Redwood County, Minnesota - Chapter 31: The Bishop Whipple Mission, 1916

The Right Rev. Henry B. "Whipple, first Episcopal Bishop of Minnesota, visited the Lower Agency on Friday, June 22, 1860, met the Sioux chiefs in council, visited the farmer Indians, held services at the home of Dr. Daniels, and confirmed Captain DeRossey, of the United States army. Sunday, June 24, he preached to the Indians at Dr. Daniel's house, and received from White Dog the pledge that his people would receive a Christian teacher with warm hearts.

In his "Lights and Shadows of a Long Episcopate," the Bishop gives an interesting account of this work. It was the time of the annual payment. There were 2,500 wild Indians assembled from the prairies. Thirty miles up the river, at Redwood, the Presbyterians had a mission. There was not a single Christian teacher at the Lower Agency. The Lower Indians by the treaty were entitled to $6,000 a year for schools, and this was expended for eight years, but not a single child had learned to read. After they were removed to the upper Minnesota river they sold the government 800,000 acres more. Three years had now passed, and they had never received anything except a few thousand dollars of worthless goods. The slumbering fires of hatred and revenge were ready to break out. This was their first payment. The lower Sioux were entitled to $20 each, $100 for a family of five. It was at this time that the bishop and the Rev. Mr. Breck visited the Lower Sioux Agency to confer with the Indians in regard to planting a mission in this unoccupied field. One afternoon Wabasha, Taopi and Wah-keen-washta came and asked a council with the bishop. They said : "We are looking into a grave. We hear you come from the Great Spirit to help His poor children." They told the story of their removal, the second sale of land. They asked us for schools and teachers. "I promised them," said the bishop, "I would ask God for help, and if He gave me the man and means the mission should be planted." On my return to Faribault, one day Samuel D. Hinman, then a candidate for Holy Orders, came to me and said : "Bishop, I have been learning the Sioux language and would like to become a missionary to them." The result was that Mr. Hinman decided to consecrate himself to that work, and was ordained deacon September 20, and on the eve of October 5 he and Mrs. Hinman, then a bride, arrived at his field of labor among the Lower Sioux. Emily "West, who had been with Mr. Breck among the Chippeways, and had had the care of the Indian children in the Mission House in Faribault, accompanied Mr. Hinman as teacher.

The work was begun in a rude one-story building which served for parsonage, school and church. The congregations were small, but the children were gathered in. Among the little ones who were made members of Christ's fold was a daughter of Good Thunder, twelve years of age, who the bishop received into the Indian school at Faribault. This beautiful child of the plains grew into the rare gentleness of Christian childhood. She had been baptized Lydia, from Mrs. Sigourney, who was a devoted friend of our early work. After a time Lydia was taken ill. The wild Sioux laughed at Good Thunder and said : ' ' What could you expect? Your child lives with our enemies; they have poisoned her and she will die." When told what these Indians had said, Lydia replied: "These Chippeway children are my brothers and sisters; we pray to the same Saviour and we are going to His home. Every day they bring me flowers and pick me the first ripe strawberries. We are Christ's children and are no longer enemies."

When it became certain that little Lydia was to be early called the father started with her for their home a hundred miles away. "I gave him a letter," writes the bishop, "in which I asked all white people to be kind to the father for the sake of his Christian child. When we met in the Sioux country, he told me, with deep emotion, of the kindness he had received, how some motherly woman had prepared dainty food for the dying child and given her the best room, adding, 'I shall never forget the white man's kindness.' "

He did not forget. "I had the privilege of meeting my child again. It was on a beautiful summer afternoon - cloudless sky - the air soft as if wafted from the shores of Paradise. Mrs. Whipple was with me and as she stooped in the Indian tepee to kiss the child, Lydia said, 'I am glad to see you once more before I go to Jesus' home.' As she saw her father weeping she said, 'Don't cry, father, I am going where no one is sick, and some day Jesus will lead you there.' So she beguiled the hours till she fell asleep. The burial service was in her own musical tongue, and there was a short address. We sang in Dacotah, 'Jesus, Lover of My Soul,' and as we committed her dust to dust, simultaneously every Indian came forward and dropped a handful of wild flowers in the grave. Elizabeth and Katie Biddle, Caroline Harris and Sarah Farnum were present, and we all felt that God had overpaid all our work in this blessed death of one of Christ's little ones.

