Editing Sheldon Jackson

{{short description|American Presbyterian missionary}}
{{Other people}}
{{Infobox person
| name              = Sheldon Jackson
| image             = Sheldon Jackson.jpg
| image_size        =
| caption           = Jackson (c. 1895)
| birth_date        = {{birth date|1834|5|18}}
| birth_place       = [[Florida, Montgomery County, New York|Minaville]], [[Montgomery County, New York|Montgomery County]]<br />[[New York (state)|New York]], U.S.
| death_date        = {{death date and age|1909|5|2|1834|5|18}}
| death_place       = [[Asheville, North Carolina|Asheville]], [[North Carolina]], U.S.
| death_cause       = 
| resting_place     = Minaville, New York
|occupation         = [[Presbyterian Church in the United States|Presbyterian]] [[clergy]]man
|alma_mater         = [[Union College (New York)|Union College]]<br />[[Princeton Theological Seminary]]
|spouse             = Mary Vorhees Jackson (married 1858)
|children           = 
|parents            = Delia Sheldon Jackson (mother)
|relations          = [[Alexander Sheldon]] (grandfather)
|signature          = Signature of Sheldon Jackson.png
}}
'''Sheldon Jackson''' (May 18, 1834 – May 2, 1909) was a [[Presbyterian Church in the United States|Presbyterian]] minister, [[missionary]], and [[Politician|political leader]]. During this career he travelled about one million  miles (1.6 million km) and established more than one hundred [[Mission (Christian)|mission]]s and [[Church body|church]]es, mostly in the [[Western United States]]. He performed extensive missionary work in [[Colorado]] and the [[Alaska Territory]], including his efforts to suppress [[Native American languages]].

==Youth, education, early career==
Sheldon Jackson was born in 1834 in [[Florida, Montgomery County, New York|Minaville]] in [[Montgomery County, New York|Montgomery County]] in eastern [[New York (state)|New York]]. His mother Delia (Sheldon) Jackson was a daughter of [[New York State Assembly]] Speaker [[Alexander Sheldon]].

Jackson graduated in 1855 from [[Union College (New York)|Union College]] in [[Schenectady, New York|Schenectady]], New York, and from the Presbyterian Church's [[Princeton Theological Seminary]] in 1858. That same year, he became an ordained Presbyterian minister and married the former Mary Vorhees.<ref name="history.pcusa.org">{{cite web|url=http://www.history.pcusa.org/collections/findingaids/fa.cfm?record_id=239|title=Guide to the Sheldon Jackson Papers|publisher=history.pcusa.org}}</ref>
 
He wanted to become a missionary overseas, but the Presbyterian board told the five foot tall Jackson, who had weak eyesight and was often ill, that he would be better suited for duty in the United States.<ref name=vandusen/> He first worked in the north-central and western United States, which were still vast and lightly populated areas during the [[American Civil War]] and thereafter. Jackson's first assignment was at the [[Choctaw people|Choctaw]] mission in [[Oklahoma Territory]], where he worked until poor health forced him to go back East in 1859.<ref name="history.pcusa.org"/>

After his recovery, Jackson was appointed to [[La Crescent, Minnesota|La Crescent]] in [[Houston County, Minnesota|Houston County]] in southeastern [[Minnesota]], where he extended his field hundreds of miles beyond the actual station. He spent ten years in Minnesota and [[Wisconsin]], having organized or assisted in the establishment of twenty-three churches.<ref name="history.pcusa.org"/>

Jackson traveled as a missionary throughout the American West. With the completion of the transcontinental railroad in 1869, a huge territory was opened to him. In the summer of 1869, Jackson went on a missionary tour using the railroad and stage lines, establishing a church a day.<ref name="history.pcusa.org"/><ref name=vandusen>Laura King Van Dusen, "Sheldon Jackson's Fairplay Church: One of More than One Hundred in Western U.S.; Jackson Arrested, Jailed in Alaska; Contributed to Settlement of the West", ''Historic Tales from Park County: Parked in the Past'' ([[Charleston, South Carolina|Charleston]], [[South Carolina]]: The History Press, 2013), {{ISBN|978-1-62619-161-7}}, pp. 69-77.</ref>

[[File:Marker Vermillion Institute 214.JPG|250 px|right]]

==North to Alaska==
[[File:Map of USA AK full.png|thumb|Map showing Alaska position relative to lower 48 states]]  
[[File:Sheldon Jackson on U.S.S. Bear.jpg|thumb|Sheldon Jackson, third from right, on USS ''Bear'' (1874)]]
Jackson found his major life's work in the new territory of [[Alaska]].  In 1867, US Secretary of State [[William H. Seward]], during the administration of [[U.S. President]] [[Andrew Johnson]], had negotiated the [[Alaska purchase|Alaska Purchase]] from [[Russia]]. The huge territory, with 20,000 miles of coastline, was initially called by many skeptics "Seward's Folly".<ref>[https://www.loc.gov/wiseguide/mar05/bear.html Have you been to the "polar bear garden"?] The loc.gov Wise Guide</ref>

