The Catholic World, Vol. 26, October, 1877, to March, 1878Various
Religion
The Catholic World, Vol. 26, October, 1877, to March, 1878
Various
Catholic Church -- Periodicals
In addition to the 33 agencies which belonged by right to the church,
but were distributed among the sects, 30 others were portioned out among
them, so that, according to the last report of the commissioner, while
the church, entitled to 40 agencies, has but 7, the Quakers have 16; the
Methodists 14; the Baptists 2; the Presbyterianscc 7; the
Congregationalists 6; the “Reformed” 4; the Protestant Episcopalians 9;
the Unitarians 2; the “Free-will Baptists” 1; the “United
Presbyterians,” who seem to be disunited from the other Presbyterians,
1; and the “Christian Union,” which is not in union with any of the
other sects, 1. If our space permitted, we should point out the
miserable results after a seven years’ possession of these agencies. The
four agencies under the care of the “Reformed” body, for example,
embrace 14 tribes, numbering 17,049 souls. Among these are the Papagoes,
5,900 in number, already tolerably well-civilized by Catholic
instruction, and all of whom wear citizen’s dress. With the exception of
these, the “Reformers,” after seven years’ labor, have 50 Indians who
wear citizen’s dress, 2 schools, 1 church building, and 4 church
members! As they have not thought it worth while to send out any
missionaries, one wonders what they do with their church building, but
it is probably used as a store-house by the “Reformed” agent.
The Hicksite Quakers have 5 agencies in Nebraska, with 4,098 Indians.
They have 392 “church members,” but 348 of these belong to a civilized
tribe—the Santee Sioux, who are 793 strong. After seven years of labor
the Quakers have got only 44 out of the other 3,300 Indians under their
care to call themselves “church members.” In the Hoopa Valley
reservation, given to the Methodists, there is a “school building,” but
no school, no teacher, and no pupils; there is a “church building,” but
no missionary and no “church members.” The poor mission Indians in
California, the children of Catholic parents for many generations, also
under the tender care of the Methodists, have neither houses, nor
school, nor church, nor missionary. The 6,000 Indians on the Red Cloud
agency in Dakota, under the charge of the Protestant Episcopalians, have
a “school building,” but no teacher, no scholars, no church, no
missionary, and no “church members.” The 3,992 Cheyennes and Arapahoes
in the Indian Territory, in charge of the Quakers, have a school-house,
but no church, no missionary, and no “church members,” and so with the
rest.
In selecting a few typical illustrations of the injustice perpetrated by
the assignment of tribes of Catholic Indians to non-Catholic sects, we
are embarrassed by the richness and plenitude of our facts. We mention
only two—the Chippewas of Lake Superior, and the Osages.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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