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The aP cific iH storian Western Americana

1986 The aP cific iH storian, Volume 30, Number 1 (1986)

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Native Missionaries of the North Pacific Coast Philip McKay and Others

E. Palmer Patterson Indian: A History Since 1500 (1972) and Mis­ sion on the Nass: The Evangelization of the Nishga (1860-1890) (1982). His current re­ E. Palmer Patterson is Associate Professor search is on the history of the Nishga Indi­ of History at the University of Waterloo, ans of British Columbia in contact with Ontario, Canada. Among his works on Europeans during the second half of the Canadian native peoples are The Canadian nineteenth century.

White missionaries and their native converts. N WRITING THE HISTORY of nineteenth sion is seen as an example of European or Euro­ century Christian missions the tendency has American/Euro-Canadian cultural expansion and Ibeen to deal primarily with the European and its techniques of dissemination. However, native Euro-American or Euro-Canadian missionarie·s cultures have not always been destroyed, though and their exploits- as adventure, devotion , sac­ they have often been drastically altered . Today, rifice, martyrdom, cultural and economic imperi­ indigenous minorities, the " fourth world," assert alism, and other themes. Much less attention has · continuity with the past and the validity of abo­ been given to native missionaries, lay and cleri­ .riginal culture. Contemporary Indians , including cal , commissioned by their white supervisors. Christians, assert cultural continuity with their Still less attention has been given to spontaneous, Indian past. informal, or self-commissioned missionary activ­ Native missionaries, spreading Christianity as ity by native Christians. perceived by them and outside of missionary or­ In late twentieth century writings, missionaries ganizations, represent a dissemination carried out are frequently portrayed as destroyers of indige­ in the context of native society. This is true even nous cultures. Both friends and opponents of mis­ though, in the case of northern coastal British sionaries have taken this position. Sympathizers Columbia, that society had been altered by inter­ have congratulated the missionaries on their mer­ mittent European contact since the last quarter of 1 itorious work. Opponents of missionaries con­ the eighteenth century or, indirectly, by the im­ demn the destruction wreaked on (perceived) pact of European culture for perhaps half a cen­ exotic expressions of the human spirit represented tury before that. by many aboriginal cultures. Missionary expan- One of the difficulties in assessing the impact of missions on the native people is paucity of written accounts by first generation converts. Martin Jarrett-Kerr has attempted to survey a broad range of information on converts and to generalize about patterns of acceptance of Chris­ tianity. 2 The meager records of native response is partially offset by the copious accounts of mis­ sionaries. However, biases and lack of knowledge of native cultures often.limit the helpfulness of missionary records and require their cautious use. Care must be taken to read them within the con­ text of whatever ethnographic information is available. Paradoxically, this frequently includes ethnographic information provided by missionar­ ies who are often the most extensive source for the early contact period. The present essay ex­ plores possible clues for a clearer understanding of Christian expansion through native evangel­ ism , using examples drawn mainly from the Northwest Coast Indians. A careful reading of missionary sources often shows that for every European missionary among a people there were many more native converts who became missionaries as unpaid lay volun­ teers. 3 In their enthusiastic response to conver­ sion, these people much resemble the anonymous carriers of Christianity in the early "Christian" centuries. The vigor and enthusiasm of their en­ deavor shed light on the depth of their commit­ ment to their new religion, even if it does not make clear their understanding of the nuances of their new faith. They experience many of the same difficulties as the white missionaries about whom we know so much more. Characteristically

VOWME XXX NUMBER I 23 they experience the dangers of travel, passive and active resistance, ridicule, rejection on the one hand and hospitality, interest, and acceptance on the other. Nishga and Tsimshian missionaries, both An­ glican and Methodist, provide examples of this native missionary activity. 4 They evangelized among their own people, at their home villages and those nearby, and among neighboring peo­ ples with whom they had contacts from pre­ historic times. They followed the routes of trade and commerce, attempting to win converts while engaged in their regular economic pursuits. The Christianity they communicated in the absence of white missionaries or white-trained missionaries was likely to reflect their abbreviated training in the new Christian teachings. Some of their work was supervised by Europeans; numbers had Euro­ pean missionary encouragement and support. Some work was largely spontaneous. The native missionary might have undergone much or little oiO" 0 .., ., '" 110' .... . 20 II" l'O" •o- W" 10" ooo ... religious training. Often he or she had been intro­ duced to Christian teaching only through some Sunday school catechism or preaching by whites. 5 Map of the North Pacific Coast where white and native missionary activity began in British Columbia. Beginnings of White Missionary Activity on the North Pacific Coast NGLICAN MISSIONS on the northwest coast began at Fort Simpson, British Co­ A lumbia (1857), and then moved to nearby Metlakatla (1862), which became their focal point. From there, Anglicanism spread to Nishga, Gitksan, Haida, and Kwakiutl peoples. Methodist missionary activity began about fifteen years later: it also started at Fort Simpson (later known as Port Simpson) and radiated out to neighboring peoples- Nishga, Gitksan, Kwakiutl, and Haida. The Tlingit of Alaska were introduced to Methodism by Tsimshian Methodists from Port Simpson. Christian missions on the north coast of British Columbia commenced with the work of William Duncan. Duncan, a young lay missionary of the

William Duncan, noted for founding the missionary colony of Metlakatla and creating a system of mission­ ary work to be followed by other missionaries in the establishment of additional northwest Indian missions. Though qualified for ordination, Duncan was not a clergyman. He believed that the interests of his commu­ nity could be better served if he remained a lay missionary.

24 THE PACIFIC HISTORIAN - - --

Indian children assembled in_fi-ont of the school house at Metlakmla. Mar 1888. Since all members of the Metlakatla communitr were required to send their children to school. the building was built to accommodate sn·en hundred pupils.

