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Documenting Missionaries and Indians the Archive of Myron Eells

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Documenting Missionaries and Indians the Archive of Myron Eells Documenting Missionaries and Indians The Archive of Myron Eells trevor james bond riting in his diary in 1898 collection, and its museum. Eells spoke chives generally privileges white elites from the rain-drenched regularly at regional meetings, inter- of the dominant culture while silenc- WSkokomish Reservation in acted with fellow collectors, and cor- ing members of other groups. Archives western Washington, the missionary responded with other authors. He do not simply appear fully realized and Myron Eells made a confession. “Have reached an even wider audience and neatly organized in acid-free boxes. As finished copying the journal of Rev. contributed to national perceptions of the historian Antoinette Burton ob- H. H. Spalding from 1839 to 1843, for western missionaries and Native peo- served, “Though their own origins are Prof. F. G. Young of the Oregon State ples through his academic and popu- often occluded and the exclusions on University. I have[,] I acknowledge, lar writings—particularly his efforts which they are premised often dimly omitted a few pages which speak of to burnish the reputation of Marcus understood, all archives come into some of the troubles of the missions, Whitman—and his collecting on be- being . as a result of specific politi- which had better never see the light.” half of Washington State and the fed- cal, cultural, and socioeconomic pres- As Eells labored over this task, spend- eral government for the 1893 World’s sures—pressures which leave traces ing four months copying “87 large Columbian Exposition in Chicago. and which render archives themselves foolscap pages” of Spalding’s “fine artifacts of history.”3 writing—205 of my smaller pages,” he Collectors of Indian cultural artifacts was both preserving and censoring a provided a skewed interpretation of ollectors and archives are critical unique manuscript created by the first Native Americans. Some believed that C for history: without archives, we missionary to the Nez Perce.1 Fortu- Indians were a vanishing race and would not have primary sources. nately, Eells’s censorship did not ex- therefore accumulated Native Ameri- Though historians routinely interrogate tend to destroying his sources.2 can materials before it was too late; individual sources for their authentic- others viewed contemporary Native ity, content, and bias, they would also Myron Eells had a vested interest in peoples as degenerate, and so they fo- benefit from interrogating the collec- showing Spalding in the best possible cused on acquiring “old-fashioned” tions from which those sources come. light. A minister and missionary in his objects—objects that showed no signs Archivists describe the provenance of own right, Eells was also the son of that the Indians had had contact with primary sources, that is, their origins, Spalding’s colleagues, Cushing Eells Euro-Americans. Eells, however, was creation, custody, and ownership. Prov- and Myra Eells. As a systematic collec- interested in ideas of progress and the enance informs the reading, interpreta- tor of the journals and correspondence “civilizing” efforts of Christian mis- tion, and context of individual sources of the early missionaries, Eells was in a sionaries and the federal government. within a collection and also provides unique position to influence how the Though Eells gathered some “old-fash- clues to what is excluded. Provenance missionaries were viewed. He also col- ioned” artifacts for his collection and is the fundamental principle for the lected artifacts of local Native tribes, those of others, he also carefully docu- management and organization of ar- and what he chose to include and ex- mented contemporary Indian culture, chives. Archival collections are gener- clude from his collection illustrates particularly changes on the Skokomish ally organized around the collector or how he wanted others to perceive these Reservation between 1875 and 1900. creator of the sources rather than dis- peoples as well. His aim was to demon- persed and reorganized by subject or strate that western Native peoples had Archival collections are never neutral; format. However, the provenance of benefited from the government’s “civi- rather, they promote certain agendas, many collections is dimly understood. lizing” and “Christianizing” programs. leaving an incomplete legacy. The act Because Myron Eells wrote about his He left his collection to Whitman Col- of collecting is itself inherently biased, collecting and how he organized his ar- lege, providing the foundation for its and this bias informs the archive. The chives, his collection is a rich case study archives, its library’s Northwest history process of creating and preserving ar- in provenance. Summer 2016 135 The Myron Eells Collection