The Word Carrier (Santee, Nebraska), 1897-08 - 1897-09

              The Word Carrier
volume  XXVI.
HELPING    THE    ItlGIIT,   EXPOSING   THE   WRONG.
NUMBERS   .S-l).
SANTEE AGENCY, NEBRASKA.
AUGUST-SEPTEMBER, 1807.
FIFTY CENTS PER YEAR-
OUR   PLATFORM.
For Indians we want American Education! We want American Homes!
We want American Rights! Tlie result of which is American Citizenship!
And the gospel is the Power of God for
their Salvation'
DESTRUCTION  OF MORAVIAN  IN1IIAN
MISSIONS.
In studying the history ofthe Moravian mission work among the Indians, the character of David Zeis-
berger rises in extraordinary moral
grandeur among all the men of that
time. His life was a record of devotion free from fanaticism. He
wearied under no labors, however
exacting, and shrank from no hardships, however severe. He passed
through perils, both of the wilderness and of the city. The annals
of Christianity can show nowhere
a more heroic or blameless figure.
With all his burning zeal for the religion which was his life—a zeal
which at one moment led him to
face an infuriated white mob in order to protect his Indian disciples,
and at another through the green
gloom of dt-solate morasses to face
with the message of peace the opposition of Indian conjurors and fanatical heathen chiefs—he- seems
to have had nothing but charitable
feelings for fellow christians not
precisely of his own way of thinking. The latter is often a fatal test
of the perfection of so many eminent apostles. More than once,
Zeisberger was in imminent and
conscious danger of assassination
by savage Indians, but he never
quailed or reserved the word of censure whicli seemed sure to provoke
a fatal blow. If Pennsylvania ever
takes a notion to blossom out in the
direction of artistic memorial, and
wishes to record the virtues of one
ot her noblest sons—one who did
most for the cultivation of her waste
places and for the civilization of
her original people—she will erect
a monument to Zeisberger.
His work of more than forty years
among the Indians, marked as it
was by as much wisdom as devotion,
was destined to ultimate failure;
not because of any inherent fault
either on the part of the missionaries or their native converts, but because of the cruel and bloody conflicts ofthe times. These humble
but faithful people were ground between the upper and the nether
millstones. Zeisberger,Heckeweld-
er and the other Moravian missionaries proved indisputably howmuch
could be accomplished by a practical application of Christianity to
savage life. If seeing is believing,
the case was proved. There were
the ocular evidences of what could
be done presented in peaceful villages, waving cornfields, neat and
comfortable cabins, streets regularly swept and cleaned by the native
women, churches where God was
reverently and constantly worshipped, and school-houses that were
busy with systematic instruction.
The change that had been effected
in the lives and demeanor of the Indians was the marvel of all those
who were brought in contact with
them. It was a change that began
in the heart and moved outward,
marking itself in the superficial testimony of the clothing.    But it was
too good for the times, and too good
to last, since they were what they
were. Like a beautiful hothouse
plant, whose frail shelter has been
rudely broken to let in killing frosts,
which lay waiting in the rigorous climate without, it shriveled under two
fierce blasts of colonial struggle. The
first of these was the French and Indian War, in which French intrigue
lifted tbe tomahawk and scalping
knife against the English settlers;
the second, the War of the Revolution,^ which the English ministry
availed themselves of the same barbarous expedient against their revolted colonies, notwithstanding the
protest of Chatham. In both instances the Moravian converts were
the victims of the contestants. Their
very neutrality enraged both parties against them. They were suspected by both.
During the Revolutionary War,
whose closing period witnessed the
Massacre of Gnadenhutten,this final
blow was preceded by one only less
severe, inflicted by the hostile Delawares and Wyandots—their own
brethren. A war expedition of these
Indians under the direction of a savage chief named the Half King,
pounced down on their villages in
the Tuscarawas Valley of Ohio, looted them of nearly all their humble
possessions and products, and carried off both their white missionaries and teachers and the Indian
converts, inflicting upon them much
harsh treatment as they went westward into the wilderness. Zeisberger and his wife and some of the
other teachers were ultimately carried by these hostile Indians, at
the command of Major de Peyster,
the British commandant at Detroit, to that post to answer the
charge, falsely preferred against
them by their Indian enemies, of
being in league with the Americans. When Zeisberger and his
associates were carried to Detroit,
Pipe, the Delaware leader who
headed the war party that had captured them, was obliged to confess to
Major de Peyster that the Moravian
ministers were innocent. The Indian converts returned to their former homes in the valley of the Tuscarawas, about the beginning of
March, 1782, where they set themselves busily to work to harvest
their corn which their captivity had
prevented them from doing the previous autumn. It was still standing in the fields. But much earlier than usual war parties from Sandusky had been sent out to attack
the outlying American settlements.
One of these parties murdered the
family of a settler named William
Wallace, including his wife and
several children. They carried off
with them as a prisoner, a settler,
John Carpenter. This party passed
through Gnadenhutten on their
way back to Sandusky. They warned the converts of the danger to
which they would be subjected
from the revenge of the settlers.
