In the spring of 1819 Rev. Father De la Croix came to the Osage on
the Marmaton river in Missouri about twenty-five miles east of
where Ft. Scott, Kansas, now stands. In July, 1819 he
baptized the children of Noel Mongrain at that place. In
1822 he baptized Anthony Chouteau who was born in 1817.
Liguest Chouteau stood godfather in the christening of Anthony.
In 1822 he also baptized Peter Lambert, born 1818 of Joseph
Lambert and Mary, an Osage woman. In August, 1822 he
baptized Peter Papin, one Perrier, Captain and Paul Lambert.
In May, 1822 Father Quickenborne baptized James and Mary Chouteau,
children of Francis Chouteau and Mary, another Osage woman.
It has been claimed that the last two were baptized a few miles
west of Harmony Mission within the present boundary of the state
of Kansas. If that be true they were the first children to
receive baptismal rites in the territory now included within the
state of Kansas.
The Jesuit Fathers were always welcomed by the Osage. Their
patience and fortitude during epidemics of smallpox and measles
among the Indians won the admiration of the red men, and they
deserve the highest praise history can record. Glorious,
indeed, is the record of these self-sacrificing followers of the
meek and lowly Jesus. Rev. Father De la Croix was succeeded
by Father Quickenborne, and he by Rev. Father Bax, and he in turn
by Father Schoenmakers in 1847.
Meanwhile the Osage were visited in 1836 by Rev. Father DeSmet,
perhaps the most gifter writers of all the Jesuit brotherhood.
History owes much to the gifted pen of this wonderful man who had
penetrated as far west as the Big Horn mountains and Crow Indian
country as early as 1834. In 1836 Father DeSmet was with the Osage
a few weeks and baptized many Osage children, among them being
Jane Conway, now living at Pawhuska. Several years later he
was again with the Osage and performed the marriage ceremony of
Aunt Jane Conway to Mr. Tinker, father of the present Tinker
family of Osages. Father DeSmet made many trips to Europe
and solicited funds with which to carry on his work among the
Indians of the Northwest. His zeal kept him in touch with
all the Jesuit missions west of the Mississippi, although he spent
most of his time among the Sioux. His letters were published
by the church and form one of the best books for historical
research of the Indian tribes living between the Mississippi river
and the Rocky mountains.[01]
It will be noticed that in this letter Father Bax alludes to the
abandonment of a Presbyterian mission that had been established at
Harmony, this mission being one of several successive attempts at
mission work among the Osage and other southwestern tribes,
beginning at a point a few miles above Fort Gibson on the west
bank of the Grand river in 1822.
The Reverend Father infers that the cause of this failure was the
reluctance of the Indians to adopt the doctrine of Calvinism, but
the Osage tell a different story that, unfortunately, does not
reflect that same spirit of heroism that was displayed by the
Catholic missionaries and that so strongly appealed to the hearts
of the Indians. The Osage version of the affair is that an
epidemic of measles was raging among all the tribe and the Indians
sought safety in flight, scattering in various directions to
escape the terrible ravages of the disease, leaving the
missionaries alone at the mission with a number of Indian children
who were attending school. The Indians believed that their
children would be better cared for there than if they were taken
away. On their return a few weeks later when the disease had
spent its force, they found the mission deserted and the dead
bodies of several of the Indian children lying in the beds.
Evidently the epidemic had broken out in the school and the
missionaries had deserted their post, leaving the children to die
of disease and hunger. Naturally comparing this act or
desertion (regardless of the fact that they had themselves ran
away) with the heroic self-sacrifice often displayed by the Jesuit
missionaries, the Indians were inclined toward the latter and the
result was an almost universal acceptance of the Jesuits in
preference to any other missionaries.