Anglican Church Missionary Society, arrived at three branches of the Tsimshian people (Coast Fort Simpson, a Hudson's Bay Company post on Tsimshian, Nishga, and Gitksan) . Some of the the Tsimshian Peninsula, in 1857. From there his earliest Tsimshian converts had been influenced influence spread to surrounding peoples. Fort by both Anglican and Methodist miss ionizi ng. Simpson was located in Coast Tsimshian territory, and was a hub of trading for Coast Tsimshian, Patterns of Native Missionary Activity Nishga, Haida, Tlingit, Kwakiutl , and other neighboring peoples. The Tsimshian were formi­ N PRE-CONTACT TIMES, cultural influences dable traders. Some became converts to Christi­ from the Tsimshian had radiated to the Tling.it anity and settled at the missionary colony, Iand the Haida, and into the interior Athapas­ Metlakatla, founded by Duncan in 1862. Most kan peoples, as trade. war, and diplomacy tran­ stayed at Fort Simpson and were evangelized by spired. In the early nineteenth century, religious the Methodists in the 1870s. From these two cen­ influences from the interior had spread to Coast ters , Metlakatla and Fort Simpson, British Protes­ Tsimshian and Nishga people, in the teachings of tant Christianity was widely diffused. Beni, the Carrier prophet. Other influences may Culturally closely linked, these tribes had kin­ have penetrated from the Russian Orthodox pres­ ship, clan, and trade ties which pre-dated Euro­ ence at Sitka, Alaska. where Bishop John Venia­ pean contact. Voyages of hundreds of miles in minoff (Veniaminov) instructed some Tlingit open canoes were common, and in the nineteenth people in Russian Orthodox beliefs." Lutheran century helped to diffuse European intluences. influences may also have reached the Tlingit New reasons for travel were added to old: trade from Sitka. and work, adventure and curiosity. Haida and Certain indigenous mythological and religious Tsimshian people travelled to Victoria in order to concepts were widely disseminated among Haida, trade and to see the white people's town. Some Tlingit, and Tsimshian groups, which may have coastal Indians hired on to Russian, British, and formed a foundation for receiving Christi an ideas American ships, and travelled to California and into the context of traditional culture. Haida and even to China. Tlingit tradition regarded the headwaters of the Anglican and Methodist missionaries- Dun­ Nass River as the residence of God. Indigenous can, Robert Doolan, Robert Tomlinson, William traditions of the Chief of Heaven (the Chief of the H. Collison, and James B. McCullagh of the Sky) as living on the upper Nass may have aided Church Missionary Society, and Thomas Crosby. the Tsimshian and Nishga missionaries in prose­ Alfred E. Green, and W.H. Pierce of the Method­ lytizi ng for Christianity. Light was said to have ist Missionary Society- evangelized among all come from the upper Nass: Raven , born of the

VOW ME XXX NUMBER I 25 virgin daughter of the Chief of Heaven, released prominent trading chiefs form a staple of the the sun, and Jet light come from the head of the early journals of Fort Simpson. The chiefs had a Nass and spread over the earth, according to monopoly on trade and travel, and it is in this Haida tradition . 7 In Tsimshian myth, the culture context that some early conversions took place. hero Txamsen (Raven) , who was said to have re­ Furthermore, travel was a major element in early leased the light ball , was known as the " light" or native evangelism. "sun catcher." J. B. McCullagh, veteran missionary to the Up­ UCH A PATTERN reflects an earlier per Nass River Nishga, asserted that the culture modeL Wayne Meeks writes of the first­ of the Nishga made them particularly receptive to Scentury spread of Christianity: " people of the Gospel of St. John . Although McCullagh did the Roman empire travelled more extensively and not elaborate the point, he may have thought the more easily than had anyone before them - or light/sight/life/enlightenment metaphor of that would again until the nineteenth century . . . it Gospel was culturally congenial to the Nishga. was not unusual for artisans to move from place Robert Grumet finds that among the Coast to place, carrying their tools with them and seek­ Tsimshian, the " holders of the highest and most ing out, say, the leatherworkers' street or quarter 13 influential group positions also controlled the of whatever town they came to" and, again, "It is not surprising that the spread of foreign cults most powerful spirits. "X Tsimshian people were prominent in the north and south trade, bartering closely followed the spread of trade, or that slaves , decorated boxes, rattles, masks, headdresses, Christianity repeated this already established pat­ and fish oil. The Coast Tsimshian administered tern." Finally, new cults moved with artisans, " the largest and most important regional tradespersons, and migrants. They were "peddled trade nexus," and "were the most successful along with their wares or gossiped in their 14 middlemen of the Northwest Coast. " 9 Tsimshian workrooms." evangelists were thus able to preach in the Tsim­ Some examples have been documented of a shian language and be understood over a wide similar Indian transmission of Christianity. In the area. Shared religious concepts and traditions second quarter of the nineteenth century, Christi­ concerning the Chief in the Sky and the bringing anity was diffused among Plateau tribes by the of light from the upper Nass may have aided com­ influence of Chief Spokan Garry in the Oregon 15 munication on the symbolic level as well. Territory, and by Roman Catholic Iroquois of Caughnawaga who were engaged in the fur trade Traditional history of the Tlingit Wolf clan of in British Columbia and the Oregon Territory. 16 Fort Wrangell, Alaska, held that all but one of the Southern Coastal Tsimshian spread Christianity Fort Wrangell Wolf families were immigrants to their communities when they returned home from the territory of the Coast Tsimshian. Tlingit after a stay at William Duncan's Christian village history is " explicitly connected to the migration of Metlakatla, and at Bella Bella, Jim Starr evan­ of the tribal crest groups. The group symbol em­ gelized his own village after contact with the bodied the history of the group and rooted its Methodists on Burrard Inlet, where he had ven­ origins, property rights and accomplishments to tured several hundred miles from home to work in its association with a crest." 10 Members of the a sawmill. Wolf clan among both the Tlingit and the Tsim­ Some cases of native evangelism doubtless shian were prominent traders and merchants. sprang from travels specifically for evangelizing Clan heads were the people who " served as chief purposes. Here too indigenous mechanisms may managers of natural resources, human resources , be presumed to have operated. The self-appointed trading expeditions, raiding activities and rela­ missionary went where contacts existed within 11 tions with other clans." The role of the chiefs the framework of the native culture: friends, kin­ in Tsimshian religious life is suggested by Jay folk, clan members, tribe members, and those of Miller: " With their conversion, the Tsimshian a shared trade network. The message that was came to publically reject their previous beliefs as transmitted would be interpreted by both native 12 pagan, and, as they say, 'low class."' missionary and hearers in the light of indigenous As traders, it was the chiefs who, accompanied culture: creation stories, culture heroes, superna­ by spouses, children, other relatives, and slaves, tural sanctions, and theistic concepts. Strong be­ conducted their trading negotiations in person. lievers in the importance of supernatural power Both men and women took part in this chiefly ac­ and its control for a successful life, Indians were tivity. Records of the arrivals and departures of often curious to understand and perhaps acquire

