Moritz Bräuninger

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Moritz Bräuninger (born December 2, 1836 in Crimmitschau , † July 23, 1860 on the Powder River ), with Absarokee name Bagirisch , was a German missionary in North America who is considered a Protestant martyr.

Life

youth

Moritz Bräuninger was the second of the four children of master carpenter Moritz Bräuninger and Christiane Bräuninger, née Münch. At the age of five, Moritz Bräuninger the Younger entered the community school in his home town, where he stayed for seven years. He later wrote about this time:

“Quiet as I was, I never felt like going to my comrades' games. Reading books was my passion. "

as it says in the curriculum vitae of the Neuendettelsauer Mission Institution. He was confirmed on Easter 1850. At the request of his parents, but against his own conviction, he began an apprenticeship as a carpenter with his father. In the first year of his apprenticeship, he fled from his parents' home, probably due to conflicts during his apprenticeship. When he returned, he completed his training; but he did not enjoy the work.

On April 18, 1853, at the age of only 16, he began his journeyman hike on a cold, rainy day, in accordance with the customs of the time. He found this trip to be eventful. He visited Dresden , Wittenberg , where he visited the castle church and other Luther memorials, Magdeburg , Hamburg , Stade , Bremen , Osnabrück , Münster , Barmen , Düsseldorf , Cologne , Bonn , Bingen and Mainz . Then he went to Frankfurt am Main . He often had to beg on his journey. He traveled via the Spessart to Würzburg and Nuremberg , then to Neuendettelsau , because he wanted to hear the famous evangelical pastor Wilhelm Löhe preach.

He impressed him so much with his sermon about the spread of the gospel all over the world that Bräuninger stayed in the village and got a job as an assistant from the local village carpenter. He needed this help because the deaconess house in Neuendettelsau was just being built, something that Bräuninger worked on until its completion in the spring of 1855. His future career was still not clear to him. He had numerous contacts with the apprentices at the mission institution. Löhe advised him pastoral care. Both of these resulted in Bräuninger applying for admission to the mission institution. But he was still torn between worldly and spiritual matters, as Löhe later noted. He was then admitted so that he could free himself from worldly temptations, as the institution decided.

Training to be a missionary

On April 24, 1855, Moritz Bräuninger joined the mission institution for North America, which was the name of the institution at the time. It was a two-year apprenticeship as a spiritual helper for the German Lutheran emigrants.

Since 1841, Löhe gave spontaneous lessons to some craftsmen who wanted to go to North America as consignees. The catechist Friedrich Bauer from Nuremberg, a friend of Löhe, took over this training in 1846, which he gave a theological and pedagogical foundation. The core was the dogmatics and ethics of Lutheranism and an introduction to the New Testament. There were also other subjects. Bräuninger received this training. What was missing was an introduction to the ethnology and regional studies of the target area. Moritz Bräuninger passed his final exam at the end of February 1857.

On March 1, the worship service was held for him and three other missionaries who were seconded to North America. Moritz Bräuninger was sent to Iowa by Wilhelm Löhe . When Bräuninger left Neuendettelsau, he wove a crown of thorns around his photograph. Later this was sometimes interpreted as a premonition of his martyrdom. (The crown was shown in the exhibition Good Bye Bayern - Grüß Gott America of the House of Bavarian History from December 10, 2004 to March 6, 2005 in the locomotive shed in Rosenheim .) Löhe noted in Bräuninger's obituary that he was with some helpers Emigrated to the United States of America at his own risk , as his teachers felt that he was unsuitable for the missionary office. Bräuninger had to pay for the crossing out of pocket.

Bräuninger reached New York City on May 3, 1857 , together with Karl August Göhle (1836-1917), who then became known in Buffalo as Nestor of the German musicians and teachers, and the missionaries Peter Brand and Andreas Sussner. The four named traveled from there People went straight to Buffalo and met with Pastor Grabau, who recently had a meeting with the elders of the small Iowa Synod.

At the end of April, Bräuninger reached Dubuque on the Mississippi . There he was to complete his training at the theological seminary of the Iowa Synod. Before that he had to work as a carpenter for eight weeks in the construction of the new Wartburg seminary of the synod, which was inaugurated for the Reformation festival on October 31, 1857 in Saint Sebald , Clayton County (Iowa) . He then had to dig a well and cut firewood for the winter for a week. So he was only able to start teaching at the turn of the year from 1857 to 1858 in order to continue his training as a missionary and pastor .

