The Word Carrier (Santee, Nebraska), 1886-01

              THE WORD CARRIER.
yEW SERIES,   VOL. II.   NO.  XI.
Helping the Right, Exposing the Wrong.
PUBLISHED  FOR   THE DAKOTA   MISSION.
Santee Agency, Nebraska.
JANUARY, 1886.
Fifty Cents a Year
Our Platform.
For Indians we want American
Education! We want American
Homes!" We want American Rights!
The result of which is American
Citizenship.
The Word Cabriek is published m the interest of schools and missions among the Indians. It is published for The Dakota Mission,
originally planted by the American Board in the
year 1835, in Minnesota, but now extended
OTer Dakota, and into Nebraska, Montana, and
the British Possessions, and carried on under
these several branches:
The American Missionary Association, (Congregational) at Santee Agency, Nebraska, and
at Oahe, Cheyenne River, Grand River, and
Fort Berthold, Dakota.
The Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions,
at Yankton Agency and Flandrau, Dakota,
and at Poplar Creek, Montana.
The Presbyterian Board of Home Missions
at Sisseton Agency and Brown Earth, Dakota.
The Dakota Native Missionary Society, at
Cheyenne River and Devil's Lake, Dakota.
Santee Normal Training School, at Santee
Agency, Nebraska, is our principal school for
all this field, for higher education and normal
training. Therefore, while presenting the
progress of our missionary and educational
work in the whok field, the interests and
work of our Normal Training School will be
made prominent.
We shall also endeavor.to give a view of the
state of the work under other missionary
societies, and under the Government. And we
cordially invite the co-operation of those who
have been our friends in the past and of all new
worksrs in the field.
Published monthly at 50 cents a year. Send
for it to Alfred L. Riggs, Editor and Publisher,
Santee Agency, Neb.
[Entered at the Santee Agency Postofticeas
second class matter.]
Santee Agency Changes.
Charles Hill succeeds Maj. Isaiah
Lightner as U. S. Indian agent for
Santee Agency. Neb., which includes
the care of the Indians at Flandrau, D.
T., and on the Ponca reserve, in Dakota. Mr. Hill has served in almost
every grade of office on the agency,
and no one could be more thoroughly
prepared by experience to know what
to do for this people, and how to do it.
The only thing that consoles us to the
loss of our long-time and indefatigable Agent Lightner, is that we have
his efficient lientenant in his place.
Doctor George W. Ira closed his
work as Indian Physician at Santee
Agency January 5, and takes up work
again among white people, to the
giatification of his numerous white
friends and the regret of his many
Indian friends. His labors among the
Indians have been so long and so faithful that they deserve special mention.
They reallybegan Nov. 1,1864, when,
as practicing physician in Decatur,
Burt county, Neb., which town joins
the line of the Omaha reservation, he
was often called by the Government
to visit and prescribe for the Omahas,
especially at the large mission school
then conducted by the Rev. Wm.
Hamilton. At that time there was no
government physician for the Omahas.
This service continued until April 1,
1873.
On the 1st of May, 1872, Dr. Ira
moved to Yankton 'Agency, D. T.,
where he was employed as government
physician for the Yanktons until July
1, 1874. During part of this time he
was also visiting physician for the
Poncas, in Dakota.
Oetober 1, 1875, he began his work
at Santee Agency, Neb., where he has
served as government physician continuously for over ten years, or until
January 5, 1886. So that his term of
service among the Indians counts up
twenty years. This in itself is proof
that his work has been worthy of high
commendation.
In this time, but especially during
the ten years spent among the Santees,
the Doctor testifies to having seen
great changes for the better and a continuous progress toward civilization.
There have, indeed, been great and encouraging changes, which are the best
reward of the faithful workers who
can now take note of them, and know
that their labors have not been, for
naught.
We cannot close this paragraph
without expressing our hearty appreciation of the able and faithful services of Dr. Ira in our Normal Training School aud mission families. Our
best wishes go with him.
Dr. W. McKay Dougan succeeds
Dr. Ira as Indian physician at Santee
Agency. He has already had considerable experience as a worker among
the Indians. Being appointed by the
government in July, 1871, as physician
to the Great and Little Osages, he remained with them until the autumn of
1878. After this he served in the same
capacity at the Pawnee, and Quapaw
agencies. He has been in the government service as physician about ten
years with the Osages, Pawnees, Qua-
paws, Ottawas, Peorias, Shawnees,
Senecas, Wyandottes and Miamis.
Samuel C. Shelton, from Asheville,
North Carolina, is appointed to the
place of Agency Clerk. He finds
much to please him in the progress
made by the Santees. Arriving in
January he has found some nipping
cold weather by way of introduction.
But then good bracing weather helps
one to grapple with the heaps of work
to be found at Santee in all departments.
William J. Phillips, who has so long
been at the desk as Agency Clerk, is
now appointed as Superintendent of
Work, taking the place recently filled
by Mr. Charles Hill, who is now agent,
Santee Agency is especially favored in
retaining so many of her well-tried
workers, and in receiving such good
additions to the force.
Our Artesian Well.
The cry of fire has always been especially terrible to Santee Mission.
