Historical Memoirs

Samuel Hopkins was one of the Commissioners of Indian Affairs acting on behalf of the New England Company (see my post of 11/19/2008) and in that capacity, he was one of the ministers who approached Konkapot and Umpachenee about the possibility of starting a mission on the Housatonic River. The Commissioners hired John Sergeant to be the first missionary and he served from 1734 until his death in 1749.

In 1753, Samuel Hopkins' book, Historical Memoirs was printed (an abridged version came out in 1972). It actually has a title that is probably longer than this post so far, and it is about the early days of the mission. Hopkins had access to something we don't have - John Sergeant Sr.'s journal. That alone makes his book important.

Sergeant was 39 when he died and he was a minister just as Hopkins was a minister.... do you know what I'm getting at? It was only natural for Hopkins to edify or aggrandize Sergeant. (Maybe this was more because of racial/cultural issues than about Sergeant's early death.) Laura M. Smith in her book The Poor Indians (page 153), says that Sergeant "seems to disappear before the reader's eyes as Hopkins relates the story of [Sergeant's] life."

So was John Sergeant Sr. a saintly hero as Hopkins portrays him, or an evil agent of anti-diversity as some modern idealogues may tend to portray him? Do we know enough about him so that he is more than just a Rorshach test of our own sentiments? Maybe we do. It is clear that Christianity got off to a strong start in John Sergeant's mission work with the Mohicans and other Algonkians and we know that his converts were fond of him. I'm inclined to think that if it was not for the success of John Sergeant Sr.'s ministry, the Stockbridge Mohicans would not be here today.

Muh-He-Ka-Ne-Ok is online

Muh-He-Ka-Ne-Ok: A History of the Stockbridge Nation was written by John Nelson Davidson, a Presbyterian minister, and published in 1893. It was supposed to be the first of a series of short studies on various ethnic groups associated with Presbyterianism in Wisconsin. Of course, Davidson got a little carried away with the Stockbridge Mohicans, some of whom were model Presbyterians at a time when there were hardly any white people in what is now Wisconsin. Like Electa Jones, Davidson has his shortcomings as an historian. Nevertheless, our picture of Algonkian church history is more complete thanks to his work.

btw: "Muh-He-Ka-Ne-Ok" is Davidson's spelling for Muhhekunnuk, the name the Mohicans used for themselves and their homeland in their own language which is roughly translated as "people of the waters that are never still" (I've heard a number of different translations so I say it is "roughly translated.")

Stockbridge Past and Present

"Miss Electa F. Jones," a white Calvinist and resident of Stockbridge, Massachusetts, worked on a history of that town for two years and it was published (in 1854 by Samuel Bowles in Springfield, MA) after her death. While facsimile reprints of Jones' book can be purchased, it probably isn't the kind of book that anybody would read straight through. Nevertheless, Stockbridge Past and Present or Records of An Old Mission Station certainly contains some gold nuggets of information for people who are interested in the Stockbridge Indians in both Massachusetts and New York and the white town of Stockbridge, Massachusetts up until about 1850. I am grateful to Jones for describing details of worship and other church matters that I haven't found elsewhere. Here's an example:

Feb. 3d, 1811, a very interesting concert of sacred music was given by the Indians of New Stockbridge [NY]. The choir, consisting of 60 or 70 Indians, "dressed in their best," and one playing on a flute, marched about half a mile to the church, where the procession opened for the entrance of the clergy. About 100 whites and 200 Indians were supposed to be present. The sermon was preached by one of the neighboring ministers and the performances gave universal satisfaction.

"This remarkable attention of my people, to improve in the art of singing, says Mr. Sergeant [Jr], "has had a good effect to call the people together; a seriousness has appeared in the minds of some, together with a reformation of manners. The Singing Master has much advanced the cause of religion among this people."

The Bat Creek Stone and the Lost Tribes

I haven't spent much time telling you about what first turned me on to Algonkian church history. To make it simple, I have some connections to Shawano County, Wisconsin, and, while going about my business, I heard about the Stockbridge Bible, which I'll venture to say is the most historic relic of Native Christianity in the Great Lakes states, if not in the entire midwest.

Just as the Stockbridge Bible was, for some time, the focus of my research, the Bat Creek Stone was the focus of Lowell Kirk's research. The Bat Creek Stone was found inside an ancient burial mound in Tennesee and the controversy surrounding it has been mostly about whether it was inscribed with Cherokee writing or Hebrew writing (the Cherokee alphabet was invented by Sequoiah in 1821). Another possibility, says Lowell Kirk, is that the Bat Creek Stone was a forgery.

I still have other relics to tell you about. My own position on the Lost Tribes Theory changes as I study it; I never believed that we will find any of these ancient tribes intact today, but did some Semitic people come to this continent before Columbus and incorporate themselves into the Algonkian nations? What do you think?

