The Word Carrier (Santee, Nebraska), 1927-03 - 1927-04

              The Word Carrier
of Santee Normal Training School.
VOLUME   LVI
HELPING THE   RIGHT, EXPOSING THE WRONG
NUMBER 2
SANTEE, NEBRASKA.
March-April, 1927
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 Progress
The following information is compiled from
the latest statistics at the Bureau of Indian
Affairs :
The Indian population of the United States,
exclusive of Alaska, is 349,876. Of this number 101,506 belong to the Five Civilized
Tribes, including freedmen and intermarried
whites. All Indians are now citizens of the
United States.
Of 54,729 families reported to the Indian
Office, 44,239 live in permanent homes, 26,617
of these houses having wooden floors, and
9,485 live in tepees, tents and temporary
structures.
Including the Five Civilized Tribes, 298,-
341   wear modern apparel.
Among the Indians there are 991 churches,
630 working missionaries and 93,388 church
attendants.
Of 1,601 marriages, 348 were by tribal custom and 1,253 by legal procedure.
The property (tribal and individual) belonging to the Indians is valued at $1,693,844,806.
Estimated value of oil and gas and other
mineral resources, is $1,033,947,224.
There were 32,234 Indians farming for
themselves, a total of 644,873 acres, which
yielded products valued at $7,798,778.
There were 44,847 Indians engaged in stock
raising upon 29,098,459 acres of grazing land.
The value of their stock is $28,777,866.
During the last fiscal year approximately
10,000 Indians received rations at a total cost
of $137,000, and farming implements, tools,
etc., were gratuitously issued to about 3,000
Indians to the value of. $26,300. These do
not include Indians who received miscellaneous
supplies for which they performed labor in
payment.
There were 8,018,216 acres of tribal land
leased for grazing and farming purposes.
To June 30, 1926, there had been approved
231,611 allotments covering 37,960,716 acres.
There are 84,553 Indian children of school
age, 7,417 of whom are ineligible for attendance by reason of physical or mental defects,
ill health, absence from the reservation, or
other reasons, leaving 77,136 eligible for
school attendance, of whom 69,892 are in
school.
There are 37,730 Indian children attending
public schools.—44th Annual Report of The
Indian Rights Association.
I And, "to top off the week of services, the
church gave a big feast and sale Thursday
noon. A large crowd being present, a good
portion of the money was raised to defray the
cost of remodeling the church last summer.
Altogether it was a week of much merriment
and long to be remembered.
The Nez Perces have turned from their heathen deities to follow the teachings of Christ,
and they have turned also from the old-time
medicine men, with their witchcraft and in-
I cantation, for acceptance of scientilic surgery
is attested by the report that several members of the tribe have been in Spokane receiving treatment from specialists.—The
Spokane (Wash.) Spokesman-Review.
The Indian Is Coming the White Man's Way
Indubitable proof that the Indians, or the
Nez Perces, at least, have taken to the ways
of che white race is found in the reservation
correspondence of the Lewiston Tribune.
The Thanksgiving program of the East
Kamiah School was followed by a basket social, the proceeds of which will'go to the
purchase of a new dictionary for the school.
It is further- learned that five young members
of the tribe "have made names for themselves
in athletics the last year."
Another reservation news item reports that
"the Rev. James Dickson and family motored from Pendleton to be present at the evangelistic meetings just closed at the First
Church." These revival services were held
daily and an appropriate program was carried
out Armistice Day. The Christian Endeavor,
intermediate and junior Christian Endeavor,
and the temperance society all took turns in
holding meetings.
A Remarkable Indian Girl
Many of our Word Carrier readers will
remember Miss Mary Theodora Morris. Her
father and mother were at the head of the
Goodwill Mission School, near Sisseton, So.
Dak. for many years and Miss Mary Morris
in later years was one of our good helpers at
Santee. She has been for many years since
a community worker for the Presbyterian
Board of Home Missions to the mountain
people of North Carolina and her father, Mr.
Wyllys K. Morris is living with  her there.
Under the heading of Blessed and Being a
Blessing, Miss Morris has just now written
in the December number of the Presbyterian
Advance the following account of an Indian
girl who was brought up in the Morris family
as an adopted sister.
In the early eighties a girl was born to
a wandering, blanketed outcast. Her father
was said to be a soldier, sent, with others, by
tbe government to maintain order on an Indian reservation. When she was olcl enough,
a Presbyterian missionary brought her to his
home that she, too, might be given a chance in
the mission school of which he was superintendent. As years passed Martha, the little
black-eyed Indian girl, and the missionary's
daughter became like sisters. They played
together, ate together, went to school together. If Mary had a dress, so had Martha. If
Martha's "bunnit" was made over from missionary barrel days, Mary also had a creation
like unto it.
