“It was not to better their condition that the missionaries came, for they left good, comfortable homes. It was no desire for wealth that enticed them, for they sought not wealth. It was not the allurements of gold, for they were ignorant of the existence of gold in the very hills that afterward produced millions of it. They had the love of Christ in their hearts, and they came solely to bear a message of Him to others.” —Eliza Spalding Warren, daughter of missionaries to the Nez Percé and the first white child born in what is now Idaho.
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In 1832, four Nez Perce Native Americans journeyed 3,000 miles from Northern Idaho to St. Louis, Missouri and petitioned General William Clarke (of Lewis and Clarke fame) to send someone to their people to teach them about God. They reminded Clarke, who was now Superintendent of Indian Affairs, that their fathers had heard of God’s book through him many years before when he and the Corps of Discovery wintered with them in 1805.
One of the best sources for this meeting is William Walker, an interpreter for the Wyandott Indian Nation, who wrote the following letter to a friend, G. P. Dishoway of New York. It was later published in The Christian Advocate and Journal of the Methodist Episcopal Church, in January 19, 1833.
Immediately after we landed in St. Louis on our way to the west I preceded to Gen. Clarke’s, Superintendent of Indian Affairs, to present our letters of introduction from the Secretary of War, and to receive the same from him to the different Indian agents in the upper country.
While in his office and transacting business with him, he informed me that three chiefs from the Flathead Nation were in his house and were quite sick, and the one (the fourth) had died a few days ago. They were from the west of the Rocky Mountains…The distance they had traveled on foot was nearly three thousand miles to see Gen. Clarke, their great father, as they called him, he being the first American officer they ever became acquainted with, and having such confidence in him, they had come to consult him as they said, upon very important matter…
Gen. C. related to me the object of their mission and, my dear friend, it is impossible for me to describe to you my feelings while listening to his narrative. I will here relate it as briefly us I can. It appeared that some white man had penetrated into their country, and happened to be a spectator at one of their religious ceremonies that they scrupulously perform at stated periods... He informed them that men toward the rising of the sun had been put in possession of the true mode of worshipping the Great Spirit.
(He informed them that) they had a book containing directions how to conduct themselves in order to hold converse with him; and with this guide no one need go astray, but everyone that would follow the directions laid down there would enjoy, in this life, his favor, and after death would be received into the country where the Great Spirit resides and live with him forever.
Upon receiving this information they called a national council to take this subject into consideration. Some said, “If this be true, it is certainly time we were put in possession of this mode and if our mode of worshipping be wrong and displeasing to the Great Spirit, it is time we had laid it aside. We must know something more about this, it is a matter that cannot be put off.”
They arrived at St. Louis, and presented themselves to Gen. C. The latter was somewhat puzzled being sensible of the responsibility that rested upon him; he however proceeded by informing them that what they had been told by the white man in their own country was true. Then went into a succinct history of man, from his creation down to the advent of the Savior; explained to them all the moral precepts contained in the Bible... (and) informed them of the advent of the Savior, his life, precepts, his death, resurrection, ascension, and the relation he now stands to man as a mediator, that he will judge the world, etc. Poor fellows, they were not all permitted to return home to their people with this intelligence. Two died in St. Louis
,[1] and the remaining two, though somewhat indisposed, set out for their native land. Whether they reached home or not is not known… If they died on their way home, peace be to their manes.
They died inquirers after the truth.
Yours in haste,
Wm. Walker
In the spring of 1832, the two survivors took passage for home on the steamboat, TheYellowstone, and George Catlin, the celebrated explorer and artist, who was a passenger on this boat, painted portraits of the two men, the originals of which now hang in the Smithsonian.
One of these pilgrims, the man known as "No Horns on His Head," died en route. Only the young man, "The Rabbit Skin Leggings," lived to reach his home on the Clearwater River.
Catlin remarked on that occasion:
“Hee-oh'ks-te-kin (Rabbit Skin Leggings) and H'co-a-h'co ah'cotes-min (No Horns On his Head) are young men of (the Nez Perce) tribe. These two young men…were part of a delegation that came across the Rocky Mountains to St. Louis, a few years since, to enquire for the truth
Two old and venerable men of this party died in St. Louis, and I traveled two thousand miles, companion with these two young fellows, towards their own country, and became much pleased with their manners and dispositions. The last mentioned of the two (No Horns on His Head), died near the mouth of the Yellow Stone River on his way home, with disease which he had contracted in the civilized district; and the other one I have since learned, arrived safely amongst his friends, conveying to them the melancholy intelligence of the deaths of all the rest of his party; but assurances at the same time, from General Clarke, and many reverend gentlemen, that the report which they had heard was well founded; and that missionaries, good and religious men, would soon come amongst them to teach this religion, so that they could all understand and have the benefits of it.”
