RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Indians of North America
soon abounded in lawlessness. But the missionaries of the various denominations went forward with the work until marvelous success crowned their labors among the " Five Civilized Tribes," as also among the neighboring tribes of Kiowas, Comanches, Arapahoes, Osages, and Cheyennes. Much of the distinctively Presbyterian work done by the American Board was transferred to the Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions on its organization in 1837, the latter Board continuing all work of the Presbyterian Church among Indians until 1865. Since that year the work has been carried on by the Presbyterian Home Board and the Women's Board of the Presbyterian Church. Among early missions of the Presbyterian Church was one to the Senecas in New York State, begun in 1812, and to the Chippewas and Ottawas in northern Michigan, begun in 1838. About the same time missions were established among the Sioux in North and South Dakota, Montana, and Nebraska. The story of the mission to the Nez Perce" Indians by Dr. Marcus Whitman and the Rev. H. H. Spaulding in 1836 is one of the most thrilling in the history of Indian missions. Abandoned in 1847, owing to the martyrdom of Dr. and Mrs. Whitman, it was reopened in 1S71 when Mr. and Mrs. Spaulding returned to the field. The Sac and Fox tribes were reached by the Presbyterian Church in 1837, the Omahas and Otoes in 1846, and the Kickapoos ten years later. In 1868 a missionary was sent to the Winnebagoes, then dwelling to the north of the O'mahas. In the same year an independent mission was started among the Pimas and Papagos in Arizona, which some years later came under the care of the Presbyterian Board. In 1877 the first Protestant mission among the Zuiiis of New Mexico was opened through the efforts of Presbyterian women, and other tribes of Pueblo have been reached. In 1895 a mission was opened by the Presbyterian Board among a band of Spokanes in Washington, and the following year one among the Makahs at Neah Bay. In 1901 the missions to the Hoopas and the Shasta Indians, in California, were taken over by the Presbyterian Board from the National Indian Association.
The Indian work of the American Board (Congregational) rapidly extended. In 1820 it established a mission station for the Ar- 7. Congre- kansas Cherokees on Illinois Creek, gationalists. Arkansas. This grew to be one of the most important mission stations in the Southwest until the removal of the tribe to Indian Territory. The following year a mission was opened among the Choctaws at Eliot, Miss. In 1834 the great work of the Congregational Church among the Sioux was begun by the starting of a mission to the Santee Sioux on Lake Calhoun, near what is now St. Paul, Minn., by two brothers named Pond. They began as volunteer workers, but afterward became regularly ordained missionaries of the American Board. Other mission stations were established from time to time among the Santee Sioux at other points. The work was eminently successful until the Sioux outbreak in 1862, when the missions had to be abandoned. As a result of the outbreak the Santee Sioux were
removed to Niobrara, Nebraska. A mission was started among them in 1866, and the work was gradually extended to all the neighboring bands of Sioux. Among missionaries to the Great Sioux nation none perhaps are more widely known than the Williamsons and the Riggses, fathers and sons. To Congregational work, and the various missionaries engaged in it, most of present knowledge of the Sioux language is due. In 1843 the Board began work among the Creeks, and, a few years later, among the removed Seminoles. By 1852 it had twenty-one missionaries among the Indians in the Northwest. In 1882 the Indian work as a whole was committed to the American Missionary Association. Including their well-known missions at Standing Rock and Cheyenne River agencies, North Dakota, Fort Berthold in South Dakota, and Skomish, Washington, and their work for Alaskan Indians, the Association had in 1906 twenty-two Indian churches, fifty-seven missionary out-stations, and eighty-five missionaries and teachers on the field.
Organized work by Baptists for Indian tribes began in 1801, when the Shaftesbury Association of
Vermont appointed missionaries to
8. Bap- labor among the Tuscaroras and other
tists. tribes of western New York. Six years
later the New York Missionary Society cooperated with the former association, and missions were established among the Oneidas and Stockbridges of New York. In 1817 the Board of the Baptist General Convention opened missions to the Kickapoos and the Miamis, and, a few years later, work was begun among the Potawatomies, the Ottawas, and the Ojibwas in Michigan. In the same year successful work was begun among the Cherokees in North Carolina and Georgia, and shortly afterward among the Creeks. Baptist work among Indians extended rapidly, and soon included missions among the Otoes and Omahas west of the Mississippi (1833), and among the Delawares and Stockbridges in their new home in eastern Kansas. From 1842 to 1855, much of the work was sustained by the American Mission Association, but in the latter year its missions were transferred to the Southern Baptist Convention. After the division of the denomination on the slavery question in 1845, the American Baptist Missionary Union continued much of the work of the General Convention, and in 1851 had missions among the Ojibwas and Ottawas of Michigan, the Shawanees, Delawares, and Ottawas of Indian Territory, besides its chief work there among the Cherokees. In 1865 these missions were transferred to the American Baptist Home Mission Society, which had for some years previously maintained a mission to the Pueblo Indians of New Mexico. The work of the Baptist Home Mission Society has been carried on chiefly among the tribes in Indian Territory and among the Wichitas and Caddoes, the Kiowas, Arapahoes, Apaches, and Comanches of Oklahoma. Successful missions have been sustained among the Hopis, among the Indians of the Round Valley Reservation, California, and among the Nevada Indians at Pyramid Lake. In 1903 a mission was begun among the Copper River Indians in Alaska, and, later,
Indians of North America Indulgences