The Word Carrier of Santee Normal Training School (Santee, Nebraska), 1924-01 - 1924-02

              the Word Carrier
OF
SANTEE NORMAL TRAINING SCHOOL.
VOLUME  LIU
HELPING- THE RIGHT, EXPOSING THE WRONG
NUMBER  1
SANTEE, NEBRASKA.
January-February, 1924
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 !
Defining  Our  Indian  Policy
ARTHUR C. PARKER,
Permanent Chairman, Committee of
Indian  Affairs.
100 on
To the Editor of The Neiv York Times:
Some startling viewrs are presented by the
Committee of One Hundred recently appointed by the Secretary of the Interior to advise
on Indian affairs. The report of the convention which met in Washington on Dec. 12
and 13, 1923, has just been released.
Representing the conscience of America
touching Indian matters, this committee,
composed of representative citizens of all
schools of thought, practically back the Interior Department in its present policy and
construed certain matters that have been
debated considerably lately as in no wise reflecting discreditably upon the Interior Department. This is especially true in the matter of so-called "Indian dances."
Inasmuch as the Resolutions Committee,
headed by Dr. Fayette A. McKenzie, was
composed of matched opponents, a balanced
view may be expected. This compelled conflicting views to find wherein they ditiered
and to match their statements. It thus appeared that differences were due mostly to a
different interpretation of words.
In the matter of Indian dances it was found
that this term referred to elaborate ceremonies held oftentimes at great distances from
the homes of the Indians and which required
long absences, to the end that cattle frequently suffered for food and water and crops were
ruined. Even the missionaries of Christian
faiths agreed that Indians had a just and con-
Rev. Francis Frazier
One after another God ealls heme His workers. When, after fifty years of married life,
his wife passed away last November, Francis
Frazier felt his time not far off. So he was
ready, and in the late evening of Feb. 3rd the
call came. His three children, Dr. George J.
Frazier, Mrs. Alice Brave, and Francis Philip
Frazier, were with him at the time of his
death. In Mr. Frazier the Dakota Nation is
losing its greatest leader Iu his life he was
successful to an unusual degree in winning
other people to his. views.
stitutional  right to cultivate
all law
ful and ancient ceremonies, rites and customs , "and that "this is not to be curtailed or
infringed." Arts and crafts were encouraged, but all agreed that when a dance (otherwise, an elaborate ceremony that caused neglect of children, live stock and crops and
entailed injury to health and morals), interfered with the welfare of the community, it
should be discouraged and restricted. Thus
the committee "cordially commends the spirit
of the letter of Feb. 23, 1923, of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs relating to certain Indian dances and customs. ..."
It is thus seen that an impartial view of
the Commissioner's letter, so caustically criticized, reveals no intention of destroying the
arts and crafts, the religious rites and ceremonies of the red men.
Of great importance is the resolution asking that all Indian claims against the Government be admitted directly to the Federal court
of Claims. This is now denied without the
specific consent of Congress in each case.
Of greater importance is the committee's
resolution calling "... attention to the paramount importance of education among all
the functions of aid now properly committed
to the care of the Government. . . . The
Government should assure educational facilities for each and every child among the
wards of the nation. . . . The public school
system of our country should be fully open
to the Indian as an effective means of preparing him for good citizenship."
The committee believes that the "Indian
Problem" is a continuing one, and after reciting the causes, states : "This situation and
Continued on Next Page, Third Column
Fifty Years With the Sioux i
Rev. Francis Frazier
Francis Frazier was born near Redwing,
Minn,, in 1853, as th° second son of Rev.
Artemas Ehnamaui, and his wife, Winyan
Hiyayewiu. He received his early education
at St, Peter, Minnesota, in Dr. Thomas Williamson's mission school. On July 27, 1873 he
married Margaret, the daughter of Brown
Thunder, Wakanhdigi, and Wastedawin. They
had eight children, three of whom are surviving.
In those early days, Mr. Frazier followed
the trade of a miller. The old mill was situated
just east of the present site of the Bazile Creek
Church. In 1885, however, he accepted the
call to be pastor of the Ponca Creek Church,
where he stayed for seventeen years. In
1902 he followed his father as pastor of the
Pilgrim Church in Santee. For eighteen
years he worked here exerting an especially
wonderful influeuce upon the boys and girls
attending the mission school. In 1920 an
even larger field opened to Mr. Frazier on the
Cheyenne River Reservation as Assistant
Superintendent of the missionary work there.
