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Meeting # 1627
4:00 P.M.
January 6, 20001000 Miles For A Book:
(The Book Of Heaven)
by
George William Smart
Assembly Room, A. K. Smiley Public Library
SUMMARY
This paper concerns the
Nez Perce people of Idaho and their relationships with Anglo-Saxon people from the first
visit of the Lewis and Clark expedition in 1805 until the present. Described are the ways
in which the first contact with this tribe by white people resulted in loyalty to the
United States government. Even greater is the remarkable desire of these Native Americans
to secure the essence of Christianity by owning the Holy Bible, called by them the Book of
Heaven. From the first inklings of the Christian faith at the time of the visit by Lewis
and Clark until the arrival of the first missionaries, the story tells of the
disappointment at not finding the Book, and continues until the Book is brought by the
Reverend Henry Spalding. We then meet a direct descendant of a man called Rabbit Skin
Leggins who traveled from his homeland by horseback to St. Louis to search for the Book of
Heaven. This descendant becomes a friend of the author, and continues in the Faith that
her ancestor searched and risked his life for. Appended to this paper is an account of the
life of the son of Sacajawea, who as an infant traveled with the Lewis and Clark
expedition.
BIOGRAPHY
George William Smart was born and raised in Glendale, California. He graduated from
Gordon College In Boston, Mass. in 1936, and took graduate seminary degrees at Gordon
Divinity School, Berkeley Baptist Divinity School and Central Baptist Theological
Seminary. Additional studies took him to the University of Nevada, and the University of
California at Berkeley. He is married and has two children.
He was ordained to the Christian Ministry by the First Baptist Church of Georgetown,
Mass. which he pastored until 1939 when he was appointed by the American Baptist
denomination to the Tahoe Indian Parish in Nevada. After 14 years in Nevada, he became
Chaplain of the federal government's Haskell Indian Institute in Lawrence, Kansas. Ten
years Bier as President of the Cook Indian Theological Seminary in Phoenix, he directed
the building of a new campus in Tempe. Two 'pale-face' pastorates followed in Californiaž the First Baptist Church of Calimesa and Grandview Baptist in
Grand Terrace.
His published History of Nevada Indian Missions was part of his Doctorate of Theology
studies at Central Baptist Seminary in Kansas City, KS. He was president of the National
[Fellowship of Indian Workers, and of Ministerial Associations in Lawrence, Kansas and
Carson City, Nevada. this Nevada friends of the Washo Tribe named him Honorary Chief
Wa-Pai-Shone, for his service to the three major tribes in Nevadaž
Washo, Paiute, Shoshone.
He is a member of the First Baptist Church in Redlands, maintains a General Class Ham
Operators license, is a Certified Supreme Master facetor of the American Society of
Gemcutters. Other hobbies include bonsai, orchids, and dabbling with woodworking. He has
enjoyed the humane and ethereal atmosphere of Fortnightly Club since 1989.
CONTENTS
• The Lewis and
Clark Expedition
• The Nez Perce
people
• Fort Clatsop
pictured
• Spalding Mission
Site
• Descendant of
Rabbit Skin Leggins
When I moved from
Lawrence, Kansas to Phoenix, Arizona, I became the president of a seminary for Native
Americans which was founded in 1911 by the Reverend Doctor Charles H. Cook, a Presbyterian
missionary to the Pima Indians. The Indian Seminary trained men and woman to become
pastors and leaders of urban and reservation Indian churches. I became acquainated with
the school secretary, whose name was Nancy Johns, and she served in the front office.
Nancy belonged to the Nez Perce tribe in Idaho, and she had earlier come from a
Presbyterian church in Idaho to the Cook Indian Seminary in Phoenix as a student. My
curiosity was aroused about the Nez Perce people I wondered what had brought her so far
from her home. I learned that her story was ----- one of the finest stories of American
History.
Before I related that
story, let me jump backwards to the year 1803. Thomas Jefferson was President of the
United States. He had just completed with France the purchase of the Northwest Terrirory,
--- called the Louisana Purchase.
President Jefferson in
consultation with the Congress wanted to send an expedition to the Northwest to establish
and to eventually monopolize trade with the Indians located in that area which had been
under the jurisdiction of Spain, but by treaty was French, and then became United States
territory. Such was the declared purpose of an expedition for exploration. Other
undeclared reasons included the wish to exclude Canada, provide for the United States
expansion, and block Napoleon’s plan for a French empire in North America. The Lewis
and Clark Expedition was to be the instrument for these purposes.
