American Minute with Bill Federer
Nez Perce & Flathead Indians, Missionary Dr. Marcus Whitman, & the Oregon Trail
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After the
Louisiana Purchase
from
France
in 1803,
Jefferson
sent
Lewis and Clark
to explore the
Northwest
from May 1804 to September 1806, meeting natives tribes along the way.
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Several years later, in 1831, three
Nez Perce Indians
and one
Flathead Indian,
traveled 2,000 miles, all the way from the
Oregon Territory
to
St. Louis, Missouri,
looking for the
"Book to Heaven."
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The
Bishop of St. Louis
was
Rev. Joseph Rosati
(1789-1843), who later sent
Pierre De Smet
as one of the
"Black robe" missionaries
to the Indians.
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Bishop Rosati
wrote in the
Annals of the Association of the Propagation of the Faith,
December 31, 1831:
"Some three months ago
four Indians
who live
across the Rocky Mountains
near the
Columbia River
(Clark's Fork of the Columbia) arrived at
St. Louis ...
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... After visiting
General Clark
who, in his celebrated travels, has visited their country ... they came to see
our church
and appeared to be exceedingly well pleased with it ...
Two of our priests visited them ...
They made the sign of the Cross
and other signs which appeared to have some relation to baptism. The sacrament was administered to them."
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A monument of two eagle feathers,
standing over eight feet tall, in
Calvary Cemetery
in
St. Louis, Missouri,
commemorates the visit of the
Indians.
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Wyandot Indian chief,
William Walker
(1800-1874), who had become a Methodist, met the same Indians at the
home of Territorial Governor William Clark,
of the Lewis and Clark Expedition (1805-1806).
Though modern-day revisionists attempt to discredit the spiritual aspect of the Indians' quest,
William Walker,
who was the
first provisional governor of the Nebraska-Kansas Territory,
gave an eye-witness account.
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His account was printed, March 1, 1833, in the
Christian Advocate & Journal and Zion's Herald of New York,
a Methodist Episcopal publication which
at the time had the largest circulation of any periodical in the world:
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"Immediately after we landed in
St. Louis,
on our way to the west, I proceeded to
Gen. Clark's,
superintendent of Indian affairs ...
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... While in his office ... he informed me that three chiefs from the
Flat-Head nation
were in his house, and were quite sick, and that one (the fourth) had died a few days ago.
They were from the
west of the Rocky Mountains ...
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... Curiosity prompted me to step into the adjoining room to see them, having never seen any, but often heard of them. I was struck by their appearance ...
The distance they had traveled on foot was nearly three thousand miles to see
Gen. Clarke,
their great father, as they called him, he being the first American officer they ever became acquainted with ..."
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Walker
continued:
"Gen. Clark
related to me the object of their mission, and, my dear friend, it is impossible for me to describe to you my feelings while listening to his narrative ...
(They had heard) the white people away toward the rising of the sun had been put in possession of
the true mode
of
worshiping the great Spirit.
They had
a book
containing directions how to conduct themselves in order to enjoy his favor and hold converse with him;
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... and with this guide, no one need go astray, but every one that would follow the directions laid down there, could enjoy, in this life, his favor; and after death would be received into the country where
the great Spirit
resides, and live for ever with him ...
Upon receiving this information, they called a national council to take this subject into consideration ...
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... They accordingly deputed
four of their chiefs
to proceed to
St. Louis
to see their great father,
Gen. Clarke,
to inquire of him."
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Interestingly enough, a similar event occurred on the
other side of the world
in
Burma.
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The
Karen people
had an ancient prophecy that the all-powerful Creator would someday send white foreigners with
a sacred parchment roll
which would show them
the way to heaven.
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In 1813,
Adoniram Judson
and his wife
Ann
became
America's first foreign missionaries to Burma.
There they were assisted by a native interpreter named
Ko Tha Byu.