On January 11, 1858, Bräuninger justified the choice of name for the seminary in a letter to Löhe, stating that the future pastors " want to do the same as the tireless worker on the Wartburg near Eisenach ".

Trip across the Missouri

The more experienced missionary Johann Jakob Schmidt (* 1834) met in the winter of 1857 to 1858 in Detroit an influential Indian agent of the US government named Alexander H. Redfield, who was responsible for the tribes on the Missouri River and the Yellowstone River . He had envoys from the Crow (Absarokee) and other tribes to bring payments in cash and in kind. He wanted to meet the Crow in Fort Sarpy II, the last stop on his journey, which lay in their tribal area south of the Yellowstone River between the Big Horn River and the Powder River.

Redfield invited Schmidt to accompany him there, as he particularly recommended the Crow to the missionaries. The Mission Committee of the Iowa Synod and its supporters in Europe, the Nuremberg Central Mission Association and the Neuendettelsau Society for Internal Mission, saw in this invitation a very favorable opportunity to begin the Native American mission , which particularly promoted Löhe, by offering mission opportunities should be explored in connection with this trip. All of the synod's missionary efforts were carried out by nine graduates of the Neuendettelsau Missionary Establishment; the funding was essentially taken over by the Society for Inner Mission.

In the spring of 1858, Schmidt asked for an employee. Bräuninger was selected, whose training ended at the end of April 1858. He set out on the 5000 km long way towards the Crow and arrived in the penultimate week of May 1858 in St. Louis , where the Missouri River and Mississippi flow together. Here he met Schmidt. Redfield accompanied the missionaries through the area of ​​seven different tribes, namely Yankton , Big Head Sioux , Arikaree , Hidatsa , Mandan, on the steamship Twilight , chartered by Frost, Todd, & Company and departing from St. Louis on May 23 , Assiniboine and Blackfoot , 3840 km up the Missouri River. Redfield issued Bräuninger and Schmidt a license to live with the Crow for a year, and it was with Captain Shaw that the missionaries could either travel for free or for a very low price. Bräuninger and Schmidt held morning and evening services on the steamer. Other passengers were the artist Carl Wilmar, the Indian agent Alfred J. Vaughn, numerous voyageurs and mechanics as well as a few women and children.

Above the Yankton settlement, which they reached on June 6, the passengers had to expect attacks whenever they passed a settlement of indigenous people. The situation seemed to change when about 40 soldiers under the command of Major HW Wessels got on at Fort Randall. At the fort, the regimental band entertained the passengers, who were also given a tour of the approximately four hectare rectangular military area. However, the crew considered the soldiers in their worn-out uniforms to be "useless rescuers".

A meeting with the Big Head Sioux was supposed to take place at Old Fort Pierre, but they did not approach the boat until June 16 a good way upstream from the old trading post. Hundreds of tribesmen gathered on the bank, voicing their displeasure with the military escort, firing warning shots, some of which hit the wheel arch, and galloping up and down the bank. Under strict military supervision, Redfield entertained the disgruntled Sioux, handed out annual due dates and temporarily restored order. Major Wessels kept his soldiers under strict guidance and posted guards on the boat day and night during the river trip.

On June 19, Captain Shaw anchored the Twilight off shore at rat-infested Fort Clark to avoid the Arikaree, which were almost penniless and tempted to rob the boat. When Redfield handed them the annual due dates, they angrily fired shots at his feet.

Time was lost due to flat fairways, sandbanks, two damage to the control unit, frequent stops for the wood supply and numerous delays due to local warring parties, consultations and general tribal conflicts.

A few days before arriving at Fort Union, Nebraska , a trading post at the mouth of the Yellowstone River , the missionaries proudly (and inappropriately) noted that it was great "that we are the first missionaries among these Wild West Indians" and very motivated are to protect them from "falling into the hands of the Romans ".

Culture shock in Fort Union

After 31 days on the Twilight , on June 22, they arrived in Fort Union at the confluence of the Yellowstone River with the Missouri. Since 1828 or 1829 it was one of the most important trading posts of the First American Fur Trading Company. The company bought beaver and buffalo skins from the indigenous people here and paid for them primarily with rifles and ammunition.

