USA > Oregon > History of Oregon, Vol. I, 1834-1848 > Part 34
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To overcome these difficulties the missionaries worked hard to put themselves in sympathy with their pupils, by mastering their dialects, and endeav-
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THE CATHOLIC MISSIONS-THE PRESBYTERIANS.
ored to attach them to certain localities by teaching them farming. The latter was a more difficult task than the former, as the natives, particularly the Cay- uses, affected to believe that they were doing a favor to Dr Whitman 22 by receiving his instruction, and frequently demanded pay for what they did for them- selves, as well as for the use of the ground which he cultivated for the support of the Mission. Split-lip, a chief of the Cayuses who lived near the Waiilatpu Mission, was often most insulting in his demands, occasioning difficulties which would never have been settled but for the good offices of Pambrun of Fort Walla Walla, who was usually able to manage the natives through the influence of the Hudson's Bay Company, and the fear they had that if they exhibited hostility to white men who were friends of the com- pany the trading posts would be withdrawn from their country.
The same state of affairs existed at Lapwai, except that Spalding exercised a more arbitary authority over the Nez Percés than Whitman could exert over the Cayuses, and established a system of laws, or rules of conduct, which rendered the natives liable to punishment for certain offences.
Though these laws were not without their advan- tages, yet, unless great discrimination was used in applying them, they were likely to breed mischief, as the following instance will show: A difficulty arose from the death of The Hat, the young chief who, while accompanying Gray to the States in 1837, was killed by the Sioux. The other two young chiefs, Blue Cloak and Ellis, who agreed to go with Gray, as I have before mentioned, turned back at the ren- dezvous, giving as a reason that the feet of their horses were sore, and that they would die upon the road. When they presented themselves in the au- tumn at Lapwai, Spalding, who had a quick temper, fearing for Gray's safety, and vexed at the failure of
22 Whitman's letter, in Boston M.ss. Herald, November 1840, 438.
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ELLIS' RETORT.
a part of his plan, which was to exchange a herd of Indian horses for cattle on the frontier, severely reproved them, and exacted a horse from each for breach of contract. The young men not complying with this demand, Spalding took occasion when the Indians were assembled for instruction to order some of them to take Blue Cloak and whip him. Ellis was also present, but as he had a number of his band with him, he was not molested. For some time no one offered to execute the order, but at length one of the principal men arose, and having seized and bound Blue Cloak, turned to Spalding, saying, "Now you whip him." To this Spalding objected on the plea that he, like God, gave commands but did not exe- cute them. "You are a liar," retorted the chief; "look at your picture"-pointing to a rude painting sus- pended against the wall-"there you have represented two men, with God behind them holding a bundle of rods with which to whip them. If you refuse to punish Blue Cloak, we will put you in his place and whip you." Not relishing the alternative Spalding laid on the lash,23 after which the horse required was given him.
Had The Hat returned alive, this affair might have been forgotten. But when Gray appeared without him, Ellis accused him of having caused the chief's death, and declared that Spalding's wrath against him and Blue Cloak for turning back showed that it had been intended that they also should be killed. Ellis then assembled the Nez Percés, and kept Spalding and all the white people attached to the Mission prisoners in their house for several weeks, and it was not until Pambrun had several times sent messages from Walla Walla assuring them that Gray was not responsible for the death of The Hat, that they finally consented to release their prisoners.
The calm which followed was only the semblance of peace. In the following year, 1839, Smith, who 23 Brouillet's Authente Account, 25-6.