The following letter was written by Father Bax to Father DeSmet
who was then in Belgium on one of his many trips to Europe in
quest of funds with which to carry on his work among the American
Indians. The letter conveys a very accurate idea of
conditions among the Osage at that time. This is the first
time that this letter--or any of the many that were written by
these Jesuit missionaries--has been printed, except in a book
published about the time the letters were written and used
exclusively as a church publication.
Letter
of Father Bax, Jesuit Missionary
Mission of St. Francis Hieronym, (Harmony, Mo.) among the
Osages June 1, 1850.
Rev. and very
dear Father:-
Already three years have elapsed since we commenced the toils of
our mission. I will say nothing to you of the embarrassments
inseparable from such an enterprise: you are too well
acquainted with this ground and are aware, also, that to prepare
it for cultivation exacts the courage that Christian charity alone
can inspire. I will not, therefore, stop to relate the
obstacles, the fatigues of every sort, that we encountered in our
route. At present, the burden is alleviated, particularly
since the arrival of a teacher and of a brother, the affairs of
the mission are extending, and wear a much more favorable aspect.
I profit by my earnest leisure moments to satisfy the desire that
you have several times testified to me, of having some details
concerning our dear mission of the Osages. I hope in this
way to offer you a slight testimony of our gratitude for the
interest you take in our labors and in our successes. These
marks of attention, on your part, reverend Father, give us the
assurance that, if momentarily you remain remote from your dear
Indians, your heart nevertheless sighs continually towards our
poor and isolated children of the wild solitude.
You are aware that this mission was, during several years, in the
hands of the Presbyterians. They were obliged to abandon it
in 1845. Those gentlemen were forced to come to this
resolution by the Indians themselves, who were fully determined
never to adopt the doctrine of Calvin. In the course of the
same year, Major Harvey, superintendent of the Indian tribes,
having assembled in Council the different tribes of the Osage
nation, exposed to them, in the liveliest colors, the advantage of
a good education; he added, that if such should prove their will,
their Great Father (The President), would send missionaries to
instruct their children. At this proposition the Great Chief
replied, in the name of the Council:
"Our Great Father is very kind: he loves his
red-skinned children. Hear what we have to say on this
subject. We do not wish any more such missionaries as we
have had during several years, for they never did us any good.
Send them to the whites; perhaps they may succeed better with
them. If our Great Father desires that we have missionaries,
you will tell him to send us Black-gowns who will teach us to pray
to the Great Spirit in the French manner. Although several
years have elapsed since they have visited us, we always remember
this visit with gratitude, and we shall be ever ready to receive
them among us, and listen to their preaching."
The superintendent, a just and liberal man, wished only the
welfare of the Indians. Although a Protestant, he
communicated this reply to the Government, and supported and
confirmed it with his own remarks and observations. In
pursuance with his advice, the President had recourse to the
Superiors of our Society, requesting them to assume the charge of
this mission.
At first the Father Provincial offered some objections, knowing
that no one had yet been able to succeed in ameliorating the
condition of this people, under the double relation of spiritual
and temporal. In the interval, the Indians were in the most
painful uncertainty, not knowing whether the "Great
Father" would grant or refuse them their petition. But
they were soon satisfied; our Society accepted the mission.
In the autumn of 1846, the Reverend F. Schoenmakers quitted St.
Louis to go to the Osages, with the intention of returning, after
having examined the state of affairs, the houses, etc. He
came back to St. Louis in midwinter, and his second departure was
retarded until the following spring.
After Father Schoenmakers had left them, the poor Indians counted
the days and the hours until spring, at which time he promised to
return to them; but they waited in vain. The year glided
past; they lost all hope of seeing him again. Nevertheless,
they were resolved to accept none but Catholic missionaries.
When all our preparations were completed, Father Schoenmakers,
myself, and three coadjutor[02]
brothers, quitted St. Louis on the 7th of April, 1849,
and we arrived on the bank of he Neosho, a tributary of the
Arkansas situated about 130 miles from Westport, frontier town of
the state of Missouri.
