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INTRODUCTION 11

XL. NATIVE MINISTRY AND SUPPORT 256

INTRODUCTION.

The Indians are in our midst. Different solutions of the problem have been proposed. It is evident that we must either kill them, move them away, or let them remain with us. The civilization and Christianity of the United States, with all that is uncivilized and un-Christian, is not yet ready to kill them. One writer has proposed to move them to some good country which Americans do not want, and leave it to them. We have been trying to find such a place for a century--have moved the Indians from one reservation to another and from one State or Territory to another; but have failed to find the desired haven of rest for them. It is more difficult to find it now than it ever has been, as Americans have settled in every part of the United States and built towns, railroads, and telegraph-lines all over the country. Hence no such place has been found, and it never will be.

Therefore the Indians are with us to remain. They are to be our neighbors. The remaining question is, Shall they be good or bad ones? If we are willing that they shall be bad, all that is necessary is for good people to neglect them; for were there no evil influences connected with civilization, they would not rise from their degradation, ignorance, and wickedness without help. When, however, we add to their native heathenism all the vices of intemperance, immorality, hate, and the like, which wicked men naturally carry to them, they will easily and quickly become very bad neighbors. Weeds will grow where nothing is cultivated.

Impressed with this belief, the writer has been engaged for the past ten years in missionary work with a few of them in the region of Skokomish, and here presents a record of some of the experiences. In the account he has recorded failures as well as successes. In his earlier ministry, both among whites and Indians, he read the accounts of other similar workers, who often recorded only their success. It was good in its place, for something was learned of the causes of the success. But too much of this was discouraging. He was not always successful and sometimes wondered if these writers were ever disappointed as much as he was. Sometimes when he read the record of a failure it did him more good than a record of a success. He took courage because he felt that he was not the only one who sometimes failed. The Bible records failures as well as successes.

TEN YEARS AT SKOKOMISH.

SKOKOMISH.

When the treaty was made by the United States in 1855, the land about the mouth of the Skokomish River was selected as the reservation; the other bands in time moved to it, and the post-office was given the same name; hence, the tribe came to be known more as the Skokomish Indians than by their original name of Tu-?n-hu, a name which has been changed by whites to Twana, and so appears in government reports.

The reservation is small, hardly three miles square, comprising about five thousand acres, nearly two thousand of which is excellent bottom land. As much more is hilly and gravelly, and the rest is swamp land. With the exception of the latter, it is covered with timber.

PRELIMINARY HISTORY.

Ever since the Spanish traders and Vancouver in the latter part of the last century, and the Northwest Fur Company and Hudson's Bay Company in the early part of the present century, came to Puget Sound, these Indians have had some intercourse with the whites, and learned some things about the white man's ways, his Sabbath, his Bible, and his God. Fort Nisqually, one of the posts of the Hudson's Bay Company, was situated about fifty miles from Skokomish, so that these Indians were comparatively near to it.

The treaty has been known as that of Point-No-Point, it having been made at that place, a few miles north of the mouth of Hood's Canal on the main sound, in 1855. It was, however, four years later when it was ratified, and another year before the machinery was put in motion, so that government employees were sent to the reservation to teach the Indians. In the meantime the Yakama War took place, the most wide-spread Indian war which ever occurred on this north-west coast, it having begun almost simultaneously in Southern Oregon, Eastern Oregon, and Washington, and on Puget Sound. The Indians on the eastern side of the sound were engaged in it, but the Clallams and Twanas as tribes did not do so, and never have been engaged in any war with the whites. They were related by marriage with some of the tribes who were hostile, and a few individuals from one or both of these tribes went to the eastern side of the sound and joined the hostiles, but as tribes they remained peaceable.

A WAR INCIDENT.

