The Word Carrier of Santee Normal Training School (Santee, Nebraska), 1925-05 - 1925-06

              The Word Carrier
OF
Santee Normal training school.
VOLUME   LIV
HELPING THE  RIGHT, EXPOSING THE WRONG
NUMBER 8
SANTEE, NEBRASKA.
May-Juno, 1925
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!
A Letter from Our Baptist Missionary Friends
We often think of and pray for our fellow
workers among the Red Men, and we know
you do not forget us.
When one gets into a tight place he naturally thinks of friends who might help him
out. I am not slipping on the edge of a
precipice over a dread canyon below, nor am
1 about to be hailed into Court, I am simpl.y7
facing the most formidable task, in material
things, I have yet had in the twenty-two
years of Mission service among the Crows—
the erection of a chapel for our upper Big
Horn Mission station.
Due to the exceptionally low ebb in the
Church Edifice Fund the Home Mission Society is able to appropriate only five hundred
dollars and the rest I must raise through
personal effort and correspondence. If it
were a matter of only several hundred, or
even a thousand dollars, that could be readily secured from the intimate friends of the
work, but to raise $3000.00, the minimum
amount needed, is no kindergarten assignment but more like making a non-stop walk
up the 55 flights of stairs, to the top of
Washington's Monument, or trying to swim
the English Channel in one continuous effort.
In the fall of the year one can easily shake
a hat full of plums from a plum tree, but to
what source shall a missionary go to shake
down a basket full of dollars! I have heard
of a [dace where "sliver" grows on the
leaves of the maples, and the other leaves nil
have "greenbacks", where the horses have
"eheeks", where the chimneys have "drafts",
where every bird has a "bill" and plenty of
"notes", where even the weather is never
without plenty of "change" and the very
scenery is full of "interest"; but chapels for
Indians do not come from such fanciful
sources as these. The money will all have to
come from personal friends, and friends of
the Indians, through personal solicitation in
correspondence, there will be no mimeograph
broadcasting. Inasmuch as none of the donors will sign their names "John D." or
"John D., Jr.", it means that the number of
donors will have to be many, MANY'
In mathemactics it is quite readily discernible that $10.00 times 300 equals $3000..0(')—
if I write that many letters and the responses
average that; if the average should be §5.0)0
I would have to write 600 letters, and when
I contemplate writing ■600 personal letters, in
addition to the regular Mission correspondence, which at times looks like the Leaning
Tower of Pisa, my heart takes on a feelifig
■of heaviness, and I glint something of tlie
Psalmist's mood when he wrote: "Oh, that
I had wings like a doro, tliien would I fly
away and be at rest."
The Crows have raised a little over $500JiH.'i
in cash for this Chapel, but that is their very
top limit. The upper Big Horn Mission is
one of our newer fields. The 'membership
there now is 49, with a spendid outlook for
increase of membership and development.
Misses Steer, who was with the Seminoles 11
years—with the Crows 10 years—and Miss
Long, are the resident missionaries.
I have been hoping that one of the few
Indian churches in South Dakota would be
able to give us "a lift" on this. I am sure
that would be greatly appreciated by the
Crow Indians. They are cut off, by their
location, from Christain fellowship with other
tribes, though we often speak of our work
and the tribes in South Dakota.
The raising of $3000.00 by the method
that I am using, the only one available to me,
is going to be really strenuous, and I would
not for a moment think of undertaking it in
this fashion were it not that the need for the
chapel is imperative, and that it is quite vital
to the growth of the field, and that the Indians have raised over $500.00 toward it, and
that I would not feel that 1 was playing the
game square with the Indians if I did not get
the Chapel for them, now that they have done
their very best.
Kindly tell the Sioux if wc were living
back in the old days, and they were not so far
away, we would send up some smoke signals
from a high Montana peak, telling them that
the Crows needed their help, but that as
South Dakota is so far away from Montana
that these two brown sheets of paper will
have to suffice, but I know you will puss the
the signal of distess on to them, and that they
will not fail  to respond.
I give them my "Abo ! Aho ! " for I know
that they will   respond.
