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A HOLY BAT Methodist, Baptist, & Among Shawnee by Kevin Abing n October 1834 the Shawnee Indi- ans held a full tribal council on their reserve in present-day east- ern Kansas. After much delibera- Ition, the gathering demanded that gov- ernment officials remove all Methodist and Baptist missionaries working among the tribe. The reasons for the council’s decision were not defined, but many members undoubtedly resented the missionaries’ attempts to convert them to Christianity. No less disturbing, however, was the incessant squabbling between the Methodists and Baptists. The cultural struggle between Na- tive Americans and Christian missionar- ies is a story that frequently has been told. Less known is the interdenomina- tional strife that all too often character- Kevin Abing earned his Ph.D. from Marquette Uni- versity in 1995. His dissertation was a study of the Shawnee Indian Manual Labor School. He is currently employed as an Methodist missionary Thomas Johnson archival assistant with the Marquette University Archives. 118 KANSAS HISTORY TLEGROUND Quaker Missionaries Indians, 1830–1844 ized missionary endeavors in the nine- teenth century.1 This seems particularly true with regard to missions in preterri- torial Kansas. The area was ripe for reli- gious competition. The federal govern- ment’s removal policy forced numerous eastern tribes to settle on fixed reserves in what is now Oklahoma, Nebraska, and Kansas. Missionaries from several Protestant denominations, as well as the 1. For works that discuss denominational rivalries, see William G. McLoughlin, Cherokees and Missionaries, 1789–1839 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1984), 165–67, 170–74; Clara Sue Kidwell, “Choctaws and Missionaries in Mississippi Before 1830,” American Indi- an Culture and Research Journal 11 (1987): 65–69; Kid- well, Choctaws and Missionaries in Mississippi, 1818–1918 (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1995), 75–76, 96–97, 118–24; Michael E. Stevens, “Catholic and Protestant Missionaries Among Wisconsin Indians: The Territorial Period,” Wisconsin Magazine of History 58 (Winter 1974–1975): 141, 144–48; William E. Unrau, The Kansa Indians: A History of the Wind People, 1673–1873 (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1971), 122–37; Robert Lee Whitner, “The Methodist Episcopal Church and Grant’s Peace Policy: A Study of the Methodist Agencies, 1870–1882” (Ph.D. diss., University of Min- nesota, 1959), 118–54; Francis Paul Prucha, The Church- es and the Indian Schools, 1888–1912 (Lincoln: Universi- ty of Nebraska Press, 1979). Baptist missionary Isaac McCoy AHOLY BATTLEGROUND 119 Roman Catholic Church, ventured west to save “hea- he Methodists and Baptists were two of the then” Indians from eternal damnation. Given the re- country’s fastest-growing religions in the early stricted space, perhaps it was inevitable that bad T nineteenth century. Their organizational struc- blood developed among the competing missionaries. tures differed, but each promoted the rapid spread of The historical literature pertaining to Kansas mis- its respective denomination, especially among white sions, however, ignores or treats these rivalries in settlers on the frontier. Methodist bishops directed only a cursory fashion.2 the spiritual and business affairs of their delegated The contest among the Shawnees from 1830 to areas, but to spread the gospel, Methodists used itin- 1844 was particularly acute. From the beginning Bap- erant ministers, known as circuit riders, to preach to tist and Methodist missionaries sparred with one an- and conduct services for far-flung Methodist classes. other for Shawnee souls. The situation was further The Baptists utilized a congregational structure. Each muddied when the Society of Friends (Quakers) dis- congregation was an autonomous entity; thus, local patched missionaries to work among the Shawnees. units elected their own preachers. Although their Despite many differences, all of these groups shared flexible structures made it easy to reach isolated areas, a fundamental belief: white, Christian society was su- some of the Baptists’ and Methodists’ successes un- perior to Native American culture. Indeed, this prin- doubtedly lay in the fact that most ministers/preach- ciple fomented cooperative, and even friendly, activ- ers closely identified with their flocks because they ities among members of the various sects. The too were struggling to scratch out an existence on the Baptists, for example, used their printing press to frontier. supply books for the other denominations. And, iso- The Baptists and Methodists also struggled with lated from “civilized” society, missionaries of all one another to win white converts. Theological dif- three denominations often visited one