USA > Washington > Spokane County > Spokane > History of the city of Spokane and Spokane County, Washington : from its earliest settlement to the present time, Volume I > Part 12
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"They have learned of Mr. Spalding and Dr. Whitman some scripture history and some hymns, which they sing. They have not yet had much time to teach them, being obliged to do most of their work. It is true the Indians help them some, but they cannot be depended upon. They are here today, and tomorrow they are some- where else. Besides, if they think you are depending on them, they will not work unless they are driven to it by hunger. Some of them are beginning to sow little patches of corn, wheat and potatoes for themselves : this the men have done and are proud of it; but if a man works for us, they call him a slave and a fool. Three or four have given evidence of a change of heart.
"We feel that we are a small band of missionaries in a heathen land, far re-
SPOKANE AND THE INLAND EMPIRE
moved from the luxuries and many of the comforts of life, and we feel more keenly the absence of civilized and Christian society."
Mr. Eells, under date of February 25, 1840, wrote of their labors among the Spokanes: "We are advancing slowly in the acquisition of the language, though as yet our knowledge of it is very limited. . The Flathead (Spokane) and the Nez Perce languages are distinct. Their philological construction is wholly unlike. We have not been able to find any one word common to both languages.
"Taking this place (Tshimakain) as the center of a circle whose radius shall not exceed sixty miles, it will include a population of near 2,000 souls, nine-tenths of whom rarely, if ever. leave the above specified ground for a length of time, unless it be for a few weeks in the spring. There are five or six bands, each of which has particular lands which they call theirs, and where they pass a portion of each year. So far as I can learn, they are somewhat regular in their removings.
"In April a large number meet in one plain to dig a root called popo. In May they returned to this place, and after remaining a few weeks, moved to a large camas plain, ten miles from us. The camas is their most substantial root. It remains good from May till the next March. In June, sahnon begin to go up the Spokane river, which passes within six miles of our house. At first a barrier was constructed near some falls, ten miles from this place, and perhaps fifteen miles from the camas grounds. At that place salmon were taken only during high water, and then not in large quantities, as the barrier extended only part of the way across the river. While the men and boys were employed at the salmon, the women were digging and prepar- ing camas, and daily horses passed between the two places, loaded both ways. so that all could share in both kinds of food. As the water fell another barrier was built farther down, extending across the entire river; and when completed. men, women and children made a general move to the place. If I judged correctly, I saw there at one time near 1,000 persons, and the number was rapidly increasing. From 100 to 800 salmon were taken in a day, weighing variously from ten to forty pounds apiece.
"When they ceased to take salmon, about the first of August, they returned to the camas ground, where they remained till October, and then began to make prepa- rations for taking the poor salmon as they went down the river. During this month they were very much scattered, though not very remote from each other. In No- vember they went to their wintering places.
"From March to November, our congregations varied from 30 to 100, not more than one half of whom usually remained with us during the week. They often came ten, fifteen, and sometimes thirty miles on Saturday, and returned again on Monday. Since November nearly 200 have remained with us almost con- stantly. In addition to those just mentioned. there have been frequent visitors from neighboring bands, coming in various muumbers, from three or four to sixty at a time. They usually spend two or three weeks and then return.
"We have habitually conducted worship with them morning and evening, when we read a portion of scriptures, and, so far as we are able. explain it, sing and pray. On the Sabbath we have had three services. While the weather continued warm, the place for worship was under some pine trees; but as it became cold, a house was prepared for entirely by the people, expressly for worship. It resembled some- what in form the roof of a house in New England, making the angle at the top
REV. ELKANAH WALKER
REV. CUSHING EELES
MRS. MYRA F. EELES
PROTESTANT MISSIONARIES ON WALKER'S PRAIRIE
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BOBLI LIEHAR
KU TUATIONS
MAY
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much smaller than that of most modern houses. The frame is made of poles four or five inches in diameter, and covered with rush mats. Most of the Indian houses here are made in the same way.
