The Word Carrier (Santee, Nebraska), 1895-04 - 1895-05

              The Word Carrier
VOLUME   XXIV.
HELVING    THE   RIGHT,   EXPOSING   THE   WRONG.
NUMBERS 4-5.
SANTEE AGENCY, NEBRASKA.
APRIL-MAY, i8q5.
FIFTY CENTS PER YEAR.
OUR   PLATFORM.
For Indians we want American Education! We want American Homes!
We want American Rights! The re-
eult8 of which is American Citizenship!
And the gospel is the Power of God for
(heir Salvation'
MANUAL TRAINING OR THE TRADES
Santee maintains the advantages
of the former. The distinctions and
purposes of the two are clearly presented in the following article by-
Walter J. Kenyon, quoted from the
School Journal. Shop work in the
Government Indian schools, also in
the "special institutions, Hampton
and Carlisle," seems to be organized
mostly on the trade school plan.
Santee contends that pupils learn
trades as well on the "manual training" plan as by the trade school
methods. And that there is no comparison whatever in regard to the
results from a truly educational
standpoint educationalists will generally agree.
The term manual training is loosely applied to several systems and
fragments of systems and a great
amount of isolated device; and
under the head of manual training
schools are classed a variety of institutions, each covering a legitimate
field, but following diverse methods
and governed by methods greatly
at variance. So that, to be properly
understood, one must explain the
standpoint from which he regards
the subject. This is best done by
eliminating those systems and institutions which, in view of their
aims and methods, cannot be included in the term.
First of all, the trade school, a
thriving feature of many American
cities and of special institutions
such as Hampton and Carlisle, is
not a manual training school. It is
clearly a specializing school and as
such is a sequel to the other.
The industrial school is another
which must not be included here.
The Industrial school is a sort of
premature trade school in which
half-grown children are initiated in
the various bread-winning pursuits.
Its best claim to recognition is its
superiority to the reform school as
the guardian of uncalloused youth.
The industrial school is like the
trade school, missionary in its spirit, economic in its purposes, and
wholly good in its legitimate field;
but it is not, in a strict sense, a
manual training.
Other so-called forms of manual
training are the numerous fads
which from time to time capture the
curriculum in various schools and
localities. These amusements range
everywhere from Kensington painting to primary-class-wood-carving,
and in view of their frequent recurrence it is with some degree of justice that the newspapers cry "fad" at
every innovation without stopping
to examine.
. The certain tests of manual training are the method of its application
and the motive governing the method. The motive is by no means
revealed in the name; indeed so
meager is the latter in its suggestion
that various hopeful attempts have
been made to increase its descrip-
tiveness. Hence "manu-mental"
found its birth in the cerebral belongings of Mr. J. Clell Witter, of
Art Education. Professors Hamburger and Larsson inscribe on their
banners "Heart, Head, and Hand,"
which goes a step further in descrip-
tiveness. But if the hyphen enters
the title of our subject we must not
stop until we have said Manu-men-
tal-moral-ethical-spiritual training,
for the system we seek has all of
these bearings and no one more than
another. And it is high time to put
away that distinction between manual training and the older members of
the curriculum by calling the latter
"culture" studies. If manual training is not a culture study it is nothing. If our ancestry had not, for
uncounted centuries, engaged in
manual training through force of
circumstances, we of to-day would
have precious little basis for our
culture. After all it is a hard matter to find a suitable name. Probably the surer way is to adhere, in
our methods, so tenaciously to our
ideals that the subject will come to
characterize the name.
From the pedagogical standpoint
manual training means an economy
of study. It has been demonstrated that a boy accomplishes more
scholastic work by giving a period
of the program to workshop practice.
Furthermore the latter makes him
love school, where he formerly regarded it as a prison house. It affords a bond between the home and
the school, an achievement much to
be desired. It has a hygienic value
beyond the mere question of physical exercise, in that it relieves overtaxed channels of attention. That
is to say, the individual generates
one hundred per cent, of energy.
For its outflow nature provides the
six channels of sense. The conditions of the ordinary recitation demand that the conducting capacity
of these six shall be vouchsafed
by one alone—sometimes hearing,
sometimes sight, rarely both. Under these conditions, nature asserts
herself. There is an overflow of
energy. It is manifested in the
manufacture of spit-balls, the whittling of desk-covers, and a hundred
other forms of disorder and inattention. We say the boy is bad, but
the physiological fact is that the
single channel has been over-taxed
beyond endurance and tbe others
must act though the pupil die for it.
We ourselves know how it fatigues
us to listen to a discourse. We know
it tires us less if the talk is illustrated by pictures. Our fatigue would
be still less could we handle the material talked of and taste it, smell
it, and move around it. In short,
that study permits the most normal
range of action in which the external object is apprehended by all the
faculties in unison, each sense and
each muscle expending its own
share of energy. Manual training
is a long step in the direction of
normal study.