Your brother in the Caws,
W. A. Petzoldt.
A Notable Achievement by Indians for Indians
The latest achievement of the Elk Horn
Butte Y. M; C. A. is the acquisition of a home,
one that meets all requirements for our meetings and other gatherings. It was a Government building situated on the edge of the
church allotment of Elk Horn Butte. It wras
purchased with money from the treasury of the
organization- The large building was purchased at a low price, with the full approval of
Supt. E. I). Mossman of the Standing Rock
Preservation. This building was moved by the
members of the Y. M. C. A. to the church
grounds. Some of the boys came a long distance to help. The ladies of the Y. W. C. A.
provided the dinner and fed the workers, no
matter who worked or not, they all had good
appetites. The next task was to renovate the
building, making it in every way possible suitable for its new purpose. After several weeks
of cooperation on the part of the "Y" members, the meeting house was moved to a place
satisfactory to all and of which they all take
pride. The size of the Y. M. C, A. building is 30x48 feet. On account of the financial
stuation, most of the Y. M. C. A. branches
would have shrunk from undertaking what
has been done by these "Y" members. If one
would ask B- H. Horn, J. J, Skull or any
other officer of the organization, how it was
done, most likely they would answer it was
"As easy as could be" they might also add it
was done by a few ounces* >f cooperation, a liberal mixture of determination and energy,
with a than ©sating of self-confidence and just
a tiny hit of financial assistance from the "Y"
members. I am highly thankful for such an
accomplishment, especially through the "Y"
association. From now on, we have a good
house for meetings for religious purposes, as
well as for other meetings, I hope we make
good use Hf it.
We are going to call our friends, and say
"Look, a Y. M. C, A. building": What do
wc mean by ithat? We simply meaii this, my
friends, "You may come again to the house
of Jesus," where young men find nourishment
for the body, mind and soul, they find first of
all they must develop a strong physical body,
this with pure and good thoughts will enlarge
the faculties of the mind. The place where
food for our souls is found, in God's love and
Christ's promises. So together we want to
build a solid foundation of youth and manhood, of good character and righteous living.
That's what the Young Men's Christian Association stands for. Let us then, encourage one
another by pushing together for the advancement of Christianity among the Dakotas.
"Let your light, so shine before, men that they
may see your good works and glorify your
Father which is in heaven"'.
Little Eagle, So. Oak. MaKK W.  (iKAIIAM.
PROGRESS AT SANTEE
Report for School Year Ending lune 1, 1925
This 55th year of our Santee school has
been our best, progress unusually evident and
prospects encouraging. We pursue all the
studies that pertain to the public schools. Besides those, of course, we teach subjects that
are especially necessary to our main purpose
as a missionary school for the training of Indian   leaders.    Our academic limit was only
| the tenth grade.    Now  this year, we  have .
j advanced to the eleventh and are on the way
I to become a full-fledged accredited high
school next year, besides, of course, at the same
; time carrying the extra specialties mentioned
i above.    This year our Indian students made
! marked improvement in studing, in class recitation,   and   in   general   reading.     We  ex-
j cell   other   Indian   schools  in  vocal  music.
J Our school chorus sang Maunders cantata
"Olivet  to  Calvary" at  Easter, one soloist
' from Yankton assisting.
i During the year the equipment in our shops
and printing department and on our 440 acre
school farm has been much improved.
i We give nonsectarian religious instruction
in all our grades. And for non-resident students wc have a correspondence school, seven
courses in the Dakota Indian language (Sioux)
and three courses in English. Our Bible
correspondence school is rapidly improving
and expanding under the guidance of our new
Bible department man and school pastor, Rev.
W. A. Mansur, who is supported by the Presbyterian Board.
We have had this year 115 boarding pupils
(who came from all over the North-west), and
19 day pupils, and 203 Correspondence students, 128 in the seven Dakota language courses.
75 in the three English language courses: and
these are located all over the North-west, some
in Canada, a total of 337 students this year.
There has been a great awakening in our
Sunday School. We abandoned the International lessons a year ago, examined all the
graded lessons we could discover, and adopted
the Charles Scribner's Sons graded series,
and they are a joy forever. Santee students
are husky Christians. Unlike the son who
was half-back on the ball ground and all the
way back in his studies, our boys are eligible
only when academically fit. This spring they
played all the high schools in our region andj
beat the whites in every game,
A Santee. we try to persuade our pupiis that
boys and girls who have everything handed to
them free all the way thru school do not, and
can not, grow to be self-reliant. They have
depended on others too long, and they always
will. Boys and girls who pay their way,
who work and earn their way thru school,
are, and always have been, those who develop
the ability to go on earning their way thru life.
We are proud that Santee's distinguished
pupil. Principal Henry Roe Cloud, stands for
this educational value of work and puts it to
those whom he invites to become pupils'in
his school in these words: "The . . . ambitious boy works his way. No one (in his
school) escapes the moral and educational discipline of labor." Santee tries to make attractive these educational advantages.
It is to be noted that pupils coming to Santee have to provide their own clothing, pay
their own transportation, have no one to
round them up, and no feast spread to allure
them, deserve much credit for promptness.
It means real initiative. Therefore we offer
a one dollar prize at Santee to every pupil in
the high school, and junior high school
course, who is present on the opening day of
the school year and who arrives at the close
Continued Next Page. 3d Column