The Word Carrier of Santee Normal Training School (Santee, Nebraska), 1928-11 - 1928-12

              TheWord Carrier
of SANTEE NORMAL TRAINING SCHOOL.
VOLUME   LVII
HELPING THE   RIGHT,  EXPOSING THE WRONG
NUMBER 6
SANTEE, NEBRASKA.
Nov.-Dec, 1928
FIFTY CENTS PER YEAR
Our   Platform
Fur 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!
Christmas at Santee
Christmas at Santee really begins the Sunday before Christmas. On that morning we
have our Christmas sermon and hymns, and
in the evening the entire service is given to
the cantata, on which Mrs. Riggs has been
drilling the high school chorus for weeks.
This year the cantata was "Immanuel" by
(Norwood) Dale, and both Mrs. Riggs and
the chorus deserve great credit, for they
labored under difficulties in the weeks before
Christmas. Because of the flu, school was
closed for one week and of course it took a
little time for voices to be usable after everyone was well.
Next in the order of Christmas doings
comes the preparing of the tree. On tbe
morning of the twenty-fourth- great excitement prevails in the school room, and suddenly some one sa.ys, "The tree has come!
We saw it when it came, and Miss Beitel let
us go to the window and look at it. Its a
big  one!"
At noon Mr. Riggs makes the announcement for which we have been listening—
"There will be no school this afternoon
because the tree has to be trimmed". Such
a clapping of hands that follows! Then
everyone is quiet so they may hear who is to
trim the tree. When it is announced that
the juniors and two of the teachers are to do
it, of course one or two of the juniors try
.to look as if it bored them dreadfully to do
such a childish thing as trim a Christmas
tree,  but we know they are delighted.
Right after dinner the boys who take care
of the chapel build fires. Then the juniors
begin to appear, the boys all announcing that
they can't stay long because they have to
milk or get supper, but when it is really time
for them to go, they can hardly drag themselves away from that shining tree.
Soon after the juniors and teachers arrive
at the chapel, along come Mr. Riggs and Mr.
Harry Leigh with step ladders and electric
lights, and soon the tree is festooned with
beautiful tiny colored bulbs which will add to
its beauty at night. Then the work of trimming the tree and arranging the presents begins, and lasts until time for the program to be-
gin. Our boys who had to milk and cook have
been replaced by another group who do not
work until after supper.
All afternoon the gifts have been coming-
in, not only from our own school family, but
also from the neighbors, for this is a Community tree. Those of us who trim the tree have
the first chance to read all the names on the
packages, and we have lots of fun trying to
guess what may be in some parcels on which
we have seen our own names.
During this holiday season the boys give
the girls a little extra vacation by doing their
dining room and kitchen work for them, so
as soon as they have the dishes washed, the
last bell rings, and the program begins. This
year we were very glad to have, the Chorus
repeat parts of the cantata which they had
sung the night before.
After the program comes the distribution of
gifts. Two Indian men from the church, Mr.
Robert Brown and Mr. Albert Mitchell, called
off the names, and the members of the senior
class passed them out. The doing up of gifts
for the school and community takes most of
one or two person's time for about two weeks
before Chistmas. Besides the individual gifts
tbe church gives to each person a small bag
of nuts and candy and an apple. Mrs. Riggs
and Miss Hassinger always try to see that
there is a gift for each person in the audience,
and this takes time and thought.    After the
gifts have all been distributed everyone goes \
home, tired but happy, to get a little nap before ChiStmas morning.
I shall never forget how that first Christmas
morning thrilled me with its beauty. A little
after midnight we were awakened by men's
voices singing, "It Came Upon the Midnight
Clear"; then they sang snatches from all the
beautiful Christmas hymns. It was a wonderful morning,bright moonlight,the stars twinkling at us, and the snow crunching cheerily
as the men walked about. Of course the
whole house was awake, and so, after the carolers had gone, we all shoured "Merry Christmas" to each other and went bacK to bed.
At half past five we were once more awakened by hymns; this time it was our Whitney
Hall boys come to get breakfast. After that
there were more "Merry Christmas" calls
floating around, and everyone stayed up.
At seven o'clock when we went to the dining room for breakfast, we found all the
shades drawn, and the, room lighted with
pretty red Christmas candles. The candlelight, the carols and the general atmosphere
made us all stand, hushed and reverent, quietly by our places. All at once, so quietly at
first, then growing louder, we hear the Dakota Home girls singing in the hall; they sing
two hymns, then come inside, singing softly,
through the third hymn. How quiet the big-
dining room, usually so full of chatter and
clatter!