The Clallams were a strong tribe, and large numbers of them lived at an early day about Port Townsend. Here, too, was the Duke of York, who was for many years their head chief and a noted friend of the Americans. About 1850, he went to San Francisco on a sailing-vessel, and saw the numbers, and realized something of the power, of the whites. After his return the Indians became very much enraged at the residents of Port Townsend, who were few in numbers, and the savages were almost all ready to engage in war with them. Had they done so, they could easily have wiped out the place, and the white people knew it. The Indians were ready to do so, but the Duke of York stood between the Indians and the whites. For hours the savage mass surged to and fro, hungry for blood, the Duke of York's brother being among the number. For as many hours the Duke of York alone held them from going any farther, by his eloquence, telling them of the numbers and power of the whites; and that if the Indians should kill these whites, others would come and wipe them out. At last they yielded to him. He saved Port Townsend and saved his tribe from a war with the whites.

In 1860 the first government employees were sent to Skokomish, and civilizing influences of a kind were brought more closely to the Indians. With one or two exceptions, very little religious influence was brought to bear upon them. Of one of their agents, Mr. J. Knox, the Indians speak in terms of gratitude and praise. He set out a large orchard, and did considerable to improve them. In 1870, when all the Indians were put under the military, these Indians were put under Lieutenant Kelley. The Indians do not speak well of military rule. It was too tyrannical.

EARLY RELIGIOUS TEACHING.

About 1850 Father E. C. Chirouse, a Catholic priest, came to Puget Sound, and for a time was on Hood's Canal. He had two missions among the Twanas, one among the Kolseed band, and the other among the Duhlaylips. He baptized a large number of them; made two Indian priests, and left an influence which was not soon forgotten. At a council held after a time by various tribes, the Skokomish and other neighboring tribes of the lower eastern sound were too strong for the Twanas and induced Father Chirouse to leave them. Not long afterward the Indians relapsed into their old style of religion, and on the surface it appeared as if all were forgotten: but when Protestant teachers came among them, and their old religion died, some of the Indians turned for a time to that Catholic religion which they had first learned, as one easier for the natural heart to follow than that of the Protestants.

From 1860 to 1871 but little religious instruction was given to these Indians. At different times Rev. W. C. Chattin, of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and Mr. D. B. Ward, of the Protestant Methodist Church, taught the school, and each endeavored to give some Christian teaching on the Sabbath, but they found it hard work, for Sabbath-breaking, house-building, trafficking, and gambling by the whites and the Indians were allowed in sight and hearing of the place where the services were held. "If it is wrong to break the Sabbath, why does the agent do so?" "If it is wrong to play cards and gamble, why do the whites do so?" These and similar questions were asked by the Indian children of their Christian teachers. It was somewhat difficult to answer them. It was more difficult to work against such influences. Still the seed sown then was not wholly lost. It remained buried a long time. I have seen that some of those children, however, although they forgot how to read, and almost forgot how to talk English, yet received influences which, fifteen or twenty years afterward, made them a valuable help to their people in their march upward.

In 1871, however, a decided change was made. In that year President Grant adopted what has been known as the peace policy, in which he assigned the different agencies to different missionary societies, asking them to nominate agents, promising that these should be confirmed by the Senate. While it was not expected that the government would directly engage in missionary work, yet the President realized that Christianity was necessary to the solution of the Indian problem, and he hoped that the missionary societies who should nominate these agents would become interested in the work, and encouraged them to send missionaries to their several fields. These agents were expected to co?perate with the missionaries in their special work.

At that time the Skokomish Agency was assigned to the American Missionary Association, a society supported by the Congregationalists. In 1871 they nominated Mr. Edwin Eells as agent for this place, who was confirmed by the Senate, and in May of that year he took charge of these Indians.

Mr. Eells was the oldest son of Rev. C. Eells, D.D., who came to the coast in 1838 as a missionary to the Spokane Indians, where he remained about ten years, until the Whitman Massacre and Cayuse War rendered it unsafe for him to remain there any longer. The agent was born among these Indians in July, 1841. Like most young men on this coast, he had been engaged in various callings. He had been a farmer, school-teacher, clerk in a store, teamster, had served as enrolling officer for government at Walla-Walla during the war, and had studied law. At the age of fifteen he had united with a Congregational church, and had maintained a consistent Christian character. All of these things proved to be of good service to him in his new position, where education, farm-work, purchase of goods, law business, intercourse with government, the ideas which he had received from his parents about the Indians and Christianity, were all needed.

