“This is the only church I’ve put my mark on. You listen to him when he speaks from the Book.”—Chief Alchesay of the White Mountain Apaches
The Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Michigan synods that were federated in 1892 desired to do foreign mission work together. An exploratory team discovered the Apache reservations in Arizona as a place where no other church was operating.
The Apache tribes had only been forcibly settled on the reservations in 1886. In October 1893, two seminary graduates, Johannes Plocher and George Adascheck, were sent to the San Carlos Apache Indian Reservation with no language training, few supplies, not much direction, and a lot of prayers.
The work was slow and difficult. The conditions were harsh and challenging. Adascheck only lasted a year before he was replaced by another seminary graduate, Paul Mayerhoff. It took six years before the gospel bore visible fruit in the form of the first baptisms.
The work started to take off with the arrival of Gustav Harders in 1906, Edgar Guenther (and his wife, Minnie) in 1911, Alfred Uplegger and Henry Rosin in 1917, and Francis Uplegger in 1919. All of these people (and many others) devoted their lives to serving on the Apache reservations. Francis Uplegger, a language scholar, developed a written form for the Apache language so that the catechism, hymns, and portions of the Bible could be translated into Apache. Schools were started, and a nursery was founded.
For more than 50 years, the Apache mission was the primary focus of the Wisconsin Synod’s “foreign” mission work. In addition to offerings and prayers, members of the synod donated blankets, children’s clothes, and toys for the mission. Some even were trained to work in the nursery taking care of Apache babies.
The Apache mission served as the starting point for the Wisconsin Synod’s sustained efforts to take the gospel to people of other races and cultures. Today, nine congregations and two Lutheran elementary schools serve the Native Americans of the San Carlos Apache Indian Reservation and the White Mountain Apache Reservation.
Chief Alchesay and the key
On April 30, 1922, when Open Bible Church was dedicated in Whiteriver, Chief Alchesay and 101 members of his tribe walked into the church. The chief pointed to Pastor Edgar Guenther and said, “You listen to him when he speaks from this Book.” They were then baptized. The chief was given a key to the church.
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