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When
Ko Tha Byu
realized he was actually interpreting
the promised book,
he was
baptized
in 1828, and became a tireless
Christian evangelist
to his tribe,
leading to thousands convert.
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Ko Tha Byu
then served as the
first native Burmese pastor
at a church in
Rangoon.
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William Walker
wrote further of being at
William Clark's home
in
St. Louis, Missouri,
in 1831 and meeting the
Nez Perce and Flathead Indians:
"They arrived at
St. Louis,
and presented themselves to
Gen. Clark
the latter was somewhat puzzled being sensible of the responsibility that rested on him;
he however proceeded by informing them that what they had been told by the white man in their own country, was true.
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... Then went into a succinct history of man, from his creation down to the advent of the
Savior;
explained to them all the moral precepts contained in the
Bible,
expounded to them the decalogue (ten commandments).
Informed them of the advent of the
Savior,
his life, precepts, his death, resurrection, ascension, and the relation he now stands to man as a mediator-that he will judge the world, & c."
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The published account of the
Nez Perce
and
Flathead Indians
visiting St. Louis inspired
Dr. Marcus Whitman.
In 1835, he went with missionary
Samuel Parker
to northwest
Montana
and
Idaho
to minister to
Nez Perce
and
Flathead Indians.
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The next year,
Marcus
and his newly-wed wife,
Narcissa,
left
Massachusetts
and become missionaries to the
Indians of Oregon and Washington.
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Accompanying them were
Presbyterian missionaries Henry and Eliza Spalding.
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This made
Narcissa
and
Eliza
the
first white women
to cross the Rocky Mountains.
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President Warren G. Harding,
in dedicating the
Oregon Trail Monument,
July 3, 1923, recounted how
Dr. Marcus Whitman
traveled, clad in buckskin breeches, fur leggings and moccasins,
"(An) episode ... took place within these walls ... Seated at his desk ...
John Tyler, tenth President of the United States.
Facing him ... was the lion-visaged
Daniel Webster, Secretary of State.
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... The door opened and there appeared before the amazed statesmen a strange and astonishing figure.
It was that of a man of medium height and sturdy build, deep chested, broad shouldered, yet lithe in movement and soft in step.
He was clad in a coarse fur coat, buckskin breeches, fur leggings, and boot moccasins, looking much worse for the wear ...
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... It was that of a religious enthusiast, tenaciously earnest yet revealing no suggestion of fanaticism, bronzed from exposure to pitiless elements and seamed with deep lines of physical suffering, a rare combination of determination and gentleness - obviously a man of God, but no less a man among men.
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... Such was
Marcus Whitman,
the missionary hero of the vast, unsettled, unexplored
Oregon country,
who had come out of the West
to plead that the state should acquire for civilization the empire that the churches were gaining for Christianity ..."
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Harding
continued:
"The magnificence of
Marcus Whitman's
glorious deed has yet to find adequate recognition in any form.
Here was a man who, with a single companion,
in the dead of winter (1842),
struggled through pathless drifts and blinding storms,
four thousand miles,
with the sole aim to serve his country and his God ...
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... He was pushing grimly and painfully through this very pass on his way from
Walla Walla
to
Fort Hall,
thence, abandoning the established northern route as impassable,
off to the South through unknown, untrodden lands,
past the
Great Salt Lake,
to
Santa Fe,
then hurriedly on to
St. Louis
and finally, after a few days, again on the home-stretch to his destination, taking as many months as it now takes days to go from
Walla Walla
to
Washington
..."
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Harding
continued:
"It was more than a desperate and perilous trip that
Marcus Whitman
undertook.
It was a race against time.
Public opinion was rapidly crystallizing into a judgment that the
Oregon country
was not worth claiming, much less worth fighting for; that, even though it could be acquired against the insistence of
Great Britain,
it would prove to be a liability rather than an asset ...
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Webster
... years before ... had pronounced
Oregon
'a barren, worthless country, fit only for wild beasts and wild men' ...
