Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 23.djvu/111



INDIAN SCHOOL PACIFIC NORTHWEST 83

June 1844 it was closed. The change occurred during a period of mission discouragement and at the time of a change in mis- sion leadership. Well for Jason Lee that he did not live to see the work nearest his heart abandoned ! Its discontinuance came during dark days, and many writers of Oregon history have failed to appreciate what was involved in this heroic under- taking. They have not applied the acid test of fair criticism to Wilkes' report on conditions at the mission, and most of them have been willing to accept the careless account of the school given by Victor-Bancroft. This is a grave injustice to a truly heroic effort upon the part of a little band of mission- aries to bring elementary and agricultural education, moral uplift, and spiritual enlightenment to the Indian youth of the Pacific Northwest.