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established a mission at Kamiah, obtained the assent of Ellis to build a house on his land, but was refused permission to cultivate the ground, Ellis telling him that if he dug a hole in the earth it should serve for his grave. In the spring of 1840 Smith made an attempt to plough, but was interrupted by the sav- ages with the same threat, when he desisted, and soon after went to the Hawaiian Islands, the station Kamiah being abandoned.24
This much is the account of the Catholic authorities, and Gray does not deny it, although, having the means of knowing, he should have done so, if not true. But the Presbyterian missionaries were habitually reticent concerning their troubles with the savages, probably because they were reluctant to confess their failures to the religious world.25
Yet in truth there was little to be ashamed of in a lack of success in such a field of labor. For the
24 Wilkes mentions meeting A. B. Smith and wife at Fort Vancouver in 1841, at which time it was said that they were leaving Oregon on account of Mrs Smith's health. He also learned from Smith that there were no natives in the neighborhood of Kamiah to demand a station. Nar., iv. 354. But Smith, in his correspondence, declared Kamiah to be 'the most eligible spot for a station in the whole country. Three fourths of a year, autumn, win- ter, and spring, the people remain here permanently.' Boston Miss. Herald, Aug. 1840, 326. Gray attempts to show that Smith left the Nez Perce Mis- sion because Spalding was 'ambitious and selfish,' and jealous of the superior ability of his coadjutors. Hist. Or., 211. But again Smith writes in August 1839, in a tone to show that he is not a saguine missionary: 'No longer can we be borne along by the current of popular favor among this people. The novelty of having missionaries among them is now gone, and we must work against the current as much as in any other heathen country. In future it will be uphill work.' Boston Miss. Herald, 328.
25 In this the example was set by the mouth-piece of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, the Boston Missionarg Herald, a monthly magazine, containing the proceedings of the missionary board and its foreign correspondence. Its publication began in 1805. It was seldom that a letter from its correspondents was published as written. The most favorable side of the subject was presented in an abstract of the communica- tion; and where no favorable side could be found, the correspondence was practically suppressed. I have carefully searched the files which should con- tain the denial or confirmation of certain incidents related by Catholic writers as reflecting on the Protestants, without finding the most distant allusion to those events; but do find, nevertheless, sufficient evidence confirming the troubles of the missionaries with the Indians to justify belief in the incidents as related by writers who might otherwise be suspected of giving too partisan a tone to their statements. I say that it was the custom for eastern mis- sionary journals wilfully to misrepresent the facts in order that the income from the supporters of missions might not be lessened.
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DOCTOR WHITMAN.
natives at their best, with few exceptions, manifested scarcely more gratitude for benefits bestowed than is current in civilized circles. "I have no evidence to suppose," says Spalding, speaking of the selfishness and ingratitude of the natives, "but a vast majority of them would look on with indifference and see our dwelling burned to the ground, and our heads severed from our bodies." 26 This was said by the most success- ful of the missionary teachers regarding the people whom he taught. Walker and Eells, at the Chema- kane mission, while not having suffered the same indignities as teachers at the other stations, complained that the real object of the aborigines in professing interest in religion and learning was to secure the favor of their instructors and obtain presents, and Smith at Kamiah gave them the same character,27 while all often referred to their untruthfulness.
Yet the missionaries continued to hope against hope that in time some good might be effected, and reported as their circumstances chanced to inspire them, some times cheerfully but oftener despondingly. Whitman wrote in March 1841, that the people were quiet, and appeared never to have been so well disposed toward him as at that time; assigning as a reason that the troublesome chief, Split-lip, had been removed by death.28 But letters of the same date, from the other stations, gave disheartening accounts of opposition from savages.
In the previous year there had been a serious dis- turbance at Waiilatpu, occasioned by the Cayuses allowing their horses to damage the grain in the mission field. When reproved by Whitman, they covered him with mud, plucked his beard, pulled his cars, snapped a gun at him, threatened to pull down his house, and would have struck him with an axe had
26 Letter to Dr White, 1842, in Gray's Hist. Or., 23S.
27 Simpson's Nar., i. 161; Wilkes' Nar., iv. 484; Boston Miss. Herald, November 1840, 441.
28 Boston Miss. Herald, October 1841, 436; Id., September 1841, 405.
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he not evaded the blow.29 A report of this outrage reached the Sandwich Islands, and prevented J. D. Paris and W. H. Rice from joining the mission with their wives. They were about to depart for Oregon, but on hearing of the assault, determined to remain at the Islands, believing that Waiilatpu would be abandoned. Indeed, Whitman was strongly coun- selled by McLoughlin to quit Waiilatpu; being assured that should he do so temporarily, as if offended with the natives, they would repent of their conduct and ask him to return.30 But the missionary was no ordi- nary man. I do not know which to admire in him most, his coolness or his courage. His nerves were of steel; his patience was excelled only by his abso- lute fearlessness; in the mighty calm of his nature he was a Cæsar for Christ. He would on no account give the Cayuses occasion to think he had feared them. So he resolved to stay. In 1841, while the Red River immigrants were at Walla Walla awaiting a change of horses, another assault was made on Whitman in consequence of Gray striking an Indian lad for some offence. The boy's uncle was the chief Tiloukaikt, a haughty and irascible man, who to avenge the insult to his nephew struck Whitman, knocked his hat off, and pulled his nose, all of which insults the doctor bore meekly, but without showing fear.