In the three short years of his ministry there
Mr'. Frazier did a great work, gaining many
new friends. But Francis Frazier's influence
was not limited by the place of his residence.
His correspondence brot him in touch with
homes from Canada to Nebraska, and from
Montana to Minnesota.
The secret of Mr. Frazier's sucess was that
he was a loyal citizen of our country and of
the Kingdom of God. An allottee on the Santee Reservation, he used his right to file on
a fine Rosebud homestead which forms part
of his estate. While receiving but a small missionary salary he succeeded in giving to all
his children a good education. No wonder
the people listened to the advice of such a
man, and that he became a real power for
good He was a great preacher, a beloved
pastor and a highly honored man. May God
give us other men like him,.
Recollections of the Beginning of Missionary Work
among the Indians near Fort Sully
By J, B. Irvine, Jr.
Continued from the Last Number
The main mission was called Hope Station.
Mr. Riggs in the autumn of 1872 also built
a house of two rooms about a quarter of a
mile southeast of Fort Sully, on lower ground
near the interpreter's house and a little In-
dain camp there.   School was taught here by
i Louis Mazawakinyanna, who came from Sis-
I seton Agency; he and his wife lived in the
j house.    When the house at Hope Station was
j finished, Mr. Riggs''cousin, Edmund Cooley
j and his wife lived in it with their two little
children.  In December, 1872, Mr. Riggs went
! East and while in Bangor, Maine, was mar-
I ried to Miss Nina Foster, a  sister of Gen.
\ Charles H. Howard's wife of Glencoe near
: Chicago.   (This was a brother of the famous
j General Oliver O. Howard, of the Regular
! Army.)  Gen. C.  H. Howard went to Fort
t Sully   the next summer on business or for
! pleasure.   (He was afterwards editor of "The
I Advance" for a year or more). In May, 1873,
j Mr. Riggs' wife was escorted out to Fort Sully
l by his father,   who said in "Mary and I",
"He had a particularly long voyage of eleven
j days on the 'Katie Koontz', between Santee
! Agency and Fort Sully".    This reminds me
that when my mother, sister and I went in
September, 1867, from St. Joseph, Missouri,
to Fort Sully 3 on the steamboat "Benton"
(Captain Horn), ours was "a particularly long
voyage" of 32 or 33 days!  The river was then
very low and the boat was heavily loaded.
All were much impressed with the loveliness of Mrs. Riggs. She stayed at Fort
Sully for several weeks and as Mrs. Irvine
could not get a servant for love or money,
Mrs. Riggs cheerfully helped in the cooking
and household work. Altho there were inconveniences to which she had not been accustomed, she made the best of things and
was always happy and sweet tempered. Water for drinking and washing was in barrels
outside the kitchen door: there was no sink
or drain in the kitchen, so that dish-water
had to be emptied in the yard. They had to
do the laundry-work for the family. Accustomed as Mrs. Riggs had been to a comfortable home with modern conveniences all
her life, she was a real heroine to accept the
hardships of missionary work on the remote
frontier. Another difference was that the
mail came only once a week. Imagine such
a cultured and refined young woman among
the heathen savages opposite Fort Sully,—
one of whose barbaric pastimes was to test
her courage and to soothe her to sleep
by occasionally shooting into the mission-
house!
Mr. Riggs began an out-station in Peoria
Bottom in the summer of 1873, at Oahe where
he now lives. He sent his brother Henry
down there to build a missiou-house.
To show the difficulties and progress of the
early missionary work in this remote field,
it is well to add what Mr. Riggs wrote about
it : "After the coming of Mrs. Riggs and the-
Concluded on Laet Page
3 David S. Stiinley was then Colonel of the 22nd Regiment of
Infantry, and in command of Fort Sully and the Middle District
(Dakota Ter.) of the Military Department of Dakota. He
was born in Chester. Ohio, June 1, 1828. When he was u
Lieutenant in the First Calvary he took recruits to Fort
Pierre in 1856, and later was engaged in campaigns against
Indiana. In the Civil War he became a Brigadier General
Sept. 28, 1861 and a Major General, Nov. 29, 1862. He was
in Sherman's army during the Atlanta campaign in 1864, commanding the Fourth Corps after Aug. 1st; this corps bore the
brunt of the Confederate army's attacks in the battle of
Franklin. Tenn,. Nov. 30, in which he was severely wound
He became a Brig. General in the Regular Army in 1884.
dying in 1902,
You may have a
'Near Like" Picture of the aboOe, the late ReO. Francis Frazier, done up in
Photographic BroWn: Mounting Card, 10c; Folder, 15c.