Missions to the heathen

Winning The New World. III.

Missions

to the

Heathen

•BY-

L. C. BARNES, D. D.

Published

American Baptist Home Mission Society
23 East 26th Street : : (Madison Square) New York

University of California • Berkeley

Winning The New World. III.

omissions to
the Heathen

BY

L. C. BARNES, D.D.

PUBLISHED BY

American Baptist Home Mission Society"

23 East 26th Street (Madison Square) New York

Seven Enterprises Combined

OUR denomination is to be congratulated on its way of
conducting its general work for Winning The New
World. Other communions in a number of cases, have
entirely distinct Societies and Boards for carrying on the various
enterprises enumerated below. We have but one organization,
one office, and one set of officers for all these.

1. Founding Christianity in New Regions: We are

now helping churches in the new, swiftly crystalizing West
to sustain there about one thousand missionaries. An investi-
tigation just completed in one state by the Federal Council of
the Churches of Christ in America (thirty-two denomina-
tions) finds more than one hundred towns there without any
regular religious work, either Protestant or Catholic.

2. Christian Education of Africans: One-seventh of
our fellow citizens who are only one-seventh as far as Anglo-
Saxons from completely pagan ancestors.

3. Christianizing Heathen Indians: Many bands of
American savages (at least thirty in the United States) are
still untouched by any form of Christianity after four hundred
years of spoliation by whites, and one hundred years of
missions to heathen afar.

4. Conversion of Lathi Americans : Great masses
just out from under four hundred years of Spanish misrule
are now incorporated with us. According to Roman Cath-
olic authority they were never yet Christianized.

5. Gospel Americanizing of Foreigners : They are
gaining on us faster than ever, and now mostly from non-
evangelized classes in Europe — Jews Greeks, Latins,—
non-Christian Asiatics, too, scores of thousands.

6. Chapel Building for Mission Churches: They
are helpless without buildings and are unable to build with-
out help.

7. Salvation of Congested Cities : In co-operation with
the local forces of Christ, which are hard bestead, almost
overwhelmed by the prodigious developments cf our day.

HE following is not an account of the
work, among the heathen, which is
now being conducted by the Ameri-
can Baptist Home Mission Society,
it is but a single instance selected

because it is one of the more recent

and least well known.

US

We have 1 1 missionaries to the
American heathen (not counting our
missionaries to Chinese and Japanese
heathen in America) wording among
14 Indian tribes. There are 1,038
communicants in our "Blanket Indian' Churches,
recently rescued from pagan darkness. In the Indian
churches of somewhat longer establishment there are
3,21 1 members. Even these have been brought out
of paganism more recently than many of the churches
in Burma and other parts of East India. They are
largely self-supporting. In the nature of the case, it
is our high privilege and a necessity for a time yet to
provide some missionary superintendence and Christian
education. Indian University at Muskogee, Oklahoma,
is our chief institution of learning among them.

Recent investigation shows that after four hundred
years of spoliation by white men in America and one
hundred years of missions to heathen afar there are yet
some forty tribes and bands in the United States
without Christian work among them of any denomina-
tion. Arrangements are now being made to reach
these. As Baptists We must not fail to take our share
of the new work among the heathen whose plight cries
to high heaven in the ears of every child of God who
has any sense of justice, to say nothing of Christ-like
brotherhood, in "this glorious land of ours" — OURS ?

Missionaries to the Heathen

By Lemuel Call Barnes, D.D.

I. A PAGAN LAND

[T is at the heart of the great central plateau
of the continent, ranging from five to seven
thousand feet above sea level, not counting
ranges and peaks running three to four
thousand feet farther heavenward. On this
lofty platform the highest development of
pre-Columbian life took place within the present territory of the
United States. Ages before the Genoese started on his crazy
sail for India, people inhabited this plateau who were at least
semi-civilized. There are indications that the country was less
arid at that time and that it was inhabited by many more people
tht.~ than now, as well as by people farther advanced. Charred
ears of corn embedded in lava along with implements of civiliza-
tion suggest that possibly volcanic disturbances changed the face
of nature, nearly obliterating the trace of man.

