The Word Carrier of Santee Normal Training School (Santee, Nebraska), 1909-01 - 1909-02

              the Word Carrier.
of Santee Normal Training School.
VOLUME XXXVIII.
HELPING THE RIGHT, EXPOSING THE WRONG.
NUMBER 1.
SANTEE, NEBRASKA.
JANUARY-FEBRUARY, 1909.
THIRTY CENTS PER YEAR.
Our   Platform
For Indians we want American Education 1 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!
Married
Lindsey-Ralston: At Carlisle. Pa., September 14, 1908, Rev. Edwin James Lindsey and
Ella Nora Ralston. Mr. Lindsey has for along
time been in charge of the difficult but now
quite successful Presbyterian mission at Poplar,
Montana. This notice should have appeared
much earlier in the Word Carrier but our announcement card was lost.
Williamson - Peck : At Sioux City, Iowa,
December 30, 1908, Guy W. Williamson and
Edith Sophronia Peck. The marriage ceremony was performed by Mr. Williamson's father,
Rev. John P. Williamson, D. D. Mr. Guy
Williamson will continue to reside at Greenwood, S. D., where he is doing good missionary
work helping the Iudians in a business way.
La Pointe-Dupree : At Greenwood, S.  D.,
November 25, 1908, by Rev. J. P  Williamson,
' D. D.,    Mr. Samuel La Pointe, of Dixon, S. D.,
ami Miss Susie Dupree, of Cherry Creek, S. D.
Swift  Bear
Matoluzahan, or Swift Bear, was a Dakota
chief of the Brule tribe, whose passing deserves
recognition. He was much more than an ordinary Indian chief. He was a father to his people and early saw that their future welfare lay
al"i)g the white man's road. So he separated
his clan from the horde around the Agency at
Rosebud, aud moved to the southeast corner
of the reservation where he could find planting
grouud and begin a new life with his people.
His first move was to ask for a christian teacher.
The American Missionary Association responded, built a mission house and sent Rev. Francis
Fi azier to be their missionary. This was in
1 "). A church was gathered in which, at the
time of his death, the old chief and a large
number of his children and grandchildren were
ii; nibers. His family and his clan also have
ni'de substantial progress iu civilization.
They called upon Rev. Francis Frazier who is
new pastor at Santee, to attend his funeral.
A great concourse of both Indians aud whites
wire present to do honor to the old chief. A
colony of Germans who were his neighbors
asked the privilege of singing a hymn in German at the service. And before the sermon in
D-ikota Mr. William Caton, the U. S. govern-
iii' ut teacher and superintendent, made an address in English, part of which we give below.
MR. caton's ADDRESS.
Swift Bear is dead! My friends his passing
means more than simply that another old Indian is gone.
While others of equal station have gone down
in the maelstorm of civilized vices, Swift Bear
hus ever stood a shining example of native
wisdom and sobriety. Friends, before us lies
a Christian gentlemen, as pure and noble as
any of our own color.
Forty years ago Swift Bear was one of the
few cool-headed young war chiefs of his tribe
who had the sagacity to foresee the inevitability
of the white man's domination, and who had
the courage to smother racial pride and selfish
ambition in their patriotic determination to
niaKe the best terms possible, thereby saving
the Sioux race from extermination.
A century and a third ago when a handful
of our ancestors, scattered along the Atlantic
seaboard, were struggling for national existence, all the rest of the Anglo-Saxon race
were pitted against them, without avail. A
hundred years later Red Cloud with 1,500
young men of the Sioux tribe not only held the
American army at bay but drove them from
the field, and dictated the terms of capitulation,
and that when the one to whom we point with
pride as the greatest of American generals was
in the president's chair.
From that time hence, while Swift Bear has
always been irrevocably committed to the tribe's
interests, and has at times balked the president
and congress, still when his people would not
listen to the counsels of peace and resorted to
arms he was found in blue uniform !
One of the bravest of warriors, he proved
himself a shrewd diplomat and a wise and unselfish statesman.
Swift Bear is dead, but it is for us to see that
his memory shall live, a lasting monument to
conservatism,  diplomacy and patriotism.
Cordelia   Garvie Page
On November 18, 1908,Cordelia Garvie Page
died at Horton, Kansas. The funeral service
and burial were at Santee.
For eight years Cordelia was a pupil at Santee, leaving in her junior year, in 1900, to attend Haskell Institute. As a pupil she was
bright and quick to learn. She had many
friends among the teachers and pupils.
Jean   Frazier  Trudell
Our friends will remember that but a few
months ago, in June, the Word Carrier announced the marriage of Jean Frazier to George
Trudell. It is with sorrow that we now write
of her death.
Jean was one of our pupils for several years.
First she came to the Birds' Nest, a winsome
little girl, always dutiful, kind aud lovable.