"There was at this time a noted orator of the Sioux, Red Owl. When he spoke, his words seemed to sway his hearers as leaves are moved by the wind. He never came to church, and once laughed in derision at hearing an Indian child read. There hung in the school roof a picture of the 'Ecce Homo,' that sweet sad face of our dear Lord crowned with thorns. Red Owl stopped before it and said, 'Who is that? Why are His hands bound? Why has he those thorns on His head?' Again and again he came to look on that picture, and each time asked some question about the Son of the Great Spirit, His mission to earth, His death, and His resurrection.

"Not long after Red Owl fell dangerously ill. Shortly before his death he sent for his friends and said, 'I know that story of the missionary is true, I have it in my heart. When I am dead I want you to put a cross over my grave, so that, as the Indians go by, they may see what was in Red Owl's heart.' "

Our story would be lacking in graphic picturesquesness without the following incident. "At my visit I was pained to witness a scalp dance near our mission house. A party of Sioux had visited the Chippeway country and killed a worthy Indian who left a widow and four fatherless children. I went with Mr. Hinman and the interpreter to Wabasha's village, and calling on the old chief I said, 'Wabasha, you asked me for a missionary. I pitied your people. I have sent you a teacher to show you the good way. I have given you a school. I came to see my mission, and the sight which meets me is a bloody scalp dance. I knew that murdered Chippeway. His wife is asking for her husband. His children are crying for their father. The Great Spirit looks down from heaven and sees His red child laughing over his bloody hands. Wabasha, the Great Spirit is angry. Some day He will look Wabasha in the face and ask him, "Where is your Ojibway brother?" ' When I had finished my speech, Wabasha blew a cloud of smoke out of his mouth and, smiling, said, 'White man goes to war with his own brother who lives in same country, and kills more than Wabasha can count as long as he lives. Great Spirit looks down from heaven and says, "Good white man. Has My book. Me love him very much. I have good place for him when he dies." Red man has no Great Spirit book. Poor man. He goes, kills one Indian, only ONE man,' holding up his little finger. 'Great Spirit very mad - put Red man in bad place. Wabasha don't believe it.' "

Years afterwards Old Wabasha, one of nature 's noblemen, became a humble follower of Him who prayed from the cross, "Father, forgive them, they know not what they do."

The first visit of the bishop to the mission was made December 12 and 13, that year. At this visit he confirmed two white persons, and administered the Holy Communion. The school numbered fifty pupils, and many of the Indians were regular attendants on public worship. There was much to cheer and encourage. It was a Christian household among a heathen people.

The next visit of the bishop was in June, 1861. On the twentyseventh he confirmed seven persons in the Mission House of St. John. The bishop says: "The merciful goodness of God has overpaid all my efforts in the first fruits of these Dacotahs to the Church. The mission has had an average of fifty scholars, who have shown very marked improvement."

About this time the mission met with a severe loss in the removal of the Messrs. Drs. Daniels, government physicians to the Dacotahs, who had co-operated with Mr. Hinman, and had been faithful friends of the Indians. Of these, Dr. Jared W. Daniels, from his knowledge of Indian character, was of great assistance to the bishop. It was a singular instance of a good man raised up and prepared for the work God had called the bishop to do. And the doctor retained to the end the warm love and confidence of the bishop.

Later in the summer the writer visited the mission and was eyewitness to the successful work. The spirit of God was evidently moving the hearts of these poor people.

A third visit was made by the bishop, Sunday, December 1, 1861. "Preached to a large congregation of Indians - the service was in Dacotah. Thomas Robertson was the interpreter, to whom we owe much for his interest in this mission, and assistance as interpreter - celebrated the Holy Communion - baptized three Indian children. Also preached at a second service to the white population. Six persons were confirmed, to whom I delivered an address. Monday was spent in examining the children in the schools, all of whom showed a good degree of improvement. The government is bound to expend six thousand dollars a year for schools among the Lower Sioux ; and after eight years, I doubt if there is a single child at the Lower Agency who can read, who has not been taught by our missionary. The cost of this mission is less than seven hundred dollars a year.