Years came and went. Martha married
happily into another tribe from her own and
went south to live on a farm. By careful
management she and her husband eked out a
living for the family of three. A little more
than a year ago the Indian woman wrote to
her missionary foster-sister: "We plan that
our boy become a medical missionary if it is
the Lord's will. In order to meet the necessary expenses of his education, we are breaking up here and both taking positions in a'
government school, my husband as farm
supervisor, and I as children's matron to
oversee the cooking for two hundred pupils,
and to teach domestic science.
A year later she met with an automobile
accident and lay for ten weeks in a hospital but her good cheer never wavered. She
watched the flowers in the garden, the
thrushes, robins, jays, and sparrows on the
ground. "I have the Year Book of prayer
right by me," she wrote, "and I find it so
handy for verses and suggestions for prayer. ,
I study it daily." In the last letter, she tells
of her return from the hospital. "I was indeed happy to get back home. Our boy is
working down town. He is so eager to go
back to school—so we are hoping he can the
second semester. I can use my crutches
fairly well now. The improvement is slow ,
but it is coming I can see."
Martha, the Indian girl, now faithful wife
and mother, is a living testimony to national
missions. Mary T. Morris.     j
French Broad, N. C.
FIFTY GENTS PER YEAR
An Indian Y. M. C. A. Boy Performs Heroic Feat
With the passing of Richard Wolf, a real
hero went to his reward. Richard and Wm.
his brother, came from their Hi-Y in the Chilocco Indian Institute to Camp Wood this
summer. Both were good athletes, shot well,
swam, hiked, played base ball and volley, and
mingled with complete friendliness with the
170 other boys who were at camp with them.
Richard was the speedy runner of the entire
camp. Both entered with abandon into the
service features at camp and the training for
Christian work.
Both boys wanted to visit their parents
this summer but they had not the money to
take the long journey to North Carolina
where their mother lived. This fall they
entered Chilocco again. Both were working. Richard's duties were in the power
house where he was a trusted employee with
responsibility for the huge boilers which heated the institution.
Ten days ago, early in the morning, he
went to the boiler room as usual and turned
on the gas which is used to heat tlie water.
He noticed an unusual noise and noticed too
late to stop the gas that there was a leak in
the steam line which, since the fires were
started, increased to a danger threatening the
entire plant. He leaped up and reached the
top of the boiler where a huge valve was and
in trying to close the steam line, with hands
wet with the steam and slippery, he fell down
right into the roaring jets of live steam.
With the hardness of the primitive, unspoiled Indian he managed to get out of the blinding, boiling mass and again climbed to the
valve and there, with flesh cooked and cooking with the intense heat of the steam, ho
closed the valve got down and attempted to
cross the campus but fell in a stupor. Some
one saw him fall and not rise and hurried
over. He was taken to the school hospital
where all was done that could be done, but
he knew that his days at Chilocco were over,
his leadership at Camp Wood and in the Ili-
Y had come to an end. Calling the Hi-Y
boys to his room he talked with them just as
he had clone that week in the Hi-Y meeting,
then told them not to weep for him. that he
was ready for the going. He gave what few
little, simple possessions he had to the more
intimate friends and then asked for the Inner
Circle to remain and after they had each
prayed as was their custom, he himself led
in such prayer as those who try to describe
it fail to finish. He smiled as they left the
room one by one and closed his eyes and
went to sleep.—Kansas Red Triangle.
Rich  Indian (?)
"Indian Wealth" seems to confuse the
minds of many writers and often leads to erroneous statements. They will refer to the
rich Osages and unthinkingly create the impression that wealth and Indians are synonymous terms. While it is true that the Osages
are the wealthiest people in the world, on a
per capita basis, they number less than 2. 300
out of the 350,000 Indians in the United
States. Within the past few years, a few of
the restricted Quapaw Indians of Oklahoma
have been receiving large royalties from the
production of lead and zinc on their individual holdings id'land. There are also a few individuals of the Creek tribe, like Jackson
Barnett, whose incomes are princely. Collectively, all this wealth represents a large
sum of money. It is not evenly distributed,
however, but belongs to less than one per
cent of the Indians of the United States.
There are many tribes that do not have a
dollar to their credit in the United States
treasury. The income of this one per cent
belong to the individuals and cannot be diverted by the Government for the benefit of
any other Indian or tribe.—Indian Truth.