The Word Carrier of Santee Normal Training School (Santee, Nebraska), 1911-07 - 1911-08

              The Word Carrier
of Santee normal training School.
VOLUME XL
HELPING THE BIGHT, EXPOSING THE "WRONG.
NUMBER 4
SANTEE, NEBRASKA.
JULY-AUGUST, 1911
THIRTY CENTS PER YEAR
Our Platform
For Indians we 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 !
The American Indian Association will prove
a sad disappointment to many friends of the
Indian race. Although, according to its platform of principles, it is organized "to promote the good citizenship of the Indians and
and to help in all progressive movements to
this end" yet two of the leading officers of the
Association are contributing all they can to secure the opposite of these propositions. One
of them is a procurer by whom many young
Indian men have been inveigled into the Wild
West shows, he contracting to deliver them at
so much a head. And the other is a lawyer
who defends the mescal drunkards, and is promoting that vice.
The Presbyterian Home Mission Board shows
fine enterprise in the literature it provides on
its Indian missions. It is a live work with
them. Some of the items in this paper are
copied from their "Home Mission Paragraphs."
There are Indians resident in every state in
the L-nion, and, of course, many natives in
Alaska, the only region now remaining under
direct Federal administration.
Tbe Alaskan native are not "Indians" in the
vocabulary of the Federal Government. That
is, their interests are not the charge of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, but are administered
under a separate branch of the service in the
Interior Department.
The Indian population is located as follows in
the most important centers: Oklahoma, 117,124;
Arizona,39,069; South Dakota,20,065; California, 20,010; New Mexico, 18,255; Wisconsin,
10,688; Montana, 10,428; Minnesota, 9,957;
Michigan, Nevada, New York, North Dakota,
and Washington each have more than 5,000.
Go to the Indiau country in the Southwest for
antiquities. Tucson, in Arizona, stoutly claims
to be older than St Augustine, of the eastern
south, by thirteen years or more. Several of the
older pueblos in New Mexico are of more interest
to the antiquarian than any other relics in our
territory. Native congregations were worshiping in Christian churches before the Pilgrim Fathers lauded on the Massachusetts coast. Traces
of some of these churches remain to this day.
Educational Work Among the Sioux
The Sioux aro nominally a Christian people.
Nevertheless there is a large heathen element,
which is continually making itself felt. The
Christian religion, among those who do profess
it, is more or less mingled with superstitions,
and is yet in a erude state.
In the way of education, the children and
youth have all beeu put through the mill of the
government schools. This has left them with
little knowledge and no morals. This is true of
the majority of the reservation schools, and not
of some of the larger non-reservation schools.
Socially, the Indians are in a transition state.
They a retrying to adopt the ways of civilazation
and are naturally more influenced by the ruder
fringe of whites on the frontier. They are
much given to the white dance* and getting up
spectacular entertainments for their white
neighbors bv Resuscitating the old time Indian
dances.
The government also does vast damage by
favoring Wild West Shows. These come into
the Indian country, take many of the most promising young men, and bring them back, after
debauching them two or three years, broken in
health.
The American Missionary Association and
the Presbyterian Board are practically alone in
educational work among the Sioux. The
Presbyterian work is limited to the Sisseton
tribe. There is besides, one small Episcopal
school. The American Missionary Association
school at Santee is the only one reaching out to
the whole Indian country.
Santee is the only Indian school supported by
the American Missionary Association. While
the greater number of the pupils are Sioux,
Sautee reaches out to the neighboring states,
and draws pupils from the Arickarees, Gros
Ventres, Winnebagoes, Navajos, Crows, and
from tbe tribes of Oklahoma.
While many pupils are received from the
government schools, it is still found necessary
to include primary work in tlie course at Santee.
Without this there would be little fit material
for the higher work. Besides the ten grades
of academic work, the Indian pupils are given
industrial training in farming, cattle-raising,
carpentry, blacksmithing, and printing. The
girls have regular instruction in all departments of house work. Bible study is carried
on in the school-room, in the Sunday school
and  in the sehool homes.
Santee aims to train its pupils in habits of
self-control and industry; iu a realization of
the world outside, and a knowledge of their
relation and responsibilty toward that world;
and in the building up of steadfast Christian
character. The constant effort is to give just that
training which will meet the needs of the student
in his life and work after school.
