The Word Carrier (Santee, Nebraska), 1898-05

              The Word Carrier
VOLUME   XXVII.
HELVING   THE   RIGHT,   EXPOSING   THE   WRONG.
NUMBER 5.
SANTEE AGENCY, NEBRASKA.
MAY,  i8q8.
FIFTY CENTS PER YEAR.
OUR   PLATFORM.
For Indians we want American Education! We want American Homes!
We want American Rights! Tlie remit of which is American Citizenship!
And the gospel is die Power of God for
their Salvation.'
THE HYMN BOOK THAT WAS
PUT IN JAIL.
The Indian Court of Standing Rock
Agency has again magnified its
office by seizing an offending hymn
book and lodging it in jail. The
complaint against this unfortunate
hymn book was that it had been the
medium of expressing the superfluous regards of a married woman for
a certain young man. On this account the police are reported to have
closed a prayer meeting where said
wicked hymn bookwas present. Finally the case was dismissed without
further penalty. But the poor
hymn book is now homeless and
disowned. It is forever disgraced by
its residence in the jail. Its former fond possessor will have none
of it. Nor will any cf the society
who so bewailed the incarceration of
"our hymn book" now give it any
place or consideration. It has been
made "unholy" by its term in the
"guard house." Great is the authority and wisdom of an Indian
Court on the reservation.
A BLACK TAMAHNOUS BATTLE,
OK   ENCOURAGEMENT.
On a recent visit to the Clallam
Indians at Jamestown, State of
Washington, I bought one of these
articles for a quarter of a dollar.
It brought up a whole train of
thought, and these thoughts were
encouraging. Tamahnous is the
old style of incantation. There
were different kinds, but the black
tamahnous was the most savage.
It was a secret society. Starving
themselves, cutting themselves and
occasionally eating a living dog
were among the ceremonies, while
all the people were painted black,
more or less. Among the articles
used was a rattle. It was shaped
considerablylike a duck,with a head
and neck about seven inches long,
and a body ten inches long, which
was hollow, but in which were a
number of stones, which would rattle quite loudly when it was shaken.
The tail was changed to a handle
seven inches long and an inch in
diameter. It was painted black
and dark red. As this was used in
their most sacred ceremonies, it was
prized very highly. Twenty years
ago I was present nearly a week,
where these rattles were used constantly. I wished to get oue for
,my collection of Indian curiosities,
but the price was five dollars, far
more than I could afford. One Indian did afterwards make a small
one forme, about a third as large,
but he would not paint it for me.
When I asked him about that, he
said if he were to paint it, the other
Indians would be very angry with
him. He felt that no white person,
not initiated into those sacred ceremonies, had a right to own one.
About three years ago I found that
I could get one for a dollar, and
intended to do so, but when I had
the money, was not where they
were,  and when I was where they
were, the money was scarce. On
this last visit, I asked the Indian
who had said he would make me
one three years ago, for a dollar, if
he had one. He said he had. I
asked to see it, at the same time
telling him that I did not think 1
could buy it, as I was rather short
of money. He got it, and as I was
looking at it, I ventured to ask its
price. He replied, "a quarter of a
dollar." I quickly took it out and
gave it to him, and as I carried it
off, I thought, How are the mighty
superstitions fallen, and their weapons of war perished. This fall I
said, is the effect of civilization and
Christianity. The Indians are by
no means as well christianized and
civilized as I wish they were, but
this is an encouragement to work
another twenty years.
This incident caused me to think
of a few more incidents of a similar
nature, but which had never before
appeared to me to have such force
by way of encouragement. About
four years ago these same Clallam
Indians of Jamestown felt the effects
of the hard times quite severely.
How to get money was a question.
At last they determined to dress up
in their ancient fashion, obtain the
old style of implements for religious
worship or incantations, go to some
of the towns, and exhibit themselves, charging an entrance fee.
They did so. A few of the very old
men objected, feeling it to be almost
sacrilegious: but the middle aged
and younger ones,—all under fifty-
five or sixty,—had lost such feeling,
overruled the old ones, and went
forward with the exhibition. In
some respects I did not like it. It
was rather demoralizing. It led
them naturally into the wrong kind
of white company. But it did not
last long, for it did not pay as well
as they hoped. They gave three
exhibitions and stopped. But it
showed plainly one thing. The old
superstitions had lost their hold on
the influential part of the Indians.
M. Eels.
THE NAVAJO'S HEATHENISM.
Nothing is more conspicuous
among these people than their igno-
rent superstitions and nonsensical
performances to express them.
There is very little, if any, formal
worship. We have never known of
any formal praying by any of them.
Singing and dancing take the place
of praying. Very few Indians know,
or can tell anything about the tribe's
religious beliefs. These things are
considered the exclusive secrets of
the medicine men, of which there
are a great many, and by whom the
sings and incantations over the sick
are conducted. And as these men's
wisdom and power to drive or frighten away the spirits which cause
sickness, and to win the favor of
the spirits which send rain, is a sort
of secret professional stock in trade
with them, it is not very easy to
learn their beliefs. About all the
mass of the people know of their
meaning is, that it is a very expensive article to get any benefit
from, for their charges for singing
over the sick are always very high
and extortionate. Usually each
doctor has a course of four days
and nights treatment, through all
of which he is assisted by  large
companies of visitors, who help
by their singing, and thereby get
what they eat and smoke while
the exercises last, while he gets for
his services all he can possibly extort. We have known a medicine
man to get for one four days' treatment, four horses, twenty-five
sheep, two blankets worth twenty-
five dollars, and several pieces of
calico worth a couple dollars more.
