2022/09/22

John Fire Lame Deer - Wikipedia

John Fire Lame Deer

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Tȟáȟča Hušté John Fire Lame Deer

Born	Tȟáȟča Hušté March 17, 1903 Rosebud Indian Reservation
Died	December 14, 1976 (aged 73) Denver
Nationality	American Indian
Other names	John Fire

John Fire Lame Deer (in Lakota Tȟáȟča Hušté; March 17, 1903^[1] – December 14, 1976,^[2] also known as Lame Deer, John Fire and John (Fire) Lame Deer) was a Lakota holy man, member of the Heyoka society,^{[citation needed]} grandson of the Miniconjou head man Lame Deer, and father of Archie Fire Lame Deer.

John Fire Lame Deer was a Mineconju-Lakota Sioux born on the Rosebud Indian Reservation. His father was Silas Fire Let-Them-Have-Enough. His mother was Sally Red Blanket. He lived with his grandparents until he was 6 or 7, after which he was placed in a day school near the family until age fourteen. He was then sent to a boarding school, one of many run by the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs for Indian youth. These schools were designed to assimilate Native Americans into the dominant culture after their forced settlement on reservations. Lame Deer's mother died of tuberculosis in 1920. His father moved north to Standing Rock Indian Reservation soon after and left Lame Deer with land and livestock, which Lame Deer quickly sold.^[3]

Lame Deer's life as a young man was rough and wild; he traveled the rodeo circuit as a rider and later as a rodeo clown. He was a member of the peyote church and tribal policeman as well.^[3] According to his personal account, he drank, gambled, womanized, and once went on a several-day-long car theft and drinking binge.

Making his home at the Pine Ridge Reservation and traveling around the country, Lame Deer became known both among the Lakota and to the American public at a time when indigenous culture and spirituality were going through a period of rebirth and the psychedelic movement of the 1960s had yet to disintegrate. He often participated in American Indian Movement events, including sit-ins at the Black Hills. The Black Hills is land that was legally owned by the Lakota until it was illegally seized by the United States government without compensation after the discovery of gold in the area.^[4] The Black Hills are sacred to the Lakota and a number of other Plains tribes. The U.S. Supreme Court found that the federal government "decided to abandon the Nation's treaty obligation to preserve the integrity of the Sioux territory"^[5] and used military force to seize the Black Hills.^[6] The Lakota continue to campaign for the return of the Black Hills.

Lame Deer, Seeker of Visions[edit]

In 1972, Richard Erdoes published Lame Deer, Seeker of Visions; his recorded interviews with Lame Deer are part of the Richard Erdoes Papers at the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University.

The book is about Lame Deer's later life, when he decided that he wanted to be a teacher and a healer. Erdoes writes of Lame Deer's opinions of Elk, Bear, Buffalo, Coyote, and Badger medicine,^[7] and the importance Lakota ceremonial traditions played in his later life and eventual understanding of the world.^[8]

References[edit]

^ "John Fire Lame Deer (Tahca Ushte)". National Park Service. Retrieved September 2, 2021.
^ "Indian Chief". Reading Eagle. 1976-12-16. Retrieved 2015-09-05.
^ Jump up to:^a ^b Sanborn, Geoff (October 2002). "Lame Deer, John Fire". American National Biography. doi:10.1093/anb/9780198606697.article.1603477. Retrieved 2019-11-20.
^ United States v. Sioux Nation of Indians, 448 U.S. 371, 378 (1980).
^ Sioux Nation of Indians, 448 U.S. at 378.
^ Sioux Nation of Indians, 448 U.S. at 381-382.
^ Erdoes, Richard (1972) Lame Deer, seeker of visions. New York: Simon and Schuster. ISBN 0-671-55392-5
^ Rice, Julian (Spring 1994). "A Ventriloquy of Anthros: Densmore, Dorsey, Lame Deer and Erdoes". American Indian Quarterly. 18 (2): 169–196. doi:10.2307/1185245. JSTOR 1185245.

Griffith John - Wikipedia

Griffith John

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Griffith John

Born	14 December 1831 Swansea, Wales
Died	25 July 1912 (aged 80) London, England
Nationality	British
Occupation	Christian missionary to China
Employer	London Missionary Society

Griffith John (Chinese: 楊格非; pinyin: Yáng Géfēi; 14 December 1831 – 25 July 1912) was a Welsh Christian missionary and translator in China. A member of the Congregational church, he was a pioneer evangelist with the London Missionary Society (LMS), a writer and a translator of the Holy Bible into the Chinese language.^[1]

Biography[edit]

Griffith John was born on 14 December 1831 at Swansea, in south Wales. He was brought up as a Christian in the Congregational tradition, and in 1840 at the age of eight was admitted to full membership of Ebenezer Congregational church, Swansea. When only fourteen he delivered his first sermon at a prayer meeting; at sixteen he became a regular preacher and was known as "boy preacher." He was subsequently trained at the Brecon Congregational Memorial College for the ministry, and then at the Bedford Academy.^[1]^[2]

In 1853 he offered his services to the London Missionary Society and after two years' training was ordained in 1855 at Ebenezer, Swansea. That same year he married his first wife, Margaret Jane, a daughter of the Christian missionary, David Griffiths. After he was ordained, he wanted to serve in Madagascar but was instead persuaded by the London Missionary Society to go to China. The newly wed couple made the voyage to Shanghai arriving in September 1855. Griffith John would serve in China for 55 years, chiefly in Hubei and Hunan.