The results of the work are evident all over
the Indian country. Santee pupils are found
to be the leaders in every good work. They are
industrious and reliable. Whenever a young
man or woman has stayed at Santee long enough
to absorb something of the spirit of the school
they try, with some success, to bring others
into the better life.
Many of the problems to be worked out are
similar to those on all mission fields, and others
are peculiar to this work. The Indians need a
higher standard of life, upheld by a strong
public opinion. They are too independent to
like to work together, and not sufficiently so to
stand alone for the right. They cannot recognize the importance of little things,and accuracy
is quite unessential to their happiness. Their
natural indolence has been fostered by the
government in supporting the Indians, and this
has inevitably resulted in poverty and lack of
ambition.
The culture of the Indian trading post leaves
much to be desired. It is reflected in the
English which is acquired there by many of the
young people. It appears too in their admiration for the cowboy. On account of his skill
in riding, shooting, using the lasso, and bis
apparently free life, he is the ideal of many an
Indian boy. The accompanying vices are accepted as a part of the cowboy life.
The Indians are naturally religious. They
enjoy ceremony, and the mysterious appeals
to them. They delight in relating their experience and in exhorting others. The hard part
comes in connecting religion and morality. To
be a christian is something apart from the conduct of their daily life.
Santee is not just as it has always been. It
has steadily advanced with the need of the people. What it has done for the Indians in the
past, it does for them now. As they require
higher scholarship and are able to profit by
more advanced work, Santee will vary its
course to provide it. Its mission for today and
tomorrow is as great and as pressing as that
of forty years ago. It is to Santee that the
Indian people look for support to bring them
through the crises of this transitional tiu.e,
and guide them step by step into the knowledge and understanding by which they may
come into full and useful citizenship.
Josephine Merrill.
Indian Self-Help
Many times the question has been asked
me: "What can you see in the way of progress among your people since you have been
with them, or more especially in the past few
years ?''
Answering these questions, my thoughts go
back seventeen years, to the time when we arrived at the Mission, the little log house, with
its acre of ground. The little log house of
only two finished rooms has twice expanded,
until now it is a building containing twenty
rooms, three store-rooms, two cellars and an
attic that can be made into more dormitories,
if the time should come that more rooms are
needed.
There are a number of Indians that are engaged in baling hay and shipping it to points
farther west. One man, who has bought a
baler, goes from place to place to bale hay
for others, and makes a good profit in doing
this. Another man I have in mind has done
well in raising cattle and horses. Only a short
time ago he came to me with his first bank
book, and I instructed him in making out
his flrst check. A number of these Indians
have herds of cattle and horses, and are increasing these every year, but an order that
all Indians who have more than one hundred head of cattle mnst pay a tax of one
dollar a head on all above that number, has
very naturally had the effect of keeping them
within this limit.
As the time approaches for our school to
reopen, we were very anxious, not knowing
how our people would be able to pay the usual sum for maintaining their children in
school, for the hay crop was a complete failure, owing to the hot and dry summer. While
the Indians sell a few cattle, their main dependence is their hay. But help came by
the Irrigation Ditch Company giving employment to all who would work. This has saved
our people from actual want. Notwithstand-
this, never iu the history of our school have
so many paid the full amount of cash upon
entering their children.
One little girl telling of her home life,
among other things, said: /When my father
got his pay for his work, my mother she
said, 'Now the first money I shall put away
for the children's school money, then we
pay our debt to the store.'" This father and
mother came with their two children the first
day of school and, before leaving, the mother
took from the bosom of her dress the money
for their school expenses.
Sometimes it is bard to take the money
from them, for often we know that they
give all they have, yet when they hand me
the money, the happy and satisfied expies-
sion on their faces seems to say: "There! I
have met all my obligations and my child is
provided for."
When a parent places a child with us, it
shows two things: one, that he does not depend upon Governmet support for the child;
the other, that to support the child in our
school he must work. These two facts develop self-respect and teach self-support, both
of which are good characteristics in any
one. And so, thinking of their future good,
we smilingly take the money, give a receipt,
and they leave us. feeling that they have been
through a great business transaction.—Mrs.
Cynthia D. King, Wolf Point, Mont., in Home
Mission Monthly.
Dr. Charles A. Eastman was on the program
of The First Universal Races Congress which
met in London July 26. His subject naturally
was The American Indian.
Santee Normal Training School Press,
Santee, Nebraska.