The Word Carrier (Santee, Nebraska), 1896-05

              PORT BERTHOLD MISSION NUMBER
The Word Carrier
VOLUME   XXV.
HELPING    THE   RIGHT,   EXPOSING   THE   WRONG.
XUMBEH 5.
SANTEE AGENCY, NEBEASKA.
MAY, i8q6.
FIFTY GENTS PEEYEAE.
OUK   PLATFORM.
For Indians we ivant American Education ! We want American Homes.'
We want American Rights! Tlie result of which is American Citizenship!
And the gospel is the Power of God for
their Salvation'
THE  LIST FOR TWENTY YEARS.
Here are the names of the missionary workers who have been at
Fort Berthold mission for longer or
shorter times between 1876 and 1896:
Charles L. Hall.
Mrs. Emma Calhoun Hall.
Hannah E. Briggs.
Myra Calhoun (Longfellow).
Sophie B. Pike.
Eva L. Ward.
Mr. and Mrs. W. W. Wheeler.
Ellen M. Wilkes.
Lizzie C. Bechan.
Louisa H. Douglass.
Win.  Kirkwood.
Mrs. Susan Webb Hall.
Fannie M. Linnell (Townsend).
Meriam T. Wolfe (Bassett).
Leon E. Townsend.
George K. Bassett.
Roanna F. Challis.
Mary E. Benedict (White).
OrrieV. Armstrong.
Grace L. Williams.
Mr. and Mrs. F. E. Tobie.
Lottie McHarg (Burgess).
Rev. J. G. Burgess.
Jennie L. Mercereau.
Bertha Gross.
Lillian Smith.
Mrs- E. J. Rowell.
Mary H. Evarts.
Elizabeth Kehoe.
Mrs. H. M. Sheldon.
Addie Z. Powell.
Nathan L. Towle.
George L. Perry.
Harriet P. Shepherd (Porter).
Louisa Fullgraff.
Lucy Lochhead.
Henry H. Porter.
Annette P. Brickett.
Jessie McKenzie.
Otta Wolfe.
Annie R. Creighton.
Howard A. Hatch.
Mabel E.Bartow.
Helen E. Smith.
Mary E. Field.
Mary Wilkinson.
Harriet B. llsley.
The following, though not appointed as missionaries, have aided in the work of the mission :
Mr. Wm. H. Carter.
Nettie Calhoun.
Bessie Calhoun.
Fannie M. Clason.
Mary L. Griffith.
Mr. and Mrs. T. L Sharman.
Ella Ricket.
Kate Chase.
THE  BEGINNING
The Mission was be-
JUNIOR MISSIONARIES.
There have been five natives born
in the Fort Berthold mission home.
We give the picture of our rearguard.
They are allright. Leavingthethings
behind, they press on. That is why
you see their backs. One is not, for
the Lord took him, the first born.
These children have done much unconscious missionary work. The
mission home is the center and root
of missionary work,the example and
inspiration to the people—the Alpha
and Omega of all godly influences.
The children are going on beyond
the fathers.
The   little
group of Con-
grun May 9, 1876. „ a • ,
gregational
churches in the S. E. corner of Dakota Territory celebrated Washington's birthday
of the centennial year by
sending out
their first
foreign missionary to
the heathen
within their
ownborders.
A two weeks
wedding trip
on a flat bottom steamboat up the
Missouri river brought us
to the squalid Indian
village of a
thousand
people. It
was known
as the worst
place on the
Missouri.
The lowest class of
frontier's
men gravitated there
and sank
to lower
depths, carrying the Indian community with
them. Many
a man con-
s i d erin g
himself honorable in the East was
dragged into the whirlpool and lost
his self respect.
I helped the carpenter build the
first dwelling, and the one in which
the family has lived since, and in
which all the children have been
born. The night after the first
stones were brought for a foundation, some one threw them into the
cellar hole. When we were raising
the frame the Gros Ventre chief
sallied forth from the village with
his blanket
round him
and a big
fan in his
hand, and
threatened
to burn it
down. We
called the
chiefs together, and they
signed a paper promising to protect us.
Before the
house was
done, in August 1876,the
Sitting Bull
Indians, who
had killed
Custer in
July, sent a
band to win
over the Fort Berthold Indians.
