The Word Carrier (Santee, Nebraska), 1927-05 - 1927-06

              The Word Carrier
of SANTEE NORMAL TRAINING SCHOOL.
VOLUME   LVI
HELPING THE   RIGHT, EXPOSING THE WRONG
NUMBER 3
SANTEE, NEBRASKA.
May-June, 1927
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
(jospel is the Power of God for their Salvation!
The Drath of Mrs. A. L. Riggs
Mrs. Riggs died suddenly February 27th,
at the home of her daughter, Miss Olive W.
Riggs, in Wilder, Minnesota. The funeral
was at Santee on the fourth of March.
Our March-April Word Carrier had been
printed several days before. We are preparing an extra for the May-June Word Carrier,
which will give a full account of Mrs. Riggs'
death and the memorial services, and will include a very interesting article which Mrs.
Riggs wrote on the "Early Days" at Santee.
We are delayed in getting illustrations for
this article.
The regular May-June Word Carrier is to
appear early in May. That will be followed
soon after the close of school by the May-
June Extra. After that Mrs. Riggs' "Early
Days" is to be bound in booklet form.
Congregational  Indian Work
In South Dakota
I. Indian population of S. D. (compiled
from reports of Indian agency
superintendents)   on   June   30.
1926 ,     24,676
Total population of S. D. (according to
the census of 1925)  681,260
Percentage of Indians  in  proportion to
entire population       3.62%
Indians in the counties (from state census
of 1925; this total does not agree
with the total Indian population
of the state as given above, because based on a different source).
Armstrong     266
Bennett       294
Brule     ...        7
Buffalo     866
Charles  Mix  2091
Corson     960
Day        313
Dewey  •  1650
Grant            18
Gregory     330
Haakon ,      27
H ughes       73
Lyman         330
Marshall   583
Mellette    1703
Roberts     847
Shannon   1779
Todd     2826
Tripp     445
Washabaugh     . 2200
Washington  2561
Ziebach	
Statistics by Reservations:
Total
Cheyenne River..3026 ....
Crow Creek.  ..  924....
Lower Brule   595	
Flandreau  308	
Pine Ridge 7820....
Rosebud 5890....
Sisseton   2477	
Yankton..      ..  1986......
Note.—The government statistics do not include the Standing Rock Indians living in South
Dakota, because the Agency (Fort Yates) is located in North Dakota. As about 1000 of thecn
live in South Dakota, the total Indian population of the state is over 25,600.
2. Ethnology •■ Practically all the Indians in
South Dakota belong to the Dakota or Sioux
tribe, a part of the larger Siouan family, of
which, among other tribes, the following are
members : Omaha, Ponca, Quapaw, Osage,
Kansa, Iowa, Oto, Missouri, Winnebago.
Mandan, Hidatsa, and Crows. Their languages, while by no means mutually intelligible, have many roots in common.
The Dakota Indians are not the original
inhabitants of South Dakota, but came to this
state from the East. They call themselves
Dakota, which means Allies. The word
Sioux is the corruption of a Chippewa word
Pull
bloods
1634..
520..
251..
163.
4890..
3000 .
935..
.300
Mixed Bloods
more than
less than
half
halt
324...
.  1068
301...
.  i03
136...
.  207
106...
39
1561...
.  1369
2090 ..
800
903...
.  639
meaning snake in the grass,  their name for
the Dakota Indians.
The Dakota language again falls into several dialects, which are, however, similar to
each other. One of them, the Santee dialect,
has become more or less the literary language
because the first missionary labors were clone
among the Santees and the Bible was translated into it, but quite a considerable correspondence is carried on in the other dialects
by the Indians speaking them.
3. Schooling: Five kinds of schools exist
for the Indians of the state.
Public school
Government Day School
Reservation Boarding School
Non-Reservation Boarding School
Mission School
Since 1924, when Congress passed a bill
making all Indians citizens, Indians have the
right to attend public school. Of the 6226
Indian children elegible for school attendance
during the school year 1925-26, 2364 were in
public school. This number is constantly increasing. As most Indian land is tax-free,
because the government holds it in trust for
the Indians, the federal government helps out
by paying a tution for Indian children attending public school. The public school is
the final solution of the Indian school problem, but at present, a number of other schools
exist to take care of the Indian children. On
Pine Ridge and Rosebud Reservations, the
government has about thirty day schools.