To you, my dear Father, who have many time traversed the great
wilderness of the West, in its whole extent, from the States to
the Pacific, who have traveled over the Rocky Mountains and their
valleys--our pains, troubles and fatigues must appear truly
insignificant. But this trial was very severe to us, who were
entering, for the first time, into the immense prairies of the
Indians, which we had only measured according to the deceptive
images of our imagination. Truly, the reality appeared to us
very different. We endured hunger, thirst, and cold.
For a fortnight we were obliged to pass our nights in the open
air, in the dampest season of the year, each having naught for a
bed but a buffalo-hide and a single blanket.
About 100 miles from Westport we had a panic. Arrived at a
place named "Walnut Grove" we perceived, in the
distance, a large troop of mounted Indians, who turned directly
toward us. Unaccustomed to such slights, we were seized with
great anxiety, which soon changed to genuine fright; for we saw
those savages, on approaching us, alight from their horses with
extraordinary agility. At once they took possession of
our carts and wagons, which we fancied destined to pillage.
They examined our chest and our baggage as minutely and coolly as
old custom-house officers. Happily we recovered from our
fright. We presented them some rolls of tobacco. They
shook hands with us in token of friendship. Soon after we
lost sight of them, congratulating ourselves at having escaped at
so trifling an expense. An idea, however, occupied us; they
might repent of their benevolence toward us, and attack us and
steal our horses during the night. We consequently left the
ordinary route and went and camped far in the plain. These
Indians, as we learned later, belonged to the nation of Sauks, and
had been paying a visit to their allies, the Osages.
On the 28th of April we reached our destination, to the
great surprise and delight of the Indians; for, as I have already
observed to you, they had resigned the hope of seeing us. It
would be impossible to paint you the enthusiasm with which we were
received. They considered us as men whom the Great Spirit
had sent to teach them the good news of salvation; to trace out to
them, also, earthly peace and plenty.
At the first sight of these savages, and finding myself surrounded
by these children of the desert, I could not suppress the pain I
felt. I saw their sad condition. The adults had only a
slight covering over the middle of their body; the little
children, even as old as six or seven years, were wholly destitute
of clothing. Half serious, half jesting, I thought that a
truly savage portion of the Lord's vineyard had been given to me
to cultivate; but I did not lose courage. The object of my
desires, and the subject of my prayers, during many long years,
had been to become a missionary to the Indians. That grace
was obtained, I felt contented and happy.
On our arrival, we found the houses unfinished, very inconvenient,
and much too small for the great number of children; they were
also very badly situated, not being, as they should have been, in
the center of all the villages which compose the mission.
From this resulted an increase in the number and difficulties of
our occupation.
The population of the tribes (comprised under the name of Great
Osages and Little Osages), is nearly 5,000 souls, of whom 3,500
reside on the banks of the Neosho; and others on the Verdigris, a
little river smaller than the former, although the valleys and
prairies that it waters are more favorable to culture.
The Osages who remain on the banks of the Neosho are divided into
several villages. The Little Osages form a population of
1,500 souls and are twenty-two miles from the mission. The
village of Nanze-Waspe contains six hundred inhabitants, at a
distance of twelve miles; the village of Big Chief is composed of
three hundred souls, four miles; the Weichaka-Ougrin, of five
hundred, three miles; Little Town numbers three hundred
inhabitants and is thirty miles distant; Big Hill or Passoi-Ougrin,
situated on the Verdigris, forty miles off, has a population of
six hundred souls; les Cheniers, or Sanze-Ougrin, amount to nearly
seven hundred, fifty-five miles; the Black Dog, or Skankla-Sape,
village sixty miles off, contains four hundred inhabitants.
The two rivers on which they dwell empty into the Arkansas.
The lowlands are generally swampy, but the plain of the Neosho is
sandy.
Formerly the Osages were represented as cruel and perverse,
addicted to the most degrading vices; calumny depicted them as
thieves, assassins, and drunkards.