They came to the opposite bank of
the river,but were fired upon by the
Bees,who had lost three men in Custer's command. Theyretreated leaving some of their possessions behin d.
All along, there were threats of
attack. Once the missionary wife
was washing, but she kept on,
saying, she might as well die at
the wash tub   as  anywhere  else.
The Indian
ponies and
the    cattle
were  driven out for
pasture
each   day,
and     at
night put
in   a   corral made
of  the remains of an
old   stockade which
had   not
long before
enclosed
the   whole
village.
This    custom of more
than thirty
years, had
worn  long
deep trails
in the prai-
rie from
the village
out toward
the   bluffs
which will
remain for
yet   many
a   day   to
mark    the
site of the
deserted
village.
One of the blockhouses and part of
the log houses on one side of the
square, which had formed the American Fur Company's fort, still remained. One of the rooms was used
for an Indian council room.   There
we held our first Sunday meetings.
The block house had been the scene
of a number of fights with attacking
Indians. The old interpreter Pierre
told of puttingdownaslip noose from
under the projecting upper story,
getting it round the neck of a Sioux
who had fallen   at   the
base of  the
house, hauling  him up
and cutting
off his scalp.
Nightly, at
the mission
a quarter of
mile     east,
was     heard
the  thud of
the      drum
and    the
shout of the
dance, coming through
the open circular     hole
at   the   top
of the earth
lodge.    Not
infrequently
it was  over
the scalp of a Sioux or a Cree that
they were rejoicing.
We began at once to preach. Some
understood the Dakota (Sionx) language, which the missionary wife
could speak.    We tried to have old
Pierre interpret. He spoke seven
languages, but could with difficulty
be understood in any of them.
"Hard Horn" made one of the
first responses to our preaching, replying after the sermon July 9,
1876. "You have talked well, now
I will."
"Did the President send you here ?
When you came you brought sickness, grass hoppers, and crying.
There has not been much rain since
we planted. Now you have paid
the chiefs and are building. I wonder how it will be when it is done.
1 thought you had come here to
have mercy on us."
Black Tongue sat in the shade of
his earth lodge, and taking hold of
his shell ear rings, said: "When I
shake these I make it rain." What
would the new "mvstery man" do.
C. L. Hall.
Blockhouse at Fort Berthold
QUESTIONED.
Early Saturday morning, March
seventh, at Fort Berthold, North
Dakota, John Little-eagle fell asleep
in Jesus. When the word was brought
to our mission school, the girls at the
dining hall were performing their domestic duties with unusual alacrity
in order to leave for their homes
in the Eee camp, where they spend
the weekly holiday. This information produced a remarkable change
in the proceedings. The now prevailing silence was more noticable
than the late jolity. Dishwashing,
sweeping, dusting, scrubbing and
cooking are postponed, the merry
hum of glad voices, subdued to
inaudible whispers. "MissSmith,you
afraid to die ?" In the simplest language I could use, I was happy to assure my interlocutor I was not
afraid to die; for I believed when
Jesus rose from the dead, he gained
the victory over death, and because
He lives we shall live.
Perceiving the girls were anxious
to question me, I brought my bible
to the kitchen, and while their hands
were busy with their rough duties,
their hearts questioned into the deep
mysteries of death. Is John's heart
asleep, and just his body dead?"
"If he not be a Christian, where
he go ?" "After we die, if one ask
Jesus to forgive us, will He ?" If we
don't receive Jesus into our hearts
in this life, we will have little desire
for Him then. The missionaries
are here to tell you that Jesus wants
to save you now. "Oh! dear, if
the missionaries not come we be
heathen and never get to heaven, is
it true ?" After reading and explaining to them Matthew 25: 31-46
Irene said," Satan tells me to say it's
not true, but I not say it, because it
makes me very happy to hear the
bible read, and I listen very close".
I was obliged to leave the girls; but
11 could not leave this thought, "If
j the missionaries not come, we be
heathen and never get to heaven?"
We know "Whosoever shall call
upon the name of the Lord shall be
saved. How then shall they call
on Him in whom they have not believed ? and how shall they believe
in Him of whom they have not
heard? and how shall they hear
without a'preacher ? and how shall
they preach, except they be sent?"
Dear Christian friends, with whom
does the salvation of the American
Indians rest?    Helen E. Smith.