The Missouri River was the
key to the effort. Jefferson’s instructions to Captain Merriwether Lewis was this:
"The object of your mission is to explore the Missouri River, and such principal
stream of it, as by its course and communication with the waters of the Pacific Ocean, may
offer the most direct and practicable water communication across this continent, for the
purposes of commerce." The year was 1804. The month was May.
Captain Lewis was an
officer of the First Infantry, on detached duty to President Jefferson, as his private
secretary. He was twenty-nine years old in 1803, and the partner he chose to be his
co-captain was William Clark, thirty-three years of age. Both had much experience in
commanding, and wilderness life, and were experienced rivermen.
They would keep separate
daily journals which in later years would become a national treasure. The journals were
unknown to the general public until almost one hundred years later when Bernard DeVoto
condensed them to manageable proportions. Says DeVoto:
Lewis and Clark’s exploration
of the western two thirds of the continest was our epic voyage, and their
account of it our epic poem. Sitting before the nightly campfire, using a
quill pen that had to be dipped into the inkwell every other word, balancing their
leather-covered journals on their knee, Captains Meriwether Lewis and William Clark
described the day’s events as well as the land and its people; and its flora and
fauna, in a prose remarkable for its verve, sharp imagery, tension and immediacy.
They introduce many and
varied characters: Sacajawea, the teen-aged Shoshone Indian guide with her baby boy [now
pictured on the new dollar coin]; Charbonneau, her French-Canadian husband; York, the
slave of Capt. Clark; Frewyer, the interpreter and woodsman; the twenty-eight recruits,
including the one single loss of Floyd who died on the trail. The Indian characters are
fascinating: Cameahwait the Shoshone; Big White of the Mandans; Comowool of the Clatsops;
Black Buffalo of the Sioux; Old Toby of the Shoshones; Broken Arm of the Nez Perce. The
passages of the journal on the Native Americans, --- such as the Shoshones and the Nez
Perce, ---- describe people who had never before encountered White Men. Lewis was the
better botanaist, Clark the better boatman; Lewis the better zoologist, Clark the better
cartographer, and they complemented each other as writers. Clark could be lyrical, but
more often was a stick-to-the-point-no-wasted-words kind of a writer.
Both Lewis and Clark
respected the Indian’s personal dignity. They insisted that all dealings with the
Indians be friendly, fair, scrupulously honest, courteous and respectful. They required a
similar attitude from those under their command. The simple fact is that Clark especially,
liked Indians. This paid off. They had no trouble with most tribes, -- after the Sioux,
until they reached "the decadent, thievish people of the lower Columbia River who had
been debauched by brutality and terrorism by and with the maritime trade."
For the purposes of this
present paper, my interest concerns the Nez Perce people, who became loyally attached to
America throught the visits of Lewis and Clark, both on their westward journey and their
return. Their loyalty was permanent. The journal describes the first meeting with the Nez
Perce in 1805:
The high Rocky Mts. required one
more day. There were lesser peaks, high hills and heavy timber. Except for a few grouse
there was no game. Clark and his six hunters killed a strayn horese, and after
breakfasting on it, hung it on a tree following party.
Then they met villages of Nez
Perces, could talk with them only in sign language, found them hospitable and friendly.
They supplied his party with dried salmon and flour made with camassia root. We continued
to a large village along the Clearwater River, presided over by a Chief Twisted Hair with
whom they developed a strong friendship. When Lewis caught up with Clark they were sick
for they had poor rations, ----- an occassional grouse, a coyote, and a crow. their
trouble was dysentry, ---- lax and heaviness of the stomack.
As they moved down the
Clearwater River, Clark’s journal reads like a hospital daybook! Captain Lewis was
very sick, hardly able to ride a gentle horse supplied by the Chief. All the men were
complaining of their bowels. The Indians navigated the Clearwater in dugouts and they
provided information that the party might proceed by water to their destination, --- the
Pacific Ocean. The Nez Perces agreed to take care of their 38 horses until they returned
from their trip to the mouth of the Columbia River. They buried their saddles along with a
canister of powder and a bag of balls. Meanwhile men, taught by the Indians, made dugout
canoes for the party. On October 5, 1805 while still unwell, they continued their journey
westward only to lose some of their gear from canoes that sprung a leak and tumbled
several men into the water, ---- some of whom could not swim. When they spread our their
gear to dry, they had to mount a guard to keep the neighboring natives from helping
themselves. Two chiefs from the Nez Perce accompanied them on the Snake River and on down
to the Columbia.
