The Board of Foreign Missions of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America sent missionaries to over seventeen different Native American tribes. As members of this missionary group in 1836, Rev. Henry H. Spaulding and his wife, Eliza, established a church in Idaho to serve the Nez Perce Indians. Spaulding developed a written script for the Nez Perce language and translated parts of the Bible for his congregation. The McBeth sisters, Sue and Kate, continued this mission work in Kamiah, Mt. Idaho, and Lapwai from 1873-1915. At that time, Sue McBeth developed a Nez Perce-English dictionary. The sisters were joined by their nieces, Mary and Elizabeth Crawford, and continued ministering to the Nez Perce until the mission closed in 1932.