The Word Carrier (Santee, Nebraska), 1901-07 - 1901-10

              Lnmnnw
The Word Carrier.
VOLUME   XXX.
HEEPING   THE    RIGHT,   EXPOSING   THE   WRONG.
NUMBER 5.
SANTEE, NEBRASKA.
JULY- AUG. -SEPT.-OCTOBER, 1901.
FIFTY CENTS PER YEAE.
OUR PLATFORM.    .
For Indians we want American Education ! We want American Homes !
We want American Rights! The result of which is American Citizenship!
And tlie gospel is the Power of God for
their Salvation!
THE WORD CARRIER'S VACATION.
The Word Carrier has taken
an enforced vacation of several
months. But our subscribers will
have their subscriptions advanced
correspondingly. We have been
unusually delayed in the reorganization of the printing office force
this fali. A number of our older
boys have found it necessary to
stay at home until the threshing
was done and some of the corn
picked. We are now in good working order all  around.
AN ANACHRONISM IN THE INDIAN
OFFICE.
A most remarkable letter has
emanated from the Indian Bureau
during the past year, in relation to
our missionary work at Fort Berthold. To those who know the parties involved in the correspondence
it will excite only wonder and disgust at this exhibition of official arrogance. But there are others who
take it for granted that an official
utterance has truth behind it.
Their conclusion will be that there
must be something much out of the
way to require such a castigation,
and that the character of the missionary deserving it is below regard.
On this account we cannot afford
to pass the matter by. Here is the
letter:
Department op the Interior,
Office of Indian Affairs,
Washington, D. C,
Rev. C. L. Hall,     March 15,1901.
Ft. Berthold Agency, N. D.
Sir : From a report recently received at this office concerning
affairs at Fort Berthold Agency,
N.D. it appears that your personal
relations with the agent are very
unfriendly and there is constant
friction between you which often
leads to controversies reflecting discredit upon both participants and
making impossible that degree of
harmony which should exist between
two persons laboring side by side
for the spiritual and temporal welfare of the Indians.
Such a deplorable condition of
affairs cannot be tolerated by this
office, and unless you can get along
more peaceably with the agent hereafter and abstain from all further
interference with him and his conduct of the public business, you will
be regarded as a disturber of the
peace and your presence on the
reservation will be considered no
longer desirable,
Very respectfully,
W. A. Jones,
Commissioner.
The facts of the case are these.
The Indian Service at Fort Berthold Indian Agency has now for
some time been disgraced by the
continuance in the office of Indian
agent of one entirely unfit for the
place. His personal influence is
bad; it has been testified against
him that he has repeatedly offered
liquor to Indians; he is simply a
partizan politician of the lowest
type who has  been put into the
place to square campaign accounts.
Our missionary, cooperating with
other good people in North Dakota,
has protested against such an a-
buse of the public service. It has
been made uncomfortable for the
Indian Agent, for his political backers and for the Indian office.
The investigations of the Interior
Department substantiated all of the
charges made against the Agent.
But for some reason, probably fear
of his political masters, nothing has
yet been done towards removing
him, even after a year of exposure.
Instead of that tbe Indian Office
tries to break clown the force of the
opposition by browbeating, and bullying. The "deplorable condition
of affairs" at the Fort Berthold
Agency consists in the fact that
some one daresto stand up and call
a spade a spade and black black.
But this cannot be "tolerated" by
the Indian Office. It is indeed a
reflection upon them.
Not only does the Indian Office
require that no dog should bark a-
gainst the official god they have seated in the agent's office at Fort Berthold Agency, but no one is to "interfere with his conduct of the public
business " That has a fine sound.
The meaning is this : when a political caucus is held, free and independent American citizens are to
knuckle under to the domination of
this agent of the Indian Office. Daring to make a motion, or press a
point in opposition to his corrupt
plans is "interferance with his conduct of the public business." Sueh
a one is "a disturber of the peace."
Now we come to the unadulterated insolence of the comunication :
"Your presence on the reservation
will be considered no longer desirable." Such an utterance is wholly
out of date. The Commissioner of
Indian Affairs has forgotten in what
century he lives. American citizens
have some rights on a reservation
as well as off from a reservation.
There is such a thing as official
decency, an utter disregard for
which, such as we see here, will
not be tolerated by the American
people.
Above all, the missionary has the
right of way. His work is the sole
justification of that which the government is doing on a lower plane.
He leads and they follow a long way
after. The Secretary of the Interior and Commissioner of Indian
Affairs with their agents wield the
political authority, but he is the
authority of righteousness. He goes
upon the reservation the apostle of
honesty, purity, and right living—
upon earth and in sight of heaven.
He is considerate of human weaknesses, but he cannot endorse vice
because of its official standing. Nor
can he fail to stand by the natives,
whom he has pulled out of the
slough of heathen imbecility and
given personality and manhood,
and protect them against the brutality of political shysters clothed with
brief authority.