At that time, the target region was still mostly natural. Together with the missionaries, a large supply of alcoholic beverages also arrived on the steamer. As a result, the missionaries should soon change the attitude they had previously expressed. So the next morning the Assiniboine were too drunk to pick up their annual due dates. This situation caused "unspeakable pain," as they put it, and depression for the missionaries. The alcohol excess continued for two more days, and Schmidt observed, “The white workers are so drunk they cannot work.” Even the post's commercial manager, Robert Meldrum, could not get any results because his employees were “drunk and full Silliness ”. The missionaries judged the natives as "dirty and depraved in body and soul" and the fur traders as nothing but "godless rabble".

The clergy found it extremely difficult to adapt to the social conditions on the river and to relate to the people who lived at Fort Union and elsewhere in the indigenous area. The harsh reality of life in Upper Missouri was in stark contrast to the hopes the missionaries had raised. Especially after James Kipp warned them that the Crow were "the wildest of all Indians" and Agent Redfield had graciously told them that the Crow were "morally perverted" prostitutes and whore-freeers who, as it was rated at the time, were "shameful acts between man and man ”, the missionaries were“ surprised and frightened ”.

One incident in particular clearly showed the contrast between the moral ideas of the missionaries and those of the male society of the so-called Wild West:

On July 1st, a funeral procession approached the fort from the mountains for a woman from the Assiniboine tribe who had died during the missionaries' stay. The woman was obviously the prostitute at the fort. A man with two horses rode ahead, followed by a horse and carriage with the corpse, then five or six women, one of whom was the mother of the deceased. They greeted the missionaries kindly. They realized that Schmidt was expected to take over the funeral. Alexander Redfield, the bourgeois (fort manager) Alexander Culbertson of the American Fur Company and Alfred Vaughn were dressed accordingly in black. Redfield approached Schmidt and, at Culbertson's request, asked him to hold the ceremony at the grave in accordance with the rules of the Lutheran Church.

Schmidt could not determine with certainty whether the woman had been baptized, which is why he refused. In addition, the missionaries saw the woman's livelihood as a manifest sin in which she had died. The conversation took place at the fence of the cemetery. Everyone in attendance, especially Culbertson, was very upset about the rejection. Schmidt and Bräuninger now experienced the hostility of the fort staff. The next day, Redfield exclaimed "that Indians and whites alike are human beings who have a human soul." Schmidt's stubborn refusal to bury people outside his church drew an angry response from the normally calm Redfield: “What the hell are you a minister? When people die, everyone expects their ministry, but they keep refusing. ”(The story was re-enacted on September 1, 2012.) Both Culbertson and Redfield refused to support the missionaries. Later, however, there was a discussion between Culbertson, Redfield and the missionaries, in which the latter were made aware of the own laws of the Wild West and after which there was again agreement between the parties.

Despite their anger and conflict, the missionaries continued to carry out their mission. According to the terms of the contract, the crow should pick up their "gifts" at Fort Union, but the mountain crow insisted that these should be brought to their area. For this purpose, the newcomers were picked up at the fort by two chiefs of the Crow, including Dagbizashush (bear's head).

Journey across the Yellowstone River

Due to the shallow water of the Yellowstone River, the steamship could not drive along it into the Crow area, instead two shallow river boats were used, whose voyage began on July 6th. Culbertson had allowed the missionaries to travel for free. Three weeks after departure, near the mouth of the Powder River , Redfield had to return to Fort Union by smaller boat due to a fever he contracted in the cold, rainy weather. His colleague Henry W. Beeson took over the escort. The missionaries made friends with Dagbizashush on the way; they had the feeling that the chiefs treated them with more respect than the fur traders who were traveling with them, who belonged to their own religion. The path became dangerous at times when the boat had to be pulled with ropes through almost impassable rapids.

In Fort Sarpy II

The journey over the Yellowstone River took 37 days, until August 12, 1858, to cover the comparatively short distance to Fort Sarpy II, a station about 80 km below the mouth of the Big Horn River and about 480 km from Fort Union was away. The Crow territory stretched along the Big Horn and Yellowstone Rivers in what is now Montana . Fort Sarpy II then consisted of seven small but well-fortified houses. The American Fur Company had not only supported the missionaries' voyage on the Yellowstone River, but also allowed them to stay in the fort. From the missionaries' point of view, the station as a typical outpost clearly revealed all the vices of civilization; the dealers paid little heed to them. The missionaries found life there unbearable; Many visitors felt the same way, with Reynolds calling the fort “a decidedly primitive affair” the following year.

