How Christian Missionaries Sought To Erase Native American Culture And Identity

The United States began paying missionaries to civilize, convert, and amended Indians successful 1792 by proposal of Secretary of War Henry Knox to President George Washington. Washington authorized an yearly costs of $1,500 to Samuel Kirkland of nan Society successful Scotland for Propagating Christian Knowledge successful bid to found nan Hamilton-Oneida Academy, a boarding schoolhouse for some Indian and achromatic students successful New York. Washington wrote that nan schoolhouse would beryllium “teaching them nan awesome duties of belief and morality, and… inculcate a relationship and attachment to nan United States.”

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The Second Great Awakening astatine nan dawn of nan nineteenth period fueled evangelical missionary activity among Native peoples. Eager missionaries, supported by authorities policies and funding, descended upon Indian state to evangelize and civilize chiefly done education. By nan mediate of nan nineteenth century, Christian missionary acquisition for Indians became “a thing.” Although immoderate denominations’ efforts were sparse and short-lived—in 1886, Unitarians successfully created 1 schoolhouse connected nan Crow preservation successful Montana—nearly each Christian denomination tried its manus astatine converting and educating Indians.

There was ne'er immoderate information that nineteenth-century achromatic settlers would not return onshore and resources distant from Indians; nan only mobility was really it would beryllium done.

One of nan astir enthusiastic early authorities officials appointed to expressly woody pinch tribes was Thomas Loraine McKenney, a Quaker who began his work successful 1816 arsenic superintendent of Indian trade. Later, arsenic superintendent of Indian Affairs successful 1824, McKenney’s Quaker religion played a awesome domiciled successful his dealings pinch Indians; he is considered 1 of nan cardinal figures successful nan improvement of national Indian policy. He advocated for policies successful Indian acquisition and civilization tally by Christian missionary societies. McKenney’s activity laid nan groundwork for nan enactment of nan Indian Civilization Fund Act of 1819, which he projected would “encourage activities of Christian benevolent societies among Indians.” Congress allocated $10,000 per twelvemonth for nan effort. The number of belief Indian boarding schools began to rise: 32 schools successful 1824, 38 successful 1825, 52 successful 1830, and 48 boarding schools and 102 time schools by 1877.

One of McKenney’s lasting contributions to nan philosophies of Indian acquisition was inculcating instruction pinch “the wont of labor.” From earliest contact, missionaries were outraged by what they saw arsenic periods of unproductive work, of clip spent connected socializing, ceremony, storytelling among Indians, whose determination to bask their lives seemed to utterly frost achromatic people. “Labor is painful,” McKenney wrote. “Education and wont unsocial tin reconcile him to it. It is upon this ground nan coming schoolhouse strategy rests.” But McKenney later admitted that work, prayer, education, and strict subject unsocial were ineffective successful quashing Indian civilization and language. He complained that erstwhile removed from nan schoolhouse environment, children quickly reverted to their erstwhile habits. Indian group were not needfully averse to Western acquisition for their children; much than one-third of nan astir 4 100 treaties signed betwixt tribes and nan national authorities included provisions for education.

Always innovative and responsive to their situation some physically and socially, Indians realized that achromatic settlers were present to stay. Many willingly sent their children to missionary schools to study English and settler ways arsenic a intends to past and navigate nan country’s caller reality. They envisioned maintaining their culture, language, and families successful nan process and resisted missionaries’ insistence that children committee astatine nan schools and often removed them. Surely, Indians could person ne'er imagined nan wholesale onslaught against their hearts and souls that would soon go cardinal to nan country’s Indian policies.

Fast connected nan heels of nan Civilization Act, nan wheels of national assimilationist policies moved swiftly, reducing nan magnitude of lands and resources for subsistence hunting and gathering, further impoverishing Indians. The achromatic settler organization exploded successful nan nineteenth century, creating greater demands for land. According to nan U.S. census, nan U.S. organization of 5.3 cardinal (excluding Native peoples, who had yet to execute suffrage) successful 1800 accrued to 23 cardinal by 1850, driven chiefly by Irish, British, and German immigrants. By 1900, nan number accrued to 76 million. In a ferocious benignant of math, while migration exploded, Congress tried to trim Indian lands to make room for nan newcomers.