Even yet, however, the Indians who in their primitive state
are most nearly civilized live on this plateau, possibly the rem-
nants of the ancient population. Our Woman's Home Mission
Society has a mission among the most remote and uncontamin-
ated of the Pueblo or town-making Indians, the Hopi of north-
eastern Arizona. It is in every sense of the word a pagan land,
a land of villages as the whole plateau once was. The Hopi
Reservation is entirely surrounded by the Navaho Reservation
in northeastern Arizona and northwestern New Mexico. The
latter Reservation is about the size of Connecticut and New
Jersey ccmbined. It is the largest of the Indian Reservations.

Every perennial spring and brook is precious in this country.
Even wells are marked on Government maps. Every wayfarer
must be careful to reach water for a camping place, if possible.
The missionary must carry a large canteen of water on his
journeys for the sake of long stretches where none can be found,
even of the alkaline variety, which is probably the only kind he
can bring from his home. But wherever there is water will be
found human habitations, the larger the oasis the greater the

population. In the foot hills of the great ranges there are places
of perpetual verdure and beauty. Yet even there, as in the
valley of the Nile, if one lifts his eyes he looks out upon arid
wastes not far away. In the Navaho country, however, they
are not absolute wastes. There is pasturage, at least at seasons
of the year, over nearly all the land. If water were more
abundant there would be less hope of keeping white men from
seizing this first and last stronghold of the brown men in our
country.

II. HEATHEN PEOPLE

The Navahos were pioneers in our country long before the
Spaniards or the English or the French. They came down like
other tribes of the Athabascan race from the direction of
Alaska, bringing with them a tradition that their forefathers
had crossed a narrow sea. Some think that the happy marriage
of one of the Indians with a Chinaman not far from where these
words are written is but the coming together again of long
separated members of the human family.

The Government has made but one attempt to relocate the
Navahos, and soon abandoned that. Their present reservation
is the region in which the Spaniards found them in the sixteenth
century. The Navaho pioneers had become old settlers genera-
tions before the Pilgrims landed. For centuries they were great
marauders, living largely by depredations on the agricultural
Pueblo Indians, and later on Mexicans and other Americans.
But they somewhat rapidly advanced from savagery to bar-
barism. On account of their self-defense and independence
many Pueblos and members of other tribes joined them for the
sake of greater safety from savages both red and white. Hence
they acquired some of the advantages which commonly go with
amalgamation of races, as notably in case of the Anglo-Saxon-
Keltic-Danish-Norman, etc., in England, and of the unnum-
bered races in the United States. It is commonly believed that
the Navahos first obtained sheep by raiding and that they
learned the art of weaving from the Pueblos. The raising and
care of sheep has become the chief occupation of the men, and
the weaving of blankets the chief occupation of women. Next
to sheep, horses are the great possession and means of trade.
There is considerable agriculture, however, by means of prim-
itive irrigation ditches. Corn is the principal crop. Beans,
melons and peaches stand next in favor. The only other oc-
cupation attracting much attention is silversmithing. By means

NAVAHO CHIEF KITON

of crude appliances Mexican and United States coins are trans-
formed into bracelets, spoons, brooches and buckles. Men and
women both are fond of wearing belts adorned with as many
large silver disks as possible. Bridles also are decorated with
silver. Their silver work in addition to being moulded is en-
graved.

The varied industries of the Navahos mean hard work, of
which they are not afraid. In this they are exceptional among
native races. They cheerfully hire themselves out to white
men, and according to all accounts do as good work as other
laboring men. Every home has its simple hand loom, where

MOTHER AND CHILD WEAVING THE FAMOUS NAVAHO BLANKETS

the women patiently toil, having prepared and dyed the wool,
working out the striking patterns of the famous Navaho blankets.
As a "steamer rug" is a shawl, so, per contra, a "Navaho
blanket" is a rug. It is commonly too stiff for comfortable
wear. The men and the women all wear blankets; but almost
invariably they are factory made, one Navaho blanket selling
for enough to buy two or three factory blankets. The trousers
of the man and gowns of the women also are products of factory
looms. But feet are mostly clad in moccasins. Men as well
as women wear their hair long. The men tie it out of the way
with a coronal fillet of some gay fabric. The hair on the chin
they dispense with. We found by the trail one of their "tin
razors," for extracting instead of cutting the beard.