26 THE PACIFIC HISTORIAN the spiritual power available in religions other converts, only the most unimaginative and inex­ than their own. perienced failed to recognize the value of Indian As we have seen, the immediate dispersal point internalization of the new faith . for many Tsimshian Methodist missionaries was Fort Simpson (Port Simpson). Several prominent Tsimshian people from Fort Simpson had been MONG THE UPRIVER Nishga people at converted by Methodist missionaries while on Gitlakdamiks, a native Christian commu­ visits to Victoria. The key figure in Methodist A nity developed, presumably influenced by Tsimshian evangelization was Elizabeth Deix Metlakatla and Kincolith (Tsimshian and Nishga (Mrs. Lawson). Called the "Mother of Method­ respectively), both of which were Christian vii~ ism among the Tsimshian," she was of a chiefly !ages established by Anglican missionaries. Chief family and the wife of a customs official. Her Tkgagalakhatsqu/ Abraham Wright led the small son, Alfred Dudoward, became the senior chief at group to relocate at Aiyansh, a mile or two from Port Simpson in the late nineteenth century. Gitlakdamiks. The community of Aiyansh was in Through their influence, the Methodist missionar­ its embryonic stage when James B. McCullagh ies were invited to the Coast Tsimshian, begin­ arrived in 1883 and began at once to bring it in ning with the Rev. William Pollard. The husband line with Anglican custom. 19 Chief Abraham and wife team of Alfred and Kate Dudoward, Wright was a leading native evangelist, self-moti­ converted at Victoria, were sometime missionar­ vated though also encouraged by McCullagh. He ies at Kitimat, B.C. Methodist Tsimshian-Scots was a leader of a group of Aiyansh native mis­ William Henry Pierce (educated by William Dun­ sionaries, called "strong hearts," who conducted can at Fort Simpson and named for William services at the mouth of the Nass fishery each Henry Collison) and Methodist Tsimshian George spring, and marched to nearby Gitlakdamiks Edgar became ordained clergy in 1888 and 1900 17 from Aiyansh on Sundays to hold open-air ser­ respectively. vices there. All of the five original chiefly settlers Native traders among the Coast Tsimshian, (with their famiiies) of Aiyansh were active evan­ Haida, and Nishga encouraged the Anglican and gelists to their fellow Nishga and neighboring Methodist missionaries to come to them too. Two peoples, many of whom came annually to the Nishga chiefs, Kinsada and Kadounaha, person­ Nass mouth fishery. In this way the aboriginal ally escorted William Duncan to the villages annual economic cycle was incorporated into the along the Nass River. A Nishga chief of Gitlakda- missionary effort. : miks, a village on the. upper Nass River (later baptized Daniel Giekqu) had first met the white When McCullagh began his work at Aiyansh, traders at the Hudson's Bay Company fort at the he found that Chief Wright and the others had de­ mouth of the Nass River (1831-1834) . Giekqu veloped a worship service. McCullagh used both traded to his own people and to the interior peo­ confrontation and diplomacy to bring the Angli­ ples. In the interior he heard of the Carrier can form of worship into the Nishga-initiated prophet, Beni, and accepted his teachings. Two church and community. Native Christian worship and a half decades later, he heard Anglican mis­ has been occasionally and briefly described, usu­ sionary Robert Tomlinson at Gitlakdamiks, and ally in unsympathetic terms without explanation some time later, under the leadership of another of the relation between ritual and belief. Dra­ Gitlakdamiks chief, Tkgaganlakhatqu (baptized matic renderings of traditions, including song, Abraham Wright), and in company with three dance, and musical accompaniment, were part of other chiefs and their families , Giekqu resettled the Nishga!Tsimshian culture. In the dramatic at what became the Christian Nishga village of portrayal, the boundaries were transcended be­ Aiyansh. Giekqu 's role in trading had put him in tween pageantry and return to the mythic past. 20 touch with the latest influences penetrating from E.P. Laycock, Anglican missionary at Lakkal­ the outside world, and he accommodated to sap/Greenville ( 1907) , noted the importance of them. 1 ~ Some time later, Giekqu composed a the drum in the Sunday afternoon service. A huge hymn. The refrain, translated by McCullagh, ran: drum beat continuously, he reported. People sang En large Thy Word within our hearts, hymns, shouting the chorus at the top of their Increase Thy people. Lord. voices. Sometimes, Laycock reported, they would all "jump up" and dance. People clapped Although the white missionaries were often pa­ their hands as they shouted each chorus. Laycock tronizing to the religious creativity of their native thought the words were learned by rote but not

VOWME XXX NUMBER I 27 Me1hudis1 church and parsonage a/ Fori Simpson.

understood . 21 Public confession of the sin s of the Army. especiall y. have a great inOuence previous week also constituted a portion of the on them. Every few years there are move­ church service . ments in various places where the peopl e The second Mrs. McCullagh, not long after her have visions and see mirac les. The great arrival at Aiyansh, in the early twentieth century. drum of the Salva tion Army exercises a described a service under the direction of her hus­ stro ng inOuence here and .has helped con­ vert whole villages, especially because of band: a procession, from the vestry up to the altar their own beliefs the drum is supposed to in the church, was made by two church wardens, attract supernatural help . .. . Thi s shows two elders (chosen from older members of the how susceptible they are to religious con­ community), two readers in surplices, and the cepts and how Christianity blends in with missionary priest. Extemporaneous prayers were their old religion. " said by an elder before and after the sermon. McCullagh prided himself on accommodating to Nishga culture in hi s church ritual. He thought of Boas visited Kincolith not long after a revival had himself as indigenizing Angli can Christianity. occurred there. The outbreak of religious enthusi­ This may be a case where the priest has made asm began in the Easter season of !893 and lasted some concessions to Nishga forms of ceremonial intermittently for about a year. It was character­ behavior. ized by frequent and large worship services. late­ Franz Boas attended services at the Anglican ni ght meetings, processions, singing, prayer and Church at Kincolith , Sunday, October !4, !894. departures of residents to other communities to Of the rel igious response of the Nishga and their spread the excitement. To the Rev. William H . neighbors, the Tsimshian, he wrote, Collison, missionary pastor at Kincolith , this was a visitation of the Holy Spirit, and hi s job was to channelize it and turn it to the purpose of increas­ It interested me greatl y to hear services in ing the depth of spiritual life in the community. the Indian language. It is interestin g how In commenting on these events he referred back access ible the Indians are to religi o~s to an earlier revival of late summer, !877, at ecstasy. Movements like the Salvation Metlakatla. D

