The Word Carrier (Santee, Nebraska), 1887-12

              ■ V'/
THE WORD CARRIER.
NEW SERIES,   VOL. IV.   NO.   XII.
Helping the Right, Exposing the Wrong.
PUBLISHED   FOR   THE  DAKOTA   MISSION.
Santee Agency, Neeraska.
DECEMBER, 1887.
Fifty Cents a Year.
Our Platform.
For Indians ave avant American
Education! We want American
Homes ! We want American Rights !
The result of which is American
Citizenship.
](£
h fawtxHitt
IS PUBLISHED FOE
THE DAKOTA MISSION,
in the interest of schools and missions among
the Indians, with special reference
to the Avork of the
Santee Normal Training School
A. L_. RIGGS,
EDITOR A.NTJ   PUBLISHER,
Santee Agency, Neb,
Tebms—One copy %    .50
Five copies      2.00
Ten copies      3.00
[Entered at the Santee Agency Postoffice
as second class matter.]
The Hinman-Hare case is settled.
That is, it is taken out of court, and
Bishop Hare gives Mr. Hinman a
certificate that he has been respectable for three years.
The Sisseton land allotments have
been completed. We knoAV of no one
who could have done better than Maj.
Lightner in such a work. He carried
his point Avith the government in regard to giving allotments to the
BroAvn Earth homesteaders Avho formerly belonged to Sisseton Agency.
We printed last month the argument
in their behalf.
Secretary Lamar, in his letter to
Dr. Child's, has tried to answer the
charge that the government favors
the Catholics in the management
of Indian affairs. It is a lengthy
and lame affair. He denies the
charge; but our own experience in
the Standing Flock hospital business
contradicts him. It Avould have beeu
to the honorable secretary's advantage if he could have resigned before
writing that letter. He says "the
Protestants have the same rights as
the Catholics—no greater and no
less." So far as rights before the law
are concerned this is but a trite saying. But if it implies, as it eA'ident-
ly does, that the Catholics have a
claim on the government for aid in
their educational work equal to that
of the whole body of Protestant denominations, it is conspicuously untrue. Neither by numbers, by contributions for the work, nor by fitness
as educators ought they to stand
•; equal Avith Protestant societies.
Their teachers are foreigners in
every respect; in religion, in political ideas, in language. They are the
last persons in the world to train up
the Indian youth to use English correctly, or to become self reliant, conscientious, loyal, American citizens.
And this a dministration does not
know the difference.
The joint committee of the Mission
ary Societies, Bible Society and Mo
honk   Conference,  visited President
Cleveland at Washington Nov. 2, and
after   a   favorable  interview  at the
White House they had a full talk with
the Commissioner of Indian Affairs.
The Commissioner then gave assurances that permission to use the vernacular Avould be given, 1, In contract
schools for the purpose of teaching
English, and   of   giving moral  and
religious  instruction;   2, in  Mission
outstations    and    3,   in   training   a
limited    number  of   young men to
preach   the   gospel.      This   is   now
over     a      month      ago      and     no
order has been issued making these
modifications.    It looks very much as
if the Commissioner is willing to get
the credit of granting the request of
the churches, while he has his own
way Avith the schools.    Or, it may be,
that the power behind the throne has
vetoed his concession.     We wait to
see. But all this has a strange sound.
Why  should "permission" be  asked
of the Commissioner  of Indian  Affairs before one can read the Bible
to Indians in their  own  language?
And avIio   gave    him   authority to
say how many or how feAv may preach
the gospel, or be trained for this service from among the Indians? Theer
is something utterly incongruous and
un-American   about   this.    And  we
are sure that as soon as the real drift of
this assumption of poAver is seen by
the free citizens of these United States
they will call a halt on this old-Avorld
tyrant.    Or if no other remedy is adequate, they Avill dispense  with  the
whole Indian bureau.
the country. Hence it has a peculiar
claim upon those who do not believe
in the government attempt to civilize
by stamping out the Indian language.
Our work is to Christianize and civilize through the vernacular, as the
shortest and most rational way to the
end desired.
To carry out these plans Ave shall
from time to time ask the help of our
friends. But just now Ave ask you to
help in enlarging the circle of Word
Carrier readers. We now issue a
regular edition of one thousand
copies. If this could be doubled, we
could reduce the price of our paper
one half, and then we might increase
its circulation to five or six thousand.
We are making arrangaments Avhich
Avill make it, in missionary news, in
incidents of Indian life, and in sound
thought upon the various phases of
the Indian question, the best Indian
paper in the country. Help us to d<
this by sending in your subscriptions
to the Word Carrier.
The government has finally given
us-permission to go on with our mission buildings and hospital at Standing Bock. The record of the Indian
department on this matter has been
A'ery discredtable. Permission was
granted last spring, and then partly
withdrawn under pretence of getting
more information. The Avhole thing
was manipulated in the interest of
the Romanists, who hoav are also to
build a hospital there, a thing they
never thought of all the years the
agency has been in their hands.
