The Word Carrier (Santee, Nebraska), 1892-01 - 1892-02

              The Word Carrier.
VOLUME   XXI.
SANTEE AGENCY, NEBRASKA.
OUK  PIATFOBH,
For Indians we want American Education! We want American Homes'.
We want American Rights'. The result of whieh is American Citizenship!
And the gospel is the Power of God for
their Salvation.
TRUE SERVICE.
Mary sat beside her Master,
On his words intent,
Heeding not how fast the busy
Morning hours were spent;
Listening to his holy teachings,'
Looking in his face,    .
Wondering at his heavenly wisdom,
And his tender grace.
So, absorbed in love and rapture,
Nothing else she knew;
While her sister, like a housewife
AVomanly and true
Called forth all her skill to make
Their home appear its best,
And to offer entertainment
Worthy such a guest.
Martha gave her toil for Jesus,
With a ready heart,
Yet the Master said of Mary,
"Hers the better part:"—
Ah! in vain are all our weary
Self-appointed tasks,
If 'tis these alone we offer,
AVhen ourselves he asks.
Christ has come with me to tarry,
I am now his host.
What can I provide for Jesus,
That will please him most?
Lord, I bring my heart's true loving.
Love is first and best,
For who truly loves will offer
Gladly all the rest.
Edith Leonard.
HELPING   THE   RIGHT,   EXPOSING   THE   WRONG,
MMltKttS   !-•_>.
JANUARY-FEBRUARY, 1802.
FIFTY CENTS PEB YEAB.
One of the most serious objections
raised against the enlistment of Indians into the United States Army
Avas the increased exposure to temptation to drink. Especially as now
Uncle Sam runs the liquor saloon
himself and is interested to increase
its patronage. The result is worse
than the anticipation. And what
wonder, when the freedom to drink
liquor is held out as an inducement
to enlist. We are trying to follow
up these fellows with Christian influences, but what encouragement
is there when they are from the start
bound over to the devil ?
Indians are much puzzled to understand the fundamental principles
of our legislation. A Dakota correspondent of the Iapi Oaye says:
"How is this, there are laws against
killing prairie chickens, laAvs against
killing ducks, laAvs against killing
deer, but an Indian may kill himself. These other things that are
forbidden, are, if committed, a blessing to the family, but liquor is altogether a curse. Why is it not forbidden ?" To the Indians the government of the United States is personified in the President, their honored Grandfather. His judgment
they consider next to divine and his
power unlimited. Why then are
his laws so weak they cannot protect
men's lives, they Avonder.
Because of some difference between Senator Pettigrew and the ludian Office about who shall be the Indian agent at Sisseton Agency, it is
proposed to dispense with the agent.
Nothing more foolish could be done.
It is said that the Beservation is
to be thrown open in April, and the
Indians will then become citizens.
Intelligent people talk as though
citizenship was simply a stage of
natural growth into which persons
develop by the forces within them.
On the contrary, they have to be led
along and trained into citizenship
And instead of the way being all
open before them they are opposed
by the conservatism of legal methods and by the horde of harpies who
prey upon all who are ignorant of
their rights or can feebly stand
up for them. It is a time when the
very best man the Indian Bureau
.can send as agent is indispensible.
RACE PREJUHICE  IN THE
NORTHWEST.
The Northwest has prided itself
on being free from any race prejudice, and has boasted of beirg no
respecter of the pigment color of a
man's skin. "A man's a man as
long as he acts manly" has been its
boasted method of treatment of
every man, no matter what his color. And yet there is all over the
Northwest strong race prejudice.
It cannot be seen readily in any
treatment of a class or classes, but
it exists so clearly that it belongs to
the very language of the drawing
room as Avell as the street. It may
not he evident to the common hearer, but to one who is in sympathy
with these out-casts it always produces the feeling that a strong prejudice exists against men simply on
account of color. An open attack
on missionary work for the Indians
is fair warfare; the missionary can
defend his ground, and repulse
his antagonist, but when tbe language of the bar-room and coav
camp is used by the intelligent and
cultured, by those who have real
sympathy with the missionary,then
one can only retire from the field,
with feelings hurt, and a sensation of keen injury and injustice.
''He's only a half-breed" is one
of such expressions, and carries
one of the race prejudice words.
The word may be old, but long
usage has not made it a clean, human Avord. Like a sewer, a foul
word becomes fouler by usage. The
epithet half-breed, now so generally
applied to the children of an Indian
mother and white father,came from
the horse stalls and cattle mangers.
It is beastly in its origin, and is seldom used without implying either a
prejudice on the part of the one
who uses it or a low class of humanity to whom it is applied. By
the men or women Avho are part
white it is never used except as an
opprobrious epithet. By the white
people near a reservation and the
Government employees at an agency it almost always implies or is
used to imply a low or mean class.
When a number of individuals are
spoken of, and such an implication
is not meant, a different phraseology
is used. It may be true that there
has been in places a class of people,
part Indian, part French or Scotch,
whose manner of life has been low,
who have been drunken and immoral. Clear across our country,
from Massachusetts to the Missouri
Biver, when Indians have been removed or driven back, the white
men who have intermarried have,
with their families, lingered near
white settlements. And this class
has not been an ornament to society.