Manual training is an arbiter between diffidence and vanity. It reveals to the "dull" pupil that, after
all he is not entirely dull, and the
unfriendly world grows bright to
him with a new hope. The bright
pupil has. over-ridden his school
room problems on a winged steed
whose flight is toward arrogance
and conceit. In tbe manual training room he finds that, after all, the
world is large and he is small. He
meets a hundred hard, relentless
problems whose honeys are extracted only by noble, humble work. And
the manual training re-organizes
both these pupils and bestows upon
them tbat best gift a school can give
a child—a correct estimate of the
world in its relation to him.
THE CLALLAM INDIAN S.
In March I made a trip to Jamestown among the Clallam Indians,
where there is a small church, and
a day school. The latter is under
the Government. But the teacher
is an excellent Christian man, who
keeps up a Sabbath school, and
also two weekly prayer meetings,
one on Sabbath evening, and the
other on Thursday evening. The
village, which contains about a
hundred Indians, was founded a
little over twenty years ago. The
reason was that the Indians had
become a nuisance to the whites
in the region, because they were so
continually drunk; and as they
were not on a reservation, but were
simply living on the beach in the region where their ancestors had
lived, the white people of the region,
largly the Good Templars, got up a
petition to the Indian Agent, asking that he would remove them to
the reservation ninety miles away.
This so frightened the Indians that
they determined to reform, and after
a little while saved money enough
to buy two hundred acres of land,
which they divided among themselves, according to the amount of
money which each contributed, and
since that time they had made it
their home. For a time they did
very well. Most of the drinking Indians reformed, and a good chief,
supported by a firm Agent, so punished the worst class that all went
quite well. The school was begun
about fifteen years ago, and the
church was organized two or three
years later.
Since the Indians have become
citizens however, they have not
done as well. The older ones especially have gone back to drinking some, though by no means
as badly as they did twenty-five
years ago. Still the old appetite remains. And, as the worst element
cannot be held in check by an Agent,
they have not only drunk considerably, but have drawn others into it,
whom we hoped were thoroughly reformed.
I have usually visited them twice
a year, but owing to the cramped
financial condition of the American
Missionary Association, I was unable to go there last fall, so that a
year had passed since my last visit.
I found affairs more favorable than
I expected. The death of one dwelling house with all its contents, and
the death of a child, all of which
were caused directly or indirectly to
drunkenness, had checked that bad
habit very considerably, so that for
the past few months there had been
much less of it, than for a long time
previous.    . J
I was also well pleased with most
of the young men who have been
in the day school, but have graduated from it. There are thirteen of
them residents of the place now,
and only three of them drink now,
or have done so for a longtime, although some of their parents have
been tbe worst drunkards in the region. The children of school age
have increased very considerably.
About ten years ago there were only sixteen or eighteen in school,
some of whom were brought from
villages within thirty miles. The
Agent then told them that, if they
could not increase the number to
twenty, he was afraid the school
would be closed. It was hard work
for them to do so. Now there are
twenty six in the school, all from
Jamestown, at least an increase of
eighty percent.
The English language is spoken
much more than formerly. This is
largly owing to the intercourse with
the surrounding whites and the
school. The village is so large,
having twenty-three families, that
they are a community by themselves in regard to school, church,
and social intercourse: and yet so
small that their business intercourse and work is largely with the
whites. So quite a change has
taken place in the language used.
Three languages are more or less :
the native Clallam, which is mainly used in their intercourse with
each other; the Chinook Jargon,
which was invented on this coast
for intercourse between the various
tribes whicli use many different
languages and the whites and which
I use; and the English language.
Fifteen or eighteen years ago I
was generally obliged to have an
interpreter to translate my sermons
into Clallam, as there were so
many very old ones, that they
could not understand the Chinook
Jargon. Then for years I was able
to dispense with the interpreter, and
talked to them directly in the Chinook Jargon. But this time I found
that I could preach in English half
of the time. M. Eells.
Union City,Washington, April 22, 1895.
Said Rev. Dr. Young to the chief
of the Little Ottawas: "I am glad that
you do not drink whisky; but it
grieves me to find that your people
use so much of it." "Ah, yes," replied the chief, and he fixed an expressive eye upon the doctor, which
communicated the reproof before he
uttered it: "We Indians use a great
deal of whisky, but we do not make
it."—Exchange.
There ought at once to be measures taken to secure the means and
opportunity of a common education
to the thousands of children of the
inhabitants of the Indian Territory.
At present they practically have no
such means. The great majority
are left absolutely unprovided for.
Thousands are almost forced to
grow up in ignorance and illiteracy,
the natural consequence of which
is a steady increase in vice and
crime-, the sure prospect of having
the coming generation even worse
than the present.—The Indian's
Friend.