The Word Carrier of Santee Normal Training School (Santee, Nebraska), 1923-11 - 1923-12

              the Word Carrier
of SANTEE NORMAL TRAINING SCHOOL.
VOLUME  LII
HELPING THE  BIGHT, EXPOSING THE "WRONG
NUMBER. 6
SANTEE, NEBRASKA.
November-December, 1923
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!
Heathenism and Christianity
In January, 1876, the Missionary Herald
contained the following paragraph :
Those who were present at the last Annual Meet
ing will remember the lively and very gratifying interest which was felt in the Indians at Fort Berth-
hold. It would have given the Prudential Committee great pleasure to commence operations among
them' at an earlier day; but the inadequacy of the
resources of the Hoard to meet the urgent appeals
of  stations   already organized,   seemed  to   forbid.
But they are constrained to think that sending
the gospel to this point is the special object that
ought first to engage the attention of the friends of
missions; and five thousand dollars are earnestly
solicited therefor."
The next month, Stephen R. Riggs, the
pioneer missionary to the Dakotas, had an
article in the same magazine in which he
writes at length on this project:
Occupation of Fort Berthold
"The occupation of Fort Berthold as a missionary
station has been one of the earnest desires of our
hearts for several years. Sometimes it has seemed
as if we could not wait longer. The question has
been,'Who will go for us?' Year bv year passed, and
no answer came. But now there comes a voice,
Baying, 'Send us ;' and there seems to be a special
providence in the whole matter.
"Rev. C. L. Hall, of New York City, finished his
theological training at Andover in 1874. When
there he received an application from Dr. Clark to
go to one of the eastern missions; but, although his
heart was in mission work, he did not then respond
to the call. He had, while in Union Theological
Seminary, become much interested in New York
City missions; and he went home from Andover with
the thought of giving himself to that work. But
just then he heard a cry from the extreme border,
'Come and help us.' He offered himself to the
American Home Missionary Society, and was sent
immediately to Springfield, D. T.,the extreme frontier white settlement on that part of the line. There,
the testimony is, he has done good service for the
past year. But that place was just opposite our
missionary station at the Saiitee Agency; and thirty miles above him, on the same side of the river
with Springfield, the mission at the Yankton Agency. He was in a good position to form a favorable judgment of missionary endeavors among the Indians, and, of course, hesoon heard of our efforts to
find suitable persons to plant the standard of the
cvose a thousand miles higher np on the Missiouri
River.    He was drawn to that work.
"And there, at the Yankton Agency, the Lord had
prepared" for him a helpmeet. Miss Emma Calhoun, of Ohio, is one of our noblest young women.
She has spent the last three or four years in
teaching the Dakotas; and has readily acquired their
language, which will be of immediate service to her
in the new field among the Mandans, Rees, and
Hidatsas. And, furthermore, she is enthusiastic in
the work of Indian missions."
An appeal is then made to the friends of
missions for prompt and generous contributions, and Dr. Riggs states three reasons for
the occupation of the Fort Berthold field :
"1. It has been an open field for more than two
generations. Ever since Lewis and Clark spent
their first, winter (1803-4) with the Mandans and
Rees, these Indians have been staunch friends of
the American people. It is their boast that they
have never killed a white man.
"2. While the Rees are a branch of the Pawnees,
and quite different form the Dakotas, and all of
them were regarded as enemies by the wilder part
of the Sioux nation, the languages of the Mandans
and Hidatsas belong to the Dakota family. The
Dakota was quite extensively understood by the
men, and Dr. Riggs thought that Dakota books and
educated native Dakotas might be used in the education of these tribes.
"3. Fort Betthold is a strategic point, not only for
the evangelization of the three tribes living there,
but for the regions beyond."
On February 15, 1876, Mr. Hall and Miss
Calhoun were married at Yankton Agency,
and a week later, the ordination of the new
missionary occurred at the same place. Ordination in those days was preceded by a severe testing of the young man's knowledge ;
Concluded on Last Page
Mrs. Francis Frazier
Mrs. Francis Frazier was born about seventy years ago, near where St. Paul stands today.
In 1873 she married Francis Frazier, with
whom she has lived for over fifty years. They
had six childreu, three of whom are surviving their mother: Dr. George J. Frazier, of
Santee, Neb.; Mrs. Alice Brave, of Eagle
Butte, S. D. ; and Mr. Fraueis Philip Frazier,
of Chicago. Mrs. Frazier died at Eagle Butte
on November 14. Her body was brought back
to Santee, and the funeral service took place
on Monday, November 19, at the Pilgrim
Oong'l Church, Santee, Neb.
Mrs. Frazier was one of the outstanding
Indian women. Although without education
she was a foremost woman in pushing schooling among her people. Her own children received the very best of training—one son becoming a physician, aud the other studying
at present for the ministry. She was a woman of great strength of character, who left
an impression upon all those with whom she
came in toueh. She had all the gifts of true
leadership, living the kind of life that she
wanted others to lead, and able to express
her thoughts in the most convincing way.
She staid for about seventeen years at Pon-
ca Creek, S. D., where her husband was pastor of an Indian church. In 1902 they came
to Santee, and staid here until 1920. At that
time her husband was called to the Cheyenne
River Peservation to take charge of the Iu-
dain missions there Ihis gave both her and
her husband the biggest field of labor that
they had vet known, and Mrs. Frazier had a
wonderful influence over the big reservation,
helping the womeu in their home as well as
in their church work. She made innumerable
friends in the short three years she staid there.
