The Word Carrier (Santee, Nebraska), 1898-08 - 1898-10

              The Word Carrier
o
VOLUME   XXVII.
HELPING   THE   RIGHT,   EXPOSING   THE   WRONG.
NUMBERS 8-0-1O.
SANTEE AGENCY, NEBRASKA.
AUGUST-SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER, i8q8.
FIFTY CENTS PEE YEAB.
OUR   PLATFORM.
For Indians we want American Education! We want American Homes.'
We want American Rights! The result of which is American Citizenship.'
And the gospel is the Power of God for
their Salvation.'
The Pillager Indian light brings
out the usual outcry against dishonest officials, broken treaties, deceived Indians. Partly true but not
the whole truth. It is strange that
discriminating men go no further.
The difficulty lies deeper than all
that. We treat the Indian badly
because we have no serious purpose
that controls our treatment of him.'
The government's professed desire
to elevate and civilize him is a
sham. And our government is no
better nor worse than our average
citizen.     '
The so-called Indian Congress at
the Omaha Exposition is an illustration of this. It is simply a Midway
attraction at government expense,
a big Indian show, in which, so far
as possible, the peculiarities of the
savage and heathen Indian are
paraded for the pleasure of the gaping crowd and the profit of the stockholders of the exposition. The
whole thing is a disgrace to the
people who are amused by it, the
showmen who run it, and the congressmen who voted the nation's
money to support it. The lowness
of the whole thing is made plainer
by a plan that fortunately failed.
It was arranged that on the occasion of President McKinley's visit, they were to have the Indian
police from Standing Bock Agency,
who killed Sitting Bull, come down,
with their identical saddles and
bridles, and act out again that battle
for the pleasure of the presidential
party. The Indian Department so
ordered it. But the Indians would
not go. They said it was no play.
It was to tbem a sad and serious
duty at the time and they could not
make a burlesque of it now. All
honor to them.
This illustrates the course fibre
of the officials who are capable of
planning sueh a thing and of those
who could be entertained by it if
carried out. It proves the absence
of common human sympathy and
a fundamental lack of seriousness
in our government relations to the
Indian. Other cases showing the
same thing are the appointment of
Miss Estelle Reel to the important
and responsible position of superintendent of Indian Schools, and
the continued endorsement and
assistance given by our government
to Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show.
This is the real difficulty among
the Chippewas. The government
has hauled Indian witnesses into
(Court but has taken no pains to
iteach them their relation to the
'Oooirt, nor protected them, in these
first experiences of civil duties,
against the brutality and rapacity
of its deputy marshalls. The government herds the Indians on the
' reservation under a military despotism until some time when politieai
capital can be made by throwing
the reservation' open.  Then without
any real preparation for the new
condition, with no oversight nor
leading in their new civil duties, it
turns them out like sheep among
wolves.
It must be said that whatever
honors are due the chief executive
of this nation for other things, none
are due him for his handling of Indian affairs. The same lack of
real sympathy with, and serious
consideration for the Indian is as
noticeable in the white house as
elsewhere. Before we can expect
any better results from cur government's treatment of its wards we
must have men of finer fibre, of
broader sympathies, of more intelligent understanding in places
of official responsibility.
OCR MEETING AT ROSEBUD.
The annual Mission Conference
was held near Rosebud Agency,
September 22-25. We had a beautiful camp. The five hundred or
more tents of the Indians were
pitched in one large circle. As the
wagons from each section drove in
they were greeted by a committee
from the Rosebud church and their
place of camping was assigned to
them. This was on a high Hat,
overlooking ravines full of fragrant
pines and the valley of the Little
White River. This is well named
by the Indians, Sweet Water. In
the centre of this great circle of
teepees, the wall tents of the
missionaries were pitched in a hollow square. Near by was the magnificent and capacious booth of
pines, erected by our hosts for the
meetings. We met in the midst of
the prairie, where were no houses,
no church, only spacious country,
abundant wood and good water.
The grass was poor and we judged
that it was a difficult country in
which to make a living. The Rosebud church that invited us is not
large, but they did nobly in their
plans for entertainment. When we
drove into the camp the day before
the meeting, we saw seated on the
ground a very large circle of women. We went up to see what they
were doing and found that they
were receiving gifts of fine tent
poles, food, moccasins, and even
horses from their hosteses. More
than one thousand names were on
the ration roll and these all received daily rations from the people of
Rosebud while they remained their
guests.
Every morning and every evening each camp in tbe great circle
gathered for prayers; and as many
different hymns as there were
camps would ring forth simultaneously in songs of praise.
All day long and every evening
meetings were being held. These
were among the many topics presented by the different Indians and
discussed by those who thought
they had some things to say on the
matter. How a nation may become great, strong, ans powerful.
What Indian customs hinder the
progress of religion. The relation of education and Christianity.
When is war justifiable. Sanitation of dwelling houses. This article would be far too long should
the many excellent points made be
reported.
