James Fenimore Cooper's Frontier: The Pioneers as History

Christianizing the “Heathens” 

 

 

While Americans were themselves members of a diverse group of sects, they were 

generally united in the belief that the Indians needed to be brought to Christianity. Gordon S. 

Wood wrote “Missionary, education, tract and Bible societies – some even composed of 

combinations of the various denominations – spilled out to moralize and tame the barbarians, 

both in the American west and throughout the world.”

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 In The Pioneers, Cooper uses Indian 

John to show the effect of missionary Christianity on native peoples.  

 

The opinion of the missionary pastor Grant toward natives is apparent in his mistaken 

conclusion that Oliver is a native himself. When Oliver reacts passionately to a comment by 

Grant, he tells his daughter “It is the hereditary violence of a native’s passion, my child…He is 

mixed with the blood of the Indians, you have heard; and neither the refinements of education 

                                                 

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 Taylor 212 

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 Taylor 213 

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 Taylor 214 

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 Cooper 291 

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 Cooper 428 

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 Wood, Rising Glory 13 

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nor the advantages of our excellent liturgy have been able entirely to eradicate the evil.”

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 Oliver, 

however, is actually Christian born and bred, unlike Indian John, who was supposedly converted 

by the Moravians. This “Christianization” of native Americans was welcomed by some and 

missionary writers highlighted those successes. John Freeman examined missionary writings and 

found a “not too surprising similarity.” One girl “was fervent in pleading for her young 

companions and expressed much gratitude for the mercy of God to her,” one missionary wrote in 

1834. Another wrote that a convert told him “only one chief now. Jesus is my great chief.”

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Others, however, were not so accepting of a new religion. In one of the more eloquent 

statements of the time Seneca Chief Red Jacket told white missionaries that: 

You have got our country, but are not satisfied; you want to force your religion upon 

us…. Brother, you say there is but one way to worship and serve the Great Spirit. If 

there is but one religion, why do you white people differ so much about it? Why not 

all agreed, as you can all read the Book?…We also have a religion which was given 

to our forefathers and has been handed down to us, their children. We worship in that 

way. It teaches us to be thankful for all the favors we receive, to love each other, and 

to be united. We never quarrel about religion. Brother, we do not wish to destroy your 

religion or take it from you. We only want to enjoy our own.

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Later, Chief Seattle of Washington’s Suquamish Indians rejected Christianity outright, 

saying “Your God is not our God! Your God loves your people and hates mine! He folds his 

strong protecting arms lovingly about the paleface and leads him by the hand as a father leads an 

infant son. But, He has forsaken His Red children, if they really are His. Our God, the Great 

Spirit, seems also to have forsaken us.”

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Indian John’s “conversion,” which ends in his return to his native beliefs, provides an 

interesting insight into this disparity. John had supposedly been converted by Moravian ministers 

several decades earlier, but he seems to be simply trying – unsuccessfully – to assimilate 

Christianity into an existing belief system. On Christmas Eve, Pastor Grant tells John, “As you 

have taken up the cross, and become a follower of good and an eschewer of evil, I trust I shall 

see you before the altar, with a contrite heart and a meek spirit.” But the Indians terse response 

                                                 

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 Cooper 136 

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 John F. Freeman, “The Indian Convert: theme and Variation,”