"For want of a thorough acquaintance with the language, much of the instrue- tion communicated has related to seriptural history, though I think we have not failed to give them some correct ideas respeeting the character of God, the fallen state of man, the doctrine of the atonement and regeneration, and the necessity of repentance and faith in Christ to seeure salvation. It is strictly true that they must have 'line upon line :' every new idea must. be repeated many times. The nearer our teaching approaches to Sabbath school instruction. appropriate for small children, the better it is understood. This people are slow to believe that the religion we teach extends farther than to the external conduct. They wish to believe that to abstain from gross sin and attend to a form of worship is all that is necessary to fit them for heaven."
In this respect, the Spokane attitude towards the life religious was not altogether at varianee with that entertained by some good people of the present day.
Throughout the journals, diaries and correspondenee of the missionaries at Tshimakain, at Lapwai and at Waiilatpu, one finds abounding evidenee, that in an excess of zeal and a severe application of "the New England conseience," these devout men and women had keyed too high their expectations of savage response to theo- logieal refinements and subtleties. Because the Pentecostal fire could not flame in the Indian breast, they grieved and lamented. Often their way seemed dark, their life work a failure, their missions, perhaps, a mistake. So late as October, 1817, Mrs. Eells wrote: "We have been here almost nine years, and have not been permitted to hear the cries of one penitent, or the songs of one redeemed soul. We often ask our- selves the question, 'Why is it?' Yet we labor on, hoping and waiting, and expeet- ing that the seed, though long buried, will spring up and bear fruit. We feel in- ereasingly interested in the work, and though we do not see the immediate fruit of our labor, we can not find it in our hearts to leave our people. We can not say that they have persecuted us so that we should be authorized 'to flee to another city." They listen to the word respectfully, but it appears to produce no saving effect."
Two months after the writing of this letter, Dr. and Mrs. Whitman, their as- sistant, Mr. Rogers, and eleven others, chiefly immigrants stopping at Waiilatpu, were massaered by treacherous Cayuses, the little mission band at Tshimakain took asylum at Fort Colville, and, a few months later, acting under the insistent advice of the Oregon authorities, abandoned their station forever. and under military escort, found refuge and new homes in the Willamette valley. Thus ended. in despair and darkness, a decade of faithful, earnest effort, and to the distressed and disappointed missionaries it well may have seemed that all their good seed of ten years' sowing had fallen upon stony ground. But many years later we find Governor Stevens, Lieutenant Wilkes of the United States navy, General O. O. Howard and others giving testimony to the enduring and beneficial results of the mission among the Spokanes.
Returning to the Eells journal, we learn that in November, 1839, a school was opened, at first with but thirty pupils, but grown by April following to more than eighty. That first year at Tshimakain brought incessant toil and countless privations. Cabins were made habitable, ground was broken and prepared for
SPOKANE AND THE INLAND EMPIRE
garden and wheat field, fences built to protect the crops from the Indian horses, long journeys were made to Fort Colville on the north and old Fort Walla Walla on the south; and superimposed upon all this and much more was the real work of the mission, the preaching and the teaching. the study of the difficult Spokane language, and the imparting of agricultural and manual instruction to such of the natives as were willing to receive it.
"My opinion," said Father Eells at that period, "is that our chief efforts should be with the children," a method adopted afterward by government, and found, after many years of experience, to return disappointing results, owing to the disposition of the adults to ridicule the young people on their return from Carlisle, Forest Grove and Salem, and shame them back to the blanket and the tepee. And yet, after three-fourths of a century of experiment and testing. it cannot be said that a better plan offers than that recommended by Mr. Eells:
The mission work went on, with trials and tribulations. "On the morning of January 11, 1810," wrote Mr. Eells, "we met with a heavy loss. While en- gaged in family worship our house took fire, and being mostly lined with rush mats, and having no inside doors except cloths hung up, the flame spread so rapidly that it went through every part of the building before an article was re- moved. After the first flash had passed such things as were in boxes were mostly saved. But before anything was taken out the greater part of the more valuable property which the house contained was nearly destroyed, such as library, writ- ing desk, clock, watch, two beds and bedding. much personal clothing, a quantity of Indian goods, tinware, riding and pack saddles, traveling apparatus. etc. Our food was mostly saved. The walls of the house. built of rough logs, were not essentially injured, except in being badly charred upon the inside."