In 1877, Jackson began his work in Alaska. He became committed to the Protestant Christian spiritual, educational, and economic wellbeing of the [[Alaska Natives]], according to his conception of well-being. He founded numerous schools and training centers that served these native people. At those schools, however, children were punished for speaking in their native languages.<ref name="Michael Krauss 1980">Michael Krauss (1980), ''Alaska Native Languages: Past, Present, and Future''. Alaska Native Language Center Research Papers Number 4.</ref><ref name="ankn.uaf.edu">Our Language Our Souls:[http://ankn.uaf.edu/curriculum/Yupiaq/DelenaNorrisTull/bLower%20Kuskokwim%20bilingual.htm The Yup'ik bilingual curriculum of the Lower Kuskokwim School District: A continuing success story]. Edited by Delena Norris-Tull. 1999</ref> His protégés included [[Edward Marsden]], a [[Tsimshian]] missionary among the [[Tlingit people|Tlingit]].

Jackson had considerable common ground with another important American in the region.  Captain [[Michael A. Healy]] of the [[United States Revenue Cutter Service]], commander of the [[USS Bear|USRC ''Bear'']], was also known for his concern for the native Alaskan [[Inuit]]. During this time, Captain Healy, primarily of European-American ancestry and the first person of African descent to command a U.S. ship, was essentially the law enforcement officer of the U.S. government in the vast territory.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.uscg.mil/history/people/HealyMichaelIndex.asp|title=Captain Michael A. Healy, USRCS|publisher=uscg.mil}}</ref>  In his twenty years of service between [[San Francisco]] and [[Point Barrow, Alaska|Point Barrow]], Healy acted as a judge, doctor, and policeman to Alaskan Natives, merchant seamen and whaling crews.  His ship also carried doctors and provided the only available trained medical care to many isolated communities.<ref name="icefloe.net">{{cite web |url=http://www.icefloe.net/healy_michaelhealy.html |title=Healy - Captain Michael A. Healy |access-date=2008-12-12 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080724194607/http://www.icefloe.net/healy_michaelhealy.html |archive-date=2008-07-24 }}</ref>  The Native people throughout the vast regions of the north came to know and respect this skipper and called his ship "Healy's Fire Canoe".<ref name="icefloe.net"/>  The ''Bear'' and Captain Healy reportedly inspired author [[Jack London]], and are featured prominently, along with Jackson, in [[James A. Michener]]'s novel, ''[[Alaska (novel)|Alaska]]''.<ref>{{cite book|last=Michener|first=James Albert |title=Alaska|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HdU-FGdL0H8C|accessdate=1 June 2021|year=1988|publisher=Random House|isbn=978-0-394-55154-8}}</ref>

Healy and Jackson became allies of a sort. During visits to [[Siberia]] (across the [[Bering Sea]] from the Alaskan coast), Healy had observed that the [[Chukchi people]] in the remote Asian area had domesticated [[reindeer]] and used them for food, travel, and clothing.<ref name="bcm.bc.edu">{{cite web|url=http://bcm.bc.edu/issues/summer_2003/ft_passing.html|title=Passing free - BCM - Summer 2003|publisher=bcm.bc.edu}}</ref> Recognizing the decline in the seal and whale populations for native consumption because of growing commercial fishing activities, and to aid Eskimos in transportation, Jackson and Healy made numerous trips into Siberia and helped import nearly 1,300 reindeer to bolster the livelihoods of Native people.  These became valuable tools in the provision of food, clothing and other necessities for Native peoples.  This work was noted in the ''[[New York Sun]]'' newspaper in 1894.<ref name="bcm.bc.edu"/>
   
Jackson was convinced that Americanization was the key to the future of Alaskan Natives. He discouraged the use of indigenous languages, traditional cultural practices, and spiritual celebrations. Because he was worried that Native cultures would vanish with no records of their past (a process which his own educational efforts accelerated), he collected artifacts from those cultures on his many trips throughout the region.

Jackson believed he could further his goals for the Alaskan natives through politics. He became a close friend of U.S. President [[Benjamin Harrison]].  He worked toward the passage of the [[Organized territory|Organic Act]] of 1884, which ensured that Alaska would begin to set up a judicial system and receive aid for education.  As a result, Sheldon Jackson was appointed as the First General Agent of Education in Alaska.

