Ten years of missionary work among the Indians at Skokomish, Washington

Eells, Myron, 1843-1907Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 2.8

Word count: 290K words
Chapters: 30

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.Ten years of missionary work among the Indians at Skokomish, WashingtonAuthor: Eells, Myron, 1843-1907,Language: English, Class: E011: History: America: America, Release Date: Dec 1, 2017

Editor's review

This is Congregationalist missionary Myron Eells's first-hand account of ten years of missionary work at the Skokomish Indian Reservation in Washington, a primary source for the history of the American West and for Native American studies. Long resident on site, the author records the founding and daily operation of the mission station, its school and medical work, his interactions and cultural frictions with the Native community, and his observations of local tribal languages, customs, and living conditions. Its value lies not in literary style but in the immediacy of an eyewitness: readers can see the concrete interweaving of late nineteenth-century American Indian policy, religious expansion, and tribal social change. Readers should keep in mind the author's missionary stance and period prejudices, and would do well to read it alongside studies from tribal perspectives. Suited to readers in history, anthropology, and religious history for source study, and to those interested in Washington State local history for reading by topic.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Scholars and students of Native American history and the history of the American West
Readers interested in American missionary movements and religious history
Writers seeking first-hand records of nineteenth-century Native American life
Those interested in the local history of Puget Sound, Washington

Not a good fit for

General readers seeking only light stories or travel sketches
Readers expecting narratives from Native American perspectives
Readers intolerant of the source-material genre and period prejudices

Reading tips

Read the introduction and chapter headings first to grasp the ten-year timeline of the mission station before entering the main text.
Mark passages on tribal customs, language, and policy as you go for later reference.
Read alongside oral histories or ethnographies of local Native peoples to correct a single perspective.
The English original contains older spellings and proper names; keep a gazetteer of place and tribal names at hand.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

Is this book written by Native Americans themselves?

No. The author, Myron Eells, was a missionary stationed at Skokomish, and the book centers on his missionary work, with Native people appearing mostly as objects of observation and conversion. Readers should recognize this as an outsider's record whose judgments carry a nineteenth-century missionary stance.

Can I read it without a background in history?

Yes, but patience is needed. The text is a memoir-style record lacking modern scholarly annotation, with many personal and place names. It is advisable to first grasp the basic background of the Indian reservation system in Washington State, then read by chapter topic rather than page by page from start to finish.

What should I note when using the electronic edition?

The book is an English public-domain eBook released by Project Gutenberg and freely available. The layout is mainly plain text, and older spellings and proper names may differ from modern forms; try multiple spellings when searching, and check the original page information when citing.

This site is an index: you start “Search all sources” in your browser, and the entries it lists all point to third-party sites; please judge their availability yourself.

About the author

Eells, Myron, 1843-1907 Author

Myron Eells (1843–1907) was a missionary and writer active in the Pacific Northwest of North America; reliable biographical information about him is limited in Chinese-language sources. His two surviving works suggest the focus of his writing: one records ten years of missionary work among the Indians at Skokomish, Washington, while the other is a collection of hymns in the Chinook Jargon language. Both works combine firsthand observation with practical linguistic purpose—the former centering on missionary experience and local Native life, the latter serving religious activity in a multilingual setting, reflecting the common practice among missionaries of using a regional lingua franca. His style is plain and factual, and his writings offer some reference value for understanding missionary history in the region and the practical use of Chinook Jargon.