The Word Carrier of Santee Normal Training School (Santee, Nebraska), 1922-01 - 1922-02

              THE WORD CARRIER
of SANTEE NORMAL TRAINING SCHOOL.
VOLUME  LI
HELPING THE RIGHT, EXPOSING THE WRONG
NUMBER  1
SANTEE, NEBRASKA.
Jan.-Feb., 1922
FIFTY CENTS PER YEAR
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!
5p*
I
Red   Cloud
Red Cloud was a member of a powerful family of Oglala Sioux known as the Smoke people.
He was born in the year 1822 at the Forks of
the Platte river, in Lincoln County, Nebraska.
His father was a man of influence, a head man,
who sat in the councils of his people but was
not recognized as a great chief. Red Cloud
did not attract any particular notice until after
he was forty years of age. He was a good
hunter and a good warrior. During the War
of the Outbreak, 1862 to 1865, his sympathies
were with his Santee kindred and he led a
party of braves to their assistance in 1864 and
was present at the battle of Killdeer Mountian,
near the head of Heart River, North Dakota ou
the 28th day of July. His own people did not
come to regard him as a leader, however, until
the late summer of 1865 when messengers
were sent out inviting the Oglalas to come to
Pierre to meet Goveruor Edmunds and other
commissioners to make a treaty of peace. The
messenger let it be known that the tivaty would
involve granting permission to the whites to
build wagon roads to the western mountains
through the lauds of the Oglalas. Red Cloud
took strong ground against granting such permission and refused to go to a council where
such a proposition was to be discussed, and
he succeeded in preventing any accredited representation of the Oglalas in such council.
Even while the matter was under discussion
and before the council bad convened at Pierre,
Col. Sawyer of Sioux City, with a big wagon
train of merchandise and a squad of soldiers of
the Dakota cavalry appeared on the Platte,
south of the Black Hills, in the very heart of
the Oglala country, ou the way to Montana,
building a road as they progressed. At once
Red Cloud began to organize the braves of the
Oglalas to resist this enterprise. He believed
it could be done by a show of force and without
blood shed. Nearly 3000 Sioux ami Cheyenne
braves flocked to his standard. By the time
he had mobilized his army Sawyer and his
train had reached Powder River and wras engage'! in constructing a crossing of the stream,
when Red Cloud appeared with a tremendous
force and completely surrounded the little
band and held them prisoners for 15 days
On the 15th day a young merchan tof Sioux
City, named Nathaniel Hedges, strayed too
far from the camp and was killed by an impulsive young Cheyenne. When blood had
once been spilled the young Sioux became
rather restive and wanted to make a complete
job of it by killing all of the white men, but
wise Red Cloud, fearing be could r.ot lor.g
control them, withdrew his force, released the
whites and let them go on. He called his
braves in council and they pledged themselves
to obey his council and he followed the white
men overtaking them at Tongue River where he
again surrounded them and held them captive
for a season, but finally allowed them to go
forward and withdrew his force for the winter.
It was a most remarkable instance of self-control on the part of the Sioux. The Oglalas at
this time did not have a regular agency, but
did receive some assistance from the government which was dispensed to them at Fort
Laramie, Wyoming, which was their general
rendevous. The next spring, 1866, the government sent a new peace commission expressly to negotiate with the Oglalas for the right
to build roads through their hunting grounds.
By this time all of the Sioux had come to rec
ognize Red Cloud as the most powerful leader
of the Oglalas: in fact at this time his word
was law among them. On the 30th day tf
June the Commissioners met the Oglalas under
a shade built for the purpose, near Fort
Laramie. Red Cloud was addressing the Commission and with all his eloquence protesting
against the building of the roads through
their hunting grounds declaring that such action would frighten away the game and the
j Sioux would starve. While he was speaking
, General Carrington with a thousand white
J soldiers arrived at Fort Laramie. "Why do
; these soldiers come into my country?" exclaimed Red Cloud. "To build forts and open
the road to Montana," replied Col. Maynadier.
Red Cloud sprang from the platf rom, caught
up his rifle and brandished it before the astonished commissioners. "In this and the Great
Spirit I trust for the right," he cried and, commanding his people to follow him, left the commission sitting without an audience,
i Red Cloud went to General Carrington and
protested against his going into the Oglala
country, but Carrington went on. Red Cloud
called his braves together and set out to annoy
and harrass the soldiers as much as possible.
Carrington built Fort Phil Kearney on the
headwaters of the Powder, under the flank
of the Big Horn Mountains, but it was with
great difficulty that he accomplished it, for Red
Cloud was constantly upon his track, picking
off the wood choppers and haymakers, driving
away the game so the soldiers could obtain no
fresh meat, stealing the horses and in every
way making Can ington's position disagreeable
and his work difficult. Finally on the 21st of
December Red Cloud appeared before the new
fort with a large force arid Col Fetterman
went out with eighty-one men to drive him
away. The Sioux led the soldiers into an ambush and every one was lost.
