Miss Kate’s Book – Presbytery – Development of Summer Camp - Evangelistic Services – Temperance Legislation – Politics – Extension Work in Other Tribes

The Nez Perces since Lewis and Clark, by Kate C. McBeth, is a history from original sources of a powerful tribe of Indians whose unique boast was, that up to the time of the Chief Joseph war but one white person had ever been killed by any of their tribe.

Had it not been for William M. Ladd, of Portland, Oregon, this book probably would never have been written. Realizing that Miss McBeth had first-hand knowledge of much of the history of the remote northwest and although frequently urged to write it out, had never done so, Mr. Ladd sent over the Mission a tactful and competent stenographer, who remained there several months taking down at Miss McBeth’s convenience the material in "The Nez Perces since Lewis and Clark." The book will be of increasing value as the years pass, for, of most of the contents, it is the only first hand and perfectly reliable record.

In a most simple and unassuming way, Miss Kate also relates the story of daily living for over thirty years among these people. The history and story are so unaffectedly told, that only gradually does one realize that in this volume is the epic of the far Northwest! The first edition was published eight years go. It is a peculiar pleasure to briefly outline phases of growth since that time.

The continued cooperation of the presbytery of Walla Walla cannot be to emphatically reiterated. Miss Kate devotes much space in her book to the happy association of the Nez Perce preachers with their church. The confidence and love have even deepened with the years; meetings of presbytery or visits from any of the presbyters are joyfully anticipated. The mission realizes that the presbytery stands back of it, supports and encourages it in every way possible.

In the early days, the summer camp meeting of the Nez Perces would be held in the immediate neighborhood of one of the churches – which, as hostess, provided pasture, good water and tent poles – the people bringing their own provisions, bedding and tents. But after the allotment, Indian lands were fenced and unoccupied land was rapidly homesteaded, making it increasingly difficult to provide good water and pasture for the hundreds of horses the people would take with them to camp. Also, it must be regretfully added, the proximity of white people of a certain class introduced temptations from which the Indians wished to shield their children. The Nez Perce divide all American into two classes: "Christian White" and "wild Whites". They still talk of the "Wild White" who, during the deeply solemn communion service, rushed down the aisle of the great tent with cameras set and took pictures of the worshipping Indians!

Their good friend and wise adviser, Dr. D. O. Ghormley suggested that they secure a permanent camp ground,, remote from American villages, which they could control. Elders Felix Corbett, Charles Jackson, Joseph Peterson were the committee entrusted to select the right location and secure it for a permanent camp.

These keen, wise Indians know the whole country intimately; they quickly and unanimously agreed on a perfectly ideal spot and the government cordially cooperated with them and set it aside for the use of the camp. It consists of an entire section, in one of their own magnificent timber reserves, cool because of its elevation of over four thousand feet, well watered from many springs and quite accessible, as Indians with fine teams measure accessibility, and its name – Talmaks, meaning buttes on a prairie – is thoroughly descriptive.

The people have put a fence around the entire six hundred and forty acres; they have also enclosed a ten acre park in the center of the section where there is a fine spring, which for ages the Indians had frequented, and in this park is pitched the commodious worship tent with a large platform, benches and a good piano. All this property has been secured by the Indians themselves, without any money assistance from outsiders.

In a great circle, under the towering pines are grouped the family teepees, no cattle or horses are allowed in this park, and the little Indian children are absolutely safe at their play.

About six years ago, the general committee of arrangements, numbering twenty-four Indian men and representing their six churches, decided that the daily program of the camp meeting could be strengthened by outside help. They, therefore, invited the Rev. C.R. Scafe of Spokane to conduct a daily Bible study and the Rev. Geo. H. Lee, D.D. of Oregon, a noted chorus director, to lead the Indian singers and present a cantata the last evening of camp meeting. Both of these gentlemen gave such satisfaction to the people that each successive year, the general committee has invited them to return – both are remunerated for their services entirely by the Indians. The general committee composed entirely of Indians arranges the program, has it printed and selects the presiding officer of each section, who is always an Indian.