another and ferences provided the focus of this rivalry. The sometimes conducted joint services.3 Methodists stressed that all people were sinful, but These niceties notwithstanding, suspicion tainted everyone had the capacity to redeem themselves and much of the interaction among these men and obtain salvation. Through faith and God’s saving women of God. Although the Methodists, Baptists, grace, individuals could be justified and even obtain and Quakers ostensibly worked toward the same a state of perfection. The Baptists, on the other hand, goal of civilizing the Indians, each denomination be- were more Calvinistic. They believed that the true lieved that its particular brand of Christianity was church was made up only of true believers. Individu- the purest and surest route to salvation. als could not be baptized into the church until they accepted and publicly testified to God’s grace. Con- sequently, Baptists rejected infant baptism, which the Methodists and other denominations practiced.4 Al- 2. For an annotated list of works on the various tribes and missions though much of the Methodists’ and Baptists’ time within Kansas, see Homer E. Socolofsky and Virgil W. Dean, comps., Kansas History: An Annotated Bibliography (New York: Greenwood Press, was spent preaching to white Americans, their evan- 1992), 11–35; William E. Unrau, The Emigrant Indians of Kansas: A Critical gelicalism dictated that they also carry God’s word to Bibliography (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1979), 31–36. 3. Mark Stephen Joy, “‘Into the Wilderness’: Protestant Missions nonwhite people. As a result, missionaries began Among the Emigrant Indians of Kansas, 1830–1854” (Ph.D. diss., Kansas preaching abroad and at home to various Indian State University, 1992), 334–37; Elizabeth Brooks, History of Mission and Northeast Johnson County (Mission, Kans.: Historical Old Mission Enthu- tribes. siasts, 1989), 12; Flora Harvey Kittle and Anna Steward Pearson, Shawnee Indians in Kansas (Kansas City, Kans.: n.p., 1917), 28–29, 31; H. Pearl Dixon, Sixty Years Among the Indians: A Short Life Sketch of Thomas H. and Mary W. Stanley, Quaker Missionaries to the Indians (n.p., [1922]), 30; Isaac 4. Frederick A. Norwood, The Story of American Methodism: A History McCoy to Herman Lincoln, May 11, 1842, Letters Received, 1824–1881, of the United Methodists and Their Relations (New York: Abingdon Press, U.S. Office of Indian Affairs, M234, roll 784, National Archives, Washing- 1974), 46–50, 156–63; William Warren Sweet, Religion on the American ton, D.C. (hereafter cited as Letters Received); Sara Ann to Daniel or Frontier: The Baptists, 1783–1830 (New York: Henry Holt and Co., 1931), Emily Huff, February 12, 1847, Huff Family Papers, Lily Library, Earlham 43–44; William Henry Brackney, The Baptists (New York: Greenwood College, Richmond, Ind. Press, 1988), 23–70. 120 KANSAS HISTORY The Society of Friends espoused a much different what was commonly referred to as the Indian “prob- set of beliefs than the other two faiths. The Friends’ lem.”6 most distinctive doctrine was the concept of the Inner The results of this sectarian strife contributed lit- Light, identified as God’s voice within each individ- tle to the Shawnees’ welfare. The tribe faced drastic ual. Following the Light enabled believers to achieve cultural challenges, which invariably bred disharmo- salvation, thereby rendering unnecessary other inter- ny between those who assimilated to American cul- mediaries, such as sacraments or priests. For exam- ture and those who retained their traditional heritage. ple, the Friends rejected water baptisms, asserting The arrival of the Methodist, Baptist, and Quaker that true baptism was the awareness of missionaries added a religious dimension to Christ’s spirit within oneself. The Friends the Shawnees’ cultural struggle. Shaw- sought a gradual path to holiness, not nee bands and individual families the single “rebirth” experience of the were torn apart, as members either Methodists or Baptists. To advance joined one of the Christian faiths the work of salvation, Friends or adhered to their traditional re- sought solitude from the world’s ligion. The interdenominational distractions. They adopted a set feuding only added to the con- of tenets, which they called the plain life, and their worship Baptist missionary Johnston Lykins meetings generally consisted of quiet contemplation. Egali- tarianism was an integral com- fusion, with the Indians at- ponent of the Quakers’ theolo- tempting to make sense of this gy. They stressed that everyone Christian onslaught. shared in the Inner Light. As a The scene of this struggle result, Friends freely spread their was the rolling grasslands of “truths” to others, including the eastern Kansas. As part of the Shawnees.5 federal government’s removal pol-