In the face of this disaster. the spirits of the mission workers must have fallen correspondingly to the zero temperature without, for the thermometer reg- istered eight below. But there was a silver lining even to this dark cloud of mis- fortune: for the Indians responded to the alarm with commendable promptness and energy, constituting themselves the first volunteer fire brigade in the Spokane country, and exhibiting admirable honesty in restoring small articles which might easily have been concealed from the owners. And Mr. McDonald, in charge at Colville, with characteristic goodness, dispatched, without asking. four men from his fort who soon made the burned house habitable, and with them eame also two gentlemen from that post. Messrs. McLean and MePherson. With the tempera- ture ten below zero, and a foot of snow over the country. the six volunteers camped on the ground, an exhibition of kindness and fortitude that was deeply appreciated. "This is but a specimen of the unvaried kindness shown us by the gentlemen of the company with which we have had no particular intercourse or connection," said Father Eells.
Writing at this date of mission results, Mr. Eells said: "During the past winter nearly 250 Indians have been encamped by us. If we judge correctly. there has been a marked increase in the knowledge of Divine Truth. This is especially true of the chief mentioned in the Herald by the name of Big Head. It has been a rather general impression among the best-informed Indians that thieves, gamblers. Sabbath-breakers and such like will go to a place of misery when they die, but that such as are not guilty of open vices. and attend to a form
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of worship will go above. We have labored much to correct this and kindred errors, and unless we greatly mistake, our labor has not been in vain. The lan- guage of the chief is: 'I formerly thought my heart was good, but I now see it is not. We are full of all manner of wickedness-are covered up in our sins. They hold us like strong cords. One thing must be done. Our hearts must be changed, or we shall go below when we die.'"
In the school instruction was given in reading, spelling, arithmetic and music, the pupils, both young and old, showing quick aptitude in numbers and mani- festing a passionate love for music. From the fur traders the Spokanes had picked up a number of lewd songs, and the missionaries tried to supplant these with hymns and sacred songs. They began with the doxology, and the Indian voice showed sufficient compass to sing it in three octaves in F. Then Mr. Eclls composed the following hymn, words and music, and it proved popular, the natives clinging to it many years after the mission had been abandoned and their instruc- tors had taken up new homes in Oregon. Mr. McLean of the Hudson's Bay com- pany heard Indians singing it in the heart of the Rocky mountains.
4
5
Lam - a - lem, on - a - we
Thanks . .
thee . .. .
Je - ho - vah, Je - ho - vah,
Kain - pe - la, tas ka - leel.
We . .
not dead,
Rait - si - ah We .. . all
wheel - a - wheel.
Kain
pe - la
a
- live.
We .
ets - in - ko - nam,
kaits We .
chow.
sing
pray.
Vol 1-6
CHAPTER IX
MISSION LIFE AT WALKER'S PRAIRIE, CONTINUED
SEVERE WINTER OF 1840-11-ARDUOUS JOURNEYS BY FATIIER EELLS-GOING TO COL- VILLE FOR MAIL-DR. WHITMAN'S FAMOUS MIDWINTER RIDE-DISCOVERY OF THE PRECIOUS METALS-MOTHERS MEETINGS SEVENTY YEARS AGO-DREADFUL WINTER OF 1816-17-NO NEW BONNETS FOR EASTER SUNDAY-FIRST SHOES FOR THE CHIL- DREN-HOW THE MISSION WOMEN MADE CHEESE-INDIAN WIFE WHO WAS "A JEWEL OF RARE EXCELLENCE.
S ( SEVERE was the winter of 1810-11 that only fifty Indians remained at the mission, and the attendance at the school fell to eleven. But another school, maintained at a point five miles from the mission, and attended almost daily by some one from the mission, had an attendance of twenty-two. In the last analysis Indian nature is not essentially different from white nature; is charmed by novelty. and the mind grows dull by tedious repetition; and though the school was continued, it never afterward numbered more than fifteen.
