By Coy Shaw The mention of names like Mohican, Apache, Navajo, Seminole and Cherokee immediately cause us to think about Indians with their colorful dress, knowledge of wildlife and expert survival skills. But do we ever stop to consider that they too are souls for whom Christ died? The early colonists stated in writing their responsibility to spread “the Christian religion” among the native population of the New World. One of the first missionaries to Native Americans was a young man by the name of David Brainerd. His life among the Indians was one of hardship and suffering, but his desire for their salvation drove him to give his all. Life in the American wilderness among the Indians evidently broke his health and at the young age of twenty-nine he died. Despite the fact that mission work among the American Indians has been going on for hundreds of years, they are still a neglected part of the population. Maybe the problem is we have been indoctrinated by Hollywood to the idea that cowboys are the good guys and Indians are the bad guys, or maybe we have never had any contact with Indians so are ignorant of their existence, or maybe we have heard how difficult it is to evangelize Indians. Whatever the reason, they are souls for whom Christ died and the missions outreach of the local church needs to include the American Indian. At the present time BIMI has three couples working among Native Americans. These three couples have devoted over seventy-five years of ministry to Indians. Kevin and Pam Barthel are working in Globe, Arizona. Their church, the Gilson Wash Baptist Church, is located on the San Carlos Indian Reservation, that is home to about nine thousand Apache Indians. The San Carlos Reservation is the tenth largest Indian reservation in the United States. 27