Henry Benjamin Whipple (1822-1901) was the first Episcopal bishop of Minnesota. He left a remarkable 576-page autobiography, Lights and Shadows of a Long Episcopate (Macmillan, 1902), which offers keen insights into Native American and white-settler conflicts in Minnesota during and following the U.S. Civil War.
I recently learned of Whipple through a new book by journalism professor Gustav Niebuhr, Lincoln’s Bishop: A President, a Priest, and the Fate of 300 Dakota Sioux Warriors (HarperOne, 2014, 210 pp.). The book focuses on the so-called Dakota War of 1862 in Minnesota and Whipple’s relationships with the Dakota Sioux and other Indian tribes. A key figure in the book is the capable Sioux leader Little Crow, as indicated by the book’s cover photos.
In brief, the story is this: Henry Whipple was born in far upstate New York. He married and became an Episcopal priest. His talents were early recognized, and he was recruited to do pioneer mission work in Chicago’s Loop, especially among railroad workers.
Interestingly, Whipple earlier spent a year at Oberlin College in Ohio, where his uncle was professor of mathematics. Whipple writes in his autobiography, “The Rev. Charles Finney, president of the college, was a remarkable man. His kindness and consideration toward me I shall never forget, and his loving interest in my career gave him a sacred place in my memory “ (p. 4).
Whipple had good success in Chicago, building a vibrant congregation. A man of high intelligence, strong character, and great compassion, Whipple embodied a transforming, Christ-centered gospel.
Bishop of Minnesota
To his surprise, Whipple found himself elected the first Episcopal bishop of Minnesota in 1859, at the age of thirty-seven. Returning from visiting parishioners in Chicago one June day, Whipple found a good friend, a fellow clergyman, pacing in front of his house. In his autobiography Whipple writes, “He ran toward me and throwing his arms around my neck exclaimed, ‘My dear brother, you have been elected Bishop of Minnesota.’” Whipple served in that capacity for over forty years—from 1859 until his death in 1901.
Taking up his duties in Minnesota, Whipple quickly found himself confronted by conflicts between Native Americans and the expanding number of white settlers—as well as the U.S. military, which became the prime agent for pushing the Indians further and further off their native lands and into small, often barren reservations. Whipple, a man of great cultural sensitivity, quickly developed a great love for the native peoples. He initiated successful mission work among the Dakota Sioux and other tribes.
Then came the Dakota War of 1862—right at the height of the Civil War—in which perhaps as many as 800 white settlers, including whole families, were killed. The instigators were a renegade group of young Dakota warriors who were incensed not so much by the settlers themselves but by the U.S. government’s failure to honor treaties made, leaving many of the Indians destitute.
The U.S. Cavalry intervened. Hundreds of Indians—most of whom had nothing to do with the violence—were rounded up. After hasty trials over 300 Dakota Sioux were condemned to death by hanging.
Bishop Whipple was aghast—both at the trials and at the widespread thirst for revenge against all Indians on the part of many white leaders. He wrote articles and preached sermons explaining the circumstances leading to the outbreak of violence. His key role however was in appealing directly to President Abraham Lincoln.
Eventually Whipple traveled to Washington DC and secured an interview with the President. To his credit Lincoln, though nearly overwhelmed by Civil War responsibilities, requested a record of the trials. Niebuhr writes, “On December 6 [1862] Lincoln said that he had reviewed the trial records and found evidence in only thirty-nine cases that would warrant capital punishment” (p. 162). It “was clear,” Niebuhr adds, “that he had come down on mercy’s side. He would spare 87 percent of the convicted Dakotas” (p. 163).
Lincoln’s decision was not popular in Minnesota, but of course Whipple supported and defended it.
Whipple continued to advocate for Indian rights, and in particular for reform of the U.S. Department of Indian Affairs, which he criticized as corrupt and incompetent.
The Larger Picture
There is much more to the story. The point here: Within all the 400-year dreary, often bloody history of American Indians being forced from their native lands and ways of life, a small parade of Christians like Bishop Henry Whipple passes by as conscientious exceptions. There were Christian missionaries for example who protested injustices at the time of Congress’ Indian Removal Act of 1830, and others, both earlier and later.
Meanwhile, the Department (later Bureau) of Indian Affairs remained largely immune from reform. When U. S. Grant came into the presidency he tried appointing genuine Christians as Indian agents, and his so-called “Quaker Policy” brought some improvement here and there. Yet, as Ralph Andrist notes, “before [Grant’s] term ended . . . both his Secretary of the Interior and Secretary of War [were] forced out of office because of corruption in connection with Indian affairs.” The hard fact remained that “no Quaker Policy or other reform . . . was going to save the Indian as long as he stood in the way of Western pioneers” (The Long Death: The Last Days of the Plains Indians, 169).
But people like Henry Whipple, “Lincoln’s Bishop,” are also part of the story as pricks to the conscience—yesterday and today.
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