But this does not justify the branding of a large class with a beastly,
prejudicial and opprobrious epithet.
No more delicate definition of the implication of this term has been given
than the attempt of Mrs. Dorchester
to prevent Dr. Dorchester telling a
story in an Indian mission school in
which the word half-breed was used,
saying, "I don'tAvant him to tell that,
it may hurt the children's feelings."
Another Avord, Avhile its origin has
not been as low, is now as base in its
implication. This is thecommon ap-
pellationof the Indian woman squaw.
Originally, this was the word of the
Massachusetts Indians for woman
or the female of animals. But the
general use of it now makes it equivalent to the word wench as applied
to colored women.
The common usage is Avell represented by the remark made by a
woman near the reservation, "The
men are Avell enough,but the squaws
I can't stand them ; or by the coarser class of men found every day
on the railroad, "She is a mighty
pretty young squaw." It is nothing
less than a prejudice against a
people on account of color that iixes
such words in a language. It denies a woman her Avomanhood to
call her by a name Avhich is degrading. It denies a young woman
Avho may be educated, refined, christian, the honoi'Avhich belongs to her.
I have noticed the wife of a missionary shudder and sicken at the
repeated use of this appellation applied to Christian Indian Avomen by
a man of education and Christian
character.
Another word used of men has the
low, beastly nature of the Avord
half-breed. This is the Avord buck,
often applied to Indian men. The
same word has been used and in the
same sense of colored men. But it
has never attained the dignity (?)
as applied to colored men that the
same word has applied to Indians.
It has been used of Indians by
generals in the army avIio have been
out-generaled in every move by the
Indians. A year ago Col. Forsythe
in his official report of the slaughter at Wounded Knee reported the
number of bucks and squaws killed, and
even the Secretary of Avar made use
of the same terms referring to that
affair, and only a feAv years ago the
Commissioner of Indian Affairs used
the same words in an official document. It does not add strength
nor dignity to the language of any
one to use impure and Ioav epithets.
Nor does it increase the general respect for an official of high standing
for him to use base words in speaking of men of any class or color. But
beyond this, it works grave injustice
to classes branded by these epithets.
The half-breed class will he despised and wronged as long as they
are called such. A woman will never be treated as a woman while she
is called a squaw. And a man will
never be regarded as a man as long
as his appellation is "buck."
J. F. Cross.
THE SOUTHERN UTES.
The Southern Utes, who are really composed of three small bands,
the Weeminuches, Muaches, and
Capotes, at present occupy a long,
narrow rectangle in the southwestern part of Colorado, extending
fifteen miles north and south and
one hundred and ten miles east
and west, haA-ing the NeAV Mexico
line for its southern boundary and
the Utah line for its western.
The Southern Utes are by no
means civilized. Most of them still
cling to the blanket, though till wear
some article or other of the Avhite
man's dress. FeAv of them speak
English with any fluency. They
have little education and less religion. With the exception of two or
three Indians who have been educated at Boman Catholic mission
schools, the members of the three
tribes know absolutely nothing of
Christianity. The whites at the
agency say that there is little drinking among them,, the Doctor himself
having seen but tAvo or three drunken Indians in as many years.
In agriculture they have done very
little. Among the two hundred and
seventy-three braves only some thirty-two have taken to farming, the
total number of acres under cultivation being something less than six
hundred. Fully half of the thirty-
two farms are rented on shares to
Mexicans, and on the remaining
half there are only about eight Indians who do their own work. In
farming, they have had but little
encouragement from the Government. They have, indeed, been
supplied with seed and agricultural
implements, and a feAv irrigating
trenches have been dug, but this is
practically all that has been done
for them. It appears that they
have not had the slightest help or
encouragement from the present
farmer, who since the day of his
appointment has not probably done
more then two or three hours' work
in instructing them in farming.
The agitation for removal has had
its effect in keeping the Indians from
taking up permanent homes. When
it is considered bow disastrous a
similar agitation would prove in a
community of Avhites, how it would
stifle all desire for improvement by
robbing the individual of the incentive which permanency in one's
home alone can give, it cannot be
said that the small number of farms
at present on the reservation betokens any serious obstacles in the
way of making these Indians agriculturalists.
It is true that under the most favorable circumstances it will be
some years before the Southern
Utes can be induced to lead industrious lives and take up the land in
severalty. But if this is the object
of the Govenment, if this is the best
thing that can be wished for for the
Utes, there can be no doubt that not
only is their present reservation in
every way suited for their occupancy, but that a worse place could hardly be found for them than the district to which it is proposed to move
them. It is not merely that their
taking up land in severalty will be
thereby indefinitely postponed, but
that the agricultural possibilities of
the district which it is proposed to
set apart for them are so meagre
that an allotment of the land to individuals will be practically impossible. And yet, in order to gratify the demand of the people in
southern Colorado, the Government is asked to ignore this fact and
to take a step Avhich will render it
necessary to support these Indians
as paupers for all succeeding generations,.—From the report of tlie visiting committee ofthe Indian Rights
Association.