Of Wooden Bowls and Wooden Spoons: Language and Religion

Of Wooden Bowls and Wooden Spoons; Language and Religion:
Charles Eastman and his Encounter with the Meskwaki Nation

Editor's note: When Professor Jerome Kills Small assumes the character of Charles Eastman (Ohiyesa) for the Great Plains Chautauqua Society's tour of Tama, Toledo and the Meskwaki Nation, he will be conjuring up memories of Eastman's direct encounter with the Meskwaki Nation more than a century ago — a history the Meskwaki Nation recalls clearly and somewhat differently from that which Eastman's autobiography details.

As recounted by Tribal Elder and U.S. Navy Veteran, Don Wanatee, Eastman came to Iowa at the end of the 19th century to advocate on behalf of the Boy Scout movement and to meet with area church groups. Also an advocate of education, Eastman came to Toledo specifically to talk to the Meskwaki about the importance of keeping Meskwaki children in the Sac and Fox Training School, which was part of a system of training schools for Indian children set up by the US Department of Interior throughout the Great Lakes Region. According to Wanatee, and as referenced repeatedly in Eastman's writings, Eastman stressed education as a necessary means for entering the "civilized" world. Eastman wrote that his college education had "overlaid and superseded" teachings of his youth.

Invited to what they first were told would be a feed and group gathering, the Meskwaki assembled to hear an hour-long presentation by Eastman that first took up the importance of education and then addressed the importance of Christianity. According to Wanatee, Eastman "was in the missionary business... he wanted to make sure his religious message was put forth." By his own account, Eastman wrote of the encounter: "My effort was to make the Indian feel that Christianity is not at fault for the white man's sins, but rather the lack of it, and I freely admitted that this nation is not Christian, but declared that the Christians in it are trying to make it so. ... I do not know how much good I accomplished, but I did my best."

Don Wanatee, Meskwaki Tribal Elder

Eastman spoke to the Meskwaki in English. Because few Meskwaki spoke English at that time, the Department of Interior provided an interpreter. As Eastman finished his remarks, he asked the Elders if they had questions or comments. Following a pause, perhaps due to confusion about what they had heard given the stated purpose of the gathering, an old Meskwaki War Chief, who had distinguished himself in battles against the Arapahoe, Comanche, Kiowa and Cheyenne, stood up and addressed Eastman in Meskwaki. He told him, "the Meskwaki prefer to live in our own way; your way is good for you but the Creator put us on this earth to live our life. We love our children; we love our land. You go out and tell the rest of your people your ways, because we are satisfied with our ways. And maybe if you come back, you will find us still using wooden spoons and eating out of wooden bowls," items that have sacred and ceremonial importance to the Meskwaki people.

Although challenged to preserve the ways of their forbearers, particularly with regard to the preservation of the Meskwaki language (according to Wanatee: "Language death is culture death"), Wanatee notes that the Meskwaki stand ready to greet Charles Eastman in the 21st century as they greeted him in the 19th century — in their own language, with their own religion and with, as promised, wooden bowls and wooden spoons.

Charles A. Eastman (Ohiyesa)

"One of the strongest rebukes I ever received from an Indian for my acceptance of these ideals and philosophy was administered by an old chief of the Sac and Fox tribe in Iowa. I was invited to visit them by the churches of Toledo and Tama City, which were much concerned by the absolute refusal of this small tribe to accept civilization and Christianity. I surmise that these good people hoped to use me as an example of the benefits of education for the Indian."

"I was kindly received at their village, and made, as I thought, a pretty good speech, emphasizing the necessity of educating their children, and urging their acceptance of the Christian religion. The old chief rose to answer. He was glad that I had come to visit them. He was also glad that I was apparently satisfied with the white man's religion and his civilization. As for them, he said, neither of these had seemed good to them. The white man had showed neither respect for nature nor reverence toward God, but, he thought, tried to buy God with the by-products of nature. He tried to buy his way into heaven, but he did not even know where heaven is."

"‘As for us’, he concluded, ‘we shall still follow the old trail. If you should live long, and some day the Great Spirit shall permit you to visit us again, you will find us still Indians, eating with wooden spoons out of bowls of wood’."

"I was even more impressed a few minutes later, when one of his people handed me my pocket book containing my railway tickets and a considerable sum of money. I had not even missed it! I said to the state missionary, who was at my side, ‘Better let these Indians alone! If I had lost my money in the streets of your Christian city, I should probably have never seen it again’."

— Charles A. Eastman (Ohiyesa), From the Deep Woods to Civilization: Chapters in the Autobiography of an Indian (1916)

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