Review of Tomahawk and Cross; Lutheran Missionaries among the Northern Plains Tribes, 1858-1866

Authors

Christopher Pippert, University of Nebraska-Lincoln

Date of this Version

1992

Comments

Published in Great Plains Quarterly 12:1 (Winter 1992). Copyright © 1992 Center for Great Plains Studies, University of Nebraska–Lincoln.

Abstract

In his most recent work Gerhard Schmutterer recounts the failure of a German-Lutheran mission located between the Yellowstone River and Deer Creek Stations (in present-day Wyoming) between 1858 and 1866. This particular attempt to Christianize the Indians of the American West was a joint venture between Germans and German-Americans of the German- Lutheran church, who wished to maintain the ties between pioneers and their church as well as save the souls of Native Americans. Approximately half the book is appendices that reprint the diary of Jacob Schmidt and the autobiography of Carl Krebs, both members of the mission. The author relies on these two primary sources to trace the mission from its inception to the inglorious retreat of the missionaries from the American West in response to increased tensions between whites and Indians during the 1860s.