Whitman
... turning to the
President Tyler
... added ... beseechingly:
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'All I ask is that you will not barter away
Oregon
or allow English interference until I can lead
a band of stalwart American settlers across the plains.
For this I shall try to do!' ...
The just and considerate
Tyler
could not refuse.
'Doctor Whitman,'
he rejoined sympathetically, 'your long ride and frozen limbs testify to your courage and your patriotism. Your credentials establish your character.
Your request is granted!'"
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Harding
added:
"Whitman
... a few months later (1843) ... had completed an organization of eager souls, and led the first movement by wagon train across plains and mountains along this unblazed trail.
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... What a sight that
caravan
must have appeared to the roaming savages! And what an experience for the intrepid pioneers!
More that
two hundred wagons,
bearing well-nigh
a thousand emigrants,
made up the party.
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... They traveled by substantially the same route that
Whitman
had taken when he first went out to
Oregon;
from a rendezvous near what is now
Kansas City
they moved due northwest across
northeast Kansas
and southeast
Nebraska
to the
Platte River;
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... followed the
Platte
to the middle of what is now
Wyoming,
thence crossing the mountains by way of the
Sweetwater Valley
and the
South Platte;
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and from
Fort Hall,
following the well-known route, roughly paralleling the
Snake River,
into
Oregon.
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... The difficulties of the trip, involving beside the
two hundred wagons,
the care of women and children, and of considerable herds of live stock, were such that its successful accomplishment seems almost miraculous.
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... But stern determination triumphed and the result was conclusive. Americans had settled the country ... and in the end the boundary settlement was made on the line of the forty-ninth parallel, your
great Northwest was saved,
and a veritable Empire was merged in the young Republic.
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... Never in the history of the world
has there been a
finer example
of
civilization following Christianity.
The
missionaries
led under the
banner of the cross,
and the
settlers
moved close behind under the
star-spangled symbol of the nation."
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Harding
acknowledged the missionaries by name:
"Among all the records of the evangelizing efforts as the forerunner of human advancement, there is none so impressive as this of the
early Oregon mission
and its marvelous consequences.
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... To the men and women of that early day whose first thought was to carry the gospel to the Indians
-to the
Lees,
the
Spauldings,
the
Grays,
the
Walkers,
the
Leslies,
to
Fathers DeSmet
and
Blanchet
and
DeMars,
and to all the others of that glorious company who found that in
serving God
they were also
serving their country
and
their fellowmen
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-to them we pay today our tribute; to them we owe a debt of gratitude, which we can never pay, save partially through recognition such as you and I have accorded today."
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Unfortunately, when an outbreak of measles occurred, several
Cayuse Indians
died.
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The mission was blamed and the
Whitmans,
along with 11 others,
were massacred.
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President Harding
ended his
Oregon Trail
tribute by acknowledging:
"... my appreciation both as
President of the United States
and as one who honestly tries to be a
Christian
soldier, of the signal service of the
martyred
Whitman."
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The
State of Washington
placed the statue of
Dr. Marcus Whitman
in the
U.S. Capitol's Statuary Hall.
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In 1833, missionary
Jason Lee
went to
Oregon,
founding missions along the Willamette River near Salem.
He was instrumental in petitioning the United States government to recognized
Oregon
as a territory.
The
State of Oregon
place a statue of
Jason Lee
in the U.S. Capital.
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In 1856,
Mother Joseph
led five missionaries to the Pacific Northwest where they founded 11 hospitals, 7 academies, 5 Indian schools, and 2 orphanages.
The
State of Washington
placed a statue of
Mother Joseph
in the U.S. Capital.
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Relations with Indians exhibited a recurring theme in history, namely, the
competing motivations
of the human heart,
Greed
and the
Gospel.
- On one hand, Missionaries and virtuous settlers motivated by the Gospel genuinely wanted to be a blessing to native tribes, setting up schools, orphanages, and medical clinics.
