# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1905_S100
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

100 Proceedings of the 26th General or

...with Christian Indian families and pay 10 cents a meal, or 25 cents a day, for their board. That the children in these families are kept under Christian discipline, that morning and evening devotions are held with them, and that they are trained to say grace at meals, etc., is not only the constant endeavor of our conscientious missionary but is in fact the practice with all of them. If we could not place the schoolchildren at Red Springs in this way, that is, if we had to house and board them ourselves, this mission would cost us far more, because we would then have to erect more buildings and hire and keep more staff.

"Zoar. (Our Child of Sorrow.) How we came to this second station, the Reverend Synod may see from a few sentences of the minutes of the meeting held by your commission on January 5, 1903. They read approximately as follows:

"Missionary Kretzmann reported in detail on the so-called Waiaskesit Settlement (we have named it Zoar) on the Menominee Reservation. It is located about 20 miles from our station at Red Springs, deep in the wilderness. The road there is — except in winter — for the most part dreadful. The Indians living there — Menominees, Pottawatomies, Ojibwas, etc. — are still heathen and have no school. They firmly refuse to send their children to the government or Catholic boarding school at Keshena; instead they want a school in their own settlement and have expressed this request to our missionary. The latter has visited the settlement twice and looked things over thoroughly there. According to his account, which was confirmed by some of our Red Springs Indians, there would be a favorable opportunity there to found a mission school, to begin with. The Indian agent at the time also promised that, if we began work there, he would not set up a public school in opposition to us, as is the case at Red Springs, where it greatly hampers our work. We also hoped to be able to run the school there more cheaply, because at least a number of the children could go home in the evening after school, so that we would not have as many to house and board. $500.00 was approved, with which we hoped to put up a building in which school and worship services could be held and which would also serve as a residence for the teacher. A petition was also drawn up and sent to Washington, D.C., to obtain the land needed for the mission.