USA > Alaska > Among the Alaskans > Part 4
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To the eastward of Alaska, with much the same conditions of soil, climate, pro- ductions and population, lies British Colum- bia.
Great Britain is not niggard in giving teachers and preachers to her far-off colo- nies. Where the sons of England emigrate, there the care of the home-land accompa- nies them.
After various precursive missionary ef- forts during a number of years, in 1864 the Wesleyan Methodist Church of Canada fairly established its work in British Co- lumbia, and the Rev. Thomas Crosby was settled at Nanaimo. Mr. Crosby was an
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enthusiast in his chosen toils, and learned the Indian dialects with a facility that re- minds one of the days when the early Church " spoke with tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance."
Into British Columbia came many of the Alaskan Indians to work as wood-choppers ; for, unlike the Indians of our other Terri- tories, the Alaskan is a willing laborer : he does not esteem himself degraded by use- ful occupation, and earns a dollar wherever he may.
In the neighborhood of Victoria, Van- couver's Island, the Methodists established a school, where the average attendance for two years was only ten or twelve, as the poverty of the Indians forbade their taking working-time to attend school. But two years of teaching and preaching bore fruit : a revival began, and forty were converted. Elizabeth Deix, an hereditary chief, was among the converts. She had a son, Al- fred, a pagan, who was married, spoke Eng- lish well and lived at Fort Simpson, five hundred miles north of Victoria and fifteen miles from the Alaska frontier. The con-
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verted mother prayed earnestly for her heathen son. She addressed herself to that Jesus who is the same yesterday and to-day and for ever, and of whom it is no- where recorded that while on earth he was deaf to a parent's prayer for a child.
One peculiarity of Alaskan Indians is a deep filial affection. Over long distances, and at any sacrifice, they will go again to see a parent. While Elizabeth Deix prayed her son arrived with his wife on a visit, and both were speedily numbered among the converts.
Alfred Deix developed a very zealous Christian character. He returned to Fort Simpson, and, aided by his wife, opened a school, had soon two hundred pupils- among whom he organized prayer- and experience-meetings and religious classes -and every family at the fort renounced paganism before a missionary arrived. In answer to urgent demands for a pastor, Mr. Crosby and his wife were sent to Fort Simpson.
In 1876 a number of Indians from Fort Simpson went to Fort Wrangell to cut
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wood. Among these was Clah, or Philip Mckay, one of the most pious and in- telligent of the Fort Simpson Christian Indians. When these people arrived at Fort Wrangell, they found it in a most shocking condition in point of ignorance and immorality. A military and trading post, so far from any seat of authority that no one expected to be called to ac- count for his doings, the white men were generally the leaders of the Indians in vice. All the diabolical orgies and inhumanities of paganism among the natives were al- lowed to flourish unchecked, and, beyond this, the Indians became gamblers, drunk- ards and horridly debauched and degraded.
Some of that holy fire which stirred the heart of Paul when he entered heathen cities burned in the soul of Philip Mckay, who, hitherto unconscious of his calling, had been chosen of God as an apostle to his kindred. Philip secured the use of an old dance-house for a schoolroom and preaching-place. The commandant of the fort gave the evangelists his protection and aided them in securing a plot of
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ground for Christian burial of Indian dead.
A few of the natives came to the new services, and certain white men attended to mock and jeer or wonder, but some also to countenance and help. More and more natives came to hear "the good news," and about fifty were converted en- tirely through the agency of these few Christian Indians. Philip showed an un- usual gift for teaching, and his comrades desired him to devote himself exclusively to labors as a missionary. They offered to work harder and provide his food. He agreed to the proposal, and labored with all his might, his friends, out of their poverty, giving him salmon to eat three times a day for the three hundred and sixty-five days in the year. The work and the living told most disastrously on his health.
The converted Indians refused to work on Sabbath, and at their meetings the presence of the Holy Spirit was often wonderfully manifested. Philip wrote to Mr. Crosby, begging him to come to Fort
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Wrangell. Accordingly, in the fall of 1876, after some six months' work by Philip, Mr. Crosby arrived and undertook to secure a church-building. The Indians subscribed money and blankets; audiences of from two to four hundred gathered on the Sab- bath, and sixty adults demanded a school.
