Sedgwick & Marquand Misunderstand the Significance of the Stockbridge Bible

 

I reviewed some rather outrageous biases from the first chapter of Stockbridge, 1739-1974 in a previous post. There really is no point in going over the rest of the book, except for Sedgwick and Marquand's coverage of one important topic: The Stockbridge Bible.

Gradually the years were erasing all the traces of their remarkable history from the Stockbridge Indians, and they became more uniform with the other remnants of the great Indian tribes, who drag out a half-civilized existence on a reservation somewhere in the west. The wonderful Bible, that high-water mark of the Christian experiment, was mislaid and finally found by an enterprising Indian - in the rubbish heap! He pulled it out and dusted it off and it became his most cherished possession. Finally he consented to have it kept in the church in a safe, of which he alone knew the combination (page 97).

It is true that the Stockbridge Mohicans went through tough times. But lost on Sedgwick and Marquand is how much the tribal church appreciated their own special Bible. It is true that the missionary Cutting Marsh left in frustration - but let's not blame anybody for that, Marsh later wrote that he was "ashamed of my country" for how they (the federal government) treated the so-called New York Indians in Wisconsin. Looked at from one very valid angle, the tribe's mission society (the ABCFM) abandoned them as the result of the "Citizen" vs. "Indian" controversy which, in turn, was the result of the federal government's Indian policy.

The Stockbridge Bible was not found on a rubbish heap. Rather it was found in an abandoned house and then taken to Jameson "Sote" Quinney, a leader of the tribe and grandson of Austin E. Quinney. This reappearance of the Stockbridge Bible, as Richard North, a white minister from neighboring Shawano put it, "stirred" some of the leading men of the tribe on the subject of religion. In addition to Sote Quinney, Rev. North speaks of his great respect for William C. Davids and William Dick. This "stirring" on the subject of religion, according to Rev. North, was the impetus for the founding of the John Sergeant Memorial Presbyterian Church.