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CHRISTIAN MISSIONARY ERA

I. OVERVIEW

• Migrational Flow• One: Native Americans• Two: Explorers• Three: Fur Traders• Four: Missionaries

• Missionary Era facilitated an increasing flow of pioneers who became permanent settlers

OVERVIEW, CONT.

• Included only a few missionaries• 13 Methodist• 6 Congregationalist• 3 Roman Catholic priests

• Constructed historic missions where many of today’s prominent communities and major cities are established.

II. MISSIONARY ERA

• Reasons• To meet spiritual needs of early explorers and fur traders and

trappers.• Fact: British owned Hudson’s Bay was obligated to meet spiritual

needs of those living in their controlled areas.

• Story: In 1831, a band of ten Flatheads and Nez Perce attempted to meet William Clark in St. Louis, Missouri, and learn about the “White Man’s Book of Heaven,” which they believed was an instrument of the White man’s power. Christian leaders interpreted this gesture as a sincere desire to learn more about and be converted to the Christian faith.• This resulted in a wave of missionary expeditions to the Pacific

Northwest to construct missions, and attempt to teach and convert the local Native Americans to Christianity.

PROTESTANT MISSION: OBJECTIVES

• 1. Christianize Native people

• 2. Civilize Native people according to their accepted social and economic norms.

• 3. Develop economic base to support missionaries, their families, and early settlers.

• 4. Provide religious services for settlers and fur traders.

PROTESTANT MISSION: OBJECTIVES

• 5. Strengthen U.S. claim to the Oregon Country

• 6. Spread Protestant religion before Roman Catholic missionaries did.

• 7. Educate children (Natives and settlers) in the region

PROTESTANT MISSION STRATEGY

• Build a mission at a central location that will attract settlers and Natives to live and work at the mission.• Result? Native Americans were forced to

change their way of life and conform to the settlers accepted standards

IMPORTANT PROTESTANT MISSIONS

• Lee’s Mission• First Protestant missionaries sent by

Methodist church• Established by Jason and Daniel Lee in 1834

•Waiilatpu: Whitman Mission

IMPORTANT PROTESTANT MISSIONS

• Lapwai Mission• Founded by Henry and Eliza Spalding with help

from William Gray• They were successful because of • the friendliness and adaptability of the Nez Perce• their own ability to communicate with Native

Americans• their ability to teach, • Maintained good relations with the other mission

residents.

• Henry developed a written alphabet for the Native Americans’ languages and printed parts of the Bible for them to read.

ROMAN CATHOLIC MISSIONARIES

• Established many mission sites throughout Pacific Northwest• Important missionaries• Father Francois Blanchet• Father Modeste Demers• Father Jean Pierre DeSmet

ROMAN CATHOLIC MISSIONARY SUCCESS

• Significantly more successful than Protestant missionaries for several reasons• Did not encourage further immigration• Teaching effectiveness was enhanced by the

Catholic Ladder• Rituals and ceremonies were attractive to

Natives• Widespread mission sites• Traveled among tribes• Did not emphasize changing way of life

CATHOLIC LADDER

Rev. Father F.N. Blanchet made first use of this "Catholic Ladder" in July of 1842 at the Cowlitz Mission (also known as St. Francis Mission) in order to teach the Indians the main truths of the Catholic faith.  Many copies of the ladder were made and presented to the Indian chiefs, thereafter it was in constant use among the Northwest Indians.

A display featuring the Catholic Ladder stands on the grounds of St. Francis Mission.

The 40 horizontal bars represent the 40 centuries B.C.   The 33 dots represent the years of Christ's  life on earth.   The 18 bars represent the 18 centuries A.D.  and the 42 dots represent the 42 succeeding years. 

• Some examples of what the other symbols represent are:

• (1) Heaven, Angels, and the 6 days of Creation, • (2) Noah's Ark,• (3) the Ten Commandments, • (4) Elizabeth and Zachary,• (5) Star of Bethlehem, Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, • (6) The Twelve Apostles, • (7) The Reverends Blanchet and Damers.

END OF MISSIONARY ERA

• Even after Whitman Massacre, missionaries contributed to violent conflicts between Natives and settlers from 1847-1877• Different teachings of Roman Catholics and

Protestants confused the Natives.• Created a spiritual conflict for Native Americans

between their animism versus the abstract concepts of the Christian religion.