Other Indian camp meetings and conference are held throughout the country, but none have continued for a long series of years where all arrangements and financial responsibility are entirely are in the hands of Indians. Kate McBeth helped these men to plan wisely, but she herself never even attended their committee meetings.

A significant advance within the past eight years has been the systematic evangelistic services lasting one week, conducted yearly in each of the six churches. The Nez Perce ministers and elders meet early in the fall and plan the time and place of the first series, the others follow about two weeks apart The Indian preachers have full care of the meetings. Miss Mazie Crawford has an honored and prominent place on the programs of the evangelistic services. She always has a Bible class for which her training at Moody Institute has most admirably qualified her and she also give the preliminary drilling to the young people on the cantata for camp meeting of the following summer which practice they continue by themselves during the winter, so that when they are all together at Talmaks, the intensive conducting by Dr. Lee makes it possible to present the cantata in most creditable style.

Miss Crawford not only a beautiful voice but has had exceptional vocal training so that this preliminary work on the cantata is well done. And how the Nez Perces love to sing! Miss McBeth used to say she believed they were fairly sung into the gospel! Besides these two periods for which Miss Crawford is solely responsible, she attends three other meetings each day, the morning preaching service, then Christian Endeavor, Temperance, or a Woman’s Missionary meeting and the evening service; as Indians are always most deliberate, she is frequently in church till eleven or twelve o’clock each night. The following excerpts are from her recent letters.

"When evangelistic services are held in a church, it entertains all the ministers, elders and as many of the people, heathen or Christian as care to go and they are all made most welcome. The people have little break in their lives during the winter, so they love to attend evangelistic meetings and look forward to them with greatest pleasure. Old and young go with no other attraction than the worship.

The people make a regular business of preparing for their guests by laying in supplies of food, putting in order beds and bedding, and preparing for extra beds on the floor. Nearly all the Christians have little house build on the church grounds, and they live in these during special meetings of preparatory services at communion time. Many of their homes are from four to ten miles away and especially in stormy weather they could never go back and forth. All who come to these meetings heathen or Christian are made welcome, the tenth or twentieth guest is just as cordially greeted as the first and the people are very much disappointed if there are only four or five friends in each home. On Sabbath the announcement is made that, "the houses are all open, you who are strangers or have just come for the day go in any place for your dinner and you well be welcome.

"The more I stop to think of these meetings the more wonderful they seem, to see old and young going together in such large numbers and working together year after year and the interest never lagging but rather increasing.

The meetings here in Lapwai were very good, a number repented, some wanderers returned. There were eight seven visitors for the other churches, four Umatilla Indians from Oregon and two Shoshone Indians from South Idaho.

At Kamiah there was man of about thirty five years old who had been a special favorite of my aunt Kate. He was a good man as the world goes, but loved the heathenism, was always in the heathen camp in July, wore long hair and wasn’t above bedecking himself in the old heathen toggery. Yet he was always in the church and always so nice to my aunt when she wen to Kamiah but Aunt Kate longed for Justin Parson to become a Christian. The other day at the meeting the invitation had been given several times and Justin stood up with the others to sing and seemed untouched. After a while one of the elders left his seat on the platform and quietly went down the aisle to the back seats where those who were not Christians sat. The Christians kept on singing and not a one of them seemingly even winked an eye lash or made the last sign that they knew what was going on. After a while the elder came up the aisle with stately tread and right behind him walked Justin with the tears rolling down his face. He took his place in front of the pulpit and three were not many dry eyes in the house as they pressed round to shake hands with him. Afterward the singing stopped and one of the ministers made a most touching prayer; then waited for Justin to make his confession, which he did with sobs shaking his great strong frame. His wife from the Joseph Band and from one of the wildest families came forward that night and confessed her faith and that was another glad time.

