The Word Carrier of Santee Normal Training School (Santee, Nebraska), 1909-11 - 1909-12

              The Word Carrier.
OF
Santee Normal Training School.
VOLUME XXXVIII.
HELPING- THE  RIGHT, EXPOSING THE WRONG.
NUMBER  6.
SANTEE, NEBRASKA.
NOVEMBER - DECEMBER, 1909
THIRTY CENTS PER YEAR.
Our   Platform
For Indians we want American Education I We want Ameri-
Homes I We want American Rights I The result of which is
Ameri'-an Citizenship I  And the Gospel is the Power of God for
their Salvation!
The Passing of Miss Reel
H. It- Peairs, superintendent of the Haskell Institute 'at Lawrence, Kan., has been appointed national
supervisor in charge of the work of educating the Indians with headquarters at Washington, D. C.
This telegraphic item in the daily newspaper
may he in error as to the name of the office to
vyhich Superintendent Peairs is appointed. It
m&v be that of Superintendent of Indian
Schools, displacing Miss Reel. But if it is not
that, it takes her proper work from her and sets
her i side. Her original appointment and her
continuance in office is one of the unexplain-
able inconsistencies of all the Republican ad-
mini- trations since Cleveland's time. It was
high time for a change. The appointment of
Mr.   ;eairs is an excellent one.
Indian and Babylonian Calendars
■' last number of The Word Carrier gave
■ slation of The Grand River Sioux Calen-
This is one of several that, have been kept
ifferent tribes of the Dakota Indians dur-
he past one hundred years. It will be a
ure to the readers of The Word Carrier
■ Dr. William Hayes Ward's comment up-
He says, in a letter to the editor of this
r:
am greatly interested in the account of
>akota calendar given in your issue of
-Oct. 1909. It is precisely after the man-
>f the calendar of the earliest Babylonians
:e writings have been preserved on cunei-
i tablets. Thus we have for the reign of
murabi, the Amraphel of Abraham's time,
alendar beginning thus:
■ year of Hammurabi's accession,
lien righteousness was established in the
land.
3 When the throne of the exalted shrine of the
loon-god was made in Babylon.
hen the wall of Malgia was built.
—And so on for the 43 years of his reign.
ould you be good enough ti tell me how
Sioux Calendar was preserved.   Was it by
ory and tradition?   Do other Indians have
Calendars?"
Th
a tra
dar.
by &
ing I
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the
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this
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such
Intensive Agriculture for Indians
v. e are beginning to believe intensive agriculture to be more profitable than extensive.
For Indians it would be not only more profitable but more possible. Indians do not succeed at farming and probably never will.
Farming requires operations that are too large
and involved, which Indians are not equal to.
Their farming has mostly resulted in failure
and cumulative discouragement. But from the
time we first knew Indians they were gardeners.
If the effort that has been made during the last
forty years to teach tbe Indians to farm had
been directed towards helping them to make
good gardens, many who are now idly and
precariously existing on a little land rent might
have their cellars filled for winter with garden
vegetables.
Our teaching of agricultural principles will
not make Indian gardeners. Indian schools
must give their pupils a gardening habit. Beginning with the fourth grade every pupil
might be set to individual gardening. By the
end of the tenth grade such pupils will probably have had sufficient success to make them
interested to attempt kitchen gardens at home.
And not only may they become interested but
they may acquire a gardening habit, so that
when the proper season arrives they can no
more resist a tendency to make gardens than
certain animals can refrain from making nests.
Religious Training for Larger Government Schools
in South Dakota
One of the most interesting meetings and possibly the most fruitful connected with the last
Mohonk Conference was a private gathering of
some leading Indian educators in the government service, some missionaries and a few representatives of the missionary boards. They
met to consider the woeful lack of religious instruction in the government Indian schools and
to ask if anything can possibly be done to improve this condition. It means much when
leading government men are forced by the situation to protest against the continuance of a
condition that sends ten thousand pnpils home
each year thoroughly godless.
It was agreed that if the Protestant denominations could be united they could have every
facility of access to their pupils that Roman
Catholics demand and secure. Only there is
this difference: that Protestants cannot be content with merely teaching a catechism; they
must secure a study of the Bible that will bring
an intelligent basis for a religious life.
The religious teaching and training of the pupils in the government Indian school who come
under Protestant care must be done by the government teachers in those schools or by persons
sent by the Protestant churches of the neighborhood ; or both working together. As to the
government school teachers, the majority of
them, though they be members of the church,
have no liking for that work and no training
to fit them for it. If they were more stable in
their locations it might be possible to inaugurate agencies for interesting and training them
for this service. President Hartshorn of the
International Sunday School was present, and
said that their association would do anything
on that line that the Protestent churches agreed
upon.
