RootsWeb: QUAKER-ROOTS-L Re: [Q-R] Native American Quakers

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Archiver > QUAKER-ROOTS > 2005-08 > 1123190500

From: "Dutton Family" <>
Subject: Re: [Q-R] Native American Quakers
Date: Thu, 4 Aug 2005 17:21:40 -0400
References: <000501c598bb$ab0bf100$9a98dccb@willows> <004e01c5990c$557deb20$6500a8c0@aoldsl.net> <004401c59912$c3f65910$941382cd@DDBPCC21> <42F26EAA.70605@earthlink.net>

Hello - This is interesting history, and I wonder about the name of the " SPRAGUE River " in Klamath Co. , Oregon - I am tracing my hubby's ancestor CYRUS SPRAGUE, and understand there was a SPRAGUE family went from Washington Co. , Maine out to Calif. and then Oregon, about 1870 -- wonder if the river or the town was named for this group of SPRAGUEs ?? Thanks, Sally ----- Original Message ----- From: "Ken & Jo Magee" <> To: <> Sent: Thursday, August 04, 2005 3:38 PM Subject: Re: [Q-R] Native American Quakers >I believe it is true that a number of Quakers were appointed as Indian >agents by the Grant administration but am not sure of the details. There >is a website detailing one such agent and the Modoc Indians in Oklahoma. >These Indians were sent to OK after the Modoc Indian War in the late 1800s. >The website is www.modoctribe.net/history.htm > I know a fair amount about these Indians as some of them became Jesus > followers and Quaker and returned to Oregon in the early 1900s and built > a small Friends church at a town called Sprague River in Klamath County, > Oregon. The church is still there and is still a Friends church though > most of the Indians have moved to other places. My father, a Friends > minister, moved our family there from the Boise Valley in Idaho in 1942 to > become the pastor of the church and minister to the Modoc, Klamath and > Yahooskin Band of the Piute Indians who were on the Klamath Indian > Reservation. > When I searched on the internet for "Quaker Indian agents" a number of > sites came up but I have not had time to look at more than the one noted > above. Jo Anne Magee in Klamath Falls, Oregon. > Edsel B. Burdge, Jr. wrote: > >>Sharpless's reference is to white Quakers serving as reservation agents >>and >>school teachers among the Indians tribes in the west. Under the Grant >>administration in the 1870s, Quakers (Hicksite, Gurneyite, and Wilburite) >>served as such. Sharpless is not saying that the Shawnees converted to >>Quakerism. >> >>The Gurneyite Friends of Kansas YM did actively conduct mission work among >>the Indian tribes in OK and TX, and Indians did join the Friends, but my >>sense is that this was in the later decades of the 19th century, after the >>Gurneyites adopted program worship and the pastoral system. >> >>There is a fairly recent monograph on the work of Friends as reservation >>agents in the west, but I am not sure of the author or title. Also, you >>can >>check the Finding Aid for the Associated Executive Committee of Friends on >>Indian Afairs, on the Haverford College website. I don't have the exact >>URL, >>but if you go www.haverford.edu and then click on Library page and then >>under that the page for the Quaker Collection, under it will be a page for >>the Finding Aids. >> >>Farwell, >> >>Edsel Burdge Jr. >>1593 Pinola Road >>Shippensburg, PA 17257 >> >>----- Original Message ----- >>From: "Mark E. Dixon" <> >>To: <> >>Sent: Thursday, August 04, 2005 11:51 AM >>Subject: Re: [Q-R] Native American Quakers >> >> >> >>>Isaac Sharpless' 1902 book, A Quaker Experiment in Government, mentions a >>>group of Quaker Indians in Oklahoma ("Indian Territory"). Sharpless was >>>also the president of Haverford College. I have no idea whether >>>Quakerism >>>still exists among the Indians, but this may suggest a place to look for >>>records. >>> >>>I'm copying a short section so those on the list can see it in context. >>> >>>Mark >>> >>>"Regarding land purchase.what seems to have impressed the Indians was the >>>fact that Penn insisted on purchase at the first and all subsequent >>>agreements as being an act of justice, to which both