Then for several years she was in our Dakota
Home, and a member of the junior class when
her parents decided to send her to Ward Academy. From there she went to the Haskell Institute but soon ill health made it necessary for
her to return home.
As Jean grew to womanhood she retained the
amiable traits of her childhood mingled with
ambition. Although she was not strong, her
energy and industry enabled her to give comfort and good cheer in other homes as well as
her own.
She lived loug enough after her marriage to
realize the fulfillment of a cherished desire for a
little home of her own; and it was from this
pleasant earthly abode she was taken to her
heavenly home on December 14, 1908.
Bison Range in Montana
The bison range in the Flathead Indian Reservation in Montana, to establish which Congress at the last session appropriated $40,000,
has been selected. The location of the range is
the one recommended by Prof. Morton J. Elrod,
of the University of Montana, after he had carefully examined several parts of the country. It
lies directly north of the Jocko River near the
towns of Ravalli and Jocko. Approximately
12,000 acres are embraced in the tract, which
will be fenced in a substantial manner under the
direction of the Engineering department of the
United States Forest Service. Funds for the
purchase of bison are being raised under the
auspices of the American Bison Society, which
was largely instrumental in securing the appropriation.
The first person to spend actual money in the
effort to preserve the American bison from total
extinction was the late Austin Corbin, who
many years ago fenced some 6,000 acres at Blue
Mountain Park, New Hampshire, and secured
a herd of bison. The Corbin herd became in
course of time the inspiration of the national
movement which is now furthered by the American Bison Society. This society, of which
President Roosevelt is honorary president, and
William T. Hornaday, director of the New York
Zoological Park, is president, was founded in
1904, and the Montana bison range is directly
the result of its efforts.
Details of the management of the herd in the
new national bison range will be worked out as
soon as the herd is purchased, when the construction work on fences and buildings will also
be begun.—The Oasis.
Indians Helping Themselves
The Indians on the Fort Peck Reservation,
Montana, are not very industrious and some one
has remarked that "they seem more able to help
themselves at the table" than elsewhere. But
as another has said. "When I consider what I
am and what I used to be," the outlook is a
hopeful one for our people.
We must remember that it is not many years
since the Sioux roamed the forests and prairies
and lived by hunting and fishing, aud here in
northeastern Montana, which has in the past
been a "cold, barren and desolate region," they
are just now beginning to come into touch with
our civilization and the conditions are not favorable in so many ways for earning a livelihood.
These people still live on their large reservation and have their land in common and more
or less of their tribal relations. Every fall
there is quite a fever among them to be off to
the bad lands for a hunt; and if it were not for
the restraining influence of the Government,
which sets some limit to their going, many of
them would leave all and go. As it is, those
who do go and are trained hunters find and
shoot more deer and antelope than they care to
tell of to an outsider.
But the habits of men are like the ribs in the
rock and if, takes generations to change a people. And so as we see some signs of progress
we feel like Paul on bis way to Rome and
"thank God aud take courage."
Not many years ago these people, young and
old, sick or well, were "Ration Indians" and
had their "tickets." They had a treaty with
the Government whereby they received many
thousands of dollars a year and had plenty to
live on without working. Now this money is
gone and the new regime is in vogue among
them to attain unto self-support.
Although this new method has worked hardship among some and has caused suffering, I
believe on the whole it has been a blessing to
our people and will be in the future. I was informed by the government clerk that out of the
1,710 Indians on our reservation, only 480 are
getting rations. The others earn a living for
themselves. Sometimes, indeed, the larder is
empty and they know not where the next meal
will come from. But they do not worry over
the matter as their white neighbor would—nor
as much as they should, I fear. At such times
too often they "go a-visiting" and help to eat
out their neighbors' small store.
There is no doubt that there is suffering at
times for sufficient food and the young men, for
example, are not as fit to do a good day's work
as they would be with their "thrice regulars"
a day.
But few complaints reach the missionary's
ear and (poor people!) they have to endure a
certain amount of suffering to drive them to
self-support. But, thanks for the condition of
things now,—giving them their lands in severalty and the means by which they may make for
themselves a living, with "necessity as the
mother of invention," they can and will in most
cases workout successfully the problem of self-
support.
The old ration system was intrinsically and
necessarily evil. The new method of earning
a living for themselves, though accompanied
with toil and hardship, will develop character
and produce a people worthy of the great nation
of which they soon are to become a part. The
Government gives them considerable work such
as making roads, building fences, hauling supplies, cutting hay and wood and so forth. They
also earn money from their gardens and fields,
cattle and horses, selling wood and hay to the
whites, working for the "ranchers" living near
the reserve or going off with their teams and
doing work on the irrigating ditches in the
nearby regions and under the supervision of the
reclamation service of the United States Government.—Rev. E. J. Lindsey in The Assembly
Herald.