- On the other hand, opportunistic politicians and settlers motivated by greed took advantage of Indians, traded alcohol, killed buffalo, and broke treaties to drive tribes off their lands.
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These differences would later be manipulated by another ideology appearing on the other side of the world in Germany, namely
socialist Marxism.
Marx's Communist Manifesto of 1848
advanced a
divide and conquer tactic,
where
grievances of minorities
would be
fanned to hostility,
bringing
violent internal unrest
which would allow
a dictator to seize power.
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Indian chiefs that successfully discerned through these challenging times included
Chief Moses
of the
Sinkiuse-Columbia tribe,
and
Chief Joseph
of the
Nez Perce tribe.
They gave up land to avoid war, and in the process, successfully preserved their tribes' existence.
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Chief Moses
befriended
Missionary Henry Spalding
and was educated at a
Presbyterian mission school.
Chief Moses
traveled to
Washington, D.C.,
where he met with
President Rutherford Hayes.
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In the Wind River area of Wyoming,
Shoshone Chief Washakie
(whose father was a Flathead), learned to speak French, English, and numerous native languages.
Around 1840, he united the Shoshone tribes.
He became friends with fur trappers and explorers, such as
Kit Carson, John Fremont,
and
Jim Bridger.
At the urging of
Jim Bridger,
who became his son-in-law,
Chief Washakie
attended councils and signed treaties with the U.S. Government, preserving the existence of the Shoshone.
In 1885,
Chief Washakie's
son was killed by a white man in a dispute over alcohol and the Chief vowed revenge against all white men, but when
Episcopal missionary John Robert
offered his life in exchange, the Chief relented.
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Missionary John Robert
translated the Bible into Shoshone and Arapahoe, and with the help of
Chief Washakie,
founded a Christian boarding school.
In 1897,
Chief Washakie
was baptized as a Christian in the Episcopal faith. His statue is in the U.S. Capital.
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The unavoidable fact in that century was that
global colonial powers
sought control of the
northwest area of America:
- Spanish, who had claimed California for two centuries;
- France, that had claims from the Louisiana Territory;
- Russia, that had control of Alaska;
- Britain, that had control of Canada; or
- United States.
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After treaties were negotiated, the
Oregon Territory
of
286,541 square miles
became
U.S. property,
being incorporated into the states of
- Oregon,
- Montana,
- Washington,
- Idaho,
- parts of Wyoming.
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In 1859,
Oregon
became the 33rd state to join the Union. The original
Oregon State Constitution
stated:
"Bill of Rights, Article I, Section 2. All men shall be secure in the Natural right, to worship
Almighty God
according to the dictates of their consciences."
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In 1889,
Montana
became the 41st state to join the Union. The original
Montana Constitution
stated:
"Preamble. We, the
people of Montana,
grateful to
Almighty God
for the blessings of liberty ... establish this Constitution."
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In 1889,
Washington
became the 42 state to join the Union. The original
Washington State Constitution
stated:
"Preamble. We, the
people of the State of Washington,
grateful to the
Supreme Ruler of the Universe
for our liberties, do ordain this Constitution."
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In 1890,
Idaho
became the 43rd state to join the Union. The original
Idaho State Constitution
stated:
"Preamble. We, the
people of the State of Idaho,
grateful to
Almighty God
for our freedom, to secure its blessings and promote our common welfare do establish this Constitution."
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In 1890,
Wyoming
became the 44th state to join the Union. The original
Wyoming Constitution
stated:
"Preamble. We, the
people of the
State of Wyoming,
grateful to
God
for our civil, political, and religious liberties ... establish this Constitution."
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Schedule Bill Federer for informative interviews & captivating PowerPoint presentations: 314-502-8924
wjfederer@gmail.com
American Minute is a registered trademark of William J. Federer. Permission is granted to forward, reprint, or duplicate, with acknowledgment.
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