The Chulupi Indian Mission (Mennonite Brethren), located in the Mennonite Colony Fernheim in the Paraguayan Chaco, has its headquarters in the town of Filadelfia of the same colony. The Chulupi Indian, of medium height, tough and wiry, is usually a willing worker and generally considered more intelligent and temperamental than the neighboring Lengua Indian tribe. The Chulupi first came to Fernheim in 1934 from the Pilcomayo River area, southwest of the Mennonite settlement. As more Indians arrived the Fernheim churches felt the need for a mission to them and in 1946 the first missionaries, Jakob and Helene Franz of Coaldale, Alberta, were sent to Fernheim by the Mennonite Brethren Board of Foreign Missions of North America, to assist the local churches in this undertaking. In 1949 two other missionaries, Kornelius Isaak and Gerhard Hein of Fernheim Colony, were added to the working staff. Especial difficulty is encountered by the staff in learning the unwritten Chulupi language, and in the nomadic unstable habits of the tribe. There had been no interference from the Catholic Church. The mission is supported by the Mennonite Brethren Board of Foreign Missions in cooperation with the churches in the Chaco.

Adapted by permission of Herald Press, Scottdale, Pennsylvania, and Waterloo, Ontario, from Mennonite Encyclopedia, Vol. 1, p. 591. All rights reserved. For information on ordering the encyclopedia visit the Herald Press website.

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