And to the conscience of the A-
merican people the word of the missionary will stand for truth aud wisdom while such official utterances
as this will be condemned. It is indeed a disgrace to the government
and people of the United states that
such a letter is possible.
ACOMA INDIANS POTTERY AND BREAD
MAKING.
I am teaching in a government Indian day school at Acomita, N. M.
and am spending my vacation here
this summer. The field matron and
I are the only wnite women within
a radius of four miles.
The women of this tribe of Indians, the Acomas, are said to excel
in pottery making among the Peublo
Indians. The blue clay of which the
pottery is made is found at Acoma about twenty miles from here.
It is crushed and soaked in water
until soft and then it is put upon
hard ground and worked until perfectly smooth with the foot or hands
or both.
When the clay is dry enough to be
handled easily it is formed into long
rolls about l^in. in thickness and
these are then coiled into the shape
desired.
After further drying, the jar is
smoothed inside and out with a
small flat stone and permanently
shaped at the same time. Then it is
painted white, and when dry polished with a smooth stone.
Now the jar is ready for the decorative painting. The colors are
procured by crushing native clays
to a powder and the powder mixed
with water. They are applied to
the piece of pottery with the finger and a piece-of reed grass.
Not often are two pieces of pottery alike in design and the women
originate the majority of the designs.
The pottery is fired in the open
air, the pieces being protected from
each other and from the fuel by
broken pieces of old jars. A slow,
even heat is maintained for several hours until the pottery is thoroughly fired.
The little bowls are used at meals.
Long-necked water bottles, water-
jars or oyas, large, shallow mixing
bowls and flour jars four feet high
and three feet in diameter are
among the variety of shapes made.
The women and girls carry the
oyas full of water on their heads up
steep, rocky paths with the greatest
ease.
I also send some of the "tissue"
corn bread that these Indians are
so fond of. They call it matzina
and make it of very finely ground
corn-meal cooked as a thin batter
and then spread with the hand on
a hot soap-stone supported over
a fire on vertical stones in a
corner of the fireplace. When cooked through the bread is folded or
rolled. The blue, black, and red
corn is often used for this.
much merriment over their work.
The bundles of wheat are piled upon the floor at one side,then some is
loosened and spread over the rest of
the floor. Horses, perhaps a dozen,
are driven into the inclosure and
made to trample out the wheat. The
persuasive cry of the driver may be
heard at quite a distance.
When all the wheat has been trampled upon the horses are driven out,
the straw is cast aside and the wheat
is separated from the chaff by lifting it high with a long, wooden ladle,
the wind carrying away the chaff as
the wheat falls to the ground.
When thoroughly cleaned the wheat
is put into bags and taken home to
serve with corn,peppers, meat,dried
musk-melon and other things as a
year's store of food.
Just before dusk each day women
or girls may be seen going down to
the r'ver to wash the wheat carried
in large, shallow baskets upon their
heads. These baskets are given a
quick souse into the water and then
the wheat is vigorously rubbed much
as clothes are rubbed upon a washboard. The wheat is then spread
out to dry upon a cloth or an old
shawl on the floor of the house and
in the morning is ground in a mealing trough.
The framework and partitions of
this are made of heavy planks fixed
solidly into the clay floor of the
house. The trough is usually six feet
long with two transverse partitions.
Resting upon the back of the trough,
one in each division,are the grinding stones. Lava stones are preferred
because of their rough surfaces. The
stones are graded according to their
roughness.
Two or three women grind at the
trough at the same time, singing as
they work. The meal is passed on
from tbe first to the second women
aud to the third each grinding it and
making it finer. Then it is sifted
thr<5ugh sieves graded as the grinding stones are.
After wheat has been ground and
sifted in this way it is almost as fine
and white as may be bought at a
modern roller process mill.
School has commenced here but
the attendance is somewhat irregular as yet because the Indian harvest dances in this and neighboring
I villages are in progress. I shall be
glad when there is a cessation, although, they occur, that is some
kind of a pagan performance, quite
often. Mabel Egeler.
The Pueblo Indians have a primitive and laborious way of threshing
their wheat.
On the level land around the
puebloes are circular inelosures
about two rods in circumference.
The floors of the inelosures are made
of a hard, native clay and the fences
are small poles put in three or four
feet apart around the floors.
Each year just before the threshing season the women make the
threshing floors smooth through the
use of water and flat stones and as
several families use the same threshing floor quite a number of women
congregate at  one time  and have
CORRUPT PRACTICES OF THE GOVERNMENT.
Resolution unanimously passed by
the General Congregational Association of North Dakota at Wahpeton
September 26, 1901.
Resolved: that we ask our Representatives and United States Sen-
I ators to use their influence to se-
! cure Indian Agents of the highest
character and integrity, and that
they seek to correct the serious
evils that have come through incompetent agents.
As a church, we are spending
quite large sums of money for the
civilizing and christianizing of the
Indians of this commonwealth, and
we protest against our efforts being
thwarted through the corrupt practices of men not interested in the
elevation of the Indians.