In 1871, soon after he assumed his new duties, he began a Sabbath-school and prayer-meeting. He selected Christian men as employees. These consisted of a physician, school-teacher, and matron, carpenter, farmer, and blacksmith. He also selected men with families as being those who would be likely to have the best influence on the Indians. In 1872 Rev. J. Casto, M.D., was engaged as government physician, and Rev. C. Eells, the father of the agent, went to live with his son, and both during the winter preached at the agency and in the camps of the Indians. During 1874 a council-house was built, with the consent of government, at a money-cost to the government of five hundred dollars--besides the work which was done by the government carpenter. This has since been used as a church, and sometimes as a school-house. During that spring it was thought best to organize a church, for although at first it would be composed chiefly of whites, yet it was hoped that it would have a salutary influence on the Indians, and be a nucleus around which some of the Indians would gather. This was done June 23, 1874, the day after the writer arrived at the place. It was organized with eleven members, ten of whom were whites, and one, John F. Palmer, was an Indian. He was at that time government interpreter. The sermon was by Rev. G. H. Atkinson, D.D., of Portland, superintendent of Home Missions for Oregon and Washington, and one of the vice-presidents of the American Missionary Association; the prayer of consecration by Rev. E. Walker, who had been the missionary associate of Rev. C. Eells during his work among the Spokane Indians; the right hand of fellowship by Rev. A. H. Bradford, a visitor on this coast from Montclair, New Jersey; and the charge to the church by the writer. Thus affairs existed when I came to the place.

SUBSEQUENT POLITICAL HISTORY.

THE FIELD AND WORK.

The work has been about as follows: At Skokomish there were about two hundred Indians, including a boarding-school of about twenty-five children. Services were held every Sabbath morning for them in Indian. The Sabbath-school was kept up, immediately following the morning service. English services were held once or twice a month, on Sabbath evening, for the white families resident at the agency and the school-children. On Thursday evening a prayer-meeting was held regularly. It was in English, as very few of the non-English-speaking Indians lived near enough to attend an evening service, had they been so inclined. Various other meetings were held, adapted to the capacities and localities of the people: as prayer-meetings for school-boys, those for school-girls, and those at the different logging-camps.

Thirty miles north of Skokomish is Seabeck, where about thirty Indians live, most of whom gain a living by working in the saw-mill there. For several years I preached to the whites at this place, about eight times a year, and when there, also held a service with the Indians.

Twenty miles farther north is Port Gamble, one of the largest saw-mill towns on the sound. Near it were about a hundred Clallam Indians, most of whom became Catholics, but who have generally received me cordially when I have visited them two or three times a year. They, however, have obtained whiskey very easily, and between this and the Catholic influence comparatively little has been accomplished.

Forty miles from Port Gamble, and seventeen from Port Discovery, is Jamestown, near Dunginess, on the Straits of Fuca. This is the center of an Indian settlement of about a hundred and forty. Previous to 1873 these Indians were very much addicted to drinking--so much so, that the white residents near them petitioned to have them removed to the agency, a punishment they dreaded nearly as much as any other that could be inflicted on them. The threat of doing this had such an influence that about fifteen of them combined and bought two hundred acres of land. It has been laid off into a village; most of the Indians have reformed, and they have settled down as peaceable, industrious, moral persons. I have generally visited them once in six months, and they have become the most advanced of the Clallam tribe. A school has been kept among them, a church organized, and their progress has been quite interesting--so much so, that considerable space will be devoted to them in the following pages.

Once a year I have calculated to go farther: and twenty miles beyond is Port Angelos, with about thirty nominal Indian residents. But few of them are settlers, and they are diminishing, only a few families being left.

