The Word Carrier of Santee Normal Training School (Santee, Nebraska), 1929-09 - 1929-10

              The Word Carrier
OF
SANTEE NORMAL TRAINING SCHOOL.
VOLUME   LVIII
HELPING- THE   RIGHT, EXPOSING THE "WRONG
NUMBER 5
SANTEE, NEBRASKA.
Sept.-Oct., 1929
FIFTY CENTS PER YEAR
Our   Platform
For Indians we want American Education!
We want AmericanHomes! We want American Rights! The result of which is American
Citizenship ! And the Gospel is the Power of
God for their Salvation !
Mohonk Indian Conference Resumed
Publication of the report by the Bureau
of Government Research on the Problem of
Indian Administration has resulted in a very
marked increase in public interest and much
constructive work has been done and planned
in the Indian Bureau and by private and missionary agencies. The appointment of Mr-
Rhoads as Commissioner of Indian Affairs
and Mr. Scattergood as Assistant Commissioner recalls the days under Grant's administration when the missionary societies were
asked to nominate Indian agents for all the
reservations, and the Quakers took a large responsibility for Indian administration. One
of the most significant influences in the development of public sentiment on the Indian
problem during the last half century has been
the Lake Mohonk Indian Conference, ta which
the brothers, A. K. and Daniel Smiley, invited friends of the Indian as their guests.
> Thirty-four annual gatherings were held, but
sessions were temporarily discontinued during wartimes. It is now planned to hold the
Thirty-Fifth Conference October 16-18.
Since the beginning the American Missionary Association and its missionaries among
the Indians have been closely related to this
great agency for study of the Indian problem
and for fellowship. Mrs. Mary B. Riggs,
wife of the founder of Santee Normal Training School, writes at the end of her pamphlet,
"Early Days at Santee": " It was a happy
coincidence that at this time(1883) there came
to the Agency a commission, Hon. A. K.
Smiley, Gen. E. K. Whittlesey, sent out by
the Board of Indian Commissioners and Prof.
C. C. Painter of the National Education Committee. Also at the same time Bishop William H. Hare of the Episcopal Indian mission was there. These gentlemen together
with the officers of the American Missionary
Association (among them Secretary Strieby
and William Hayes Ward) held a conference
at the mission, at which time Mr. Smiley
remarked, 'Why not have such a meeting
every year?' The next year he issued the
first invitations to the Mohonk Conference.—The Congregationalist, Editorial.
The Mohonk Conference Platform
All those who attended the recent Mohonk
Conference felt that it should be a convention
of unusual importance. The last previous
meeting was before the war. During the
twelve year hiatus much had happened that
should be considered and interpreted. Then,
too, the new administration at Washington
promises much for improvement in Indian
affairs and this encourages all friends of the
Indians to renew their efforts. Therefore the
resumption of this conference seemed to have
unusual significance.
What was the result? The addresses seemed
to be considered worth while. The discussions were enlightening and generally satisfactory excepting for the lack of sufficient
time. Many felt that the Conference should
have held a session in the afternoons as well
as before noon and in the evening. And
many felt that the platform should have been
read on the second evening and thus more
opportunity given for dicussion of it. And
many would have been better pleased with a
shorter and more definite platform.
Santee School is very happy to announce
to our good friends everywhere that we have
an unusually high quality of students this
school year.
A Quarter Section of Land Given to Santee School
Mr. Joseph Long of Cherry Creek, South
Dakota, has given a quarter section of land
to Santee School in memory of his wife,
Mrs. Mary Long.
The Mohonk Conference
Most of the readers of the Word Carrier
know of "Mohonk." About a hundred and
forty people are invited to enjoy the luxu-
riosly generous hospitality of Mr, and Mrs.
Smiley in their beautiful recreation resort hotel on the edge of the Catskill Mountains.
This annual conference on Amerindian affairs
has just held its thirty fifth session. It was
suspended at the beginning of the war. This
years meeting was declared to be one of the
very best ever. All people who are interested
in the welfare of the Indians have great
hopes for the administration of Governmental
Indian affairs, that is now beginning under
the new Commissioner of Indian Affairs,
Mr. Rhoads and his assistant Mr. Scatter-
good. Consequently there was unusual interest in the topics brought to the Mohonk
Conference  for   discussion.
