Gottlieb F. Oehler

“ Allis are remnants of this noble band of missionaries, and, still cherishing the desire, that these benighted but very interesting people might be enlightened by the gospel, have, while their fellow-laborers have long ago left for other fields of usefulness, still lingered behind—and toiled on, amidst many self-denials, privations and discouragements, in doing whatever lay in their power for the good of these Indians. ”

“ As the upper village had been burnt by their enemies during their absence, the labor of rebuilding of course devolved upon the poor women, and in the course of about two months, when we visited them, they had completed nearly 150 lodges. When we observed that the nearest timber to the site of the village was two or three miles off, and that they have no beasts of burden, but that all the building material, much of which is very heavy, was carried so great a distance on the shoulders of the women, it seemed almost incredible to us. ”

“ About five or six miles off to our left a strip of timber (the only to be seen) from four to five miles wide skirted the river all the rest of the bottom, and the neighboring high bluffs were one continued prairie. The soil is splendid, but all the most eligible sites are already occupied by settlers, who hold their claims at enormous prices. Timber is very scarce, and so is stone. Not a pebble is to be seen either on the bluffs, or in the bottom. The settlers are obliged to resort to ditching and mud-fencing. ”

“ Subsistence.—What the seal is to the Greenlander the buffalo is to the Pawnees and other Prairie Indians; and many of their songs, in which reference is made to the buffalo, show that this animal is held in high estimation among them. It will no doubt be a difficult undertaking to wean them from an occupation, which is at the same time a gratifying and exciting sport to them, and which imparts to an individual who distinguishes himself in its pursuit, a character of high standing among his tribe. ”

“ While the men, trained to no work whatever, are erect, tall and well-proportioned in their 31form, and almost feminine in their features, the women are short and low, with stooping gait, downcast looks, harsh features, and hair dishevelled; and dirty, ragged, and filthy in their appearance. Such is a picture of heathenism! Have we not cause to be grateful for the benign influence of the gospel upon our land, so that we are elevated far above such a miserable state of heathenism? ”

“ Because these poor people have no other agricultural implements than hoes, the spots which they are obliged to select for fields are often at great distances from each other, and frequently from five to eight miles from their village. When abroad, to prepare and plant them in the spring, and gather the corn in the fall, they are often exposed to attacks of their enemies. While the husband is watching from some neighboring eminence to guard against the stealthy approach of any hostile force, the wive is engaged in the labor of the field. ”

“ There is a lack of that Spirit of our Savior, who in his missionary capacity to a world of sinners has set us a pattern to follow. We have sadly degenerated, and the spirit of the world has taken a powerful hold upon our minds ”

“ After the crowd had somewhat dispersed, a dish of soup, made of hominy and beans, was placed before us, with two spoons, made of buffalo horns, in the dish. Having fasted since sunrise, we could not complain of our appetites, and the dish, though not attractive in its appearance, was soon emptied of its contents. We then prepared some coffee, and having supped, gave our chief and his family a feast of the remaining coffee, with some crackers and slices of ham. ”

“ From what we have witnessed on our excursion to Council Bluffs, and our subsequent visit to the Pawnees, we confidently express the opinion that we can nowhere expect heathen nations, with the contracted ideas that these people have of the nature of the gospel, to be more anxious to have missionaries among them. ”

“ As we traveled on the country continued more or less broken, the timber becoming scarcer the further North we proceeded. Oregon, through which we passed in the afternoon, is a newly settled but thriving town, with a tolerably populous neighborhood. Soon after leaving Oregon we left the bluffs to our right and descended into a most beautiful bottom country, bordering on the Missouri River. The bottom is about ten or twelve miles wide, quite level, bounded by a line of high bluffs to the right hand, at the base of which our road lay. ”

“ We now turned off from the wagon road, taking the village for our landmark; without any track across the prairie, and soon arrived on the north bank of the Platte.—The grass being somewhat more advanced in the bottom than on the high bluff on the opposite side, where the village is situated, the Pawnees had turned their ponies to graze in the bottom, watched by the women and children.—Many women were also engaged in digging for roots with their hoes, provisions being at present very scarce among them. ”

“ Language.—The Pawnee language is said to be altogether different from the languages of the surrounding prairie tribes. The Otoes, the Ioways, the Osages, the Kanzas or Caws, the Omahaws, the Puncaws, etc., seem all to speak dialects of the same language, the Dakota; while the Pawnee language seems, by its great difference, to point back to the earliest periods of the residence of the Indians in this country, when a disruption may have taken place, that formed them into a distinct nation. ”

“ Or have we forgotten the history of our first missions among them, the piety and consistent christian lives of our first Indian converts, their persecutions from their heathen brethren, and their sufferings even unto death for the sake of the gospel? If we wish to find where the fault lies we must look for it in our own hearts. ”

“ Sentinels are constantly posted on all the surrounding heights, who can immediately by signs, known among the Indians, transmit intelligence in case of impending danger. During the night, sentinels are constantly perched upon the tops of the lodges, to guard against any unexpected nocturnal attack. When we were on our return, and remained over night at the Loup village, a report, probably a false alarm, had reached there during the day, that a large war-party of Sioux had lately been seen near the head waters of the Elkhorn river. ”