As to what may be done by the Protestant
churches contiguous to this special work, the
fundamental difficulty is that the most of them
are not organized for any aggressive missionary work, and they do not want it. The first
thing that must be done is to convert the pastors. Miss Edith M. Dabb a Student Secretary of the National Board of the Y. W. C.
A. has been specially detailed to study up this
matter on the ground. And she found no
place among the government schools of South
Dakota where anything was being done efficiently for the religious training of the Protestant children, either by those in the schools or
those without. Two Protestant ministers said
they had no interest in the matter -and would
not do anything in that line unless they were
paid for it.
A notable instance of another kind is at Riverside California, when all the Protestant churches unite in supporting a deaconess who gives
her time to religious affairs at Shermen Institute, the large government Indian school at that
place. How much Bible instruction she is able
to secure we do not know; it is likely there is
not as much of it as should be. But the spirit
of the churches is fine. However this instance
stands quite alone.
It must not be thought that this work can be
taken up in government orders. In Cleveland's
administration every Indian school superintendent was required to have a Sunday School and
his teachers must teach in it. And it occurred
that infidels were teaching Bible classes. At this
time the work must be by voluntary effort on
the part of as large a number as is possible of the
Protestant churches working together. There
must be a wide spread interest in the matter to
secure the needed cooperation.
The organization of the Interdenominational
Indian Committee is a hopeful move. And it
also means much that the attitude of the Indian Bureau is favorable.
Tolchaco. Ariz.
As the blessed Christmas season approaches
when in all the civilized world there is manifest
something of the spirit of Him who gave Himself so freely for us, we here, are reminded of
those who have helped us so faithfully by their
prayers and gifts and without whom our work
would not have been possible. We desire to
express to each one at this time our warm appreciation and hearty thanks.
In blessing us you have blessed yourselves,
and there is more to follow. He who said,
"Make to yourselves friends of mammon, that
when ye fail they may receive you into everlasting habitations," will give you to see eternally the fruit of your sowing in the souls
from among the Navajos who shall be sharers
in His everlasting kingdom and glory. Already the harvest has begun in different stations on the Navajo field. At Tohatchi, one
of the mission stations of our beloved brethren
of the Christian Reformed Church, there are
more than fifty who have forsaken their superstitions and as little children, have come into
the Kingdom of Heaven.
We look back to the time only a few years
ago when first workers here had only a tent to
live in, and the language was to them only a
jargon of strange sounds. Now we have permanent buildings and the Gospel is printed in
the language, of the people, so that they may
hear the life giving words which fell from the
lips of our Lord. It is not very long ago that
we wondered if we dared incur the extra expense of taking some of the precious little Navajo children, now we have nine of them, and
some of these know the Lord Jesus as their
Savior and are, we believe, leading their parents to believe in him as well.
The desire of our hearts is fulfilled in seeing
a good work established at Leupp for the children of the Government School and recently
friends have given the money for a building in
which the work will go on indefinitely.
Give thanks with us and continue in prayer
that we may be able to occupy the whole field
assigned to us so that all who dwell within its
borders may know that Jesus saves.
Santee Normal Training Sehool  Press,
Santee, Nebraska.
President Taft Talks to Indian Boys and Girls
Young men, young women, boys and girls,
I am very glad to see you this morning and to
bring yon if I can a word of hope in the life
that you are living, and in respect to youi
future.
I hope that here, and under, the instruction
which the Government furnishes, you are learning lessons that will enable you to make yourselves useful citizens. In this new country
where employment must be easy because the
state grows so rapidly, I have no doubt that
you will find opportunities to earn a livelihood
and to put into operation those things which
you learn here. I assume that not only in agriculture but in the mechanical arts you are learning lessons that will enable you to earn a good
living. The young ladies and little girls are
doubtless getting lessons in domestic science or
home making that will be useful at home and
make happy families hereafter.
Representing the Government of the United
States, I only want to say that you are our
wards and that we must give you such an education as shall enable you to make yourselves
useful hereafter, but while we can give you the
education, we can't give you the force of character that will make you use the education for
your good and for the good of the community
unless you yourselves do something. Yon are
the ones to pull hardest, and I hope sincerely
that here, under these good influences, you are
gathering together those elements of character
that will enable you to make yourselves good
men and women and good members of tho community in which you live. Good bye—God bless
you all.— The Native American, Phoenix, Ariz.
	
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