Mt Idaho Dec 24^th 1885
Rev F.F. Ellinwood D.D.

Dear Sir
This morning James Hayes and four others of or boys started to Kamiah to help Robert with the usual Christmas services (which begin to night) spend a ‘happy Christmas’ (D.V.) with their friends; see after some of their matters there &c &c – God willing return to their families & school here, monday.They were here before my candle was ‘blown out’ this morning (I breakfast by candlelight) They came for a little more ‘himtakash’ (sermon material) and the last words & prayer with ‘Pika’ (‘The Mother’) for which they always come before going from her.

This forenoon she sent the last package of ‘Christmas’ to her eight Nez Perce little ones, and their six mothers left here – attended to by the pupil, (Harry Hays) left as ‘Home Guard’ cooked & ate the first uninterrupted dinner she has eaten for some time and took up her pen to answer Dr Ellinwoods letter which came last weak, or begin to answer it rather. She is so weary she can scarcely think. There has been no daylight hour since it came in which she could have written even this much and her eyes will not permit night writing. (That is her time for preparing sewing for her women pupils &c)

Christmas 11:45 am

Having given up her Christmas dinner with a dear friend (Mrs Scott a cousin of Charlie Montieth, and a ‘comfort’ to Miss McB for 12 years) for the sake of writing to Dr Ellinwood, &c and having been hindered by other kind friends with Christmas greeting &c up to this hour Miss McB must write very hastily or the letter not be finished for she can not tell when.

1^st (Referring to Dr Ellinwoods last letter as much as she understands of it)

Pupils – She has six Nez Perce Men, and their six wives (12 pupils in all in Mt Idaho and their 8 little ones. Six families living in Mt Idaho, in three houses. One of those houses the Phila friends kindly gave to the Nez Perce Mission in exchange for the Mission Printing press. (Please see letter of Miss McB to Phila friend about house &c) For one of the other two houses (two families in it) she pays $5.00 rent per month – for the other (two families in it) she pays $10.00 per mo. For the house and stable attached to it. Our boys must have a stable for the horses they need to haul their fire wood which they can get here for the hauling & for occasional hasty trips to Kamiah to look after their things there &c. and for the horses of those who study from the reserve.

Two families live in the house which belongs to the Board (The $15.00 per mo for the other two, is of course from her own limited private purse.) The school room is in Miss Mc Bs own house, which as she wrote Dr Lindsley I think. She bought it from her summer Reserve fund which she had before the Board took charge of her. She needs the house for hot vacation months, even with her school at Kamiah. She removed part of her goods & books, part are still in her house at Kamiah. She brought from Kamiah three of her cooking stoves for pupils and bought two here one nearly new at $20.00 another at $15.00

All our boys were eager to come to Mt I with their families, but we have houseroom for no more families, only two small rooms for men’s lodgings in the house belonging to the Board - the men eating with the families here & sharing the expense for food, coming from the reserve the first of the week & returning Friday P.M & attending to wood cutting &c for their families there on Saturday. Two have begun to study from the Reserve in this way. We are expecting two more after New Year’s D.V. The women pupils are the greatest burden. They cannot study with the men, with their eight little ones. Miss McB has to attend to them as she can. She has them as she can. She has them at work now on garments for the little ones.

Our boys & families are very happy in their new homes. The people of Mt I call treat them kindly and with respect. "They are among the quietest and best citizens" said a Mt Idahoan to their teacher the other day. What the Master has in store for us tomorrow, or next week or months, or year, we know not. Nor is it necessary we should know. We can only write today ‘Hitherto hath the Lord helped us’ and given success to the New Carlisle To His blessed name be all the praise.’

2^nd So much for ‘arrangements’. As to the outlook (under God) save occasional helps of ‘second hand clothing &c from missionary boxes our boys have had to and must still support themselves & families by their own labor. The season for gathering money by packing & trading &c was during the ‘reign of terror’ when the most of the Kamians the most of my pupils among them were scattered outside of the Reserve. The Kamians too, were last year impoverished by heavy fines. Last monday a new pupil, taken in the place of one who went to Lapwai, sent to Mr Montieth, the last $5.00 of a fine of last summer. He had had a severe illness and had to take the fine money he had laid by to pay his ‘Doctor’s bill.’ The Kamians employ the Mt I or Grangeville physician. The Agency Doctor visits the family of the Millers and hunts & fishes &c comes with the Agent as witness. The Kamiahs get medicine & physician

[missing]

…and discouraged from money to be taken from them in this way, on the slightest pretext. I do not know how long the money or our boys will ‘hold out’ at Mt Idaho.