"There was one marked feature of these services, that in a crowded congregation every man, woman and child was upon his knees in prayer. It is the only place where I have witnessed this in my diocese. This mission which was planted in faith almost two years ago, has overpaid me an hundred fold for all my work. The Gospel is very evidently working its way in these hearts, and it will be to them the power of God unto salvation. In some of our converts I have witnessed a child-like faith in Christ, and a readiness to bear opposition for His sake, worthy of the early ages of the Church. We need a church for these poor people. The government has offered us the land; the gifts of friends have quarried the stone, and we hope this year will see the cross-capped turret of the first church in the Dacotah nation." (Written in June 1862, just before the outbreak.)

Under date of December 3, the bishop says: "Celebrated the Holy Communion - eight present. Oh, how blessed, a first communion with these poor heathen! I wish no greater joy to any bishop than to meet the newly converted Indian by his Lord's table."

At the Easter offering, Faribault, seventy dollars were given for a church to the Dacotahs. In his second report of his work, Mr. Hinman says: "We hope to complete our church during this summer, but we are still much straitened in our work for want of proper mission buildings." It is a modest statement of the results thus far achieved. He also speaks of the many kindnesses received from the agent and government employees during his residence on the reservation.

The last visit of Bishop Whipple before the outbreak was made early in July, 1862. July 1, 2, 3 were spent in visiting the Indians connected with the mission. On the Fourth the bishop laid the cornerstone of the church in the presence of a large congregation of Indians and persons of mixed blood, to whom he delivered an address. On the fifth he preached, and baptized three Indian women and six children. Sunday, the sixth, preached twice, confirmed six members of the mission, and celebrated the Holy Communion."

The following is a description of the laying of the cornerstone of the church. "The spot chosen is one of surpassing beauty, on a part of the eighty acres presented by the government to the mission - on either side a wild ravine made by the windings of the Minnesota; in front, a beautiful rolling prairie stretching towards the setting sun. It was a picturesque scene, as the bishop and Mr. Hinman in their vestments, with the school children, Christian Indians, and friends, walked in procession from the mission house to the spot. They were joined by twenty or thirty of the wild Indians, decked with feathers and war paint, wrapped in blankets and protecting themselves from the sun with huge fans and green boughs cut from the trees. These clustered around the bishop and Mr. Hinman as they took their stand upon the foundation of the church, and no Christian congregation could have been more attentive than were these savages during the services and the admirable address of the bishop, in which he told them how the Son of the Great Spirit came down from heaven

In his convention address, 1863, the bishop says: "I had never had the opportunity to examine so thoroughly this mission as during this visit.

"There was a dark cloud lowering on the border, which, even then, filled us with fear. The medicine men, feeling their craft was in danger, excited their heathen followers to oppose the mission. Each day had its heathen dances; and, even on the Lord's Day, our services were disturbed by the discordant sounds of heathen worship. The Indians had causes of complaint against the government for violated faith. The traders had informed them that the money due to them for the sale of their lands had been taken for claims, and that one-half of their annuities had also been taken for claims. There followed on this a withdrawal of credits, and a delay of two months in the annual payment. I noticed during this visit that the wild Indians were bold and turbulent, and the fears expressed to me by the agent and others, gave me great anxiety for the fate of the mission; but no man could have foreseen so terrible a massacre. You will bear me witness, brethren, that for three years I have tried to awaken the people and their rulers to the enormities of an Indian system, which, I believed, if there was truth in history, would desolate our land with blood. I never left the Indian country with a heavier heart.

"Each day brought its new excitement. One day old 'Pappay' came to me and asked me how much money they would receive at the payment? I said $40 each. In an hour he brought me some chiefs and said, 'Tell them how much money we shall receive at the payment. They will not believe me.'

"It was evident that some one had told the Indians that they would not receive the annual payment. Stories of robbing were rife among the Indians. They had received only worthless goods for the 800,000 acres of land sold the government in 1858. All the chiefs asked, 'Where is the money we were to receive? Perhaps the Great Father sent it, and the cars went so fast it was shaken off. We ask you to look it up.' The payment had always taken place June 20. It was now July 1. Not less than 2,000 wild Indians had come together. There had already been much turbulence at the Upper Agency, and troops had been called out to preserve the peace. In visiting the Indian camps I was startled that Indians refused to shake hands. At the Lower Agency a trader's clerk said to me, 'The payment will not take place, more than half their annuities has been taken for claims. I know the money is gone. I have told the Indians this; we refuse to trust them. They came here and threatened, but I am not afraid.' Poor fellow. Like men who live under the shadow of a volcano, he had been lulled into security and saw no signs of the storm which would make him one of the first victims of savage fury.

