The Word Carrier of Santee Normal Training School (Santee, Nebraska), 1928-03 - 1928-04

              The Word Carrier
of SANTEE NORMAL TRAINING SCHOOL.
VOLUME  LVI
HELPING THE   RIGHT, EXPOSING THE WRONG
NUMBER 2
SANTEE, NEBRASKA.
March-Ap ill, 1928
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!
Missions on Reservations
THE missions
maintained on
Indian reservations by the
Protestant and
Catholic churches
have long been regarded as co-operating units with
the Board and the
Bureau of Indian
Affairs in the
Federal Government's effort to aid and qualify Indians to
take their places as self-supporting, independent men and women in the general citizenry
of the Nation.
The Congress of the United States, the
successive Secretaries of the Interior and
Commissioners of Indian Affairs, and the
school and reservation superintendents have
again and again testified b.y legislation,
Executive orders, and official statements to
the value of the missionary work. The
Federal officers have recognized the missionaries as influential members of the authorized personnel on the reservations. The
Government as the guardian and trustee of
some 240,000 Indians desires and welcomes
the co-operation of the mission boards in all
endeavors to promote the welfare of the Indians.
About three years ago the Board of Indian
Commissioners began a study of the Christian
missions among the American Indians with
the purpose of ascertaining the extent and
results of missionary endeavors and the degree of interest which the supporting churches
were taking in Indian mission work. Letters were sent to a number of missionaries;
for the man on the job, the reservation missionary, knows more about his task than anyone else.
The replies received from the reservation
missionaries constrain us to feel that the
members of the Christian churches are not
sufficiently informed on matters concerning
our American Indians, and because of this
there seems to be a lack of interest in
Indian mission activities. Information is
the mother of interest and interest is the
mother of generosity. There appears, also,
to be room for greater efficiency in the Indian mission, field, for larger appropriations
for Indian mission work, for more appreciation of the manifold problems faced by Indian missionaries and a stronger recognition of their value as a Christianizing
and civilizing influence among the Indian
people.
The results of the inquiry concering the
work of the missions made by the board
were presented in a bulletin which contained
certain facts about the history, progress, present distribution and needs of the Christian missions among the American Indian—
Annual Report of the Board of Indian Commissioners               '
The February number of "Education" has
an interesting article on "Hawthorne and the
Komantic Indian" by Professor Jason Almus
Russell of Colgate University.
MERRE   AND   FORT   PIERRE   liKIDGE   ACROSS   THE   MISSOURI   RIVER
Just a year ago the new bridge across the
Missouri at Pierre was opened. This is one
of five free bridges constructed by the state
within the past few years, to be opened for
use this month, across the great river that has
been such a barrier between the two parts of
the state. At the formal exercises at Pierre,
the bridge was dedicated to the Rev. Stephen
Return Riggs and his two sons, and tribute
was paid to the pioneer service of these three
missionaries. Stephen Riggs went to Minnesota as a missionary to the Dakota or Sioux Indiaus, under commission of the American
Board in 1837. Three years later he made a
trip across country to Fort Pierre on the Missouri. Here he preached the first sermon in
what is now South Dakota, although his direct
service was doue in Minnesota.
His oldest son, Rev. Alfred L. Riggs, came
in 1870 to establish and become principal of
the Santee Normal Training School. This
school is located upon the Sautee Reservation, to which the Indians with whom Stephen
Riggs had worked, had been removed. While
the school is on the Nebraska side of the Missouri, Principal Riggs had a large part in the
development of our church work in South Dakota. He helped to organize the state conference, and one of the early meetings of the
conferance was held at Santee. He was a
warm friend of Joseph Ward, assisted in the
founding of Yankton College, and in the critical period following Dr. Ward's death, his
wise and helpful counsel was a great boon.
His judgement and advice were constantly
sought by church and state leaders.
His brother, Rev. Thomas L. Riggs, began
his work in the state in 1872, and through all
these fifty-five years since has lived at Oahe,
near Pierre. Although in quite frail health
he was able to be present at the opening of
the bridge and to be honored in person in the
impressive service.
The multitude of travelers to the Hills this
past summer who have crossed the river by
auto over the great Federal Highway at Pierre
were able to see on the memorial tablet upon
thisvery beautiful structure the names of these
three men, whose labors for the Indian more
particularly, but also for the moral and spiritual life of the commonwealth, are thus memorialized.—Rev. A. C. Warner in The American Missionary.	
Indian Progress
From the 45th annual report of the Indian
Rights Association: "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 354,940."
The Wooden
Indian
UNDER the
above title
Stanley Vestal, writing in The
Americau Mercury,
makes some statements which will
be illuminating to
many of our readers and we are
printing some of
them because they
so plainly show
many of the fallacies about the Indian.
Of all the racial
groups which go to
make up the polyglot population of
the United States,
uone has suffered
so much from misunderstanding and misrepresentation as that
of the American Indians. The vulgar errors
with regard to poor Lo are legion. The European settlers from the beginuing failed to see
him as he is—a man of like passions with themselves. Fear, hatred, distrust, intolerence,
contempt, ignorance and self-interest have
combined to make a caricature as unreal and
ridiculous as the wooden Indian of the old
cigar-store.
That the Indian is Stoical, a Marvel
of Self-control
It is true, of course, that the Indian has
steady nerve and makes no unnecessary motions. Most outdoor men are like that. It
is true that the Indian is complacent and can
be very dignified on occasion. So can^the
village lodge-brother. But it is not true that
he is stoical: he is merely shy. In the presence of strangers, he is on guard, silent, sober. But win his confidence, and you will
find that there was never a merrier, more
joke-loving man than the Indian. Left to
himself, a redskin will laugh five times to a
white man's once. He is jolly and happy-go-
lucky, with a decided taste for horseplay.
Nor is he stable in sudden danger. History
is filled with accounts of stampedes of frightened Indians, who ran and left everything
behind them on mere suspicion of unexpected
danger.
That the Indian is Improvident
This charge so far as it has a basis in
fact, needs explanation. True enough, the
Indian takes little thought for the morrow.
All hunters are like that, because meat will
not keep. Eat and be merry, and to-morrow
you will be strong and kill again. But now
that hunting is ended, people argue that the
Indian should be industrious. If he is not,
there must be some cause for his choice. The
Indian, in fact, has two good reasons for his
iudolence—besides the pleasure he gets from
idleness. First, he is a communist, who
shares and expects to share the prosperity of
all the tribe. If each of us had a thousand
relatives willing to help take care of us, how
many of us would work as hard as we do
now? And the Indian has Uncle Sam behind
his relatives. "Uncle Sam will take care of
us," and Uncle Sam does. For Uncle Sam
owes large sums to most of the tribes, and
the income from those funds provide enough
to keep the wolf from the door. Add to these
facts a complete lack of desire for the white
man's way of life, and it is hardly surprising
that the Indian is indolent. If he does ac-
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