Rev. Thomas L. Riggs gave a
fine lecture on the war with Spain.
It was listened to with great eagerness, and straightened out many of
the hazy ideas our Indians had had
of the war. It prepared them for
the discussion of the topic, When
is war justifiable.
After the men had discussed the
sanitation of dwelling houses, the
women felt that they had something to say. Mrs. Ellen Phelps
was greeted with applause, for she
commands the respect of all men
and women too. She said the men
had spoken well, but suggested that
they also do well and help the women in their efforts to make the
home a clean and healthy place.
She then defined what was their
work and what was women's work,
and how often their thoughtlessness defeated the efforts of their
wives. This discussion showed that
many of the Indians appreciate
some of the causes of the many
ailments among the young people.
Many are realizing the difficulties surrounding the young men
who come under the influence of
the liquor sellers. Temperance societies have been organized. These
called for a meeting during the conference and left their suppers to
crowd one in at the untimely hour of
six in the evening. The reports
were not encouraging, but the realization of the difficulties and the
earnest endeavors to meet and vanquish them were hopeful indeed.
Space is not sufficient to tell of
the Y. M. C. A. meetings, of the
Women's meetings, of the Christian Endeavor meetings, of the delegation after delegation of Indians
who siezed on the spare moments
of the missionaries to talk over
witb them their plans and troubles.
The days were full indeed.
We enjoyed a beautiful Sabbath.
Many of the day-school teachers
on the Reservation came to be with
us on that day. The morning service was followed by the Lord's
supper. This is always a time
looked forward to; a time of inspiration and helpfulness. Mr. Baskerville of Good Will preached at
the English service. We enjoyed
some beautiful music from a choir
of our missionaries and native helpers. The afternoon was closed by
a gathering of the Presbyterian and
Congregational Native Missionary
Societies. The different workers
gave reports of the year's work on
the field. The Congregational Society start the year with over a
thousand dollars on hand. They
are widening tlieir work by helping
to improve a home at one of the
stations, and are planning to send
a missionary to their former enemies, the Crows.
Our missionary, Mr. Burgess,
from the Crow field, was with us.
He spoke of being inspired and
helped by being at this wonderful
meeting of Christian Indians. We,
too, were helped by having him
with us.
On Monday morning, so quickly
we could scarcely see how it was
done, every tent was down, and soon
every wagon was ou t of sight. We
part to go to our different fields of
work, all with new vigor and interest, feeling it was good to have been
there. I). B. D.
TYPICAL INDIAN TEACHING.
Are you going to teach a class of
Indian children, and is the first day
yet before you ? You need not anticipate the least trouble then : they
will be models in deportment,—all
attention, both with ear and eye.
They will make no experiments
with you, this first morning. If any
little awkward circumstance should
occur they will probably not even
smile, but let it pass in a manner
that will make you think they have
naturally the graces of good breeding. The fact is, they will be diligently studying you, and before
night they will be able to draw a
very commendable pencil-portrait
of you, in various attitudes, showing
quite particularly any peculiarities
of dress or bearing, and they will be
able at night to rehearse whatever
you have done, with a good imitation
of your voice and manner. Now
while they are so intently studying
you, the one thing you would better
not do is to become excited in any
way. They keep their feelings to
themselves, in a good degree, and
any exhibition of enthusiasm, or
indignation, or disturbance on your
part will be to them simply an interesting spectacle.
One of the things to make up
your mind to is that an Indian is
never in a hurry, and if you expect
him to be you will be disappointed.
You ask a boy a question; he does
not answer. Very likely he is framing an answer in his mind. Wait
a little; encourage him, perhaps he
will do it, but if you hurry him he
will not answer at all.
You must not be surprised if a
pupil does not obey you. It is quite
probable that he is not ill-tempered
about it, but if the thing to be
done is at all or seems difficult his
pride keeps him from trying it until he believes he can do it creditably. It is best to be very careful
not to require much more than you
have found by experience he will
be willing to do. If you try to force
him he is as bad as a balky horse. If
he begins to show signs of unwillingness, it is usually the wisest course
to retreat as gracefully as you can.
How then can one ever accomplish
anything with Indian children ? It
has to be done indirectly, many
times. If you can make them forget themselves, you can lead them
on to activity which will be spontaneous and free. They have seen
and heard so little that they have
little interest in many things that
most children know about. But if
you can get them once interested,
then is the times to push your advantage and get from them as much
as you can of willing effort. If another day you cannot do so much,
you will have to be contented with
less.
"Expect nothing, and then you
won't be disappointed" is some advice that was once given to me, and
it has been a comfort and a help.
"When they are interested, work
them for all they are worth" is the
counterpart of this, and that, too, is
a necessary part of the plan of an
Indian school teacher.—The Work
at  Home.'
The next meeting of our Congregational and. Presbyterian General
Mission Conference will be held at
Oahe, S. D., in September, 1899.
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