Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 23.djvu/101



INDIAN SCHOOL PACIFIC NORTHWEST 73

undoubtedly the death rate increased. It was certainly un- fortunate that the mission faced the necessity of receiving more of these poor unfortunate children than it could properly care for, but any suggestion, even of the most remote kind, from which it might be inferred that these children would have been better off if they had not passed into the care of the mission is too absurd for serious comment. The children came to the mission diseased. There they were cleansed of their filth, clothed, and given simple but healthful food. If they had been untouched by the mission influence, they would have remained under conditions of filth, exposure, and lack of proper food, constituting a perfect medium for the develop- ment of their diseases. Until May of 1837, no medical care could be given to the children of the mission family other than the simple remedies known to the average household of that day or such as the doctor at Vancouver might suggest; but after that date the mission had its own physician, Dr. Elijah White being the first to serve in that important work.

No intimate picture of the life of the school will ever be written, for the sources are lost. The best we have is a few letters of Cyrus Shepard and his co-laborers. 5

Perhaps the first thing for us to keep in mind is that the school was more than a mere educational institution teaching the ordinary branches of elementary knowledge. Most of the pupils lived at the mission and constituted part of the "mission family." The life with its new elements of order, its common obligations and duties, its emphasis upon the necessity of per- sonal cleanliness, and other things which are inherent in the Christian home were elements of education to the Indian and half-breed children which even surpassed in value those more formal elements taught in the class room. The Rev. H. K. W. Perkins, a member of the mission stationed at The Dalles, frequently visited the Willamette station, and gives us a de- scription of the home and school. In speaking of the mis- sionaries' care of these children, he says : "They housed them, fed them, clothed them, instructed them, prayed over them, and made them as their own children, when they had scarcely food, and shelter, and clothing for themselves. 6

5 "The Missionary teacher: A Memoir of Cyrus Shepard," by the Rev. Z A. Mudge.

6 Quoted by Mudge, pp. 177-8.