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.