The Word Carrier of Santee Normal Training School (Santee, Nebraska), 1925-01 - 1925-02

              The Word Carrier
OF
SANTEE NORMAL TRAINING SCHOOL.
VOLUME  L1V
HELPING THE  RIGHT, EXPOSING THE WRONG
NUMBER. 1
SANTEE, NEBRASKA.
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!
Indian* in Central America
the
Ventura Otzoy  and  wife
in front of the chapel he built.
Guatemala is a small country7 in tne long
isthmus of Central America. It is on the
south of Mexico. Six-tenths of the people
are Indians. There are four times as many
Indians in that country as in all the United
States, 1,211,499 of them. The North American Indians ought to soon be sending teachers
and missionaries to the Indians of Central
America because the Indians over there have
not been so well taught. They have had
Roman Catholic missionaries for 400 years
but they taught them nothing. This is the
story of one of those Guatemala Indians.
About eighteen years ago, an Indian met
Pedo Santis, a colporteur of the American
Bible Society, on the outskirts of Comalapa,
the largest Indian city in all of Guatemala,
and bought a
Spanish   Bible.
The Indian did
not know what
the Bible was.
He knew very
little Spanish.
The words on
the cover, "Santa Biblia" had
attracted his attention. Out of
« u r i o s i t y he
bought the book
and paid what in
•nr money would
amount to about
ene dollar. His
name was Ventura Otzoy.
He called in
some friends to
read to him the
new strange book he had just secured :
but no one was able to explain what they
read. He then sought help from the priest
of the town, and invited him to his home.
When the priest saw the Bible he cursed him
and left hurriedly, never to return. From
that day the Indian had very little confidence
in the priest.
For about fourteen years the Book in that
Indian's home was very little understood.
The Indian and his relatives had heard about
the "evangelistas" (evangelical preachers),
but since mission work was carried on almost
entirely among the Spanish-speaking people,
it was very seldom an evangelical worker
came their way. If one passed through their
town, it was only in order to reach some
Spanish-speaking congregation farther on.
Several times a Bible man had passed and
gone before they heard about him.
One day the sister, who lived in a town
some twelve miles away, heard that a Protestant evangelist was there, distributing-
tracts. Before she could find him, he had
left; but, hurrying after him, she overtook
him and told him the story of her brother
who had bought a strange book called ' 'Santa
Biblia" many years ago, and asked him to go
to Comalapa and explain the contents of the
book to her brother. This he did later and
remained with him a week. The first day
the evangelist was there, which was August 20,
1919, the Indian and his own family and that
of his brother—ten in all—accepted Christ as
their Saviour, threw their images away, and
the man himself, who was then about fifty-
five years old, quit drinking.
Feeling that his people ought to have a fitting place of worship, the Indian who bought
Jan.-Feb., 1925
FIFTY CENTS PKR YEAB
These
the Bible eighteen years
ago, started to build a
chapel. The chapel has
been built little by little
by their own labor and
their own expense. The
very best workmanship
has gone into the building. I have not seen an
Indian house to compare
with it. The inside is
most carefully7 finished.
The ceiling has planed
boards to hide the rafters, and the posts and
cornices also show most
careful workmanship. I
felt proud to be able to
preach in such a chapel;
for, if ever a chapel was
built   with   consecrated
labor and out of pure love to Christ, this one
was. I preached in Spanish through a converted Cakchiquel Indian.
After the service, I had a talk with this
patriarchal Indian, and in broken Spanish he
told me the story as I have here given it. He
showed me the Bible he had purchased eighteen years before. He spoke to me of his great
desire to have the gospel message translated
into the tongue of his own people; and also of
the need of a school for the children, so that
they might learn to read the book
I  do  not know when I have  been more
touched.    I told him if he would give me the
old book, which I knew was a great deal to ask!
of him, I would send it to the headquarters of j
the American Bible Society in New York, and I
with it  the story  of  the   wonderwork  that I
book   had   accomplished.     He  very  gladly!
gave me the Bible that has been the means of;
transforming  so many7  lives, and which by
right, perhaps, ought to have remained with
them as an heirloom, to be handed down from
generation to generation.    But then he may-
have understood better than I gave him credit
for, because his faith is not attached to a book,
but to the Savior to whom the book points.
In return, I have sent him a fine leather-bound
Bible.    In the meantime,   as one thinks  of
what that dollar Bible has done so far, who is
bold enough to prophesy the things that may-
develop from the seed sown by an humble colporteur?
This story7 is not an isolated case. Last year
I spent eleven days in company with the Rev.
W. C. Townsend, of the Central American
Mission in visiting Indian congregations, and
several times we slept in chapels built b.y
them without a cent of expense to the mission. Five years ago
there were about three
preaching points among
the more than two hundred thousand Cakchi-
quels of Guatemala. Under the leadership of
Mr. Townsend, more
than forty congregations have been organized. Most of the two
thousand converts know
no Spanish, and the burden of the missionary7
is to give them the New
Testament in their own
dialect. To this end, Mr.
Townsend is dedicating
his efforts with the aid
of the Caribbean Agency. Already the Gospel
of John has been trans-
w  nut of the   Bible sold to Ventura Otzoy
lated into the Cakchiquel dialect, and was
recently published b.v the American Bible
Society.
Cuts borrowed from Bible Society Record.
A Ree Indian On Citizenship
One year from this month all Indians on
this reservation will be given patents in fee
to their allotments and become tax payers.
It will be rather hard for some of the real old
people, as they cannot read nor write and
need an interpreter in their transactions.
Something should be done to take care of the
old people and even younger ones.
It may be interesting to know when these
Indians first went to school. Fort Stevenson
was abandoned by the soldiers and Dec. 18,
1883 pupils were taken from the old village
known as "Like a fish hook" or the old Fort
Berthold. Shortly after arriving at Fort Stevenson the young Americans saw the first
Christmas in their lives and we never forgot
how the tree looked when it was loaded with
good things.
This is how we received our names as Jim,
John, Richard, etc. Frank B. WTells was the
first superintendent and he was like a father.
He was named by Indians as Sku-nanatawira
in Ree, and in English it means "hair in his
mouth". They said this because he had whiskers. Mr. Wells was well-liked by all and
he loved the Indians.
'The Indian cannot be made into a museum
specimen nor a zoo curiosity. He is a human
being with a soul and a future, and must take
his place in advancing civilization side by side
with his white brothers. If it is God's law
that his ceremonials shall survive, well and
good; if not, no act of ours can ultimately
save them."—Edward S. Curtis, author of
The American Indian.
A Central  American Indian woman keeping store, spinning thread,
and taking care of her baby.