The Stockbridge Story

In the early 1980's, three residents of Calumet County, Wisconsin, wrote and published a book called The Stockbridge Story. It was, of course, a book about the history of Stockbridge, Wisconsin, and since one of the co-authors, Elaine Doxtator Raddatz, is a Stockbridge Mohican, this book has information about that tribe that (until now) doesn't appear to have been repeated elsewhere.

In the book, Raddatz points out (and this is consistent with what academic historians have written) that "[s]everal trips over seven years were needed to accomplish the complete resettlement of the tribe from New York to Wisconsin"(page 17). The first band to leave New York State, of course, was John Metoxen's band (see my post of 11/19/08). In 1822 another band "loaded their covered wagons at New Stockbridge, N.Y., and hitched them up to teams of oxen and headed west"(page 16). Raddatz then tells us a remarkable thing that happened to those travelers:

In White River Territory of Indiana, where Metoxen's contingent had stopped about four years earlier, they sat with their brothers, the Delaware. Here, they were pursued by hostile Indians, who understood neither the English the Stockbridge spoke, nor their reason for dressing like the white man. By this time - after generations of association with the white man - the Stockbridge had lost much of their Indian culture.

I've talked to Elaine Doxtator Raddatz over the phone, and I don't think she was able to give me any specifics about that incident. It is just one more example of "civilized" Indians not having an easy time fitting in with other groups of people.

Was Umpachenee Chief Sachem?

Konkapot and Umpachenee were the leaders of the two Housatonic Mohican villages in 1734 when two ministers approached them with the offer of a mission. At that meeting, the ministers conferred British military commissions on the two men and they subsequently become known as Captain Konkapot and Lieutenant Umpachenee. Konkapot may have gotten the better title because he was older than Umpachenee, or maybe it was because they already knew Konkapot was interested in Christianity.

Konkapot said he wanted the mission so the children could learn to read and he asked John Sergeant to Baptize him and also asked for a Christian marriage. Furthermore, he was what the Calvinists really wanted, an "industrious" Indian (by the 1740's he owned his own barn).

Meanwhile, Umpachenee was one of a few, or maybe even the only Housatonic Mohican who chose not to attend John Sergeant's ordination ceremony. The binges or benders that he went on - it is suggested by Nancy Lurie, former curator at the Milwaukee Public Museum - may have been a form of protest against the British influence. Umpachenee was a Christian too, but he seems to have preferred Moravianism to Calvinism. Clearly, the whites of Stockbridge [MA] preferred to treat Konkapot as a leader instead of Umpachenee.

Patrick Frazier is one historian who suggests that Umpachenee was the Chief Sachem in Stockbridge's early days (see pages 9, 56, and 254 of The Mohicans of Stockbridge). He married the daughter of "King" Etowaukaum at a time when matrilineality was not observed like it once was, so being the son-in-law of a former Chief Sachem at least gave him some influence. But, of course, having the favor of whites in a time and place where whites were gaining in number and power gave Konkapot influence.

I once received a message from Lion Miles in which he asserted that Konkapot was the Mohican Chief Sachem while the tribe was in Massachusetts. Why? He didn't really say why, but rather said he was skeptical becuse it was the Moravians who wrote that Umpachenee was "King of the Mohicans"(see Frazier, p. 254, footnote 63).

So who was Chief Sachem of the Mohicans in the 1740's? I think it remains an open question.

Stockbridge Mohican Church History Timeline: Part III

Once again, this timeline is based on many sources and I'm willing to back up any of it if you're in doubt.

1892: Henry Sprague approaches Rev. Francis Uplegger about supplying a Lutheran preacher. Others, including William C. Davids, also approach the Lutherans. Rev. Theodore Nickel of Shawano, a German immigrant, agrees to preach to the Stockbridge Mohicans, making it the first time he has preached in English.

1899: Rev. Nickel purchases 20 acres on Mission Lake for Immanuel Mohican Lutheran Church. The mission project is adopted by the organization now known as the Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod.

1902: The Lutherans start a school

1907: The John Sergeant Memorial Presbyterian Church is organized.

1908: A dormitory is built for the Lutheran school. A variety of Wisconsin Indians attend the boarding school.

1930: In a transaction that would become controversial when other Stockbridge Mohicans learned of it, the John Sergeant Memorial Presbyterian Church sends the tribal Bible and communion set to Mabel Choate's museum in Stockbridge, Massachusetts in exchange for $1000.

1933: The Great Depression forces the mission boarding school to close its doors. Classes continue for local children.

1936-1937: The Old Stockbridge Presbyterian Church is organized. The John Sergeant Memorial Church ceases to exist.

