The Word Carrier (Santee, Nebraska), 1903-03 - 1903-04

              The Word Carrier.
volume xxxir.
HELPING   THE    RIGHT.   EXPOSING!   THE   WRONG.
NUMBElt  2.
SANTEE, NEBRASKA.
MARCH-APRIL, 1903.
FIFTY CENTS PER YEAR.
OUR PLATFORM.
For Indians toe want American Education! We want American Homes!
We want American Rights! The result of which is American Citizenship!
And the gospel is the Power of God for
their Salvation!	
OKLAHOMA INDIANS.
It has been my wish for a number of years to know something personally of the tribes of our southwestern plains. Those whose former range was between the Rocky
Mountains and the Five Civilized
Tribes of Indian Territory are mostly in the southern and western part
of Oklahoma where they have been
corralled and finally given individual allotments. In the last of February and first of March I spent
two w eeks among them. All I could
do in so brief a time was to take
some mental photographs of the
situation for use in further studies.
The tribes I looked in upon belong to five different Indian stocks.
Arapahoes, Cheyennes and Kickapoos to the Algonquin stock;
Caddoes and Wichitas to the Caddo
stock as do also the Pawnees; Comanches to the Shoshonean; Kiowa
to the Kiowan; and the Apaches to
the Athapascan.
Our American Miissonary Association has a missionary. Rev.
Richard H. Harper, at Darlington,
working among the Arapahoes and
Cheyennes. The Baptists have several missionaries among the Cheyennes but I met only one, a lady.
I had a very pleasant look into
the school work of Rev. A. V. Fait,
Presbyterian missionary at Anadarko; and also of Dr. Methvin,
Southern Methodist missionary at
the same place.
The condition of those tribes, in
many respects, is similar to that of
our wild Missouri River Dakotas
twenty five years ago. Particularly as
to tbeir attitude to Christianity and
civilization. As yet Christianity
has not taken much hold on them.
Our Mr. Harper has a very interesting work in connection with the two
Government schools at Darlington
and a number of the pupils are our
native church members there.
Few of the Indians seem to have
any desire for civilization. They
value their allotments chiefly for
leasing to white men; and many of
the Kickapoos scorn even to look
at their allotments to know where
they are.
The controling power is still
heathenism, and with it goes barbarism. So when any product of
the schools comes back to the Indian
communities, it is like a torch
thrown into a sea of mud, swallowed up and quickly extinguished.
It must be confessed that there is
but a feeble light in the returned
student's torch. It is a superficial
glow and not a heart on fire with
the love of Christ.
It is now a critical time with those
tribes. The wave of white population has overwhelmed them. And
unless Christianity can give them a
higher ambition and deliver them
from the bondage of their old Indian ideas they are doomed. Nevertheless we do not need to be discouraged. Brave Christian missionaries are at work. Their number
should be multiplied. We have reason to be proud of our two Congre
gational missionaries, Rev. Richard '
Harper and his  wife!    But they
need encouragement and help.
A. L. Riggs.
A CALL PROM  TUB  PRINTING
OFFICE.
We need new body type badly.
The lack of enough type to work
both of our papers at the same time
hinders progress and thwarts management a dozen times in a week.
Some sixteen or eighteen years
ago the type foundries came face to
face with the need of a uniform system to their type bodies. The printing firms objected to the differences
that existed, and so the foundries
finally agreed to a point system that
is followed by all of them now.
Some printing firms have had to
throw out a great deal to make way
for the new system. Our office suffers in the same way, but only
in one body—that of long primer.
Knowing that some day we must
change this, we have not cared to
put in type of the old size, for we
must come to the new system, and
it is next to impossible to keep type
of the same body separated, especially in spaces and quads.
In keeping the old we must sort
up from time to time and we have
found this unsatisfactory, as the
years advance. We find it harder
to get just what we want, because
the old system is becoming obsolete. Tbe type founders do not care
to hunt up the matrices of a discarded face.
Tbe boys in our classes are from
ten years of age and upwards and
proportionately as careful or careless as so many white boys would
be. The spaces, and thin letters, such as i, t, 1, j, f, and the
punctuation marks are very often
broken in attempting to justify aline
while r, c, e, s, z, and others follow
proportionately because thicker.
The thickest letters are not free from
this reducing propensity either, till
now we cannot set up one paper
with one of the faces we have but
must borrow two or three columns
of another face to finish out with.
The Dakota type has felt the same
effect, only in that type we started
in with a greater quantity, but when
it comes to setting an English job
from it we soon run out of those
letters that are proportionally different in our language. For instance,
"r" is never used, except in the
words that are English and creep into the articles, or appear in the
church, marriage, death and news
items of the paper. In the Dakota
type "a" is theletter that is most used while in the English "e" forms
the greatest number of our words.
The letter k is much used in the
Dakota language while it plays a
minor part in the English.
Now it is planned to put both
papers into the same face so that
we can use back and forth from either, and more easily do all kinds
of work, because the papers are not
always set up at the same time.