Redfield had previously asked the missionaries to acknowledge receipt of the annual due dates for the Blackfoot if the Aborigines had not arrived. The difference between the list and the goods actually delivered was obvious to the missionaries, which is why they refused to sign. There was an argument; the missionaries wanted to leave the fort immediately. In addition, the crow who had received their due dates were already on the move.

So they decided to ask Dagbizashush if they could go with his tribe. The missionaries found this much more pleasant, as life in the fort seemed rude and degenerate to them. The chief replied: "Itzig" (good). Although the missionaries had little knowledge of the language and customs of the indigenous people, they dared to go along with them.

Living with the Crow

The journey began on August 17, 1858. The missionaries were welcomed in an exceptionally friendly and warm manner. Dagbizashush entertained them in his own tent, in which they lived from then on, and provided them with two riding horses and a pack horse for exploring the surrounding area. He also offered each of them a wife, but they refused. Bräuninger received the Crow name Bagirisch for "the brown one" and Schmidt the name Akomatbisch for "blacksmith". With that they were formally accepted into the tribe. They were armed with tomahawks and bows and arrows.

So they moved from camp to camp for two months, until October 1st, as nomads with 1,500 natives and 160 tents, shared their hard life and witnessed fights between Crow and Blackfoot. Every day they rode for three to four hours, dismantling the tent in the morning and setting it up again in the evening, which was the job of the women, cooking and looking after the horses. In the evening the pipe went around among the men; a religious ritual of the natives through which they felt connected to the spirits, or the missionaries sang songs from their homeland, which Schmidt accompanied with the violin. During this time the missionaries gained the trust and affection of the Crow and began learning their language as their main occupation. Their Crow vocabulary ended up being 500 words so they could "make themselves understood to a certain extent". In addition, there was the sign language of the indigenous people, which Bräuninger in particular learned very well.

The unsteady life led the missionaries to believe that permanent residence would be required for the mission. Dagbizashush did not give a clear answer to this question, but made it clear that the missionaries were welcome to join his tribe at any time and that he was keen to have them teach the children to read, write, and do arithmetic.

On September 1, 1858, Redfield mentioned the missionaries in a report to the United States Congress.

When part of the tribe visited Deer Creek, a tributary of the North Platte River , in the fall to make peace with a warring tribe, Bräuninger and Schmidt accompanied this group. They could not start their missionary work immediately because it was just an exploratory trip and the permission and preparation for the mission were still lacking. In parting, however, they promised the Crow at their request that they would stay with them next spring. Schmidt later reported that the natives were very reluctant to let them go and warned them several times to actually return at the agreed time. Some even wanted to accompany them to Iowa to ensure their return, which the missionaries refused. The farewell was warm. The foundations for successful missionary work among the Crow seemed to have been laid.

Resolutions of the mission leadership

They reached the fort in early October and traveled home from there to Iowa .

They reached St. Sebaldus on November 25th, 1858. There, because of their very encouraging report, they immediately received permission from the mission authority, the money and equipment necessary to return to the Crow. It was decided to set up a colony in the Crow area, which was based on an idea by Löhe, who had made a similar attempt in Michigan , and on the proposal of Bräuninger and Schmidt to set up a mission farm in the Crow land. There were two reasons for this. One was the supply of the missionaries, which at that time had to be secured in the north-west. Furthermore, converted natives should be accustomed to a sedentary life here, since a nomadic way of life would make regular worship, spiritual instruction and a Christian life more difficult. A request to the government for financial support was denied. The missionaries' report led to the provision of considerable funds by the Synods of Iowa and Buffalo, but the majority came from Germany ; Thanks to Löhe's work, the Neuendettelsau Mission in particular supported the project right through to the end. The Lübeck Mission, headed by Dr. Johann Carl Lindenberg , sent considerable sums.

Journey to the Crow again

Bräuninger and Schmidt traveled to the Crow again from July 5, 1859, for various reasons, mainly financial, this time by land, along the Oregon Trail . Unpredictable events had delayed the departure. Originally, Kessler, Krebs and a farmer were supposed to travel with them, but this could not be realized for financial reasons. Instead, the group consisted only of the missionaries Bräuninger and Schmidt, who had already gained missionary experience, the missionary Döderlein, the student and missionary assistant Seyler and the agricultural assistants and colonists Beck and Bunge. They transported their possessions, food, seeds and agricultural implements as well as tools in four ox carts, which limited the speed for the 1500 km to the west. Illness reasons and further delays made the trip to the country longer than expected; it lasted a total of twelve weeks and was extremely debilitating for the travelers.

