THE INDIANS.
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.