To this last reproach, I am grieved to say they have given
occasion; they are passionately fond of intoxicating liquors.
The effects of this vice had become so terrible, that on our
arrival, entire tribes were nearly destroyed. In the spring
of 1847, in one village alone, thirty young men, in the prime of
life, were victims to strong drink. I have met men, women
and children, in a complete state of intoxication, dragging
themselves to their wigwams like so many brutes. This
spectacle, my dear Father, drew forth many tears and sighs from
those who had been selected and sent to labor for the happiness
and salvation of those unfortunate beings. It was extremely
painful to look at these sons of the wilderness delivered to the
enemy of God and man. Thanks to our Lord, the evil was
extirpated at its root; the advice of a kind and very worth agent
of the government, as well as our own efforts, have succeeded so
well that drunkenness had been almost completely banished.
Daily prayers are offered that this crime and all miseries which
arise in it train, may not appear among us. At present, the
Indians themselves comprehend the necessity of temperance.
Several among them come frequently to tell me, with great
simplicity, that they do not fall into this vice anymore.
These savages exhibit in their stoical resolutions, a degree of
courage that should excite a blush on the cheek of many a white
man.
Those who call them thieves and assassins have calumniated them.
Some bands of thieves, going from the north to the south, cross
the settlements of the Osages, as well as those of the whites who
inhabit the frontiers. It is their trade to steal everything
and carry all away, and in such a manner that the Osages have been
accused of the thefts. We may say as much of the Pillages
committed on the route to Santa Fe.
According to my experience, there are few nations, in this region,
as affable and as affectionate as the Osages. Indeed, it may
be said that it is natural to them to wish to live in peace and
perfect friendship with all whom they know. Peace and
harmony reign among them: no harsh words ever escape their
tongues, unless when they have drunk to excess. Now they are
at peace with all the tribes, except with the Pawnee-Mahas, whose
manner of acting towards them would inspire aversion in civilized
people as well as in barbarians. Scarcely are the Osages
gone to hunt, than the Pawnees, who wait for this moment, fall on
their undefended villages, pillage the wigwams and steal the
horses. The Osages have frequently made peace with this
nation; but the treaties have hardly been ratified ere the
prefidious enemy renews its attacks.
I have long, but vainly endeavored to put an end to the cruel
mania of taking off the scalps of the dead and wounded. In
this project, as in many others, I have been checked by the bad
counsels and bad examples of the whites. I should be pleased
to be able to tell the savages, with whom I am charged, to imitate
the whites, and it would be most agreeable to me to propose them
as models of imitation; but my words would be very ineffectual.
Here, as formerly in Paraguay, the Indian derives no advantage
from the vicinity of the whites; on the contrary he becomes more
artful, more deeply plunged in vice, and finding no blasphemous
words in his own tongue, curses his God in a foreign language.
To demonstrate to you the evil effects of the proximity of the
whites, I will cite you a little anecdote. The fact occurred about
a year ago. I was giving instruction in a village named Woichaka-Ougrin,
or Cockle-Bird. The subject was intemperance. I
spoke of the evil consequences of this passion, of its effects on
the health, of the rapidity with which it conducts men to the
tomb, or separates them from their wives and children, whom the
Great Spirit has entrusted to them. I added that the
pleasure attending drinking was extremely short, while the
punishment would be eternal. As I was concluding, Shape-shin-kaouk,
or The Little Beaver, one of the principal men of the tribe, arose
and said to me:
“Father, what thou sayest is true. We believe thy words.
We have seen many buried because they loved and drank fire-water.
One thing astonishes us. We are ignorant; we are not
acquainted with books; we never heard the words of the Great
Spirit; but the whites, who know books, who have understanding,
and who have heard the commandments of the Great Spirit--why do
they drink this fire-water? Why do they sell it to us?
Or why do they bring it to us, while they know that God sees
them?”
