“The spectacle of an Indian church with Indian officers, preachers, and members, and of houses built by the Indians for church purposes, was too much for the average citizen of Puget sound, and the Shakers were continually disturbed, not only by the whites, but by the Indians who could not and did not appreciate the change to citizenship, so that I was constantly applied to for protection by the ministers and members of the Shaker church. A ‘paper’ has a great effect on the average Indian, and I issued on application several papers addressed in general terms to those who might be disposed to interfere with them, which had a quieting effect and caused evil-disposed persons to respect the Indians and their religion, or at least to let them alone. They now feel quite confident of their position, and are acting quite like the average citizen. Even the persons who persecuted them for eleven years now felt obliged to retire from the conflict, and a day of peace is reached at last.” “The Shaker church now reaches over nearly the whole of western Washington. The story of Slocum’s death and visit to heaven, and his return to preach to the Indians, is accepted by them as a direct revelation of the will of God. They say that they do not need to read the Bible, for do they not have better and more recent testimony of the existence of heaven and of the way to that celestial home than is contained in the Bible? Here is John Slocum, alive, and has he not been to heaven? Then, why read the Bible to learn the road, when John can so easily tell them all about it? The Bible says there are many roads; the Catholics have one, the Presbyterians another, and the Congregationalists a third; but John Slocum gives them a short, straight road—and they choose that.” “The Shaker church now has a building for church purposes at Mud bay, at Oyster bay, at Cowlitz, Chehalis, and Puyallup. They have about a dozen ministers regularly licensed, and about 500 members. Most of the Indians at Skokomish belong, while the Squaxins, Chehalis, Nisqually, Cowlitz, and Columbia River Indians, and in fact the majority of the Indians of western Washington, either belong or are in sympathy with its teachings, so that it is now the strongest church among them. They are sending out runners to the Yakimas east of the Cascade mountains, and expect before long to make an effort to convert that tribe.”