immaculate, and their purity of purpose, and the observance of the rites of their religion, are most uniform and remarkable. They are certainly more like a nation of saints than a horde of savages.”
“This was a very enthusiastic view to take of the Nez Perces’ character,” says a Protestant authority, Mrs. Victor, “which appeared all the brighter to the captain by contrast with the savage life which he had witnessed in other places, and even by contrast with the conduct of the white trappers. But the Nez Perces were intellectually and morally an exception to all the Indian tribes west of the Missouri River. Lewis and Clarke found them different from any others; the fur-traders and the missionaries found them the same. To account for this superiority is indeed difficult. The only clue to the cause is the following statement of Bonneville. ‘It would appear,’ he says, ‘that they had imbibed some notions of the Christian faith from Catholic missionaries and traders who have been among them. They even had a rude calendar of the fasts and festivals of the Romish Church, and some traces of its ceremonial. These have become blended with their own wild rites, and present a strange medley, civilized and barbarous.’”[131] It was in this happy and quiet condition that the first Protestant missionaries from the United States found the Indians. They were Methodist, and arrived in 1834, remaining for ten years. “No missionary undertaking,” says Rev. Stephen Olin, himself one of the laborers, “has been prosecuted by the Methodist Episcopal Church with higher hopes and more ardent zeal.... This particular mission, involved an expenditure of forty-two thousand dollars in a single year. At the end of six years, there
were sixty-eight persons connected with this mission, men, women, and children, all supported by this society.”[132] And the same writer adds: “How such a number of missionaries found employment in such a field it is not easy to conjecture, especially as the great body of the Indians never came under the influence of their labors.” Dr. E. White, Sub-Indian Agent, writes, in 1843: “The Rev. Mr. Lee and associates are doing but little for the Indians.... With all that has been expended, without doubting the correctness of the intention, it is most manifest to every observer that the Indians of this lower country, as a whole, have been very little benefited.”[133]
The two Methodist stations established, at Clatsop’s Plains and Nesqualy were speedily abandoned, and that at the Dalles is described, in Traits of American Indian Life, as being in a most fearful condition. “The occurrence,” the author says, alluding to a murder by a converted Indian which he had witnessed, “is but the type of a thousand atrocities daily occurring among these supposed converts.” And we have the authority of Mr. Gray for saying that “the giving of a few presents of any description to them induces them to make professions corresponding to the wish of the donor.” The success of the missionaries at Willamette was, if possible, still more disheartening. Mr. Olin says that of those who held relations with them none remained in 1842; and Alexander Simpson, who visited the valley about the same time, found the mission to consist of but four families, those of a clergyman, surgeon, a schoolmaster, and an agricultural overseer. It is not strange, then, that two years afterwards
the missions were entirely abandoned, and have never been attempted to be re-established. “Had they met vice with a spotless life,” says Gray, “and an earnest determination to maintain their integrity as representatives of religion and a Christian people, the fruits of their labor would have been greater.” We are forced, therefore, to conclude that the author of The River of the West is justified in saying on this and other indisputable authority, “so far from benefiting the Indians, the Methodist mission became an actual injury to them”—the Indians.
Thus ended the first chapter in the history of the progress and civilization of the Indians in Oregon, to which we desire to call the respectful attention of the United States Senate. We have the testimony of Captain Bonneville, endorsed by Mrs. Victor, regarding the honesty and piety of the natives in 1832, before the arrival of the Methodists. After nine years of missionary labor, we have the following grave statement from no less an authority than one of their own clergymen:
“The Indians want pay for being whipped into compliance with Dr. White’s laws, the same as they did for praying to please the missionaries during the great Indian revival of 1839” (p. 157).
“As a matter of course, lying has much to do in their system of trade, and he is the best fellow who can tell the biggest lie—make men believe and practise the greatest deception” (p. 158).[134]
The Methodists having selected Lower Oregon as the field of their labors, the Presbyterians chose the upper or eastern portion of the territory. They arrived in 1836, three in number, afterwards increased to twelve, and backed up by the Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions. Dr. Marius Whitman settled at Wailatpu
among the Cayuses and Walla Wallas, and Messrs. H. H. Spaulding and W. H. Gray at Lapwai, with the Nez Perces. In 1838, the Spokane mission was established by Messrs. Walker and Ellis. Their prospects of success were at first most brilliant. The savages received them kindly and listened to them attentively. “There was no want of ardor in the Presbyterian missionaries,” says The River of the West. “They applied themselves in earnest to the work they had undertaken. They were diligent in their efforts to civilize and christianize their Indians.” But they made a fatal mistake at the very beginning, which not only reflects on their personal honesty, but shows that they knew nothing of the character of the people they came to instruct. Mr. John Toupin, who was for many years interpreter at Fort Walla Walla, gave, in 1848, the following account of the establishment of those missions: