The Word Carrier (Santee, Nebraska), 1891-12

              The Word Carrier.
VOLUME   XX.
HELPING   THE   RIGHT.   EXPOSING    THE   AVltONG.
MMlU.lt li.
SANTEE AGENCY, NEBRASKA.
DECEMBER, i8gi.
FIFTY CENTS PER YEAR.
OL'K 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
Qieir Salvation. .
The decision of Assistant Attorney General Shields in regard to the
citizenship of mixed-bloods is very
far reaching. The rule followed is
that the offspring follows the condition of the father, and the question
whether persons are Indians or not
is "not one depending for its solution upon the amount of Indian
blood flowing in the veins of the
persons whose status is in question."
Consequently all persons, connected
however remotely through the male
line with a white progenitor who was
a citizen, are not Indians but Avhite
citizens even though they have an
infinitesimal amount of white blood.
In ten generations it might be less
than one-thousandth part Avhite.
It is to be hoped that this decision
will speedily be carried into the
courts and affirmed or set aside. The
unsettlement of every-thing in the
Indian country and upon the neAvly
ceded lands is disastrous, and should
not he prolonged. Every vvhere
white men are jumping Indian allotments Avhere the occupant has
any suspicion of white blood in him.
And the Indian has no protection except to jump his own claim,a dodge
that he is not up to yet. Great injury
and Avrong will come to thousands of
mixed-blood children avIio are essentially Indians,andAvho will be thrown
outhomeless and penniless. Weare
glad to hear that an Association of
Mixed-Bloods has already organized
to carry the matter into the courts.
President Harrison speaks like a
politician Avhenhetalks, inhis annual message, about Indian education.
He dodges the question of subsidizing the church schools, and goes off
on the grand future advantages to
the Indian of being in mixed schools
Avith the Avhites. As this is as far
off as the Avinding up of the affairs
of the Indian Bureau it is somewhat
far fetched. By this gaze on that dis-'
tant future he escapes the inconvenience of saying anything that Avould
stir up the Romanists. Meanwhile
the grab game is to go on unchecked, and "This will enable those religious bodies that have undertaken
the Avork of Indian education with so
much zeal to place their institutions
in neAv and useful relations." And
having depleted the United States
treasury they ought to be"enabled."
TWO   HEKOES   OF THE   DAKOTA
MISSION.
During the year 1891 two men,
notable in the annals of the Dakota
Mission, passed, hoary with the
frosts of time, quietly across the
narrow stream that separated them
from their heavenly home. They
Avere Rev. Samuel W. Pond who
died at Shakopee, Minn., December
12, 1891, and Simon Anawangmani,
who died at Sisseton Agency, S, D.,
July 20, 1891. Mr. Pond was born in
1808 in an enlightened NeAV England home. Anawangmani was
probably bom the some year, but
far away on the banks of the Minnesota in a lowly Indian teepee.
Alike in early manhood they gave
themselves to Christ; and devotion
to him became their strongest passion, and led them ahead of their
times to take those first steps in
danger which show the heroic heart.
Rev. Samuel Pond was the first man
to bring the Gospel to the Dakotas,
and Simon Anawangmani was the
first full Indian man to profess
Christ. The Dakota Mission and
Dakota Christians should ever remember these brave men in whose
footsteps they have trod.
It was in May, 1834, nearly 58
: years ago, that Mr. Samuel Pond,
j with his brother Gideon, appeared
at Fort Snelling in the office of Major
! Taliferro, who was the first and so
j far the .only Agent for the Dakota
j Indians, and informed him thatthey
j had come to teach the  Dakotas.
; The previous winter Mr.  Samuel
Pond had taught school at Galena,
111., the last Avhite village towards
the setting sun.   There hearing of
the sad spiritual condition of the
Dakotas, he took it as a call from
God to go and teach them Christ.
He stopped not to confer with flesh
and blood, he asked no missionary
society for a commission, he stopped to pursue no classical or theological course, but taking with him
his younger brother he went—Bible
in one hand and an ax in the other,
to he the Lord's missionary.    He
was soon building his log-cabin on
: the shores of Lake Calhoun, now in
', the suburbs of Minneapolis, and at
I the same time learning the language
! and doing what he could for the
temporal and spiritual improvement
I of the Indians.   The language was
| the first great citadal to be stormed,
' and with his brother he made it a
| systematic  study.    He found no
books to help him.   Sometime   before him a military officer or trader had undertaken to jot doAvn some
I Dakota words, but between their
' untrained ears, and the European
notations they used, no one could
reproduce the words from their writ-
i ings unless they already knew the
language.    Mr.  Pond  discovering
; this, discarded their notation and
struck out for a phonetic represen-
tation. A character for every sound,
and only one sound to a character
was his rule.   By one who knew the
language, a reduction with this rule
: might have   speedily been made.
But   with   many  strange   sounds,
; grunts and clicks it was slow  and
delicate work.   However before the
end of a year he had the satisfaction of teaching one young man so
I that he could read and write his
oavu language.   Of this first Dakota
scholar named Mazalidamani, Mr.
Pond has given an .account in the
Word Carrier of June,  1874.    It
was however some years later before
the Dakota alphabet as Ave now use
it Avas entirely settled, and in the
meantime the missionaries T.  S.
Williamson, S. R- Riggs and others
had arrived to take a hand in the
superstructure.   But Mr. Pond stud-
I ied out the plan, as I understand,
I and laid the foundations  of   the
! present system of writing the Dakota language, so that it may justly be
i called the Pond notation.   Mr. Pond
! prepared the first Primer printed m
the Dakota language, and some of
the first translations of portions of
! Scripture. Some Language Lessons
or Grammar of the Dakota Lan
guage Avas written by him, also
Vocabularies of Dakota words. He
did not hoAvever send these to the
press, but they Avere copied by the
early missionaries generally, and
were of very great use to the missionary service, and we who have
built upon his labors gratefully acknowledge our obligations.
