Native American Missionaries

The gospel of Jesus has not always been good news for Native Americans. The history of North America is marred by atrocities committed against Native peoples. Indigenous cultures were erased in the name of Christianity. As a result, to this day few Native Americans are followers of Jesus. However, despite the far-reaching effects of colonialism, some Natives have forged culturally authentic ways to follow the way of Jesus. In his final work, Richard Twiss provides a contextualized Indigenous expression of the Christian faith among the Native communities of North America.

Since its publication in 1932, Black Elk Speaks has moved countless readers to appreciate the American Indian world that it described. John Neihardt’s popular narrative addressed the youth and early adulthood of Black Elk, an Oglala Sioux religious elder. Michael F. Steltenkamp now provides the first full interpretive biography of Black Elk, distilling in one volume what is known of this American Indian wisdom keeper whose life has helped guide others. Nicholas Black Elk: Medicine Man, Missionary, Mystic shows that the holy-man was not the dispirited traditionalist commonly depicted in literature....

After the Indian wars, many Americans still believed that the only good Indian was a dead Indian. But at Ganado Mission in the Navajo country of Northern Arizona, a group of missionaries and doctors - who cared less about saving souls and more about saving lives - chose a different way and persuaded the local parents and medicine men to allow them to educate their daughters as nurses. In this detailed history, Jim Kristofic traces the story of Ganado Mission on the Navajo Indian Reservation.

She can't let a man come between her and God...can she? Widowed missionary Laurie Wilcox has promised to live the rest of her life serving God and feels called to minister to the Plains Indians. But when a handsome Cheyenne elder ignited a passion in her heart, she realized he had also taken her eyes off her calling. Panicked by the distraction, Laurie ran, slipping away to a different reservation. Surely, after all, serving the Lord was her path… not a trivial romance? Henry Long Feather was fighting to build his life in a white man’s world. When he met and fell in love with Laurie, he...

In this short story, about a 30-40 minute read, you will meet a spunky woman whose determination led her to do amazing things, in spite of enormous challenges! Katherine Beard, 1908-1998, is not a well known missionary outside of Northern Arizona. I personally knew Miss Beard, and like me, you will be inspired and challenged as you get to know her through this story.

In the tradition of Ian Frazier's Great Plains, and as vivid as the work of Cormac McCarthy, an intoxicating, singularly illuminating history of the Texas borderlands from their settlement through seven generations of Roger D. Hodge's ranching family. What brought the author's family to Texas?...

The Whitman Massacre: The History and Legacy of the Native American Attack on Missionaries that Started the Cayuse War looks at the chain of events that led to one of the most notorious attacks of the 19th century on the frontier. You will learn about the Whitman Massacre like never before.

The American frontier in the 1700s produced some men of utter ruthlessness, and Jim Girty was one of the worst. Living among the Delaware Indians in the Ohio Valley, Girty and his brothers incited acts of savagery and war against the white settlers. One of Jim Girty's targets was the Village of Peace, a settlement of Christian Indians who had been converted by Moravian missionaries.

At the start of the 1840s, the Oregon Country had no political boundaries or effective government. The first to begin showing up in large numbers were missionaries...Narcissa Prentiss Whitman became the first white women to cross the Rocky Mountains...A teacher and missionary, she accomplished the journey with her like-minded husband, Dr. Marcus Whitman. Their history-making tenure in the northwestern wilderness caused them to become one of the most well-known couples of the 19th century, and their story was soon known to the entire nation.