The Word Carrier of Santee Normal Training School (Santee, Nebraska), 1924-09 - 1924-10

              the Word Carrier
OH
santee normal Training school.
VOLUME   LIU
HELPING- THE  RIGHT, EXPOSING THE WRONG
NUMBEB.  5
SANTEE, NEBRASKA.
.Sept.-Oct., 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!
Long a Missionary to the Indians, Thomas
Lawrence Riggs Has Passed Through
Many Grave Dangers
From  The Sioux City Journal, October 6, 1924.
Pierre, S. D., Oct. 5.—Had J. Fenimore
Cooper lived during the territorial days of
Dakota in place of during the period immediately following the revolutionary^ war, he
might have patterned one of the outstanding
characters of a novel after Thomas Lawrence
Riggs. And if he had based that novel on
the life and experiences of Mr. Riggs, it would
have been filled with adventure, hardships and
color enough to satisfy the most demanding
devotee of stories of frontier life.
For many years friends of Mr. Riggs have
tried to induce him to write an autobiography,
arguing that it would have great bearing upon
the history of the two Dakotas and Minnesota.
But, like all men who are more accustomed to
silent spaces of prairies than idle tongues of
men, Mr. Riggs, now 77 years old, has resisted, and it seems possiple that much data of historical importance will remain in his memory
and never be written.
Mr. Riggs' life story began at Lac qui Parle,
Minn., where he was born June 3, 1847, the
son of hardy missionary pioneers, Stephen
R. Riggs and Mary Ann Longley Riggs. As
a boy he played with Indian boys near Lac qui
Parle mission, and he and a younger brother
were responsible for the burning of the mission house. That was when he was seven
years old. Mr. Riggs and his brother accidentally set on fire the hay banked about the
house to keep out the biting cold of winter
winds sweeping across the open plains.
A few months later the boy with his family
moved to a site close to that of the present
city of Granite Falls, Minn., and there a second mission house was built—to be left in the
night at the time of the great Sioux outbreak.
In a few years it was time to begin college
work, and the youth entered a private school
at old St. Anthony, now East Minneapolis,
Minn. After completing work there he went
to Beloit college, Beloit, Wis., where he received his B. A. degree in 1868- Subsequently he received the degree of L. L. D. from
the University of So. Dakota and from Yankton college that of D. D.
Explores Red River
During his years of college it was necessary for the young man to earn his living, and
it was while working in vacation periods that
he became a member of a party of white men
who explored the Red River of the North. In
1861 Mr. Riggs entered the Chicago Theological Seminary but before date of graduation
was sent by The American Board of Foreign
Missions, to the Dakota Mission, going by
team from Yankton to Fort Sully in the
spring of 1872.
In December of the same year the young
missionary was wedded to Cornelia Foster,
of Bangor, Me., and six years later she was
claimed by death. One of two children born
to this union is living and resides in Pierre,
Dr. Theodore F. Riggs. The missionary was
married again, in 1885, to Louisa M. Irvine,
daughter of a major in the United States
army. Two sons born to this union now live
at Oahe, S. D.,—Robert I. Riggs and Lawrence H. Riggs.
Mr. Riggs is conceded to be the greatest
living authority on the language of the Da
kota Sioux, for when he arrived to make his
home, among them, in the Missouri river region, he studied their tongue and spent much
time with them in their homes, on tbe hunting
, grounds and at their simple pleasures. Two
' winters he lived with the redmen in their
tents, and another winter he was the only
white man on one of the   last large buffalo
Thomas Lawrence Riggs
hunts of the Cheyenne River Sioux. On this
hunt the party traveled as far west as the
Black Hills and as far north as the Slim
Buttes  country.
Bullets Whine over His Head
It is stated by those who best know Mr.