It was not until the late autumn of 1859 that the missionaries reached the meeting point agreed with the Crow in Deer Creek (now Glenrock , Wyoming ), about 100 km from Fort Laramie up the North Platte River . No crow had been sighted near Deer Creek in a year. This forced the missionaries to set up their winter quarters 150 miles from the Crow. On October 10, Schmidt and Döderlein traveled back to Iowa, doubting themselves and depressed, also to order further supplies there for the spring, since the funds made available from Neuendettelsau were hardly available for the wintering of the missionaries and the planned trip the crow were sufficient. You should return to Deer Creek on a second expedition in the spring. However, when he arrived in St. Sebald, Schmidt fell ill while Döderlein joined the Missouri Synod . The reduced group in Deer Creek was now headed by Bräuninger, who was not even 23 years old. He only had $ 20 left for the upcoming winter, which under normal circumstances would not have been enough.

However, the missionaries were able to take advantage of the opportunity to join a military surveying unit of the engineering corps of the US Army under Captain William Franklin Raynolds , who treated the missionaries very kindly. This had taken up their winter quarters in the Deer Creek Indian Agency, which was subordinate to the Indian agent Major Thomas S. Twiss, who advised the missionaries to stay here also during the very harsh winter, since the chances of reaching the Crow area were better in spring for which they had to cross the territory of the enemy Sioux and Cheyenne . The missionaries were able to move into one of the Mormon houses that had been abandoned during the Utah War in 1857. Raynolds found out from the missionaries that their supplies were exhausted, and made it clear to Bräuninger, who had not been worried until then, that in their current situation they would not be able to continue their mission in the spring. He offered his support to the missionaries in this situation, which they gladly responded to. Raynolds described “Bryninger”, as he called Bräuninger, and his people in his surviving report from 1868 as “God-fearing and devoted men who, however, are ignorant of both the world and our language and consequently are hardly prepared for the tasks that they do have made ". The two accounts by Redfield and Raynolds are the only contemporary written evidence of the missionaries' presence in Montana and Wyoming. The missionaries earned their living in the form of accommodation, food and small sums of money by repairing the barracks and building log houses, for which Raynold's workers had been looking for. In addition, donations totaling $ 60 were collected at the trading post for the missionaries, making it possible for them to hibernate. Raynolds was fully compensated by the grateful synod for his financial outlay during this time.

Wyoming's first Christmas party

On Christmas Eve, the missionaries held a service in the host's house to which Raynolds and his unit were invited. Twiss and his family were also invited, but apparently they did not attend. Instead, numerous indigenous people who had been handpicked by the major turned up. To everyone's pleasant surprise, the service took place under a Christmas tree decorated with candles, which was still extremely unusual in North America at the time. A spruce tree that had been felled by the missionaries and brought to their quarters was used for this purpose. The indigenous people were also satisfied with the ceremony. Bräuninger read from the Bible and played well-known Christmas carols on the violin. Since most of the lyrics were German, only the missionaries could sing along with all of the songs. It was the first known Christmas party in what is now Wyoming. Presents were probably not exchanged under the barren conditions.

The military commander, who knew the region north of Deer Creek well through his survey work, recommended to Bräuninger that the missionaries should build the planned mission station in the heartland of the Crow on the lower reaches of the Big Horn River before the missionaries left .

Mission station on the Powder River

Instead, despite all the setbacks and disappointments under Bräuninger's leadership, which he had taken over because of Schmidt's illness, the missionaries traveled alone in the Easter week of 1860 north to the Powder River in what is now Wyoming, a tributary of the Yellowstone River. Three of the missionaries each drove an ox cart, while the fourth drove the dairy cows as they wanted to set up a self-sufficient farm. It is not known exactly which route they took, but it led through the middle of the wilderness. After a distance they estimated to be about 100 miles, they reached the bank of the Powder River further east, believing they had now arrived in the heart of the Crow. They crossed the river and found a suitable place for the mission station , which was level with the river and was covered with thick grass.

