The Word Carrier (Santee, Nebraska), 1889-01 - 1889-02

              The Word Carrier.
VOLUME   XVIII.
SANTEE AGENCY, NEBBASKA.
HELPING   THE   RIGHT,   EXPOSING   THE   WRONG.
NUMBERS    l-'i.
JANUARY-FEBRUARY, 1889.
FIFTY CENTS PEE 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.
A large debt is owed to the editors
of our antiquarian magazines, such
as The American Antiquarian, The
American Anthropologist, and The
Journal of American Folk-Lore.
Few men have the ability, and fewer
yet have time and opportunity to do
what they are doing for us in collecting materials for the better understanding of human history. The
least that can be done towards repaying this debt is to give them a
liberal support in the way of subscriptions.
The American Antiquarian for
January, 1889, is at hand, giving us
articles on Woman's share in Primitive Culture, by Otis T. Mason;
The Mexican Messiah, by Dominick
Daly; Indian Myths and Effigy
Mounds, by Bev. S. D. Peet, and interesting Editorial notes and book
revieAvs. Terms, $4.00 per year.
S. D. Peet, Mendon, 111., Publisher.
The American Anthropologist is
published quarterly by the Anthropological Society, of Washington.
Terms, §3.00 a year. Address H.W.
Henshaw, Hooe Building, Washington. The leading articles for its
January number, 1889, are: Navajo
Gambling Songs, by Dr. Washington Matthews ; The Begining of the
Carrying Industry, by Otis T. Mason ; On Alternating Sounds, by Dr.
Frank Boas; Indians of Siletz Beservation, by J. Owen Dorsey, and
Suffrage and its Mechanism, by J.
H. Blodgett.
CAMP   LIFE.
I question whether one can use
any other title for Indian life on
Rosebud Beservation than the
.above. Home life is not yet established. At least it is not established in camps fifty miles from the
agency. They are simply camped
here, when they are not on the road
between here and the agency, for
the main occupation of these camps
is traveling to the agency for rations.
One week ago they reached home
from the agency, today they started
again. In five days they will be
home again. In winter time they
are on the road half of the time.
In summer time they draw rations
for a month or even two months.
But as soon as the corn is planted
or the few tons of hay cut, they
commence traveling again. The
result of this system is seen in the
entire life of the people.
1. In carelessness about their
homes.   As they only stay in the
houses half of the time, they do not
need to be careful or clean.
2. Carelessness in providing for
anything. The cattle run out in ah
weather and are never fed. Few m en
in the camp have stables, though
timber is abundant. The houses
are poorly made and dirty to the
last limit that you can imagine.
Crops are left to grow or be choked
by weeds; no need of farming, since
enough is given them for subsistence. Farming implements are left
to rust and rot. The only moAving
machine cared for in the four camps
near me is one Avhich an enterprising Indian bought.
3. Wear upon teams and men.
The horses are made useless for
work, and the cattle are tired out
all the time. The colts are stunted
and Avorthless from running along
in the almost constant travel.
The men and women are kept
at work on the travel. Bain or
shine, mud, dust, or mire, they
must go to the agency.
4. This unsettled and unnatural
mode of life keeps back progress.
It fosters the old travel-and-hunt
life. Polygamy has advantages in
this kind of life. One wife stays at
home and keeps the children, the
second or third goes along to the
agency to cook and care for the
meat. If there is only one wife,
then all the children must go along
to the agency.
Such are the aspects of camp
life about Park Street Church Station.
The Indians here as a whole are
not lazy. There is more corn for
sale here than the market demands.
With a good market all the men in
these camps would raise large crops.
I cannot feed my horses enough to
relieve the market. They are ready
to work at anything which Avill result in any benefit. They cut wood
far beyond the amount I can buy.
Of hay, in the fall a person could
buy any amount at a moderate
price. Where there is any encouragement for progress, they are
ready to advance.
The first Sunday at the Mission
Station furnished me a pleasing
figure for missionary work. The
camps are about a mile apart, and
as there was no bell there, I won-
dered how they Avould be called to
service. But Avhen time for service
came, Louis DeCoteau, the missionary at this station, took a small mirror and flashed the sunlight across
those houses, and in a few minutes
ten or a dozen boys and girls came
running and tumbling down the hill
towards the church.
