- Mss1212_B1F4_005
- Item
- 1834-07-01
Part of Jason Lee papers
Typed letter written by Reverend Jason Lee to the Corresponding Secretary of the Missionary Society of the Methodist E. Church. Written in the Rocky Mountains on July 1, 1834 and published in the Christian Advocate and Journal on September 26, 1834. Letter is titled, "Flat Head Mission." Lee wrote this letter as he traveled on the Oregon Trail to become a missionary in Oregon. Subjects include life on the Oregon Trail, the loss and maintenance of horses, Captain Nathaniel Wyeth, and Lee's observations of local native tribes, including the Sioux, Crow, Snake, and Blackfeet. He also states his views on the importance of missionary work and warns of the potential danger of non-missionary, colonial settlements to the local native populations. [Lee originally intended to do missionary work among the Flathead Indian tribe, but the area where he eventually settled in the Willamette Valley, near present-day Salem, was home to bands of the Kalapuyan people. Lee used language common to justifying the nineteenth century missionary movement, including using disparaging and inaccurate terms and/or descriptions of Native peoples.]
Lee, Jason, 1803-1845