Letter XXVII,
TO THE EDITOR OF THE PRECIS HISTORIQUES, BRUSSELS.
Excursion among the Potawatomies.
UNIVERSITY OF ST. LOUIS, Feb. 26, 1858.
REV. AND DEAR FATHER:
I send you a copy of a letter that I addressed to Mrs. P., a Belgian lady, residing at Brooklyn, near New York. She is a great benefactress of the missions. My letter contains some details concerning my recent visit to the Potawatomies, on the actual and very critical state of those Indians, and of all the nations and Indian tribes in the two new Territories of Kansas and Nebraska.
What I wrote to you in December,, 1851, and you published in the Précis Historiques, of 1853, pages 398, etc., has been literally verified. A great number of towns and vil lages have sprung up in it as if by enchantment. The principal towns of Kansas are: Wyandot, Delaware, Douglas, Marysville, Iola, Atchinson, Fort Scott, Pawnee, Lecompton, Neosho, Richmond, Tecumseh, Lavinia, Lawrence, Port William, Doniphan, Paolo, Alexandria, Indianola, Easton, Leavenworth, and many others. They differ in population and improvements. Lawrence and Leavenworth are the most considerable. This latter, which is now an episcopal city, contains already more than 8000 inhabitants. They project building a 'territorial university in the town of Douglas. A medical college is established at Lecompton. The University of Kansas is incorporated and established at Leavenworth. Funds are set apart for the erection of schools, on a vast scale. They accrue from the sale of lands granted by the United States, which are extraordinarily extensive. All fines, pecuniary penalties, escheats, ordained by law, arc also. to be poured into the treasury of the schools and colleges.
Two months from this, the Territory of Kansas will be admitted as an independent State, and will form a portion of the great confederation of the United States. There exists little doubt, at present, but that Kansas will adopt the laws of the free States-that is to say, there will be no slavery.
Good Father Duerinck has left a manuscript concerning all that passed in the Mission of St. Mary's. If it would give you pleasure, I will send it to you, according as time will admit.
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UNIVERSITY OF ST.LOUIS, February 24, 1856.
MRS. S. P., BROOKLYN, N. Y
Madam :-I have just terminated a journey of over 800 miles, going and returning in the midst of ice and snow by the most miserable roads and in wagons, which
increased the inconveniences of the way. On my return to St. Louis, your hind letter and charitable donations were remitted to me. Accept my most humble thanks, with my heartfelt gratitude. I will assign the vestment to the mission of the Flat-Heads, which is very poor in church furniture. I hope to find. in the beginning of spring, a good opportunity of dispatching it by the boats of the Fur Company. The marine plants will be most acceptable to the Fathers in our colleges of Namur and Antwerp, in Belgium, and will be admired, I am sure, in the collections of those two establishments. .Once more, Madame, receive, one and all, my sincere thanks for the new benefits that you have just added to the long list of numerous others, commenced many years since; and for which we have naught but poor. prayers to render. We shall not cease to address them to the Lord, for the happiness of your family ; and I will appeal to our pious Indians; that they continue to pray for their kind Mothers-their good benefactresses.
The occasion of the voyage, which I have mentioned in the beginning of my letter, was a glimmer of hope of being able to discover the body of our dear brother in Jesus Christ, the Rev. Father Duerinck. Some days after the unfortunate accident, the captain of a steamboat bad seen a dead body on a sand-back, near the place of the accident, and had buried it. At this news I started to visit that solitary grave, on the-bank of the Missouri, near the town of Liberty. He, whom this grave contained, was not the brother, the cherished friend and relative I sought. His dress denoted a
hand on some boat. I was very much grieved. Our petitions so far have not been heard. We hope, however, that the great St. Anthony of Padua, implored by so many pious souls, will be propitious; and I beg you to be so kind as to join your prayers with these fervent invocations. It would be a source of consolation could we find the lost remains of Father Duerinck, and inter them in consecrated ground, beside his brethren who have preceded him.
From the town of Liberty I. repaired to St. Mary's, in order to regulate some affairs there. I began the mission of the Potawatomies in 1838. My heart seemed to dilate among these good children of the plains, where, in former days, I had found so many consolations in the exercises of the holy ministry. I had the happiness of seeing a great number of Indians approach Holy Communion, with the deepest recollection. From the altar I addressed them some words of consolation and encouragement in the -service of the Divine Pastor. They have great need, especially at present, for the whites have surrounded there on all sides; and they will soon hem them in more closely on their own little reserves, or portions of earth that the government has granted them.