"I shall never forget these days of anxiety and sorrow, when it seemed as if the very air was charged with materials for the cyclone of death, which in six weeks desolated one of the fairest countries on the face of the earth."

At length, on Monday morning, August 18, the threatened blow fell. The little church was now ready for the roofing, and the carpenters were to begin their work. Mr. Hinman was to start presently for Faribault, where Mrs. Hinman and child were on a visit, providentially, so were safe. Sounds of firing were heard; and, looking out, Mr. Hinman saw that hostilities had be gun in wanton acts of violence. He exclaimed at once to Miss West to run; and immediately both started by different ways. By a long circuitous route Miss West reached the fort, twelve miles distant by the traveled road. On her way she met a party of Indians, who, from regard to her, kindly directed her where to go. While she escaped, others were cruelly murdered. Arriving at the fort, she found that Mr. Hinman, to her great joy, had preceded her.

"The only gleam of light on the darkness of this unparalleled outbreak," he says, "is, that not one of the Indians connected with our mission was concerned in it. It is due to their fidelity that the captives were saved.

"While suffering deeply, and feeling the most lively sympathy for the sufferers, I felt that it was my duty to lay the blame of this massacre at the door of the government, which had left savages without the control of law, innocent border settlers without protection, and permitted robbery and every evil influence to excite savage natures to deeds of violence and blood. There would have been a like tale of sorrow on the Chippeway border, if the plans of the guilty leaders had not been exposed by our Indian clergymen (Enmegahbowh) and Chippeway friends. ' '

Unfortunately, some of the Dakota pupils at Andrews' Hall, Fairibault, were at their homes, it being vacation time. A pious mother of mixed blood, with her two sons, all of them communicants, and three grown up Indian boys, with an Indian girl, had gone home to visit their friends. These were all taken prisoner, or were victims of the outbreak. There were likewise seventeen

In 1885 the Rev. S. D. Hinman again visited Birch Coulee, and the following spring took up his residence there. About 1882 Good Thunder had bought eighty acres of land there, of which he gave twenty for the mission, on which, with the assistance of Bishop Whipple, Mr. Hinman built the mission house and school house in 1887. At this time there were eight houses, the Faribault Indians forming the nucleus of the settlement. August 27, 1889, Bishop Whipple laid the cornerstone of the church, which was completed the following year, being built, in part, of the stone of the church begun in 1862, which was removed by the Indians with their own hands. The new church was consecrated by Bishop Whipple July 16, 1891, and at the special request of the Indians was named "St. Cornelia," in grateful memory of their "white mother," as they said. March 24, 1890, the Rev. Mr. Hinman entered into rest after a short illness, and he sleeps beside the church to which so many cares and toils had been given.

For some time the mission was under the general care of the rector of Redwood Falls. During this interval Napoleon Wabasha was lay reader, also Henry W. St. Clair; and Miss Barney, and afterwards Miss Whipple, superintendents of the Sunday School.

June 25, 1899, Henry Whipple St. Clair was ordered deacon by Bishop Whipple in the church at Birch Coulee, and, after completing his studies at the Seabury Divinity School, was advanced to the priesthood by Bishop Edsall in the Church of St. Cornelia June 12, 1904. The occasion was a notable one. The Indians now were to have one of their own people to minister to them. Mrs. Bishop Whipple, the patroness of the mission, who had cared for the work since the passing of the bishop, was the guest of honor ; and of the clergy there were present the Rev. E. Steele Peake, who had visited the Lower Agency in 1856, and Messrs. Tanner, Purves, Rollit, Camp, Shutt, Hills, Doffin, and the Indian clergy, Walker and Holmes of Bishop Hare's jurisdiction; members of the mission and hostesses were Susan E. Salisbury and Mary W. Whipple, Robert Heber Clarkson Hinman, teacher in the government school, and John Wakeman, or Wakinya, tanka, half brother of Little Crow, and John Crooks, the Indian scout.