His treatment was very elaborate.
It consisted of singing to the accompaniment of numerous rattlers made
of leather with pebbles inside, almost constantly for the appointed
time. In addition to this, on each
day, he went through an hour's hard
work, after his helpers had put in
about five hour's work in making
for him in a large circle on the
ground inside the hogan, the proper figures in the sand, of sun,
moon, stars and various kinds of
animals, reptiles and birds they
imagine existed in long ago ages,
together with representations ofthe
tobacco plant, corn, wheat and
squash. All these were very beautifully madewithvarious colored sand,
powdered rock and charcoal, and
with an exactness which showed
skill, ingenuity, and even art to a
surprising extent. When all was
finished, the doctor at once proceeded to give the patient the treatment
for which the figures had been prepared. The sick person was seated
on a figure of the sun, then the doctor went from one figure to another
placed his hands on the same then
pressed them ondifferent parts ofthe
body of the sick one, cluttering with
tongue and lips as he did so. After
this the patient is given a drink of
cold sage tea, the body, which is always naked during the ceremony,
striped and dottedwithpaintof many
colors, a string of beads hung a-
roundhis neck, and as a final touch
a rosette of cedar twigs and feathers
placed in his hair. During all this
ceremony everybody is very reverent and quiet. No interruptions by
anybody are attempted, nor would
they be tolerated. No Indian,
young or old, is ever so rude, as to go
in or out of the hogan while the performance lasts. For four days it is
repeated, and during all the other
time between, both day and night,
the inarticulate, wordless and senseless singing is kept up, as near continuously as the strength of the
singers will permit. If the patient
dies, as is sometimes the case, the
hogan is immediately burned, and
two naked men at once place the
body on a pony and carry it away
to some hidden cleft in the rocks,
and with numerous articles previously owned by the deceased,
cover with stones and otherwise
conceal it so that neither dogs,
wolves, man nor wicked spirits can
find it. When the body is thus disposed of, quite a large number of
horses are usually shot, and all else
that remains of the dead ones' possessions, is given away and divided
up among relatives.
The Navajos faith in all this is
very strong, and yet many apply
to us constantly, when ill, for medicines, and frequently they ask us
to pray for them. We respond of
course to every such appeal, according to our ability and judgment,  wishing   only  to   do   them
good in every way possible, and
speak a good word for Jesus between  acts.
When the Navajos build their
hogans, their name for houses, and
which consist of poles or limbs of
trees, or rocks built upon one another in the form of a circle and
sloping inward in a concave form
to the height of ten or twelve feet,
with more or less dirt thrown up
against them, they leave an opening at the top for smoke to escape
from fire inside in absence of a
chimney, and another on the ground
on the east side always, as a place
of entrance, or door way. These
are always on the east side for the
reason, as we presume, that the sun
rises in the east and they wish thus
to indicate that they welcome him
with open door upon his rising each
morning. The sun is the greatest
god they recognize. The moon is
his wife, and underneath the earth
some where they meet each night,
and also visit the Navajo queen, of
whose existence in some beautiful
subterranean region they have some
legends. When they have their
sings, other than over the sick they
choose the night time, and they eat
and sing and smoke the whole night
until break of day. Then as the
sun rises they rub a bit of flour on
parts of their faces for a similar
purpose, we suppose, that some
enlightened white folks touch holy
water to theirs and gaily disperse
to their homes.—Howard R. Antes
in The Navajos Evangel.
TAKE CARE OF YOUR HEALTH.
We note with the greatest of pleasure that the Indian Helper, of Carlisle, Pa.,almost continuallv adrnon-
ishesthe pupils of theCarlisle school
to be careful to guard against "wet
feet," "draughts," "damp ground"
and other infraction of sanitary
rules. It is a good thing and we
wish our pupils could be taught to
be careful also. But from infancy
they are taught such silly notions
about getting strong that it is difficult to uproot them.
They do not seem to comprehend
that exposure does not necessarily
develop resisting power. Even to
this day, children are driven into
the icy water in midwinter, at the
native village, and then switched to
start the circulation. Any one may
see native children in the 'ranch'
playing out doors all winter long in
bare feet and with only one cotton
garment on.
Recently, I passed through the
back of the native village and saw,
sitting in the falling snow, out doors,
a man, quite naked, preparing to
take a steam bath by pouring water
over heated stones.
And yet the natives wonder why
consumption is so prevalent and
why their children are so rapidly
dying.
Such sights and early training
lead our own boys to think it will
make their chests weak if they button up their coats when they are
out doors. They likewise cause the
girls to neglect their shawls and
wraps. And yet they say they get
consumption when they come to
the Mission!—The North Star.
Santee Normal Training School Press,
Santee Agency, Neb.