The Word Carrier (Santee, Nebraska), 1887-02

              THE WORD CARRIER.
NEW SERIES,   VOL. IV.   NO.   II.
Helping the Right, Exposing the Wrong.
PUBLISHED   FOR   THE DAKOTA   MISSION
Santee Agency, Nebraska.
FEBRUARY, 1887.
Fifty Cents a Year.
Our Platform.
For Indians ave want American
Education! We want American
Homes ! We want American Rights !
The result of which is American
Citizenship.
k&.vtf&t
IS PUBLISHED FOE
not come to time, and that Avas a Japanese tea set that had been ordered
from Japan for the occasion. It
was to have been Mr. AVilliams' gift
to his wife. It came half a year
later and Avas presented as a sort of
surprise at a supper at ReAr. Mr.
Sprague's on Mr. AVilliams' birth
day. It was then that Mr. AVilliams
read the "presentation verses" which
Ave give in another column.
THE DAKOTA MISSION,
in the interest of schools and mis-ions among
the Indians, with special reference
to the work of the
Santee Normal Training School
A. L_.  RIGGS,
EDITOR AND   PUBLISHF.R,
Santee Agency, Neb,
Tekms -One copy $    .50
Five copies      2.00
Ten copies     3.00
it up. So also when any one is
knoAvn to think favorably of the
Great God (the Avhite man's god)
they say: "he is not a Dakota; he imagines himself to be a Avhite man."
They say such things in jealousy, and
keep men back from the worship of
the true God.
[Entered at the Santee Agency Postoffice
as second class matter.]
The Dakota Indians of Montana
are not to be moved to Dakota. Their
reservation will extend from the Mis-
ouri River forty miles north, Avest to
tha Milk River, east to the Muddy.
The Indians are to receive $165,000
per year for ten years.
Our Theological Institute has been
in session at Santee from January 27
to February 13. The class numbered twenty-six of whom seventeen
were from the y-arious parts of our
Mission field, one of them even coming from Manitoba, and nine from
the advanced grade of our Normal
Training School.
We sadly missed the work of our
fellow worker, Rev. John P. Williamson, who always lends a hand on such
occasions. But Ave OAve grateful acknowledgement  to  Rev.   Joseph  E.
The Indian land  in Severalty Bill
I became a laAV by the signature of
President   Cleveland    February    4.
The   Sioux   Reservation   Bill    still
hangs in the House.
Capt. Pratt recently gave a very
impressive exhibition of his Carlisle
Indian scholars at the Academy of
Music, NeAv York. It is time Noav
York should have a glimpse of something better than Buffalo Bill.
Santee Normal Training School
owes a good deal of the comfort it
daily experiences in the perfect heating and ventilating of its neAv Dining
Hall to the inventions of B. R. Haw-
ley of Chicago. It is with sad and
grateful rememberance that Ave record his death Avhich occurred recently at his home in Chicago.
The Dakota Legislature has
memorialized Congress to pass the
DaAves bill for the two new reasons
that eastern Dakota needs to get the
coal and wood of the Black Hills,
and that the cession of a narrow
strip of land through the Sioux Reservation Avill stop the prairie fires
which create the scorching summer
blasts that burn up the Aregetation of
eastern Dakota. The bill iviU certainly pass now.
The civilized and decent part of
the United States Avill join in congratulating Bishop Hare upon the reversal   of   that   shamelessly unjust
Roy, D. D., of Chicago, for the hearty : decision againts him in the New York
help he rendered us during eight: courts several years ago. Or rather
days of the Institute. decent   people   should  congratulate
themselves that they live in a country
The  sleeping  and  eating  of   the where one can call  things  by  their
class, coming in upon an already well right names and not be fined  for
packed school has  been  a  problem.
But this time their  eating  Avas  well
provided for in the neAv Dining Hall
that still seems to say "Yet there   is
room."    But for beds we had to repair to the unfinished third floor  of
the Dining Hall and spread the class
out   in   orthodox   order   under   the
shingles.
During the session of the Theo
logical class, the dining-room
even a broader field than usual for
the study of human nature, the force
of habit, and special traits of character. On one of the first mornings,
a little girl whose father Avas present,
was brought by her house-mother to
see and speak Avith him. She had
her shaAvl and hood in hand, and he
took them from her to put on. The
hood fell unheeded to the floor, and
he put the shawl over her head. She,
knoAving this was not the Avay she
wore it now, pushed it back, and too
shy to say anything about it, Avould
have gone out Avith head uncovered,
but that some one who had noticed
the little episode, restored the hood.
Old habits are strong, but perhaps
this will serve to bring to that father's
notice the fact that "old things are
passed away."
One of our boys, who was guilty
of the misdemeanor of leaving the
dining-room too precipitately, was
punished by being deprived of his
dinner. This so grieved him that he
failed to appear at supper, or at
breakfast the next morning. The
matron inquired of one of the
other boys as to the whereabouts of
the delinquent, and received the reply "I guess he's dead." This is a
favorite response with them when
one fails to appear for the performance of any duty, and especially if
one is missing at meal time. While
they Avere talking, the missing boy
appeared on the scene, and the other
remarked naively, "He was dead, but
he's alive again. Now Miss Douglass
you'll have to kill the fat calf."