The Rev. Henry W. St. Clair, priest in charge, is the son of the Rev. George St. Clair, and grandson of Job. St. Clair of Mendota, who died at Birch Coulee. The Rev. George St. Clair was admitted as a candidate for Holy Orders by Bishop Whipple December 26, 1874, ordained deacon by him June 15, 1879, entered

Bishop Whipple says in his Council Address 1882: "At my first visit to Faribault, a bright-eyed Indian boy sat on the chancel steps of the Chapel. I little thought that it would be my privilege to ordain him a minister of Christ. You who knew him will bear witness to this guileless simplicity of character, his singleness of purpose, his purity of life and earnest faith in Christ. He made full proof of his ministry, and has gone before us to the rest of the people of God."

Some of the Indians at Birch Coulee are living on the same land they occupied before the "Outbreak" in 1862. The government gave them thirty acres, more or less. The mission property consists of church, rectory, mission house and school house. Hard by the church, in the burial ground used by the Indians before the "Outbreak" of 1862, is the monument erected by Mrs. Whipple to the memory of Good Thunder, the first Sioux brave baptized by Bishop Whipple, "a loyal Indian, who saved nearly two hundred white women and children in 1862. ' '

While on a visit to Japan Sybil Carter conceived the idea of lace-making as a branch of industry for the Indian women. After hearing what lace-making had done for the poor women of Japan, Bishop Whipple said : " It is just the thing for our Indian women. Go with me to White Earth, and, if you will teach my women there to make this lace, you shall have the hospital for headquarters for your work. ' ' Miss Carter went to White Earth with the bishop and taught the women. This was in 1886. In 1890 she went east and raised the money for a teacher, and, on her return in October, took Miss Wiswell with her for a teacher. In August, 1891, Pauline Colby was added as a teacher in the school, and in 1892 Miss Carter herself went up and remained for over a year. In August, the same year, Susan E. Salisbury, the bishop's niece, went to White Earth to assist Miss Carter. Subsequently a school was started at Red Lake, a hundred and twenty miles north of White Earth, and one at Leach Lake, ninety miles east of White Earth. There are now (1906) nine lace schools.

To bring the work more prominently before the public, Miss Carter, with Miss Salisbury, removed to St. Paul as headquarters in September, 1893. In the spring of 1894, Miss Carter closed the house in St. Paul for the summer and went to Birch Coulee, taking Miss Salisbury and Miss Barney with her. In 1897 the house in St. Paul was closed permanently, and Miss Carter removed her headquarters to New York, where she holds lace sales every year. The first bedspread made by the Indian women was for Mrs. Pierpont Morgan of New York City. Since then eight have been made. It may be mentioned as of interest that the lace made by the Indian women took the gold medal at the Paris exhibition.

In June, 1895, Mary Whipple went to Birch Coulee to take charge of the school ; and after the house in St, Paul was closed in March, 1897, she was joined by Susan E. Salisbury. In the autumn of 1905 Miss Whipple resigned and Mrs. St. Clair, wife of the Rev. Henry St. Clair, was appointed assistant to Miss Salisbury, who has charge of the mission.

Since the passing of Bishop Whipple his plans and wishes in regard to the mission at Birch Coulee have been faithfully carried out by Mrs. H. B. Whipple, who, with other substantial improvements, has built and furnished a commodious rectory, and erected a beautiful monument of Minnesota granite hard by the church in pious memory of Good Thunder, the first Sioux baptized by Bishop Whipple. In all this loving work she has had the sympathy and support of Bishop Edsall, whose election was the choice of the first bishop, as well as of the diocese, because he believed he could entrust to the loving heart of his son in the faith the care of these wards whose cause he had espoused when he came to the diocese. It would seem invidious to single out any one name from the many who have aided Bishop Whipple in this mission, to the exclusion of others who have given valuable assistance in its maintenance. For further information we refer the reader to Bishop Whipple's "Lights and Shadows of a Long Episcopate" ; to "Taopi and His Friends" ; to the Rev. Mr. Cook's "History of the Niobrara Mission," and to the many letters of Bishop Whipple in "The Minnesota Missionary."

