Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 37.djvu/279



Has been written about the work of the missionaries among the Indians in imparting to the heathen mind their ideas of the Christian religion. The efforts of the Spaldings in translating hymns and the gospels and simple lessons into the native language have been recorded in the many letters and reports returned to the missionary board under whom they were serving.

There is one document, however, about which little has been written and which has never been reproduced. This is what is known as the Protestant Ladder, the only copy of which is owned by the Oregon Historical Society.

To understand the origin and purpose of the Protestant Ladder it may be well to review the story of the Catholic Ladder, used by the Catholic missionaries.

When Father Blanchet and Father Demers began their work among the Indians of the Oregon country in 1839 they were hampered by the difficulty of presenting the story of their religion in a simple, concrete form that could be understood by the natives. To overcome this difficulty Father Blanchet conceived the plan of using a square stick or rule on which were marked forty short horizontal bars to represent the centuries before Christ, thirty-three dots to indicate the years of the life of Christ; a cross symbolized the crucifixion. The centuries and years since the birth of Christ were represented by eighteen bars and thirty-nine points. The chiefs were then instructed in its meaning and use and aided the missionaries in carrying its message among their people. The Indians called it the sahale stick (stick from above). Later the sahale stick was superseded by a printed chart, which showed, besides the bars and points, simple drawings illustrating some of the chief events in biblical history, the ark, the tower of Babel, Solomon's temple, the tablets of stone, etc. The reformation was indicated by a branch springing from the sixteenth century bar, and three vertical bars, representing the three heretics, Luther, Calvin and Henry the Eighth. It was now called the Catholic Ladder. Different editions were printed from time to time, with elaboration of the