The Word Carrier of Santee Normal Training School (Santee, Nebraska), 1904-07 - 1904-08

              the Word Carrier
op Santee Normal Training School.
VOIiUMB   XXXIII.
HELPING    THE    RIGHT.   EXPOSING   THK   WRONG.
N'UMHK!!   4.
SANTEE, NEBRASKA.
JULY-AUGUST, 1904.
THIRTY CENTS PER YEAR.
Our   Platform.
For Indians we want American Education!
We want American Homes! We want American Rights! Tlie result of ivhich is American Citizenship! And the Gospel is the power
of God for their Salvation!
The Agency Physician.
At Santee Agency, Neb. the agency physician
has been abolished, on the ground that as the
Santees have been among the first to receive
Government help therefore they should be the
first to dispense with a government physician.
This shows an entire misapprehension by the
Indian Office. The physician on an Indian reservation is the last government official to be of use
and should be the very last one to be dispensed
with. They have begun at the wrong end. It
has iaken many years for the Indian to accept
our theory of disease and have confidence iu our
physicians. At first it would have done just as
much good to have had no physicians and instead to have issued peppermint and castor oil
with the weekly ration. It is the mark of great
advance in civilization when they learn to make
use of a physician's help and put their confidence in him.
Now when the people come to rely upon a
doctor's counsel and medicine is when they
need him most. It may be said, "Then let them
pay for his seiwices and -employ whom they
choose." Some few can and do; but they are
few. Here at Santee there are many old and
infirm who have no resources; they are helpless
and loomed to suffer, when there is no government physician.
There is also small economy in it, because
there- is a government boarding school here, as
at most agencies, and physicians wiR have to be
brought in from outside and paid by the visit.
At a moderate estimate their bills will amount
to half the regular physicians salary. So it is
altogether a wrong headed move, whether from
the standpoint of civilization, mercy, or economy.
Doctor George W. Ira.
With the abolishing of the place of agency
physician, George W. Ira, M. D. closes twenty-
six years of service among the Indians. First
at Yankton Agency, S. D. from May 1, 1872 to
June 30,1874, during which time he was also visiting physician for the PonCas. Then at Santee
Agency, Neb. from October 1,1875 to December
31, 1885; then again from December 17, 1890 to
June 30 1904. It has been a laborious and honorable service. His invaluable service in our
Santee Normal Training School will be greatly
missed. And he will "be held in grateful remembrance by the missionaries to whom he
has been family physician and friend.
By-Products of Missionary Work.
The regular product of missionary work I
would define as the evangelization and edification of a christian community. It is more than
the evangelization and edification of the individual. By by-products I mean the influence
which we have outside of our regular work, and
on people outside of our work. Sometimes it
is directly helpful in furthering our work.
More often it is negative, i. e. it counteracts
wrong tendencies and misconceptions in regard to the nature and purpose of our work,
and the character of our people. And third,
it counteracts the evil that is being brought to,
and done among, our Indian people.
First in importance in this work I would
Place, our influence in gaining a respect for the
Manhood and womanhood of our Indian people,
this is hardly secondary to the main work of our
missionary endeavor. Compared with those
who come into close contact with the Indian
People we are few in numbers, and yet of the
many whose business relations bring them into
close contact with the Indians few have a high
regard or any regard for the manhood of the
Indian. There is much in the Indian that
gives a wrong impression of what he ready is.
His attitude to the white man is not adapted
to make him either honored or respected. And
yet little can be done for him if he is only the
object of scorn and disrespect.
That he is only an object to be beaten in a
trade, which is the attitude of most who deal
with him, that he is to be brow beaten, and
treated like a beady child, as he is by most
government officials, has got him into that
frame of mind which wins little respect for his
manly qualities, for he displays few of them to
such people. But because the missionary labors for him constantly, promptly, thoughtfidly, he wins for the Indian something of respect
and honor for his manhood. Hard as it is to
win for the Indian respect for his manhood, it
is stiR harder to win for the Indian woman the
respect that is due to her womanhood.
It seems to me that the Indian woman is a
type of high womanhood. As a wife she is to
a high degree a devoted wife, and no one has
or shows a higher degree of motherhood in her
care and self-sacrifice for her children. While
she shares a part of the impurity of speech of
the people, to a large degree she is chaste and
true to her womanhood. But among the white
people she gets little credit for this, and no
honor for her moral integrity. As in the case
of the man the worst types are best known and
the worst traits are oftenest seen. And because
a few are notorious for their impurity and un-
chastity the whole class is set down as belonging to this type. And so womanhood is without honor or respect. It is exceedingly humiliating to meet this attitude among white people.
But it opens a way for the best kind of work to
be able to contradict it, and to stand up for
purity and regard for womanhood which truly
belongs to the Indian woman.