In 1830, Congress passed nan Indian Removal Act, which provided for nan removal of each Indians eastbound of nan Mississippi to what was past Indian Territory. The authorities grounded successful its mission, but thousands of Indians from various tribes were removed to lands westbound of nan Mississippi River, sometimes forcibly, to what is now known arsenic Oklahoma. In 1887, Congress passed nan Dawes aliases Allotment Act, which authorized nan authorities to break up communally held tribal lands into plots, usually betwixt 40 and 160 acres, for individuals and families. Land considered excess, beyond nan number of allotments, was sold to settlers. Indian lands decreased from 138 cardinal acres successful 1887 to 48 cardinal acres by 1934, erstwhile allotment ended. From nan American perspective, nan early for nan country’s Indigenous organization was clear. As nan superintendent of an Indian schoolhouse successful Kansas summarized, “The only replacement near is civilization aliases annihilation, absorption aliases extermination.”

There was ne'er immoderate information that nineteenth-century achromatic settlers would not return onshore and resources distant from Indians; nan only mobility was really it would beryllium done and really nan actions would beryllium framed. Rather than theft, settler acquisition and power came to beryllium envisioned arsenic divine providence aliases Manifest Destiny, a corporate societal decree coined by nan journalist John Louis O’Sullivan successful 1845 to consecrate occidental description . It was nan destiny and work of achromatic group to settee and conquer nan continent. Indian lands, resources, and moreover children were commodified successful nan process. Indians would use by being lifted retired of paganism and barbarism, assimilated into a caller achromatic America. The era of extraction economics had begun. Ojibwe successful nan Great Lakes region soon felt nan effect of these events.

In 1837, respective bands of Ojibwe signed a pact pinch nan U.S. authorities ceding astir thirteen cardinal acres of onshore successful nan existent states of Wisconsin and Minnesota. Nicknamed nan Lumberman’s Treaty, nan statement gave nan timber manufacture authorities to harvest abundant achromatic conifer successful nan region. Although Ojibwe understood that they would still person entree to nan lands for hunting and gathering, successful 1850 President Zachary Taylor revoked these authorities and ordered tribes to “remove from their unceded lands” to an area westbound of nan Mississippi. In 1850 and 1851, respective bands of Ojibwe were lured to Sandy Lake successful Minnesota, 3 to 5 100 miles distant from villages successful Wisconsin, wherever nan authorities said they would person their annuities. Payment was scheduled for October 25. Thousands traveled to nan tract but recovered that nary rations aliases annuities arrived.

The authorities subagent John Watrous didn’t get until precocious November, without nan rate annuities and without immoderate plans to provender and shelter nan Ojibwe while they waited. It’s estimated that 170 Ojibwe died astatine Sandy Lake from starvation, illness, and vulnerability while waiting for annuities that ne'er arrived; different 230 died connected their measurement backmost location successful December. The anthropologist James Clifton describes nan Sandy Lake arena arsenic nan “Wisconsin Death March.” Angry Wisconsin set leaders grew wished to guidelines their crushed against nan government’s removal orders. Some Ojibwe talked of war, but successful 1852, Chief Buffalo, leader of nan Red Cliff band, organized a singular travel on pinch different Ojibwe leaders to return their lawsuit to nan president himself successful Washington, D.C. Buffalo, successful his early nineties, included nan achromatic expert Benjamin Armstrong connected nan agelong trip, stopping on nan measurement to meet pinch section newspaper editors and salient leaders successful achromatic communities, gathering their support and signatures connected a petition.

The delegation met pinch daunting setbacks on nan way, sometimes forced to shape nationalist exhibitions and waste trinkets for recreation funds. Soon, however, newspapers were filled pinch reports astir nan unfair curen of nan Lake Superior Ojibwe who were being pushed disconnected their accepted homelands. The delegation secured a gathering pinch President Millard Fillmore, who agreed pinch their demands, starring to nan Treaty of 1854, which group speech 4 reservations successful Wisconsin, Red Cliff, Bad River, Lac Courte Oreilles, and Lac du Flambeau, arsenic good arsenic a mini information of onshore connected Madeline Island.

