The Word Carrier of Santee Normal Training School (Santee, Nebraska), 1916-03 - 1916-04

              The Word Carrier
OF
SANTEE NORMAL TRAINING SCHOOL.
VOLUME XLV
HELPING THE RIGHT, EXPOSING THE WRONG.
NUMBER 2
SANTEE, NEBRASKA.
MARCH-APRIL, 1916
THIRTY CENTS PER YEAR
4&
Our Platform
For Indians we want American Education ! We want
American Homes! We want American Rights! The result
of which is American Citizenship! And the Gospel is the
Power of God for their Salvation !
The Red Man's Chance to be a Man
The Plains country, the home of the North
American Indian, has been my home tor a full
generation. I have witnessed the rise of the
West. I have felt its privations and shared its
struggle. I have seen it pass out of tbe wild
and woolly period. Its homes, its schools, its
churches, its government, its people, are now
unsurpassed. The red men have been my neighbors. I have known them in the days of Indian
fighting; I have, witnessed the struggle of the
Indian for his place in civilization and have
known him in his battles for character. I have
watched his sons come from the tepee to the
Government schools. The missionaries and the
educators have been my friends. Indian secretaries have been in my home. I have met these
young men in the conferences and heard their
testimonies in meetings.
It may be true that some of these sons of
the Plains who have returned from the schools
have gone back to the blanket but others have
returned to aid their fellows to fight their
way to their feet in Christian faith. They
have returned to their tribes by scores and as
educated men lead in the farming as well as
trade, Christian and social life, of their tribes.
The greatest enemies of the Indian have
been those of the white man—whiskey and
wantonness. Christian leadership will do for
him just what it does for the whites, and is
doing it.
No Christian work which I know engages
more of my sympathy than this. The 1,164
members or the 15 Indian Students' Associations are making Christian leaders. Of these
young men 50 trained students are on the gospel evangelistic teams and have conducted revivals of power in co-operation with the missionaries during their vacation trips. These
men are specially trained in their school associations for this work.
The Indian is religious The principle that
Christ adopted when he chose his 12 disciples
and trained them for three years in the fundamentals of life and living has characterized the
Indian groups on the Plains and has sent them
forth as "Good News Committees," as they call
BY   THE   KINDNESS  OF  THE  FOHI)  TIMES
Out of the twenty-five thousand employes of
the Ford factory at Detroit twenty five are Indians from the Indian School at Carlisle. The
Ford times speaks highly of these young men
stating that they are faithful and conscientious
workers. They represent fourteen tribes coming from thirteen different states.
themselves. Six new tribes have been reached
in the year.
The question that is raised when the Indian
is discussed, "Do the Indians make steadfast
Christians?" is satisfactorily answered as we
know the red men who have one by one found
their place as men through the Christian faith
.and association training. This has been thoroughly proved to my satisfaction. The men
who formed the first Indian association, the
Okodakiciye, are steadfast in their work of dis-
cipling their fellows.
And the field is not small. Besides the
137,000 Indians in Canada, the 3E0.000 in the
United States, the 57,000 in Alaska, there are
a million in Mexico, and ten millions in South
America. These tribes can be most effectively-
reached through educated Indians enlisted and
trained for Christian leadership.—A. A. Hyde,
in Association Men.
An Appeal to my People
I would ask the men and women of our Indian
race who have sons, brothers, fathers, husbands, and cousins, to organize in one body of
workers and pledge our lives and money to fight
tbe demon whisky traffic among our people.
It is possible that we can organize to fight the
whiskey traffic and the young men and old men
must stand together in several ways. First,
not to buy it; second, to help our enforcement
officers; third, to use our time and trouble to
keep our friends away from such places; fourth,
to sign pledges to quit drinking whiskey and not
take the first drink; fifth, to offer rewards to
those who follow drinking to stay quit.
The honorable Commissioner of Indian Affairs has a good purpose at heart to make good
Indians. He wants us to be good citizens, and
this matter is up to us. We want to begin now
for our betterment. We might make good crops
and help make good roads and good stock and
farmers—it is up to us to make good Indians.
Let every man 'and woman that's under
Shawnee Indian Agency sign the pledge when
it comes before you, to forever stay quit and do
not let anyone tempt you by saying, ''Come on
let us have u social drink, just one." That is
the one you must not take One drink may
not hurt, but you may take one and another
which may lead you to everlasting destruction.—Peter B. Bourassa, in Indian Scout.
Indian Champion Canners and Chicken Raisers
There are some "real live Indians" out in
Oregon. They aie entering the Club work with
as much enthusiasm as their white sisters in
any part of the country. In fact, the Indian
girls from Chemawa school beat all the other
club girls in a three day canning contest at the
Manufacturers and Land Products Show at Portland last winter. They not only won the first
prize of fifty dollars for team work against several other girl club teams of the Northwest,
but they carried off several hundred dollars'
worth of prizes of greater or less utility value
that were given bv Portland firms for individual
work in canning.
During the three days' contest they canned
salmon, beets, greens, grapes, cauliflower, and
nearly everything else that is canned in this age
of putting everything into the can that grows in
the garden, or on four feet on the farm.
These contests were held uuder the auspices
of the United States Department of Agriculture
and the State Agricultural College, and is a part
of the regular club activity that is being carried
on throughout the country which has enrolled
more than a quarter of a million boys and girls
in some forty states.
The Government's Indian schools at various
points have boys and girls enter in club activities, though "the work of the Chemawa maidens in beating their white sisters in open contests marks the highest development at any of
the Indian schools.
At the Twin Lakes day school for Indians on
the White Earth Reservation in Minnesota, the
pupils raised chickens. An old incubator and
some eggs were furnished the teacher and he
gave twenty four fine Barred Rock chickens to
seven of the girls of the school, no two girls being from the same family. He then offered a
prize of fifty cents. Sixteen chickens were
exhibited on September 4th, these ranging in
weight from H t0 2f pounds. Dora Smith, nine
years old, won first prize, her three chickens
weighing 7§ pounds.—The Farming Business.