has its ori- tary conquest of the Cayuse. These Classes were held at Waiilatpu, but the gins in the decision of Eells’s parents to events accelerated the efforts of the seminary’s first building was con- serve as missionaries in the Oregon federal government to bring the Ore- structed in Walla Walla in 1866. The Country. In 1838, Myra Eells and gon Country into the United States. seminary became Whitman College in Cushing Eells joined Elkanah Walker 1883. Cushing and his son Myron later and Mary Walker and others as part of Five months after the killing of the played critical roles in the survival of a group of missionaries sent to support Whitmans and the others, soldiers es- Whitman College, which struggled fi- the activities of Marcus Whitman and corted the Eellses and Walkers and the nancially for decades.8 Narcissa Whitman and Henry Spald- couples’ eight children from their re- ing and Eliza Spalding. These Congre- mote mission to Fort Walla Walla. On After several years of helping his family gationalist missionaries received fund- their journey they stopped at the Whit- with their farm and the seminary, My- ing for their work from the American man mission station, Waiilatpu, where ron returned to Forest Grove and at- Board of Commissioners for Foreign they witnessed a macabre sight. Mary tended Pacific University. Upon com- Missions (abcfm). Founded in 1810 by Walker wrote to the Reverend David pleting his degree, Eells received some graduates of Williams College in the Greene, abcfm secretary in charge of advice from Pacific University’s presi- midst of the Second Great Awakening, the Oregon missions: “The native fields dent, who told Eells that he was “a the abcfm operated a global network were all grown up to weeds, their pretty good specimen of an Orego- of missions. fences broken down. The bones & hair nian” but he needed “to go east and be- of the Missionary & wife with others come an American.”9 In 1868, Eells The Walker and Eells families estab- had been scattered by the wolves.” started a diary that he kept until his lished a mission at Tshimakain in 1838, Mary Walker’s son, Elkanah, then four death in 1907. He went east and stud- approximately 45 miles from present- years old, saw his mother pick up some ied for the ministry, graduating from day Spokane, the most remote of the of Narcissa Whitman’s blonde hair and the Theological Institute of Connecti- missionary stations in the Oregon show it to Myra Eells.6 Though only a cut (today’s Hartford Seminary) in Country. A native of the Pacific North- child at the time, Myron Eells main- 1871. Eells’s education, his habit of west, Myron Eells was born on the tained a relic of Narcissa Whitman’s keeping a diary, and his need to pre- morning of October 7, 1843, in a crude hair in his collection. He would later pare sermons and speeches and to log cabin at Tshimakain. Marcus Whit- inherit his father’s papers and collect communicate with his fellow minis- man traveled by horse roughly 160 all available sources related to the ters as well as government officials led miles from his mission site, Waiilatpu, Whitman killings. to the formation of his own personal near Walla Walla to help deliver the archive. After a few years as a pastor in baby. Mary Walker wrote in her diary he Eells family moved to Forest Boise, Idaho, Eells moved to the that Cushing Eells had visited the TGrove, Oregon, where Cushing Skokomish Reservation as a mission- Walker home that morning “to take Eells taught school, farmed, and even- ary and teacher. His brother, Edwin, some breakfast. When he returned, he tually became principal of what was served as the Indian agent on the same found his wife nicely in bed & was pre- then Tualatin Academy and Pacific reservation for nearly 24 years.10 Here sented with a son.”4 The Walker and University (today’s Pacific Univer- Myron remained until his death in Eells families lived at Tshimakain for a sity).7 Cushing Eells did not care for 1907.11 decade, attempting to farm and to con- Forest Grove and yearned to return vert the Spokane Indians. They had east to his former missionary haunts Eells found travel to and from the little success as missionaries or farm- on the Columbia Plateau. In 1859, Skokomish Reservation challenging. ers, and by the late 1840s their mission when the U.S. military reopened the The reservation comprises some five was on the brink of failing for lack of region east of the Cascade Range to thousand acres and is located on the converts.5 settlement (it had been closed in 1856 Olympic Peninsula approximately 35 because of Indian resistance to the U.S. miles from Olympia, on the delta of Their work ended abruptly after a military), Cushing Eells traveled to the Skokomish River, where the river group of Cayuse Indians killed Marcus Walla Walla and purchased the site of empties into the Great Bend of Hood Whitman and Narcissa Whitman and the Whitmans’ mission over the objec- Canal.
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