The Bad River preservation was established arsenic portion of that treaty, but Odanah, nan Ojibwe connection for municipality aliases village, had been a taste halfway for nan people for centuries. In nan seventeenth period French explorers had awesome trouble navigating nan stream flowing done nan region, truthful they dubbed it Rivière Mauvaise, aliases Bad River. But Ojibwe person ever called it Mashkiiziibii, Medicine River; it’s said that everything needed for mino-bimadizwin, a bully life—food, medicines, and spirit—is disposable successful its coffee-colored waters and on its banks. Mashkiiziibii and its tributaries simultaneously drain and provender seventy-five miles of lush land, successful nan Bad River watershed and nan Kakagon Slough. The slough is location to chaotic rice, manoomin, nan ineffable seed that has sustained Ojibwe bellies and spirits for generations.

Finally, astatine nan rima of nan Bad River, Mashkiiziibii adds its rich | alluvial lode to nan Lake swollen pinch fish. The stream often floods, truthful nan lands on its banks are particularly fertile. The sisters opportunity they taught nan Indians astatine Odanah really to garden, but Ojibwe person planted gardens present for generations astatine Gitiganing, nan gardens, an area not acold from wherever St. Mary’s Church still stands today. One tin still spot remnants of nan large, cultivated rows of that ancient gitigaan. The awesome wealthiness of earthy resources astatine Bad River—timber, fish, minerals—soon caught nan attraction of nan increasing achromatic settler population. Before agelong nan wilderness first described by nan sisters began to swarm pinch timbermen and entrepreneurs. Railroad building successful adjacent Ashland began astir 1872, bringing hundreds of workers to nan region.

By 1877 nan obstruction to Chicago was finished. Suddenly nan small colony of Odanah was nary longer an isolated wilderness. Almost overnight it transformed into a boomtown pinch a bustling main thoroughfare and lodging for lumberjacks and workers. The Bad River preservation recovered itself astatine nan halfway of 1 of nan world’s largest timber booms. The accepted Ojibwe system was disrupted; galore turned to costs labour and were forced to waste their onshore allotments to survive, nary longer capable to trust connected a subsistence manner alone. Assimilation successful each its forms, including boarding schools, had travel to Mashkiiziibii.

The events starring up to and surrounding nan nuns’ clip successful Bad River are a microcosm of what unfolded successful overmuch of Indian state during nan nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Indeed, nan genesis of nan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration’s civilizing ngo tin beryllium traced backmost to nan earliest days of nan republic, erstwhile governmental leaders turned to Christian missionaries, nan de facto Indian experts of nan day, arsenic they sought to lick nan country’s Indian problem. That problem was nan obstruction Indians presented to achromatic colony and westward description .

The Sisters of Perpetual Adoration packed dense connected their first travel to nan Bad River preservation successful 1883. They reasoned, rightfully, that small from their world astatine nan Franciscan order’s motherhouse successful La Crosse, astir 2 100 miles to nan south, would beryllium disposable successful nan wilderness of bluish Wisconsin connected nan shores of Lake Superior. The bulk of their supplies, however, supported their celestial ngo alternatively than beingness survival. That ngo focused connected civilizing nan pagan Ojibwe done conversion and education; theirs was besides a title to unafraid Bad River arsenic a Catholic ngo school. Under President Grant’s Peace Policy, authorization and backing to erect schools connected reservations were being divided up among Christian denominations.

The cheapest solution to nan Indian problem, they reasoned, was erasure of Indian identity, nan breakup of Indian families, not outright war.

The government, contempt promises to nan contrary, reneged connected immoderate guarantees to designate definite reservations for Catholics. Indignant and wished to declare arsenic galore reservations arsenic possible, Catholics launched a full-court property successful Indian country. The dioceses of La Crosse and Milwaukee offered first financial support to nan sisters, assured they would champion nan mini Protestant ngo already established successful Odanah. In summation to their meager belongings, nan 2 nuns, Sister Cunigunda Urbany and Sister Emmanuela Klaus, brought 2 immense altar stones, a tabernacle, monstrance, chalices, and numbers of linens and vestments for nan priest, Father John Gafron, who presided complete a primitive religion successful nan small colony of Odanah.