==Education policy==
In 1885, Jackson was appointed General Agent of Education in the  Alaska Territory.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.alaskool.org/native_ed/articles/s_haycox/sheldon_jackson.htm|title=Sheldon Jackson in Historical Perspective|publisher=alaskool.org}}</ref> Concurrent with the values of the expanding colonial administration, Jackson undertook a policy of deliberate acculturation. In particular, Jackson advocated an [[English-only]] policy which forbade the use of indigenous languages. In allocating $25,000 of federal education monies in 1888 he wrote, "[N]o books in any Indian language shall be used, or instruction given in that language to Indian pupils." In a letter to newly hired teachers in 1887 he wrote:
: It is the purpose of the government in establishing schools in Alaska to train up English speaking American citizens. ''You will therefore teach in English and give special prominence to instruction in the English language''…. [Y]our teaching should be pervaded by the spirit of the Bible."<ref>Dauenhauer, Richard. 1982. Two missions to Alaska. Pacific Historian 26(1).29-41.</ref>  (emphasis added)
The legacy of Jackson's educational policy is clearly evident in the now precarious state of Alaska's indigenous languages.<ref>Krauss, Michael E. 1980. Alaska Native Languages: Past, Present, and Future. (Alaska Native Language Center Research Paper 4). Fairbanks: Alaska Native Language Center.</ref> His policy prohibiting indigenous languages in Alaska schools was enforced from 1910 to 1968.<ref name="Michael Krauss 1980"/><ref name="ankn.uaf.edu"/> Decades of punishment for speaking Native languages resulted in greatly decreased transmission from one generation to the next, with the result that relatively few indigenous Alaskans speak Native languages in the 21st century.<ref>Krauss, Michael E. 2007. Native languages of Alaska. The Vanishing Voices of the Pacific Rim, ed. by O. Miyaoka, O. Sakiyama & M.E. Krauss. Oxford: Oxford University Press.</ref>

In March 1885, Judge [[Ward McAllister Jr.]] ruled that the contracts Jackson had secured with [[Tlingit]] parents, giving up their children for a period of five years for a small sum of money, to be null and void. This greatly reduced the number of students at Jackson's school. Jackson repeatedly sparred with McAllister and the district attorney, and mounted a campaign with President [[Grover Cleveland]]'s family members to have the officials dismissed. The president dismissed them between May and August 1885. In May 1885, Jackson was indicted by a grand jury of Russian-Tlingit creoles, in a controversy over land rights. Jackson then found himself in jail for several hours.<ref>{{cite journal|url=https://alaskabar.org/wp-content/uploads/1WLegalHist163.pdf|title=The Shaky Beginnings of Alaska's Judicial System|last=Naske|first=Claus-M.|journal=Western Legal History|volume=1|number=2|year=1988}}</ref>

==Death and legacy==
Jackson died on May 2, 1909, in [[Asheville, North Carolina|Asheville]], [[North Carolina]]. He is interred in his hometown of Minaville, New York.<ref name=vandusen/>

The former [[Sheldon Jackson College]] in [[Sitka City and Borough, Alaska|Sitka]], [[Alaska]], was named after him. The [[Sheldon Jackson Museum]], on the Sheldon Jackson College grounds, is the oldest [[concrete]] building in the state, and houses much of Sheldon Jackson's collection as well as other examples of [[Tlingit people|Tlingit]], [[Inuit]], and [[Aleut people|Aleut]] culture.

Sheldon Jackson Street is found in the College Village subdivision of [[Anchorage]], a neighborhood next to the [[University of Alaska Anchorage]] campus where the streets are named for colleges and universities (the street forms a loop with [[Emory University|Emory]] Street).

In 1874, while in [[Fairplay, Colorado|Fairplay]] in Park County, Colorado, Jackson built the still standing Sheldon Jackson Memorial Chapel, renamed the [[South Park Community Church]], a one-room [[Victorian architecture|Victorian]] [[Gothic architecture|Gothic]] structure, listed in 1977 on the [[National Register of Historic Places]].<ref name=vandusen/>

==Archival collections==
The [[Presbyterian Historical Society]] in [[Philadelphia]], [[Pennsylvania]], has a collection of Jackson’s [http://www.history.pcusa.org/collections/findingaids/fa.cfm?record_id=239  correspondence, journals, photographs, photographs, scrapbooks, notebooks and miscellaneous indices and ephemera.] Additional correspondence by Sheldon Jackson is also held at [[Princeton Theological Seminary]].

Jackson’s personal papers include photographs by [[Eadweard Muybridge]] and H.H. Brodeck. The [[Presbyterian Historical Society]] also holds the Sheldon Jackson Library, which was Jackson’s personal library donated by him to the historical society. The [[Sheldon Jackson College|Sheldon Jackson Museum]] in Sitka maintains three to four thousand Alaskan artifacts collected by Jackson during his lifetime.

==References==
{{Reflist}}

== Works ==
* ''Alaska, and missions on the north Pacific coast'' (1880; [http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.gdc/mtfgc.16181 Digitized page images & text])

==Further reading==
*''Alaska and the U.S. Revenue Cutter Service: 1867–1915'', By Truman R. Strobridge, Dennis L. Noble, Published by Naval Institute Press, 1999, {{ISBN|1-55750-845-3}}

Mentioned in « Alaska » by James Michener

==External links==
* {{Librivox author |id=11785}}

{{Alaska history footer|state=collapsed}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Jackson, Sheldon}}
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[[Category:19th-century American newspaper publishers (people)]]
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