parties were to give >>>their assent voluntarily. They also felt that the price paid was ample >>>to >>>extinguish their claims, and that no advantages were taken by plying them >>>with drink or cheating them with false maps. The treaties were open and >>>honorable contracts, and not characterized by sharpness and chicanery. >>>As >>>the Indians reflected on them at their leisure they saw nothing to repent >>>of, and everything to admire in the conduct of Penn and his friends, and >>>they preserved inviolably the terms to which they had solemnly agreed. >>> >>They >> >>>instinctively felt the honorable intentions and methods of "Onas," and >>>handed down from generation to generation the belts of wampum which >>> >>ratified >> >>>the treaties, and the words of kindness and interest they heard from his >>>mouth in the conferences between them. These traditions still exist in >>> >>the >> >>>West, and a band of Quaker Indians in Indian Territory is a testimony to >>>their vitality. The Shawnees, forced from Pennsylvnia, found a temporary >>>home in Ohio, still keeping in touch with their Quaker friends, and when >>>moved by the Government first to Kansas and then to the Indian Territory, >>>made a request that their agents and teaches should be members of the >>>Society which they and their ancestors had been able to trust. (Source: >>>American Friend, Vol. IV, pg. 79)" >>> >>> >>>==== QUAKER-ROOTS Mailing List ==== >>>Visit The Quaker Corner - http://www.rootsweb.com/~quakers >>> >>> >> >>Edsel Burdge Jr. >>1593 Pinola Road >>Shippensburg, PA 17257 >>----- Original Message ----- >>From: "Mark E. Dixon" <> >>To: <> >>Sent: Thursday, August 04, 2005 11:51 AM >>Subject: Re: [Q-R] Native American Quakers >> >> >> >>>Isaac Sharpless' 1902 book, A Quaker Experiment in Government, mentions a >>>group of Quaker Indians in Oklahoma ("Indian Territory"). Sharpless was >>>also the president of Haverford College. I have no idea whether >>>Quakerism >>>still exists among the Indians, but this may suggest a place to look for >>>records. >>> >>>I'm copying a short section so those on the list can see it in context. >>> >>>Mark >>> >>>"Regarding land purchase.what seems to have impressed the Indians was the >>>fact that Penn insisted on purchase at the first and all subsequent >>>agreements as being an act of justice, to which both parties were to give >>>their assent voluntarily. They also felt that the price paid was ample >>>to >>>extinguish their claims, and that no advantages were taken by plying them >>>with drink or cheating them with false maps. The treaties were open and >>>honorable contracts, and not characterized by sharpness and chicanery. >>>As >>>the Indians reflected on them at their leisure they saw nothing to repent >>>of, and everything to admire in the conduct of Penn and his friends, and >>>they preserved inviolably the terms to which they had solemnly agreed. >>> >>They >> >>>instinctively felt the honorable intentions and methods of "Onas," and >>>handed down from generation to generation the belts of wampum which >>> >>ratified >> >>>the treaties, and the words of kindness and interest they heard from his >>>mouth in the conferences between them. These traditions still exist in >>> >>the >> >>>West, and a band of Quaker Indians in Indian Territory is a testimony to >>>their vitality. The Shawnees, forced from Pennsylvnia, found a temporary >>>home in Ohio, still keeping in touch with their Quaker friends, and when >>>moved by the Government first to Kansas and then to the Indian Territory, >>>made a request that their agents and teaches should be members of the >>>Society which they and their ancestors had been able to trust. (Source: >>>American Friend, Vol. IV, pg. 79)" >>> >>> >>>==== QUAKER-ROOTS Mailing List ==== >>>Visit The Quaker Corner - http://www.rootsweb.com/~quakers >>> >>> >> >> >>==== QUAKER-ROOTS Mailing List ==== >>Visit The Quaker Corner - http://www.rootsweb.com/~quakers >> >> >> >> > > > ==== QUAKER-ROOTS Mailing List ==== > Visit The Quaker Corner - http://www.rootsweb.com/~quakers >