Among the guests in Second Kamiah church was an old heather Tewat, or medicine man, by the name of Thunder Eye. I had seen a number of the Christian workers talking to him and he always appeared to be withstanding them. One day in the morning service a minister had been preaching and aiming fierce blows at the Tewats. Then while they sang he left the pulpit, went down and put his hand on Thunder Eye’s shoulder and pled with him to become a Christian. Thunder Eye answered him for the Nez Perces do not give up readily, neither are they easily persuaded. The minister went back to his place in the pulpit and in a few minutes Thunder Eye stood before him. There was prefect silence for a few seconds for no one know what he was going to say, or just how much the move might mean. Thunder Eye dropped his head behind his hat for a few seconds and then said, "My heart has been hurt by what the brother has said about the Tewats, but I now forgive him and to show that I am no longer a Tewat I now accept Christianity."

In a minute they trusted him and were there to shake hands with him. The repentant ones must all go before the session and I suppose they gave Thunder Eye a good stiff examination and it was satisfactory for he was baptized that night. The next day another Nez Perce minister was preaching and giving the invitation and while they sang, Kipkipelikan an elder in the second church, a grandson of one of the four Nez Perces who wen to St . Louis for "the white man’s book of Heaven, about 1832, walked quietly down the aisle and every Nez Perce looked straight ahead and kept on singing. I just had to look out of the corner of my eye and see he was talking to Black Eagle, a man who has always thrown his influence with the heathen, wore long hair, shell earrings, etc. a tall fine looking fellow a type of the old Indian. But he had a good Christian wife who died a few years ago and his youngest son Joseph has been a member of the church for some years. After a while Kikipelikan started up the aisle and right behind him came Black Eagle. By the time he reached the space in front of the pulpit some of the ministers and elders were there to shake hands with him and in their quiet orderly way the people soon filled the aisles going to take his hand, when Black Eagle’s son, Joseph, nearly six feet tall stepped past the other took his father’s hand and then in such a boyish way put his head down on his fathers shoulder and they cried quietly together, then Joseph stepped back to give place to others. I am sure there wasn’t one in the house who wasn’t shedding tears by that time. Great big Kipkipelikan sat down and wiped the tears from his eyes and for once the singers lost their self control and allowed the singing to almost cease.

The Nez Perces are not shouters and are never noisy, but they are not afraid to show their feelings. "Talk about stoical Indians!" People who say that do not know much about the Indian heart. There were others who repented whose souls were just as precious in God’s sight but not so striking as these three men. The church, one of our largest ones, was filled at every day service and they could not all get in at nights or on Sabbath days. It was good to see the walls of heathenism crumbling before the power of God."

Temperance legislation in this section of Idaho is largely the result of the training of total abstinence given by the early missionaries which later Miss Kate crystallized into temperance organizations. For many years these societies have met bimonthly, Sabbath afternoons in the churches. Often the long-haired heathen belonged to the "temperance" when they had no sympathy whatever with the church, for all Indians acknowledge that their worst enemy is the white mans fire water.

This instruction and training proved invaluable to the Nez Perces in 1893, when the commission from Washington came to treat with them on the surplus land on the reservation, that it might be thrown open for entry by white people. The Nez Perces in council, the long-haired heathen as well as the Christians met every overture of the eloquent and persuasive men from Washington with one reply, "As soon as the reservation is opened the white man will bring his saloon in among our people and destroy us." Many days were passed in the council; to every plea, to every inducement offered the Indians simply reiterated this statement. No progress whatever was made, until a clause was inserted in the treaty forever prohibiting saloons anywhere within the boundary of the old Nez Perce lands.

Then the Indians were willing to confer and eventually signed the deed. A year and a half later the reservation was thrown open; with limited success, the government protected the people from the ‘bootleggers,’ the men who smuggle in whiskey. The following graphic account prepared by Miss McBeth and Miss Crawford for the "Red Man’ vividly portrays the temperance situation at this time.