Mr. Crosby directed Philip to remain and take charge of the school, and prom- ised to supervise the mission until the American churches should undertake its control.
An American soldier at Fort Wrangell, seeing the great good that had been ac- complished and the earnestness of the people for instruction, wrote an admirable letter to General Howard, entreating him to secure missionaries and funds for the field so providentially opened. Captain Jocelyn, of the Twenty-first United States Infantry, commandant at Wrangell, con- tinued to protect the new church, and gave to Philip some books that had been sent from the American Tract Society.
Several Christian ladies, wives of army- officers, having visited Alaska and noted
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the need and desire for religious teaching, had written to their friends of various churches, entreating them to begin mis- sion work in Alaska, but their appeals had produced no active effect.
The Rev. Dr. Lindsley of Portland, Oregon, had looked with anxiety to this neglected Territory, had appealed in its behalf to the Presbyterian Board of For- eign Missions and had secured business in Alaska for a Presbyterian gentleman, who promised to investigate and report in regard to the needs and the promise of Alaska as a missionary field.
This gentleman went to Alaska in the spring of 1877, but a fatal illness prevent- ed any work he might have done.
In this same spring, of 1877, the hour of hope for Alaska seemed at last to have arrived.
As the names of Martyn and Duff are inseparably connected with India missions, and those of Eliot and Brainard with the conversion of the tribes of the Eastern coast of the United States ; as the mem- ory of the Judsons is linked with Burmah,
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and that of Whitman with work and mar- tyrdom in Oregon,-so the Church will always connect the name of a zealous home missionary, Sheldon Jackson, with the evangelization of Alaska. Years of work among and beyond the Rocky Mountains had not discouraged this indefatigable worker. On the contrary, toils complet- ed had only proved that work is easy to him who wills, and that the sowing of God's word is certain to bring its har- vest. During long journeys in desolate regions his thought had gone beyond the present field to that most distant Territory of the North-west where all was darkness and the shadow of death. Resolutions which seemed to have fallen fruitlessly when they were offered in the Assemblies had left an echo in a heart which knew by daily experience what was the desola- tion of an unevangelized region.
Since 1869 a congressional appropria- tion of fifty thousand dollars, accorded in answer to the urgent representations of Vincent Collyer, had lain idle for want of proper persons to administer it. Gen-
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eral Howard had again and again appealed through the papers to Christians and phil- anthropists to take an interest in Alaska, " but none heard, neither was there any to answer." It remained for Dr. Jackson to found the mission, secure the mission- aries and arouse the Church.
The soldier's plea to General Howard in the spring of 1877 for gospel light in Alaska reached Dr. Jackson while at the meeting of the General Assembly at Chicago in 1877. He at once published this letter in secular and religious papers, and sent a copy to the Presbyterian Board of Home Missions, with the urgent request that a missionary be sent. This Board, having requested Dr. Jackson to make a special mission-tour through Idaho and parts of Oregon, and Washington Ter- ritory, responded to his request and the soldier's appeal by commissioning the Rev. F. H. Robinson for Alaska ; but meantime Mr. Robinson had accepted a call to a church in California.
Dr. Jackson, starting on the trip indi- cated to him, found his way stopped by
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the outbreak of the Nez Percés war, which rendered quite unfit for mission work the condition of the country which he was re- quested to traverse. At once it flashed upon him that now had come the opportu- nity for which he had longed to enter that open door in Alaska. The Presbyterian ministers in Oregon heartily approved his proposed visit to Alaska.
But now came the question, Would a missionary of the cross dare to enter this land, clamorous for spiritual bread, and make merely a visit of inspection, ascer- taining what was needed and how the need could be met, yet returning without meeting that need except by promises ? The Indians had grown sick of promises.
Howard and Halleck, with the heartiest intention, had again and again promised the Indians to send preachers and teachers to them, and had been utterly unable to find the missionaries or the means for their support. The sending of preachers and teachers was not the work belonging to the United States army or to Congress: it was the work of the Church of God;
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and the deafness of the Church to urgent appeals and representations is one of the incomprehensible mysteries of the religious life of the nineteenth century.
