The Word Carrier (Santee, Nebraska), 1897-03

              The Word Carrier
VOLUME    XXVI.
HELPING    THE    RIGHT,   EXPOSING   THE   WRONG.
NUMRER    3.
SANTEE AGENCY, NEBRASKA.
MARCH, 1807.
FIFTY CENTS PERYEAP.
our platform.
For Indians we want American Edu
cation! We want American Homes!
We want American Rights! The re
tult of which is American Citizenship!
And the gosjjel is the Power of God for
their Salvation'
The Grace Howard scliool at Crow
Creek has been purchased by the
government and Miss Howard retires from the work after nine years
of service. She is the daughter of
the well known journalist, Joe
Howard, of New York. Hers was
:i philanthi'opico-industrial mission,
and has been noted for its eccentricities.
The reelection of James H. Kyle
as United States senator from South
Dakota is a triumph for political
decency and righteousness. The
Word Carrier is the more free to say
this because it has no affiliation
with populism. But we believe in
Mr. Kyle as a sincere, honest, and
able man. We know him also to be
a fiieinl of the Indian and an enemy
of jobs.
Captain Pratt has annihilated Dr.
Hailmann and the civil service commission with a broadside from The
Red Man, because they sent him two
washer women. He thinks he can
pick out washer women better than
the Indian Bureau and civil service
commission. 111 spite of his broadside we still believe in the civil service examination as a step in the
right direction, and we stand by Dr.
Hailmann as the most efficient Superintendent of Indian Schools we
liave had. 11 would be strange if he
had not made mistakes. We know
of some of his mistakes. But on the
whole he has done well. And under better conditions we are sure
that   be will do still better.
The murder of the Spicer family at
Winona, North Dakota, February,
17, is a tragedy too awful to think of
from any point of view. It inevitably will be laid to the Indians, as the
Standing Rock reservation is just
across the Missouri river. The latest theory is that two Indians, directed to Mr. Spicer's place in a
wicked joke, to find whiskey said to
be cashed there to keep it from
seizure by the saloons, made Mr.
Spicer angry,and in turn shot him,
then killed Mis. Spicer who ran to
the rescue from the clothes line.
Still eager for whiskey and to cover
their tracks, they beat to death with
clubs the four remaining in the
house and ransacked the house.
Large share in the tragedy evidently belongs to the evil minded whites.
THE MISSIONARY SCHOOLMASTER.
The problem Alexander Duff had
to face in India was how he could
best attack Hindooism with the
Word of God. He determined to
begin at tbe beginning, and with
the children. There was no Hindoo
family life, or the family life was
polluted. Better begin then by purifying the home. How was he to
do that? Create desire for it in the
child mind. In pursuance of this
plan he became a missionary
school-master. He wanted to attack
Hindooism in its stronghold, the
home. But you could not enter the
bomes in India in 1830.    He must
get the children, and fill their hearts
and minds with the truths of God,
and do this while they are being
educated, not after they are educated. Now you could do this work,
in a specially direct manner, by
bringing them to school. Yon there
make them familiar with the Word
of God,. train them in it, make
them breathe the atmosphere it has
created, and give them the literature that has clustered round it.
And this is the best substitute for a
christian home you can give them.
For this, with the love of God in
his heart, Alexander Duff labored.
He made no secret that his aim
was the transformation of the heart
and life. He labored in prayer, and
by sacrifice, for this change of
heart. For nothing lower would he
work, and below this purpose he
would not aim. And though the
school was more than once nearly
wrecked,because the blessing of God
came to his school,its Christian purpose was vindicated by tbe conversion of one or more of the scholars. He never swerved from this
purpose, and, as occasion offered,
during the day, he pressed upon
scholars their supreme need of
Christ.
While he bent his whole energies
in this direction, and while he lived
in expectation that the change
would come, he was not indifferent
to the possible" danger of losing
sight of this great end. In later
years he earnestly warned an educational expert of this danger, and
impressed upon him the need of
keeping always in view this essential and supreme purpose. No
one would have been sadder than
Alexander Duff had he known that
it could be said, in May 1896, by a
prominent elder of the Free Church
of Scotland, that, at some of the
most successful Christian Colleges
in India we have had scarcely any
conversions during the last twenty
years."-Sunday School Times.
INDIAN HUNTING LIFE.
I will try and tell you a little about
the Indians how they travel. First
early in the morning one of the old
men would call out that they are
going to move because the grass
is all eaten up; that they must
go and hunt for a new place. Or
else some one had been traveling
around and had seen some buffaloes
somewheie and they must go and
camp near. Some of the young
men went first and tried to get the
fattest one. While they were busy
chasing buffaloes the people would
be moving where is plenty of water
and wood and there they pitch their
tents. While they are working on
the tents, all the young girls take
pails and little kegs and some go on
horse-back and some walk to the
spring and get their water. And
some went after wood on horseback, some went on foot to carry the
wood on their back. All this work
that I mention was clone by the
women not by the men. But you
see some of the men went out hunting buffaloes. After awhile all the
people would be excited about something and if you look around there
will be a man that is looking for the
buffalo, he usually sits on the highest hill to watch them ; he would run
down in a crooked way, he  would
run left and then right; this is their
sign that the hunters were coming
home now. Then all the women
would have a jubilee, dancing in
several groups. They would sing
for themselves and dance both.
