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MONDAY, JUNE 2, 2003

"The church, built in 1921, is one of the oldest still in use on the reservation. In another time and place, it bore a different name and stood in a different place.

When the community raised it from the ground with hammer and nail, they called it the Nueta Church. For about the next three decades, they arrived by horse and wagon to the building near cottonwood groves, close to the banks where the Little Missouri River met the Big Missouri.

The church then was considered one of the most progressive on the reservation. And Edwin Benson -- he usually sits in the front pew on the west side -- was among the parishioners who attended. In those days, the church was filled with Mandan-speaking community members.

Robert Lincoln, the Congregational church's first pastor, was one of the few community members who could read and write English. Known as White Bull of the Mandans, he spoke the word of the Lord, translating the Bible into the Mandan language for 25 years.

That era passed."

Get the Story:
JODI RAVE LEE: Small reservation church marks the end of an era (The Lincoln Journal Star 5/25)