Cross-Cultural Mission on the American Frontier (The Brainerd Mission)
(The Brainerd Mission)

As the history of the Brainerd Mission is coming to play an important role in the revitalization of the Brainerd area, the Center for Renaissance and Reformation is convinced that it can serve as a wellspring of energy for developing more focused attention to education reform, spiritual formation, and civic engagement.  It is energy that a good renaissance city like Chattanooga needs. What was the Brainerd Mission and what does it have to do with cultural mission?

It began when some missionaries from New England came to begin one of the earliest missions to the Cherokee of southeast Tennessee. Though it lasted only twenty-one years (1817-1838), it was considered one of the most successful such endeavors of the time. Ten other missions grew out of it, and it was one of only two Cherokee missions which endured up to the time of the Cherokee removal in the late 1830s.

Consider its legacy: It was the first public school in the area – a public-private partnership in fact – funded by the government, by interdenominational mission agencies, and by individuals from as far away as Scotland and England. Its campus contained the first federally-funded buildings in the state of Tennessee. It was intentionally multi-cultural, consisting of Cherokee, African, and Anglo children. Chattanooga’s first church was the multi-cultural congregation at the Brainerd Mission.The community contained forty buildings including houses, a mill, barns, warehouses, carpenters' and blacksmiths' shops, as well as extensive fields, gardens, and orchards. It was thus the area’s first “mixed-use development.”

The curriculum was comprised of traditional academic subjects, but the training of these young “scholars” (as they were called) also included learning agricultural and domestic skills. The Mission was encouraged and supported by three U.S. presidents – Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and James Monroe. Madison approved the final plan and promised to fund any necessary expansion or improvements.

The Brainerd Journal records that when President Monroe visited Brainerd in 1819, he was impressed by what he saw, with the exception being a newly completed log cabin dormitory for the girls.

“He said that such buildings were not good enough, and advised that we put up another kind of building in its place – that we make it a good two-story house, with brick or stone chimney, and glass windows, and that it be done at public expense. He also observed that after this was done, it might be thought best to build another of the same description for the boys.” (Brainerd Journal entry for May 27, 1819)

The Brainerd missionaries also cared about political liberty and social justice. They criticized the Cherokee for their possession and use of African slaves. They also opposed the notoriously untrustworthy deal-making white settlers. They stood up to President Jackson and government officials when the Cherokee Removal ensued. All but two of the missionaries traveled west with the Cherokee along the Trail of Tears. The two who remained began Chattanooga’s earliest churches.

The point of connection with our earlier discussion is that the Mission is a noteworthy reflection of this tradition of cultivating liberal learning and constitutional, representative government within the context of religious mission. This tradition found its way into the 1839 Cherokee Constitution: “Religion, morality, and knowledge, being necessary to good government, the preservation of liberty and the happiness of mankind, schools and the means of education shall forever be encouraged in the nation.” In this acknowledgement, they echoed the crafters of America’s experiment in democracy.

Like the New England colonies, the Brainerd Mission enacted (and the Cherokee supported) compulsory attendance for children who had enrolled in the Mission’s school. If a student stopped attending, the parents became responsible for the costs of tuition, room, and board.

Unlike many of their compatriots, these pioneers pursued a cultural mission that doesn’t involve power grabs or the conquest of territory for selfish gain. The missionaries vigorously opposed and were often hampered by such ambitions on the part of their countrymen.

This tri-cultural community at Brainerd Mission represented a faith tradition that neither began in, nor was confined to any of the three cultures which were represented there. It saw all humans as created in God’s image, and therefore equally deserving of respect and of the right to govern their own affairs.  It is a tradition in which overcoming tribal, ethnic, linguistic, and geographical boundaries is central to their omni-national cultural mission. They were convinced that the song of this tradition was not merely for their own locality or nation. As one of the favorite hymns of the Brainerd Cherokee put it, it was meant to be sung by “every kindred every tribe on this terrestrial ball.”

The records of world history and our present reality are replete with examples of cultural missions and worldviews which promote or accommodate tribalism, nationalism, and the acquisition of land as a divine right. Whenever you come across such a worldview, you have found one that stands outside of this tradition that I have described, regardless of the name it uses.

Why was the mission named “Brainerd”? Originally, it was the “Chickamauga Mission,” but the name was changed to honor someone named Brainerd. Who was he?

According to our telephone book, his name is used by a number of local organizations, facilities, and businesses – everything from schools and churches, to a lumber company, an army store, a trophy shop, dry cleaners, a golf course, a service station, a veterinary hospital, and a drag strip. And of course, a major road artery.

So who was David Brainerd?   (Click here.)