The railroad was not yet finished, and location were fewer roads successful nan region then; for illustration astir travelers nan sisters arrived successful Ashland via vessel connected nan awesome lake, astir 15 miles northwest of nan reservation. It was precocious March, but nan waters of Chequamegon Bay, which borders Ashland, were still frozen. After loading a bobsled pinch their dense luggage and different items, they and their guides headed to Odanah complete nan bay and connected to a ungraded road. The nuns worried that nan bobsled, truthful weighted down pinch Catholic ineffable cogwheel for nan Mass, mightiness break done nan ice. But they arrived safely successful nan wilderness wherever nan only buildings successful show were nan small chapel and a unsmooth location for nan sisters’ lodging.

Fortunately for nan nuns, Ojibwe societal customs see feeding guests, sloppy of their title aliases belief affiliation. Seeing that nan nuns had small food, 1 of nan pagan Ojibwe women began bawling retired nan Christian Indians for failing to provender their guests properly. Soon nan nuns were supplied pinch maple sugar, fish, chaotic rice, venison, and dried turnips. They instantly began offering time schoolhouse connected nan main level of their small house, focusing connected nan gospel and training their students successful nan habits of “industry, cleanliness and virtue.” In summation to reference and writing, girls were taught needlework, cookery, and home work, and nan boys were taught gardening, agriculture, and “other useful work.” Occasionally, nan nuns visited huts and wigwams successful nan colony to baptize nan sick during outbreaks of bales and smallpox, sometimes facing disconnected pinch medicine group conducting demonstrations of rites known arsenic nan medicine dance.

In 1 case, though frightened by nan “hideous antics,” nan nuns managed to sprinkle beatified h2o connected a sick girl. The main of nan proceedings angrily threatened nan nuns. He seized a kettle of boiling chaotic atom crockery to hurl astatine them, but 1 of nan nuns lifted nan crucifix of her rosary and shouted, “My God is stronger than your God!” Likely concerned pinch endangering those seeking treatment astatine nan ceremony, nan main backed down, but for nan nuns nan arena represented a belief triumph. By 1888, much sisters traveled to nan mission, wherever they succeeded successful building a boarding schoolhouse pinch nan thief of a authorities contract; nan 50 students that first twelvemonth grew to astir 2 100 by nan 1930s.

The sisters traveled to Bad River connected nan tide of nan national boarding schoolhouse movement, which had its beginnings successful nan U.S. Peace Commission of 1867 and later successful President Ulysses S. Grant’s Peace Policy of 1869. The post-Civil War years were devastating for Indians, pinch national policies focused connected assimilating and infantilizing them. Reformers caller disconnected a triumph pinch abolishing slavery eagerly embraced nan Indian problem, advocating for assimilation and civilization alternatively than outright extermination. Christian reformers and humanitarians created various “friends of nan Indian” organizations specified arsenic nan Indian Rights Association and nan Women’s National Indian Association (notable for their deficiency of Indian membership), which advocated for acquisition arsenic nan roadworthy to civilization and removing Indian children from their homes arsenic nan champion intends to assimilate them into achromatic society. The cheapest solution to nan Indian problem, they reasoned, was erasure of Indian identity, nan breakup of Indian families, not outright war.

Congress agreed, citing nan disbursal of warfare pinch tribes arsenic good arsenic nan public’s antipathy toward extermination of an full title of people. Carl Schurz, caput of nan interior, estimated that nan costs of sidesplitting a azygous Indian was astir $1 cardinal versus nan costs of 8 years of schooling successful a boarding schoolhouse astatine $1,200. “The top threat hanging complete nan Indian title arises from nan truth that, pinch their ample and valuable territorial possessions which are lying waste, they guidelines successful nan measurement of what is commonly called ‘the improvement of nan country,’” Schurz wrote. Reformers besides called for an investigation into nan Indian Bureau, agelong a haven of corruption and patronage. Agents connected reservations, they said, should beryllium tasked pinch educating, Christianizing, and assimilating Indians.

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Excerpted from Medicine River: A Story of Survival and nan Legacy of Indian Boarding Schools by Mary Annette Pember. Reprinted by support of Pantheon Books, an imprint of nan Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, a section of Penguin Random House LLC. Copyright © 2025 by Mary Annette Pember.