door of the Navaho hogan flutters in the desert wind.

It may interest the increasing number of travelers on the Santa Fe Railroad to and from California to know that the fat, uninteresting and almost repulsive Mohave Indians who sell their bead necklaces in the stifling air of needles, present one of the most promising fields for evangelization in the Southwest in the opinion of the Rev. Alfred C. Edgar, our missionary to that tribe. During the recent visit of the Rev. John N. Steele among the Mohaves, lasting but a few days, a work of grace began as deep as it was gratifying. The hearty response to appeals made to the pupils of the government Indian School at Phoenix, Arizona, under the administration of Mr. Goodman, who is in entire sympathy with work that aims at character building through conversion rather than through the channels of civilization, is most encouraging.

Another promising field is found among the Hopis at the mission in charge of Miss McLean, of the Baptist Board, under whom evangelistic work has been greatly blessed. The presence of Christian Hopis in our recent Indian Conferences is an earnest of future victories. One of these men is a missionary to the Navahoes and receives his support in the field from his fellow Christian Hopis. This is the more remarkable since these Indians are backward and conservative to a degree, many of them refusing overtures from the government looking to their betterment as a tribe.

Surely the Spirit moves where He will, for we do not find hearts turning to God in large numbers among the great tribe of Navahoes. This appears the more strange since most faithful work by true hearted servants has been for a number of years carried on with zeal and wisdom. There is something particularly winsome about the Navaho, both in his language, birdlike in its inflections and tones, and in his character, independent, docile and strong. The Navaho needs not something better than he has but the best, and the best is near at hand, even at his door.

So far as the spiritual development and nurture of the Indian are concerned, the same methods must be followed as are helpful and necessary in our own lives. To reduce those methods to the utmost simplicity is the work required of the missionary to the Indians. Simplest statements are apt to be misunderstood. One needs to "get inside an Indian" to know the reason for his seeming lack of apprehension. The secret of it may be that he does not want to understand the thought till he knows the man.

Whether Christian nurture be along spiritual, missionary, or benevolent lines one thing may be accepted as a stubborn fact in Indian missionary work, and that is the time factor. No more may the western "Aryan" be "hustled" than the eastern. Ideas and suggestions like seeds, are to be sown one year to bear fruit the next. I shall not forget the reply of one of my Indian elders to an appeal for the General Assembly assessment: "We are saved by faith and not by giving money."

A

KNOWLEDGE of the "old time Win

nebago Indian," is absolutely necessary to the understanding of the "new Winnebago Indian" and his problems today. An attempt to glean such information is given here in bare outline in order to show that the only sure way out for the Indian is the "Christian road".

The "old time Indian" believes in a hierarchy of spirits among whom there is the "Great Spirit." Like all primitive peoples, he has entertained the dualistic conception of the universe, the Great Spirit and his host 'of spirits for the "good" and the "Halayshkoonina" the bad spirit, for the "evil." The Great Spirit has given the control of the forces of nature to the host of spirits. There are the spirits for the four winds, the spirit of the day and the spirit of the night, the spirits of earth, fire and water. The spirits of lightning and thunder of the day are distinguished from the spirits of the lightning and thunder of the night. Such a belief necessarily runs into animistic conceptions of sun, moon, stars, trees and stones.

While the Indian's religious instinct may have been responsible for the origin of such a belief, two factors have been powerful for its growth and large development. These are, first, the general hardships of life, such as privation, sickness, death, and second, war. Such necessary incidents of life have created in the Indian a deep-seated longing, for some vital relationship with the spirit-world.

