George Tinker’s fascinating probe into U.S. mission history pierces the romantic veil of most history writing and shows how four of the most noted Christian missionaries—men of the highest moral character, the best of intentions, and sincere commitment to the gospel—confused gospel values and European cultural values, often with lethal results. Tinker spotlights four cases: Junipero Serra, the Franciscan whose mission to California natives has made him a candidate for sainthood; John Eliot, the renowned Puritan missionary to Massachusetts Indians; Pierre-Jean De Smet, the Jesuit missioner to the Indians of the Midwest; and Henry Benjamin Whipple, who engineered the U.S. government's theft of the Black Hills from the Sioux.
