CHAPTER IV

UNSUCCESSFUL ATTEMPTS TO ESTABLISH NON-CATHOLIC
MISSIONS AMONG THE FLAT HEADS

Although this first expedition to St. Louis had failed in its immediate object, it was not entirely a failure, inasmuch as it brought the cause of the Flat Heads to the attention of the Christian world and aroused much interest and sympathy in their behalf. But herein lay the danger. We mean that of being given "stones for bread" and of having sown among them the errors of heresy, instead of the word of life, for which they were seeking.

In fact, scarcely two years after the survivors of the Flat head deputation ha departed for their home in the Rocky Mountains, the non-Catholic missionary societies made repeated attempts to establish missions of their own among the members of the tribe. Their efforts, however, accentuated the spirit that animated our Flat Heads, who, while determined to have among them Christian teachers at any cost, were equally determined to have none by Catholic missionaries.

This became clear in 1834 when, under the auspices of the American Methodist Episcopal Church, the Rev. Jason Lee, of Stanstead, Canada, and his nephew, the Rev. Daniel Lee, with three laymen, were sent to found a mission among the Flat Heads. Those gentlemen arrived at their destination, but instead of remaining to evangelize the tribe assigned to them, they are once left the Flat Head country, and went to Oregon, to preach the Gospel to the Canadian colony on the banks of the Willamette. Why this speedy departure?

One of the reasons given is of interest and throws much light on the subject: "It was shown," they tell us, "that the supposed claims of the Flat Heads on the first missionary efforts made in the country were unfounded." This statement, translated into plain English, indicates clearly enough that the Rev. J. Lee and companions, on reaching the Flat Heads, found that

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their services were not wanted, and that it was Catholic Black Robes whom the Indians desired and had sent for.

The Flat Heads, who were still eagerly awaiting the return of their brethren gone in search of Christian teachers, hearing that missionaries were on the way to their tribe, thought at first, and very naturally, that they could be no others than the expected Black Robes who, at last, were coming to the Rockies. But when the Lee party arrived, our Indians were much disappointed. None of their men was in the party and, further, the missionary gentlemen who stood before them did not tally with the description of the Black robes given by their adopted brethren, the Iroquois. The missionaries spoken of by the Iroquois wore long black gowns, carried a crucifix with them, prayed the great prayer (the Mass), and did not marry. But the newcomers wore no black gowns and, upon inquiry, had no cross to show, prayed not the great prayer, and, besides, they married. They surely could not be the teachers they had sent for. Consequently, they made the Lee party understand that the Flat Head tribe did not care for them nor their ministrations. Was not this ample cause for the abandonment of the project?

But the other reasons advanced by Lee and Frost for not locating their mission among these Indians, are equally interesting and well worth quoting. "Subsequent inquiries," say these historians, "had furnished reasons to the missionaries that could not justify any attempt to commence the mission among them (the Flat Heads). First, the means of subsistence in a region so remote and so difficult to access were, to say the least, very difficult. Second, the smallness of their number. Third, the vicinity to the Blackfeet, as well the white man's enemies, as their. Fourth, a larger field of usefulness was contemplated as the object of the mission than the benefiting of a single tribe, etc."

These gentlemen, it would seem, besides discovering that their services were not wanted, found the field too small and nit only uninviting, but entailing too many hardships and dangers. Consequently, they thought it wise to move on and go to Oregon.

The first attempt was followed by others. The Flat Head expedition to St. Louis had given impetus to the missionary

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movement, particularly toward the Oregon country. The Flat Head Indians, however, were the tribe whom the American Board of Foreign Missions seemed specially desirous to evangelize and take under its care. Hence in 1835 the Rev. Samuel Parker and Dr. Marcus Whitman were sent out by the Board to look into the condition of the natives, with a view to establishing missions among them. The Flat Heads, still hopeful of the return of their brethren, hearing that another missionary expedition was on the way, renewed their hope thinking that these, likely, were the long-expected ones.

Prompted by such hope, Indulá, known among his people as the "Little Chief and Great Warrior," accompanied by several others of the tribe, started out to meet the supposed Black Robes. Attacked on the road by hostiles, Indulá's party fought their way through, and reached the rendezvous on Green River, where they met a number of representatives of other tribes. To their great disappointment, none of the four who had gone to the white man's country for missionaries was there; nor did they hear any news of them, and the supposed Black robes were no others then the Rev. S. Parker and Dr. M. Whitman.

These gentlemen, having assembled the Indians, introduced themselves as envoys and missionaries, who had been sent to preach to them and establish missions in their midst. Some Nez Percés chiefs who were with the rest, were rather pleased with the men and showed themselves disposed to accept them as their teachers. Upon these manifestations of good will on the part of the group of Nez Percés present, the Rev. Mr. Parker and Dr. Whitman held a conference and resolved that, while the former would continue his tour of exploration, the latter would return to the States in order to secure missionaries for Flat Heads and Nez Percés nations.

But our "Little Chief and Great Warrior," Insulá, and his followers, were not quite satisfied with the looks nor with the message of the missionaries. They appeared too much like the others, the Lee party, who had passed through their country the preceding summer. They too married and they, too, like the others, had no black gowns, no cross, nor the great prayer. From all this Indulá concluded that neither were these the teachers spoken of by their adopted brethren, the Iroquois.

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Consequently, he and his band would have nothing further to do with them.

That such was really the conclusion arrived at by Insulá and his people was made evident the following summer, 1836, when Dr. Whitman returned with assistants, brought out to establish the contemplated missions among the Flat Heads and Nez Percés. The party consisted of Dr. Whitman himself and his bride; the Rev. H. H. Spalding and wife, and Mr. W. H. Gray. While the Nez Percés had come to meet these missionary ladies and gentlemen, according to agreement made with Dr. Whitman the preceding year, the Flat Heads were conspicuous by their absence. The meaning of the fact that no Flat Heads had come to meet with them was well understood by the Rev. Mr. Spalding and Dr. Whitman, who, consequently, with their wives, went to establish themselves on the upper Columbia, the former at Lapwai, the latter among the Cayuses.

It was the country where the Rev. Samuel Parker, a short time before, had taught the Indians to place two stones, instead of a cross, over the graves of their dead, and had preached to them Christianity by breaking the symbol of Christianity to pieces with his own hands under there very eyes. Here is the fact, as related by himself:

The night of our arrival (he writes in his Journal of an Exploring Tour) a little girl of six or seven years of age died. The morning of the 12^th they buried her. In this instance they had prepared a cross to set up on the grace, most probably having been told so by some Iroquois Indians, a few of whom, not in the capacity of teachers but as trappers in the employ of the Fur company, I saw west of the mountains. But as I viewed the cross of wood made by men's hands, to no avail to benefit the dead or living--I took this which the Indians had prepared and broke it to pieces. I then told them that we placed a stone at the head and foot of the grave to make the place.

Thus missionary Parker and the scandalous deed are still remembered by the red men along the Columbia.

But what followed a few years later made it also clear that the Crossless Christianity preached by this Rev. gentleman and others like unto him, was insufficient to change the nature

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of savages; nor did it prevent them from rising up and mercilessly murdering their white-skinned brethren.

Another attempt to establish a Protestant mission among the Flat Heads was made a year or so later, Mr. W. H. Gray being detailed to the task. But this last effort to force unwished teachers upon them proved as abortive as the preceding ones. We shall see in the next chapter that, whilst Mr. Gray was attempting to establish a station among the Flat Heads, another Flat Head delegation was on the road to St. Louis, to secure Catholic missionaries, Mr. Gray himself falling in and traveling part of the way with the same delegation.