Our Plansfor 1 888.
With the neAv year Ave expect to
open our Santee Normal Training
School Printing Office. We have
bought a two thousand dollar Acme
press, and an outfit sufficient for immediate uses. We shall still need a
number of things before our office is
thoroughly equipped, but these we
believe the liberality of our friends
will supply in due time. We shall
have the Dakota type of Mr. Williamson's office at GreenAvood, D. T.,
Avhich is to be closed. So that we
shall hereafter print at this office both
the Word Carrier and the Iapi
Oaye. We shall also print the
Anpas for the Episcopal mission.
We are laying our plans for the future. This printing establishment is
to be a permanent institution. It has
a Avide field of usefulness Avhich Avill
be specially its own. To a greater
extent than any other can be, it will
be the Indian vernacular  press  of
Letter to the Commissioner.
I'n the Honorable Commissioner of Indian Affairs.
Sir: I am not a full Dakota, but
I want to teach my people to be good.
So I ask the Word Carrier to print
my letter, for I hear if I Avrite to you,
some clerk thow them in the basket
under the table.
For a long time I tried to learn
English, good English.    It  is  hard.
Noav I try to teach the children
to be good. When they hear Dakota they open their eyes and listen.
But iioav you say we must not teach
them in anything but English. This
makes my heart sad. It take them
long time to learn English good, but
soon learn to read Dakota, then they
read Bible and learn of the good
God who make us all, and of Jesus.
This makes them good, then they
want to go to Santee, and Hampton,
and Carlisle and learn English.
AVhen they learn to sing:
"Makoce de waste
Mitamahoce he
Waste wa da."
Then they soon learn:
"My country 'tis of thee,
Sweet land of liberty,
Of thee T sing."
which is same music.
The boys near Forts learn
English, but these words are
A'ery bad. They are most all SAvear
Avords. ■ In Dakota we do not have
swear Avords. These words make
them very bad.
I Avant to ask that Ave may teach in
Dakota. In few years when boys
come from schools they talk English
and teach their children English,
then Ave all talk English and our
hearts Avill be glad.
I try to teach some boys to parse.
But when I parse this sentence: "The
instruction of the Indian in the Arer-
nacular is not only no use to them,
but is detrimental to the cause of
their education," I find "not only"
is of no use in the sentence. Must
we teach words which are too many
in the sentences?
Will you please tell me avIio told
you it Avas no use to teach us to read
in Dakota? Is the Bible detrimental to civilization?    Mr.  Riggs  told
us that many books said it was Avhat
made civilization. Did Mr. Riggs
tell us a lie?
I saAv a letter in the Word Carrier and this sentence Avas AA'ritten,
"I trust that I Avill not be compelled
to abolish your Mission (day)
schools." Noav the grammar tells
me that it should be "I trust that I
shall not." But a clerk in the "Indian Service" wrote the letter. Do
all your clerks use good English or
do the grammars teach bad English?
The same clerk Avrote this sentence : "I cannot in no case determine
whether they continue or not, except
they are taught exclusively in English." Will you please tell us Avhat
he means? Mr. Riggs said he could
not, it Avas such bad. English. Even
Mr. Cross, our iioav Missionary, could
not tell us, and he says he played
Third Base on the Yale nine Avhich
beat Havard. And Avill you tell us
if Ave must teach English Avhich no
one can understand? This is A'ery
bad.
My father came from England but
he died in your war. He was in the
North Army. I Avas A'ery young and
I never saAv his grave. My mother's
heart was sad for a long time. But
she taught me to be good. I love
the Avhite man and the Dakota, and
want them all to be good.
Please let us teach the children in
Dakota, for in many places there are
no schools, but mission schools. Mr.
Cross told the boys and girls at Santee School that Avhen English people
were bad, very bad, and killed men
for sacrifice, some good Monks came
from Rome and taught them the Bible
And I heard him say that Caesar did
not forbid them teaching in English.
The paper says you are a Presbyterian. I am glad. My sister is a
Presbyterian and tAA'o are Episcopalians. The Dakotas haA'e these churches. The Catholics are strange,
their religion is like the old Dakota
religion. The priest has water in
his rattle, our medicine men use
beans or stones. They mumble
something called Latin. Medicine
men mumble and yell.
Will you write the ansAvers in the
Word Carrier. Some men Avrite so
I cannot read.
I hope you can let us teach  Dako-
to for some time.    When Gen. Grant
Avas President we taught Dakota.
My heart is sad.
At home they call me Catika,
which is in English
Left Handed.
The school most troubled in carrying out the department order requiring all Indian school Avork to be in
English is the Saint Ignatius, Catholic mission school in Montana. This
school receiA'es a special congressional appropriation of one hundred and
fifty dollars each, for one hundred
and fifty pupils, tAventy two thousand
five hundred dollars in all, and no
Americans are among the employes.
They are mostly French, and the Indian youth are consequently more
encouraged to use French than English. The difficulty is to secure English instruction through non-English
teachers. —Morn ing Star.
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