Dr. Jackson questioned with himself whether he could pass through those hundreds of hands outstretched for food, look into eyes wild with spiritual hunger, and try to feed them on a promise that he would go home and ask the Church to send them the aid they craved. And while he went-they would die ! How many had perished hopelessly gazing to- ward a promised succor that never ar- rived ! It was evident that right then and there a beginning must be made. One teacher at least must lead the ad- vance; one must go as an earnest of the coming good and the honest faith of the Church of Christ. Time pressed ; the season was advancing; the visit to Alas- ka must be made at once, and the mis- sionary, if one could be found, must be ready to make an instant sacrifice.
One person was ready to go, and did go at five days' notice-Mrs. A. R. McFarland.
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Possessed of unusual courage and good judgment, a fine constitution and a hearty missionary spirit, Mrs. McFarland had yet other qualifications for the arduous duty proposed to her. Twenty years of home- mission work had matured her experience and rendered her ready in meeting and conquering emergencies that would have alarmed other people. Sorrow and be- reavement had consecrated her spirit; God had placed her in a position where she could undertake this toil without neglect- ing other duties.
Christian missions on the north-western coast will ever remain associated with the names of four persons who have undertaken unusual labors and surmounted exceptional difficulties. First comes that of Veniaminoff, the Greek-Church bishop, whose humility, enlightenment, charity and zeal were not only far beyond his age, but the average of any age. For years he was the sole advocate, helper and defence of a race out- cast among the nations. William Duncan, of the Church of England, is another of these bright names. Forgetting ambition,
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despising ease, forsaking his own country and his father's house, counting even life not dear if he might win those simple In- dian souls for the Son of God, he has created a civilization in Metlahkatlah and brought many sons to glory. The Meth- odist Church of Canada has given the third name in this roll of honor-that of Thomas Crosby. With a most unusual gift in ac- quiring langages, Mr. Crosby in six months so mastered the difficult dialect of the In- dians that without an interpreter he was able to preach to the natives. Tireless in traveling up and down the coast and the Fraser River, thousands of conversions crowned his efforts. Schools and villages of Christian Indians marked the way where this young apostle wandered, and his spirit- ual children were those who began in Alaska that mission work which has of late so re- markably flourished. Thus England and America exchange and interchange in their close mutual relations the light of life. The fourth name which will be cherished in the future chronicles of the evangel in the far North-west is that of Mrs. A. R. McFarland ;
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and the Presbyterian Church may well re- joice in possessing so courageous and faith- ful a daughter.
A child of Virginia, Mrs. McFarland was educated in that school which is the best monument of that admirable woman Mrs. Dr. Charles Beatty. Married to a mission- ary, Illinois, New Mexico, California and Oregon were successive fields of her labor; and then, in 1877, this woman consented- cheerfully consented-to remain alone on the Alaskan coast, the one missionary in Alaska, representative of the thirty million Protestants of the United States. Mrs.
McFarland stood as the Church's forlorn hope in that neglected field. She had made up her mind to maintain that post and the banner of the cross or perish. Her success, and even her support, were prób- lematical; but Dr. Jackson knew that she was able to vindicate by her works her place, and he also knew that there were enough Presbyterian women capable of appreciating a noble deed to assure her maintenance and sympathy.
On the 10th of August, 1877, Dr. Jack-
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son and Mrs. McFarland stepped from the steamer, and, entering the streets of Fort Wrangell, founded the Alaska mission. Through busy days and wakeful nights Dr. Jackson had thought of this country and its needs, and now the hour of beginning work had come. Would the Church vindicate the enterprise and assume its responsibilities ?
A semicircle of wooden houses dominated by an empty fort; a high, forest-crowned hill; a small harbor; a fleet of Indian canoes ; white men, bustling and aggress- ive; dark Mongolians with their downcast faces written with centuries of wrong and oppression,-from these could the two mis- sionaries read their answer ?