' sible for their oavu good. 3. The
■ rate per acre offered by Government
; for the lands to be ceded is all they
j are worth.
There are points in the bill which
! Ave could wish were different, but we
are not at all  sure  that the  change
Avould make the bill any surer of suc-
| cess.    The  explanation  of Dr. Sun-
. derland's   neAv   tangent   is probably
offered j that he has reached a point in life in
which he has lost interest in  things
that can be done, and is living in the
world  of contemplation of   abstract
| ideas.    AVe are confirmed in this view
of the case  by the  fact  that  Miss
Sunderland,   his   daughter,   avIio   is
one   of the   most   active   ladies   in
Washington in the work of the AVoui-
an's Indian Association is quite radically opposed to her father's views.
it.
The friends of Gen. Charles H.
Howard, and they are many in the
Indian country, Avill regret to learn
that he has been obliged to drop his
work a Avhile and go south for a few
months. He will be at San Mateo,
Florida.
Dr. Roy's visit Avas an inspiration
and benediction to the Avhole mission;
to teachers as Avell as to pupils. By
his lecture and his big map he
brought us into a more intelligent
sympathy Avith the great work of our
American Missionary Association.
AVe believe he will also carry with
him a clearer and larger interest in
our Indian Avork.
A year ago February, 1886, Rev.
Mark AVilliams and Isabella Riggs
Williams, of the North China Mission,
(A. B. C. F. M.) celebrated their "china
wedding."    One item,  however, did
Some Hampton students Avho went
there from Standing Rock Agency,
write us that they are ■ very anxious
that some religious teacher should
go to their Agencies who can teach
their people in Dakota, for they are
not reachable through the  English.
In their opinion the Roman Catholic teachers do not meet the need of
the people. The people are giAren
up to their heathen dances, and while
a feAv wish better things they are led
off by the others. At one time the
young men organized an association
for seeking better things. This association numbered thirty. But the
Dakotas were jealous of it and broke
One of the children being asked how
she got along Avith her drawing, said
she made some mistakes, but did the
best she could. "Does your teacher
scold you?" was the next question.
An unconscious compliment lay in
the astonished reply: "AVhy no! It's
Miss Haynes.
A significant illustration of the
effect of colored glasses upon clear
vision is seen in the Rev. Dr. Sunderland of AVashington. For a couple
of years he has been looking at
Indian affairs through the "Council
Fire" glasses, and so he characterizes the Dawes Sioux Bill as the
greatest Indian steal on record.
Noav we have never heard any of
the advocates of that measure claim
that it represented abstract justice,
but there are a few important facts
Avhich make it sure that it is the best
thing that can be done for these
Indians under the circumstances. 1.
It is a moral impossibility to hold this
reservation intact for these Indians
very much longer. 2. These Indians
must be brought within narroAver
bounds and localized as soon as   pos-
An Indian Boy's visit to New York
City.
One    of    the   objections   against
schools   on   the  Agency,   urged by
Carlisle is that the pupils see so little of civilization that they  are not
in any Avay  fitted  to   understand  or
appreciate   the   civilization   of   the
white man when he  is  set  dcnvn   in
the midst of it.    It Avas said  of two
of our pupils who  Avent East  some
months ago, one of   whom had  seen
almost nothing of the world outside
of an Indian Agency, "They had an
opportunity   of   seeing one  of   the
finest   houses   in  Hartford,   and  to
their credit they did not seem out of
place."     One  of   these boys  sends
this account of a visit to Noav York.
"In the first place Ave Avent to Springfield, Mass., then to Hartford,   Conn.
We stopped there a little Avhile, and
we went to see the Capitol.   It is very
nice    building,     we've     seen     all
outside  and inside,    and some  old
flags Avhich they had in the Avar-time.
Then we took boat from there to the
city of New York, through the  Connecticut   River,   and    Long   Island
Sound.    There Avere about six Y.  M.
C. A. college boys with us.   They were
all jolly felloAVs, I tell you.   (Modern
civilization crojis  out very evidently
here.     Ed.)     There   was   a  piano
in the boat, and everything  furnished very nicely, so in evening Ave said,
Ave going to have meeting in the dining-room, and  invite all  passengers
to come in, and Ave did, and had very
nice meeting, while the boat moved
sloAvly along like a turtle.     It is  a
very nice thing to be in God's family.
AVe find good friends, and good place
to   go,   Avhile  Devil's  children  run
round wild.
We saw good many things that we
never had seen them before in the
Park of New York. I have seen a
birch bark canoe in the American
museum and seem funny to me. I
was born among the Indians, yet I
never saw all these things which
they have done till I Avent to NeAv
York. They keep lots of Indian
things there Avhich I don't knoAV any
thing about. All familiar to me Avas
a pair of Santee moccosins. I saAv
lots of stones, birds, bugs, beetles,
toads, turtles, bears, buffaloes, oh!
hoAv I Avish I could write you all about
it, but I knoAV I couldn't no matter if
I try a day."