From the Roman Catholic works before us, on the Oregon missions, embracing over eight hundred pages, one would conclude that over forty different tribes who have been visited by these Jesuits, in the territory of the United States, were all converted and Christian Indians, ready to shout, “Glory to God in the highest,” and peace all over our Indian country. But Colonel Dow says he failed to see “one single spark of Indian treachery, cruelty, or barbarism extinguished” among the tribes he visited, who were taught by these priests.
De Smet, the prince and father of Jesuitism in the Indian country, as early as December 30, 1854, five years before the Southern rebellion commenced, communicated to his society in Brussels his approval and desire to have all these Indians join the confederate United States, as their last and only hope. This measure, he says, the Protestant missionaries strongly opposed. He says, also, that Harkins, the Choctaw chief, proposes the expulsion of the Protestant missionaries; we add, for their strong allegiance to their government, and their opposition to this Jesuitical confederate United States scheme (See his letter, “Western Missions,” page 206). Such missionaries, we are forced to admit, have done no good to the Indians, and, we again repeat the question, What good have the missionaries done?
The writer will answer, that before he left the Whitman station in 1842, there were three hundred and twenty-two Indian families among the Cayuse and Nez Percé tribes that had commenced to cultivate, and were beginning to enjoy the fruits of their little farms. About one hundred of them were talking about locating, and were looking for places and material for building themselves more permanent houses. We have never doubted for a moment that the Cayuse, Nez Percé, and Spokan tribes would, in twenty-five years from the time the missions of the American Board were located among them (if let alone by the Hudson’s Bay Company and Roman priests), have become a civilized, industrious, and happy Christian people, ready to have entered as honorable and intelligent citizens of our American Republic.
The unparalleled energy and success attending the efforts of the missionaries among these two powerful migratory tribes excited the jealousy, and aroused the extreme opposition of the Hudson’s Bay Company, and caused them to encourage the largest possible number of Jesuits to come to the country and locate themselves immediately in the vicinity of those missions, and use every possible influence to dissuade the Indians from attending the missionary schools, cultivating their little farms, or attending in the least to any instruction, except such as was given by the priests when they came to the Hudson’s Bay Company’s forts for trade, as they came at stated times to the fort, before the American missionaries came to the country. The Jesuit missionary teaching did not interfere with the roving and hunting life of the Indians, while the plan of settling and civilizing them proposed, and in a measure carried out, by the American missions, did directly interfere with the company’s fur trappers and hunters. This at first was not so regarded, but a moment’s reflection establishes the fact. Every Indian that became a settler, or farmer, had no occasion to hunt for furs to get his supplies.
The moral influence of those missions upon the Indians was good: the Nez Percé and the Protestant part of the Cayuses and Spokans have, through all the Indian wars, remained true and loyal to the American government, while, with perhaps a single exception, those who have been under the opposing religious teachings have been at war with our American people all over our territory. The Methodist missionary influence upon the natives was good, so far as they had an opportunity to exert any. At the Dalles it was certainly good and lasting, notwithstanding the Jesuits placed a station alongside of them. The Methodists were, from the commencement of their mission, interfered with in every way possible, in their efforts to improve the condition of the Indians, and induce them to cultivate their lands and leave the hunting of fur animals. As Rev. Mr. Beaver said of the Hudson’s Bay Company, the life (and, we will add, the present condition and future happiness) of the Indian race had no influence upon that company when put in comparison with the few beavers they might hunt and sell to them. Still the Methodist influence was sufficient, up to the arrival of the French priests, and four years after, to keep up a flourishing native school, notwithstanding the French half-breed children were withdrawn from them, and placed under the tuition of the priests on French Prairie. The result of that Jesuitical teaching is embodied in the law disfranchising all half-breeds, except American, from the privileges of American citizens, for the course they took in the Indian wars against the American settlements and government. The larger portion of them, and especially those adhering to the company and the teachings of their priests, have gone into British Columbia, carrying with them an implacable hatred of our people and government. As to the good the American missionaries have done to the Indians on this coast, we can point to-day, more than thirty years from the commencement of their labors, to improvements, made and kept up by the Indians, that were commenced under the direction of those missionaries. We can point to Indian families who have strictly adhered to the Protestant religious forms of worship taught them by the American missionaries. We have the testimony of General Benjamin Alvord, of the United States army, on this point. After saying (September 10, 1854) that the Nez Percés never shared in the hostile feelings of the Cayuses, declined to join in the war of 1847 against the whites, and have since steadily and repeatedly refused to do so, he proceeds as follows: “In the spring of 1853 a white man, who had passed the previous winter in the country of the Nez Percés, came to the military post at the Dalles, and, on being questioned as to the manners and customs of the tribe, he said that he wintered with a band of several hundred in number, and that the whole party assembled every morning and evening for prayer, the exercises being conducted by one of themselves, and in their own language. He stated, that on Sunday they assembled for exhortation and worship. The writer of this communication made repeated inquiries, and these accounts have been confirmed by the statements of others who have resided among them. Thus, six years after the forced abandonment of the mission, its benign effects are witnessed among that interesting people.”
