The Word Carrier (Santee, Nebraska), 1888-12

              The Word Carrier.
VOLUME   XVII.
SANTEE AGENCY, NEBRASKA.
OUR   PLATFORM.
For Indians we want American Education ! We ivant American Homes!
We want American Rights! The result of which is American Citizenship!
And the Gospel is the Power of God for
their Salvation.
We have just received this from
our correspondent at Santa Fe,
New Mexico: "The latest Indian
outrage is this: Mr. Bishop, the
Agent at Dulce, N.M., has forbidden the missionaries praying with
the Indians. With wonderful condescension he says all may pray for
them, if they wish. This'is an age
of Avonders in a land of liberty!"
We here give the remarks of a
college professor in Illinois in regard to the work ahead in behalf of
missionary liberty:
"It would be Avell for the friends
of missions to see to it that one of
the first acts of the neAv admistra-
tion is to revoke in toto all orders
directing or permitting any official
interference in any Avay Avhatever
with religious instruction in missionary schools; and that the appropriations for Roman Catholic
schools shall not bear such an excessive disproportion to their numbers and expenditures for Indian
missionary work."
In order to refresh the minds of
our x-eaders with those Government
orders Ave give them again as they
stand now after being "reA'ised"
three times. And if any one thinks
that this is a dead question we refer
him to the item of neAvs from New
Mexico, Avhere the missionaries are
to-day forbidden to pray with the
Indians.
The Independent lias this interesting bit of ethnological information:
"Colonel Garrick Mallery, of the
Bureau of Ethnology at Washington, the best authority upon Indian
ethnology, has, at the request of
Mr. Springer, been considering the
names Avhich Avould be suitable for
new states in the Northwest. He
has submitted to Mr. Springer three
names: Sanona, Winona and Ta-
tonka. Winona is the name given
in the Dakota language to the eldest bom, if a girl; Sanona is the
name of that particular tribe of the
Dakota Indians Avhich Avas native
to the Dakota region. Tatoiika is
the Indian name for Buffalo.''
In this age of astonishing discoveries we ought to be prepared for
anything, but Sanona is too much
for us. Will Colonel Mallery explain where he has unearthed_ this
unknoAvn tribe of Dakota Indians.
And before a sovereign state is
named after this Sanona tribe,
would it not be Avell to have some
historical foundations gathered in
the Avay of a few old moccasins,
or Avax figures, or something that
Avould be tangible evidence of this
"particular tribe that was native to
the Dakota region."
The latest kink in the Indian service is, that when an Indian youth
of one Agency proposes to go'to another Agency to school, as to Santee
for instance, he must not only get
his transfer papers as formerly,
but before going must have secured
permission from the United States
HELPING   THE   RIGHT,   EXPOSING     Till:    WRONG
\ I   M I1K11     I -.'.
DECEMBER," 1888.
FIFTY CENTS PER YEAR,
Indian Agent in charge of the
Agency to Avhich he is going. The
sample case is this: Gideon Walker, a young man who has been
several years in the Good Will Mission School at Sisseton Agency, Avas
coming doAvn this fall to attend our
Santee Normal Training School.
He was recommended by his former instructors, and his application
accepted by us. But before he was
permitted to depart from Sisseton
Agency, the Indian Agent at that
Agency had to Avrite to Agent Hill
of Santee Agency to get his permission for the young man to come
here. Finally, after all this rigmarole and red tape, the young
man has arrived. The Government does not pay a cent towards
this young man's traveling expenses
or support. The AA'hole proceeding
is simply obstructive. As yet the
other Indian Agents have not so
carried out the orders they have;
but this shoAVS what kind of orders
go out from the Washington Bureau of Indian Affairs. Not that
the Government has framed these
rules specifically to prevent Indian
youth from getting an education;
but as it was two years ago in the
case of the antivernacular rules,
Avhen the Indian Department said,
"We had not thought of the missionary work in this question," so
noAv it is because the Indian Department has not thought of the
education of the Indian sufficiently
to avoid such egregious blunders.
It is a curious commentary on a
bureau Avhose business it is to elevate a race, that it lays its plans and
makes its rules "without thinking" of
religion, morals, or education.
In connection with our Annual
Mission Conference, held at Oahe
this last September, the Dakota
Indian Churches and Missionaries
Avho folloAV the Congregational Way
organized an Indian Association.
Our Indian churches of the Presbyterian order have, from the begining and almost continuously, maintained a Presbyterial organization
separate from the white churches.
The Congregationalists thought it
Avise to try bringing the Indian
churches at once into the felloAv-
ship of the Avhite churches ; but this
Avas found to be not without its draAV-
backs in regard to caring for the
special needs of the Indian churches and raising up a native ministry.
Therefore the neAv arrangements, so
far as the local associations are concerned, Avhile they will stiff retain
membership and attend at the meetings of the General Association. At
this first meeting of the Dakota
(Indian) Association three young
men Avere approbated to preach the
gospel. .
At the concurrent meeting of
Dakota Presbytery, one young
man, Joseph Rogers, was ordained
to the gospel ministry. Mr. Rogers
is one of the early pupils of Santee Normal Training School, and
later a member of our theological
classes. .
Thus, Avhile Ave haA'e our ecclesiastical organization, according to
the Avell defined denominational
lines, we meet yearly in our General Conference of Indian Churches
and Missionaries to discuss topics
of immediate interest, and lay our
plans for the coining year; then Ave
go back to our separate fields to
work on our own lines, but in harmony with our fellow-laborers in
the other fields. This seems to us
a much more satisfactory way of
doing than to get up a neAv church
combination as they have done in j
Japan, which is only another sect
if it is anything.