Miss McB thought at first, (as I think she wrote Mr Rankin last summer) was to transfer her school to Mt Idaho until there was some protection for them, her pupils on the Reserve. The constant strain of apprehension for them (not for herself) was killing her more than she could bear. It is hard not being there. The laws of the Ter protection extend over the Reserve. Thank God.

At Lapwai, in 1877 & 78 she let her Kamiah pupils go more for about three weeks each spring to put in their crops. Her thought for the New Carlisle at Mt Idaho was if God should give her life and strength, when our boys must return home for their spring work their teacher to go with them (D.V.) where had arranged it so that she would not need to remove back to K much more than a stove, trunk & some bedding, closing her house here), continue her school at K as in years past until her pupils are all busy in their harvest fields, in the ‘fierce’ valley heat, then God willing, return to her house in Mt I. Or, now with a permanent house for pupils here, and one for herself they can come and go from the Reserve and can (D.V.) study with her in leisure days, even during the summer. The household goods they do not need to take back to the K for summer use, they only lock up in the house [illegible] and to the Board.  But that is all in the future, and in Gods hand and as He shall open the way, and lead us in it with the consent of the Board.  More & more, as the practicability and the advantages of the New Carlisle are tested [missing].

…homes the thought of Winter quarters at Mt Idaho where they can, and I think do, advance more in one month than they could in two at Kamiah, For the farming months in which they would not need Winter Quarters – the school at Kamiah, i.e. Winter Quarters at Mt. Idaho instead of at Kamiah. Miss McB lived alone at K for 3 years before the war.

There are three lots attached to the house belonging to the Board here on which additional winter quarters could be erected if she were rich (the house and lots cost $250.00). Mr Brown suggests that an appropriation from the Government might be obtained by the Mt Is who, I think would like to have New Carlisle continued here through their Representative from Idaho. But that is all in the future, and as God wills, and with submission to the will of the Board. And we know not what a day may bring forth to us. Miss McB perhaps ought not to put into words her thoughts for the future which God holds.

2^nd Miss McB did not want to refer to the past (which has gone up with all its ‘accounts’ before God.) But she finds she must. There are so many things in Dr Ellinwoods letters which she does not understand (and, since Dr E has charge of the Nez P mission she needs to understand his letters) as for instance the chief charges ‘interfere with Government matters,’ ‘Keep clear of political questions even those which refer to local police’ respect the powers &c &c. She does not understand. Please remember that Miss McB has never seen the charges against her to the [illegible] although she asked, repeatedly for a copy (and she will confess to a strong curiosity to see the charges which she will not be permitted to see. Consequently she does not understand or [illegible] ‘the Chief’ or what the former and other phrases mean if they refer to her. She can only answer for herself, and her school.) Irregularity in reports for which she asked pardon, and promised to, and did ‘amend her ways’ is the only offense of which she is conscious against any of the power that be.

The letter to Dr Lowrie which Mr Montieth read to her throws little light. In as far as she can remember them, the chief charges were causing trouble to former agents (It is natural to want to throw the blame of the. She has over 70 letters and notes from Mr J.B. Montieth and Father Montieth which would disprove that – was her Agent for six years. It was Charlie Montieth and the Whitmans, & double Agent Warner, perhaps Dr Lowrie remember the shameful story. It was Charlie who was causing ) It was not the Misses McB causing divisions among the people. That is all the impression that remains in my mind. (The letter was so long – so much of the subject matter so unfamiliar – I seemed to be hearing it for another – not for Miss McB.)   She will (D.V.) send Dr Ellinwood or Mr Rankin when she writes to Mr R as she must soon , (D.V.) a letter shewing all that Miss McB knows of the charges. It is necessary.   She knows nothing of the doings at Synod. Mrs Montieth they say caused it to be translated to the Indians from Charlie while at synod; saying that ‘Now it was decided The Misses most go’ and Archies story to the Umatillas that "he & Charlie Montieth were summoned by Synod, to testify against Robert" which I did not believe (And yet, I do not understand Dr Es saying Some of the them, the whites, differ so widely from you in regard to you influences upon Robert Williams, and the Kamiah Church.

