The Word Carrier of Santee Normal Training School (Santee, Nebraska), 1926-01 - 1926-02

              The Word Carrier
OF
SANTEE NORMAL TRAINING SCHOOL.
VOLUME   LV.
HELPING THE  RIGHT, EXPOSING THE WRONG
NUMBER\.
SANTEE, NEBRASKA.
January-February, 1926
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
(iospel is the Power of God for their Salvation!
Read Rev. Jesse P. Williamson's article on
the Ptaya Owohdake, the modern Indian's
Feast of Tabernacles. Not as long as it looks.
Worth while to every friend interested in religions progress of the Indians.
Two certificates attesting the services rendered the whites during the Sioux Outbreak
b.y an educated and friendly Sioux, Lorenzo
Lawrence, together with his naturalization
certificate, have been presented by his widow,
now Mrs. Mary Lawrence Tasionta of Brown's
Valley through tbe courtesy of Mr. Samuel J.
Brown.—Minnesota Historical Society Notes,
Sept. 1925.—Lorenzo Lawrence was the author of hymn 153 in our Dakota Hymn Book.
The race that despises another, that sees in
uncleanness a reason for aloofness and not
for cleansing, that refuses the cup of cold
water just because the thirsty sufferer is a
little one, that finds in ignorance no call to
enlighten but only an excuse for passing by
on the other side, that race, in the mercy of
divine justice, is doomed. F. Lenrwood, Social Problems and the East, p. 138.
Short Reports on Status
OK
American Missionary Association
INDIAN WORK
By Superintendent Rudolf Hertz.
Education Perhaps the most pleasing advance
in General on the Indian field since I came
seven years ago has been the attitude of the average Indian father and mother
toward schooling. Formerly the Indians
felt that they were conferring a favor upon
the school by sending their children; while
today they are anxious to send their children.
This is due not so much to a change of heart
as to the simple fact that the schools today
are over-filled and a few children have actually to be sent home again.
In effect, however, it means a great change
because the only advance that we can hope
to make is through better educated young
people who come back to the reservation and
practice what they have been taught. It is
a privilege to help in the bridging of this
chasm between the educated young people
and the old fashioned Indians. I go to the
schools, and so am in constant touch with
from twenty-five hundred to three thousand
Indian boys aud girls. Again, I go out on
the reservations and keep in constant touch
with the older people and the returned students, and have had many proofs that this
contact is greatly worth while.
Like Xenophon's army of old,
Ptaya Owohdake—Modern Feast of Tabernacles
"Whither the tribes go up,*' for almost fifty
years the Ptaya Owohdake has been for the
Christian Sioux of the Presbyterian and Con-
j gregational Missions the yearly assembling of
tribes unto the service of Jehovah, a modern
feast of tabernacles that bears more points
of resemblance to the old Jewish religious
feast than it does to our other present day
church gatherings.
I have vivid remembrance of an early Ptaya Owohdake held at  the  Yankton   Agency
Church in my boyhood days more than thirty-
five years ago.    For two or three days before
the opening day the light wagons drawn b.y
tired ponies were coining slowly into  camp,
singly or in groups, the men of the household
sitting on the spring seat in front while the
I women and children were huddled in the wag-
i on box behind with  the teepee poles, canvas,
Continued on Next page, First Column
j doubtedly still the  most   backward field on
I which   Congregational   missionary work   is
■ located, but is also the latest one on which
I we   started,   and   in   consequence   we   must
have the   same  patience that  we  have  had
on the other   reservations.     Agriculturally,
the  eastern   part   of  the  reservation   is  in
fact   ahead of   any  other   Dakota   reservation except p.issibly Santee.    In other ways,
the close affiliation  to the rest of the Dakota people will cause them soon to reach the
same or higher standards then they.
Chevenne ^ne wl^ter nas ^een away a good
Reservation JaJ ,this fear< and is very glad
that his absence has resulted in a
number of moves on the part of the Indians
in the way of initiative. One of the native
preachers, Eugene Redfox, was ordained, and
another one, David Clayton Hold, is looking
forward to ordination. This makes three ordained native men on the Cheyenne Reservation, and is undoubtedly a move in the right
direction.
The Green Grass church which was destroyed by a tornado a year ago has been rebuilt, and at La Plant we are at last getting a
respectable home for the native preacher.
c.   j- - d«-l   Here, too,  we can  report   real
Standing Rock      i • ,
D„.„„,=,riJ        advance  in   property   matters.