"About the year 1905 a man by the name of Dick was arrested, tried and convicted for introducing liquor into Indian country. The case was appealed to the Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco and that Court rendered a decision to the effect that the Nez Perce were not now wards of the government, but citizens on the United States and that the prohibitory clause in the treaty could not be applied to them; that they had now all the rights of citizens. This meant that the right to have a saloon in their midst was to be forced upon them. At once more than thirty saloons sprang up in different parts of the reservation. If anyone has any doubt as to whether the sol called regulated saloon is better than the bootlegger, I hope he will not have to go through our experience to be convinced. The drunkenness that increased and the wickedness that seemed to be let loose was awful.

The Dick case was carried to the Supreme Court of the United States and in February, 1907, after consuming two and a half years time, and meanwhile the saloon keeper was allowed to ply his trade) a decision upholding the treaty was reached and the order came to Superintendent to O.H.Lipps to order all violators off the reservation, and prosecute all offenders thereafter. Some of them telephone to the agency asking how long they would be allowed to settle up and make their exit, and the answer went back, "no time at all; get out at once."

But it was hard to break up the nests that had been so well established and bootleggers seemed to be working over time. Until a few months later some United States detective, under W.E. Johnson, came in here presumably to buy land. They spent several weeks getting acquainted with the situation, and then with the help of our good Superintendent and his Indian police, made a simultaneous raid in seven different places on the reservation, caught large numbers of offenders in their net and seized and confiscated many gallons of whiskey. We still have the bootlegger to some extent, but with the protection of the government, the strong temperance sentiment in the Nez Perce, churches and with Nez Perce County dry, King Alcohol finds his power almost a thing of the past.

One might think that Miss Kate’s training would have made her opposed to "Votes for Women." But such was not the case. She recognized the tremendous potentialities of the ballot in the hands of the women and she developed into a very keen politician. The Indian women, as well as the men, were equally keen and gladly welcomed instruction in civics. Election days began to have the atmosphere of social affairs of great importance and were eagerly anticipated. The following from Miss Crawford describes a recent election:

"In church, committees were appointed to look after certain districts and get the voters – men and women – out to register, and they came in by the wagon loads through rain and mud to write their names. In some cases the wet registrars tried to bluff the Indians out of registering, for well they knew that every one meant a dry vote, but they didn’t succeed. Election day dawned bright and clear and the battle began. We are within reach of two precincts; we vote in Sweetwater, but the Church with a large percentage of Indians voters is in Spalding precincts. The wet have worded the ballot to confuse the minds of those not on the alert and hope to gain twenty percent of the votes by mistake. But we had sample ballot and it was explained in church and at every other opportunity and the old people who could not read were told just where to put their mark. One young man made ballot and put four or five old women through the form of voting so often, that one of them said afterward "I wasn't a bit troubled when I went in to vote: I think I could have done it right in my sleep:

Heyomakamalats and Imnawakinmi voted all right at this election and had much sport at the trouble their long Indian names caused the wet officer, who had bluntly refused the kindly offered services of Miss Crawford as interpreter. He finally was obliged to send for her to come to his assistance.

No tricks known to most expert ward heelers but have been used by the saloon interests to confuse the situation. A prominent man, who has lived in the south during contested elections and has actually seen the stuffing of Tammany ballot boxes said the election of 1914 ‘went far ahead of anything I have ever known." At this time a concerted effort was made to deprive all Indians of their votes; when this and other expedients failed when a respectable dry majority was counted into a bare wet majority, when appeal to a Court from which appeal to the Supreme Court was demanded are incidents in the fight, one begins to realize how valuable the training in citizenship was which Miss Kate rendered. No wonder a Lewiston paper explained at considerable length that the election was lost because of the votes of the women and of the Indians.

In the winter of 1915 Idaho was made dry by legislative enactment.