With "the river two miles away, and
the nearest water in a few very uncertain cisterns, and a well often exhausted when especially needed, fire seemed
to have a very easy victory; certainly
if fanned by one of Nebraska's almost
perpetual winds. In view of the large
number of costly buildings in ques-
tion, it was undoubted good policy to
make all necessary provision for an
efficient fire protection. So now,
whereas, artesian wells are becoming
quite the rage in this country, Santee
Mission, not to be behind, has sunk a
well at the expense of $1,500, which,
out from the depth of 604 feet, pours
forth good water at the rate of 500
barrels per day.
The well is on the hill back of the
mission, and the water rises about forty
feet above the highest point of the
new dining hall. At present all this
water runs to waste, down the hillside, for lack of means to build tanks
to conduct it within eontrol. Let
there be no more delay in making use
of what is so much needed.
Karr & Richey, of Yankton, D. T.,
drilled the well and cased it to the bed
rock. Everything was done in a most
complete and workmanlike way.
The record of the bore is as follows:
Soil    23 ]
Lime rock (chalk stone)     12 j
Blue Clay     60 j
Chalk stone   118 j
Shale       8
Iron pyrites, 4 inches  —
Shale     40
Iron pyrites, a few inches  —
Shale       8
Iron pyrites, thin layer  -
Shale  181
Sand rock       il
Shale, with strips of sand rock, hard and
firm     28
Sand Rock     20
Shale, with layers of water-bearing rock   98
Sand rock       4
604
Down  to  540 feet some very  hard
material and hard strips were met with.
The most of the   water  was found  in
the last four feet of sand rock.
Mrs. Walking Hawk's Sewing
Society.
One of the pleasantest duties incumbent upon us at Santee is the attendance of the Woman's Sewing and
Prayer meeting, which it held every
Wednesday afternoon at the home of
some member of the church.
It is a merry, good-natured party
that starts from the mission, going on
foot, in wagons or horseback.
Last week the society met at the
home of one of the deacons of the
church. Mr. Walking Hawk, who lives
in a little log house near the Missouri
river, about two and a half miles from
the mission.
After a much enjoyed ride horseback, a young Dakota woman and I
arrive at the appointed place a little
late. After tying our ponies, we pass
through a small open shed, full of
grain, etc., that is attached to the
house. The door is opened by the
woman of the house, and we are politely invited in, and feel quite at home
after shaking hands with all in the
room.
In the absence of chairs we find
seats on the floor, which has been well
scrubbed. In the middle of the room
is the cook stove; around the sides are
trunks, boxes, bags of grain, a table,
small cupboard, and water barrel. In
one corner a small ladder leads to the
loft, used as sleeping room for the
family. On the walls hang the clothing, and perhaps a picture or iwo cut
from a newspaper.
It is a busy, interesting scene before
us. Side by side sits a mother and
daughter, both on the floor. The one
with loose dress of blue calico, and
large blanket around her shoulders.
Her hair is loosely braided in two
braids and hangs down her back. On
her feet are fur-lined mocasins. The
other in a neat, well-fitting gingham,
of modest pattern, white collar and
apron. Her glossy black hair combed
smoothly back and tied by bright ribbon, show us what has been accomplished and what we may hope for.
Scattered among the groups of Dak
ota women, in their dark blankets and
dresses, are the girls from Dakota Home
with smiling faces, pleasant chat and
warm, bright, plaid flannel dresses.
The work being done this particular
afternoon was quilt patching, having
on hand five or six different patterns.
Several are cutting and stringing the
blocks, others sewing diligently on the
bright calicos, from the troublesome
pieces an inch square to the last long
seem.
Sitting snugly in my corner on the
hard boards, 1 noticed a woman in front
of me who had no work, wandering
why it was, I asked one of the girls who
said,—"She is blind, poor woman, and
has no home so she goes around from
one house to another and every one is
glad to have her come." It surely was
a pitiful sight. She sat curled up on
a small blanket, her feet in stockings of
blue striped ticking, and heavy blue
blanket around her shoulders.
After sewing about two hours the
work is folded and packed away, then
the woman at whose house we are opens
the prayer meeting. There are few
awkward pauses, all seem ready to do
something. The service is all in the
Dakota language, so we cannot well
understand it, but from the earnestness
we feel that God is present as he has
promised that he would be when two or
three are met together in His name.
The money raised by this society goes
towards the fund for Indian Missions.
Last year they made $56.50. A goodly sum for people so poor and needy as
they.
Ella Worden.
A Picture Lesson.
This picture represents a hen with
brood of chickens, and their coop. Do
you know how the coops are made? Of
course you do. Well, I would like to
tell you how they are made. They
make just alike the roof of a house,
and one side of it covered very well,
so that tne water can't go in, and the
other side they nailed slats little apart
of each other, room enough for a
chicken can come out, and they kept
the mother of the chicken in the coop,
because if they let the hen go with
her little ones, she will go off with
them, and she might lost some of
them, or else a chicken hawk would
kill them. That's the reason they
kept the hen in. Of course the little
i ones can't go of without their mother.
Mark Khune.
Pickings.
Being required to write a sentence
containing the word "audience," one
pupil wrote: "In every Sunday all the
peoples come to audience to the
preach."
A definition of the collective noun
drove, was: "Drove means drive cattle
or horses to anywhere."
One scholar became a little confused
over "brood" and "drove," with the
following result: "Drove means a little chickens."
It being carefullyexplained to the
class that "grouse" was the name of a
i "family" of birds, an ingenious pupil
wrote: "Mr. and Mrs. Grouse and their
family live in North America. The
: children of Grouse are very good to
eat. Mr. Grouse is very nice kind of
bird."