The Navaho house is called a hogan. Some are building
cabins of logs, pressed adobe and stone. But most live in a
domical hut of rough frame-work covered top and sides with
earth. The two openings are a doorway and a smoke-hole.

A NAVAHO HOGAN

The fire is built on the earthen floor. In one instance I saw a
hood and smoke pipe over the fire, made of tin cans. There is
no room for tables, chairs or bedstead. Other utensils are few
and simple. Some native pottery is in use. They frequently
have a summer hogan, which is an airy booth, either detached
or serving as a vestibule of the winter hogan.

The Navahos are heathen in the original sense of the word;
they are heath-men. Their calling as shepherds in an arid
country requires them to move from place to place. They
camp for the time in the most convenient region. They may or
may not live near their cornfields. Land is owned in common,
but occupation and improvements give a sort of title. Their
nomadic life is one of the supreme difficulties in the way of their
uplift by school, mission or home improvement. For instance,
last winter, a mission located near one of their most permanent
and thickly inhabited neighborhoods had but two families in
residence. They are in the patriarchal stage of development,
their customs illuminating the story of Abraham, Isaac and
Jacob. It is a long way from Abraham's tent to the city of
David. If we can help to shorten it, we shall be working with
God in his process of human evolution.

The Navahos are further advanced in some vital respects
than were the biblical patriarchs. In the matter of monogamy,
concubinage and social purity, they are in advance, not only

of most aborgines, but also of the most resplendent days of the
Old Testament. Many Indian tribes are literally rotting with
native and imported vice. The worst diseases, I am informed
by Government physicians, are unknown among the Navahos,
except near the sooty iron trail of the white man. Navaho

women are not in any respect the^slaves of men. They do not
do all the work, as in many tribes. But with their blanket
weaving they are industrially the equals of the men. In domestic
economy, too, they are equals or better. The control of the
household is mainly in their hands. One of the oddest customs
concerns a mother-in-law. What is a matter of superficial
joking with white people is a deep-seated reality with Navahos.
Mother-in-law and son-in-law must never see each other. If
they do, blindness or some other blight is sure to befall. It
is everybody's duty to give sharp warning if danger of a meet-
ing arises. Even after reading of this in good authorities I
could hardly believe that the custom still rigidly prevails. I
found out for myself. A company of Indians was assembled
in our mission hall while I preached to them through the inter-
preter. With the exception of one or two young bucks, they
were behaving with great decorum, when all of a sudden there
were exclamations and a tremendous hubbub. I could not
imagine the cause till I was told that a mother-in-law of one of
my auditors approached the door. Instantly many shouted to
warn the imperiled parties. The man within pulled a hat over
his eyes, while she retreated. To avoid this constant menace a
man sometimes marries the widowed mother of his prospective
wife before marrying her. Then they are both his wives and
there is no mother-in-law.

Their superstitions are complicated and rank. By them not
only is progressive beauty of character rendered impossible, but
life itself is often imperiled. Their medicine man is both doctor
and priest. Their method of attempting to cure the sick is by
weird incantations. These "sings" as they are popularly named
in English gather a crowd together and last throughout the
night. According to all accounts they must be demoralizing to
both physical and mental well being. "Sometimes pertaining
to a single rite there are two hundred songs or more which may
not be sung at other rites.*' "One error made in singing a song
may be fatal to the efficiency of a ceremony; in some cases the
error of a single syllable works an irreparable injury."

When the sick person is sufficiently wealthy or influential the
wild revel lasts for days. Dr. Mathews, the leading student
and authority as to Navaho customs, describes their great med-
icine dance of nine days. On the last night a great fire is built
in the center of a corral and eleven ceremonial dances are per-
formed throughout the night. The following is his description
of one of them:

10

"After an interval of three-quarters of an hour, the dance of
the great plumed arrow, the potent healing ceremony of the
night, began. There were but two performers .... Each bore
in his hand one of the great plumed arrows. While they were
making the usual circuits around the fire, the patient was placed
sitting on a buffalo robe in front of the orchestra. They halted
before the patient; each dancer seized his arrow between his
thumb and forefinger about eight inches from the tip, held the
arrow up to view, giving a coyote-like yelp, as if to say, 'So far
will I swallow it,' and then appeared to thrust the arrow slowly