The Expedition arrived at
the mouth of the Columbia River and saw the Pacific Ocean. Thus they wrote: "We are
in view of the Ocian, the great Pacific Octean. O the joy!" But they were mistaken.
It was merely a cape, [Cape Disappointment]. When they arrived at the actual ocean, they
noted the River had a sandbar at it mouth. But again they wrote: "The men appeared
much satisfied with
their trip, beholding with
estonishment the high waves dashing against the rocks and this emence Ocian."
After months on the trail,
it was time to make preparations to spend the winter near the coast. It was Sunday,
November 15th, 1805. Capt. Clark did not like the ocean, --- "salt water as I view it
inasmuch as it is not healthy." He wanted to go back to the place of the rapids
called The Dalles on the Columbia River. But that was out of the question for the dampness
had rotted their clothes and blankets, and if they stayed near the ocean they might
encounter a ship engaged in Northwest trade. They finally decided to spend the winter in
the forest near the Clatsop tribe.
They built a fort which
they named Fort Clatsop, and they spent the winter months of cold rainy existence
repairing their gear. It was a stockade fifty feet square with a parade ground between a
row of cabins. It took a month to build the structures, was completed on January First,
1806. They occupied it for about three months. A replica of the fort was rebuilt in 1950,
now called Fort Clatsop National Historic Park. A newly discovered map, found in 1999 in
the National Archives, drawn by the US Coast Survey, seems to pinpoint the exact location
of the fort only a few hundred feet from where the present replica is located.
THE RETURN JOURNEY
Lewis wrote in his journal
on Tuesday, March 18, 1806: "We wrote a list to give to the Indians and we posted it
in our fort, giving the names of all our men, and the fact that the expedition had been
here sent by the U.S.Government." It was in essence a claim to the terrirory. They
wanted some civilized persons to inform the world that they had been sent by the U.S.
Government in May of 1804, that they had ascended the Missouri River and descended the
Columbia, arriving at the Pacific Ocean on the 14th of November 1805, and they were
returning to the United States in March of 1806.
They left Fort Clatsop on Sunday,
March 23, amid high winds and rain, and a choppy columbia River. The had purchased from a
local tribesmen and his six daughters the following: a canoe, a sea-otter skin, dried
fish, and hats. It took them about six weeks to return to the Nez Perce people, and Clark
wrote on May 3, 1806:
This morning we set out at 7 a.m. we
met with We-ark-koomt whom we have called Big Horn Chief of a large band of
the Chopunnish Nation (Nez Perce). This man last fall went down to the Columbia
River with us, and I believe he was responsible for securing a hospitable and friendly
reception with these people.
He came a considerable distance to
meet us. it rained, hailed, snowed, and blowed with great violence a greater part of the
day. -------- we divided the last half of our dried meat at dinner and we consumed the
balance of our dogs. Scant supper, not anything tomorrow. We-ark-koomt
consoled us with the information there was an Indian lodge at no great distance and we
could renew our supplies. We reached the lodge, and from the six families in the lodge we
purchased two very lean dogs. these people are very poor.
They pressed on to another
larger lodge of ten families and received a larger portion of food for the traveling
party: a horse, and dogs, and the common biscuit of which could be eaten raw or cooked.
One lodge was 156 feet long and 15 feet wide, made of mats and straw with roof like a
house, with several doors on the sides. It was closed at the ends, and without partitions
inside. Fires are kindled in a row in the center about ten feet apart. At one time we had
several requests to treat the sick, but we would not treat them unless they provided us
with horses and dogs to eat, because we were so very hungry.
There was so much sickness
among the natives, and both Lewis and Clark broke out their supply of medicines and won
their undoubted allegiance to the United States by their treatment. Lewis wrote that "Capt. Clark is my favorite physician." He treated people of his party as well
as the natives.
At one time Capt. Lewis
echanged horses with We-ark-kmoot, giving him a small flag with which he was
much pleased and gratified. The sorrel which he gave to Capt. Lewis was a strong
well-broke horse. The flag was put on a pole by the Chief who told Capt. Clark to go and
camp at a place about 80 paces from a nearby lodge. They brought bushels of bread cakes
made of the quammish root and dried fish. "We explained we had to have flesh to eat
along with the roots. They produced 2 horses which we killed and ate"
The village of Broken Arm consists
of one house or lodge which is 150 feet long built in the form of sticks, mats, dry grass.
it contains 24 fires and about the double number of families. from appearance I presume
they could raise one hundred fighting men; the noise of the women pounding cow root
(biscuit) remind me of a nail facatory. the Indians appear well pleased, and I am
confident they are not more so than our men who have filled their stomach once more, -- we
were filled with horse beef and the bread of cows (biscuits). These people have shown much
greater acts of hospitality than we have witnessed from any nation or tribe since we have
passed the Rocky Mountains. in short be it spoken to their immortal honor it is the only
act which deserves the appelation of hospitality which we have witnessed in this quarter.