This will leave a more substantial
surplus to work with. When we can
obtain our new type,we will sell the
old and then our office will be in accord with the point system that is
fast becoming the rule in all offices.
Who can help us, and who will ?
C. R. Lawson.
MOTHERS' MEETING.
At two oclock every second Saturday in the month, we hear the
chapel bell ring a few strokes. This
is to remind us of the Mothers'
Meeting. After a few moments we
see women coming from all directions toward the Boys' Cottage,
which has been the meeting place
for many years.
Just ten years ago this society
was organized through the influence
of a mother who realized that the
earliest impressions of a child are
the strongest and most lasting. At
first but very few came, but as the
Indian women gradually gained
understanding and interest, the
members slowly and steadily increased. We now frequently have
as many as fifteen, and there are
often eight or nine babies present.
Some of these mothers come over
miles of bad roads for this meeting.
The question box is an important
feature. Pencils and paper are
passed, and for a few moments the
knit brows show that as yet the
question uppermost in thought has
not been reduced to writing. Looking around the room we see all kinds
of expressions, some smiling at
their neighbors whose questions are
not yet in shape, others carefully
writing, and so on. These few moments at the questions are much
enjoyed.
Every meeting several papers are
read in reply to questions given out
the month before. Some are in
Dakota and some in English, but
we always have a faithful interpreter
so nothing is lost, and thus we
understand each others thoughts
and suggestions.
The questions are of all kinds
that naturally come to the mothers
mind regarding the home life, from
the treatment of the most common
ailings to some questions that might
puzzle the theologian or philosopher. For instance, "What would
you do for ear-ache?" "If you believe in God, and your house is
dirty, is that right?" "If a man
does the religion, and his wife
is'nt, is that right?" "Is it right for
a woman to ride a horse like a
man ?" "If a chid has had enough
to eat and wants more what should
be done?" "Is it right for a man to
help wash the clothes?" "What
should be done with a child over
twelve who will not mind?" "What
should we teach children about
visiting?" "Is it right to take the
dogs to church ?"
A record is kept of the children's
birthdays, and at each meeting
prayer is offered for the children
whose birthdays come that month.
The mothers of ten eipress gratitude
for the influence and help of the
mothers' society, and at the last
meeting one mother spoke of not
having missed a meeting for three
years.
April 11 the tenth anniversary was
celebrated. Printed invitations had
been sent out as a reminder to all
members. There were present twenty-six Dakota women, twenty babies
large and small, and ten of the mission ladies.
The meeting was opened with
reading of scripture, prayer, and a
short address by the president.
Then Miss Voorhees, who has for
many years had the direction and
'       ' 7 \1S.
care of the society, spoke of the
steady growth in interest all along
since the women began to realize
their responsibility in the home.
The names of the five who have
served as presidents were given and
Mrs. Garvie, the first president, read
a brief interesting paper telling of
the great influence for good a mothers' meeting has in a community.
Several spoke, giving evidence of tbe
help they have received from attending the meetings. Some of the babies proved their lack of interest by
speaking out of order and by expressing themselves in various ways,
but this was not altogether inappropriate for a mothers' meeting.
A lullaby was sung very sweetly
by Mrs. Harriet Riggs. Some questions were answered,and two letters
read, one from Mrs. Gray and one
from Miss Worden.
As soon as the meeting closed,
trays laden with cakes, coffee and
popcorn balls began to pass in several directions. At tbe same time
the question box was seen coming,
and it was amusing to see the women for a moment undecided which
to attend to first, the plate of goodies, or pencil and paper. But in
every case business was attended to
first and soon all slips and pencils
came back to the box and the questions were in for the next meeting.
Last of all came baskets full of
rolls of pictures cut from papers.
The women gave exclamations of
surprise and pleasure when they
saw the little stacks of rolls being
passed around, for they are very
fond of pictures, probably not because of artistic taste altogether, but
the opening up of the unheard of
has for them a great fascination.
The influence of our Mothers'
Society must reach many more than
the Santee women, for the questions
and answers are many of them
published in the Iapi Oaye, which
has a wide circulation among the
different tribes of the Dakotas.
M. B. Riggs.
NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL
ASSOCIATION.
Those who attend the meetings of
the National Educational Association at Boston, July 6-17 will be afforded exceptional advantages for
visiting schools and places of historic interest. A number of young ladies, pupil teachers from the Training School at Lowell,Mass.,who are
familiar with Boston and vicinity,
have arranged to be present every
day at the sessions of Department of
Indian Education and conduct parties of visitors to places where they
wish to go. This is an evidence of
the characteristic old New England
hospitality to the "stranger within
her gates." The inspiration and
pleasure to be derived from a visit
to Boston will be especially appreciated when personally conducted
excursions are to be enjoyed, with
guides to explain everything and
every place of interest.
By correspondence with the management of the Chautauqua Assembly, Lake Chautauqua, Mayville, N.
Y., arrangement can be made to secure stop overs on the regular railroad tickets for teachers who desire
to avail themselves of the excellent
summer course of instruction and
recreation, which this place affords.
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