11

and painfully down his throat as far as indicated. While the
arrows seemed still to be stuck in their throats, they danced a
chasse, right and left, with short, shuffling steps. Then they
withdrew the arrows, and held them up to view as before, with
triumphant yelps, as if to say, 'So far have I swallowed it.'
Sympathizers in the audience yelped in response. The next
thing to be done was to apply the arrows. One of the dancers
advanced to the patient, and to the soles of the feet of the latter
he pressed the magic weapon with its point to the right, and
again with its point to the left. In a similar manner he treated
the knees, hands, abdomen, back, shoulders, crown and mouth
in the order named, giving three coyote-like yelps after each
application."

Another of the dances is like the performance of magicians
who apparently make a plant grow before your eyes. In an-
other dance, nearly naked Indians race after and prod them-
selves and each other with flaming firebrands. These medicine
dances are the religious services of the people. Is there any
need for missionaries of sane religion and sanitary healing?

III. HEROIC MISSIONARIES

It requires nothing less than the spirit of Christ to faithfully
work for these heathen people in such a pagan land. It re-
quires also strength of character and resourcefulness little short
of genius to carry a whole Christian civilization into such an
aboriginal wilderness. Away from all the appliances, conveni-
ences and fellowship of life which even the remotest village
pastor has learned to depend upon, working alone here beyond
the frontier, one expects to find some burly minister of the bush-
whacker type as the only kind who could confront the savage
conditions.

After a long day's narrow-gauge ride through a nearly un-
inhabited country over the continental divide, then half a day
on a "mixed train," the only train — alighting at Farmington,
New Mexico, the farthest southwestern outpost of the dare-
devil Denver' & Rio Grande system, one is surprised that he
does not see his expected missionary. Perhaps there has been
a hitch in the carrying of the message by the bi-weekly horse-
back mail. When the knot of frontiersmen has been looked over
and hope is abandoned, a delicate looking gentleman, who
might appropriately be the occupant of the chair of belles-lettres

12

in Boston or Cambridge, modestly presents himself. Perhaps
the hesitancy has been caused by some disillusionment on his
part, too.

Soon the Field Secretary and Lee I. Thayer, missionary to
the Navahos, are on congenial terms, jogging along under the
white canvas cover of the missionary wagon behind "Peter" and

REV. LEE I. TRAYER AND HIS WIFE. TWO OF THE
HEROIC MISSIONARIES

"Lizzie." Our Navaho horses are several degrees larger than
the Society's ponies in Porto Rico. Still they are small loco-
motives for the long trek through desert sands and deep, un-
bridged arroyos. At the end of the first afternoon, having
forded the San Juan River twice, with water into the wagon
box, in order to visit a Methodist mission (no necessity for

13

sprinkling), we reach the edge of things including supper and
lodging at a frontier Mormon cabin. While the horses rest we
walk in the dark to a Presbyterian mission, some say a mile and
a half, some say two and a half, and some say four miles, and
back. No wonder that we miss the road and that Indian
schoolboy scouts are sent out to find us, for the hospitable mis-
sionary ladies have heard of our coming and have kept a supper
waiting for us. Their cheerful lantern makes the way back
brighter.

At dawn we ford the San Juan again, leaving the last traces
of civilization and plunging into the riverless, treeless, house-
less reservation. One butte after another rising above the
horizon guides our way. But all day long Ship Rock is in
sight, as well as more distant mountains. During the forenoon
it looms like a vast pile of Gothic architecture, but late in the
afternoon when only the upper peaks are visible, they look so
like two sails of a ship on the horizon that you fairly expect to
detect them pitching with the motion of their invisible hull.

What communings by the way concerning nature and man,
concerning scripture and science, concerning thought, both oldest
and latest. At noon, by one of the infrequent springs, our
gentle thinker quickly prepares a piping hot luncheon out of
abundant equipment in the unobtrusive box attached to the
dashboard — so attached that when removed it leaves no mark
or mar, but when in place and the cover turned back it is a
lunch table in just the right relation to the wagon seat. He did
it.