Seven miles further west is Elkwa, the home of about seventy Indians. It was, in years past, the residence of one of the most influential bands of the Clallam tribe, but they are diminishing, partly from the fact that there have been but few white families among them from whom they could obtain work, and, with a few exceptions, they themselves have done but little about cultivating the soil. As they could easily go across the straits to Victoria in British Columbia, about twenty miles distant, where there is little restraint in regard to their procuring whiskey, because they are American Indians, they have been steadily losing influence and numbers. Four or five families have homesteaded land, but as it was impossible for them to procure good land on the beach, they have gone back some distance and are scattered. Hence they lose the benefits of church and school. Still the old way of herding together is broken up, and they obtain more of their living from civilized pursuits.

Thirty-five miles farther is Clallam Bay, the home of about fifty more. This is the limit of the Indians connected with the Skokomish Agency. They are about a hundred and fifty miles from it, as we have to travel. In 1880 they bought a hundred and sixty acres of land on the water-front, and are slowly following the example of the Jamestown Indians. This is the nearest station of the tribe to the seal-fisheries of the north-west coast of the Territory; by far the most lucrative business, in its season, which the Indians follow.

DIFFICULTIES IN THE WAY OF RELIGIOUS WORK.

LANGUAGES.

One great difficulty in the missionary work is the number of languages used by the people. The Clallams have one, the Twanas another; about one sixth of the people on the reservation had originally come from Squaxin, and spoke the Nisqually; the Chinook jargon is an inter-tribal language, which is spoken by nearly all the Indians, except the very old and very young, as far south as Northern California, north into Alaska, west to the Pacific Ocean, and east to Western Idaho. It was made by the early traders, especially the Hudson's Bay Company, out of Chinook, French, and English words, with a few from several other Indian languages, for use in trade. It serves very well for this purpose, and is almost universally used in intercourse between the whites and Indians. Very few whites, even when married to Indian women, have learned to talk any Indian language except this. But it is not very good for conveying religious instruction. It is too meager. Yet so many different languages were spoken by the seven or eight hundred Indians connected with the agency that it seemed to be the only practicable one, and I learned it. I have learned to preach in it quite easily, and so that the Indians say they understand me quite well. The Twana language would have been quite useful, but it is said to be so difficult to learn that no intelligent Indian advised me to learn it. The Nisqually is said to be much easier, and one educated Indian advised me to learn it, but it did not seem to me to be wise, for while nearly all the Twana Indians understood it, as, in fact, nearly all the Indians on the upper sound do, yet it was spoken by very few on the reservation.

Hence I have often used an interpreter while preaching on the Sabbath at Skokomish, for then usually some whites, old Indians, and children were present who could not understand Chinook. At other times and places I constantly used the Chinook language. But a good interpreter is hard to obtain. "It takes a minister to interpret for a minister," was said when Mr. Hallenback, the evangelist, went to the Sandwich Islands, and there is much truth in it. The first interpreter I had was good at heart, but he used the Nisqually language. While most of them understood it, yet this person had learned it after he was grown, and spoke it, the Indians said, much like a Dutchman does our language. Another one, a Twana, cut the sentences short, so that one of the school-boys said he could have hardly understood all that I said had he not understood English. A third could do well when he tried, but too many times he felt out of sorts and lazy, and would speak very low and without much life. Hence sometimes I would feel like dismissing all interpreters, and talking in Chinook, but then I was afraid that it would drive away the whites, who could not understand it, but whose presence, for their examples' sake, I much desired. I feared also that it would drive away the very old ones, who sometimes made much effort to come to church, and also that the children, whose minds were the most susceptible to impressions, would lose all that was said. So there were difficulties every way.