A New Book in the Indian Language
In the early days the Dakota ABC book
published by Rev. S. R. Riggs, D. D., was
of very great use in teaching thousands of
Dakota Indians to read and write their own
language. The first editions were all sold out
and there was a persistent call for another.
Then came our printing office fire and destroyed the new edition and the plates also.
We thought there would never be any more.
But there was continuous call for them and
this greatly stirred the soul of Mr. C. R.
Lawson our faithful Santee printer. He got
new plates made. The "publication fund"
that the A. M. A. so generously allows us
was invested. Mr. Lawson ingeniously devised all the rest that was necessary to complete the book. With the assistance of our
Santee Indian students, he very neatly bound
three thousand copies and here it is. In this
Mr. Lawson has clone a missionary service
that will be of much worth and far reaching.
Every Dakota or Sioux Jndian who can not
readily read and write his own language
should have a copy, and teach it to his children. This will not be in any way a hinder-
ance to these Indians reading and writing
English, but rather a stimulus. Post paid
from Santee press for 17 cents a copy. This
is the fourth edition of'3000 copies each that
Mr. Lawson has printed at Santee. We have
no record of the number printed in the earlier
editions. F. B. Riggs.
Relations of the American Indians With the
United States Goverment
An Address By Major-General Hugh L. Scott,  TJ,
S. A. Retired, a member of the Board of
Indian Commissioners.
I have been asked to speak to you a few
moments about the historical relations of our
Indians with the Government. This is a
large subject and cannot be fully treated in a
few miuutes.
The Act of Congress of August 7, 1789,
created our War Department and among other
duties assigned to it were those pertaining to
Indian affairs, which remained under the
jurisdiction of the United States Army until
the Act of March 3, 1849, created tlie Department of the Interior and to it the Indian
Bureau, whereupon the affairs of the Indian
passed from military to civil control.
The Army and the Indian Service grew
up together without being regularly planned
—both were added to piece-meal from time
to time by acts of Congress, some wise, some
less so. Both services were extremely crude
and inadequate from the standpoint of today
and both were the creatures of politics. Each
succeeding war improved and purified the
Army, but the Indian Service never had this
modernizing influence.
At first the duties of the Indian Service
were very simple and related mainly to the
regulation of trade and intercourse in the Indian country and with the payment of annuities as compensation for land acquired from
the Indians by treaty. Many of these treaties
were fraudulent in every way because the Indian was ignorant of our laws and customs,
unable to protect himself as he still is and he
was not protected by his guardian, the Government. Governor William Clark, for instance, purchased in 1819 all the land from
the mouth of the Arkansas River to the Rocky
Mountains, occupied by many tribes, for a-
bout $2000 from the Quapaw Tribe who did
not own it, and our Court of Claims has not
finished even yet settling with the heirs of the
real owners.
Many Indian wars were brought on by
the encroachments of white settlers on the
lands of the Indian and by the results of the
purchase by the Government of land owned
by the tribe through negotiations with a few
individual Indians without consent of the
tribe. Reprisals would follow and the Army
would be called upon by the political powers
to enforce acceptance b.y the tribe and remove the Indian from the lands of his forefathers.
The Indians were self-supporting when first
known and until the game was destroyed by
the white man and the livelihood of the Indian thus taken from him.
The fur companies, entrenched in political
power in Washington.did much as they pleased in the Indian country, they did most of the
management that was done and the morals,
education, health, and welfare of the Indian
received but scant attention from anybody.
Whiskey, smallpox, measles, and other scourges unknown to the Indian were introduced
into his country and carried off many thousands of individuals and weakened whole tribes. The smallpox epidemic of 1837 was said to
have been taken to the Upper Missouri on the
boat of the American Fur Company and allowed to reach the Indians by the utmost
carelessness. It was reported to have caused
the deaths of 60,000 Indians and the reduction
of the Mandan Tribe to nineteen families.
Continued on Last Page