Their Road to Christianity
The Cheyenne and Arapaho People In Colony, Oklahoma
by
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By late February of 1886, John Seger and the Arapaho Indians, diverse in behaviors and attitude, prepared to leave the Darlington Agency and start an agricultural colony. Seger refused all military protection from Fort Reno on the Sunday morning they left. He read a bible story to his followers about the Jordan River and he compared their journey of crossing the Canadian River to the bible story about the Israelites leaving Egypt and crossing the Jordan. Seger was like their “Moses,” the morning they left the agency.
When they left, the Arapaho group was dressed in their traditional Indian clothing and by the evening of the first day, they made their camp by the banks of the Canadian River. The Indian people made a decision before they left Darlington, the place they had lived for over fifteen years, that their new adventure of building a colony was going to be a life changing experience for them. It was then, that they decided to change from their Indian clothing and put on the White man’s clothes the agency had sent for them to wear. That night, they bathed in the river to wash away their old ways and before putting on the new clothes, they made a vow to one another that they would learn the ways of the White man.
Coffey told Dr. Roe that he wanted to be baptized. Roe visited with him to be sure he understood his commitment and when he said that he knew Jesus had already wiped away all of his sins, Walter Roe smiled and agreed that he was ready. Since the next day was Sunday, Dr. Roe said that he would baptize Coffey at the evening service.
Mrs. Roe gave Coffey some fresh turkey red to braid in his hair and Dr. Roe bought him a new white shirt and a pair of trousers which he insisted on wearing with the tag left out so everyone would know that his clothes were new. Because of Coffey’s weakness, he stayed in the lodge until they were ready for him at the church. After the opening exercises, through the interpreters, Dr. Roe explained to the people about Coffey and then he sent Watan to bring him into the church. Coffey appeared in the small west doorway. He was wavering because of his weakness and his eyes were fixed on Mr. Roe. Coffey came forward, and taking off his hat, he laid it down on the communion table, and the simple ceremony of baptism was soon complete. Dr. Roe told him to go back to the lodge because of his weakness and Coffee agreed that he was weak but his heart was singing. He turned, and left the church.
Coffey did not go back to the lodge as he had said. Instead, he dragged himself up the hill to the Arapaho camps and began telling his people about Jesus. For the next seven days, the dying man climbed the hill to the Arapaho camps and each day, he dragged himself from tepee to tepee telling his people about the life of that good Man named Jesus. The Indians watched him as he talked because they could see that his life was near its end.
In the late afternoons, Dr. and Mrs. Roe enjoyed sitting on their parsonage porch while the evenings turned to night. They never tired watching the activities that took place around the Cheyenne and Arapaho tepees that surrounded their house and mission church. The Indian people were always stirring about while some of the children were going back to the school grounds after spending the evening in the camps with their families. When Mr. Seger was the superintendent, he understood the importance of the children spending time with their parents after the school day ended and their domestic and academic chores were completed. His policy continued after he was no longer in charge.
The fires inside the tepees always gave a glowing light that made the tepees look like strings of lighted lanterns around the parsonage and up the hill to the east, north, and west. The smoke from their fires filled the air with clouds that hovered over the mission grounds. As the smoke from the tips of their lodges slowly subsided, so did the smell of burning wood and brush that was common throughout the valley. As the quietness of the evening drew to an end, one by one, the lighted tepees extinguished and nightfall covered the camp.
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About the Book
The book titled, “Their Road to Christianity” is a true story about the Cheyenne and Arapaho people in Oklahoma. It includes a brief history about the early Native American people, America’s European invasion, the devastating changes that resulted in the lives of the Indian people, and the missionaries from the Reformed Church in America that came to their rescue. The book focuses on the Plains Indians when they were placed on reservations in western Oklahoma and about John Seger, their teacher, their agent, their Indian farmer, and the man whom they trusted more than any other White man. The book details the Cheyenne and Arapaho people when they left the reservation with John Seger and built the first Indian Industrial Training School in America on their Indian settlement that was originally called Seger’s Colony in Indian Territory, and later, Colony, Oklahoma. The book includes their struggle converting to Christianity and a European/American lifestyle.
About the Author
Jane Kubat Weichel has lived in Colony for forty-eight years and attended the Columbian Memorial Presbyterian Church since moving the community. She is a retired schoolteacher and stays actively involved in a variety of arts. She and her husband have two children, both of whom are married and have blessed them with six grandchildren. She was raised in a Catholic community of her German/Russian and Czech/Bohemian ancestry and she remains a member of the church of her father and paternal family, the saint Anthony Roman Catholic Church of Padua. Her maternal grandmother and mother were raised near Fort Cantonment where many of the stories in this book originated. From an official ancestral research of her maternal family, she is a direct descendant of John Rolfe, husband of Pocahontas, one of the first Native Americans to be converted to Christianity.