One fall day in 1831, four Nez Perce men arrived in St. Louis, Missouri. They sought a meeting with General William Clark. They had met Clark some 25 years before when he had explored the country with Meriwether Lewis and the Corps of Discovery. The Nez Perce men had traveled over 1,900 miles to ask Clark a question: Was it true that the white man had a book that explained the right way to worship the Great Spirit? Did the book tell what was pleasing to the Great Spirit? The book the Nez Perce were asking about was the Bible.
That story, most likely exaggerated, appeared on the front page of New York City’s newspaper in 1833. Soon Protestant preachers and missionary societies were calling for volunteers to go out
