The Word Carrier (Santee, Nebraska), 1892-06 - 1892-07

              The Word carrier.
VOLUME   XXL
HELPING    THE   RIGHT,   EXPOSING   THE   WRONG.
NUMBER 0-7.
SANTEE AGENCY, NEBBASKA.
J I NE-JULY, l8Q2.
FIFTY CENTS PEB YEAB.
OUK   'PLATFORM.
For Indians we want American Education! We want American Homes!
We want American Rights! Tlie results of which is American Citizenship I
And tlw gospel is the Power of God for
their Salvation!
THE  OUT-STATION-PKESENT AND
FUTURE.
We have a system of Out-Station
Missions.    This plan of  Avork has
been   most   successful   hitherto.
Conditions affecting our Avork have
changed greatly within  the  past
twenty years.    We have not modified or added to our plans for Avorking these Out-Missions much of any
during this time.    This appears to
me to be a mistake  and I  submit
that in order to maintain the success
and to conserve the results of past
years, we must greatly enlarge our
plans and improve upon as well
as add to our agencies for this work.
I also think that Ave should plan and
Avork for greater success and larger
results.   This greater success and
larger results cannot be obtained
under existing conditions, without
radical modification of the plans on
which we  are  working.    Let me
sketch for you briefly the outline of
present plans.    I Avilltben consider
the changed and constantly changing conditions, and offer suggestions
along Avhat   lines   I  think   these
should have modification to meet
the changed conditions.
I joined the Mission  in  January
1872.    It AA'as about this time that
the importance of making use of
native agencies  came to be fully
felt in the missionary world.   Before this the parable of the leaven
had practical application but partially in  missionary  fields.     The
fathers of our mission had clearly seen the advantage and poAver
of the native Christian in carrying
gospel truth to other Indians, but
had not to any great extent been
able to use this force.   It Avas understood that in the new field to AA'hich
I came native  agencies Avould be
the important forces.    The Avhite
missionary Avas of importance chiefly as he should make use of and
direct the forces at hand.
The Avorking of an out station is
simple.   It is learned that missionary teaching is desired by numbers
of a village or district.   An estimate of the cost of a building is
made ,and sent in to missionary
headquarters.    If a suitable man
is available, often the beginning is
made by rentin g or the purchase of an
ordinary Indian log house for Avhich I
from $5.00 to §25.00 or $40.00 is \
paid.     The former   oAvner moves
out to a tent or another house that
belongs to him and the   teacher
comes in.   It is on an earth floor
and Avith an earth covered roof overhead that the gospel is taught and
preached.    I have made this beginning in a tent.    When the lately
hostile Indians Avere brought in to
Standing Bock in 1881-2.   I spent
the greater part of the winter in
one big tent in the midst of the encampment with Clarence Ward and
his wife as native missionaries.  So
long as the camp remained in the
AvilloAv groAvn bottom lands Ave got
along very Avell, save for the discomfort of the  popping of sparks
from the  green willow fire upon
clothing and blankets.     My blank
ets looked like a mason's sand sieve
by spring.   In March we moved up
on to the table prairie land and
then   discomfort   began and continued.—This however is a digression.   The native teacher preaches to such as will come, and teaches
the   children and young men and
women to read and Avrite.   As his
work makes advance, the Avomen
are gathered in sewing classes and
at prayer meetings.   He has before
this  moved into the new station
■ building,and has two or more rooms,
; one of which is a large one for
; school and preaching services and
j the original purchase, the low one-
roomed house, is used for a stable.
This is the common method of procedure in starting an out-station.
The beginning has not been made
without a vast deal of hard work:
often the streams-have been SAvim-
ing,   the   roads   impassable,   and
storms severe find frequent.   Then
too, the faction actively opposed to
j progress and Christianity is heard
j from; and demands are made that
I would sorely disturb the vaults of
[the U.S. Treasury.    Moreover na-
; tive missionaries are but mortal—
like the rest of us—and crankiness
is not kept wholly afar from the missionary field.   In the years that are
past I have had numberless remarkably plain talks from my friends
and felloAV Avorkers—probably 1 deserved   some   of them—and   may
have more in the future. This hoAv-
ever is another disgression.
A good beginning is made.  I see
no way in Avhich our plan for work
could be improved as a beginning
and if conditions Avere not changing.
1 So long as the Indian is in his almost original and savage condition
there does not appear to be any
more direct or more economical or
more successful method of reaching
| him.    His environment is changing
I very rapidly however.   Our success
| Avith the man himself brings a vital
I change of condition.    He has taken
j of the tree of knowledge and can
never again become Avhat he was.
i There are other influences at work.
! The man has reluctantly come out
from theAvoods of the past and afloat
on the Avaves of the present is being
j forced along Avhether he will or not.
II do not wonder that he is dazed—
the force seems to him terrific as
he grasps at this or that once familiar flitting shadoAv.
i    Let us notice some of the more
| tangible changes that have taken
place.   These changes vary in extent Avith the different fields.
1st. Villages are a thing of the past.
Our Indians are widely scattered on
little holdings of their individual selection. This gives us no such centers of population as formerly.
2nd. They have awakened and are
awakening more and more in two directions. Improvment of their surroundings, their homes, their habits
of life, and the aquisttion of property in material form is everywhere
I manifest.   And even more marked
! is the movement in their mental
I and religious life.   It could not be
i otherwise; and our efforts not have
1 been in vain.   We must measure
' the results too of other forces at
work to the accomplishment of this
end    This awakening makes work
! for them more difficult and calls
l for more careful direction of more
effective agencies than heretofore.