In former attacks of a similar nature, Pambrun had interfered to prevent further mischief; but the ruler of Fort Walla Walla was now dead, and Archibald Mckinlay reigned in his stead. The Cayuses had agreed with Mckinlay to furnish horses to take the Red River immigrants to the Dalles; but when the animals were brought, he refused them, saying he would have nothing to do with Indians who treated a white man, and his friend, as they had treated Dr Whitman. This was an argument they could under-
29 Brouillet's Authentic Account, 25.
30 Roberts' Recollections, MS., 4.
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stand. After making some delay and difficulty about it, he appeared to relent, and promised to accept the horses provided Tiloukaikt, and all concerned in the assault, should go and beg pardon of the doctor, which they consented to do.31 So again the sky was clear over Waiilatpu.
Meanwhile Spalding was having similar trouble at Lapwai. The Nez Percés pulled down his mill, claim- ing it to be their own, and assaulted him with a gun, Mrs Spalding herself not escaping insult. There had not been one year in the five from 1837 to 1842, in which some of these occurrences had not taken place.
Surrounded by difficulties and dangers such as these, it is no wonder that the Protestant missionaries resented the advent of the Catholics. The natives could not fail to see that there was trouble between their teachers, and their mischievous nature made them quick to take advantage of the situation. They carried stories back and forth, taking a malicious de- light in exaggerating such scraps of scandal as were blown about their ears upon the breezes of religious rivalry.
While A. B. Smith was at the Kamiah mission he reduced the Nez Percé dialect to grammatical rules. In the summer of 1839 the Lapwai mission received a visit from the printer of the Honolulu mission, E. O. Hall, who brought as a present from the first native church of Honolulu a small printing-press and some type. He remained long enough to teach the printer's art to Spalding and Rogers, and on this press were printed primers in the native language for the use of the pupils, a collection of hymns. and some
31 Tolmie's Puget Sound, MS., 24-5. I have Tolmie's authority also for the story told by several others, that Gray, to prevent the native children from taking melons out of the gardon at Waiilatpu, inserted tartar emetic into several of the finest ones in order to make the thieves sick and destroy their craving for melon. Its evil effects were quickly perceived, and the suspicion naturally engendered that the missionaries were exercising tamanowas, or evil-eye, upon them, which led to further suspicions at a later date. See also the testimony of Augustine Raymond and John Young, in Brouillet's Au- thentic Account, 31,
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chapters from St Matthew.32 By the aid of these books in their own tongue, a number of the Nez Percés were taught to read, and also to reproduce their lessons, by printing with the pen, for the benefit of less advanced pupils. In the labor of translation, Smith was assisted by Lawyer, whom I have before mentioned as having obtained his sobriquet by his shrewdness in dealing with white men, and who had a sufficient knowledge of the English language to enable him to assist in the earlier efforts of the mis- sionaries. This astute savage soon perceived that so long as the missionaries were in the field he could profit by siding with them in all disputes. Besides the books used, pictures drawn by Mrs Spalding, in water-colors, to illustrate sermons and lessons, were important aids. It was found that bible history was interesting to the natives, but they were opposed to the doctrine of original sin, and also to being made responsible as sinners. Yet they readily understood the meaning and the natural justice of the command- ments,' and had a love for laws, though each one evi- dently hoped to gain some advantage by them over his fellows. In addition to reading, writing, singing, and religious instruction, the men were taught farming and the women housekeeping, knitting, sewing, spinning, and weaving. The chief difficulty in the way of progress was the necessity of collecting food, the men spending a great portion of the year in hunting, and the women in digging roots or gathering berries. Their absence, however, gave the missionaries oppor- tunities to perform the labor required for their own subsistence.
