was in North Dakota.
GREAT EXPECTATIONS.
But to-day the out-station is emphatically the in-station, in the heart of the various Indian communities; for four sub issue stations have been established, and with few exceptions the people are compelled to travel not over twenty-five miles to get their bi-weekly rations. There is no good reason why they should be away from home more than two days for this purpose. This arrangement has given great prominence to the so-called out-station—which is in charge of a native preacher and his wife, both of like importance in the work, in the heart of an Indian community, letting its light shine every day in the year. The people are becoming more and more scattered, making the day-school well nigh an impossibility and greatly diminishing the attendance at all but Sunday religious meetings.
OUR FIRST CHAPEL, STANDING ROCK, N. D.
It is no uncommon thing to find a family with no neighbor within a mile. They have found it easier to haul a few loads of wood in winter than many loads of hay 10 to 15 miles in summer. They are living out where they can find a good range and plenty of hay for their cattle.
In the day of villages the native preacher having his people closely about him could have a well-attended school, where parents and children learned to read the Word of God in their own language, through the long evenings of the winter months.
SUMMER CAMP OF INDIANS.
The compulsory attendance of all the children from 6 to 18 years of age in school, mostly in boarding-schools, has closed the mission day-school, and the native worker has become preacher and pastor and no longer a school teacher. Ten years ago the work of our native workers could be closely planned by the white missionary, but to-day he must plan his own work largely to fit ever changing conditions, and learn to make each day count most for Christ. These men must be men of fidelity, men who have been trained in our Oahe or Santee schools, men who have a much larger knowledge of the Bible than their fellows. There have never been half enough of such for the work.
David Many Bulls, one of the best men we ever had, never went to school a year in his life, but he was an exception in his successful work. He was stationed 70 miles from a white missionary. Well do I remember the starting of this out-station.
It was an out-station, away out from anywhere, but the few people there were urgent for a teacher, and promised to help all they could and furnish logs for a meeting-house. I travelled over 600 miles back and forth before we had a house for the preacher and his family. At first he lived in a tent, and in November it was cold. In the change from one community to another he was cheated out of his beef issues for a month. He suffered this with other wrongs rather than make complaint which might make enemies for his new work. Few attended his school and religious services even on Sunday, but he never lost heart. When his little babe was sick, and all his people were away for weeks, though sorely tempted to go back down the river 70 miles to his relatives, he stuck to his post, and when the little one died took this long journey for its burial and in a week was back at his work.
Though not strong physically, he seldom failed to travel the 100 miles round trips with his people when they went for rations in the cold of winter, and these, with his rides in house-to-house visitations, hastened his death after one year of most faithful and arduous work. Five men in succession have followed him, tried to do the work and given it up as too hard. And it is hard, for the people have done little in six years to help themselves.
An out-station work of 15 years' growth has been more hopeful, and last year resulted in a church organization, and this year the people have voted to pay in part the salary of their pastor whom they have chosen for a year. There have been few changes in native workers at this place and this fact has been a hopeful factor in the good results.
MESSIAH CHAPEL AND CONGREGATION, N. D.
In proportion to its membership their women's society has led all others in its contributions. When they wanted a nice bell the people raised two-thirds of its cost. When they built their chapel, they raised two-fifths of its cost. When they wanted pews for it they paid two-thirds of their cost. They were the first to build a good cemetery fence, the first to enclose their chapel with a substantial fence. One of their number placed in the edifice a fine memorial window. From their number have been chosen most of the native workers for other out-stations.
The Little Oak Creek people have set the pace in helping themselves. I enclose a picture of their Messiah Chapel and congregation.
The out-station work among the Cannon Ball people began in 1891, after the ghost dance trouble, and has had to contend with the baleful influence of the Indian dance.
CANNON BALL CHAPEL, N. D.
For two years the native worker lived in a hired house, where all the meetings were held and the house was generally crowded. Not 200 feet away was a big dance-house, crowded every Saturday till late in the night. This was the time given by the native worker and a few trusty followers for most attractive praise services. The tired dancers, a few at a time, would drop into the meeting for a half hour. Again the dance would attract nearly all from the meeting. The result fully justified the bold experiment, for in a year the dance-house was torn down and has never been replaced. This people have been a long time in beginning to help themselves, but in the last few years have given well to missions and this year are enlarging their small chapel at a cost of over $400, more than half of which they have given. A picture of this with congregation is enclosed. With this people the mid-week prayer-meeting has been the prominent feature, many coming over six miles to attend. Here most have learned to read the Dakota Bible, by studying in their own homes with the aid of the native preacher or others who could read, and good work has been done in Bible study. A picture of the meeting-house and congregation at our youngest out-station shows the long dirt-roofed log-house which the people hope to replace with a chapel, having in hand nearly $100. In such a house, not always so good, have we begun every out-station.
CANNON BALL OUT-STATION, N. D.
Only as a worker could be spared from another out-station has work been done here. In this community the dancers are the ruling element, though in a quarter of a mile of a large day-school and sub-issue station. This month we begin with a man in charge of the work. In the last two years sixteen of these dancers have come into church membership. Nowhere else does our work come into such close conflict with heathen practices. But sickness and death of many children have made tender the hearts of heathen parents and opened the way for the bearer of words of true comfort.
MANY BEARS' FARM.
One good thing about the out-station is that it is portable. It is not expensive. When the Indians move away, it can easily follow them. But we all are grateful that we have not yet been compelled to test this qualification. We are striving towards growth and enlargement and permanency. The success of out station work depends so largely upon the native worker, his tact, his Bible knowledge, his spirituality, that in pushing out-station work we must never be unmindful of the mission boarding-school where he must be trained. There should be one on every reservation where we are doing work.
This is our crying need to-day—men to man these out-stations, men who will know more than the children when they return home from the government boarding-schools; men who have been prepared by years of religious training in mission schools to stand firmly against heathen practices and to teach their people wisdom and righteousness in the humble out-station.