In addition to the above, we would add our own observations made in 1861 among those Indians. That year they were more sorely tried than ever before. Gold had just been discovered in their country, and thousands of unarmed miners were passing and repassing all through it. The disaffected Cayuses were among them, urging them to join and rescue their country from the Bostons. We met some twenty-five of the chiefs and principal men, and conversed with them in the most friendly and familiar manner about their country and their situation; the old scenes of the mission; the killing of Dr. Whitman and those at his station; all the reasons assigned; the causes and the result of the Doctor’s death, and its effect on the Cayuses. Having no disposition to deceive them, we inquired distinctly if there was gold in their country. They told us frankly there was, and that they had seen it, as the Americans had taken it away. They then asked what they had better do;—if it was not best for them to join the Cayuses, and drive the Americans from their country. They said the agent had told them to keep quiet, and in a few years the whites would get out the gold and leave the country, and their buildings and improvements would be their own. We replied: There are two things you can do. These miners will come to your country; they are bound to have the gold. Now, you can join the Cayuses, and go to killing them off if you choose, but you will soon find yourselves in the condition of the Cayuses,—roving about, without a home or country, and the more miners you kill, the sooner you will be cut off, and your country occupied by strangers. Our advice is, that you remain quiet and improve your farms; as fast as you can, educate your children; become like the Americans, and live in peace with all who come to settle, or dig gold in your country. This course will insure you protection from the American people.
We have reason to believe this advice was followed in a measure, at least, as no whites have been killed by them, and they remain peaceable and friendly. In this same meeting they wished to know if Mr. Spalding could come back as their teacher. We inquired particularly how many of them wished him to come back, and found that a majority of the tribe were in favor of his return. He went back as their teacher; but we have since learned that such influences were brought to bear upon him, as made him feel that he was compelled to leave the tribe. The mission right of the property, as we are fully assured, has since fallen into Jesuit hands, for the paltry sum of $500 in greenbacks. Who is responsible for the giving up of that mission, we are unable to say. No money consideration should ever have induced the American Board of Missions to relinquish their legitimate claim.
We have not recently been permitted to visit the Indians at Rev. Messrs. Walker and Eells’ station; but we have the testimony of others in regard to the good effect of the teachings of their missionaries upon them. Major P. Lugenbeel, who was in command of New Fort Colville for years, and also acted as Indian agent, said to Mr. Eells in 1861, “Those Indians of yours are the best I ever saw. I wish you would go back and resume missionary labor among them.”
Mr. Eells says, in the Missionary Herald, December, 1866:—
“Some fifteen or twenty of these Indians spent a portion of last winter in Wallawalla. On the Sabbath a larger proportion of them than of the citizens of the place could be collected in a house of worship. I met them as my class in connection with the Sabbath school in the Congregational Church. As we were allowed our share of the time allotted to singing, we sang, in their tongue, the words which I arranged for them more than twenty-five years ago. So far as I have learned, their conduct in transactions with whites has been less objectionable than that of the superior race.”