Here in a small way emerges what later appears in a large
way in everything about the mission station and the mission
methods — common sense (so uncommon) to the degree of ir-
resistible manual efficiency combined with a scholar's interest in
language, learning, and in all the ethereal realms of life, to-
gether with intense missionary zeal and longing for the redemp-
tion of the heathen nation into the midst of whose habitation he
has thrown himself. At one juncture a plumber was brought
from the nearest town, two days' journey each way, who looked
the situation over and gave verdict that the job to be done was
impossible. After four days more in getting this expert back to
the cover of a tool-house and bill-heads, our missionary himself
did the complicated, impossible plumbing!

To create the possibility and the platform for his work of
preaching, teaching, writing, counselling and doctoring, our mis-

14

CHILDREN OF Ol'R MISSION SCHOOI

sionary has had to do tree-felling, logging, stone-laying, car-
pentering, joining, roofing, plastering, painting, paper-hanging,
teaming, farming, blacksmithing, cabinet-making, shoemaking
and even plumbing, to say nothing of bookkeeping and no end
of Yankee invention. With all this to do he learned the
language in his first two years so as to preach in Navaho at both
services the first Sunday of his third year. With some promis-
ing inquirers already, there is every reason to expect that we
may have a Navaho church in much less time than it took to
gather our first church in Burma or in some of the American
Indian tribes where we now have most flourishing churches.
Denison University — he is a Buckeye of course — and Rochester
Seminary, ought to be proud to turn out (not in the sense in
which David Brainerd was "turned out" of Yale) even one
man in a thousand who can go into a physical and spiritual
desert and do the kind of work which Lee I. Thayer is doing
at Two Gray Hills.

Long after dark with its December chill on this high plateau,
we reached the mission station built of adobe and logs. What
a glowing spot it is amid the cold and darkness of Navaho-
land.

At this point one is introduced to a large part of the secret
of the brave work at Two Gray Hills. It is a cheerful, refined,

15

YA7.-YAH, NAVAHO CIK

thoroughly practical and intensely sympathetic home life. In
other words it is Mrs. Lee I. Thayer. First of all the home is
radiant with domestic affection, next it is aglow with missionary
activity. In the forenoon ten little Indian children are taught
the English language and are given elementary instruction
through that medium. Mrs. Thayer learned the art of teaching
in a State which a few years ago was ranked by an expert as
foremost in that art, Indiana. Before the day is done Mr.
Thayer gives these little Indians a Bible lesson aided by picture
charts which he has ingeniously put together to tell the whole

16

biblical story. Then he talks to them awhile in their mother
tongue. He is making his own dictionary and grammar of
Navaho speech, using an up-to-date card catalogue system.
Only, dear city friend, instead of buying his appliances at some
library fixture store, he makes them with his own hands.

During the day there will be a number of Indian visitors,
especially to the mill room. Indian corn is the staple article
of food in Navaho- land. The custom of the country is for
women and children to grind by rubbing it between two stones.
Our missionary has installed large coffee-milis, two of them, of
the simple kind used in retail grocery stores. It is a great boon
to the natives to bring corn in their blankets and run it through
these wonderful machines. Hence there is grinding nearly all
day long.

When the boarding school was to be established the mis-
sionary built a log addition, an "L" to the adobe house. It
has a partition half way to the ceiling. On one side of this
partition, in their three beds sleep the nine little Indian girls,
on the other side of it sleep Mr. and Mrs. Thayer so as to be
right at hand in case of need. If you could look into the
homes (?) from which these children have been brought you
could better imagine the constant care which their physical and
spiritual civilization entails upon the missionaries.

The visiting Secretary had the whole of the main house to
himself and slept so well in its comfortable guest room that
he was not awakened even by a gunshot fired in the cellar. The
marauder was instantly dispatched and sweetly, it ought to be
added, for it was a "pole cat." One large room, the best in
the house, next to the school room and the chapel, is a social
room for the Indians. Its front door is never locked day or
night.

When Sunday comes, Indians gather from near and far, five
miles being not far and fifteen miles not too far. In the fore-
noon they have an illustrated Bible story. Then comes a lunch
of crackers and coffee made too simple to be a bid for attend-
ance. After that is another service at which the personal gospel
message is pressed. The day I was there the most progressive
farmer in the region stayed after the second service for a long
talk with the missionary about starting on the Jesus Road.