The medley of services and babel of languages of one Sabbath are described as follows: The opening exercises were in English, after which was the sermon, which was delivered in English, but translated into the Nisqually language, and a prayer was offered in the same manner. At the close of the service two infants were baptized in English, when followed the communion service in the same language. At this there were present twelve white members of the Congregational church here, and one Indian; two white members of the Protestant Methodist church; one Cumberland Presbyterian, and one other Congregationalist. There were also present about seventy-five Indians as spectators. The Sabbath-school was held soon after, seventy-five persons being present. First, there were four songs in the Chinook jargon; then three in English, accompanied by an organ and violin. The prayer was in Nisqually, and the lesson was read by all in English, after which the lessons were recited by the scholars. Five classes of Indian children and two of white children were taught in English, and one class partly in English and partly in Chinook jargon. There was one Bible-class of Indian men who understood English, and were taught in that language, a part of whom could read and a part of whom could not, and another of about forty Indians of both sexes whose teacher talked English, but an interpreter translated it into Nisqually; and then they did not reach some Clallam Indians. Next followed a meeting of the Temperance Society, as six persons wished to join it. A white man who could do so, wrote his name, and five Indians who could not, touched the pen while the secretary made their mark. Three of these were sworn in English and two in Chinook. The whole services were interspersed with singing in English and Chinook jargon.

This was soon after I came here. During the past year we have often sung in English, Chinook jargon, Twana, and Nisqually, on the same Sabbath. Another medley Sabbath is given under the head of the Jamestown Church, in connection with its organization.

THEIR RELIGION.

First. The Black Tamahnous. This is a secret society. During the performance of the ceremonies connected with it, all the members black their faces more or less, and go through a number of rites more savage than any thing else they do. They do not tell the meaning of these, but they consist of starving, washing, cutting themselves, violent dancing, and the like. It was introduced among the Twanas from the Clallams, who practised it with much more savage rites than the former tribe. It is still more thoroughly practised by the Makahs of Cape Flattery, who join the Clallams on the west. It was never as popular among the Twanas as among some other Indians, and is now practically dead among them. It still retains its hold among a portion of the Clallams, being practised at their greatest gatherings. It is believed that it was intended to be purifical, sacrificial, propitiatory.

Second. The Red, or Sing, Tamahnous. During the performance of its ceremonies, they generally painted their faces red. It was their main ceremonial religion. During the fall and winter they assembled, had feasts, and performed these rites, danced and sang their sacred songs; it might be for one night, or it might be for a week or so.

Sometimes this was done for the sake of purifying the soul from sin. Sometimes in a vision a person professed to have seen the spirits of living friends in the world of departed spirits, which was a sure sign that they would die in a year or two, unless those spirits could be brought back to this world. So they gathered together and with singing, feasting, and many ceremonies, went in spirit to the other world and brought these spirits back. This spirit-world is somewhere below, within the earth. When they are ready to descend, with much ceremony a little of the earth is broken, to open the way, as it were, for the descent. Having traveled some distance below, they come to a stream which must be crossed on a plank. Two planks are put up with one end on the ground and the other on a beam in the house, about ten feet above the ground, in a slanting direction, one on one side of the beam, and the other on the other side, so that they can go up on one side and down on the other. To do this is the outward form of crossing the spirit-river. If it is done successfully, all is well, and they proceed on their

journey. If, however, a person should actually fall from one of these planks, it is a sure sign that he will die in a year or so. They formerly believed this to be so, but about twelve years ago a man

did fall off, and did die within a year, so then they were certain of it. Having come to the place of the departed spirits, they quietly hunt for the spirits of their living friends, and when they find what other spirits possess them, they begin battle and attempt to take them and are generally successful. Only a few men descend to the spirit-world, but during the fight the rest of the people present keep up a very great noise by singing, pounding on sticks and drums, and in similar ways encourage those engaged in battle. Having obtained the spirits which they wish, they wrap them up or pretend to do so, so that they look like a great doll, and bring them back to the world and deliver them to their proper owners, who receive them with great joy and sometimes with tears of gratitude.

At other times they go through other ceremonies somewhat different. This form has now mostly ceased among the Twanas, but retains its hold among a large share of the Clallams. The Christian Indians profess wholly to have given it up.

