The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1917, Page 19

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The Lutheran Pioneer. 19

the work prospered and grew. In two years twenty
Indians could be baptized, and several Indian con-
gregations were founded in a short time. But the

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Indian Mission Church.

promising work of Pastors Craemer, Miessler, and
Baierlein was largely ruined by the removal of .the
Indians to other reservations. At present four
Lutheran synods are working among the Redmen.
The Missouri Synod has a flourishing congrega-
tion and boarding school among the Stockbridge
Indians (Mohicans) of Wisconsin, the Norwegian
Lutherans are laboring near by, while the Wis-
consin Synod is working among the Apaches of
Arizona, at San Carlos, Fort Apache, Cibecue, and
Globe. ‘The United Danish Synod is supporting
work done for the Indians at Oaks, Okla. Among
the converts of these missions are to be found men
and women of fine Christian character, and the
success attending the labors of our Church among
the Indians in the past should encourage us to en-
large this blessed work, for there are still about
100,000 among them who have not yet been reached
by the Gospel, and are still “pagan” Indians.

LurHERAN COLORED MISSIONS.

In the days before the Civil War -the Lutherans
of North and South Carolina in many instances
faithfully provided for the spiritual wants of their
Negro slaves.» In those days the Carolinas had
a yery respectable number of Colored Lutheran
communicants. In the fifty years since the close

of hostilities between the North and South, the
Negro has increased from five to ten million per-
sons. ‘The Negro needs our help, and the most
prominent members of the race earnestly ask for
our help. The problem, however, is so large that
we as a nation have but made a beginning at
handling it, and as a Church we have only made
a very small beginning. Of all Lutheran church-
bodies, only two have taken up the work among
the Freedmen, the Joint Synod of Ohio and the
Synodical Conference. Concerning the limited work
of the former we are not able to give particulars,
but the work of the Synodical Conference among
the Colored has had a steady growth during the
past decade. We are sure that our Church with
its teaching, in particular, with its mighty agency
of the Christian day-school, is specially called by
God to enter this large field and do a large’ share
in helping to redeem the Negro from ignorance
and sin. The Synodical Conference is at present
working in Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Illinois,
Louisiana, Maryland, Missouri, New York, North
Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, and the Dis-
trict of Columbia. In Louisiana the work is car-
ried on from 11 mission centers, while in North
Carolina there are 25 stations. The missionary
staff numbers 58 laborers, of whom 19 are white
and 39 Colored. The Mission prosecutes its work

at 51 stations, has 36 flourishing organized con-
gregations, and 31 well-filled mission-schools. This
mission also has two higher coeducational institu-
tions, Luther College at New Orleans, and Im-

f Deaf-Mute Chapel.
=manuel College at Greensboro, N. C. The work
is carried on at an annual expense of from $50,000
to $60,000. ;