They differ from the public school not only
in administration, but also in the fact that
the government furnishes, besides the teacher,
a house-keeper who prepares a wholesome
meal for the children at noon. Some of these
schools go to the 3rd grade only, and none
goes beyond the 6th grade. On the Standing
Rock (at Fort Yates, N. D.), Cheyenne River
(Cheyenne Agency), Rosebud (at Mission),
and Pine Ridge Reservations (at Pine Ridge),
the government conducts reservation boarding schools, which go tip to the 6th or 7th
grade. The federal government also has three
so-called non reservation boarding schools,
which are located at Flandreau, Pierre, and
Rapid City; they go up to the 9th or 10th
grades and have a capacity of 300 to 400
pupils each. Finally, there are a number of
mission boarding schools. The Roman Catholics have two large mission schools, one on
Pine Ridge and one on Rosebud Reservation,
also a smaller one at Crow Creek; the Episcopalians conduct two fine girls' schools at
Wakpala and at Springfield; our own Congregational mission school is located at Santee,
Nebraska, just across the Missouri from
Springfield, S. D.
4- Missionary Work—Historical:
1834 Samuel W. and Gideon Pond, the
"Volunteer Missionaries", began their labors
among the eastern Dakotas in Minnesota.
1835 Dr. Thomas Williamson, a physician,
started his work as the first commissioned
missionary of the American Board among the
Dakotas.
1837 Stephen Return Riggs joined the mission.
1862 The Sioux uprising in Minnesota.
1869 John P. Williamson began the Santee
Mission.
1870 Our mission school in Santee was
founded by Alfred L. Riggs, son of Stephen
Return Riggs.
1872 Thomas Lawrence Riggs began the
missionary work among the western Sioux.
1879 Presentation of the whole Bible in the
Dakota language to the annual mission meeting of Congregational and Presbyterian Indian churches; this was the work of Dr.
Stephen Return Riggs and Dr. Thomas Williamson.
i     1887 George W. Reed started his mission-
[ ary activities on Standing Rock Reservation;
about this time, .lames T. Cross went to the
■ Rosebud.    Our Dakota churches have formed
! the   "Dakota  Association  of   Congregational
churches; altogether there are twenty of them,
; but only fifteen, with a membership of 711,
' are located within the state of South Dakota.
Each   local  church  is in charge of  a  native
preacher, three of whom are ordained, while
most of the rest are licensed.    Three  white
missionaries   act    as    pastors-at-large,   Dr.
George W. Reed on Standing Rock, Rudolf
i Hertz on   the Cheyenne  River,   and Robert
| Hall  on  the   Rosebud.    Practially    all   the
; churches   have   vigorous   women's  societies,
j most of them  also a  Y.  M.   C.   A.,   which,
among the Indians, is the men's society for
prayer,   worship,   and   Bible study.    Every
year, these churches contribute around $10.00.
to  missionary work among Indians  through
their  Native  Missionary  Society,   which is
managed by three directors, two of whom tire
Indians.
5.  Further Reading:
Various numbers of the American Missionary, see especially "Congregational Indian
Churches" in the January 1927, and "What
a Prairie Parsonage is" in the February
number.
S. W. Pond, dr.—Two Volunteer Missionaries among the Dakotas.
Stephen R. Riggs'—Tah-koo Wah-kan or
The Gospel Among the Dakotas.
Stephen R. Riggs'--"Mary and I," or
"Forty Years Among the Sioux."
Handbook of American Indians—Bulletin
30 the Bureau of American Ethnology.
Teton Sioux Music—Bulletin 61 of the same
Bureau.
Doane Robinson.—A History of the Dakota or Sioux Indians, in volume 2 of the
South Dakota Historical  Collections.
G. E. E. Lindquist.—The Red Man in the
United States- Rudolf Hertz.
Red  Indians Win Bibles
The American Bible Society three years ago
offered to give Bibles or New Testaments to
all Indian boys and girls who would meet
certain requirements in reading and memorizing. Within this time five thousand Bibles
and Testaments have been awarded. Miss
Edith M. Dabb, head of the Indian work of
the Y. W. C. A., has had charge of the distribution.—The Christian Century.
A Pioneer with a Long Memory
Mr. Fred Fruch is one of the interesting
old timers living in Fort Pierre. In 1849,
when 17 years of age, he arrived in New Orleans from Germany as a sailor. In 1852 he
came up the Mississippi to Minneapolis. The
following year he made his first trip up the
Missouri, where he spent the following years
till the beginning of the Civil War. He
served throughout the war and then settled
near Fort Pierre, where he married the
mother-in-law of Rev. Arthur Tibbets. Mr.
Fruch, now in his 94th, year, is still in fair
health and has a vivid recollection of the early days.  Rudolf Hertz.
Indians in the Regular Army
The First Squadron, Fourth Cavalry, Fort
Meade, South Dakota, now numbers among
its personnel 25 full-blood Sioux Indians. All
of these recruits are very promising young
soldiers. Twelve of the young cavalrymen
came from the Standing Rock Agency, one
of them, Leo Crow Ghost, being a grandson of
the famous Chief Sitting Bull. Others are
from the Rosebud and Pine Ridge Agencies.
—United States Daily.