28 THE PACIFIC HISTORIAN At that time the excitement had not been prop­ spread to neighboring Nishga, and to other com­ erly channelled, Collison thought, and its poten­ munities where Anglicans were present. The tial had been lost. That incident occurred when Church Army is still a significant element in Metlakatla's founder and leader, William Duncan, Nishga life as the following remarks show. was away and the mission had been left in charge Run entirely by the Nishga, with the white pas­ of a newly arrived young cleric, the Rev. A.J. tor as a guest (if present at meetings and events) Hall. Hall's emotional sermons had helped to en­ the Army works in close harmony with the vil­ gender the religious excitement. People began to lage community of which it is a part. Leadership see angels, witness miracles, hold conversation in the Army overlaps the political-social leader­ with the Third Person of the Trinity and discover ship of the village. Preaching, praying, public Christ's cross in the adjacent woods. They con­ confessions and testimonials form a prominent ducted their own religious services, processions, part of their worship. Services are characterized singing and praying, and dispersed to other vil­ by heights of emotionalism and speaking in lages to evangelize. Duncan quickly returned tongues. Music , including the drum, is amplified when he heard of these events and dealt severely so that it can be heard outside of the Church with their leaders. Collison believed that some of Army Hall and at a distance. Processions, with the resentment created by Duncan's rebuke lin­ mu sical instruments and banners, have a promi­ gered on until the time of his departure to Alaska nent place at various services, including religious ( 1887) and the rupture in the Metlakatla commu­ holidays such as Palm Sunday and Easter. Army nity which resulted. members visit the sick and bereaved , give coun­ The Metlakatla excitement may have been sel, pray with people, and conduct ceremonies to linked to a religious revival which occurred at bless cars, boats, houses and new gravestones. Fort Simpson in November, 1876. The Rev. The services and mission work are integrated into Thomas Crosby, pioneer of Methodist Indian the life of the whole community. Activities are missions on the north coast of British Columbia, sometimes carried out of the Nass valley home of described the upsurge as the " First Pentecost" the Nishga, when , for example, Nishga people among the Tsimshian at Fort Simpson. People are hospitalized in Terrace, Prince Rupert, or fell on the floor of the church and cried for Vancouver, British Columbia. mercy. Singing and praying were widespread and Evangelism is part of the Nishga Church Army hundreds gathered at the church. Crosby noted tradition. They gather as a group on occasion and the great change in the life of the community as march to the site of their meeting. Revival meet­ a result of this revival: "No one could doubt the ings last for up to a week with two services a day. mighty change that had taken place in these Evening services typically last for six to eight hearts when he saw how earnest they were and hours. Occasionally a party of missionaries has witnessed their anxiety to carry the good news to gone as far as another province or territory. 25 other tribes. " 24 Since the Rev. Ian McKenzie wrote the essay on What we seem to.be witnessing in all three of which these comments are based (circa 1983), all these cases is the Indian acceptance of evangeli­ the Anglican Churches on the Nass have been cal Christianity and its spontaneous incorporation staffed by Nishga clergy. What implications this into forms which combine native and European will have for the relationship between the clergy elements. The prominence of singing (especially and the Church Army among the Nishga remain choral or group singing), processions, late-night to be observed. or all-night ceremonies, all accord with traditional practice. In these various Tsimshian "Pentecosts," the Indians responded by travelling to other The Career of Clah/Philip McKay communities to evangelize. E KNOW VERY LITTLE about most of the native Christians who became HE ANGLICAN NISHGA CHURCH W informal evangelists in the nineteenth Army illustrates twentieth century indi­ century. In the case of Philip McKay, a Tsimshian Tgenization of Christianity. Collison had of Fort Simpson, there is enough material from introduced the Church Army (an Anglican various sources more or less contemporary with organization modelled upon the Salvation Army, his career to construct a sketch of his missionary including the use of the drum and the brass band) activity. His career spans three cultures: Tsim­ in the early 1890s to channelize the religious en­ shian, Tlingit, and Euro-Canadian. Clah (Philip thusiasm described above. The Church Army then McKay) is an example of the native Christian

VOW ME XXX NUMBER I 29 -·

f ~ ~ 0 ~ ~ ~ 5 0 u L------'

Philip McKay. a Tsimshianfi'om Fort Simpson and native Christian, who became a /.:ev fi8ure in the spread of Christianity in Alaska.