The mission at Lapwai after a few years consisted of a large and commodious dwelling with eleven fire-
32 On this press, the first north of California, was also printed in 1848 the first periodical, not a newspaper, published in the Willamette Valley, the Oregon American and Evangelical Umonist, edited by J. S. Griffin. It was a sectarian and rabidly anti-Catholic journal. The press and type are preserved in the state-house at Salem. Thornton's Or. Hist., MS., 25-6; Newcomb's Cyclopedia of Miss., 623. M. G. Foisy was the first printer in Oregon after the missionaries. Rocky Mountain Gazette; Thornton's Or. Relics, MS., 4.
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WAIILATPU BUILDINGS.
places, and Indian reception-room, weaving and spin- ning room, eating and sleeping rooms for the children, rooms for the family, and a school-house, all under one roof. There were, besides, a church, saw-mill, blacksmith-shop, granary, storehouse, and all necessary farm buildings. The mission farm, besides simply supporting the family, as was at first anticipated, be- came a source of supply to travellers the natives, and the other missions. 33
The mission at Waiilatpu consisted of an adobe a story and a half high, sixty feet in length by eighteen in width, with library and bedroom at one end, din- ing and sitting room in the centre, and Indian room at the other end of the main building; the kitchen, school-room, and bedrooms being in a wing at right angles to it. A second house, called the mansion, stood at a little distance from the first, and was forty by thirty feet on the ground, and a story and a half high. Near these was a blacksmith-shop, and within four hundred feet of the dwelling was a small grist-mill. On one side of this group of buildings were the Walla
33 Spalding had discovered as early as 1838 the fertility of the soil in the country east of the Cascades, and as early as 1845 that the plains were even more valuable for farming than the valleys. In a letter prepared by him in 1846 for the use and by the request of Joel Palmer, then on his way to the States, after giving the above opinion, he goes on to say: 'My place is one of the deepest valleys, and consequently the most exposed to reflection from the high bluffs around, which rise from 2,000 to 3,000 feet; but my farm, though prepared for irrigation, has remained without it for the last 4 years, I find the ground becomes more moist by cultivation. Three years ago I raised 600 bushels of shelled corn from 6 acres, and good crops of wheat on the same piece the 2 following years, without irrigation. Eight years ago I raised 1,500 bushels of potatoes from one acre and a half; measuring some of the bags in which they were brought to the cellars, and so judging of the whole amount. I gave every eleventh bag for digging and fetching, and kept a strict account of what every person brought, so that I was able to make a pretty accurate estimate of the whole amount. My potatoes and corn are always planted in drills. Every kind of grain or vegetable which I have tried in this upper country grows well. Wheat is sown in the fall, and harvested in June at this place; at Dr Whitman's in July, being in a more open country. Corn is planled in April and ripens in July; pease the same. Palmer's Journal, 167. In 1842, 140 Nez Percés cultivated the ground, in quantities of from ¿ of an acre to 5 acres each. One chief raised that year 100 bushels of corn, 176 bushels of pease, and between 300 and 400 bushels of potatoes. Another chief raised about the same amount; and about 40 In- dian farmers raised from 20 to 100 bushels of grain of different kinds, besides potatoes, vegetables, and melons in abundance. Boston Miss. Herald, Oct 1843, 383.
HIST. OR., VOL. I. 22
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Walla River and mill-pond; on the opposite side a ditch for discharging waste water from the mill, and for irrigating purposes. Willow, birch, and alder fringed the stream. A meadow lay in front stretch- ing toward the west; apple-trees were growing in sight of the house, and flowers in the small enclosure in front.34 A general air of thrift and comfort prevailed.35 In 1839 the stock at Waiilatpu consisted of a yoke of oxen, two cows, an American bull, and a few hogs. In 1841, according to Wilkes, a considerable herd had come by descent. Sheep had been obtained from the Hawaiian Islands, and hogs had greatly multiplied. There was a saw-mill belonging to the mission twenty miles up Mill Creek, having a capacity of about three thousand feet a day, together with a house for the mill men.