1944: The new tribal government supports the Lutheran Church in the Wilderness.

1958: The mission school closes its doors.

1977: The Stockbridge Bible Church is established by Rev. Gordon Shepard, himself a Stockbridge Mohican.

1978: Tribal elder Thelma Putnam writes Christian Religion Among the Stockbridge-Munsee Band of Mohican Indians.

1984: Local churches celebrate 250 years of Christianity for the Stockbridge Mohicans.

1991: Ten delegates travel to Stockbridge, Massachusetts where the two-volume Stockbridge Bible is finally returned to descendants if the Indian Congregation it was given to in 1745. Celebrations are held at a parking lot on Highway 29 and at the tribe's Bingo Hall.

1990's:[?] Under the direction of Clarence Chicks, the Lutheran Mission is restored and listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

2006: The communion set that was sent to Massachusetts with the tribal Bible is returned to the Stockbridge Mohicans by the Trustees of Reservations.

Stockbridge Mohican Church History Timeline: Part II

This timeline is based on a multitude of sources. Ask me if you want documentation for anything:

1773: John Sergeant [Jr.] takes on the mission work in Stockbridge, Massachusetts.

1782: Ninety innocent Christian Indians are massacred in Gnadenhutten, Ohio by a renegade frontier militia.

August, 1787: Tribal leaders call an old friend, Rev. Samson Occom, a Mohegan Indian, to be their minister in New Stockbridge, New York.

October, 1787: John "Sergeant [Jr.] - also an old friend - is appointed by a new mission society to live and work at New Stockbridge.

July, 1788: A dispute between Rv. Occom and Rev. Sergeant splits the Stockbridge Mohicans into two churches.

July 1792: The result of Rev. Occom's unexpected death is a reunited church.

August, 1805: Having traveled across the Atlantic, Dorothy Ripley, an Englishwoman not connected with any church body, preaches to the New York Indians. She is especially well received by the women of New Stockbridge.

1818 to 1829: A period of western migration. Deacon John Metoxen is the leader of a new church organized with Rev. Sergeant's help. The Stockbridge Mohicans conduct their own worship services when no missionaries are around.

1824: John Sergeant [Jr.] dies at New Stockbridge, NY.

Circa 1826: Tribal leaders write a letter asking that a missionary be sent to their new location.

1828: Having already replaced Sergeant in NY and visited the tribe on the Fox River (what is now Kaukauna, WI), Jesse Miner moves his ministry to what is now Wisconsin.

1830: Calvin Colton, a Presbyterian minister, observes that the Stockbridge Mohicans treat their tribal Bible with reverence.

1830 - 1848: Cutting Marsh replaces Miner as missionary. After a honeymoon period of a few years, the Indians find Marsh to be rather stern and stubborn. Marsh found it difficult to stay out of tribal politics which became very contentious in the last 11 years of his tenure.

1833: John Metoxen, John N. Chicks, two other Stockbridges and Cutting Marsh conduct a mission trip to the Sauk Indians in and around Davenport, Iowa.

1833-1834: Tribe moves to what is now Calumet County [WI].

1837-1839: A faction of the tribe breaks away from Marsh's church and holds their own Baptist services. Eventually this group emigrates to what is now Kansas under the treaty of 1939.

1844: Wesson Miller, a Methodist circuit rider, holds a revival meeting in Jacob Chicks' barn. Some members of the Citizen Party leave Marsh's church to become Methodists.

1845: Jeremiah Slingerland - a Stockbridge Mohican - graduates from Bangor Theological Seminary. He moves back to Stockbridge, Wisconsin Territory, and takes on the work of schoolteacher and assistant to Rev. Marsh.

1848: The Indian Party makes a treaty to move west of the Mississippi, Citizen Party members are on their own. After much conflict between Marsh and Slingerland, Marsh leaves his post and dissuades the mission society from supporting Slingerland's ministry.

1850 - 1857: The Indian Party stays put and pays Slingerland and two white ministers to preach.

1856: A treaty brings the Indian Party and the Citizen Party, plus remnants of other tribes - especially Munsees - together on a new reservation in Shawano County [WI].

1857: Jeremiah Slingerland and his wife move to the new reservation. Worship services ae held in their home.

1859 - 1863: Jeremiah Slingerland preaches in the town of Shawano before the first white minister comes to town.

1866: More than twenty years after graduating from the seminary, Jeremiah Slingerland is finally ordained as a Presbyterian minister.

1867: After conducting their worship either informally, or in cooperation with the Methodists, the Stockbridge Mohicans finally have their own Presbyterian church again.

1881: Stephen Gardner and others attend Roman Catholic midnight mass on Christmas Eve on the Menominee Reservation. Under Gardner;s leadership, Roman Catholicism gains a foothold among the Stockbridge Mohicans for the fist time.