In our September number Ave
stated that "Several young men,
Avho have applied for admission to j
our Theological Class at Santee
and have been accepted, are kept
at their Agency until they can procure a special permit from the Indian Bureau at Washington. One
of these young men has been Avait-
ing a year."
ElseAA'here, by the authority of
the editor of this paper, two cases
have been definitely mentioned as
occurring at Fort Peck Agency,
Montana. This statement does not
suit Agent Cowan of that Agency,
and to give him the full benefit of
his disclaimer, Ave present his letter
in full, Avhich is sent us by Gen.
Whittlesey,Avith the suggestion that
Ave retract our charges.
Fokt Peck Agency, \
Nov. 14, 1888. J
Gen. E. Whittlesey, Secretary Board Indian Commissions, Washington, D. C,
Dear Sir: Referring to your communication of November 7, I have the
honor to state that the report circulated
in print or otherwise that young men at
this Agency are prohibited or forbidden
to attend the theological class at Santee
Training School is wholly false. There
has been no application for any one to
attend the theological class the past two
years. On the other hand, on September
10, 1888, I recommended to Indian office
the transfer of 8 to Santee Training
School. To further assure you of the
truth of this statement, I enclose letter
from Rev. Wood, Missionary Presbyterian Board of Foreigu Missions.
Very respectfully,
(Signed) D. 0. Cowen,
United States Indian Agent.
Now this may be officially correct;
that is, there may be no formal application 011 tile at the Agency office
requesting permission for two or
more Indian young men to go to
attend the Theological Class at
Santee Normal Training School.
Nor Avas there any necessity that
there should be. And Ave think that
Agent Cowan is disingenious in
this. We do not see hoAv he "can
have missed knoAving that NeAvton
Hammond was coming to prepare
himself for missionary Avork among
his people as a teacher and preacher. It may be that he did not know
this in regard to Frank Redstone.
Whfie the coming of these and
others was daily expected, we received a postal card from Rev. G. W.
Wood, Presbyterian Missionary at
that Agency, substantially as fol-
Ioavs : The Agent will not permit the
boys to go. He has reported the case
to Washington.
When it is known that our school
contract gave us authority to receive
pupils from this Agency, among
others, and that we had also express authority for transportation
for eight from that Agency, and that
Agent CoAvan knew it, one may
Avell ask why he should wait for
more authority to let these pupils
go. The explanation is probably
this: about a year ago Agent Cowan
had a number of young men Avho
had been as long iii the Government
school as they could remain profitably, and he applied to have them
admitted here. We agreed to receive them, and be and we applied
to the Indian Bureau to have them
sent here. Tbe Bureau, instead
of giA'ing the permission, called on
Agent Cowan to report of what use
it Avould be to them to come to
Santee Normal Training School.
It implied that the Agent had presumed too much when he assumed
that the Indian Bureau would be
glad that these young men should
have some more advanced training
in books and trades than they could
get at home. It Avas not necessary
to put it down in black and Avhite,
but the purport of the response was
practically this : "Take care of your
own Agency and let Santee alone.
And don't you let any pupils go to
Santee if you can help it." And
those young men staid at home.
Noav, it will be seen, Avhy Agent
Cowan felt that he must have specific instructions before he could
permit this second party to go who
were to have come doAvn in September. And also Avhy, up to this date,
no special permission lias been
granted from Washington as asked
for by the Agent. We haA'e not
blamed Agent CoAvan in the matter,
though there are other Indian
Agents in the field who would not
do exactly as he has done. The responsibility lies where Ave placed it
—in the Indian Bureau.
Therefore, Ave reaffirm the paragraph of the September Woro Carrier. And we also affirm that the
statement made on our authority at
the Mohonk Conference is substantially true.
I.lTKIIAIfV   EXERCISES.
During the present year the school
at Santee has met one Saturday evening each month to listen to a program of recitations and' music prepared by our pupils and teachers.
It is encouraging to note that the
grade of selections Avhich can be
learned and appreciated is steadily
rising, We give beloAV the program
of the third of the series, November 24.
1. Chorus "God Bless our Country"
School.
2. Recitation..."The fainter of Seville"
Part    1—Alfred Mandan.
Part   II—Eunice W Kitto.
Part III—Jennie W. Cox.
3. Song,"We Love to Make SweetMusic"
Maggie Brown, Alice Conger, Agnes
Eastman, Cora Eastman, Jean
Frazier, and Mary Khune.
.„.,,. / "Miss   Marion's
4. Recitat.on j Thanksgiving"
Agnes Huntsman.
5. Recitation Henry Kennedy.
6. Recitation "Your Mission"
Kate Howard.
7. Duet "Drift my Bark"
Misses AVorden and llsley. ,
8. Recitation "A Lesson in Mercy"
Robert Brown.
9. Recitation "Three Little Bugs"
Gertie Simmons.
10. Recitation "Dick's Watch"
Samuel Goodteacher.
11. Organ Duet... {R^!LK?srnd
12. Recitation "Three Little Dogs"
Thomas Lovejoy.
13. Recitation "Over and Over again"
Susan Wainbdisun.
14. Recitation "Cabin Philosophy"
George Bassett.
15. Chorus "The Dearest Spot"
School.