With that indefatigable zeal and energy which attended him throughout a long life of intense religious endeavor. Mr. Eells traveled, in the year ending March 1, 1841, 1,200 miles on horseback, work which took him from home fifty- seven days. Teaching Indians at other points required 400 miles additional travel and twenty-three days more absence from home. He has left an interesting ac- count, in the Walla Walla Watchman of March 27. 1885, of one trip made to Fort Colville with mail. "With our limited facilities, the annual autumnal passage of the brigade of the Hudson's Bay company from east of the mountains down the Columbia was an important event. Its arrival at Fort Colville was to be pre- pared for. Thus an opportunity was afforded for the conveyance of letters to Vancouver. and thence via the Sandwich islands to Boston. I had written and arranged with an Indian to accompany and assist me in conveying the mails, and in conveying supplies from the fort. In vain I looked for the arrival, according to promise, of the needed helper. The morning hours passed. The idea of not forwarding what I had prepared was unendurable. On a riding horse, with pack mule carrying tent, bedding, food. I started. The moon was at its full. After a ride of forty miles I camped. Seasonably the next morning I was traveling. The distance, thirty miles to the post. was passed. The boats had not arrived. My mail was left. and I returned twenty miles.
"The fifty miles for the next day should be commeneed early, as the last fifteen miles were darkened with timber. The moon would not rise till more than two
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hours after sunset, and it was cloudy. With such facts in mind I encamped. I slept. I awoke; my first thought was. it is daylight. The moon was concealed behind the clouds. Hurriedly I struck tent. saddled, packed and was off. After riding an indefinite length of time the location of the moon was discernible. Judg- ing thus. it was not far from midnight. After a nocturnal ride of ten miles. I lay down again and slept without fear of being benighted in dark timber. The distance traveled was 140 miles; length of time, a little in excess of two days and a half. with object attained and mail taken to postoffice."
To enter into the long-standing Whitman controversy is not within the pur- view of this history .* Respecting Dr. Whitman's memorable mid-winter ride across the continent volumes have been written-to show that its object was patriotic, to wrest the Oregon country from impending British ownership; and. on the other hand, to prove that his controlling motive was prevention of abandonment of the Oregon missions by the American Board, and the part he played politically had little or no bearing in saving Oregon to the United States. But since Eells and Walker were called into counsel with Whitman, and went to Walla Walla at his summons, regard for at least approximate completeness of the Tshimakain record requires the publication here of an affidavit made by Mr. Eells, before a notary public at Spokane. August 23, 1883, in part as follows:
"September, 1812, a letter written by Dr. Whitman. addressed to Rev. Messrs. E. Walker and C. Eells, at Tshimakain, reached its destination and was received by the persons to whom it was written. By the contents of said letter, a meeting of the Oregon mission of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Mis- sions was invited to be held at Waiilatpu. The object of said meeting, as stated in the letter named. was to approve of a purpose formed by Dr. Whitman, that he go east on behalf of Oregon as related to the United States. In the judgment of Mr. Walker and myself, that object was foreign to our assigned work. With troubled thoughts we anticipated the proposed meeting.
"On the following day, Wednesday, we started. and on Saturday afternoon camped on the Tonchet. at the ford near the Mullan bridge. We were pleased with the prospect of enjoying a period of rest, reflection and prayer-needful preparation for the antagonism of opposing ideas. We never moved camp on the Lord's day. On Monday morning we arrived at Waiilatpu, and met there the two resident families of Dr. Whitman and Mr. Gray. Rev. I. H. Spalding was there. All the male members of the mission were thus together.
"In the discussion the opinion of Mr. Walker and myself remained unchanged. The purpose of Dr. Whitman was fixed. In his estimation, the saving of Oregon to the United States was of paramount importance, and he would make the attempt
A resolution adopted by the legislature of Washington territory, in October, 1969, as- sorted that Dr. Whitman, "knowing the vast resources and mineral wealth of Oregon torri- tory, and the intention of the government of the United States to dispose of the same for a trivial consideration, to the government of Great Britain, from not being aware of the inmuense value .. . did, in the dead of winter, at his own private expense, cross the rontinent amid the snows of the Rocky mountains and the bleakness of the intervening plains, inhabited by savage Indians, and reached Washington City and informed the government of the United States of the great value of said territory, and thereby prevented the sale and loss of said territory to the United States. "
TSILIMAKAIN, AS SKETCHED BY GRAY, 1843
TSHIMAKAIN, AS SKETCHED BY ARTIST WITH GOVERNOR STEVENS' EXPEDITION, 1853
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to do so, even if he had to withdraw from the mission in order to accomplish his purpose.