A great number of Indians apply to us for medical aid which we gave them. Great cheerfully
so far as our skill and store would enable us: scorfla, ulsers, rhumatism, sore eyes, and
the loss of the use of limbs are most common among them.
The party had spent five
weeks on the banks of the Clearwater River with these people called by the French Nez
Perce because they saw nose rings. The chiefs now advised them it would be impossible
to cross the Rocky Mountains because the snow was very deep in the high country. They
would need to wait until June, --- another full moon. They spent their time gathering
horses they had left a year before, repaired gear, treated the sick, spent a great deal of
time around campfires, smoking the pipe of peace, sharing information about the Great
White Chief in Washington named President Jefferson. Although the journals do not
specifically tell us, but from later events it seems to be fact that they also spoke about
the Great Father God in the sky, and told them stories gleaned from the Holy Bible which
they called The Book of Heaven.
After a great council in
which in which Lewis and Clark told of the immenseness of the territory covered by the
Government, they presented the message of the United States from President Jefferson,
promising to engage in trade with the tribe, the expedition was ready for the Rocky
Mountains. The Nez Perce Chiefs had presents for the Chiefs Lewis and Clark who
reciprocated with medals and flags and a few guns and ammunition. The snow had melted
sufficiently for them to travel safely, and the green grass was sufficiently high for the
horses to graze. They had an immense store of food, and a reserve number of horses. Their
men had been rested and become well from their varied illnesses, the child of their
Shoshone guide had recovered from his sickness. Several young Nez Perce men agreed to
travel with them as far as the falls of the Missouri. Rain hindered their departure, and
it was Sunday June 15, 1806 when they started from the Nez Perce camp toward home. They
reached St. Louis September 23, 1906.
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So much for a quick
narrative of the Lewis and Clark expedition with the people we still call the Nez Perce
tribe. We have learned that the tribesmen were far more gentle, and hospitable than other
tribes the expedition had met. They had been extremely helpful to the travelers, and
became loyal allies of the United States.
[I have a recent quote
gleaned from the June 1999 issue of the Sunset Magazine: Rudy Shebala is a modern Nez
Perce horsebreeder from the town of Lapwai, in Idaho. "Among the most skilled
equestrians in the history of the world, the Nez Perce will probably be forever associated
with their spotted Appaloosa horses." ..... Now Shebala is helping to bring back
their horsemanship by developing a new breed called, not surprisingly, The Nez
Perce. It is a cross between the Appaloosa and Turkmenistan’s Akhal-Teke. The
tribe is beginning to sell the new breed.] Captains Lewis and Clark had treated them
wisely, had won their confidence through honest and dignified behavior while in their
midst. Some of their party had spoken about the Christian religion as the unseen power
behind that which the expedition displayed. They were told about the Holy Bible, the Book
of Heaven, and if they might possess it, they too might have the power of the White Man.
Some day, the White Chiefs told them, missionaries would come from the country toward the
rising of the sun and bring them the Book of Heaven.
The Nez Perce savored
spiritual things, and at night as they gathered around their campfires, they talked of the
white men they had seen, and the God they worshipped. Sometimes conversation revolved
about the promised missionaries, but year after year passed with no other visitors from
the rising sun. Old men died, but young men carried on the vision. After many years of
waiting, an old man broke the silence that had descended on the gathered people. "We
have heard no word from those earlier visitors. They do not come to us. Why do we not go
to them? It will be a hard trail of many moons, but we must have that book, --- the Book
of Heaven." The young braves were startled. Go for the Book? How could they go? Where
would they go? But all of these questions faded into the conviction, "We must
go!" the matter was so important that a full tribal council was called, and it was
decided to send five men to the East, charging them to go on until they found someone who
could give them the Book of Heaven. It was twenty-five years after the visit of Lewis and
Clark, ----- a full generation later, ----- when the decision was made.
Three older men and two
young men were selected to go to the great land beyond the Rocky Mountains. The choice
fell on Black Eagle, Man of the Morning, Rabbit Skin Leggins, and No Horns On The Head.