Red Cloud continued to harrass the white soldiers until July 1867 when he with a large force
attacted a small party of soldiers who were
guarding the wood train at Piney Island seven
miles from the fort. The soldiers took refuge
in a lot of iron lined wagon boxes which were
deposited in the middle of the island. They
where for the first time armed with repeating
rifles, an arm the Sioux had not seen or heard
of. They attack the soldiers in large force
again and again, but were driven back, the
air seemingly being filled with lead fired by
the whites, The battle was kept up from
nine in the morning until afternoon when assistance came from the fort and Red Cloud
withdrew. His loss had been very heavy.
He was not however discouraged and kept up
the war.
! Soon after this a new peace commission
arrived at Fort Laramie and sent out for
Red Cloud to come in, but he refused to do so
until the soldiers were withdrawn and the road
building given up. The commissioners continued to send messengers to him for more
than a year but he always had the same reply.
Finally in the late summer of 1868 the government withdrew the soldiers and abandoned the
road and in November Red Cloud came to
Fort Laramie and signed the treaty which is
known as the treaty of Fort Laramie and it
astablished the great Sioux reservation cm-
bracing all of South Dakota west of the Missouri river and extending west to the Big Horn
Mountians. Red Cloud always faithfully observed the provisions of this treaty and never
again engaged in a war with the white people,
though it is pretty certain that his sympathies
were with the Sioux in the war following the
opening of the Black Hills. He was settled
first at Red Cloud Agency in northwestern
Nebraska, but later in 1877 removed to the
Missouri river near Big Bend, but did not re-
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3r+
INDIAN  MISSIONARY TRAVELS TO j
SANTEE, NEB., IN  MOTOR TRUCK |
This is the third ins'allment of Mr. Hurd's own story
of his trip half way across the continent, from Massachusetts to Santee Normal Training School, with his wife, little
daughter, dog, and worldly possessions The journey was
made in a second hand Ford truck, which Mr, Ifurd rebuilt
with 36 inch rear wheels and accommodations for camping in
the machine, with a load of 3,00c pounds. The first installment appeared in the September-October number of The
Word Carrier.- Ed.
Diary:   From  Massachusetts to Nebraska
via Ford Truck
Aug. 16. Got an early start—Detour. Got
thru Bellevue—Detour. Toledo—Detour, detour, ad infinitum it seems. And the roads
we;e obsolutely the worst lever knew. Their
only redeeming feature is that they are over
level country. I made some remarks a few
days ago about detr.urs, but they aren't a circumstance to what I could say about these.
We are camped in a poultry-farm yard.
Had to walk about half a mile for drinking
water, but the lady of the establishment presented us with a mess of swectcorn—the first
we have had this year—for supper.
Aug. 17. We have peen looking forward to
Bryan and mail for some time and we detoured
into it in a pouring rain this morning I got a
new suit of clothes and had it all tailored to fit
me, but when I went to pay the owner of the
store by check he refused to take it in spite
of good identification.—I wish I had had my
finger prints taken ! Those would be positive.
I fooled around nearly an hour trying to get
money but finally had to telegraph for some.
These people are the most suspicious crowd I
ever saw. They won't get stuck, but they lost
my business by their manner. I shall replenish my wardrobe further on.
After leaving Bryau we were misdirected into
a mud hole beside a cornfield and had a chance
to sea the hospitality of western Ohio people.
I was endeavoring to get out with mudhooks
when au Ohio car bearing an Ohioau skidded
past, the operator paying me not the slightest
attention. Ow! Well, two Ohio women tried
the same trick but, alas for them, their Ford
coupe skidded and slid into my outfit broadside, blocking the road effectually. They got
out and used language which, I'm sorry to
say, failed to dry up the mud.
However, the bloekake, combined with my
maniitr, secured assistance from the next comers, including a pair of good horses, and we
all emerged by dhit of grinding, boiling, pulling and hauling.
I believe this outfit will never get rid of that
clay mud. My clothes aud shoes will need
strenuous treatment to make thein clean again.
We are glad to shake the dust (and mud) of
Ohio from our feet, tho we are able to do so
only in a figurative manner, as we crossed the
line into Indiana,
Our route carried us only about 45 miles
out of our way thru Ft. Wayne, but we have
si en that city aud are on the Lincoln Highway
south of where we expected to reach k.
This pasture was permitted to contain us
for the night because the landlord '-supposed
we had to camp somewhere."
O, well.     Westward h:>!
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