Here, thanks to the help of Captain Raynold, they were able to set up the mission just 150 miles from a post office. Several log houses were built, including a larger one as a meeting building, a well for drinking water, a chicken coop and vegetable patches. Land was reclaimed, fenced in and sown for the autumn harvest. Presumably this land was opposite the confluence with the Dry Fork on the left bank of the Powder River, the exact location could not be determined later. The missionaries who ran the station, Bräuninger, Beck and Seyler, wanted to get to know not only the language but also the customs of the local indigenous people. They also wanted to bring them closer to the Christian faith and arouse understanding for the European settlers.

Apparently they did not know that they were actually in the middle of the narrow border region between the peoples of the Sioux, the Blackfoot and the Crow, who fought constant violent border conflicts there. This ignorance turned out to be fatal. The Sioux in particular were considered bellicose. Conflicts between indigenous people and European settlers also increased in the region. The missionaries apparently felt safe themselves, as the Sioux, who occasionally visited the mission station, met them on friendly terms. Bräuninger's knowledge of the Crow language, but in particular of the native sign language, led to fruitful conversations with Cheyenne and Arapaho from the missionaries' point of view . In fact, Bräuninger turned out to be the most talented at learning the local languages ​​and cultures, so that he became one of the leaders of the mission.

Bräuninger managed to lead three boys from the Cheyenne tribe to Christianity. Two of them died as adolescents; nothing is known about the further fate of the third. The Neuendettelsau mission in this region was not to be further successful, as later became apparent.

Bunge could not bear the isolation any longer, wanted to resign and travel back to Deer Creek against Bräuninger's will. His decision shows the physical and mental strain that life here brought with it. Moritz Bräuninger took him to the post office in an ox cart. On June 24, 1860, Bräuninger sent a full and encouraging report to Iowa from here. This contained a pencil drawing by Bräuninger of the station and its surroundings that was still preserved. He reported on the establishment of the mission station and that the Crow would soon be collecting their annual due dates in Deer Creek. He mistakenly assumed that they would pass the mission station. Since the station was actually on the edge of the tribal area of ​​the Sioux, the Crow would only have entered the region of their enemies in the event of war. Bräuninger also asked for two additional missionaries to be sent. It was to be his last letter to the mission committee in St. Sebaldus. At the end of June 1860, Bräuninger was back in his station. The missionary positions were advertised by the satisfied synod and given to two promising candidates, Flachenecker and Krebs, who immediately prepared for the long journey. The future of the station looked promising, nothing seemed to indicate the following events at first.

Increasing tension

However, a minority of the warriors also saw the missionaries as intruders and wished them dead. The quarrel between the different tribes prevented the missionaries from being killed by them. From the middle of July 1860, however, the visitors to the station from the clans of the Hunkpapa and Oglala Sioux behaved more and more self-confidently and aggressively and asked the missionaries for food, accommodation and gifts and asked them why they were staying in this region. The missionaries tried hard but unsuccessfully to get the natives friendly with room and board. Their behavior remained hypothermic and threatening.

On July 19 and 20, 1860, a group of 50 Oglala and Hunkpapa warriors camped just 2 km from the station. One of the warriors told the missionaries in no uncertain terms that if they returned from their attack on the Shoshone they would kill all the station residents and their livestock , and that the missionaries had not left by then. This terrified the missionaries very much. The same warrior wore an old blanket that he wanted to exchange for a new one. When Bräuninger wanted to protest, the man took a new white blanket and threw the old blanket on the floor. Then he remarked angrily that he thought this was a fair trade. Bräuninger did not answer immediately, but put his hand over his mouth, which in sign language meant that he had nothing to say about the incident. Eventually, given the majority of the Sioux, Bräuninger reluctantly allowed the man to keep the blanket.

That same day, late at night, three chiefs of the group approached the station with the ceiling, signaling good intentions. The chief who was wearing the blanket said he wanted to return it and that he wanted his people to be cautious about the Europeans and that he saw that this was not the case. A very satisfactory meeting ensued, which gave the missionaries hope. The chiefs called the Oglala "friends of the whites" and that they did not want anything to happen to them.

The next meeting immediately followed this meeting.