The name of the fifth man has not been preserved since he proved faint of heart and
returned home after two days. They selected the strongest and best of their horses
(Appaloosa, no doubt), provided a sufficient supply of food, and turned their faces toward
the rising sun.
For more than a thousand
miles they traveled over Indian trails and trackless plains. Across mountains, forests,
down river valleys, through strange and hostile tribes. Early one morning in October 1832
they came to a little frontier town called St. Louis where they had been told they would
find the men named Lewis and Clark, the great White Chiefs. They led their horses pushing
with moccasined feet through the dusty streets until they came to the barracks where
General Clark was in command. We can only imagine the greetings that were exchanged. But
it was weeks before they revealed the purpose of their trip.
The Indians were received
most courteously. They entered the general’s quarters and took their seats in
silence. He waited to learn their errand, but they said nothing in visit after visit. Why
must they hurry? They had already waited many, many moons. Days passed and still they said
nothing. General Clark had not dealt with Native Americans in vain, -- he had learned they
must be given their own time to do what they wanted to do and say what they wanted do say.
Clark planned amusements for them, treating the Indians as honored guests. Eventually they
told him of their search for the White Man’s
Book of Heaven. Would General Clark give it to them? Would he tell them of the White
Men’s God? Would he send them a teacher to go back with them to their people? Would
he send them a Missionary?
General Clark did not know
what to say. He was eager to satisfy these seekers after God, and he told them as much as
he thought they could understand. But he had no Bible in any language they could
understand. He was in command of no Missionaries. How could he satisfy these pilgrims from
the west?
All winter long the
Indians waited to learn more than they had yet been told. But the unaccustomed manner of
living in the white man’s town told on the older men, already weakened by the long
journey. After a few weeks Black Eagle passed away and was buried from the St. Louis
Cathedral. His long quest was ended without realizing his dream of finding the Book. Not
long afterward Man of the Morning died. In the Spring the two remaining braves made ready
to start the long journey home to Idaho. On the night before their departure General Clark
gave them a banquet in his home, and asked No Horns On The Head to speak to the gathered
group. Then this quiet man spoke words that stirred the hearts of the hearers:
"I came to you over the trail
of many moons, from the setting sun. I came with one eye partly open for my people who sit
in darkness. I go back with both eyes closed. How can I go back blind to my blind people?
I made my way to you with strong arms through many enemies and strange lands that I might
carry much back to them. I go back with both arms broken and empty. Two fathers came with
us; they were braves of many snows and wars. We leave them asleep here by your great water
and tepees. They were tired in many moons and their moccasins wore out......
."My people sent me to get the
White Man’s Book of Heaven. You took me to where you allow your women to dance as we
do not ours, and the Book was not there. You worship the Great Spirit with candles, and
the Book was not there. You showed me the images of the Great Spirit and the Good Land
beyond, but the Book was not among them. You make my feet heavy with gifts and my
moccasins will grow old carrying them, yet the Book is not among them.
"When I tell my poor blind
people after one more snow, in the big council, that I did not bring the Book, no word
will be spoken by our old men or by our young braves. One by one they will rise up and go
out in silence. My people will die in darkness and they will go on a long path to other
hunting grounds. No White Man will go with them, and no White Man’s Book of Heaven
will make the way plain. I have no more words."
He who made this sorrowful
speech at the banquet, No Horns On The Head, was never to see his homeland. He died near
the mouth of the Yellowstone River. Only Rabbit Skin Leggins was left to make the lonely
journey to his people. Somehow the Nez Perce people in the Kamiah valley learned that the
returning delegation was near at hand. They sent a large band to meet the triumphant
travelers, --- but they looked in vain. When they did find Rabbit Skin Leggins they could
not understand that he was alone. Perhaps he had left his companions a day or two behind.
He shouted something about the Book! They made out his message: "A man will be sent
with the Book!" He had a message on his lips, but a bitter disappointment in his
heart. Did he hope in vain?
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THE RESPONSE
The visit of the four Nez
Perce men might have gone unnoticed had not a man named William Walker become aware of it.
He was visiting in St. Louis in 1832 when he heard from General Clark the story of the
Indians. He had an interest in their becoming Christians, and he wrote to a friend in New
York [G.P.Disoway] giving him a rather unusual version of the facts and of the speech of
No Horns On The Head. The story of the visit to St. Louis and the speech was published in The
Christian Advocate and Journal of the Methodist Episcopal Church. It was a Macedonian
Call like St. Paul had received in the city of Troas.