I am aware, madam, that you take a deep interest in the welfare of the poor Indians. Allow me, therefore, to converse with you some moments on their position in general, and in particular of what concerns the Indians of St. Mary's among the Potawatomies.
At the period of my arrival among the Potawatomies (in 1838), the nation numbered beyond 4000 souls. It is now reduced to 3000, of whom 2000 are Catholics. All the surrounding tribes have diminished in the same ratio.
To what are we to attribute this rapid decrease of the Indian race ? This is one of those mysteries of Providence that all the sagacity of philosophy has in vain endeavored to penetrate. The immoderate use of intoxicating liquors, change of climate and of diet, vices, pestilential maladies (2111 these evils which contact with the whites produces among savages, improvidence and want of industry, all, united or singly, give, it appears to me, but an imperfect solution of this great problem. - Whence is it that the red-man bends with such difficulty to the manners and customs of the European race? Whence is it again, that the European race refuses so obstinately to sympathize with the red race; and notwithstanding its philanthropy, or love of mankind, seems rather disposed to annihilate than to civilize these poor children, offspring of the sane Father? Whence springs that insurmountable barrier between the two races ? Whence is it that the stronger pursues the weaker with such an animosity, and never relents until the latter is overthrown ?
There is involved in this, perhaps, a secret that none but the Judge Supreme can explain.
Often when I reflect on the position of so many barbarous nations, who formerly were the owners of immense countries, and which are at the present day in imminent danger of being totally dispossessed by another people, I call to mind the primitive inhabitants of Palestine, who, masters also of one of the most beautiful countries in the world, saw themselves deprived of it by a severe but most just judgment of the Creator, whose menaces they had despised and whose glory they had profaned. Like the Canaanites, the savage tribes, taken in general, have been punished gradually. Perhaps they, like them, have been too long deaf to the divine voice, inviting them to quit their gross errors and embrace the doctrines of truth. Who has entered into the councils of Eternal Wisdom ? Who can accuse his judgments of injustice ? Cannot God, to whom the whole creation belongs, dispose of his property according to his own good pleasure ? But in displaying his justice, he forgets not his mercy. Here below lie strikes only to heal. His divine heart is ever open to those even whose iniquities he punishes.
The melancholy changes to which the condition of the Indian has been subjected within a few years, has led me to these mournful reflections. Under the administration of President Pierce, the whole vast Indian country within the Rocky Mountains, comprehended in the Vicariate of Bishop Miége (except a little portion situated towards the south), has been organized into two territories, known under the names of Kansas and Nebraska; that is to say, that the Congress has decreed that this country is incorporated into the Union and open to the whites who are willing to settle there, in order to form, after a lapse of time, two States, similar, in all respects, to the other States of the great republic. Although, for the moment, the new colonists have orders to respect the territories or the lands reserved to the savages, we may nevertheless say that this decree has virtually destroyed all the Indian nationalities. Scarcely was the law known than the emigrants, like the waters of a great river which has overflowed its banks, impetuously passed the barrier and inundated the country. Now see the poor Indians surrounded by white men, and their reserves forming little more than islets amid the ocean. The savages, who before had vast countries for their hunting-grounds, are at present restricted within narrow limits, having naught for subsistence but the product of their farms, which few of them know how to cultivate properly. Again, this state is only precarious. Unless they hasten to divide their lands and become citizens, they are in danger of losing all, and of being naught but vagabonds. How replete with difficulties is such a change! What a stormy and tempestuous future for these unfortunate tribes! The evil is great, but it is one that must be encountered, since there is no remedy. The Indians, even the most advanced in civilization, seers to us ill prepared to meet all the exigencies of their situation.
