The Indians.
COLLECTION FOR THE DEBT AT SANTEE AGENCY.
The response of an Indian church to the appeal for help in view of the financial distress upon the Association, is certainly worthy of any Christian church anywhere. In reporting their collection, Dr. A. L. Riggs writes as follows:
“On February 10, our mission people and Pilgrim Church responded to the call of the American Missionary Association, and made a subscription of two hundred and sixteen dollars. This subscription will be paid in before the first of April, and it will likely be increased some. Of course the larger part is the gift of the missionaries, but the Indians did well, a number contributing five dollars apiece.”
In giving an account of a service the day this large collection was taken at this Indian church, Mr. F. B. Riggs writes:
“Two of the mission people started the pledge with twenty dollars each. That rather startled the people, but several soon ventured ten dollars each. Then one pledged ten dollars on condition that nine others pledged the same. The nine were found. One Indian woman pledged ten dollars. Several Indians put down four, five, six and seven dollars each. We would sing and then call for pledges; speak and sing again, and then pledges again. The committee was instructed to canvass the matter farther immediately. The work is now going on outside. In the meanwhile the pledges are being paid very fast, and I expect to be able to remit to you soon. This contribution from Pilgrim Church means much from the hearts of our members. They have gone right down to the suffering point in this giving. The pupils in the school have done well in helping, too. I have been astonished that many members of America’s great churches think that missionaries and people in our mission fields are only recipients. I wonder if the good people in all our large churches did as much to lift the debt of the American Missionary Association on Lincoln Memorial Sabbath as did the members of this Indian Mission Church on the prairie. If so, the debt is wiped out.”