Susan Elizabeth Salisbury, the devoted missionary at the Bishop Whipple Mission, Redwood county, was born at Adams, Jefferson county, New York, daughter of Hiram and Sarah B. Whipple Salisbury, natives of that county, and niece of the Right Rev. Henry B. Whipple, first Bishop of Minnesota. She was reared as an only child, her only sister, Prances Whipple Salisbury, having died in infancy. Early determining to devote her life to the cause of the church, Miss Salisbury finished her education at St. Mary's Hall, the school that Bishop Whipple had established at Faribault, Minnesota. In August, 1892, she went to the Chippewa Reservation at White Earth, Minnesota, to labor among the Indians there, under the auspices of the Domestic and Foreign Mission Society of the Protestant Episcopal Church. At White Earth, she became the assistant in the lace-making school, which Sybil Carter, under the direction of Bishop Whipple, acting upon the inspiration received from watching Japanese women at work, had there established as the first of the nine lace-making schools, which are now working such a revolution in the life of the Indian women, on the various reservations. In September, 1893, Miss Carter and Miss Salisbury removed to St. Paul and there established headquarters for the purpose of bringing the project of Indian lace-making prominently before the public. In the spring of 1896, the headquarters at St. Paul were permanently closed, and Miss Salisbury joined Miss Carter in New York, where Miss Carter had established headquarters. In March, 1897, Miss Salisbury came to the Bishop Whipple Mission as missionary and to assist Miss Mary W. Whipple, the Bishop's cousin, who later resigned, in the autumn of 1905, when Miss Salisbury assumed full charge of the work with Mrs. St. Clair, the wife of the Indian priest, as her assistant. This school was established January 10, 1894, and meets on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays. The product of this and the other eight schools consists of lace bed spreads, lace sofa pillow covers, insertions, etc. The lace bed spreads are particularly the product of the Bishop Whipple Mission, nine having been completed. Among the purchasers of these articles are such people as Mrs. Helen Gould Sheperd, Mrs. Cornelius Vanderbilt, Mrs. J. P. Morgan, Mrs. Robert Winthrop and others. One of the workers made a sofa pillow cover for Queen Alexandria of England, who wrote a letter in commendation of the work. A gold medal was awarded the lace of the Indian women at the Paris Exposition.

The Rev. Henry Whipple St. Clair, who has charge of St. Cornelia's Church, and the Bishop Henry B. Whipple Mission, is a Sioux Indian. His father, George Whipple St. Clair, was also a clergyman, ordained to the priesthood by Bishop Henry B. Whipple. He was much loved by all the Sioux, who came for miles to attend his ordination. His ministerial life was largely devoted to preaching at Faribault and in the surrounding towns, where in the early days many Indians were located. Esther Walker, wife of Rev. George Whipple St. Clair, and mother of Rev. Henry Whipple St. Clair, spent her latter years at the mission in Redwood county. She was an example for good to all the Indians at the mission, and a devoted church woman.

Rev. Henry Whipple St. Clair was educated for the ministry at the Seabury Divinity school at Faribault, Minn., having been sent there by Bishop Whipple, whose great desire was that he could give to the Indian people at Birch Coulie, a clergyman who could speak to them in their own language. He was ordained by Bishop Whipple to the deaconate June 25, 1899, and later to the priesthood by Bishop Edcall June 11, 1904. Quoting from the "Lights and Shadows of a Long Episcopate" Bishop

Whipple's book, he says, "The strongest opponent to missions would have bowed head and heart could he have looked upon the dignified thoughtful faces of that Indian congregation as they hung upon the words of the holy office, which gave them a shepherd from their own flock and their own people. For seventeen years this priest has gone in and out among these people trying to minister to them as his Bishop would have him. It has not been easy work, but daily God has given him the needed strength.

Henry Whipple St. Clair was married to Amelia Jones in Gethsemane church, Minneapolis, Minn., Nov. 2, 1889, by Bishop Anson Graves. They have had thirteen children: George, Cora, Ruth, Cornelia, Gertrude, Henry, Evangeline (first), Evangeline, Reuben, Viola, Toby, Eleanor and Samuel. Evangeline (first), Gertrude and Toby are dead. Mrs. St. Clair has been a great help to Mr. St. Clair in his work and is an experienced lacemaker, having been Miss Salisbury's assistant and interpreter for many years.

Authority. Condensed from the article by the Rev. George C. Tanner, D. D., in the "History of the Diocese of Minnesota, 1857-1907." To this, the biographies have been added.