Reservation
Dr. Reed has been able to sell
Santee Normal
our greatest  need was water
Training School    and ^    Riggfi Jg ^ joyed
to have it through the generous appropriations
of the Executive Committee and the help of
many good friends. I do not believe that the
workers have been in better harmony at any
time since I have known it than this past year,
and the consequence has been undoubtedly the
best work. Out on the reservations we continue to see the results of our mission school
because the great majority of'progressive men
and women who are really living up to their
teachings have at some time in their lives
lieen connected with Santee.
R      b   d      ^'K' eooperation of a truly Chris-
..       tian   government   superintendent
Reservation       ...   "i, •   . .    .     l   ■ „  ..
x with   all the  missionaries on the
reservation   is   bringing fruit.     This is un-
some old, useless property, and the money
will aid him in rehabilitating a number of
the stations and building much needed homes
for the native preachers. One church, a gift
of Miss Lord, and her friends, is being moved
to a new location where it will again be of
real use as the Indians have moved away
from the old place.
c   » a .tkJA    We are doing  more intensive
rort Dermoid , ., .    t. m   .,
„ .: work on this held than on any
other. Does it pay ? The greatest advance this year has been the ordination
of the first native of this reservation, Edward
Goodbird. His sacrifice in giving his life to
the ministry is undoubtedly as great as that
of any white missionary. He had a large
family and a small store by which he supported himself, but he has given up his business,
and from now on is going to devote all his
time to the ministry among bis people.
At Elbowoods, the new Susan Webb Memorial Church is nearing completion. The
small mission school at this place has had a
good year, and is again starting out with the
dormitories more than filled. Through Miss
Hall's community work we are constantly
checking up with all the returned students,
an activity which we are not able to engage
in on the other reservations in a satisfactory
manner because we have to go over so much
greater a territory and touch so many more
homes.
Hath Seen a Great Light
The story of  a remarkable Indian missionary
While I was at the Yankton Agency Church
for the Sabbath meetings on December 15, a
| message was received by my wife summon-
| ing me to go if possible to Flandreau for the
j funeral of Mrs. Hortense Flute, wife of the
aged Indian pastor, the Rev. John Flute.    It
is impossible for me to accept all of the calls
for funerals that come to me but this summons,
though involving a three days' trip, was one
which   it did not seem   right to  disregard.
This woman's missionary service and faithfulness deserve recognition.
She was born in the camp of the exiled
Santees at Crow Creek "at the spring duck
shooting" in 1865, later moving with her people down to Santee, Neb., and from there to
Flandreau, S. D. Her parents were among
the Charter members of the early Flandreau
Church. At nineteen she was married to
John Flute, then over thirty years old and
under appointment to go as lay missionary
to Devils Lake Reservation, North Dakota.
Mr. Flute was soon ordained and for year's
they served in the outlying Indian fields of
Pine Ridge and Ft. Peck.
While on the Pine Ridge field a great affliction befell them. A dry, dusty summer of
hot winds over the parched plains, followed
by a snow winter with its intolerable glare
proved too much for Mrs. Flute's eyes under
the unfavorable conditions of missionary life
and travel, and she lost the sight of both eyes.
Such an affliction would mean in most cases
the immediate resigning of all thought of active missionary service for herself and husband. But Mrs. Flute was of heroic mould
and she belonged to a family of strong purposed Christian workers. Instead of begging
her husband to give up she begged hi in to
go on.
Some may think because this was an Indian
family going out among Indians it did not
mean sacrifice and deprivation for them to
work in these extreme frontier fields. But
it did. Tlie leaving of their own tribe and
relatives, the travel of several hundred miles
to the field usually with ponies and a light
wagon which carried practically all the household furniture and utensils they would have
while on the field, the indifference and lack
of cooperation if not actual hostility of the
people to whom they were sent, the extremely
difficult problem of making the small monthly salary provide the necessary food for the
family, and most of all the homesickness to
which Indians are peculiarly liable— all these
were real hardships, no less hard than those
which have been the lot of missionaries during all the ages.
These things this Indian man and his blind
wife cheerfully endured for the sake of the
Gospel of Jesus Christ and their labors have
borne much fruit.
AVhen the physical darkness settled down
on Mrs. Flute the inner light burned still
mure brightly. She became even more constant in her efforts to teach the women to sing
and pray and work for .lesus. During almost twenty-five years of sightlessness she
pressed on in the work, walking by faith, not
by sight. Her husband gives her much of
the credit for holding him faithful to his
task. As the old man told me about her
patient efforts and loyal support, her favorite hymns and Bible verses, there was manifest in his face a depth of love and respect
and tender sorrow that touched me deeply. A brother of Mrs. Flute, Rev. S. K.
Weston, has given many years of faithful service on the difficult Pine Ridge field.
Jksse P. Williamson.