The Word Carrier (Santee, Nebraska), 1889-04 - 1889-05

              The Word Carrier.
VOLUME   XVIII.
HELPING   THE   RIGHT.   EXPOSING    THE   WRONG
NUMBERS     !-•">.
SANTEE AGENCY, NEBRASKA.
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 tlie Power of God for
their Salvation.
APRIL-MAY, 1889.
FIFTY CENTS PER YEAR,
The new Sioux Commission is an
excellent one: General Crook, Ex-
Governor Foster, of Ohio, and Hon.
William Warner, of Missouri.   We i
say this without knoAving or caring
to know anything about the second !
and third names on the commission. !
General Crook is sufficient in and of
himself to make a good commission.
It is a curious fact, and one of
deep significance, that the Indian
Rights Association and the Indian
Defence Association have been hobnobbing together in a cautious way
over the Sioux Reservation business. And they seem to have agreed
to boom Indian Commissioner Oberly for continuance in his office. At
any rate this is what they are both
at Their only salvation lies in their
failure, for if they succeed they are
both doomed.
The Congregationalist is an excel-
lent j ournal of archeology. But so \
far as the Indian question goes it
Uvea in the past century. Fifty or
a hundred years from noiv it will
have exhaustive historical articles
upon Indian Missions and the In- j
dian Bureau in the then last cen-
txu-y. But it is useless to expect it
to give any attention to such subjects
now. It would be too premature.
Then, too, it is much safer to poke
around in the dead past rather than
run the risk of jostling somebody
in the living present. The Congregationalist is preferable to Rollins
Ancient History only because it has
more variety in it.
The office of Superintendent of
Indian Schools has been made a
mere clerkship under the thumb of
the Commissioner of Indian Affairs.
The office might as Avell have been
abolished altogether. In this the
Commissioner has secured Avhat he
worked for, Avhich Avas to negative
the only progressive move tbat has
been made in Indian administration
in the last fifty years. Nothing
more is needed to characterize the
fitness of the present Commissioner
of Indian Affairs for his place. The
great wonder is that there are men |
of standing in the east avIio, captured
by professions in behalf of civil j
service reform, cannot see that this
is the Avorst bloAv that could be
struck against reform.
Rev. Dr. Daniel Dorchester, the lead- I
ing church statistician of the country,and
pastor of the strongest Methodist church
in Boston, is the new Commissioner ot
Indian Education. .Senator Dawes has
had something to say about the appointment, and perhaps the Catholics will not
get quite all the reins into their own
hands. It probably means a vigorous policy for the education of all Indian children.—Northwestern Presbyterian.
Dr. Dorchester has a national
reputation as a church statistician,
but not a national reputation as an
educator. Yet whatever may be his
fitness for the work of directing the
education of Indian children, he-is
too good a man to be sacrificed to the
place of clerk of school statistics
under the Commissioner of Indian
Affairs. Dr. Dorchester will accomplish nothing unless he has the
ability to make a rumpus and
knock that decayed Indian Bureau
to pieces. As things are the Superintendent of Indian Schools will be
simply a cipher in the hole that Commissioner Oberly has made for him.
Government School contracts give
authority to educate a given number of Indian pupils at Government
expense at certain mission schools.
This was not originally intended as
a limitation upon the number that
might be received into these schools.
Indeed these grants were made with
the aA'OAved purpose of encouraging
an enlargement of the educational
work done outside of the Government contract, But under the
Bourbon idea that has taken possession of the Indian Department
during the last administration, the
theory has obtained that the missions have no authority to do anything outside of the letter of their
contracts. That every act, even
of prayer and preaching Avas to be
regulated by a Government official.
Even after the serpent is killed the
tail Aviggles. And Ave note that still
at some of the Agencies our mission
schools are hampered by their contracts as Avas the case in the period
ofthe Bourbon domination. This
is still so at our Fort Berthold mission. There never was any idea
more idiotic than this. ■
INDIAN    HYMN.
Composed by AVilliam Apes, Mass.. 1798.
In de dark wood no Indian nigh,
Den me look heaben and send up cry,
1 poll my knees so low.
Dat God, on high, in sbinec place,
See me in night with teary face1:
De priest, he tell me so.
God send he angels take me rare,
He come heself and hear my prayer;
If inside heart do pray.
God see me now, he know me where.
He say, poor Indian, neber tear,
Me wid you night and day.
So me luh God wid inside heart;
He fight for me, he take my part.
He sa%'e my life before.
God bib poor Indian in de wood;
So me lub God, and dat be good;
Me'll praise him two times more.
AA'hen me be old, me head be gray,
Den hi' no leave me, so he say;
Me wid you till you die.
Den take me up to shinee place,
See white man, red  man, black  man
All happy like on high. [face,
Few days, den God will come to me;
He knock off chains, he set me free;
Den take me up on high.
Den Indian sing his praises blest,
And lull and praise liim with de rest,
And neber, neber crv.
If there is any demonstration of
the statement that missionary literature is fascinating because "it combines the marvels of fable Avith the
solidity of fact, and the charms of
romance Avith tbe value of reality,"
that demonstration is probably embodied in the Missionary Review
ofthe World. This monthly magazine, iioav entering upon the second
A'olume of its "new series," seems
destined to increase public demand
for missionary news even as it is
inaugurating so great improvement
in the presentation of such news.