The opinion of the frontier was
that either the Christian Indians
had been engaged in the murder of
the Wallace family or that the warriors who had done it had passed
the winter at Gnadenhutten or one
of the other villages. At anyjate,
it was determined that these "halfway houses" must  be  destroyed.
A company of about ninety men,
some of them mounted,was hurriedly organized under the command
of Captain Williamson. The volunteers found the converts harvesting tlieir corn from the last autumn's
crop in the fields. They greeted
the unsuspecting Indians with professions of friendship and the assurance that they had come to convey
them to a place of safety. They
completely deceived them as to their
real purpose.
Victims and executioners lay
down on the night of the sixth,
sleeping peacefully in the same
town and in the same houses. On
the morning of the seventh a party
of volunteers went to the neighboring village of Salem, whose people
they beguiled in similar fashion.
The converts gave up their arms
for "safe keeping," and saw their
houses burned down so that they
would no longer harbor hostiles,
apparently without suspecting the
truth.
The trustful behavior of these converts is almost incredible. They
seem to have had no suspicion for
a long time that this pretended band
of sympathizing friends, so solicitous for their safety, had already
murdered two of their number and
was bent upon the destruction of
even their women and little children.
They discussed plans of the future
with their captors, the interests of
the mission, and matters of religion.
Williamson and his men seem to
have felt no compunctions in keeping up their hypocritical pretense.
They encouraged the Indians to talk
of these matters and praised them
for their piety.
It did not take long to consummate this tragedy. Tue volunteers
accused the Indians of complicity
in the murddr of Mrs. Wallace and
her ch ldren, of helping the British,
of being warriors, and of having entered into their employ; they charged tnat the household articles, of
which both Gnadenhutten and Salem were fuil, had been stolen from
farms and settlements.
The prisoners fully rebutted these
charges which must have been made
with as much insincerity as were
the professions of friendship by
which the converts were lured to
their death.
The Indians protested their innocence, but seem to have accepted their fate without a struggle.
They said they were willing to die,
and" asked only time to prepare.
This plea ttte volunteers granted,
fixing the following morning for the
execution.
All night long the converts prayed and sang their native Christian
hymns, cheering and comforting
one another as the dawn broke.
The captors flippantly called out to
know whether they would not soon
be ready. "We are ready," they replied. "We have given our souls
to God and He has given us the assurance that He will receive them."
It would be interesting to know
whether the victims ana victors in
this domestic tragedy realized how
closely was being re-enacted scenes
in the history of the primitive martyrs. The men were first put to
death and afterward the women and
small children were led out two by
two. Tomahawks,mallets, war clubs,
spears,  and  scalping knives  were
used to complete the massacre.
Ninety-six p rsons perished in
the Massacre of Gnadenhutten, of
whom twenty-nine were men, twenty-seven were women, and thirty-
four were children. The work of
the Moravians among the Indians
never recovered from tlrs blow; but
it was, nevertheless, the evidence
of a great truth,—that Christian patience, resignation, and courage are
not the possession of a single race
or of one age, and that, revengeful,
murderous hate can inspire the
crimes of white men as well as red.
From Early Moravian Work by Hon.
Herbert Welsh.
A RARE TRIBUTE.
Dr. Chauncey Goodrich, writing
for the Chinese Recorder, gives a
memorial of Mrs. Isabella R. Williams from which we copy some
paragraphs.
"Soon after they arrived in Kalgan, Mrs. Williams opened a girls'
school to which she gave much of
her best life for many years. And
what a wealth of love she poured
out upon her pupils, a love which
has followed them ever since, sometimes in their squalor and rags and
sin, never giving them up. Nothing has impressed me more in Mrs.
Williams' character than the depth
and persistency of her love, and
nothing so much, except it be the
genuineness of her character and
the sensitiveness of her conscience.
"How generous she was in her nature and acts! How quick and responsive were her sympathies!
'As ready to fly East as West
Which ever way besought them.'
In her yearly visits to Tuncho,
whither our ten churches in Asia
come up for our annual convocation, she has always been warmly
greeted by the Chinese women for
whom sbe has had a personal greeting, making leisurely and sympathetic inquiries of each.
"How natural that such a nature
should be passionately fond of music and poetry, her heart itself a
poem. Mrs. Williams' house was
always open to missionaries. Rev.
James Gilmour's last letter was
written to her, calling to mind the
happy memories of numerous visits at her home.
"In learning the Chinese language she bad, to a rare degree,
the mimetic instinct, pronouncing
so exactly the sounds, tones,emphasis and acent that it was always a
delight to hear her tell the old-new
story to her Chinese sisters. Alas,
that we can hear no more her voice
in song or prayer or loving messages.
"Kalgan, the home of Mrs. Williams, lies close upon the Great
Wall, is lifted half a mile above the
plain, and has been for three decades a favorite health resort of our
mission. Yet this is the third time
the chariot of fire has come to our
little company during the last seven years, and each time, strange to
say, to our Pisgah station, the
place above all others for a long
life and abounding health. But
the strain of heathenism, pressing
close on every side, is the same in
this mountain retreat. And so the
j workers grow weary and the dear
i Master calls them home."