Same purpose, two centuries and counting:
Help Native Americans

helpnativeamericans.com is a website created by the Society for Propagating the Gospel among the Indians and others, in North America. The Society is the oldest missionary organization in existence in the United States. To date, no comprehensive historical analysis of the Society exists. This website is not intended to be a comprehensive overview of the last two hundred and thirty years, but rather, a glimpse into the history, activities and ongoing purpose of a Society founded on the purpose of providing Christian ideals to the first Americans.

HISTORY

In the year 1787, twenty-one Gentleman of Boston and vicinity successfully petitioned the General Court of Massachusetts (the governing body of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts) for a formal charter to establish the Society for Propagating the Gospel among the Indians, and others, in North America.

Among the petitioners were individuals who represented the elite of the Commonwealth: John Eliot, Francis Dana, Increase Sumner and Eliphalet Porter, to name a few. These humanitarians hoped to advance Christianity by spreading literacy and education.  Funding for the organization started with the acquisition of a small portion of the money raised by the famous Mohegan Minister Samson Occom, who traveled throughout the British Isles, between 1766 and 1768, raising 12,000 pounds to evangelize and educate the natives of North American.  In 1788 a Brief, issued by John Hancock, governor of the Commonwealth, proposing the donation of funds for the Society’s purpose. The most substantial funding came from the individual Society members themselves; James Bowdoin and Moses Gill were large contributors. The largest individual donation came from the estate of John Alford of Charlestown.  

The funds went to support the main objective of the Society; supporting missionaries who would travel to remote areas of New England and preach the gospel to white settlers and native peoples alike. As stated in the original charter the purpose was: “the dissemination of Christian knowledge, and the means of religious instruction among all those, in their country, who were destitute of them.”

The essential concept- that of educating the native inhabitants of North America -remained the driving force of the Society for more than two centuries. Missionary ministers, supported by the Society, would travel and stay in remote areas providing education on the gospel, religious services and printed educational materials, some translated into native tongue by the legendary John Elliot, Apostle to the Indians, in the 17th century.

In a 1797 report, submitted to the General Court of Massachusetts, it was stated that in the first ten years of existence the Society and it’s missionaries had distributed bibles, religious pamphlets, spelling books, primers, and hymnbooks, totaling almost eight thousand copies “among the poor inhabitants in the eastern parts of this commonwealth” which included all of New England and the region that now comprises the state of Maine. The missions established in Maine, coastal Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Vermont and New York State were administered by missionaries well into the early 20th century -with the Society directly funding the ministers and the schools that were established in places like The Isle of Shoals (Maine), Gay Head, now Aquinnah (Massachusetts) and at Onondaga (New York)…to name just a few.  

Missionaries were required to keep journals of their activities and reports from these journals were often included in the annual, often published, reports of the Society. The Massachusetts Historical Society has journals and letters from 1791 through 1922, which provide a glimpse into the lives of the missionaries, and an even smaller glimpse into the lives of the Native Americans. One hundred and forty years of correspondence sheds light on the lives of minister missionaries who understood that education was the very first step in proselytizing. Being a missionary required enormous personal sacrifice, leaving behind for months, even years, all that was familiar and traveling into the unknown.  

The westward expansion of the 19th and early 20th century moved the focus of the mission movement in the same direction, with the Society sending missionaries to the Ohio and Mississippi River Valleys and then to tribes in the South and North West, all the while directly supporting missions in Maine, Massachusetts, New York and elsewhere.

After the Civil War the mission movement in North America began to shift away from directly supervising missionaries –to providing financial support for educational programming at established institutions. Ministers would visit and preach the gospel, but the ongoing educational programs at these sites would be directly funded by the Society and conducted by the organizations themselves. The White River Indian Agency in Colorado and the Santee Normal Training School in Nebraska, are two examples of what became the new model for helping Native Americans.

The Society supported missionaries well into the 20th century, but eventually the cost began to outweigh the means of the organization, and the Society reduced the number of missionaries and developed the position of missionary at large. George Kenngott and G.E.E. Lindquist were such missionaries who traveled throughout the west visiting organized missions and Indian reservations. Lindquist worked for the Society from 1927 to 1953 and traveled thousands of miles providing support for programs he believed would help Native Americans lead more prosperous lives.

The support of missionary activities is financially unfeasible in the 21st century, however the Society continues the tradition of providing direct financial support to organizations, like those mentioned below, to assist Native Americans in their desire to continue weaving a cultural fabric that incorporates the warp and weft of Christianity and their own ancient cultural traditions.

In 2017 the Society provided financial support to eleven institutions, including the John Hopkins Center for American Indian Health, the American Indian Youth Council of Kentucky and the Newton-San Juan Sister City Project in Nicaragua.

The Society for Propagating the Gospel Among the Indians and Others in North America is now the oldest organization of its type in the United States.