.The Call from the West
was heard by various churches in the United States, and their leaders set about finding
men and women who might go as missionaries to the Pacific Northwest. The first to respond
was the Methodist Mission Society, and in 1834 Jason Lee and four associates headed West.
But they did not stop at the Nez Perce or Flathead country. They went on to the lower
Columbia River and eventually settled in the beautiful Williamette Valley, establishing a
mission near the present-day Salem, Oregon. People there were not interested in the Book
of Heaven, and the Nez Perce continued to wait for the Book. Other churches responded. The
Roman Catholic Order of the Society of Jesus, the American Board of Commissioners for
Foreign Missions, supported by the Congregational and Dutch Reformed churches began
recruiting personnel..
In 1836 five people, -----
Dr. Marcus Whitman and his wife Narcissa Whitman, the Reverend Henry and Eliza Spaulding,
and William H. Gray successfully crossed the continent from New York state to the largely
unknown land of Oregon. Enroute with a fur-trader’s caravan, Dr. Whitman successfully
removed a three-inch iron arrowhead from the back of the famous mountain-man Jim Bridger,
under the watchful eyes of traders, mountain-men, and Indians. The exhibition of such
competence was not lost on the watching Indians. Narcissa Whitman and and Eliza Spaulding
were the first white women to cross the continent, and the Whitman’s baby, Alica
Clarissa, was the first child born of United States citizens in the northwest. Two
missions were founded: At Wai-i-lat-pu among the Cayuse Indians, Dr. Whitman and his
friends began preaching the Gospel, treating the sick, and teaching the rudiments of
agriculture.
Dr. Whitman was not only
doctoring, but he made several trips to Washington to encourage Congress to annex the
Oregon country. For 11 years the Whitmans worked among the Cayuse people. Their mission
became a haven for pioneer emigrants on the Oregon Trail. But certain of the Cayuse people
misunderstood and misinterpreted the healing of the sick and the spread of agricultural
knowledge, and the preaching of the Gospel. A few renegades approached the Mission, burned
all the buildings, killed the entire staff, including Dr. Whitman, his wife and child.
[Years later in 1936 the
Whitman Centennial Company acquired the mission site and surrounding area which they
eventually donated to the U.S.Government. Extensive archeological work has been done
recovering many implements used by the mission, and revealing the location of several
buildings. The Whitman National Historic Site is six miles west of WallaWalla, Washington,
is administered by the National Park Service of the Department of the Interior.]
One hundred miles to the
east, the Presbyterian Reverend Henry H. Spalding with his wife Eliza, settled among the
Nez Perce along with several helpers. Exactly thirty years after the visit of Lewis and
Clark, and three years after the historic visit of four Nez Perce braves to St. Louis, they
brought the White Man’s Book of Heaven to the Nez Perce people. They built a
home, a church meeting house, a saw-and-grist mill, planted orchards and cultivated the
land. Many Nez Perce people were baptized and became the nucleus of a remarkable community
of Christians.
The work lasted about ten
years when news of the trouble among Cayuse people and the Massacre at the Whitman mission
caused a brief interruption of Spaldings mission work. The Spaldings however returned and
remained with the Nez Perce people until his death in 1874.
His people now had the
Book of Heaven in their own language. They accepted it. They embraced it. When hordes of
non-Indians tramped through the reservation [established in 1855], they continued to
maintain their Christian faith.
Today the area on the
Clearwater River is known as Lapwai, the SPALDING SITE OF THE NEZ PERCE NATIONAL HISTORIC
PARK. It is the same area where Lewis and Clark camped on their westward and eastward
journeys at the mouth of the Lapwai Creek and its confluence with the Clearwater. A
Presbyterian Church flourishes at the site. The mission burial ground remains. What a
thrill I experienced when I visited the homeland of my friend, and the people of
relentless determination who wanted the Book of Heaven and overcame all obstacles to
obtain it! .
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CONCLUSION
Now in closing, may I take you back to
Phoenix, Arizona? I introduced you to Nancy, a friend of mine who was of the Nez Perce
tribe. She was a Presbyterian, a product of the Spalding Mission, the second person to
enroll in the Cook Indian Seminary as a direct result of Mr. Spalding’s work with her
tribe more than 100 years earlier. But note this: Nancy was a descendant of the one scout
who reached home alive after a 3000 mile trip to St. Louis in 1832 to get the Holy Bible,
------- The Book of Heaven. Nancy was a direct descendant of Rabbit Skin Leggins!
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