This was done for just a little while.
By the time the women and children have all the fun they want, the
hunters will be coming near. So
they must stop and the young woman will go and meet her husband
because you see the young man is
too bashful to drive his load of meat
near where his mother-in-law is.
That is the reason that this girl has
to go and bring the horse to the
tent door. Then her mother would
come laughing to the horse and unload the meat and do what she
pleased about it. Then the girl
took the horse and watered it, and
picketed it where its nice grass.
All tbe time the young man was
standing, in one place till the girl
comes after him and takes him in
the tent and makes him sit on a nice
soft buffalo robe. Then she will
take some red Indian paint and mix
with some fat or grease. After the
feet of the young man was washed,
then this stuff was put on and then
she will take out the prettiest moccasins and put them on his crimson
feet. All this time her mother^ is
cooking some of the fresh meat or
else roasting it, then they have a
glorious dinner or supper. In other
places they have fine banquets and
are having nice times. All the chief
men would borrow a tent aud gather
themselves in it before the hunters
are back and they would sing,
smoke and talk. There will be a very
old man, oh so old, that could hardly sing, but he will sing about the
hunters, how brave and good they
are and a whole string of other
things to praise them. When the
buffalo hunters had come they gave
the best meat to this chief gathering.
Next I will tell you about some
kind of a gathering that just the
young men and women go to, who
are about fifteen years old. There
will be a young lady that had just
finished some moccasins out of a little calfskin and that was all worked
with porcupine or beads, and there
was a baby's hood that was all beaded and some more porcupine work,
and other fancy works. These were
brought to the meeting. The work
was done by a girl before she was
fifteen years old, or some times ten.
So those that did the same were all
gathered there and told about them.
The mother usually comes with her
littlegirl because the girl is too bashful to come alone. After that they
served out what ever they cooked
and all have a nice time eating.
They would have buffalo berries,
cherries, porrage, fresh tongues,
sweet corn mixed with wild turnips
and these were boiled with dry
meat, fried bread and coffee.
Eva Garfield.
that the Gulf of Mexico reached way
up in Ohio and in those states, and
there was a large lake in Montana.
And that this country was once a
hot country for we have found
plants under rocks, the plants tbat
would never grow in cold climate,
and especially in North and South
Dakota. Banana plants had been
found under the rocks and that goes
to show that bananas grew here
once. At that time there were no
Rocky Mountains, but just as soon
as they began to grow the lake that
was there was pushed south into
Colorado, and that's when Colorado
got its deep canyons, some that are
a mile deep or more.
About the animal life, animals
were lots bigger than what they are
now. Men have found bones and
have studied them so they know how
large the animals are. And as we
have seen pictures of them I will
try and tell you some. The picture
of the elephants in those days are
twice as big as these elephants we
see now. The reptiles of all kinds
are larger, even these small frogs, in
those days they were very large and
they had tails while now they have
none.
In the northern part of Asia they
have found piles of bones of those
large elephants. It is supposed
that there was a storm and buried
those animals. These animals they
found have long thick hair on them.
The first horse that came into this
world was only sixteen inches high.
This horse came just as soon as
the  grass  began to grow.
Mamie Elder.
REPORT OF A LECTURE.
Mr. Riggs gave us an outline of
what our country used to be like
when no man was on earth; the
state of things; the plant life and the
animals. Things were larger and
bigger than what they are now. We
have found out that in our country
there  were once  large lakes   and
WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY.
One of the pleasantest evenings
we have spent lately was in the
chapel, of Santee Normal Training
School Friday evening,Februaryl9,
listening to the program rendered in
honor of Washington's Birthday.
Around and about Washington's
portrait, which hung on the front
wall were prettily draped our flags.
On the table stood beautiful flowers,
the rich colors of whicli blended
with those of the flags. It was a
large audience that listened with
unabated interest to the recitations given by our pupils, telling
in brief the history and occasion of
the writing of some of our national songs.
After each recitation came the
singing of these songs. Never before have we heard each and every
pupil give themselves up so unreservedly to singing "with might and
main" as they did this evening.
The zeal and intensity with which
a few of the younger ones sang "I
want to be in Dixie Land" made us
grieve that we must leave this desire ungratified.
The flag drill given by twelve
Primary School children was very
prettily executed. The rhythmic
waving to and fro of the flags in
perfect time to the soft music made
an inspiring scene.
After a few appropriate remarks
in Dakota and a prayer by Dr. Riggs
we were dismissed. But as we left
the chapel all felt with our leader,
Mr. F. B. Riggs, that it had been a
"good thing to be here," and that we
had learned much concerning our
nation's songs of which we are unmindful in these days of peace.