1884: Rev. Slingerland dies and the Presbyterian church fades without his leadership.

Stockbridge Mohican Church History Timeline: Part I

If you want to verify the accuracy of this post, the best source to check is Patrick Frazier's The Mohicans of Stockbridge.

May, 1734: Konkapot and Umpachenee are approached by two ministers who suggest the Mohicans accept a Christian mission.

July, 1734: A four-day council of the Housatonic Mohicans is held to decide whether or not to welcome a mission

October, 1734: The Housatonic Mohicans meet John Sergeant, their 1st missionary. Poohpoonuc is baptized, making him the first member of the church.

February, 1735: Roughly 200 Mohicans attend a national council hosted by Umpachenee. Approval is conferred upon the mission.

August, 1735: Forty-three Mohicans attend the ordination of John Sergeant. When asked if they want Sergeant to be their minister they rise in unison to show their approval.

1739: The town of Stockbridge, Massachusetts is incorporated.

1740-1741: Hannah Umpachenee and Mary Konkapot, two of the leaders of the new religion, die of tuberculosis.

1744: Kaunaumeek Mohicans (converts of David Brainerd) move to Stockbridge.

1745: The Prince of Wales' personal chaplain gives the Indian congregation a magnificent Bible.

1749: John Sergeant Dies at age 39. One historian (Davidson) claims he baptized 182 Indians.

1751-1757: Jonathan Edwards is the missionary. The French and Indian War rages. The Williams family tries to take Stockbridge land and government participation from Indians. However, the takeover is limited, thanks to Edwards' advocacy.

1758- 1770's: Bad Times
*Stephen West is the minister at Stockbridge, but he does not concern himself with the Indians spiritual or temporal needs. Instead, he appears to only be concerned about "sin" and excommunicates all Indians from his church.
*Historian Lion Miles refers to this period in time as "the great land grab." The unscrupulous Williams family, and a few others, cheat Indians out of their lands. More and more whites settle in Stockbridge.
*Out of frustration, problems related to drunkenness and alcoholism increase.

Nova: Where Are the Ten Lost Tribes?

My last two posts were about the lost tribes theory.
The NOVA people at PBS produced a program on that topic:
Where Are the Ten Lost Tribes?

Tour of the American Lakes

Calvin Colton was an ordinary minister during the 1820's and then two things happened which changed his career path. First his voice failed, making preaching no longer possible, the other was that his wife died, making adventurous wilderness travel an option. So Colton headed out to what was called the Northwest Territory, now Wisconsin, to make observations which he recorded in Tour of the American Lakes, and Among the Indians of the North-west Territory, in 1830: Disclosing the Character and Prospects of the Indian Race (Re-printed by Kennikat Press in 1972).

Colton's report of the Stockbridge Mohicans and his description of their tribal Bible made it clear that he believed in the lost tribes theory

I saw a Bible yesterday, safely kept in a sort of ark, at their place of worship, (a remarkable relic of Hebrew custom), printed at Oxford, England, in 1717, of the largest and finest type I have ever seen.... It was transported with the tribe [from MA] to the state of New York; - and for aught I know, with all the sacerdotal solemnities of their Hebrew fathers, in ancient days..... Their reverence for this volume and for the ark which contains it is almost superstitious (pages 187-190).

The Hope of Israel

In my post on November 20th, I explained the significance of millenial thinking (or "millenialism") to the mission enterprise in "the New World." I ended that post by saying that part of the motivation for converting Indians to Christianity was based on a belief that it would bring on the second coming of Christ.

What was the basis for such a belief? That, of course is too huge a question to answer fully here, but, for some, it had something to do with the Lost Tribes Theory, or the belief that the American Indians were descendants of the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel.

The Encyclopaedia Judaica, a highly respected reference work, asserts that "the legend of the Ten Lost Tribes is one of the most fascinating and persistent in Judaism and beyond it"(page 639). The article's author, Louis Isaac Rabinowitz later adds:

Special interest is attached to the fantastic traveler's tale told by Aaron (Antonio) Levi de Montezinos who, on his return to Amsterdam [Netherlands] from South America in 1644, told a remarkable story of having found Indians beyond the mountain passes of the Cordilleras who greeted him by reciting the Shema [prayers taken from Deuteronomy and Numbers]. Among those to whom Montezinos gave his affidavit was Manasseh Ben Israel, then rabbi of Amsterdam, who fully accepted the story, and to it devoted his [book] Hope of Israel (1650, 1652), (page 640).

In future posts, I will present to you quotes from various documents showing that Christian missionaries and American Indians themselves subscribed to the lost tribes theory well into the 1800's. In fact, I have corresponded with one Native American who still subscribes to it.