One of the first to answer the call was Rev. Samuel Parker, a teacher in a girl’s school in Ithaca, New York. Parker read the article in the Christian Advocate and Journal and determined that he would be the one to go.
Parker wrote the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions on April 10, 1833, volunteering to explore the western regions, but the ABCFM decided because of his age and other concerns it could not approve Parker's application. Undaunted, on January 6, 1834, he addressed the congregation of the Ithaca Presbyterian Church on the need to establish a mission in what was then the Oregon Territory. They voted to sponsor the endeavor. After one aborted start in which he missed his connection with his guides, he traveled to St. Louis and accompanied the American Fur Company party as far as the Rendezvous on the Green river in what is now the state of Wyoming.
Several years ago I came across a first-edition copy of Samuel Parker's journal in the archives of the Idaho Historical Society's Library in Boise. I found it intriguing because it referenced landmarks that were very familiar to me: Pierre’s Hole (the Teton Basin), Henry’s Fork of the Lewis River (the Snake River), the lava beds (Craters of the Moon National Monument), Three Buttes, Fort Hall, Birch Creek, the Nez Perce Trail, and other sites. As I read, however, I realized I was hearing again the “Macedonian call” and reading the diary of an unsung hero.
A few years after finding Parker’s diary, my sons and I relived a portion of his journey, following his path across the Magruder Corridor, the old Nez Perce trail, through the Selway-Bitteroot Wilderness, reading from his journal along the way. Historian George Bancroft said of that rugged region, “It was the common judgment of the first explorers that there was something strange and awful in the scenery and topography of (that wilderness).” Parker was an older man, unaccustomed to wilderness living. He was a city dweller, a “flatlander,” in mountain parlance, yet he was willing to endure any hardship to seek and to save the lost.
From the Green River, Parker and his small party crossed into Idaho through the Teton Basin. From there he followed the Teton River northwest to Cote's Defile (Birch Creek). There he rested for a few days.
On the morning of September 5th, 1835 a hunting party of Nez Perce joined them at their campsite. Parker notes, “Providentially there came to us this afternoon a good interpreter from Fort Hall, so that tomorrow I can preach to the people.” That evening, Parker met with Charlie, the principal chief of the Nez Perce and arranged to speak to the group the next day. The chief, Parker reported, welcomed his coming and said, “I have been like a little child, uneasy, feeling about in the dark after something, but not knowing what; but now I hope to learn something which will be substantial, and which will help me to teach my people what is true."
The next day, the Nez Perce constructed a shelter one hundred feet long and twenty feet wide, and placed buffalo rugs on the floor. Between four and five hundred men, women, and children gathered to listen while Parker spoke.
Parker writes, “I stated to them the original condition of man when first created, his fall, and the ruined and sinful condition of all mankind...and then told them of the mercy of God in giving His Son to die for us, and of the love of the Savior... I never spoke to a more attentive assembly, and I would not have changed my audience for any other upon earth and I felt it was worth a journey across the Rocky Mountains, to enjoy this one opportunity... I hope, that in the last day it will be found, that good was done in the name of Jesus.”
Some days later, Charlie came to Parker’s tent: ”I have been like a little child, uneasy, feeling about in the dark after something, but not knowing what..." he said. “But now, I know God. What you have told us is indeed “tois” (good).”
I think of Paul's conviction: "(God) has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their pre-appointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings, so that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him...” —Acts 17:26,27
To be continued someday...
David Roper
[1] The two men who died were buried in St. Louis. Their burial records read:
The 31st of October, 1831, I, undersigned, did bury in the Cemetery of this Parish the body of Keepellele, or Pipe Bard of Nez Perce of the tribe of the Chopoweck Nation called Flat Heads, age around 44 years, administered Holy Baptism, coming from the Columbia river beyond the Rocky Mountains. Edm. Saulinier. Priest
The seventeenth of November, 1831, I, undersigned, did bury in the Cemetery of this Parish the body of Paul, savage of the Nation of the Flat Heads, coming from the Columbia River beyond the Rocky Mountains. Roux. Priest.