The missionaries are giving themselves to these heathen with
an abandon which, if fully understood, would be almost ap-

17

palling not only to our church members who are living carefully
sheltered lives but even to those who have life in its roughest
forms. An Indian mother brought her daugh*. r, Asian Yazza,
with a fatal disease to a hut half mile from the mission house
that Mrs. Thayer might minister to her for days. When the
end came, the child was put outside to die according to Navaho
custom. Otherwise native superstition would have required the
hut to be torn down. In the morning word was sent to Mrs.
Thayer. Mr. Thayer had been obliged to go to town, four
days away, on a missionary errand. Could there be Christian
burial? The Indians do not make even rude coffins nor do
they dig graves. So our missionary's wife, naturally as far
from doing such things as any lady who reads these lines,
manages somehow with saw and hammer to make a casket, line
it with white cloth, then with scant assistance from the mother,
digs a grave in the hard soil. These are the easier parts of
the self-imposed task. Our little missionary lady takes the
corpse of the thirteen-year-old child in her arms and brings it
the long half mile, including a necessary descent into a deep
arroyo and the steep climb out of it, to the mission house.
When with prayer she has given the child Christian burial her
own hands must fill the grave. Does one remember much that
was more astounding in the heroism of early missionaries to the
heathen anywhere? On a question like that, perhaps I have
some right to make intelligent answer. I freely say, "No, not
anywhere."

The Chicago Baptist Training School for missionary workers
as well as Rochester Theological Seminary has a right to glory
in the Two Gray Hills Mission. Mrs. Thayer was Ida Black-
well at the school in 1901. One of the many good things to
the credit of the Baptist Young People's Union of America is
that the acquaintance of Mr. Thayer and Miss Blackwell be-
gan, at one of its annual conventions, to which they were both
delegates the year it was held in Milwaukee.

Before knowing the story of Astan Yazza — not one word
of which did I ever hear from Mrs. Thayer — I said, "You
ought to have another worker here for the sake of company
when Mr. Thayer is away or in case of serious illness or other
emergency." What was the answer to this? Remember that
it comes from a dainty little lady who has been given unmistak-
able reason to fear some of the Indians, and whose nearest

18

NAVAHO MOTHER AND CHILD

white neighbor lives four miles away, with no other nearer than
twenty miles, and after these two, no more short of forty miles.
Remember that it is forty miles to a doctor and that it is
seventy miles to a town, a telephone, a telegraph office or a
railroad. Such desolate and difficult miles, too! What would
you say to the suggestion of company in such a, situation? This

19

is what she said: "We ought to enlarge the school and be
raising up some boys as well as girls to make Christian homes
by and by. If we can do that I shall be delighted to have
another worker; but merely for the sake of company it is not
necessary."

I want to leave it to the men and women of our churches to
say whether or not such workers shall be reinforced. It seems
to me, however, that it might be well to take our dearest loved
ones by the hand before we say and then to say it on our knees
in the presence of Him who gave His life for us.

Seventy miles with macadam roads and automobiles is not
far, but with no roads, deep sands, deeper arroyos, a white
canvas wagon and Indian ponies, it is a long way. When we
came out we brought Carrie, the oldest pupil, the first day's
journey to see the kind doctor at Tohatchie, the Government
Indian School, which is under the charge of Mr. Ross, a good
Baptist brother. The second day we discovered that even in
New Mexico, when seven thousand feet above the sea, Decem-
ber is not as pleasant as May. A driving snow storm met us at
the outset. A number of wagon trails, all more or less faint,
cross near Tohatchie. They were fast obscured by snow, while
mountains, buttes and all other waymarks were blotted out. It
drove so sharply, head on, that our ponies veered and the ques-
tion arose whether they and we could weather it and come to
port. The thoughtful missionary had provided the tenderfoot
with arctic overshoes, an extra pair of trousers, and a thick
woolen muffler. Two suits of underclothing, gloves and socks,
together with newspapers under the heavy overcoat, a thick
Navaho blanket and a tarpaulin lap-robe, with a lighted lantern
at our feet, kept us from getting too cold to talk of things human
and divine. No chilblains followed on the tender feet nor
other result more serious than a four weeks' bronchial cold
which in no way interfered with scheduled work. For once,
just once, the whole experience was to be coveted.