This disregard for the manhood and womanhood of the Indian, in our neighbors, is developing a race question which is as real in South
Dakota, Nebraska and North Dakota as it is
against the negro in the South. It reacts as
truly against the white community as it does in
the south. It has the same ground and basis,
the assumed superiority of the white races. ' It
leads to the same kind of overreaching, dishonesty, grasping that it does in south. It
leads to the same moral degradation that it
does whenever and whereever womanhood and
its purity and worth are disregarded.
It is unfortunate that the average white man
sees not only the worst element among the Indians, but also the worst elements of Indian
character: deceit, disregard for his promise,
fault finding, impurity, love for drink, and
gambling. But it is for this very reason that
we should continue patiently, quietly on outwork, winning for him respect which he does
not win for himself. J. F. Cross.
Ptaya Owohdake.
Tbe Indian religious parliament at Poplar,
Mont, was a delightful occasion this year with
such agreeable weather for the pleasure and
comfort of the six hundred delegates in the hundred and fifty tents which were pitched not far
distant from Rev. Mr. Lindsey's home. The
meeting tent, as good as new after being repaired from its damages of last year's storm, was
located near the Presbyterian church. Of the
visiting delegations, Standing Rock sent the
largest, having nearly fifty team loads coming
overland,beside those who came by rail. Yankton and Crow Creek also sent delegates by
team, and a few Rees came from Fort Berthold,
No. Dak. More than two cars were occupied
by the delegates coming in on the train. The
conference opened Thursday morning with devotions, enrollment of delegates,and a sermon by
Rev. Joseph Rogers. The mornings were given
over to general conferences in which questions
of interest were discussed. In the afternoons
the Congregational Association and the Presbytery met; and the women's societies had their
meetings, one day meeting separately, and the
foUowing day having a union service.
After one of the latter gatherings, invitation
was given to the delegates from the respective
women's societies to assemble in a large tent in
the center of the camp where they were to be
guests at a feast given by the Poplar women's
societies. At the meeting last year when the
invitation was given for the conference to be
held at Poplar this year, one of the young men
offered as a special inducement the gift of a
deer skin to each of the women's societies for
their members to make up into moccasins and
other salable articles for the benefit of their
treasuries. So during the year this young man
had shot fifty-three deer and a number of porcupines and this feast was the occasion for their
presentation. In front of the tent, in and a-
round which the delegates were seated, was the
pile of skins and the papers of porcupine.
After the feast of meat, fried bread, tomatoes,
crackers and coffee the donor made a speech
and then proceeded with the task of apportioning fifty-three skins evenly to some thirty societies. He took the simplest way and left it to
chance so that aR who happened to be first received two skins.
One of the interesting times of each day
was the morning devotions in camp when all
gathered in a circle within the group of tents,
and after a hearty song listened to scripture
reading and prayer by some one of the many
native pastors.
The evening services were rousing young
men's meetings in charge of the Y. M. C. A.
State Secretary Phillips of Grand Forks was
present to assist Mr. Arthur Tibbetts. The closing service was perhaps the most effective when
according to the Y. M. C. A. custom the Christian men formed a circle within the tent and
sang while the leaders worked with those not
in the circle until eight young men were led to
make a stand for Christ. After a song all together, the line of older members all extended
the hand of Christian fellowship to those who
had just joined their ranks.
At the Santee Association $30.75 was raised
as a start toward a hundred to be given for the
equipment of the new laboratory. Mr. Louis
De Coteau was elected president and Mrs. Jennie
C. Aungie secretary and treasurer of the association for next year.
A delightful part of the conference for those
privileged to attend were the evening gatherings
of the missionaries in Rev. and Mrs. Lindsey's
parlors. Beside Dr. Williamson, Dr. Riggs,
Mr. Thos. Riggs, Mi-, and Mrs. Evans, Mr. and
Mrs. Reed, Mr. Ennis, Mr. and Mrs. Smith,
Miss Cunningham, Mrs. King, Mr. and Mrs.
Hall and family, there were present the guests
of the convention, Dr. Tenney of Chicago, Secretary of the American Missionary Association,
and Dr. Carson, Presbyterian Synodical Missionary of South Dakota.
Next year's meeting was voted to Devds Lake.
May all interested  pray that there may be a
large  delegation and that the gathering  may
be one of   spiritual uplift to all who attend.
 H. E. Hall.
"Where the cows? Which way they go?"
The brown face bending over the little spider
showed no trace of a doubt that the question
would be answerd, "See there ! He point west!
And sure enough, the spider "point" If only
spiders could point to other lost articles than
cows, there would be a reRef from wild
searches at Whitney Hall this summer.
Santee  Normal Training   School Press,
Santee,   Nebraska.