States and it could take eight months to a year for a letter to be conveyed between their mission and relatives in the east. It generally took two years for Spalding to have send on a letter and to have heard back from family in New York. Mail traveled either by a ship around South America or via fur traders or other caravans west of Liberty, Missouri. The Whitman's mission was 120 miles from the Spalding's mission, a trip of five or six days during good weather to visit their fellow missionaries. Missionary societies sent them barrels filled with books, clothing, school supplies, and other useful materials. They also received letters and packages from people who were aware of their mission, including poet Lydia Sigourney, which helped them feel supported by people in the east. Educator Spalding was the first of the missionaries to learn a Native language, the Nez Perce language, which allowed her to assimilate more quickly with the Nez Perce People and translate their language to English when needed. Until that point, it was only a spoken language. Spalding created a written version of the language and taught it to the Nez Perce people, along with English. She printed Bible story lessons and hymns in the Nez Perce language. Her hymnal was the first book written in the Nez Perce language. Hundreds of people—men, women and children— showed up for school and she was unable to teach them all, so she developed a system where she taught a Bible story, Bible verse, or a song to a few Nez Perce, who memorized it and then taught it to groups of people. Spalding and Henry developed a pictoral ladder with comments in English to help teach the stories of God and biblical figures. She taught girls to knit, sew, and weave cloth, using the first weaving loom west of the Rocky Mountains. They knitted socks and sewed dresses. Spalding did not attempt to force the children to assimilate European habits of hair cuts, clothing, or grooming. She is considered an artist on the western frontier for her skills of an illustrator, storyteller, knitter, letterwriter, and publisher, as stated in the Frontier Women and Their Art: A Chronological Encyclopedia. Relationships She asked for and accepted help from the nimiipuu, such as help with the delivery of her daughter, Eliza, in November 1837. She felt it was important to learn