TEN YEARS AT SKOKOMISH.

SKOKOMISH AGENCY.

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TEN   YEARS

OF

M I S S I O N A R Y   W O R K

AMONG   THE   INDIANS
AT
SKOKOMISH, WASHINGTON TERRITORY.
1874-1884.

By Rev. M. Eells,
Missionary of the American Missionary Association.

BOSTON:
Congregational Sunday-School and Publishing Society,
CONGREGATIONAL HOUSE,
Corner Beacon and Somerset Streets.

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COPYRIGHT, 1886, BY
CONGREGATIONAL SUNDAY-SCHOOL AND PUBLISHING SOCIETY

Electrotyped and printed by
Stanley & Usher, 171 Devonshire Street, Boston.

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PREFACE.

SAYS Mrs. J. McNair Wright: “If the church can only be plainly shown theneed, amount, prospects, and methods of work in any given field, a vitalinterest will at once arise in that field, and money for it will not belacking. The missionary columns in our religious papers do not supplythe information needed fully to set our missions before the church. Ourhome-mission work needs to be ‘written up.’ The foreign field has founda large increase of interest in its labors from the numerous books thathave been written,—interestingly written,—giving descriptions of thework, the countries where the missionaries toil, and the lives of themissionaries themselves. The Pueblo, the Mormon, and the American Indianwork should be similarly brought before the church. A book gives acompact, united view of a subject; the same view given monthly or weeklyin the columns of periodicals loses much of its force and, moreover, ismuch less likely to meet the notice of the young. A hearty missionaryspirit will be had in our church only when we furnish our youth withmore books on missionary themes.”[1]

In accordance with these ideas the following pages have been written.

It is surprising to find how few books can be obtained on missionarywork among the Indians. After ten years of effort the writer has onlybeen able to secure twenty-six{4} books on such work in the United States,and five of these are 18mo. volumes of less than forty pages each. Onlyfive of these have been published within the last fifteen years. Bookson the adventurous, scientific, and political departments of Indian lifeare numerous and large; the reverse is true of the missionarydepartment. Hence it is not strange that such singular ideas predominateamong the American people in regard to the Indian problem.

M. E.

Skokomish, Washington Territory, August, 1884.

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D E D I C A T I O N.

TO MY WIFE,

S A R A H   M.   E E L L S,
 

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