I will now enter into some more particular details concerning our
missions and our labors. Immediately after our arrival in
the spring of 1847, our first care was to prepare a school.
It was opened on the 10th of May. The scholars were not very
numerous at the commencement; some half-bloods and three Indians
were the only ones that presented themselves. The parents,
full of prejudices against a “school” gave for excuse, that
the children, who had been confided to the former missionaries,
(the Presbyterians), had learned nothing, had been whipped every
day, made to work continually, and at last ran away. These
reports spread far and wide. The most efficacious correction
that a father could employ against a child was to threaten it with
being sent to school. I had proofs of this a short time after our
arrival. In one of my visits to a village of Little Osages,
called Huzetga, having an interpreter with me, I entered the lodge
of the first chief. On presenting myself, I offered my hand
in token of friendship.
“Who are you,” said he to me. “Rapouska, or
missionary,” was the reply. During some moments he hung
his head without uttering a word. Then raising his eyes, he said,
in bad humor: “The missionaries never did any good to our
nation.” The interpreter answered that I did not belong to
the class of missionaries that he had seen; that I was a French tapouska,
a Black-gown, who had come at their request and at that of their
Great Father. Then serenity reappeared on the visage of the
chief, and he cried out: “That is good news.” He
immediately offered me his hand, called his wife, and ordered
buffalo soup, wishing to feast my arrival. He proposed
several questions relative to the manner in which I would educate
the children if they were sent to me; he declared to me that he
did not approve of whipping the children; he asked me, in fine, if
we would instruct aged persons. When I told him that we came
to instruct everybody, to announce the word of God to the whole
nation, he expressed much delight and gratitude. As soon as
he knew us and learned the object of our visit, his prejudices and
his apprehensions vanished.
At my first visits the children would not approach me. I
dissipated their fears by giving them cakes or marbles, with which
my pockets were always filled. They became familiar, and in
a short time they were extremely attached to me. The first
who came to school, being very happy, expressed their satisfaction
and their delight to their parents praising the care of the
Black-gowns in teaching and feeding them. This news spread
abroad. Now the children entreat the parents to suffer them
to go to the mission; the parents never refuse them, for the
Indian is full of indulgence toward his little ones.
Before the close of the year, those who were received and those
who desired to be admitted, surpassed the number that we could
lodge. We have ever since been crowded. In a house
built for twenty persons only, we were obliged to lodge fifty
children. In order to take measures, the nation assembled
and requested the agent to petition their Great Father to augment
and enlarge the house of the mission. The Government acceded
to this demand.
The chiefs cannot be too much praised for the good example that
they have given to the nation, and the ardent desire that they
manifested for the education of their daughters. When they
first made me this latter request, I found myself singularly
embarrassed for the means of realizing so laudable a project.
Father Schoenmakers resolved to interest a kind and fervent
community of nuns in the education of the Osage girls. With
this intention he went to St. Louis, but he knocked in vain at the
door of several convents in the city, for the enterprise
frightened everyone. He was not discouraged. At length
he succeeded in obtaining the good and charitable Sisters of
Loretto, in Kentucky, for the education of the girls of this
remote mission. In the autumn of the year 1847, four Sisters
arrived to share our labors. Their sufferings, their trials,
and their privations were very great. They were
obliged to sleep in the open air. That did not hinder two
other Sisters from coming to join them a little after in their
heroic enterprise. Their patience, their kindness, their
courage, and their perseverance have gained the esteem, affection,
and love of everyone. They are succeeding: they have already
produced a considerable change, and are doing great good.
The talents displayed in the direction of their school, and the
rapid progress of the children are admired by all the strangers
who visit the community.
In order not to pass the limits of a letter, I will leave the rest
till another moment, and will inclose it to you in a few days.
In the meantime, reverend and very dear Father, I commend myself
to your holy sacrifices and your good prayers.
Your ever devoted brother,
J. J. Bax, S. J.