After we sit down, still very softly, the
lights are turned on, and at our plates we
each find a large orange, which we save to
put with our other gifts. About half
through breakfast the Birds' Nest begin to
sing "Why do Bells at Christmas Ring"?.
At the close of the meal they sing once more;
then we go quietly out of the room and about
the work of the day. In the afternoon every
one calls on every one else, to see what
Santa has brought. In the evening we try
to settle down to study, but it is pretty hard
work, so we go to lied early, with a warm,
comfortable feeding inside of us, because
someone has helped us to be happy, and best
of all, because we have tried to do something
for others.
Next day at school, we feel a little tired and
worn b.y all the things crowded into a day and
a half, but then we decide that we shall write
some "thank you" letters to some of those
friends who have never seen us, and yet have
sent us such nice gifts. We want the letters
to show just how much we appreciate what
they have done for us, so we draw some pretty
little designs and color thenp The writing
and illustrating take us about two days, and
then wc are ready to study once more. This
year we were especially happy because we did
not all of us have the flu on Christmas day,
and we were sorry that even two of our number had to be ill on that day.
Mabel Ambler.
The Airplane and Missions
In an interesting letter-to one of her nieces,
Mrs. T. L. Riggs of Oahe, So. Dak., tells of
one of the latest adventures of her husband,
Dr. Thomas L. Riggs. Mrs. Riggs and her
husband have spent a life time in missionary
work among the Dakota Indians.
"Long ago when we were building the last
of the churches up on the Cheyenne river, we
were talking with the Indians about the new
"flying machines" and said that some day
they would see the "Sacred Herald" flying up
to visit them! They laughed and thought it
pure romance, but since the aeroplanes have
been making trips from Pierre to Faith (beyond the Cheyenne) we thought how interesting it would be to make that prediction
come true.
Your uncle has longed to cover the old missionary route again and visit the people once
more. So, early in October Theodore arranged with one of the fliers to take your
uncle from here up to that upper Cheyenne
station near Bridger, where we were when
we talked with the Indians about it.
The plane landed just north of our garden
field and took your uncle aboard. Theodore
came out to see him off, and a number of the
neighbors and the school children—it was
quite an event— a reporter from the Associated Press was out too. They flew north almost to the site of Fort Sully, then directly
west to the Forks of the Cheyenne and circled
around to the station where the Indians met
them, much interested and delighted to see
him once more.
Your uncle visited those upper stations over
Sunday and then Theodore met him with a
car at the mouth of Cherry Creek on Monday
and brought him on down to other places and
| then they circled around to Slim Buttes, the
I scene of the "Last Buffalo Hunt" (which Dr.
! Riggs took part in and which he wrote up
' for the Independent, and so on home.
Theodore drove a new Buick   Limousine,
j and had his littleThomas Lawrence with him.
j It was nice weather; they camped out nights
, in the old fashioned way, and altogether had
a delightful  trip.    Your uncle says the Indians' reception of him at every place, their
wordsof appreciation for what he had done for
them, their entertainment, and all was very
touching.    They asked him to administer the
communion   at   almost   every place."    Dr.
Riggs is in his eighty-second year.
Is Real White Man; Has No Use for Church
"The other day," sa.ys Rudolf Hertz, "I
was asked to baptize the baby of a mixed-
blood girl, who married a white man. I
went to their home, but found that her
husband was out. Upon my suggestion to
wait with the baptism until some other
time when the baby's father was also at home,
the grandmother, herself a full-blood Indian,
answered me in the Dakota language: 'Oh,
no, he doesn't care about such things. He is
a real white man.'
"Too many people out here confirm this
woman's impression that real white men have
nothing to do with the church. We missionaries are the rare exception in their mind if,
indeed, we are not considered Indians ourselves!"—The Congregationalism
Black Mills Claim of the Sioux Indians
While in Washington the other day I called
on Mr. Case, the attorney of the Dakota Indians in their suit against the United States
Government, who told me that, Our government has already spent $100,000 to go over
all the accounts for the last fifty years in
order to determine what payments have actually been made to the Sioux Indians for
education, farming, rations, etc. He expects
that $50,000 more will be needed for this
purpose alone, as not less than nineteen
people are engaged upon this job. The government people hope to finish the actual
work the last of this year.
After that, it will take at least a year for
Mr. Case and the government attorneys to
go through the four thousand or more pages
of accounts, then tbe briefs have to be prepared. No doubt the Court of Claims will
appoint a Fact Finding Commission.
After the final arguments, the court must
consider the case, and that too will take considerable time. Mr. Case believes that it
will take at least four, maybe six, years
more before the final decision is rendered,
but he is very hopeful as to the results.
Rudolf Hertz.