Indian Missions.

BISHOP JANES HAS EPISCOPAL SUPERVISION.

We never turn to our few and feeble Indian missions but with sorrow. They were the earliest of our missions, and shed a glory in the Church that roused her to action in the great missionary enterprise. They are embalmed in the recollections of James B. Finley, Russel Bigelow, Mononcue, Between-the-logs, and others. The largest portion of our work among the Indians fell to the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, upon the division of the Church, and the tribes and bands among the remainder of the missions which fell to us, have been much scattered and reduced. Indeed, we may say, the red man seems to be rapidly passing away. The Secretary of the Interior, in his Report to the President, just published, says that the whole number of Indians within the limits of the states and territories does not now exceed three hundred and twenty-five thousand.

It has become apparent to the government, as it did to the Missionary Board years ago, that nothing could reform and save a remnant of the Indians but the fixing them firmly on the soil, and giving them lands in their own right to cultivate, and under such circumstances as that they must either till the ground or starve. The government has entered upon this policy by treaties, and thus is carrying out, on a large scale, what the Missionary Society had already done in Michigan on a smaller scale in our Indian missions there. The secretary of the Interior says:

They must be familiarized with the idea of separate property, by encouraging them to erect houses as homes for themselves and their families. For this purpose the reservations should be divided into farms of suitable size, and distributed among the individuals of the

tribes, to hold, in severalty, as their separate and private estate, but without the power of selling, mortgaging, leasing, or in any manner alienating the same, except to members of the same tribe with themselves. Settlements by white men within the reserve should be prohibited, and the prohibition rigidly enforced; and increased efforts should be made to suppress the sale of ardent spirits, to effect which the co-operation of the Indian authorities should be secured. Farms should be established in central positions, at which all the children of the tribe should be collected and required to labor, and where they could be taught the rudiments of an education. A certain portion of them should be apprenticed to useful trades, and the surplus of the proceeds of their labor, whether on the farm or in the workshop, should be divided among their parents. Here they would be taught the great truths, that labor is honorable, and that want and suffering inevitably ollow in the train of improvidence and idleness.

Pursuing this wise and beneficent policy, the government is collecting the Indians on small reservations, and giving to cach Indian family eighty acres, and to each unmarried adult Indian, whether male or female, forty acres. The government has also provided for the erection of school-houses, and the payment of teachers of schools among them, and the means also of their obtaining agricultural implements. With this movement of the government our missions have fallen in. Indeed, in Michigan, the government took the lands for this purp' se, which we had obtained the control of for the same purpose, and our missions in Isabella and Oceana Counties, ad at Iroquois Point, on Lake Superior, are now coincident with the government Indian Reserve, and are acting together with the government for the reformation and civilization of the Indians. This experiment, if we must call it so, is most active and promising in Isabella County and at Iroquois Point.

The various small bands of Indians in the Lower Peninsula, among whom we have for years maintained missions and schools, are now being collected on reserves in Isabella and Oceana Counties. And those in the vicinity of our old mission at Sault Ste. Marie are assembling at Iroquois Point, at the lower end of Lake Superior. Under the new movement, this last point is in advance of the other two, because the Missionary Society commenced the operation there before

the government entered actively on the new policy. Indeed, we had obtained the reserve in Isabella County before the government moved in the matter. Our Missionary Society has given up to the government all their lands held in reserve for the use of the Indians at Iroquois Point and in Isabella County; and, with the best understanding with the government, we are providing religious instruction for the Indians, and the government provides, according to treaties, for their educational and agricultural wants. It is understood that neither party will introduce teachers or agents which are unacceptable to the other. We understand this is the policy of the missions of other Churches and the government. Thus the Church and the state make peace, and take uniform action in the presence of the remnants of the once powerful owners of this land, and for their benefit. May much good come of this new policy, for it is the last hope of the Indian.

Rev. George Bradley has the general superintendence of the missions in the Lower Peninsula, and special charge of the work in Isabella County. He is to have an assistant in Isabella County, where the largest body of Indians will be collected. Peter Markman has charge of Pesahgening, and Henry Jackson of the mission in Oceana Coun v. Brother Bradley has built a log-cabin for his family, and expects to dwell among the Indians as their chief shepherd. They have also erected a bark church in a little opening made in the forest; it is the first sanctuary, like the tabernacle in the wilderness. May the presence and glory of God be in it, until it shall have a worthy successor in a nobler house for God! The reader will be pleased to see a drawing of this rude church on the fo lowing page.

The government has built a saw-mill for the Isabella County Reservation; and Brother Bradley says the Indians are collecting there in force, and settling down their own selec ed lands, and many of them have built good log-houses, cleared some land, and raised a crop sufficient to supply all their wants. Our mission farm for the use of the mission, and which will be the center of the mission, and a model for the Indians, is well selected. Arrangements are made to clear it up for cultivation without drawing on the missionary treasury; and when it is

got under cultivation it is believed that it will contribute materially to the support of the mission.

We might have mentioned more particularly the Bay-Shore Reservation, for the Saganaw Indians, where our mission still exists; but we will not be more particular, as it is not certain this reservation will become a permanent part of our Indian work. Time will show what ought to be done.

We have two Indian missions on Lake Superior which produce good fruit. They are under the general supervision of Brother A. C. Shaw, P. E. The one at Iroquois Point we have already mentioned. The mission house and church is the center, from which the Indian lots of five acres, with their comfortable cabins, extend up and down the lake shore. Their farms lie further back, and they hold them as private property. The Rev. D. L. Price has special charge of this mission, and he is happy and blessed in his work.

The mission at L'Ance, or Kewawenon, is under the special care of Brother Curtis, and is prosperous. The mission owns a good farm here, which is well cultivated and productive. The fruits of this farm, as well as of the mission farm at Iroquois Point, will, in all probability, keep all the mission property in good repair after paying all expenses of the farm.

Our small but worthy ludian missions in the Oneida Conference, State of New York, are sufficiently noticed thus by Rev. D. W. Bristol, who has general supervision as presiding elder, in a letter to the Corresponding Secretary, dated December 18, 1857:

This mission is composed of two tribes, the Oneidas and the Onondagas, residing some twenty-five miles apart. They are served by one white missionary, assisted by two native local preachers, one acting as preacher, the other as interpreter.

At Oneida we have two day schools, which are supported by the state; two teachers and sixty scholars in attendance. Two Sunday schools, two teachers, forty-two scholars, and eighty volumes in the library.

We have here two good churches in good repair. During the year there have been a few conversions. One prominent member has died. Five children have been baptized. There are forty-two members in full connection and five on trial. Two local preachers. In all, forty

nine.