By fastings and visions he established such relationship. The Indian goes away from the haunts of men. Usually after four days fasting, with his mind intent upon some one spirit, as he goes to sleep his soul is carried up to the fourth heaven. He rises in ever widening circles as the eagle ascends into the skies. He is placed at the threshold of a heavenly wigwam. Among the spirits there comes forth one in the form of an eagle with outstretched wings, and as he nears the Indian he strikes him with his wings,-the token that from henceforth he is to be a warrior of his race. Another spirit in the twinkling of an eye causes a buffalo to stand before him. Then in another instant the buffalo is strewn in

pieces before him and he is commanded to put the buffalo together. The Indian by faith' in the commanding spirits, goes to work to put it together. To his amazement the buffalo stands alive before him. This betokens that he is to be a Medicine Man. This same individual in after life, when called to treat the sick has been heard to say, "If I have been able to make alive an animal out of which life has gone, how much easier it is for me to make well this person whose body is whole, and whose life is still in the body. In four days I will have this sick one on his feet." This instance is typical of many such professions of medicine men. The saying of one, "The savage hears the whisperings of the wind and holds converse with the spirits of the world," is no mere phraseology.

Out of this converse with the spirits arose the warriors and medicine men of the race. They in time became the interpreters of the spirits. For every great need of primitive life there were particular spirits to whom the Indian could go in prayer. Such in brief was his conception of the spirit-world.

The Indian's conception of rank in society was shaped by his religious ideas. This was done in two ways, first, his vital relationship with some spirit, directly or indirectly, and second, his achievements in war and the chase. His influence was very little if he could not profess some communication with a spirit or

quote the dictum of his father or grandfather in his spiritual relations. Without the aid of the spirits of life, war and chase, how could a man be successful in any one of them?

From this cursory review of Indian character we see three basic elements, viz.: His belief in the Great Spirit, his respect for personal authority in things religious, and his sense of a deep need of some vital relationship with the spiritual world.

The "New Indian" has inherited these three elements. But in addition there are many more factors to be considered in his case. He has lost war and the chase. The environment that gave scope and zest to his religion has radically changed. He has been swept away from his moorings and made to sail in unknown and troubled seas. He has become a prey to piratical plunderers. To suit the wishes of a supposed friend he has moved from place to place ten and a dozen times. Occasionally he has turned upon his disguised friends.

The new Indian moreover has tasted the fruit of the tree of knowledge. He has discarded the crude anthropomorphism of earlier times, but he has not clothed the truth and the good of the old religion to meet the fierce demands of the present age. Civilization instead of "driving away the tiger and breeding the fox" has bred them both. He looks in vain to the religion of his fathers for the solution

of his economic problem, for the securing of the stability and sanctifying of marriage, and for the purifying of his social relations.

In this state of quandary the Indian needs (in an untechnical sense) a "reconstruction of his theology" and a reconstruction of his economic and social life. "The Christian road," to use the Christian Indian's expression, is the way out.

Hitherto two methods have been followed: These may be called salvation from without and salvation from within. Those who believe in the former say, "Change conditions and you will have immediate response. The result will be better men and women." Those who believe in the latter say, "You are a son of God. God is bending over you with a Fatherly interest. Be a man. In spite of your social condition you can rise above it." The former implies a sort of mechanical conception of man, viewing him as strictly subject to laws of cause and effect. The latter emphasizes a new motive. It rests on profound faith in the ability of a man to respond. It recognizes that the teachings of Jesus are based upon a man's ability to respond. A wise teacher will use both methods but with the clear recognition of the inadequacy of the first. As one

89

of the best religious teachers of the day so truly says, "When the question of economic wants is as comfortable as possible a man may still be haunted by the horrible emptiness of his life and feel that existence is a meaningless riddle." A man's moral relations and his religious communion with God can not be ignored if he is to advance.

Christianity not only puts meaning into life but it gives to the Red Man the highest conception of God. It brings to him a religion of authority, a positive message, and supplies his need of a daily vital relationship with the Great Spirit. That this results in efficient life is shown by the report of the present U. S. Superintendent among the Winnebagos.

Of those affiliated with Christian organizations-50 per cent are self-supporting, 33 per cent. and over are partially self-supporting. Less than two-thirds of 1 per cent. are idle. About 10 per cent. are non-ablebodied.

Of those affiliated with the Medicine Lodge -15 per cent. and over are self-supporting, 39 per cent. and over are partially self-supporting, 9 per cent. are idle, 37 per cent. are non-ablebodied.

Of those connected with the Mescal organization, using the peyote and practising the