Encounter with six warriors

On July 22, 1860, six warriors, presumably Hunkpapa and Oglala, went to the mission station on foot, allegedly with peaceful intent. Accordingly, they were entertained and looked after. The missionaries and the natives smoked together and talked about a variety of topics in the Sioux language. After that, the warriors were allowed to spend the night in their own room in the station. That evening, Bräuninger said to his staff that he would write to the mission leadership that they could not continue the mission if the number of missionaries could not be increased to 15 to 20 people in order to build a defensive wall and, if necessary, to defend themselves effectively can. Apparently, due to recent events, he was thinking of a mission fort rather than a mission farm. It is unclear whether he admitted that the mission had failed.

The warriors stayed in the mission station for the next half day and behaved completely differently than the day before. They now wanted to do business and were pushing for gifts. One of the Sioux wanted to exchange his moccasins for a wool blanket. Bräuninger's principle was not to trade with the indigenous people. The situation became more and more threatening for the missionaries who did not allow themselves to be persuaded. Finally, they managed to calmly clear the problem. The indigenous people did not appear offended. The warriors received one lunch from the missionaries, and they received a total of three meals during their stay at the mission station. The friendliest-looking warrior took the bullet out of his rifle and replaced it with three bullets separated by stoppers. Seyler asked with concern what this would be for. Bräuninger replied that it was preparation for a meeting with enemies. If the aborigines just wanted to hunt, they would only load one bullet. It is believed that when the rifle was loaded, Bräuninger's death was prepared. The warriors left the mission station in the early afternoon, stated that they wanted to join the snakes (a common sign-language term for the Comanche ) and went upstream, where they lost sight behind a hill.

After the tired missionaries had rested a little, Bräuninger and Beck left the mission station for an evening stroll and, as Beck suggested, to bring the cattle to the stable while Seyler remained in the station to supervise. When Bräuninger said goodbye to him, he called out to him: “I wish you many Indians!” Then Bräuninger and Beck went down the river and discussed their complicated situation. They comforted each other with Bible words. Bräuninger wore his rough work clothes: a blue shirt, long lederhosen, moccasins and a wide-brimmed hat. As usual, he was armed with a rifle.

After the two missionaries had covered 800 meters, behind a thicket they met again the six warriors who had left them hours before, although they had initially gone in a different direction. The indigenous people, who were equally surprised, claimed they heard a shot they believed had been fired by the enemy Blackfoot. They also asked if they could hide in the mission station. This request, which is probably atypical for Native Americans, was obviously just a ruse to gain access to the station again, which the missionaries did not see through. Instead, Bräuninger offered them the new cellar under the kitchen to hide, and that he wanted to protect them if their enemies came, which caused the warriors to laugh out loud. This confused the missionaries, but apparently this was not an alarm signal for the missionaries either, because Bräuninger asked his deacon Beck, now that the conversation was dragging on, to look after the cattle grazing another 2 km upstream while he himself wanted to accompany the natives back to the mission station.

After he separated from Beck, Bräuninger, then 23 years old, was missing.

Death by the hand of the six warriors?

The six warriors later allegedly told trappers that they first went with Bräuninger towards the mission station. Then they would have dropped back and argued loudly. One of them would have thought that he wanted to kill the previous “leader of the white people” in order to persuade the unwanted settlers to retreat. The others tried to dissuade him first, mostly out of fear of the military's reaction. Since they were known to Bräuninger, he would not have suspected anything and would not have turned to them. This and the missionary's weapons, which were luring as prey, would ultimately have resulted in the warrior who had loaded his rifle on the station with warlike intentions, shooting at Bräuninger. All three bullets would have hit, one would have penetrated the spine. Bräuninger tried unsuccessfully to get up, whereupon they killed him with beatings. Then they would have taken his scalp and mutilated his face so that he would not recognize them in the realm of the dead. They would have thrown him into the flooding river afterwards.

The other missionaries noticed Bräuninger's disappearance when Beck came to the station alone with the cattle that evening. Seyler already suspected that the warriors had come with bad faith. An accident was also possible. Beck and Seyler searched very carefully for Bräuninger or at least traces of him until nightfall. They returned to the station and slept next to their loaded rifles. After further searches, Bräuninger disappeared on the following two days. It was suggested that the warriors killed him and disposed of his body. So when Bräuninger was not found, either alive or dead, even after an extensive search, the missionaries immediately withdrew to a safe area in Deer Creek to notify the Iowa Mission Committee and await new instructions. The committee again informed the Neuendettelsauer and the Nuremberg Mission Society. The fact that no crow could be found on the Powder River also contributed to the withdrawal. The station was not reoccupied. What had happened did not become known until some time later, as described, the six warriors allegedly reported it to some trappers, not without pride.

