Nez Perce and the White Missionaries

Today I learned that the expedition that went to St. Louis was really comprised of 3 Nez Perce and 1 half-blood Nez Perce/Flathead (Salish). They most likely went to St. Louis with dual purposes of opening trade opportunities and acquiring copies of the bible and/or a missionary to teach them. However, the meeting was popularized and spread as four wise men from the west coming to be converted to Christianity and ready to abandon their "heathen" ways. Needless to say, when the missionaries actually came, things didn't go as expected. Whitman and Spalding came down, and the Whitmans ended up settling among the Cayuse while the Spaldings settled among the Nez Perces. The missionaries had some small successes... the natives came to the school and attended some religious services, but they had problems because the missionaries expected the natives to pretty much adopt the culture of the white men. They were expected to learn English, to give up hunting in favor of farming, to move closer to the missions, and basically adopt all the laws and customs of the Americans. They also expected the natives to come to an understanding that they are sinful creatures and are inherently bad without the redemption of Christ. The Nez Perce viewed themselves as essentially good and so this notion of going to hell without Christ's atonement was completely foreign and frankly unacceptable. They did have a few baptisms but it's hard to say if they had any true converts. The Nez Perce held beliefs about spirit animals and a person's successes and failures were linked to their spirit animal (which they discovered on a quest when they were 8-10 years old). Power was linked to spirits and they were probably trying to find additional spiritual power from Christianity to add to their religion, rather than to replace it.

Serious problems didn't come up until Whitman led the first big group of settlers into the Oregon territory. It comprised approximately 125 settlers and thousands of livestock. The author estimated that the group of settlers was about a third of the current Nez Perce population. Within a few years there were thousands. They weren't settling in Nez Perce country, preferring instead the comfortable Willamette valley, but the numbers must have been disconcerting. Also, they brought the measles, and, as I think I said in another post, the white missionaries were blamed for the outbreaks. The Whitmans were eventually massacred and the Spaldings were lucky to escape with their lives. What I didn't realize before was that the missionaries were providing medical aid but since the native populations were so much more susceptible to the diseases, their children were killed in droves while the missionaries were much more successful in helping white children (and adults). I can see how the natives could think it was purposeful.