The Word Carrier of Santee Normal Training School (Santee, Nebraska), 1903-11 - 1903-12

              the Word Carrier
op Santee Normal Training School.
VOLUME   XXXII.
HELPING   THE   RIGHT.   EXPOSING   THE
WRONG.
NUMBER  (i.
SANTEE, NEBRASKA.
Our  Platform.
Por Indians we want American Education!
ype want American Homes! We want American Rights! The results of which is American Citizenship! And the gospel is the power
of Cod for their Salvation!
Our Deliverance Fund.
Judged by the standard of. the schools of the
American Missionary Association in the south
oar Santee Normal Training School is an expensive institution; but judged by the conditions
of :e Indian field it is not. The subsistence
■r lothing of the pupils is an item practically
eliminated from the southern school expenses.
\\ j h us the larger part of that expense still re-
ma.' •«• In spite of the competition of the government schools, who supply clothing, subsistence
an<- verything, pay traveling expenses and bonus.:;, besides, oar Indian people are sacrificing
to :■■ lid their children to us. In most cases they
m " »w clothing the pupils and providing the
ti; . Jing expenses of those they send to us.
But many who have done their best still fall
somewhat short and have to be helped out. Then
tiki ■ remain the great items of food and fuel.
(■ r American Missionary Association has
.thi.' -ear measured us by the southern standard
in vthan by the conditions of our field, and
so 0:ir appropriations are two thousand dollars
less. After cutting and paring everywhere and
shortening our school year we were still one
the i sand doUars below the living mark. The
01 ■ iok was disheartening. To attempt to carry
on  !ie school was impossible.
ben Mrs. Henry Farnam of New Haven, Ct.
sei: us five hundred dollars. And since then
the ■;• gifts have dropped in on ns. From Junior
Ei.-;• avorers of Lincoln, Neb., $5.00; Miss H. B.
Ils: , now a teacher at Fort Berthold and formed y a teacher at Santee, $10.00; Ladies Missionary Society of the First Congregational
chr, -h of Mansfield, O., $10.00, (and $4.00 for
oth> purposes); Young Ladies of "Western
Coh-ge, Oxford, O. $10.00; Mount Hermon,
Mass., Congregational church $10.00; Simday
School of Immanuel Congregational church, St.
Loii!;, Mo., $10.00. In all we have thus received if »55.00 for our Deliverance Fund. "We thank
Goc and our good friends and take courage.
V'.- are not asking our friends to divert any-
thr from its usual destination to help us out.
Bui j I' any feel called upon to send an extra ten
dollars to our Deliverance Fund we shall be
thankful. If there should happen to be thirty
or forty of them, it would help us out. We
said "happen," but there is no "happen" about
it. These gifts have come unasked and unexpected. Each one has been a surprise. But
we are sure the Master is planning for us, and
thi   our work will live and grow.
lie the government schools have multiplied and enlarged so that they lap over on each
other and seem to leave no room for anything
else, the need for our work increases. Our Indian Christians have learned the value of another kind of training which the government
schools cannot furnish.
What Should be the Aim of the Day School ?
A few years ago the day schools were not
considered of much importance, and in fact people did not know about them. Nowthe people,
and especially those who are interested in the
work, have commenced to realize the value of
the day schools.
, In the first place, the day schools are placed
right hi among the pupils' parents, who so
strongly cling to their old habits, and whose
influences are so strong over their children,
r. c°urse, each day school is placed among different tribes, so that, some of our Indians who
f^ve had advantages, would naturally be a help
to others; and in some places where the Indians
NOVEMBER-DECEMBEB, 1903.
FIFTY CENTS PER YEAR.
are so backward and know verv little about the
ways of civilization a day school teacher can
not help finding himself among children
and their parents who need some one to direct
them to a better life
Another important thing one is apt to find,
if in a place where there is no missionary, they
are apt not to know anything about Sundays.
A teacher would readily see then, that his work
m the class room would have to extend out to
reach the old people, and in order to do it, he
must impress upon the minds of his pupils, that
what they learn in the school must be used at
their homes, and that they have not come to
school simply to please the teacher, but that they
come to learn how to speak the English language, to read and to write, so they can help
themselves and their people. The teachers of the
day schools should try to get their pupils' parents
interested in the work, and to have them understand that an education means to live like good
white people, to be able to support themselves,
and to take an interest in what they have. A
day school teacher not having the parents' confidence will have to depend upon the Indian
police to see that a child is in the school. One
having the parents' confidence wiU be a great
help, because a teacher's work must co-operate
with the children and also the parents in order
that the school should be successfully run and
have a good attendance.