But an Indian rings a bell ; into the door by which he stands enter some twenty In- dians, among them a mother and her three children. The missionaries follow them, and, lo ! Philip and his school! Here were reverent faces bent in silent prayer for aid; here stood Philip praying aloud ; a song of praise to Jesus rose from Indian lips ; the Lord's Prayer was repeated, these far-off children who had been prodigal so long
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crying out to their "Father." Then came lessons ; then the doxology, the benediction, the kind farewell at parting.
Silently the two missionaries sat and watched as the afternoon school went on ; peace entered into their souls as a benison from heaven; they found the courage of assurance. There was no need of further questioning : God himself had given them their answer. Here He who works as he will had gone before them. Amid all dis- advantages, in the midst of obstacles, in silence and carefulness, this work had al- ready begun. From Philip, at this time en- feebled by the first encroachment of a fatal disease, fell a great burden, and as stronger hands lifted it he could say, "Now, Lord, lettest thou thy servant depart in peace."
CHAPTER VI.
THE CHURCH AWAKES.
U P to the period of the purchase the influence of white people on Alas- ka had been little else than disastrous. Veniaminoff was the one bright light in the darkness of Russian occupation. Of the Russians of Alaska, Dall says: "The meaning of truth and honesty is incom- prehensible to these degraded wretches. Life among the natives is far preferable to being surrounded by white men of such a despicable class."
The commandants of the Russian posts were often creoles or men of the lowest class, neither officers, educated men nor gentlemen. Baranoff, who was governor for the longest period, had once been a com- mon sailor ; many of the commandants could neither read nor write. To a man, they were fond of whisky ; and Dall tells us
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that he was forced publicly to poison all the alcohol which he carried for the pres- ervation of his natural-history collections, so that the Russians should not drink all the liquor off his specimens !
The Hudson Bay Fur Company's em- ployés in the forts and trading-posts on the Yukon and through Central Alaska were in no wise superior to the Russians in morals and manners. The one object was to make money for the company at home, and the servants of the company in Alaska were treated in a manner most outrageous. They were nearly starved; were kept in rags; were cheat- ed shamefully; were, if possible, forced to marry Indian wives; were subjected to all manner of impositions and even the comforts of food and clothing, which were pledged them by contract and sent to them by the company, were wrested from them and given to the Indians. Dall says: "They perform a larger amount of labor for smaller pay than any other civil- ized people on the globe. The hardships and exposures to which they are subjected
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are beyond belief. In fact, the whole sys- tem is one of tyranny, and only in North Scotland could men of intelligence be found who would submit to it. The sys- tematic way in which the white 'servant of the company' is ground down below the level of the Indian is a degradation few could bear."
Tyranny begets vice and further tyranny; so that the influence of these abused men on the tribes was disastrous in the extreme. The Aleut Indians of the islands and of the south coast after a hundred and fifty years of Russian atrocities and constant oppres- sion had become passive; all life and all spirit were stamped out of them. The Indians of Central and North-eastern Alas- ka were of a fiercer and more independent type, and had suffered less from white dom- ination.
The idea has prevailed that the Hudson Bay Fur Company had no conflicts with the Indians. This opinion, though carefully fostered by that company, is false : san- guinary conflicts and wholesale massacres were neither revealed nor revenged by
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the company, for fear of stopping their trade and preventing men from going out as their "servants." Dall declares that full as many conflicts with the whites, in proportion to the numbers, have taken place at the posts of the Hudson Bay Company as in our Western States.
Extravagant flatteries, presents and keep- ing the "white servants" of the company in constant subjection to the native chiefs were the means used by the Hudson Bay Company to maintain a trading-place. Forts Selkirk, Pelly Banks, Dease, Francis, Ba- bine, Peace River and Nelson all mark the scene of Indian massacres under Hud- son Bay jurisdiction.
We are told that naturally, and among themselves, these Indians are quiet, un- warlike, not given to bloodshed, but by provocation and encroachment from the whites, being furnished with arms, am- munition and whisky, they have become treacherous, cruel and bloodthirsty. Dall says that up to his visit in 1866-67 mis- sionary efforts among the tribes of Cen- tral Alaska had resulted in little, because,
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the languages not being understood, in- struction was given in a trading jargon unsuitable for conveying religious ideas, especially to a people so intensely igno- rant and so little comprehending principles of right and wrong.