30 THE PACIFIC HISTORIAN who spread his or her own religion informally as week nights and God is blessing our fee­ a result of personal enthusiasm and in the course ble efforts. Philip (the leader) says, "In of ordinary social and economic activities. Ju ly I went way to look for some salmon Wil-um-Clah (Philip McKay) became a key and stopped all night at a Stikine camp. I figure in the spread of Christianity into Alaska. read some out of the Bible and the poor Stikine thought, when they saw me pray, Sheldon Jackson called him "the Apostle of that some great monster was about to Alaska." Clah was born at Fort Simpson, British come up from the ground. " In our first Columbia, in the 1840s. He was of the Eagle clan service George Weeget opened the Bible and his wife was of the Wolf clan. In the matrili­ and at our Sunday school Philip McKay neal Tsimshian system he would have been of his opened the service. Our first meeting was mother's clan. His father was of the Blackfish led by Andrew Moss and John helped (Killer Whale) clan. Clah had received some him . We all send out love to our friends. 27 schooling at Metlakatla. Of chiefly family and Lewis Gosnall, one of the young Tsimshian evan­ trained in traditional culture, he had been an initi­ gelists, gave a brief account of these events: ate of a secret society. He was converted at Fort Simpson by native Christians who had been con­ .. . at that time there was no gospel in that verted in Victoria. Clah was baptized later ( 1873) land lying still to the north of us, known as Philip McKay by the Rev. William Pollard, a as Alaska .... We began at Fort Wrangle Methocjist missionary who was sent to fill in until and some of them heard the word. We brought back our report that the people the arrival of Thomas Crosby. His wife was bap­ heard ou r message, and that the whites tized at the same time and named Annie McKay. also would welcome a messenger who In the spring of 1876, Philip McKay and sev­ might be sent to them. At this Dr. Crosby eral companions from Fort Simpson- including could delay no longer so the next week , Andrew Moss, George Weeget, John Ryan, Louis with ten of us, he started out for Fort Gosnall, and John Neas-guo-juo-luck- were on Wrangle. On arriving there , a meeting of their way to work in the Cassiar district. McKay both whites and Indians was called. After and the others had for several summers previously the service was held, he asked them if worked in the Cassiar mining area as packers for they wanted a church or a school. They white miners. 26 They stopped en route, at Fort replied, " we want both." ... Phillip McKay and I remained to keep the fires Wrangell, a settlement of the Stikine people. (a burning throughout that long winter until branch of the Tlingit) . There McKay and his the Missionary arrived. From this small , friends took employment cutting wood. As enthu­ but consecrated beginning the good work siastic Methodist Christians, they began to hold spread all through that great North land. 28 religious services and found a good response among some of the Stikine and Haida there. When Crosby visited Fort Wrangell, he was re­ McKay then wrote to the Rev. Thomas Crosby, ceived by Chief Toy-a-att of the Wolf clan, one superintendent of Methodist missions for northern of the Clah 's first converts. Chief Toy-a-att and British Columbia, asking for help in the evange­ Chief Shakes Shu-taks, both of Fort Wrangell, listic work which they had informally begun. had visited Fort Simpson, where they had come The letter fro;n Philip McKay to Crosby, August in contact with the Methodist influences there. 27, 1876, gives some details of the circumstances These men were thus already disposed to listen to of the Tsimshian evangelization and what McKay McKay's evangelizing message. Crosby reports and the others thought was the Stikine response: the speech of greeting by Toy-a-att: We welcome you, missionary to our place. Your friends , the Tsimshians, used We reached this place [Fort Wrangell] to be the worst people on the whole coast . about the first of June on our way to Cas­ On account of their fighting and blood­ siar mines. We stopped on Sabbath and thirstiness, we counted them as our ene­ found the people in utter darkness as re­ mies. [There is some exaggeration here gards the Savior and His love. We held since they also traded regularly.] Now services on the Sabbath Day and, as we your young men are here teaching about found employment here for our party, we Jesus, the great king of Peace. Since you decided to remain and work for the name have come, you must stay with us. 29 of Christ, trying to lead the Stikines and Hydas living here to the truth. We have When Crosby indicated that he could not stay, held services every Sabbath and twice on Toy-a-att remarked, " How many snows shall we

VOW ME XXX NUMBER I 31 have to wait? We have waited a long time: and of trade contacts between Tsimshian, Tlingit, and not only we Stikine people but there are thou­ Haida made the latter two groups familiar with sands to the north and west of us who need the the Tsimshian language. 31 light. How long do you think we will have to A detailed view of the school under the direc­ wait? I am getting old: my people, many of them , tion of Clah is given by Sheldon Jackson as it was have gone down into the darkness. My heart is seen when he arrived with Mrs. McFarland, the sick with fear that if a missionary does not come new white teacher who was to take Clah 's place: soon many more will be gone." 30

Upon landing: at Wrangell and passing ILLIAM HENRY PIERCE, the Tsim­ down the street, I saw an Indian ringing shian-Scots convert alluded to earlier, a bell. It was the call for the afternoon also from Port Simpson and schooled at school. About twenty pupils were in at­ W tendance, mostly young Indian women . Metlakatla, was sent to assist Clah/McKay and Two or three boys were present; also a his companions. He was about twenty years old at mother and her three little children. As th e the time. The group taught day school six days a women took their seats on the rough pl ank week , held prayer meetings on Tuesday and Friday benches. each one bowed her head in si­ evenings, and preached in Tsimshian. Three lent praye r, seeking Divine help on her services were held on Sundays. The long tradition studies. Soon a thoughtful Indian man , of about thirty years of age, came in and took hi s seat behind the rude desk. It was In the summer of 1877 Sheldon Jackson and Amanda Clah. the teacher. T he familiar hymn, McFarland arrived in Wrangell to set up the first Pres­ " What a friend we have in Jesus,,. was byterian mission in Alaska. Not long afier their arrival sung in English; a prayer followed in th e Mrs. McFarland rescued two native girlsfrom th e Chin ook jargon. closing with a repetition hands of" witch doctors and brought them to her home . in concert of the Lord's prayer in English. Soon more girls were on her door step begging to be After lessons were studied and recited, the taken in. thus was the origin of" th e McFarland Girls' school arose, sang the longmetre doxol­ Hom e. In this photograph of the McFarland Girls' ogy and recited in concert the benediction. Hom e is also the wile of" Philip McKay. Annie (#II). Then the teacher said , "Good-afternoon, who had come to Wrangell with her husband to help my pupils" ; to which came the kindly 2 establish thefirst school and lead Sunday worship . response , "Good-afternoon. teacher. "'