Mr. Pond's zeal and devotion led
him not only to  build his cabin in
a Avild Indian village, but also to
join with the Indians in their hunts,
sharing  their   teepee,   their   wild
food,   their pangs of  hunger and
the dangers of  war.    This was an
outing for the teacher instead of the
pupil, and under many circumstances is more practical for the improvement of the Indian than the so-
called Capt.  Pratt's outing system.
Mr. Pond labored 18 years among
different bands  of the  Sioux but
principally among the Lake Calhoun and Shakopee bands.   Owing
to the Treaty of 1851 the Sioux removed in 1852 to the Bedwood Reservation, and Mr. Pond then turned
his    attention  to    the    incoming
Avhites.   He gathered the church at
Shakopee   which he  supplied till
1866.    He died in tbe  house near
Shakopee in which he had  lived
for 44 years, the lumber for which
he hauled on   the   ice from  the
mouth of the St. Croix and in Avhich
the Avriter,then a boy, lent a helping
band.    Mr. Pond's devotion to the
Indian Avas his first love, and without doubt   his greatest love.    We
believe   Indian missionaries   and
Indian Christians were to the last
his most Avelcome  guests.    He rejoiced in the later fruits of the Dakota Mission.    The troubles of the
late   Messiah   craze   troubled his
heart, and he was illy reconciled to
the bloodshed at  Wounded Knee.
Mr. Pond was a born independent, and started out to the heathen
on his own responsibility,yet he was
not opposed to organized missionary  effort.     When other laborers
entered the field,  he joined with
them and became a missionary of
the American Board.    It may comfort some of our straitened missionaries now to know that the average
salary of a missionary in those days
was $300. a year, and this was the
most that Mr. Pond ever received.
Mr. Pond was ordained by a Congregational  Council in his native
state March 4,1837.   When the Dakota Presbytery was organized  in
1844, he became one of the organic
members, and his ministerial connection   was thereafter   Avith   the
Presbyterian   Church.    Bev.   Dr.
Neill preached his funeral sermon.
Mr. Pond Avas first married in
1838 to Cordelia Eggleston. Three
children by this union survive him.
Mrs. Bebecca Dean of Minneapolis,
Mr. Judson Pond of Shakopee, and
Mr. Samuel W. Pond, Jr. of Minneapolis. They are all married and pleasantly surrounded by their loving
children. Mrs. Pond died when her
children were small, and afterwards
Mr. Pond married Susan R. Smith
who became a loving mother to the
children, and preceded her husband
a few months to the land of glory.
Ofthe early Dakota converts Simon
AnaAvangmani is in many ways the
most prominent character. Old Joseph Renville,the half-breed Trader
and his family became Christians be
fore him, but that made no break
in heathenism.    Some heathen women too had been   converted like
good old Catharine, and she Avas a
hero.    But Anawangmani was the
Indian man converted.    He was not
the first Indian that learned to read,
nor was he a bright scholar when
heAvas taught by Dr. T. S. Williamson at Lac qui Parle in the winter of
1835-6,an account of whieh scliool
ma y he found in the Word Carrier of
March, 1876.    But he did   learn to
read, and held on to what he learned.
There has been a great deal written
about Indian bravery.    The truth
is, Indians like other people are some
brave and some cowards.     There
was no doubt about Aiiitwangmtuti's
bravery.    As  an Indian warrior in
his youth he attained to the distinction of First Brave.    That was his
first victory.   Then at Lac qui Parle
after several years of study he accepted the Christian faith, and on
February 21, 1841 made public profession of his faith.    And then came
the battle.    Instead of the  most
honorable place which he had held
in his nation, he was iioav cast out
with the dogs.    Even the Avomen
and children sneered at him.   Even
his wife  deserted him  under the
most vexatious circumstances.   But
none of these things moved him.
He set up his teepee with his own
hands, took care ofthe deserted baby and dug up his garden by turns,
and then read the Bible and prayed
to God every night.    This Avas his
second victory.    True, in after life
he made some slips, stepping a little too high he stumbled, but his
Master raised him up  again, and
for over 30 years before he died he
was an active, irreproachable elder
in the church, and a very humble
Christian. But Simon Anawangmani will be remembered for what he
did in another line. Before the Massacre of 1862 Anawangmani Avas living like a white man on a well-fenced farm,  in a comfortable  house,
close to Dr. S. R. Itiggs' church, of
whicli he was a ruling elder.   August 19,1862 the news of the terrible
butchery of that morning reached
his   ears.   Soon   the missionaries
and their families were fleeing, for
whom he did what he could.    The
Hostiles were galloping every where
driving all the Indians into the war-
camp.    Against the entreaty of his
friends he heeded them not.    The
Hostile camp was iioav made on the
edge of his farm.    A poor captive
Avhite woman, hearing him at evening  worship, came   secretly  and
besought   him  to  save  her.     He
believed that was his work.     By
night he took her and her children
safely   through  the   hostile   lines
and stopped not till he had them
over 50 miles away in the Camp at
Fort Ridgely.     There  he entered
the service under Gen. Sibley, with
whom he remained through the Indian Avar, performing dangerous and
valuable service.  This Avas his third
victory.and one for which he will live
in the memory »f the good  citizens
of Minnesota. Hewasalay commis-
ssioner to the General Assembly that
met in Minneapolis, and those who
attended the  Missionary  Meeting
will remember his meek appearance
as he Avas called to the platform to
receive the honors of the meeting.
John P. Williamson.