The Word Carrier of Santee Normal Training School (Santee, Nebraska), 1925-03 - 1925-04

              the Word Carrier
OF
SANTEE NORMAL TRAINING SCHOOL.
VOLUME  LIV
HELPING THE BIGHT, EXPOSING THE WRONG
NUMBER 2
SANTEE, NEBRASKA.
March-April, 1925
FIFTY GENTS 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 Con for their Salvation!
Christian Pageant by Indian Pupils
This is a description of an act in the pageant entitled
"The Striking of America's Hour,"
given by Indian young people, at the annual
Mission Meeting, in the camp on Moreau River, So. Dak. hist August.    Most of these Indian young folks were Santee students.
AMERICA . ..
With sweep of music from the little organ
behind the screening branches, the procession
came down the aisle. Young and old peered
around into the half-dark of tiie meeting tent
and watched, almost breathless. The old Indian women in their dark shawls, their smooth
hair parted, looked shyly out at the. bevy of
little girls in scarlet and blue on whose rippling costumes white stars shone. Old Indian men smiled and nodded their great heads
as the little ones moved silently, gracefully
down the aisle. Behind them came one young
woman, all alone. Very tall and erect slit
walked, her shapely head high, her eyes
straight ahead. Her gown was of softest
white, and from one shoulder fell a drupe of
blue and scarlet, and on it, too, were white
stars.
The little handmaidens passed the second
pole of the great tent and stepped, full in the
light of the row of lanterns hung there, onto
the lower platform. Here they halted, facing
about and waiting while the lone figure passed
through their lines and stood above them on
the higher platform. Then, as if nt her bidding, they joined in a silent drill which sent
the blue and scarlet dresses rippling anew and
made the stars Hash out, and disappear* only
to gleam again.
Watching them smiling, yet with gentle dignity, stood the lovely girl - America. Soon the
audience was standing ami sinking, as with
new inspiration, "America tlie Beautiful.";
The pageant went on. America, still lovely, still with that quiet dignity, stepped to
one side to hear the message of other nations
and other  peoples,
Down in the audience some one whispered
to his neighbor: "Who is the stunning girl
play'.ng America's part?"
And the some one else answered, "1 do "t.
know her name, hut she's a Santee girl, Isn't
she great!"
"And where does she get nil that self-control, that dignity, and the splendid voice and
enunciation ?"
The other some one laughed. "Well, the
dignity comes natural to a Dakota giil, I
guess. But tlie other things are p.nil; a
gooil heritage and, perhaps, even more, spl n-
clid training such as the young folks surely
get at Santee."
Some of ns know7 Antenca when she goes b.v
a much more humble name at the Santee Normal Training School. Some of ns have soon
her there at work in laundry or kitchen, her
quick, efficient hands busy, her mind no less
alert.
And we are not surprised that another
stranger went out of the big tent that night
with a new interest in Santee. Her pupils
are her best advertising. —d. c, in the
Congregationalist.
Old Assiniboin Buffalo-Drive in North Dakota
While engaged in ethnological studies
among the Arikara in the Red-bear neighborhood of North Dakota in August, 1923, I was
informed of an old buffalo-drive about four
miles to the northward, on the scarp of the
plain where it is broken b.y the gorge of a
creek. My Arikara informants told me that
according to their understanding this drive
had been made and used by the Assiniboin
long ago, even before they had obtained
horses. The accompanying tig. 60, which is
Lot drawn to scale but is intended as a diagram rather than as a map, will give an idea
of the plan of the drive and of the nature of
the topography.
The buffalo-drive is on the high plain on
the north side of the Missouri river, twelve
or fifteen miles east of Elbowoods, North Dakota! The plain is here broken by the gorge of
a creek, which flows from northeast to southwest and then turns southward and discharges
into the Missouri, four or five miles away.
The plain slopes away to the south. The wings
of the drive are laid along the scarp which
overlooks the gorge of the creek to the north.
The bed of the creek is miry, and probably
two hundred feet below the level of the plain.
The descent from the plain into the gorge is
rather precipitous in places by steep gullies
cut back into the scarp, and in places drops
away over banks eight to fifteen feet in
height.
The buffalo-d rive was made by gathering
bowlders from the prairie and piling them into cairns at a uniform distance of five paces
Primed   liy
SanLee  Normal   Traininu  School   Press,
(INDIAN)
Santee, Nebraska.
Fig .60—Plan of Assiniboin buffalo-drive on upper
Missouri river, North Dakota
apart for a distance of about a mile and a
half along the scarp of each side of a gap
about two hundred feet wide which opens at
the head of a gully leading into the creek
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Indian View of White Man's Honesty
The white man stranger went to an Indian
council and he asked the interpreter whether
it would be safe for him to leave his overcoat
out side. The Indian quickly replied that it
would be perfectly safe, that there was not
another white man within forty miles.
The Indian Problem and its Solution
The last few months have brought a renewed discussion of the Indian problem. More
and more, the whites of the western states
begin to realize that they are vitally interested
in the welfare of their Indian neighbors.
Trachoma and tuberculosis among the Indians
are also a danger to the whites, especially
when their children attend the same school,
as they will increasingly now that all Indians born within the territorial limits of the
.United States are citizens of our country.
And how are such public schools to be supported when half and more of the land within
the district belongs to the Indians and is tax-
free? Then there is the problem of the old
Indian customs. Should we encourage them,
should wc let the Indians do as they want to,
or would it be best to interfere, with them?
And why won't the Indian work? Has the
government not done far too much for the Indians and so discouraged them to support
themselves? Has the Indian bureau not outlived its usefulness? Why not throw the, Indian upon his own  resources?
These and many more questions are asked.
It is not the purpose of this paper to answer
them all, but rather to clear up certain hazy
and mistaken notions and to outline the basis
of a solution for the Indian problem.
The old Teutons were also Ia?y
To understand the Indian problem among
the Dakotas, we must realize first of all that
all the plains Indians were hunters whose
whole lives were centered around the buffalo.
In this, they were like the old Teutons who
chased the aurochs, the European bison,
through the plains and forests of central Europe. It is rather enlightening what Tacitus,
the Roman' historian, wrote about 100 A. D.
about these forefathers of ours : —
"When they don'tgo to war, they spend much
time on the hunt, but even more in sweet laziness, occupied only with eating, drinking, and
sleeping. Just those who are bravest, do absolutely nothing; the care of house and hearth and
field is up to the women, the old men, and l hose
that are weakest in the family; they, the brave
ones, lie on the bear skin: strange contradicthn
of nature that the same man loves idleness and
hates staying at the same place."
This is the impression the civilized Roman
bad of the wild Teuton, and the whites today have it of the Indian. We too observe
this contradiction of nature: the same Indian
who refuses to exert himself in the support of
his family will spend endless energy traveling from one place to the other; he "hates
staying at the same place."
It took the Teutons a thousand years to
become an agricultural people
But the parallel between these two hunting
people goes further. Although the old Teutons
had come in contact with the highly civilized
Romans more than a hundred years before
Tacitus, they had not yet adopted Roman ways
in his day. In fact, it took them a thousand
years more, before they became a real agricultural people. And yet, we expect our western Sioux to adopt our ways in not much
more than fifty years. It simply can't be
done. Our own forefathers did not change
that quickly, and no other people ever did.
In fact, it is a constant surprise to those who
understand, how much the Indians have already adapted themselves to the new day.
General Hugh L. Scott, veteran of many an
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