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Revision as of 17:25, December 7, 2011
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==Praying Indians==
==Praying Indians==
==New England praying Indians==
A class of Christian Indians known as ''praying Indians'' helped the European Colonialists, but were treated shamefully due to distrust by most of the Colonialists. Missionary John Eliot arrived in [[Boston]], [[Massachusetts]] from England in 1631, and learned the language of the local Native Americans. Eliot preached to the Massachusett Tribal Sachem Waban at Nonantum (Wellesley, MA) on October 28, 1646, and Waban immediately turned to the Lord [[Jesus Christ]] and his people also soon became Christians.
A class of Christian Indians known as ''praying Indians'' helped the European Colonialists, but were treated shamefully due to distrust by most of the Colonialists.
Twenty years after the arrival of Eliot, the Massachusetts General Court established Natick (meaning “Place of Searching”) as the first praying Indian village/town in 1651, helping them to be able to to worship in peace. This was the first formally "Christian town" in America, and consisted at first of 51 inhabitants in seven villages, with seven more being later established. The beloved (by the Indians at least) Eliot became known as the “Apostle to the Indians.”
[[Roger Williams]] of [[Rhode Island]] and and Thomas Mayhew of [[Martha's Vineyard]] were the first English missionaries to seek the conversion of New England's natives, but John Eliot was much more successful, largely because of his command of the complex native Algonquian language.
Between 1646 to 1674, this “Apostle to the Indians,” saw some 1100 Massachusetts natives convert to the Christian religion, and played a central role in establishing fourteen “Praying Indian” communities in the eastern part of Massachusetts.<ref>http://www.braintreehistorical.org/NewsLetters/March2007.pdf</ref>
The praying town of Natick was the oldest, being founded in 1651, and in 1674 6 more principal praying towns existed: Hassanamesit, Magunkaquog, Nashobah, Okommakamesit, Punkapog, and Wamesit. However, the praying Indians were practically destroyed by the other Native Americans in [[King Philip's War]] circa 1675 and by the English, both of whom viewed them as traitors. From a estimated population of 1,100 in 1674, they were reduced to only 300 by 1680. <ref>"praying Indians," The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. 2008. Encyclopedia.com; http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/praying_Indians.aspx</ref>
<ref>The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition, 2008</ref>
===Missionary John Eliot===
John Eliot (1605 - 1690), born in Widford, Hertfordshire, [[England]] in 1604, was the younger son of Bennett Eliot, a wealthy landowner. At the age of only fifteen he entered Jesus College at Cambridge University, where he soon was recognized as a brilliant linguist and classical scholar.
In 1631 Eliot joined a great migration of Puritans to North America, resulting from the persecution of nonconformists (men who in conscience toward God could not assent to the [[Church of England]]. Eliot found a home in [[Boston]], [[Massachusetts]], and was immediately hired as a substitute for the then-absent Reverend John Wilson. Although the Boston congregation wanted Eliot to be an associate minister when Wilson returned from England, he chose to become the pastor of the church of neighboring Roxbury. Eliot served in that pastorate for almost sixty years, while also fathering six children during his long and happy union with his wife, Ann (Mumford) Eliot, which lasted until his death in 1690.
Eliot learned the language of the local Native Americans, and some fifteen years after his arrival in America he began his missionary work to the American Indians. In addition to his personal burden, Eliot had official support during that period, as the English government had required of the Bay Colony that conversion of the natives be a high priority in granting its charter in 1628. The seal of the Mass Bay Colony even featured an Indian pleading with the English to “Come over and help us,” based on Acts 16:9, but very little had been accomplished as yet.
However, Eliot found hardness of heart in his first attempt mid-1646, that being was to the Indian community under Sachem Cutshamekin at Neponset (in Dorchester), as the older Sachem rejected the gospel and his braves openly ridiculed and mocked the clergyman.
Eliot found more hope among a small band of Indians under a native leader of somewhat lesser stature named Waban, whom he described as "one who gives more grounded hope of serious respect for the things of God, than any as yet I have known of that forlorn generation. Waban was son-in-law of the Sachem of Concord, whose commuity lived on the southwest slope of Nonantum Hill (presently on Brighton-Newton line.)
Accompanied by two of three other clergymen, Eliot delivered about a one hour sermon in the Algonquian language in October, 1646, followed later by a three hour lectureship, resulting in Waban immediately turning to the Lord [[Jesus Christ]] and his people also soon became Christians. The offical sanction of the work by the government also meant that the need for more land was made to Eliot, who interceded for them (leading liberal historians to impugn their motives).
On November 4 of the next month, the General Court of the Massachusetts Bay Colony voted "for the good of the Indians" to give the desired land, with Eliot being part of the commission which was to handle the matter. Asked by the Indians what to call their Christian village, Eliot recommended that it be called Nonantum, which in English signifies rejoicing, because “they hearing the word, and seeking to know God, the English did rejoice at it."
In seventeenth-century New England, Christian practice was a way of life, and steady, dutiful habits and working towards economic stablity were part of what constituted true Christian faith, and which living in English-style buildings and maintaining English work rhythms on geographically defined homesteads was conducieve to.
An early historian of Newton, pastor Jonathan Homer, provided the following description of the "Praying Indian" village of Nonantum:
Mr. Eliot...furnished them, by the public aid, with shovels, spades, mattocks, and iron crows, and stimulated the most industrious with money.... The houses of the meanest were found to be equal to those of the sachems or chiefs in other places. They surrounded the town with ditches...and with a stone-wall.
The Indians, thus settled, were instructed in husbandry, and were excited to a prudent as well as industrious management of their affairs. Some of them were taught such trades as were most necessary for them, so that they completely built a house for public worship, 50 feet in length and 25 feet in breadth
However, in less than five years after its foundation, Eliot was obliged to migrate the entire population of this first North American Christian Indian community to a 3,000-acre site some fifteen miles to the southwest, in the present town of Natick.<ref>[The Lantern, http://www.braintreehistorical.org/NewsLetters/March2007.pdf] Braintree Historical Society, VOL March 2007 XXV No.3</ref>
Twenty years after the arrival of Eliot, the Massachusetts General Court established Natick (meaning “Place of Searching”) as the praying Indian village/town in 1651, helping them to be able to to worship in peace. This was the first formally "Christian town" in America, and consisted at first of 51 inhabitants in seven villages, with seven more being later established. The beloved (by the Indians at least) Eliot became known as the “Apostle to the Indians.”
In 1663 Eliot, with help from Christian Indians, completed the first Bible printed in America, a [[Bible]] written in the Massachusett-Natick Indian language, which was a difficult task, as this language was completely oral.
In 1663 Eliot, with help from Christian Indians, completed the first Bible printed in America, a [[Bible]] written in the Massachusett-Natick Indian language, which was a difficult task, as this language was completely oral.