In order to form a just idea of their critical position, and of the melancholy consequences which will be the result, unless restrained by a special protection of Divine Providence, imagine two societies-one representing the manners and customs of barbarians, the other all the splendor of modern civilization-coming in contact. How many years will elapse before there will be a perfect fusion between the two societies, before unison will exist., before they can dwell together in complete harmony ? Much time will be required ere the barbarous state will attain the height of the civilized ! Neither the first, nor the second, nor the third generation, notwithstanding untiring efforts, would obtain that happy result, such as the thing is understood in our days. Hence, previous to a perfect fusion between the societies, the civilized society will have the advantage over the barbarous ; it will have it entirely at its mercy, to make it subservient to its will and pleasure. In a word, the barbarian can no better sustain itself in presence of civilization, than the simplicity of childhood can contest against the malicious prudence of mature age. This, in my opinion, is what will be realized in the Great Desert, when the copper-colored race will come in contact with the white. The judgment of the savage is not sufficiently ripe to be able to compete with the wisdom of man born in the bosom of civilization. It is this conviction which fills us with anxiety for the future of our dear neophytes in the different missions. We confide solely in Divine Goodness, which, we hope, will not fail to come to the help of his children.
It was not difficult to descry from afar that grand event which must engulf, in one common wreck, all the Indian tribes. The storm which has just burst forth over their heads was long preparing; it could not escape the observing eye. e saw the American republic soaring, with the rapidity of the eagle's flight, towards the plenitude of her power. Every year she adds new countries to her limits. She ambitioned nothing less than extending her domination from the Atlantic to the Pacific, so as to embrace the commerce of the whole world, and dispute with other mighty nations the glory of pre-eminence. Her object is attained. All bend to her sceptre ; all Indian nationality is at her feet. Far be it from us, however, to accuse the noble republic of injustice and inhumanity in her late treaties. It seems to us, on the contrary, that no nation has ever furnished them more means of civilization. If any one must be blamed on this point, it is rather private persons, new colonists, who act and place themselves in direct opposition with the good intentions of the government in behalf of the savages.
But though the future appears sombre and melancholy, the past, at least, leaves not the missionaries comfortless. In the space of the last ten years, our Fathers at Saint Mary's have baptized beyond four hundred adults, and a great number of children. The Gospel seed has not fallen on sterile soil. The greater part of these neophytes have always given proofs of a strong faith and of a tender piety. The heart of the missionary is soothed with an unspeakable joy, on witnessing their assiduity in the church, their ardor in approaching the sacraments, their resignation in sickness, their natural charity, exercised especially in regard to the poor, the orphans, and the sick ; and, above all, their zeal for the conversion of unbelievers. They are styled savages, or Indians; but we may boldly assert that, in all our great cities, and everywhere, thousands of whites are more deserving of this title.
A great number of Potawatomies have made considerable progress in agriculture, and live in a certain degree of affluence. The whites who pass by, and visit the little territory of the Potawatomies, especially in the environs of St. Mary's mission, are agreeably surprised. They find it difficult to believe that they are among Indians.
It must be acknowledged that the Potawatomies have been specially favored by Heaven. During the last quarter of a century, they have had the happiness of having Blackgowns among them ; and, during sixteen or seventeen years, they have Ladies of the Sacred Heart, for the education of their girls. The mission, on its present footing, with its two schools, for girls and boys, is a double advantage for those good people. The children acquire there, with religious instruction, the love of industry; the adults find employment in it, and hence a means of subsistence. They see, by the manual labor of our brothers, what man can acquire by diligence.
We may add, that God has treated the Potawatomies with great predilection. He has willed that several nations should contribute to their salvation. Such are, among others, Belgium, Holland, France, Ireland and Italy, Germany, Canada, and the United States. Each of these countries has offered them material aid and missionaries. Mgr. Miège has resided among them four years; hence their humble temple, constructed of logs, has been exalted to the rank of cathedral.
In the critical conjuncture in which they stand at present - on the eve of forming a last treaty with the Government of the United States, a treaty of life or death for this poor tribe-they have, in the person of Colonel Murphy, the agent of the government, an advocate, a protector, and the best of fathers. This, madam, leads me to hope that God has very particular designs of mercy over them, and that he will never forsake them. In the moment of danger, you, I am confident, will not forget them in your charitable prayers.
Be so kind as to recall me to the kind remembrances of Mr. and Mrs. B., and of Miss R., and believe me, with the most profound respect and esteem, madam,
Your most humble and most obedient servant,
P. J. DE SMET, S. J.
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I have the honor to be, reverend and dear Father,
Revae. Vae. in Xto.,
P. J. DE SMET, S. J.