A few weeks later, Löhe found out about the events. At the beginning of 1861 he wrote in the first edition of the Kirchliche Mittheilungen from and about North America about Moritz Bräuninger's death:

"The circumstances of his death are such that we can happily believe: our mission is initiated with martyr's blood, and the friends in Iowa too ... call the departed their martyrs with timid, budding joy."

The extent to which the report, which allegedly came from trappers who spoke to the six warriors and was passed on by traders and friendly natives, is debatable. Alternatively, it has been suggested that the report was invented by indigenous peoples to scare the missionaries. In fact, the six warriors and Bräuninger split up and the missionary was killed by one of the numerous bears in the region.

In general, however, the assumption that Bräuninger was killed by the warriors is the more likely version, as it is known that the indigenous people no longer wanted to tolerate European settlers in their area. Killing their “leaders” should actually prove to be an efficient method of keeping other Europeans away, at least for the near future. If he was actually killed by the warriors, Bräuninger can be regarded as the first martyr of the Neuendettelsau mission, since his only motivation to go to the Native Americans was Jesus' command of the mission, as it is formulated in Mt 28 : 19-20  LUT .

On the other hand, the warriors in this case are unlikely to have killed Bräuninger because of his religious beliefs and missionary intent. For them, the missionaries were probably only foreign settlers who settled in their country without their permission, against their will and against the agreement of Fort Laramie, despite a clear request to leave their territory, even with threats was awarded. Presumably the warriors felt absolutely right to drive them out with the usual means of the so-called Wild West.

Seen in this way, it is a question of perspective: While Moritz Bräuninger is considered a martyr from a Christian point of view, the Sioux would probably have called him an intruder.

Abandonment of missionary endeavors

In fact, the missionary work of the Neuendettelsau missionaries among the Native Americans, after the synod had ordered the stay at Deer Creek in 1860 and the mission stations were destroyed in 1864, only a few years later, in 1867, because of the numerous dangers in the area of ​​Fort Laramie gave up unsuccessfully and did not reoccupy the mission station in Deer Creek. After Bräuninger's disappearance, the mission initially switched to the Cheyenne. It is believed that the missionary work was made impossible by the dishonest behavior of European settlers towards the indigenous people. The settlement took place, although the area was contractually guaranteed to the indigenous people, which they no longer wanted to tolerate; In addition to the settlers, hunters and trappers also worsened their living conditions. The resistance of the indigenous people became more and more violent, conflicts were more and more often resolved by force. Other negative influences for the mission came from the Civil War , which was waged from 1861 to 1865, the lack of identification of the Iowa Synod with the Neuendettelsau mission and the lack of experience and simple perspective of the missionaries who were still too young. But also perhaps the most admired missionary in North America, Pierre-Jean De Smet , who worked for the Roman Catholic Church, did not succeed in establishing an effective mission system in the West at that time. The Neuendettelsauer Mission would later have the desired results in Papua New Guinea instead of North America .

monument

A memorial to Moritz Bräuninger can be found in St. Sebald's Cemetery, Iowa, near Strawberry Point. It is about 2 meters high and 1.5 meters wide boulder with a bronze plaque inscribed in German. The upper part of the panel reminds of the Christian baptized aborigines Gottfried and Paulus, buried here in 1865, the lower, larger part reminds of the missionaries, on the one hand with the sentence

This memorial also commemorates missionary Moritz Bräuninger - murdered at Deer Creek on July 23, 1860.

on the other hand with the names listed below seven German missionaries who succeeded Bräuninger.

Remembrance day

July 22nd in the Evangelical Name Calendar .

swell

literature

  • Gerhard Schmutterer: Tomahawk and cross: Franconian missionaries among prairie Indians 1858–1866: in memory of Moritz Bräuninger ( Erlanger paperback volume 79), Freimund-Verlag, Neuendettelsau, Verlag der Evangelisch-Lutherischen Mission, Erlangen, 1987 ISBN 3-7726- 0128-6 and ISBN 3-87214-179-1
personal data
SURNAME Bräuninger, Moritz
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Bryninger; Bagirian
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Protestant missionary, possibly martyr
DATE OF BIRTH December 2, 1836
PLACE OF BIRTH Crimmitschau
DATE OF DEATH July 23, 1860
Place of death on the Powder River