The teacher should aim to know his pupils
and their parents, and to know where they live,
and to have them know that he is interested and
willing to help them. He needs to be firm
with his pupils and their parents, in order to
retain their respect. The parents wiU soon
find out something about the teacher, that is,
they woidd naturally watch him to see whether
he has sympathy with them or not. So the
teacher should ever have in mind, that his
example will be the means of teaching the
Indian how to live. When ever the teacher has
a chance to be where his pupils live, he should
stop and see their homes, how they live, and if
he finds the home neat and in order, he should
speak of it, as an encouragement, and at the
same time, he should give them some ideas
about how they should arrange things in the
house. He should tell the parents what the girl
or boy has been taught at the school. By making these visits outside of school-hours, the
parents will soon look to the teacher as their
guide and will trust him with their children. A teacher should talk to their pupils
once during the week about the care of their
health and shordd urge the parents to help keep
the children clean, because the parents are apt
to think that the teacher ought to do everything
for the children. There is harm in the parents
not taking more care about their children's
appearance.
Now, one other word in regard to the aim of
the teacher, and his example that should be exerted in his every day actions as an influence upon his pupils and the old people. There is no
other place in the service more beneficial than
the day school. We are placed among the Indians to teach them how to live. If then we
make frequent use of liquor and tobacco and caU
it civilization, we are certainly making a great
mistake, because the Indians themselves being
ignorant of it, are apt to think that it must be
aU right because a white man does it. The day
school teacher must be industrious, he must be
thoughtful, he must be in every thing that will
help toward the good success of his work, and
work which must represent itself to his pupils
and the parents as an example of a true living in
civilized life.
Again and finally, the day schools may seem
small in many ways, but it is true, there is
great power for good in them,and it is the only
means of teaching the old people to prepare
themselves to live better.     C. W. Hoffman.
Teacher Day School, No 3,
Elbowoods. No. Dak.
Has the Church a Message for the Indian?
Do not waste any tears over the Indian on his
material side. He is a pampered child of fortune;
he is so fat with good things that he fairly wobbles ; he has all and more then he needs. Viewed
from the standpoint of governmental admini-
i stration the problem today is really how, wisely,
to do less for him; how to give him an appreciation of his possessions based upon character. It
is here that the United States government has
failed. It has passed laws and established
agencies and builded schools and appointed commissions ; but it has never found the real Indian.
This is the judgement of the wisest students of
the Indian problem.
But where the civil government has failed, the
Christian church may succeed. The Christian
church can do for the Indian that which the civil
government cannot do. It can find him down in
his moral depths and reveal to him the vital distinctions of the soul. It can show him the true
and the false, the right and the wrong. It can
declare the message of God with such power
that he shall hear the seraphim and cherubim in
the white light of holiness, and see the judgment
throne where character is weighed. God may require ages for the accomplishment of results in
civilization as a whole, but he demands immediate action on the part of individuals composing
that civilization. A church that has reaUy caught
the thought of God speaks and acts in the
imperative mood. It understands that the uttering of the message and the hearing of the same
creates a new and pressing responsibility. Out
on the prairies, as an expression of the depth and
breadth of its message, it has planted homes,
builded churches and reared Christian schools.
It believes that the Indian is worth thinking of,
and so has a message for his moral nature. All
signs point to the speedy passing away of the
Indian problem on its governmental side and
the coming into prominence of the Indian problem on its moral side. In 1871 the United States
government took the first step when it said that
it would not longer make a treaty with Indians
in their tribal relations. In 1887 it took the
second step when it broke up the tribal reservations and made it possible for the Indian to take
out a homestead. The step next—near at hand—
will be the destruction of tribal funds and the
distribution of the same under proper safeguards. "When this takes place, the Indian question, as commonly understood, will have ceased. He will then be treated as a man and not as a
ward. He will then be a citizen of the state,
with the protection of the courts, and not as
member of a tribe with the oversight of the
agency.
The Indian is not passing away from the strife
of civilization, he is simply moving through its
stages. He is not going out from us, he is coming among us. It will not do to think of the
Indian as a passing factor in our life. Such a
conception is detrimental to the work and contrary to the facts.
I want to say that he is stdl here. I once attended Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show, that I
might see the Indians, for I was assured that
the Indians were rapidly passing away, and
that unless seen now there woidd be no further
opportunity. I discovered that the Indian has in
him the elements of permanence, that he will be
here in the next generation and in the generations to follow, not with paint and feathers, but
garbed as a citizen and bearing his part of the
burdens and privileges of society.
But if this is to be accomplished, the Christian church having through the breadth of
its message counted him in, and through the
depth of its message found him in his moral
nature, must apply the message to his actual needs.—From Address of Rev. Robert W.
McLaughlin, D. D.
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Sautee  Normal Training   School Press,
Santee,   Nebraska.