It also makes the managment of
affairs along old lines almost impossible.    The allotting Agent in
our region confessed to me last fall
that the more advanced Indians
were harder to satisfy than others.
They had learned to think thoughts
—thoughts of their OAvn—andAVOuld
not take the dictum of any man as
sufficient.    It is remarkable too to
see the readiness with which they
take hold of the managment of their
church Avork.    Often they show tendencies the proper direction of Avhich
taxes ones ingenuity to the utmost.
Usually, however,\vise leading ie all
thatisneeded. There isatbirdmove-
ment which Ave must recognize.  The
past feAv years have seeu a general
awakening of interest in behalf of
the Indian, on the part of our government.   This is but another Avay of
saying that the people of the U. S.
are beginning to realize the importance of the problem and to attempt
its solution.    I need not enlarge upon this.   This fact is, however, of
no little significance in measuring
np the size of our work.
I have thus far treated of the
comparatively easy forms in Avhich
our topic is before us. It has been
so far but a record of the field as it
stands today, and a brief history
of our work. Now Avhat have we to
put fonvard in order to meet the
demands of the field? Practically nothing more—except our experience—than what we brought
to the work twenty years ago. We
stand still—the world moves and
get  left.   We  came   into the
we &v,„    ._.
woods, cut down trees and sawed
them into boards  for the House
Beautiful, and we forgot that other
tools are needed  in finishing our
work than the ax, the adze, saAv
and jack plane.   If proof be demanded, go Avith me to some of one
of   our   older   stations.    Such  as
those on Cheyenne Biver or on the
Moreau, where Ave have been steadily losing ground—under our native workers.   I offer the following
suggestions:   1.  Let us advance.
Let us take possession of the more
important out-stations by a white
family.   We will still use the native force where they will be most j
effective.   It will be objected that i
this will   materially increase the |
cost of our work.    This is true, but j
the work must cost more and more, j
And Ave cannot afford to lose what !
we are losing under the present
plan.   2. Educate our native forces
to the required standard of efficiency.   It will be objected that this is
slow work.   The need is now.   It
is difficult to put even the best of
our native forces into a state  of
continued groAvth.    They get tired,
lose their grip.    Tbey are human
like the rest of us, and need more
and better  support than we can
give-   3. Combine the tAvo sugges-
1 tions.    To man the field altogether
| Avith white missionaries would be
too expensive, and Avould be an immeasurable loss to the native Chris-
tians Avho should be put to work.
On the other hand, it will be a long
time before our native helpers will
be so advanced as to meet all the
needs of the field.   For the present
the wisest way seems to be to advance along both  of the lines at
at the same time.     t. L. Biggs.
NO   USE  TO  EDUCATl:   INDIANS,
In a council an Indian said, "It
don't do us any good  to educate
our children, neither does it help
■the children."  This sounds strange
to the ears of Avhites, and discouraging to the Indian school superintendents  and missionaries.     Certainly no one denies that education
is the only meansforself-respect and
independence.    For the latter the
old  Indian  will not   educate   his
children, if possible.    He sees that
uneducated   young  Indians  can
raise just as many potatoes as the
educated one can.   The near sighted old man sees the graduates come
back from school and work for their
living just as hard and on the same
level as those avIio have uo education   whatever.    The   only  difference he  finds is, the  former can
Avrite and speak English a little.
What the old man Avants, is to have
all   educated boys and girls   employed in the Agency and near by
as teachers and "boss" farmers, or
any work that entitles them to a
salary, and not be abused and used
by the white employer for bis oavii
ease.    No matter howmuch education the Indian boy or girl has or
how much knowledge he  has of a
certain trade.he or she is invariably
assistant to the white.who may really be inferior in knowledge if he has
any at all.   What makes the matter
worse to the old man's eye is that
the assistant does more work and
gets less pay than his "boss."    So
long as this is true, Avhich, strange
to say it is, I do not blame the old
man for saying that "Education is
of no use."
Indian educators I believe teach
their scholars morality, or rather,
expect their graduates to be moral
men if not Christians. They teach
children three or six years and return them to their respective agencies fresh with conscience unimpaired.
They at once are  quick to see
the partialities and unjust affairs
of tbe Agency, and inconsistency of
the government or Inspectors.    Do
you think he will, or ought to, keep
bis   mouth   still?    No!  for   conscience sake.     Conscience is too
strong for the young fellow.    For
speaking Avhat is right for himself or
his felloAV men he is said to lose the
respect of the Agent; and employees and inspectors abuse and curse
! him.   Alas !  he is led into this sit-
1 nation either by conscience or edu-
I cation.
If the latter caused him to be
abused and cursed, and his rights
to be denied, then education is of
no use.    If the boy Avas left ignorant he would have more friends
about the Agency, and I believe
conscience would not trouble him
i so much.    If the Agency people or
the Inspectors or the missionaries
I can not stand up for the Indian's
' rights, who  can ?   Why, the gov-
| eminent acts as   though it oaviis
I the Indians, and it ought to see to
i these things. G. K B.
Fort Berthold, No. Dak., June 1, 1892.
Several of the visitors took tea at
the Cooking school.   The bill of fare
j was  printed on  a card with the
1 names of the class on the back.
A photograph of the class at Avork
I was attached to each menu  and
i given as a souvenir.