•' : } ------;·· "~ \.- ~.:.~ + t

32 THE PACIFIC HISTORIAN When the Fort Wrangell mission was turned over Fort Wrangell circa I ~79. He was very impressed to the Americans, Pierce was sent to Lakkalsap with the Stikine converts, and reported speeches on the Nass River, to prepare for the coming of and remarks by Chief Shakes (the most presti­ the Rev. A. E. Green, and stayed on to act as gious chief of the Stikines at Fort Wrangell) and Green's interpreter. .n by Chief Toy-a-att. Chief Shakes spoke at a gath­ The young Tsimshian evangelists' efforts led to ering in his own house after dances had been per­ the conversion of several Stikine chiefs and lead­ formed: "Dear Brothers and Sisters, we have ing men- including Toy-a-att, John Kadishan, been long, long in the dark. You have led us the Moses Louie, and Aaron Kohanow (the latter two right way to live and the right way to die. I thank of whom were brothers). Toy-a-att and Kadishan you for myself a nd all my people, and I give you became missionaries to the Tlingit. Toy-a-att my heart."-" evangelized the Hootznoo of Angoon, and together Two other speeches at this occasion indicate a with Kadishan (who was the chief informant desire to please the visiting whites, first by per­ of John R. Swanton's study of the Tlingit) evan­ forming traditional dances and then by asserting gelized among the Chilkat of Klukwan. Kadishan that the old, " undesirable" things were being put was a kinsman of Chief Shotridge of Klukwan ,-' 4 away: who was the most prestigious chief of his Dear Brothers and Sisters. thi s is the way village, a Tlingit Wolf clan member and the leading we used to dance. We liked it long ago merchant and trader of the area.-'' when we were blind. we always danced Comments made by John Ryan on the Tsim­ thi s way. but now we are not blind . The shian mission work to the Tlingits may refer to Good .Lord has taken pity upon us and one of the missionary tours to Tlingit people sent hi s so n, Jesus Christ. to tell us what living beyond Fort Wrangell. He wrote: to do. We have danced to-day only to show you how blind we were to like to Last winter we went far off. and carried dance in this foolish way. We will not God's word wherever we went. We did not dance any more. go to make money or get great names, but to carry the word of God to others. We visited four large villages that asked where the missionary was . We had no au­ thority to tell them , Tell God your hearts. Pray to him to send a missionary, and one will come. ·"'

WO OTHER OBSERVERS provide infor­ mation on the Tsimshian evangelistic work Tand its impact. One of these isS. Hall Young, an American Presbyterian who was sta­ tioned at Fort Wrangell after the Methodists were unable to send a permanent white missionary. Crosby had approved of the work of the Tsim­ shian apostles and believed that the Presbyterians concurred with him on this. Young, however, ex­ pressed skepticism about the conversions and the Stikine understanding of Christian teachings after being evangelized by Clah/McKay and his friends. He was much less sanguine in his assess­ ment than was Crosby: " He [McKay] .. . gath­ ered together a little company of nominal Christians," he wrote. Of Toy-a-att and his " tribal family," Young said that they were " pro­ nounced adherents of McKay and were called Christians." Again, he referred to the "alleged" conversion of another man. 37 A contrasting assessment was made by John Muir, the noted naturalist, who was a member of Chief Shakes, the most prestigious chief of the Stikines the party on one of the evangelistic tours from at Fort Wrangell .

VOW ME XXX NUMBER I 33 Another man echoed these views: " ... this is the thoughts that often came to his mind when he was way we used to dance and play. We do not wish alone on hunting expeditions, and what he first to do so any more. We will give away all the thought of the religion which the missionaries had dance dresses you have seen us wearing though brought them." Unfortunately Muir did not elab­ we value them very highly." 39 orate on the specific remarks uttered by Toy-a­ Muir believed that the Tlingit possessed the att. 42 The light-sight-enlightenment imagery runs idea of atonement and gave an example of a Sti­ through the Tlingit remarks as reported. kine chief who had sacrificed his life for his peo­ Sheldon Jackson, the organizer of missions to ple. Muir believed that his idea aided them in Alaska, shared the opinion of Crosby concerning accepting the Christian concept of the atoning the accomplishments of Clah and his friends. death of the "Son of God, the Chief of Chiefs, Jackson's biographer gives this eloquent assess­ the Master of the World . . . worth more than all ment of their work: mankind put together; therefore, when His blood was shed, the salvation of the world was made 40 Thus, in the wonderful ordering of the sure. " providence of God, through these humble A further speech by Chief Shakes illustrates workmen who had recently accepted the the impact of European technology on the Indi­ faith of Christ in British Columbia, and ans, and the association of technological superi­ were seeking for more li ght without the ority with spiritual superiority in the mind of the aid of any accredited missionary teacher, chief. The sense of the chief's duty to his people the kingdom of God came, without obser­ is also shown. vation , to Alaska. They were the honored messengers to whom the holy Spirit gave The white man makes great ships. We , the privilege of publishing the gospel li ke children, can only make canoes. He story to the ignorant and degraded natives makes hi s big ships go with the wind, and in advance of all the churches and mis­ he also makes thein go with fire. We chop sionary societies of our land."' down trees with stone axes ; the Boston man with iron axes, which are far better. In everything the ways of the white man Chief Toy-a-att and several of his kinsmen, in­ seem to be better than ours. Compared cluding Moses Louie and Aaron Kohanow, were with the white man we are on ly blind ch il ­ given some civil authority to keep peace and dren, knowing not how best to live either order. 44 here or in this country we go to after we The Tlingit converts also paid tribute to the died. So I wish you to learn this new reli­ contribution which the Port Simpson Tsimshian gion and teach it to your ch ildren, that evangelists had made to them in sending the new you may all go when you die into that teachings. John Swanton found that the Tlingit good heaven country of the white man and be happy. But I am too old to learn a highly esteemed the Tsimshian as a source of new religion, and besides, many of my high culture, new ideas, and new customs. Here­ people who have died were bad and foo l­ ported that the Tlingit thought more highly of the ish people, and if this word the mission­ Tsimshian than of the Haida. 45 His remarks are ary has brought us is true , and I think it particularly provocative, since Kadishan (also is , many of my people must be in that bad spelled Kadachan, Katishan), his informant, was country the missionary call s " Hell" , and linked to the Tsimshian by the evangelizing of I must go there also, for a Stikine Chief McKay and his companions, and was himself a never deserts hi s people in time of trou­ convert and sometime evangelist. Kadishan pub­ ble. To that bad country, therefore , I will licly credited the Port Tsimshian evangelists with go, and try to cheer my people and help them as best I can to endure their bringing Christianity. God, he said, had sent 46 mi sery."' Clah, Mrs. McFarland and S. Hall Young. Clah/Philip McKay stayed with the family of Mrs. Kadishan, perhaps a kinswoman, while he UIR WAS ESPECIALLY impressed by a was in Fort Wrangell. After about one and a half statement of Chief Toy-a-att. The chief, years at his evangelistic task at Fort Wrangell, M Muir wrote, "stood several minutes Clah died, in December, 1877, of tuberculosis. without speaking a word . .. . He then explained He was about thirty years of age. Chief Toy-a-att in detail what his mother had taught him as to the was killed in January, 1880, by a drunken oppo­ character of God, the great maker of the world: nent, while trying to arbitrate a dispute between also what the shamans had taught him; the Angoon and Fort Wrangell Tlingits. 47

