BOND'S MISSION SCHOOL

The Unitarians only had one of the Indian boarding schools that have become so notorious, unhappy partly because of their assumption that the task at hand was a matter of extinguishing Indian culture (which would horrify contemporary Unitarians) and partly because of the sexual abuse that seemed an undercurrent in many mission schools. Catholic mission schools seemed to be particularly afflicted, but maybe that’s mostly because the great preponderance of the schools were Catholic, often run by European orders but sometimes staffed with lay people of dubious qualifications.



In my never-ending filing, I just turned up the UU World for Nov.15, 1986, with a fine photo of the school on the front. I’ll try to scan it, but you’ll only get a ghost of an image, I’m afraid. It’s a newsprint image in the first place and twenty years old in the second. The building was far more substantial than the one-story log early schools on the Blackfeet Reservation, but not nearly so impressive as the sandstone buildings of Holy Family Mission on Two Medicine River. “Bond’s School” (nicknamed after the first missionary) was a wooden building and it burned.

This is from the UU World: “The Montana Industrial School for Indians was established in October, 1886, by the American Unitarian Association. Founded by the Rev. Henry F. Bond and his wife, Pamela, the school, also known as Bond’s MIssion, was located on the Crow Indian Reservation near Custer Station on the Big Horn River. Fifty Indian children at a time lived at the school, which taught farming, mechanics, and the domestic sciences. Students and faculty posed for this photograph in 1888. The school closed after a decade when the federal government withdrew the $109 per pupil annual subsidy. The buildings were sold to the government for one dollar.”

Inside the magazine is a “reflection” from Bill Schulz, the mighty leader of the UUA at the time. He says: “Only once did the American Unitarian Association offer direct support to the Native American community but that one time still lives in the hearts of the Crow Indians. In 1886 Henry and Pamela Bond journeyed to Montana, under the auspices of the AUA to establish what would come to be known as “Bond’s Mission,” an industrial school for children of the Crow.

“Nothing but a stone foundation remains today of the experiment which dated only 11 years, but it was on that modest site that I was privileged to stand in early October along with dozens of Crow descendents of the original students as we participated in a moving commemoration of the Mission’s centennial.

“Organized by Margery and Ben Pease of Boise, ID, and supported by Montana Unitarian Universalists, the ceremonies reminded us how much of our contemporary sprituality we owe to the Native American tradition and how important it is that ours be a faith that reaches well beyond the white middle class.

“In my brief remarks at the site, I said, “If Henry and Pamela Bond were with us today, I am confident that they would say to the Crow community, “We who taught your parents and grandparents are now your students.”

Do I believe that? Maybe. White liberals love to be ‘umble around poor people of color. They just forget to send money.

I knew that Margery Pease had written a book: “A Worthy Work in a Needy Time : The Montana Industrial School for Indians (Bond's Mission ) 1886-1897; PEASE, MARGERY Self-pub in 1986. Reprinted in Billings, Mont.: M. Pease, [1993]. It’s a small book, stapled, which -- because of the valuable historical content -- sells on Amazon for fifty bucks or so. Seeing this, I called Margery and she tells me she’s printed more which she sells for $8 plus $2 postage. Order direct from her: Margery Pease, 3719 Spotted Jack Loop N, Billings, MT 59101-6974. I won’t put her phone online. She doesn’t use email.

There are several lessons for us all here, I think. First, never underestimate the value of the small local book, esp. when it contains historical information that might not be available anyplace else. The person to impress this upon most seriously is usually the author! Margery, however, doesn’t need lessons. She is a two-tribed woman, both Unitarian-by-choice and Crow-by-marriage, and she is deeply aware of bringing those two traditions together. She is an includer, not an excluder -- a reconciler and a recorder.

The other thing is that in every location people will go to a local printer or just resort to copy machines and their desk stapler to make a book. It is a deep impulse that I hope will be enabled rather than snuffed by the Internet. Maybe blogs are occupying some of this territory now, but I’m always surprised at how much “ephemera” circulates in the used book market: abebooks.com or alibris.com, esp. now that people tend to use such venues to clear out their basements. Much better than burning it, the fate of Bond’s Mission School.