It was first thought that the soil of the Walla Walla Valley was not fertile, but Wilkes found wheat stand- · ing seven, and corn nine, feet high in the mission fields at Waiilatpu, while the garden was filled with fine vegetables and melons. There was less cultivation by the Cayuses than by the Nez Percés, yet they brought into use many small patches of ground, some of them at Waiilatpu, but more on the Umatilla River, where at a distance of twenty to forty miles lived some of the most influential chiefs. Less grain was raised at Waiilatpu than at Lapwai, partly because of the man- ifold cares of the superintendent, and partly because, owing to the haughty and intractable disposition of the Cayuses, fewer of them could be employed as farm laborers.36 Whitman's manner of teaching was similar
34 Victor's All Over Or. and Wash., 109.
35 White's Ten Years in Or., 166. Farnham gives a lengthy account of this mission. Among other things he says: 'When the smoking vegetables, the hissing steak, bread as white as snow, and the newly churned golden butter graced the breakfast-table, and the happy countenances of countrymen and countrywomen shone around, I could with difficulty believe myself in a country so far from and so unlike my native land in all its features. But during breakfast the pleasant illusion was dispelled by one of the causes which induced it. Our steak was horse-flesh !' Travels, 149.
36 Wilkes relates how the Cayuses, when Whitman refused to allow them to use water from his irrigating ditches, stopped them up. This nearly oc-
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CHEMAKANE MISSION.
to the method employed at Lapwai. On Saturday evenings he usually invited one of the most intelligent natives to his study, and translated to him the text to be used on the morrow, explaining carefully its meaning until the pupil could explain it in his turn, and assist in interpreting and teaching on Sunday.37 Mrs Whitman taught reading and singing in the day school through the week, and relieved her husband of the elementary part of the labor.
At the Spokane mission of the Chemakane there was not the same improvement nor the same trouble ex- perienced as at Lapwai and Waiilatpu. The Spokanes were said by Walker and Eells to be addicted to the usual Indian vices, and especially to lying, which they seemed to enjoy as a means of creating excitement, but were more peaceably disposed than the Nez Percés or Cayuses. In the winter of 1839-40, when the mission house was destroyed by fire, they rendered willing service, and even refrained from taking the goods of the missionaries. By their help, and that of the inmates of Fort Colville, who. came and en- camped upon the ground in several inches of snow to give their protection and assistance in rebuilding, the mission was soon restored, although many things of value in this remote region were destroyed.
Agriculture at Chemakane did not succeed as at Lapwai or Waiilatpu, on account of frosts, and it does not appear to have been attempted to any great extent.33 Among the Spokanes was a chief named Garry, corresponding in character and influence to Lawyer among the Nez Percés. He had been taken to the Red River settlement, where he was taught
casioned a serious difficulty, which was averted, however, when they became convinced there was water enough for all if they would dig trenches for themselves. Nar., iv. 423.
37 Hastings' Or. and Cal., 54; Johnson's Cal. and Or., 271.
38 De Smet says: 'It appears they are fearful that, should they cultivate more, they might have too frequent visits from the savages. They even try to prevent their encampment in their immediate neighborhood, and therefore they see and converse but seldom with the heathen they have come so far to seek.' Letters und Sketches, 212.
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reading and writing, and obtained some knowledge of Christianity. So far as Garry's influence was felt among this people, it was on the side of progress.
Such was the general condition of affairs at the Presbyterian missions in the autumn of 1842. The uneasiness which was felt front the first appearance of the Catholics in their neighborhood was intensified by the establishment of De Smet's missions among the Flatheads, and his visits to Colville and Vancouver, followed by the arrival of two secular priests in the Willamette Valley, and the mission of De Smet to Europe, with the avowed purpose of bringing men and means to overthrow Protestantism among the natives. While representing his situation frankly to the board, Whitman had never asked to be released from it, but on the contrary, to have his hands strength- ened by a reënforcement. He saw the great number of missionaries which the Methodist church was able to throw into the field in western Oregon, and the readiness of the Catholics to furnish aid where it was required, and was reluctant to yield. Of all the inde- pendent missionaries who, it would seem, should have been willing to aid him, none remained over a few months at the station, being either alarmed by the attitude of the natives, or allured by flattering re- ports of the Willamette Valley for settlement. Even those who were designed to assist him fled from the post, Smith, Rogers, and Gray having deserted in 1841 and 1842, and none having come to fill their places.
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