3^rd She encloses in this some newspaper slips, shewing a new experience of Miss McB, the first of the kind in all the years of her life. The friends here who know him well, (as the Agent is also aware of his true character, Mrs Scott tells me he uses him) tell me that the ‘report’ emanated from the family of John Crea the Kamiah Miller. The man whose word stand against Miss McBs record of a lifetime. The data in the correction was given by indignant friends. Miss McB would not touch it. No one can disgrace her by herself though they can wound her sorely. [illegible] nothing perhaps hurts her worse than losing the trust in her, or [illegible] Dr E can perhaps guess from the slip the reliability of the statements he listened to at Lapwai. The letter of censure stops at Dr E. Miss McB does not believe one word of the stories to Mrs. Scott &c [illegible]

Would Dr E be so kind as to shew the newspaper slip to Mr Rankin & Dr Lowrie, and then return it to me, if it would not be too much trouble? It is the only copy I have and, if Mr Rankin reads this letter it will save Miss McB repeating to him so much of the Report of the school (D.V.). The Agent had not been at Kamiah for nearly two years before last summer. The Doctor, only on occasional visits to the Millers family, hunting, fishing & came with the Agent as a witness.

4^th I enclose a note recieved from the "Com of Ind. Affairs, Mr Atkins, which was on its own way to Miss McB at the same hour, perhaps that Mr Hill was inclined to advise her removal from the Reservation, reaching her in the same mail with Dr Ellinwoods note from Wis, dated Sept 14^th. (There are so many things she does not understand, but the Master knows it all.) She has never had the least fear of the disapproval of Mr Atkins, if he knew the truth. She has been walking in a dire line with the aims of the Government as have her pupils, (as far as her knowledge of them extends) even in the preaching against tiwat (medicine, or conjuring) which was the immediate cause of raising such a storm about Roberts ears; (the mother of the Lawyers is a ‘big tiwat’ as is also Kipikapelikans mother, father of the old chiefs & others) and in their teaching of the principle & Constitution of the Government of the U.S. (which they had studied in school - they needed to know and understand that [illegible] chief of Romans) even if those principles were so diverse from the haswaluwit of the old heather regime.

Dear Sir, believe me (aside from whatever temptations may have come to my friends in years past . Charlie Mr. Montieths ‘trouble’ at Kamiah had its root in the irrespressible conflict in the way of enlightenment of every Indian tribe which is under the bondage of the old heathen chiefs. (I think President Garfield has a glimpse of, this perhaps Mr Atkins)

Our long, lonely struggle was about over, at Kamiah when the strange placing of Archie, in such power at Lapwai (at the Agents ear) last fall then leaving him to work unchecked, all along the line and the extraordinary placing of Jimmy L over Kamiah with every facility to try to restore the old regime revived the struggle again. But ‘what good’ to speak of that now?

5^th Perhaps Dr Ellinwood knows by this time, that under the laws of the Territory of Idaho the Grand Jury of Idaho (in which Co. the murder was committed) has indicted Tom Hill for the murder of Nine Pipes at the S.S. Pic Nic near Kamiah, last summer. When the Sheriff went to Lapwai to arrest Tom Hill, he found him lying badly wounded by a Lapwai policeman, too ill to be removed. He is now under arrest for murder, the Agent held responsible for his appearance when called for.

Jimmy Lawyer is no longer ‘Indye Wincy.’ The husband of the Jesuit half breed woman (the Millers helper last winter) has been appointed Judge. The church there has quiet & prospering at the present writing. God knows what is in its future, and will help as in its past. To come back to "New Carlisle’ from this long digression Pray much for the New Carlisle. It is an experiment, in which we have no precedent to guide us, i.e. the lifting up of six Indian families out of the environment of ages of an Indian Reserve, and setting them down in a town ‘next door’ to white neighbors. Pray much that God would be with and guide and help us in whatever He has for us to do in the future, as He has helped us up to this day. To His blessed Name be all the praise.In the Masters work
Respectfully yours

S.L. McBeth
Forgive the appearance of this letter. It was written in haste and with so many interruptions, and I dare not attempt to copy it. It has been too long delayed now.