34 THE PACIFIC HISTORIAN Conclusion Methodists had been willing to see the workings of the Holy Spirit in the native evangelism and HE CAREER of Clah/Philip McKay illus­ religious enthusiasm of Clah and others. The trates the phenomenon of spontaneous PresbyterianS. Hall Young was more skeptical of Tevangelism which characterized the behav­ the depth and quality of Christianity introduced ior of the new convert in many cases among by the Tsimshian evangelists and their Tlingit dis­ Northwest Coast Indians. These were not or­ ciples. Not surprisingly, Young's view was also dained clergy nor were they lay workers commis­ Anglican Bishop William Ridley's view of Meth­ sioned by a denomination (Anglican or Methodist odist conversions among Nishga and Tsimshian in the early days, 1850s-1880s), though they people at about the same time. 49 might become more formalized in time, or be re­ Response and motivation of the individual con­ placed by authorized native evangelists. Rather, verts no doubt differed. For some, the material their everyday business took them to places where advantages may have dominated over the ideolog­ they had connections reaching back into pre-con­ ical and spiritual side, but in the native culture, tact times, links based upon aboriginal ties and spiritual and practical power were one. Conver­ contacts: kinship, clan, trade, hunting and fish­ sion did not threaten loss of independence to the ing. In their enthusiasm for their new faith and in chiefs; as traders and merchants, and as cultural the regular round of their travels - for economic leaders, they were the most knowledgeable and and social activities - they spread the new reli­ informed segment of the native society. They gion to which they had become converts, at Fort were in closest contact with the white newcomers, Simpson, Metlakatla, Victoria, and elsewhere. and the most likely to respond to innovation. Had they not been interrupted by the coming of Some of these leaders and their families accepted the orthodox and organized denominations, as Christianity under the influence of the Tsimshian represented by the white missionaries, perhaps evangelists. they would have developed indigenous Christian It may be that too much emphasis has been churches. As it happened, they and their embry­ placed upon viewing the convert as "sincerely or onic Christian groups were co-opted into the completely Christian" versus "only nominally or mainstream of Euro-American and Euro-Cana­ formally Christian." This kind of dichotomized dian denominations. 4 x analysis, based on an exclusivist understanding of Clah/McKay and his Tsimshian companions conversion, may be erroneous in its assumptions became "native agents" of the Methodists, and about the nature of the acceptance of new reli­ their pioneering work was taken over by the Pres­ gion. 50 More studies of the early native Christian byterians, though McKay was asked to stay on by evangelists might shed light on what they be­ them and did so for the brief period before his lieved and what they taught to their own converts. death. The American Presbyterian missionaries Their experience and beliefs, whatever they were, introduced the forms and customs of European are a valid and ·significant subject for inquiry and . Christianity and placed pressure upon the Tlingit an expression of the Christian ideal of to make drastic changes in their lifestyles. The universality.

NOTES: Margaret Seguin , ed., The Tsimshian -Images of the I . For a discussion of the arguments for and against Past: Views for the Present (Vancouver: University of missions see Walbert Buhlmann, The Missions on Trial British Columbia Press, 1984). ( 1979) . Many Christian writers recognize that missions 4. See the Western Methodist Recorder and the Meth­ and missionaries were destructive and harmful to the odist Missionary Notices for examples in British Co­ peoples evangelized. For an Indian critique of missions lumbia. David Sallosalton 's story is told in a booklet by see the books of Harold Cardinal The Unjust Society the prominent Methodist missionary Thomas Crosby, (Edmonton: M.E. Hurtig, 1969) and The Rebirth of the David Sallosalton (Toronto: Department of Missionary Canada's Indians (Edmonton: M.E. Hurtig, 1977). Literature of the Methodist Church , Canada, n.d.). 2. See Martin Jarrett-Kerr, Patterns of Christian 5. An introduction to Anglican and Methodist mis­ Acceptance (London: Oxford University Press, 1971). sions to the Nishga is to be found in E.P. Patterson 3. John Webster Grant, Moon of Wintertime (Toronto: Mission on the Nass ( 1982). For an ethnographic sur­ University of Toronto Press, 1984), pp . 133-34. For vey of Nishga culture, see Stephen McNeary, Where another example of native missionaries see the chapter Fire Came Down (Ph.D. Thesis , Bryn Mawr Un iver­ by Ken Campbell, " Hartley Bay, B.C.: A History," in sity, 1976). In the last few pages of his thesis , McNeary

