Protestant Missions in the Northwest
PROTESTANT MISSIONS IN THE NORTHWEST, BY REV. STEPHEN R. RIGGS, D. D. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS. The writer of this paper has gathered the facts in regard to the Mission of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, among the Ojibwas, from the Missionary Herald mainly, having received some suggestions from Mrs. Leon- ard H. Wheeler. The materials for the history of the American Board's work among the Sioux have been within my own knowledge. For the short account of the Swiss Mission I am indebted, mainly, to Rev. S. W. Pond. Dr. Alfred Brunson, in the "Western Pioneer," and Judge Gale's "Upper Missis- sippi," have furnished the materials for the Methodist Episcopal Mission among the Sioux and Ojibwas. For the account of the work of the American Missionary Association among the Ojibwas, I am indebted to Dr. Strieby and Mr. S. G. Wright. And lastly, I am quite obliged to Bishop H. B. Whipple for the communications of Rev. E. S. Peake and himself. This brief history of the Missions of the Protes- tant Episcopal Church among the Ojibwas and Sioux, is mainly in the form which they furnished. S. R. RIGGS. BELOIT, Wis., May, 1880. If the question be asked, why, in the first settlement of this country, Protestant Missions were not pushed westward among the Aborigines, as Catholic Missions were, the answer is two- fold. First. The pilgrims of New England came for the purpose of making homes, with freedom to worship God, for themselves and their 118 MINNESOTA HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS. children. Trading with the Indians appears to have been an after-thought, and efforts to convert them to the reli- gion of Christ were left to be made by individuals, as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.
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