This month in Presbyterian history
A ceremony at Standing Rock, a call to action from the NJASRC, a logging camp preacher, and correspondence from Mister Rogers
“We thank thee at this 50th Anniversary. Fifty years ago, our people came here harboring nothing but hostility. Since then, we have made great progress.” The Rev. Benjamin Brave, Sr., spoke these words on September 3, 1932, at Standing Rock Reservation, North Dakota. A group had gathered to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the arrival of “the hostile bands” at Standing Rock in 1882.
The U.S. government spent much of the 19th century pushing American Indian and Indigenous peoples from their homes, fighting to take ownership of tribal lands and drawing up treaties that served to enforce governmental rules upon the Indigenous communities of North America. One such treaty was signed in 1882 at the Standing Rock Agency — this is the event that is being commemorated by Brave’s prayer.
The treaty was signed by various tribes, with reservation boundaries being described and instituted forthwith. This included the Standing Rock Reservation, which was bounded as follows:
Beginning at a point at low-water mark, on the east bank of the Missouri River, opposite the mouth of cannon ball river; thence down said east bank along said low-water mark to a point opposite the mouth of Grand River, thence westerly to said Grand River, and up and along the middle channel of the same to its intersection with the one hundred and second meridian of longitude; thence north along said meridian to its intersection with the south branch of Cannon Ball River — also known as Cedar Creek; thence down said south branch of Cannon Ball River to its intersection with the main Cannon Ball River, and down said main Cannon Ball River to the Missouri River at the place of beginning. Dated and signed at Standing Rock Agency, Dakota, this 30th day of November, 1882.
The United States government has inflicted much suffering upon the Indigenous tribes of our nation, and discussions of this tumultuous history have been prevalent in the last few years, with specific focus being on the reparative reworkings of mainstream historical narratives. The Presbyterian Church was an influential figure in the history of American Indians — both positively and negatively. The Presbyterian Historical Society is consistently working to eradicate and repair any harmful language, narratives, or items that are found in its collections related to the treatment and history of the Indigenous peoples of North America.
After the attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941, a wave of anti-Japanese sentiment and suspicion gripped the United States. This led to the unfortunate and drastic policy adopted by the Roosevelt administration: virtually all Japanese Americans, of which there were around 120,000, two-thirds of which were full U.S. citizens, were forced into “relocation centers,” or war camps, for the remainder of World War II.
In late September 1943, the National Japanese American Student Relocation Council (NJASRC) published a pamphlet that the council hoped would encourage churches and colleges alike to assist in relocation efforts, primarily for students. The pamphlet states that “both the public and the academic world have become interested in a group of young people on the West Coast, who, with their families, now over a year and a half ago were taken from their homes and their former schools and sent to Relocation Projects, where there was sudden and complete collapse of all that stood for real home life and American college educational opportunity. …”
The NJASRC was established three months after President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, the policy that authorized the mass forced removal and incarceration of all Japanese Americans on the West Coast. The organization, working with students, their families, college administrators, and church mission boards, ultimately assisted in the resettlement of more than 4,000 students at various institutions across the nation. The Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A.’s Board of Christian Education most likely partook in this, evidenced by this pamphlet from its archival collection. With the participation of organizations like the PC(USA), the NJASRC worked to assist Japanese American students in continuing their education.
Richard Townsend Ferrell (1885-1956) was the featured figure in the September 17, 1949, edition of Presbyterian Life. The publication’s eighth installation of its “missionary biography” series detailed Ferrell’s work as a Presbyterian minister and evangelist to the logging camps that dotted the Northwest.
As more and more men were recruited into the logging industry at the turn of the 20th century, it became apparent that because loggers followed jobs from place to place, often living in isolated areas, these lumberjacks were in want of a mobile ministry. In 1914, Ferrell was commissioned to do logging camp work in northern Idaho by the PC(USA) Board of Home Missions. Influenced by Frank E. Higgins, a popular Presbyterian minister amongst northern Minnesota lumberjacks, Ferrell gained the acceptance and respect of the loggers by working alongside them in the forests. An ex-prizefighter and blacksmith, Ferrell lacked a formal education. But what he lacked in education, he made up for with religious passion.
As he continued preaching amongst the lumberjacks of the Northwest, his parish realm widened to include eastern Washington and a bit of western Montana. His duties also expanded as he began performing marriage rites and baptisms and establishing Sunday schools amongst the logging families. Ferrell’s influence and efforts were recognized nationwide, leading to this feature article about his “Timberland Parish.”
In 1999, Freda Gardner (1929-2020) became the Moderator of the 211th General Assembly of the PC(USA). A few months into her role as Moderator, Gardner — who was also the first permanent woman faculty member of Princeton Theological Seminary — penned a letter to her friend, Fred Rogers (1928-2003). On September 27, she received his reply, which now lives in PHS’s archives. “I was happy to receive your thoughtful letter,” Rogers wrote, before expressing his hope that he could fulfill whatever request she had made of him. “I’d like to be of help.”
"Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood," Rogers' long-running television show, first aired in February 1968. Rogers, a lifelong Presbyterian, taught generations of children the quintessentially Christian — but profoundly universal — message: “Love yourself, love others.” Gardner’s letter arrived in Rogers’ mailbox a year before he retired from "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood" in 2000. Though we are unsure if Rogers was able to give the speech that Gardner invited him to, it’s lovely to know that the two were in touch.
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