John made extensive missionary journeys into the interior of China, sometimes traveling over 5,000 km. He was among the first to begin Christian missionary work in the provinces of Hubei (Hupeh), Hunan, and Sichuan (Szechwan). He set up schools, hospitals and training colleges, with a permanent base at Hankou (now part of Wuhan city) in Hubei. In 1861 he went from Shanghai through the provinces of central China, and he later claimed that with his colleagues he had established over 100 mission stations in Hubei and Hunan.^[3] In July of that year he had moved to Hankou, which remained his base until his final departure from China in 1912 - although in 1863 he was in neighbouring Wuchang District (now part of Wuhan city), and in 1867 Hanyang District (also now part of Wuhan city).

Griffith John in 1905

Being fluent in Chinese, known as a powerful and eloquent speaker. He trained numerous Chinese evangelists and wrote numerous Christian tracts and served for many years as chairman of the Central China Tract Society.^[4]

Mrs John suffered from ill health. In 1870, she and her husband left China for a rare visit to Britain; but in 1873 she died in Singapore during the return voyage. In 1874, John met and married Mrs Jenkins, a missionary's widow. In 1885, his second wife died.^[1]

Blue plaque commemorating John in Swansea, Wales

In 1890, he became a founding member of the Permanent Committee for the Promotion of Anti-Opium Societies. Fellow committee members were prominent missionaries John Glasgow Kerr MD, American Presbyterian Mission in Canton; BC Atterbury MD, American Presbyterian Mission in Peking, Archdeacon Arthur Evans Moule, Church Missionary Society in Shanghai, Henry Whitney MD, American Board of Commissioners for foreign Missions in Foochow, the Rev Samuel Clarke, China Inland Mission in Kweiyang and the Rev Arthur Gostick Shorrock, English Baptist Mission in Taiyuan.^[5] They resolved to continue their opposition to the opium traffic, urging Christians in China to arouse public opinion against it. The desire of the missionaries that their ideas be carried out caused them to form "continuation committees" that were assigned tasks to assure that action would be taken on whatever matters had been approved by the conferences.

John published a New Testament in 1885, using Wen-li literary Chinese. He would in 1889 publish a second New Testament translation, this time using Mandarin Chinese. He would continue translating other portions of the Old Testament into Mandarin Chinese, such as Psalms and Proverbs by 1890.^[1]

In 1889 he was elected chairman of the Congregational Union of England and Wales, but declined the honour and remained in Hankou among the Chinese whom he loved. In the Yangtze valley he founded a theological college for Chinese preachers, which bears his name. The University of Edinburgh conferred on him the degree of Doctor of Divinity (1889) in recognition of his service to the Chinese.^[4]^[2]

In 1905 John celebrated his missionary jubilee at Hankou. For health reasons he left China for a short time but returned in 1907. During a career spanning 60 years John left China only three times. Finally returning to Britain in January 1912, he died in London on 25 July that year. Griffith John was buried at Bethel Chapel on Carnglas Road, Sketty in Swansea following a funeral service in Ebenezer Chapel.^[1]^[2]

Legacy[edit]

In 2012, a bust of Griffith John by sculptor Xiang Jinguo was offered to Ebenezer church but placed in Swansea Museum - a gift from the Union Hospital, Wuhan, who established a programme of cooperation with Swansea University's School of Medicine.^[6] In September 2013, a blue plaque was unveiled in memory of John outside Ebenezer Chapel, Swansea, where he worshiped as a boy.^[7]

Works[edit]

John, Griffith (1907). A Voice from China Archived 16 February 2012 at the Wayback Machine London: James Clarke &Co. -University of Hong Kong Libraries, Digital Initiatives, China Through Western Eyes

Notes[edit]

^ Jump up to:^a ^b ^c ^d ^e Stockment, Martha. "Griffith John (1831—1912)". Biographical Dictionary of Chinese Christianity. Retrieved 11 June 2018.
^ Jump up to:^a ^b ^c "John, Griffith" . Encyclopædia Britannica (12th ed.). 1922.
^ Who's who in the Far East. The China Mail. Hong Kong. June 1906. p. 166.
^ Jump up to:^a ^b Bonk, Jonathan J. (1998). "John, Griffith". In Anderson, Gerald H. (ed.). Biographical Dictionary of Christian Missions. New York: Macmillan Reference. p. 334.
^ Lodwick, Kathleen L. (1996). Crusaders Against Opium: Protestant Missionaries in China, 1874-1917. Lexington, KY: University Press of Kentucky. p. 36. ISBN 0-8131-3348-3.
^ "Swansea-China missionary Griffith John bust on display". BBC News. 30 November 2012. Retrieved 29 October 2016.
^ Thomas, Geraint (16 September 2013). "Blue plaque unveiled in memory of Swansea missionary Griffith John". South Wales Evening Post. Retrieved 29 October 2016.

References[edit]

This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1922). "John, Griffith". Encyclopædia Britannica (12th ed.). London & New York: The Encyclopædia Britannica Company. p. 659.

2022/09/22