VOW ME XXX NUMBER I 35 makes some telling observations about Nishga incor­ American Indians (Englewood, NJ : Prentice-Hall , Inc., poration of Anglican and Salvation Army influences 1981 ), pp. 360-62. and the compatability of Nishga culture and the forms 17. W. H . Pierce, From Potlatch to Pulpit, edited by of Christianity introduced into it. J.P. Hicks (1933). 6. Ernst Benz, The Eastern Orthodox Church -Its 18. J .B. McCullagh, Red Indians I Have Known (Lon­ Thought and Life (Garden City, NY: Doubleday and don: Church Missionary Society, n.d.), pp. 19-21. Co. , Inc., 1963) contains a brief life of Bishop Venia­ 19. McCullagh, pp. 5-11. minoff. He is frequently mentioned in books on the 20. For a similar example see The Passover Haggadah, Tlingit and Alaska in the nineteenth century. See also edited by Nahum N. Glatzer (New York, NY: Schocken Stephen Neill, A History of Christian Missions (Har­ Books, 1969), p. 49: "In every generation let each mondsworth, Middlesex, England: Penguin Books man look on himself as if he came forth out of Egypt. Ltd. , 1964), pp. 442-45 . As it is said: 'And thou shalt tell thy son in that day, 7. Marius Barbeau, Tsimshian Myths (Ottawa: Na­ saying: It is because of that which the Lord did for me tional Museums of Canada, 1961 ), Bulletin 61, p. 85 . when I came forth out of Egypt' (Exod. 13:8)." See also Aurel Krause, The Tlingits, translated by Erna 21. Aiyansh Notes. April 1908, p. xiii. Gunther (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 22. Ronald P. Rohner, The Ethnography of Franz Boas 1956), pp. 212-13 . See Marjorie Halpin , " Seeing in (Chicago. IL: The University of Chicago Press, 1969), Stone: Tsimshian Masking and the Twin Stone pp. 188-89. Masks," pp. 269-88, and Robin Ridington, "For Wil­ 23. William H. Collison to Church Missionary Society, son: As a Contribution to the Conversation," pp. 265- April 6, and 26, 1893; June I, 1894 (Church Mission­ 68 , in The World is Sharp as a Knife: An Anthology in ary Society Records, Microfilm Reel Al24). Honour of Wilson Duff, Donald .N. Abbott, ed., (Victo­ 24. Thomas Crosby, Up and Down the North Pacific ria: British Columbia Provincial Museum, 1981 ). One's Coast (Toronto: The Missionary Society of the Meth­ initial inclination may be to interpret the symbolism of odist Church, 1914), p. 48. light-sight-life in quotations from Indians as echoes of 25. John A. (Ian) McKenzie, "Evangelism in the Nass the language of the missionary. The work of Halpin , Valley," unpublished essay. however, reveals an indigenous dimension in the mis­ 26. Crosby, p. 167. sionary accounts of Indian response. 27 . Crosby. p. 169. 8. RobertS. Grumet, " Changes in Coast Tsimshian 28 . Louis Gonnell [sic], Western Methodist Recorder, Redistributive Activities in the Fort Simpson Region of March 1914, p. 16. British Columbia, 1788-1863 ," Ethnohistory 22 29 . Crosby. p. 169. (1975): 300-0 I. See also Margaret Seguin, " Introduc­ 30. Crosby, p. 170. tion, " in Seguin ( 1984), for a discussion of the role of 31. Sheldon Jackson, Alaska (New York, NY: Dodd, the chiefs among the Tsimshian. · Mead and Co. , 1880), p. 158 ff. 9. Grumet, p. 296. 32 . Jackson, pp. 302-03. 10. Kenneth D. Tollefson, The Cultural Foundation of 33. F. E. Runnals, It's God's Country (Ocean Park, Political Revitalization Among the Tlingit (Seattle, WA: B.C.: Published by the Author, 1974), pp. 58-9. University of Washington Press , 1976), p. 150. See 34. Jackson, pp. 235 ff. also John R. Swanton, Social Conditions, Belief, and 35. S. Hall Young , Alaska Days with John Muir (New Linguistic Relationship of the Tlingitlndians (Washing­ York, NY: Fleming H. Revell Co., 1915), p. 90. ton, D.C.: Bureau of American Ethnology, 26th An­ 36. Jackson, p. 269. nual Report, 1904 [New York: Johnson Reprint Co. , 37. S. Hall Young, Hall Young of Alaska (New York, 1970]), p. 150: the Wolfphratry people at Kuiu were NY: Fleming H. Revell Co. , 1927), pp. 88-9. called "People of the Nass. " Swanton's informant told 38. John Muir, Travels in Alaska (New York , NY: him that the Tlingit traced the origin of nearly all their Houghton Mifflin Co., 1915), p. 16. clans to the Tsimshian coast, near the Skeena mouth 39. Muir, pp. 35-6. (pp'. 399 ff. , 476). 40. Muir, pp. 198-200. For an example of atonement II. Tollefson, p. 181. according to Muir, seep. 208. 12. Jay Miller, "Tsimshian Religion in Historical Per­ 41 . Muir, p. 201. Julia M. Wright believed the Tlingit spective," in Jay Miller and Carol Eastman, eds., The were eager for education: see Wright, Among the Alas­ Tsimshian and Their Neighbors (Seattle, WA: Univer­ kans (Philadelphia, PA: Presbyterian Board of Educa­ sity of Washington Press, 1984), p. 138. tion, 1883), p. 89. Aurel Krause says that the 13. Wayne A. Meeks, The First Urban Christians motivation for change was less religious than material (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1983), p. 77 . gain. It was " ambition to imitate" the whites andre­ 14. Meeks, pp. 18-19. ceive reward from whites for doing so. Krause, p. 230. 15. See Thomas E. Jessett, Chief Spokan Garry (Min­ 42. Muir, p. 202. neapolis, MN: T.S. Denison and Co. , 1960). 43. Robert Laird Stewart, Sheldon Jackson (New York, 16. See Henry Warner Bowden, American Indians and NY: Fleming H. Revell Co., 1908), p. 291. Christian Missions (Chicago, IL: University of Chicago 44. Jackson, p. 169. Press, 1981 ), p. 186, and Alice D. Kehoe , North 45. Swanton, p. 414.

36 THE PACIFIC HISTORIAN 46. Jackson, p. I 07. ered to the 2nd Laurier Conference on North American 47. Young, Alaska Days, pp. 127-28. Ethnohistory and Ethnology, Huron College University 48. Edward Marsden, a Tsimshian of New Matlakatla, of Western Ontario, May 1983 . Kan find s that many Alaska, became a Presbyterian clergyman. William G. Tlingit people regarded the Presbyterians as intolerant Beattie, Marsden of Alaska (1955), is a sympathetic of native traditions and ethnocentric. The Orthodox account of this Alaskan Tsimshian figure who clashed Church was regarded by them as the " Tlingit Church. " with the paternalism of William Duncan. 50. For some discussion of the subject as it applied to 49. For a comment on the Presbyterian mission in the early expansion of Christianity, see Ramsay Alaska as compared with the Russian Orthodox, see MacMullen Christianizing the Roman Empire (A.D . Sergei Kan, " Russian Orthodox Missionaries and the 100-400) (New Haven , CT: Yale Un iversity Press , Tlingit Indians of Alaska, 1880-1900," a paper deliv- 1984).

VOWME XXX NUMBER I 37