" When the missionary," says Dall, "will leave the trading-posts, strike out into the wilderness, live in the wilderness, live with the Indians, teach them cleanliness first, morality next, and by slow and sim- ple teaching raise their minds above the hunt and the camp,-then, and not till then, they will be able to comprehend the simplest principles of right and wrong. . . . The Indian, unchanged by contact with the whites, is in mind a child without the trusting affection of childhood and with the will and passions of a man. . . .
One fact may be unhesitatingly avowed: if he obtain intoxicating liquors, he is lost."
This was a view of the condition of the Alaskan Indians in the year of the pur- chase by the United States. The pur- chase was made, and, in place of law, government, schools and teachers, igno-
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rance, lawlessness and intemperance were for ten years the order of the day.
It was just ten years after Dall drew the above picture that Dr. Jackson and Mrs. McFarland landed in Alaska. Fort Wrangell was the outpost, and here work was to begin. There was no time nor money for further explorations of the field; the one question of these missionaries was whether they could hold this position. From the earliest days evangelists have been sent out two and two; but when our Alaskan missions opened, one missionary -a woman-was for seven months the only Christian teacher in the Territory, and for five months more she was unaid- ed in Fort Wrangell.
The first work before Mrs. McFarland was to enlarge and reorganize the school. Philip, rejoiced to see at last the promised face of a gospel messenger, readily agreed to become her assistant. The only room obtainable was an old dance-house, which would be taken from them as soon as winter brought the return of the miners. The stock of books was inventoried as
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four Bibles, four hymn-books, three primers, thirteen First Readers, one wall-chart. The books were in English, and the pupils most- ly spoke Chinook or trading jargon or In- dian, neither of which the teacher under- stood.
The steamer that passed up the Stick- een River after the missionaries arrived conveyed the welcome tidings of their coming. The news fell on the ears of Sarah Dickinson, a converted Indian, who, with her children, was a hundred miles up the river gathering berries for her win- ter supply. She put berries, babies and bedding in her canoe and paddled down the river with all speed to welcome the white teachers. This woman spoke Eng- lish, and Dr. Jackson engaged her as Mrs. McFarland's interpreter.
Thus, then, our first missionary in Alas- ka was left. She had a native assistant teacher, an interpreter, twenty-seven books, and no schoolroom. She was the only Christian white woman in the country; it was at the edge of winter, and a steamer from home came only once a month.
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We can dimly imagine some of her feel- ings when she saw the vessel carrying Dr. Jackson away on its return trip, and his as he left her to her fortunes.
Probably the Church in the United States has never had a greater surprise than when it heard that work in Alaska was fairly be- gun, and that a cultivated Presbyterian lady was left there to begin it.
"What!" was the cry that assailed Dr. Jackson ; " did you leave Mrs. McFarland up there alone, among all those heathens -up there in the cold, on the edge of winter ?"
" Yes," was the reply, "I did; and she has neither books, nor schoolhouse, nor helpers, nor money, nor friends-only a few converted but morally uninstructed Indians and a great many heathen about her. Now, what will you do for her?"
The situation awakened an enthusiasm that has had few parallels in modern Church work.
Having returned home, Dr. Jackson pub- lished in the religious papers a series of articles which were copied into the secular
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journals of this country and of Europe, and which drew much attention to the work so bravely begun in the long-neg- lected Territory. He also made addresses in New York, Philadelphia, Washington and other principal cities, exhibiting the importance, the promise and the instant need of the field. Such concern was awakened-not only for the fate of the missionary already in Alaska, but for the perishing natives-that special contribu- tions for the work poured in, and sup- port for future workers was guaranteed.
The students of the theological semi- naries were addressed by him, and two offered themselves for the work; and the Board of Home Missions appointed them to this northern field.
However much the Church owed Alas- ka in fulfilling the Master's orders, "Go ye into all the world, and preach the gos- pel to every creature," it was also evident that the United States government owed that region much that the Church could not give, as laws, protection and public education. While in Washington, Dr. Jack-
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