"In reply to considerations intended to hold Dr. Whitman to his assigned work, he said, 'I am not expatriated by becoming a missionary.' The idea of his withdrawal could not be entertained; therefore to retain him in the mission a vote to approve of his making the perilous endeavor prevailed. He had a cherished objeet for the aeeomplishment of which he desired consultation with Rev. David Greene, seeretary of correspondenee with the mission at Boston, Mass., but I have no recollection that it was named in the meeting. A part of two days was spent in consultation. Record of the date and aets of the meeting was made. The book containing the same was in the keeping of the Whitman family. At the ume of their massacre, November 29, 1847, it disappeared?"
Long before the purpose or the results of Dr. Whitman's journey had been ealled into question, Father Eells wrote an extended statement for publication in the Missionary Herald of December, 1866:
"The Hudson's Bay company," he said, "was aware at an early date of the existence of mineral deposits in that portion of Oregon claimed both by England and the United States."
Some of its men had early discovered the extensive lead outeroppings, on the shore of Kootenai lake in southern British Columbia, which in after years were to be located, under the mineral law, as the famous Bluebell mine.
"If I remember correctly," eontinnes Mr. Eells, "} had not been long in this country before the statement was made that gold had been found on the Colum- bia river, taken to England, made into a watch seal, brought back here, and worn by a gentleman connected with the Hudson's Bay company." That the existenee of gold in the country east of the Caseade mountains was known to representa- tives of the fur company long prior to the discovery of that metal at Sutter's mill in California, ean seareely be doubted, but for obvious prudential reasons it was not to the interest of the Hudson's Bay company to exploit the important faet.
"In those early days," testifies Mr. Eells. "Dr. Whitman made in my hearing the following statement : "There is no doubt that this country abounds in the precious metals.' In the autumn or early winter of 1813 a German botanist was traveling with employes of the Hudson's Bay company, and having had some knowledge of mining operations in Germany, he expressed to his fellow travelers the opinion that precious metals existed in a designated locality. They replied, 'We know sneh to be the ease from actual investigation." But while the resources of the country were measurably appreciated, special effort was made to produce the impression that the country was of small value, and that much of it was worthless.
"Previous to 1813, Mrs. MeDonald, at Fort Colville, had a collection of min- eral specimens, a portion of which she presented to Mrs. Eells. These were shown to Dr. Whitman on his return in 1813.
"An unyielding purpose was formed by Dr. Whitman to go east. The mission was called together to consider whether or not its approval could be given to the proposed undertaking. Mr. Walker and myself were decidedly' opposed, and we yielded only when it became evident that he would go, even if he had to become
SPOKANE AND THE INLAND EMPIRE
disconnected from the mission in order to do so. According to the understanding of the members of the mission the single object of Dr. Whitman in attempting to cross the continent in the winter of 1812-3, amid mighty peril and suffering. was to make a desperate effort to save this country to the United States."
They had mothers' meetings, and a "Columbia Maternal association," here in the Inland Empire, back in 1838. It was organized soon after the arrival of Mrs. Walker and Mrs. Bells at the Whitman mission, with six members. By 1812 seven others had joined it. including the wives of two members of the Hud- son's Bay company.
"Sensible of the evils that beset the young mind in a heathen land (so ran the preamble) and confident that no arm but God's can secure our children or those committed to our care from the dangers that surround them and bring them early into the fold of Christ and fit them for usefulness here and glory hereafter, we, the subscribers, agree to form ourselves into an association for the purpose of adopting such rules as are best calculated to assist us in the right performance of our maternal duties."
Climatically the mission was not well located at Walker's prairie. The crops at Tshimakain suffered from frosts, and the winters were longer and more severe than at more favored spots in the valley of the Spokane. That of 1846-7 was particularly rigorous.
"The past winter has been the most severe in the memory of the oldest In- dians," wrote Mrs. EcHs: "The snow began to fall about the middle of November ; about the middle of December it was not far from two feet deep, and it continued to increase to the first of March. For more than five months the earth was clothed in a robe of white: for more than three months we were literally buried in snow ; all the west side of our house was banked to the roof, and would have been dark only that the snow was shoveled from the windows."
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