“ Allis are devoted missionaries. They were among the first missionaries of the American Board, who nearly twenty years ago commenced a mission among the Pawnees; since the abandonment of that mission a few years ago, 8on account of the hostile incursions of the Sioux, they have been laboring here at Bellevue, in a most exemplary manner, for the improvement of the Pawnee children in their charge. Government allows them the sum of 500 dollars annually for the support of the school, which, however, is barely sufficient to defray their expenses. ”

“ Sharpee, who has been acquainted with them and other Indians in these parts for nearly 20 years, told us that the Pawnee men were unlike those of other tribes, since they were willing to lay hold of a plough or any other farming utensil, and only the instruction was wanting to make them industrious. Mr. Allis, too, who has been acquainted with them for the last 20 years, and has lived among them a great portion of this period, informed us that when the missionaries were formerly living among them, several of the Pawnees had already commenced the use of the plough. ”

“ Several other chiefs and braves then made speeches, expressive of their satisfaction at our coming to see them, and welcoming us to live with them, promising us their protection; so that we should in no wise be hindered by any of their people; and that we might rest assured that our cattle and all other property which we might bring along with us should not be destroyed or molested by any one. ”

“ And surely, when we look back at the labors of our first missionaries among the heathen, and consider how the Lord eventually crowned their toils, who will doubt His ability and willingness to do the same thing at the present day, when even the heathen tribes are begging to have missionaries among them—an instance of which we witnessed at a council, which Mr. McKinney held with a delegation of the principal chiefs of the Puncaws, a tribe of wild Indians living about 150 miles up the Missouri, who had come to Council Bluffs expressly for the purpose of soliciting missionaries. ”

“ Thus it will be observed that a certain kind of military organization is constantly kept up at each village, rendered necessary by their wars with their enemies. This unpleasant state of things can only be removed through the benign influence of the Gospel, when “they shall beat their swords into plough-shares, and their spears into pruning-hooks: nation shall not lift up a sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more. But they shall sit every man under his vine and fig-tree ”

“ Having no other stock but horses, which are constantly herded and watched during the day time, and shut up in enclosures in the village during the night, fences are unnecessary. While absent from their homes, their fields are subject to depredations from prairie wolves and deer, which however no ordinary fence could restrain. ”

“ At length we reached the opposite bank, where we were greeted by numbers of Pawnees, who were awaiting our arrival. A difficulty which now presented itself before us was to get the wagon up the steep bluff, the sides of which had become slippery by the falling rain. ”

“ Paul Oehler accompanied us to Weston, in order to take the wagon back, which was to convey us thither. Passing by the Baptist mission station, Briggs’ Vale, where we called in a few minutes, we soon struck the prairie, which we kept till our arrival at Fort Leavenworth, about twenty-four miles from Westfield. This is a very pretty prairie, undulating, and at places quite broken, with here and there a high bluff or mound, rising above the surrounding country. “Pilot Bluff,” a few miles from Leavenworth, stands picturesque in the prairie, and affords a beautiful prospect. ”

“ After another hour’s patient waiting we were cheered by seeing the chief with about twenty men coming to our help.—The ford of the river is only about four feet at the deepest places, but what makes this river peculiarly perilous in crossing is the shifting quicksand at the bottom, so that, while crossing, it is necessary to keep constantly moving;—for 16the moment a person stops he begins to sink on account of the uncertain foothold.—Our baggage was placed upon the backs of Pawnees, who immediately started off with their load. ”

“ So among the Pawnees, too, the men are the lords, who, while they themselves are not disposed to do any work, and generally consider it a shame to labor, direct the women, as inferior beings, how everything must be done. The females, besides attending to the housework, generally incumbent upon their sex, are obliged to cut and carry all the fire-wood; prepare the fields for cultivation with their hoes, plant the corn, weed it, and finally, when ripe, gather it in ”

“ Thus the Pawnees, too, though in actual want themselves, showed their good will towards us by preparing for us the best they could afford. One chief placed before us, besides dried buffalo meat, a small dish of marrow, which by them is considered a great delicacy.
Labor.—The more enlightened a people has become through the benign influence of religion, and the cultivation of the arts and sciences, the more the weaker sex attains to that rank in society, which the Creator intended for them ”

“ While on the hunt, in the buffalo country, the Pawnees generally have a good supply of fresh meat to subsist on. That portion of their meat which is intended to be jerked, in order to take home with them, they cut into narrow slips, and dry it over the fire, without any salt, where, by the action of the smoke and sun, it soon dries. ”

“ The two tribes, the Otoes and Omahaws, among whom this mission is located, are still, like all the western prairie tribes in their originally savage state, not having as yet, like the eastern tribes of Indians on the North American continent, made any advancement in civilization, until within a few years having lived remote from the good as well as the evil influences of the whites. ”

“ We next proceeded to the Presbyterian mission station, about a mile distant, where we were to make our stay, till our preparations for visiting the Pawnees should have been consummated. The mission-houses are pleasantly situated on a high bluff facing the Missouri River, with a bottom prairie about a mile wide from bluff to river. The level on which the houses stand extends about half a mile in the rear, with a gradual ascent, till it meets another line of bluffs rising still higher. ”

“ Allis was recommended to us by all as the best interpreter, and on account of his acquaintance with the Pawnees, and having their good will, it was altogether an advantage to us to secure his kind offices, which he was willing to afford. Mr. Sharpee promised to furnish us two mules, and Mr. Reed, the farmer at the mission, gave us the use of his light two-horse wagon. Thus before the close of the week our arrangements were made to commence our journey to the Pawnees the following Monday, May 5th. ”