Third. The Tamahnous for the sick. When a person is very sick, they think that the spirit of some bad animal, as the crow, bluejay, wolf, bear, or similar treacherous creature, has entered the individual and is eating away the life. This has been sent by a bad medicine-man, and it is the business of the good medicine-man to draw this out, and he professes to do it with his incantations. With a few friends who sing and pound on sticks, he works over the patient in various ways.

This is the most difficult belief for the Indian to abandon, for, while there is a religious idea in it, there is also much of superstition connected with it. As the Indian Agent at Klamath, Oregon, once wrote: "It requires some thing more than a mere resolution of the will to overcome it." "I do not believe in it now," said a Spokane Indian, "but if I should become very sick, I expect I should want an Indian doctor." It will take time and education to eradicate this idea. It is the only part of tamahnous, which I think an Indian can hold and be a Christian, because it is held partly as a superstition and not wholly as a religion. Some white, ignorant persons are superstitious and, at the same time, are Christians. The bad spirit which causes the sickness is called a bad tamahnous. Soon after I first came here, we spent several evenings in discussing the qualifications of church membership, the main difference of opinion centering on this subject of tamahnous over the sick. I took the same position then that I do now, and facts seem to agree thereto; for, among the Yakamas, Spokanes, and Dakotas, who have stood as Christians many years through strong trials, have been some who have not wholly abandoned it, it remaining apparently as a superstition and not a religion.

CHEHALIS JACK.

As an illustration of the reason why they still believe in it, the following examples are given:--

ELLEN GRAY.

She was a school-girl, about sixteen years of age, and had been in the boarding-school for several years, nearly ever since she had been old enough to attend, but her parents were quite superstitious. One Friday evening she went home to remain until the Sabbath, but on Saturday, the first of January, 1881, she was taken sick, and the nature of her sickness was such that in a few days she became delirious. Her parents and friends made her believe that a bad tamahnous had been put into her, and no one but an Indian doctor could cure her. They tamahnoused over her some. The agency physician, Dr. Givens, was not called until the sixth, when he left some medicine for her, but it is said that it was not given to her. Hence she got no better, and her friends declared that the white doctor was killing her. The agent and teacher did not like the way the affair was being manoeuvered, took charge of her, moved her to a decent house near by, and placed white watchers with her, so that the proper medicine should be given, and no Indian doctor brought in. The Indians were, however, determined, if possible, to tamahnous, and declared that if it were not allowed, she would die at three o'clock A.M. They kept talking to her about it and she apparently believed it, and said she would have tamahnous. But it was prevented, and before the time set for her death, she was cured of her real sickness. But she was not well. Still the next day she was in such a condition that it was thought safe to move her in a boat to the boarding-house, where she could be more easily cared for. The Indians were enraged and said that she would die before landing, but she did not. Watchers were kept by her constantly, but the Indians were allowed to see her. They talked, however, to her so much about her having a bad tamahnous, that all except her parents were forbidden to see her. They also were forbidden to talk on the subject, and evidently obeyed. But the effect on her imagination had been so great that, for a time, she often acted strangely. She seldom said any thing; she would often spurt out the medicine, when given her, as far as she could; said she saw the tamahnous; pulled her mother's hair, bit her mother's finger so that it bled, seemed peculiarly vexed at her; moaned most of the time, but sometimes screamed very loudly, and even bit a spoon off. Sometimes she talked rationally and sometimes she did not. But by the fifteenth she was considerably better, walked around with help, and sat up, when told to do so, but did not seem to take any interest in any thing. Every thing possible was done to interest her and occupy her attention, and she continued to grow better for three or four days more, so that the watchers were dispensed with, except that her parents slept in the room with her. But one night she threw off the clothes, took cold, and would not make any effort to cough and clear her throat; and on the twenty-second, she died, actually choking to death. It was a tolerably clear case of death from imagination, easily accounted for on the principles of mental philosophy, but the Indians had never studied it, and still believe that a bad tamahnous killed her. I was afraid that this death would cause trouble, or, at least, that a strong influence against Christianity would result from it, but the certificates of allotment to their land came just at that time, which pleased them so much that the affair was smoothed over.

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