Fifty Years With the Sioux:
Recollections of the Beginning of Missionary Work
among the Indians near Fort Solly
Robert Wright.
On Dec. 20th all Santee people were shocked
by the sudden death of Robert Wright,
son of our Mr. and Mrs. Wright. Rev. John
Wright is the head of the Bible Department
and of all the religious teaching in Santee
Mission School. Mr. and Mrs. Wright, with
their three small daughters and little son
Robert, came to Santee in July, 1920, from the
Presbyterian Mission in West Africa. Robert
Wright was born there in the mission station
at Rio Benito, on Nov. 26, 1918. All the children were recovering from measles but there
came to Robert as "after effect" a very malignant form of croup, which was sudden and
irresistible, notwithstanding the best of care.
The heartfelt sympathy of all the friends of
Santee will go to Mr. and Mrs. Wright and
the sisters. The funeral was conducted in
Santee Mission Chapel by Rev. A. C. Warner
and Rev. Amos Oneroad. The music was by
Mrs. Riggs and pupils of our school music
department. Burial was in Santee Mission
Cemetery.
Friends of Santee, all over the country, have
been very good to us this year in the sending of
Christmas gifts for our school pupils. Mauy
of our pupils are a very long way from home
and on that account we have no vacation in
our school year but the summer vacation. We
have ouly one day off at Thanksgiving time,
Christmas, and New Years. We have personally written our thanks to all the good people
who have sent us the Christmas gifts. But
it is fitting that the Word Carrier should further proclaim our gratitude for the help of
the many friends of Santee, who are so widely scattered over the United States, all the
way from New England to California.
By J, B. Irvine, Jr.
In the summer of 1871 the Rev.  Stephen
R. Riggs, D. D., one of the earliest missionaries of the American Board of Commissioners
for Foreign Missions  to   work  among  the
Dakota Indians in Minnesota, went  up  the
Missouri River to Fort Sully, ' Dakota Territory, to examine the country around there and
And the best place for a mission among the
Teton Sioux.    There Cheyenne Agency was
then located on the western side of the river
seven  miles above  Fort Sully.    Dr. Riggs
was accompanied by his son, Rev. Thomas
L. Riggs, then studying in the Congregational
Theological Seminary in Chicago.   Dr. Riggs
in his book   "Mary  and  I"  says that  the
American Board was looking for a suitable
man to send as a missionary to the Teton.
"Thomas had been born and brought up, in
good part, in the land of the Dakotas, "but
the Prudential Committee of the American
Board desired him to see this new field with
his own eyes and to judge whether he could
' find his life work there.    "We stopped for
five or six weeks at Fort  Sully, where  we
! found Chaplain G. D. Croker, who had been
; much interested in our work among the Da-
; kotas when he was stationed at Fort Wads-
j worth [near Sisseton, S. D.]    We also found
! good and true Christian friends in Captain
i Irvine and his wife, and in the noble Mrs.
I General Stanley, the wife of the commandant
i of the post.   We talked with the Dakotas and
i studied the Teton dialect.''
We often saw Dr. Riggs during this visit
j and I was much impressed by his genuine
j goodness and benevolence of character.
Rev. Thomas L. Risrgs 2 went to Fort Sully
j in March, 1872, to begin his missionary work.
There was no pleasant place at the fort
where he could board, so Captain Irvine invited him to live with his family: we thus
became well acquainted with him and his
work. Some of the Indians of the Cheyenne Agency were distributed below it along
the Missouri River in little villages of log
houses and tepees, in one of which, about a
mile below Fort Sully and on the opposite
(or western) side of the river, Mr. Riggs began building a log house for his mission. He
rowed across the river in a sheet-iron skiff
which had two sections that could be seperat-
ed for convenience in handling it on land or
to prevent its being used or taken awa.v; and
when on the Sully side of the river he hid
his oars.1
Mr. Riggs was jolly and full of fun; so
that the children in the fort took a great liking to him. He said that he did not want to
be "a cut and dried minister.''and would not
wear a clerical uniform. He told us that once
when he was driving his wagon from Yankton to Fort Sully he overtook a man walking and offered him a ride. The man got into the wagon and soon began to interlard his
conversation with "swear words." Mr. Riggs
told him that if he did not stop cursing, he
would have to get out and walk. The man,
much surprised, looked keenly at Mr. Riggs
and inquired, "Preacher?" The man thereafter showed his preference for riding.
Thomas's brother, Rev. Alfred L. Riggs,
who began his invaluable missionary work at
Continued on Next Page, Middle Column
Printed by
The Santee Normal Training School Press,
Santee, Nebraska
(1) New Fort Sully was established in July, 1866, twenty-flvB
miles above the present town of Pierre.
2 See "Mary and I; or Forty Years with the Sioux", pp 270-1,
326-32. 345 ff. Thomas Lawrence Riggs, D, O. (Yankton Cot
lege). LL.D. (University of South Dakota),was born at Lao-
qui-Parle, Minn., June 3,1847 and for fifteen years was brought
up among the Dakotas in Minnesota. He graduated from Be-
loit College, Wisconsin, 1868, and Chicago Theological Seminary, 1872. He has resided continuously since 1874 at Oahe
(near Pierre), in 1885 he married Louisa, the daughter ot
Captain J. B. Irvine.