Kate and Sue McBeth, Missionary Teachers to the Nez Perce

1893

Before Sue McBeth died in 1893, nine of the sisters’ pupils were ordained as Presbyterian ministers. A tenth was ordained in 1894, and others were ordained later. Some became missionaries to other tribes as far away as the Southwest. On the reservation, differences among the native Presbyterians erupted occasionally during the rest of the 19th century, and new churches, with native ministers and church officers, came into being as a result of the factionalism. Kate McBeth continued with her mission work, and in 1899 she was joined by her niece, Mary (Mazie) Crawford. Throughout the rest of her life, she worried about the influences of the "heathens," or "wild ones," as she sometimes called them. . . .

Kate McBeth died in 1915, and Mazie Crawford carried on her work until 1932, when the mission at Lapwai was closed. . . .

More than 70 percent of the reservation remained unallotted, and many Nez Perces raised new objections to its sale to whites. Nevertheless, on May 1, 1893, Archie Lawyer and other committee members were pressured by three representatives of the Federal Government to cede the "surplus" lands, some 219,294 hectares (542,000 acres), for $1,626,222. Of this $1 million was to be paid to the tribe in installments over a period of years, and the remainder was to be distributed to the people on a per capita basis as soon as possible after ratification of the sale. The Nez Perces kept approximately 14,555 of the unallotted hectares (34,000 acres) for timber land, a cemetery, and other tribal needs. It also was agreed that the ceded lands would not be opened to whites until the Indians received the trust patents for their allotments, and, furthermore, that the provisions of all previous treaties, not inconsistent with the new cession, would remain in force.

The Senate ratified the agreement on August 15, 1894, and on November 8, 1895, President Grover Cleveland declared it to be in effect. The trust patents and first payments were distributed to the Nez Perces, and ten days after Cleveland’s announcement, the unallotted lands were opened to white settlement. As expected, a huge land boom resulted. On the first morning, some 2,000 whites poured onto the reservation, and in one week there were 380 filings of claims. The Nez Perces were soon all but overwhelmed, their own holdings surrounded by those of new white neighbors. The reservation had become a boundary line around a checkerboard pattern of adjoining Indian and white private properties.

The adverse impacts of the Dawes Act did not end there. Many Nez Perces took to ranching and farming on their allotments. But numerous others leased their lands to whites and lived on the income, which was often barely enough to keep them alive. Others moved to populated areas of the whites and sought various wage-paying jobs. In 1906, the passage of the Burke Act led to the alienation of still more of the Indians’ land. Under its provisions, Indians who were declared competent to handle their own affairs could be granted citizenship and given patents in fee to their lands without waiting 25 years. Again, as expected, many Nez Perces were declared competent and, as quickly, were induced to sell their lands to whites. By the mid-1960s individual Nez Perces owned a total of only 23,087 hectares (57,062 acres) on their reservation. (pp. 162, 164-165)