That is the work of the missionary. In the present state of Indian
life, it does not seem possible to
make firm and lasting impressions.
All the surroundings are against it.
But the gospel is a clear ray of light;
it brings hope and gladness. And
it is this alone which can deliver
these Indians from the darkness
which now surrounds them.
Of course on coming to live here
this winter the Indians welcomed
me. The fact that I belonged to the
Sacred Herald (T. L. Biggs) gave
me a ready reception. As soon as
my house was completed I had
plenty of callers. At first they
never thought of knocking. But I
told one boy to knock at the door
like a white man; since then I have
only had to tell three persons to
knock. So about spittng on the
floor. I told one boy about it, and
from him it spread until iioav they
are quite white about this habit.
In their way, and as they knoAV Iioav,
the Indians are gentlemen; I have
yet to find one in these camps who
has been rude or impolite.
I wish I could present to the readers of The Word Carrier a picture
of the common sights here. For example the matter of polygamy. My
nearest neighbor, a bright, industrious, and intelligent man, a representative to Washington last fall,
chief of the band settled near here,
has two wives. Generally family
matters run on smoothly, but when
one mother is away, the children
almost kill her children. Only a
few days ago, two little girls were
dragging a boy around by his hair,
pounding him Avith sticks which
would stun a man. The next man
has tAvo wives, an old man avIio can
not leave the house. The third man
has three wives and ten children.
This family is quite a happy one, as
all the wives are sisters; two of them
are tAvins, and the children seem to
belong to the three in common. At
' the fourth house the old man and
; one son have only one wife each.
Further than this I can not give
many facts at present. One daughter has had four husbands and is
an old maid at present. She kindly
offered herself to me the first week
I Avas here.
The evff-spirit worship is almost
as bad. In this respect the family
I have referred to before of three
wives and ten children is the worst
in the camps. In the first place
the man is lazy; and in the second
place he is religious. This is an
aAvful combination, even when the
religion is Christianity; but when it
is the old Dakota superstitions it is
worse. Since October first, I have
seen three of these children clad
only in a calico shirt and moccasins. At first the above mentioned garment came to the ankles.
But playing in the grass and rolling on the ground has worn them
off, until last week, December 25th,
they did not come to the knees.
And last Aveek Avhen I went to take
one of them, a boy, a pair of my
base ball pants, I saw the prints of
the bare feet of those children in
the snoAv. And yet I have seen
yard after yard of calico, gingham
and flannel, whip away in the
Avind, where it had been hung up
as an offering to the evil spirits. A
large neAv "ghost tent" stands near,
and soon there will be a big donation of goods, saved by the parents
or robbed from their children.
And then could I sIioav you the
painting of some of these young
men. I remember in college trying
to paint and color a boy to represent Satan. I failed, but these Indians succeed eA'ery time, so Avell
that, like Martin Luther, I feel like
saying "Oh ! it's you, is it?"
In dancing they are adepts. Before they go to the agency, and after
they return, they dance; and gener-
I ally they stop at a camp half way to
the agency and dance, one night
each way.
As I get acquainted more, I find
the evil Avorse. Here is a bright
young man, cleaner and neater than
most that I see. I take courage and
think,now here's a boy I can depend
on. He tries to talk English to me,
but loses his head and his English.
I enquired about him, and this is
the story: "Five years at Carlisle;
has had two Avives and thrown them
both away, and is now disturbing
and annoying all the young Avomen
around. He is the most worthless
young man about here. I have
known him two years and more."
These are the sights and circumstances of camp life on White river.
They are not colored nor exaggerated. I think they represent fairly the condition of these camps.
They represent the dark and hopeless and discouraging aspect of Indian life and missionary Avork. But
do not let tbe reader get discouraged. I am not. In my next letter
I shall write of the hopeful side of
the work. J. F. Cross.
Park Street Church Station.
In the evening, when the wind
was hoAvling fiercely and the ice
was covering the windows of the
[ mission station, a woman came in
j very suddenly. She had a bundle
in her arms. I could not imagine
what it Avas, but as she unrolled it,
it turned out to be a baby. A round
stick of wood could not have been
rolled tighter. Poor little thing!
It was a month old, and its parents
had taken it to the Agency. It had
been ten days driving in an open
wagon in the coldest weather in
January. It had a bad cold, and
evex-y time it drew a breath its
throat rattled like a ratchet drill.