The department entitled Literature
of Missions cannot but be read with
zest, The General Missionary Intelligence is practically specific;
and the Missionary Correspondence
is unusually compact and succinct.
The Editorial Notes are lucid in
their summaries and deductions,
and timely in commentation. The
reports of Organized Missionary
Work in the various societies are
both valuable and attractive. Together with the Monthly Bulletin,
the International Department, conducted by J. T. Gracey, D. D.,
merits the special attention of all
possessing a cooperative zeal fox-
enlightening this world.
PONCA XO'l'ES.
Agent Charles Hill bought this
spring of some the of the forehanded Poncas the one hundred
bushels of seed oats that be distributed on tbat Agency.
Jack Peniska, an Indian farmer
of Ponca Agency, D. T. has a herd
of twenty head of cattle Avhich puts
him at the head of the Indian's list
under Agent Charles Hill, in his
three Agencies—Ponca, Santee, and
Flandrau. Besides this Jack keeps
pigs and chickens, and bis wife
makes butter.
SC'AFFOni)   lU'lilAL.
A common impression in the East
is that the plains Indians are generally buried on scaffolds or elevated
platforms. HoAvever true that may
have been in the past it is not the
case now, and one can travel thousands of miles over the plains and
through the mountains Avithout
seeing the mortuary scaffolds or
tree burial. -At two places on the
St. Paul, Minneapolis & Manitoba
RadAvay in Montana, here and at
Wolf Point, Ave had an opportunity
of seeing burial places where this
form of disposing of the dead is
still in vogue. The Indians of
North Montana are the Blackfeet
and allied tribes, the Gros Ventres,
Bloods and Piegans, a well-disposed
people among Avhom the Methodists
maintain missions. The Blackfeet
reservation Avas opened to settlement this year, the Indians giving
up sixteen million of their tAventy
million acres, for whicli they are
to receive ten million dollars in
stock, farming tools, expenditures
for schools and other purposes tending to their betterment. This is
the largest and best lot of vacant
government land hoav in the republic, through which a railroad extends, and which abounds in
streams and naA'igable rivers.
. The Indians here, as everywhere
else, are beginning to feel the influences of civilization in abandoning their superstitious ceremonies
and going to work like Avhite people.
The medicine man is not as potent
as in the days before the advent of
the whites, and the A'illage doctor
or the army surgeon in the tepee is
a common matter noAV-a-days. The
Indian is usually impatient in severe or protracted illness, and if the
medicine man has full swing in
dangerous diseases the chances of
recovery are slight. If death ensues, the funeral ceremonies depend upon circumstances and the
rank of the individual. Extensive
arrangements are usual only in the
Avinter, when there is time for the
regular mourning ecstasies, but
Avhen traveling any disposition may
be made of the body by throAA'ing it
into a river, raA'ine, or carelessly
covering it with brush or stones;
leave it to become prey for Avolves
or dogs. Early voyagers on the Missouri Avere permitted to see trees
frequently containing a dozen or
more bodies attached to the branches. Some idea of the sta i id ing of the
dead can be formed by the number of
articles banging about the casket,
which is usually a buffalo robe tightly wrapped with leathern (hongs.
Articles belonging to the deceased,
of civilized manufacture, and Indian trinkets and finery, are Avrap-
ped up with the body; but pots,
kettles, and the general outfit for
his use while en route to the happy
hunting grounds are fastened to the
plat form, and all around strips of
cloth to swing in the wind to frighten aAvay birds and animals. Tlie
platform style of tomb does not last
long in the dry air of the plains,
but this gives no concern to Ihe
friends, Avhose duty ends after the
body has reached its resting place.
When time or accident destroys the
platform and scatters the bones,
they are left as they fall. A favorite wife of a chief is sometimes given elevated burial, but ordinarily
the dead Avomen are disposed of
Avithout ceremony or manifestation
of grief. The cemetery at this place
is on a hill j ust above the depot and
in plain sight from the car Avindow.
The scaffolds have nearly all fallen,
and the more recent dispositions
have been on the surface, the bodies
being Avrapped in blankets or in
rude boxes; in one instance Ave noticed an old trunk put to this last
use. The railroad graders and numerous sight-seers had carried off
everything that had been attached
to the platforms, and most of the
bodies were headless. In a neighboring saloon, nailed to the counter,
a skull was in use for a match-box.
Bones Avere plentifully scattered
about on the hill top, and no objection Avas made by a party of squaws
to our carrying off the arm-bone of
some chieftain, from one of the
fallen scaffolds, Avhich has since
been added to a doctor's cabinet
down in Iowa. There is quite a village here, most of the Indians living
in log cabins. Near by the Government has a small military post containing one company of cavalry.
Rock burial is common among
the mountain Indians, while west of
the Rockies cremation is practiced
by not a few tribes. The commonest mode since the Government has
assumed control of many of the
tribes, and white missionaries have
influence, is that of interment in
the ground; but, whatever the
mode, it is still the custom to bury
Avith the deceased his weapons, ornaments, and clothing. The Indian
no longer stands in the way of civilization, the buffalo has disappeared,
the locomotive has invaded his
aforetime hunting grounds, and the
white man is everywhere present
now, with his ploAv, his mining tools,
and herds of domestic animals. Today the surveyor arrives, and tomorrow the town is budt.—Moses
Folsom, in The Chicago Monthly.
Class instruction was resumed
in the Santee Mission blacksmith
shop the first week in April, and
the merry trip on the anvils rings
out again.