Riggs, that he knows personally more of the
territory of South Dakota than any other
living man. There is little of the state that
he has not covered, by team or horseback,
and the watersheds with their buttes, divides,
creeks and rivers he knows b.v heart. On
several occasions it was only such knowledge
that enabled him to save his life and that of
his son, now Dr. Riggs, who, as a boy, following the death of his mother, went with
his father on his travels from village to village and outpost to outpost. Many are the
rivers the missionary has forded and swum in
time of flood, and twice he was without water for 40 hours, on the vast plains. He has
made his camp in rain and mud and he has
slept in the open in the coldest winter weather. Twice he heard bullets whine by—bullets
that were meant for him, and once a house
was fired on while he and his wife were there.
Mr. Riggs is still known to the Dakota
Sioux as their friend, and probably has the
largest intimate Indian acquaintance of any
white man. After the death of Sitting Bull,
that chief's followers asked the missionary to
return to the deserted village and bury the
bodies killed in the famous fight. This he
did, because, as he said, "it was my work."
His home was always open to the Indians ami
they learned much from his way of livinland his kindness.
Recently, Mr. Riggs returned to Lac qui
Parle to visit his birthplace. He was accompanied by his son, Dr. Riggs, and, despite
the fact that he had not been there since
leaving the spot nearly 70 years before, he
was able to point out from memory where
the various houses of the old mission stood.
His faculties still serve him daily, in spite of
his age, and friends are predicting that, in
view of his rugged health, he will live many
more years.
Visitor from the Museum of the American Indian
At the beginning of the School year the
Santee Normal Training School is visited by a
member of the scientific staff of the Museum
of the American Indian who is at Santee to
gather for the museum whatever it is possible to obtain of objects and of information
connected with the old time life of the Santee-
Dakotas. This visitor is Dr. Melvin R.
Gilmore, who was formerly curator of the
museum of the State Historical Society of
Nebraska, and then from 1916 to 1923 curator
of the State Historical Society of North Dakota. He joined the Staff of the Museum of
the American Indian July 1, 1923. This
Museum is located in New York City on
Broadway at 155th Street.
The scope of this museum, as indicated by
its name, comprises all that concerns the
Indians, that is to say the native peoples, of
both prehistoric and historic time in North
America, Central America, the West Indies,
and South America, This museum is the only
museum in the world which is devoted to Indian matters and nothing else. It is desired
to acquire for the museum objects of all kinds
which represent the old time life, such as articles of old time clothing and ornament, food
products, paints, perfumes, medicines, dye-
stuffs, and any other commodities pertaining to aboriginal life. It is also greatly desired to obtain all information possible regarding customs, folklore, the unwritten literature
of the people, tribal laws and usages, etc.
For a number of years Dr. Gilmore has
made research into the Indian uses of plants
of birds and mammals, and of minerals;
of Indian geography, and of inter-tribal commerce before the coming of white men. Part
of the results of his inquiries into Indian bota^
ny is published under the title "Uses of
plants by Indians of the Missouri River Region," in the Thirty-third Annual Report of
Bureau of the American Ethnology, and is
very fully illustrated. This work is found in
almost all libraries.
During last July and Angust Dr. Gilmore
was working with the Arikaras (Padani
Waziyata) in North Dakota. In July the
Arikaras held a special Celebration of some
of their ancient seasonal festivals," giving
opportunity to make records of these beautiful symbolic ceremonies. Moving pictures
were taken of the dramatic action in these
ceremonies, which embodied rituals of prayer and thanks giving for the crops.
It is the purpose of the museum to make
such records in order that the present and
future generations of both whites and Indians
may know the truth concerning the real life
and thoughts and sentiments of the various
native tribes and nations of America, and to
correct the wrong notions which are all too
common in regard to Indians.
A new department of the museum is to be
created which is to constitute a living outdoor
museum. This is a plan which Dr. Gilmore
proposed, and one which he has considered
for years. This outdoor museum is to be a
garden on the museum grounds. This garden is to be planted with the crops which
were of aboriginal cultivatiou by the various
tribes, showing what useful crops we owe to
aboriginal Indian agriculture. It will also be
planted with native trees, shrubs, vines and
herbaceous plants of wild growth which were
of economic use to the tribes in different part
of the country. It is desired to have as good
a representation as possible in this garden of
all the tribes. We hope that some things
from all the Dakotas may be planted in this
living outdoor museum in New York Citv.