But the next day, as the missionary started back over that
frozen desert road, his wagon loaded down with supplies for
the distant mission station, I stood and watched the white wagon
as long as it could be seen, with a lump in my throat not caused
by the cold. As I write the mist comes back to my eyes at the
thought of such heroism as I was beholding in those tender souls

20

who live month after month for Christ's sake and the sake of
the stolid barbarians at Two Gray Hills. The two gray hills
are hidden behind two bright summits of Ghristlike devotion.

IV. IS IT WORTH WHILE

Is it worth while to make such sacrifices? The great and the
final answer is that Christ gave his life for the unworthy. An-
other is that our overwhelming white race in the United States
is under peculiar obligations to the remnants of the red race.
The Navahos are the largest unbroken tribe left. Though
almost in the path of early Roman Catholic missions, they never

GAMBLING THE PREVALENT VICE OF THE NAVAHOS

have been even nominally Christianized. They are less demor-
alized by vicious whites than are other tribes. They are heathen
pure and simple. They have sturdy hearts which make them at
the same time harder to reach and better worth reaching than
most aborigines.

F. M. Pruddens says: "Altogether they are among the
most interesting of the aborigines who live in the old fashion,
hold to the old deities, and maintain a degree of self-respect
and independence in the face of the blighting influences of civili-
zation which is noteworthy and admirable."

The Navahos are almost free from intemperance. May
prohibition on the Reservation be ever in force. Gambling has

21

TYPICAL NAVAHO YOUNG MAN

been one of their besetting sins, so much so that teachers have
felt obliged to take away Sunday-school picture cards from
children because they used them for gambling. Love for the
hazard, however, was so deep in the blood and breeding of the
little ones that they managed it with pebbles. Mr. Wm. T.
Shelton, the Indian Agent in the Northern part of the Reserva-
tion, is earnestly endeavoring to dissuade the Navahos from this
vice. He has the satisfaction of seeing great improvement.

In the matter of trustworthiness, these Indians stand high.
A man who for fifteen years has been trading first and last with

22

all the tribes west of the Mississippi, tells me that of them all, as
men with whom to deal, the Navahos are the most satisfactory.
"If they promise to bring you a hundred sound sheep at a given
time, a full hundred will be there on the dot and every one of
them sound. But," he added, "the next minute they will let
you turn around and pick out another hundred for yourself with-
out any warning as to the unsoundness of the lot.*' Taken all
in all, so far as I can -learn from reading considerable printed
testimony as well as from conversation with close observers of
many sorts, these heath-men rank with the best quality of
heathen.

In 1869 the Government gave the Navahos a few thousand
sheep and goats. Since then the people have provided for them-
selves. When, not long ago, there was a season of unusual
drought and consequent suffering it was proposed to give them
Government aid. A committee of chiefs requested the Govern-
ment not to do this lest Navahos become like so many other

23

Indians, paupers. "The noble red man" of tradition is not
altogether a myth, as you can readily see if you become ac-
quainted with the history, the character, and the living faces
of the Navahos.

Besides ourselves four denominations — Christian Reform,
Presbyterian, Methodists North and South — and two inde-
pendent missions, are working at eleven stations for the 20,000
(one Government worker among them says 30,000) Navahos.
The entire Reserve has been divided up among these missions
and the responsibility laid on them for the evangelization of the
tribe in this generation. The field of our own mission is some
forty miles square. Our missionary is now preaching in the
Navaho language and hopes soon to cover the whole field in
systematic visitation. Certainly we may expect that very soon
every Navaho for whom we as Baptists are held responsible
may have the gospel intelligibly presented to him and be lov-
ingly urged to enter the Jesus Road, which leads to the Father's
House.

A FORWARD MOVE

/N order to get closer to a larger number of the rising
generation of ^favahos, Mr. and Mrs. Thayer are non>
stationed at Keams Canon, Ariz., near to a Government
School. This also enables the missionary to have an oversight of
the Hopi churches not far au>ay. The noble women who have
created the Hopi mission have long been pleading for an
ordained missionary.

THE NIGHT & CAY PHESS. N. V.

Hollinger Corp.
PH8.5