New Light on Samuel Boyd's Failed Mission to the Delaware Indians of Indiana

Three Delaware Indians, George Catlin, 1860s

In a few earlier posts, I've related the story of the preacher and missionary Samuel Boyd. After he moved to Indiana, and following the War of 1812, he attempted to communicate the gospel to the Delaware Indians who lived near the White River. Nothing in the sources indicates that he had any converts among the Delaware.

A story from the years prior to the War of 1812 sheds light on Boyd's failed mission. Around the year 1800, Moravian missionaries told the same group about the sufferings and death of Jesus. In response, the Delaware said that they knew who had killed Christ: "The white people were the ones who did it." Therefore, the story of the crucifixion did not implicate Indians. The episode reveals an obvious and imposing barrier to communication.

Source

Robert F. Berkhofer Jr., Salvation and the Savage: An Analysis of Protestant Missions and American Indian Response, 1787-1862 (Lexington: University of Kentucky Press, 1965), 109.