Work Among ike Indians HOW T H E N E G L E C T E D IN D IA N T R IB E S OF A M E R IC A A R E B E IN G R E A C H ED W ITH TH E GO SPE L S T O R Y . IN T E R E S T IN G F A C T S A B O U T TH E N A V A JO S .
By F. G . M IT CH E L L Flagstaff, Arizona
T WENTY-FOUR years ago Mr. Wm. R. Johnston was addressing an audience in the city of Detroit on the subject of missions, special stress being laid on the condition of some of the neglected Indian tribes of this country, notably the Navajos, number ing at that time some twenty thousand souls, At the close of the address two women of very humble station in life, washer women in fact, approached the speaker and explaining that they had no money to give presented to Mr. John ston some small articles of jewelry, ask ing that they be used in some way to help bring the Gospel to the great Navajo tribe. This incident made such an impress ion upon the speaker that he felt more than ever drawn to give his life to the Indians. By correspondence with the Bureau of Indian Affairs it was learned that the Navajos were perhaps the most needy, of all the tribes and on account of their scattered condition were least likely to have the Gospel preached to them. After much prayer and earnest thought Mr. and Mrs. Johnston decided it to be the will of God that they should go to the Navajos and after some simple preparations they soon started for Ari zona without promise of human sup port, depending entirely upon God who was calling them to this needy field. Arriving at Flagstaff, Arizona, our pioneer missionaries, with their little hoy awaited the moving of the cloud. A man with whom they became acquain ted learning that they were waiting upon
God for a way to get out into the desert amongst the Indians volunteered to meet their need and securing a team and wagon they started for the place where they had determined to locate, some eighty miles from the railway. Out in the desert, following the sin gle beaten wagon track, the only path of, safety for a stranger in the land they encountered one of the fierce windstorms that sweep across the coun try and when the fury of it was past the loose sand had been swept across the track so as to leave no trace of th!e road, their only guide. Essaying to go forward they saw that they would soon be lost in the wilderness so they sat and waited. Before long He who guided His people of old sent an angel in the form of a Navajo horseman who seemed at once to understand their need and making signs to them to fol low him he led the way until the road again became plain enough for them to follow it without his help. Thus they came to Tuba City, strangely named by some Mormon pio neers many years before and looking as little like a city as human habitation could well look. The only shelter was an old stone structure the Mormons had left, used more recently by the Indians as a sheep pen. This place was made relatively decent, then one end of it was partitioned off from thje rest with some old hoards which the mis sionary carried for two miles on his back. From the Indian corn fields near by some fodder was secured on which to spread their bedding and the little family began to keep house in
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