The Word Carrier (Santee, Nebraska), 1899-05

              the Word Carrier
VOLUME   XXVIII.
HELPING   THE   RIGHT,   EXPOSING   THE   WRONG.
NUMBER 5.
SANTEE AGENCY, NEBBASKA.
MAY, i8qq.
FIFTY CENTS PEE YEAB.
OUK   PLATFORM.
For Indians we want American Education! We want American Homes!
We leant American Rights! Tlie remit of which is American Citizenship!
And the gospel is the Power of God for
tlieir Salvation'
SXYINGBY'S— IN WINTER.
The beautiful white wall around
my little house seems higher each
time I look out; and the great drifts
over-hanging the deep ravine close
by, promise an ample water supply
far into the spring. The little village seems to have grown into unusual prominence, as the dark little
houses contrast with the pure white
mantle over all around them. Only
the frequent gusts of wind outside
to break the solemn stillness over
all. I wish that all the world were
as comfortable and as- happy in the
storm, as I. Shut in from the
callers, to a sense of rest and
freedom to do according to my own
sweet will, 1 have been as happy
as the larks that will so soon be
with us!
A merry little laugh from outside
greeted me this morning, as my
uncle Returns-Victorious came for
the usual morning "chores," and
found  the entrance so forbidding.
But it did not take long to get a
path from the house to the stable
door; for some how, the drifts
about my house are always most
accommodating. In the snug little
stable, Frank and Daisy seem to appreciate their comfortable shelter
as much as I do mine—looking out
into the pretty whiteness and whirling flakes, with interested eyes and
ears, but quite content for the
present to stay inside. To all the
friends who sometimes grieve, and
sigh, remonstrate, and protest at
such an isolated little home, I feel
today like saying "Don't, oh don't!
Expend the sympathy somewhere
where it is needed more." Oh yes,
there is another side at times. It
is not always a beautiful white
storm. Many things might be.
And yes, I might be sick, (but I am
not). When I think of others in the
work, sometimes I feel as if my
own "small corner" were too comfortable. Not luxurious, I admit;
nor is the little home pretentious.
Though I think there's no place
like it, white or Indian,—any
where! It is so crude, so simple,
and yet (to me, at least,) so pretty,
that I hope my neighbors are learning some lessons in home-making
from it.
One of the young men, who last
summer married one of our nice,
bright school girls, is now building
a three-room house, just on the
brow of a hill, with a most glorious
view—the winding river and the
wooded bottom land on one side,
and the broad prairie with its encircling buttes on the other side. He
has asked me if I will help him with
the inside adornment, when he gets
the house finished. The other day
when he was here he was enquiring
about the blue plaster board with
which my house is ceiled, and said
he wanted to get some like it, for his.
It also made me glad to know of
the cases where some of the young
men have built snug, warm little
houses, near their own for some of
the old people, their own or their
wives' relatives. I do not know what
the remuneration may have been,
or whether it was a purely benevolent act. Tbe three whom I have
in mind, might each have done it
merely out of kindness, judging
from what I know of them in other
ways.
A one-room house seems to be going out of fashion in my little village.
And I was glad to hear another of
the young men say recently that he
wanted a table; that he didn't want
his children to eat off the floor.
He had never had one issued to
him; and he had tried to buy one,
but they had none at the store. He
thought perhaps the agency carpenter might make him one. He himself had no lumber.
Two weeks ago, a day was given
to repairing the Y. M. C. A. house,
where we hold services; putting
several loads of dirt on the roof and
banking around the house where
the cold winds have been creeping
through; straightening the flagstaff, and hauling wood to the house.
These Dakota winds defy every
thing. Our pretty flag, mended
one morning and raised in the afternoon for mid-week prayer meeting,
came down looking almost as badly
frayed as before. While my stove
pipe will persist in bending to the
southeast at a distressingly apparent angle.
If there were only more ways by
which these people could earn something. I count fifteen men who
within the past few weeks have either come to me and asked for work,
or who have gladly done what offered, or who have come wanting to
sell me something which represented work,—wood, hay, rice, miik
(which he walked a mile to bring),
knives, spoons, etc., carved out of
horn. Some I have had to turn
away, or put off for the present,
though I have tried to think of every
possible thing I might have them do
for me.
One of the hopeful signs of the
times is the giving up of tobacco.
For the past year or two I have very
rarely seen a cigarette, unless it was
about the stores at the agency or
sub-agencies. Sometimes when I
go to a house, I fine an old man, a
group of old men, with a long, old-
time pipe, but that is all. This in
contrast to a few years ago when
nearly every young man and boy,
had a cigarette in his mouth, is a
great and most welcome change.
Even on Sunday, as soon as the
church service was over, there was
sure to be a group of smokers lingering around the church door. All
this is past,—unless it is some
stranger within the gates, who has
not learned. I do not say that all
have given up smoking entirely, but
they no longer do it wbere I am likely to see them: which I count as an
advance. This winter one of our
little ones was very sick with pneumonia, and I made frequent visits
at the house. After her recovery,
I said to her father one day, "I was
glad to notice that while your little
girl was sick, there was never any
odor of tobacco smoke in the house".
(I know that he had been in the habit of smoking.) He assented, saying that he knew it wasn't good for
her, and so he didn't.
One old man who has an invalid
wife, said to me recently, "Sometimes men come into my house and
begin to smoke: I tell them, "If you
want to smoke, you must go out
doors; it makes my wife sick". It
is beginning to be unpopular.
I am glad to say that Grand
River has four white young men in
Government employ who do not use
tobacco; one of them, the superintendent of the boarding-school,
whom every one loves and respects;
another, the resident physician
there, to whom is given the highest
token of appreciation in that his
services are in constant demand,
far and near.
Still another great improvement
may be seen in the better care they
take of their stock. Much yet
needs to be done, but it is seldom
in these days that I see an animal
ridden or driven that is not in fairly
good condition, and some are plump
and round. The use of the whip
is being superseded by better care
and better feed; and with far better
results. The cow-boy craze, too,
seems to have passed the crisis, and
the torture of cruel bits and spurs
is seen less frequently. While sore-
backed horses, or those galled in any
way, are understood to be a disgrace
to him who uses them. All these
things speak of progress—though
all the lessons are not learned yet,
and the hill of knowledge is a long,
hard pull. There are many obstacles, many failures, many lions
in the way, and many things to
hinder and discourage; yet the seed
has taken root.
One can see it and feel it; some
times in the lighting up of the
face that was so stolid; the cheery
word, the warm hand-grasp; the
prayer and the heart utterances in
the social meetings; the little,kind,
1 thoughtful acts. And while we in
the work do not want the sympathy
which savors of pity or condolence,
we do want and need the strong,
warm,loving sympathy in the work.
M. P. Lokd.
CIVILIZATION—A DEFINITION.
A people is civilized when it has
formed institutions for itself which
enable each individual to profit by
the industry of all his fellow citizens ; when it enables each individual to profit by the experience and
wisdom, the observations and the
thought of his fellow citizens; when
it encourages each individual into
a rational self-activity by which he
contributes, either through his industry, or through his observation
and his thoughts, to the benefit of
the people with whom he lives.
Civilization enables man to conquer nature and make it his servant;
to command the services of heat,
light, electricity, and of all the inorganic elements; to command also
the plant world or vegetation for
his uses; to command also the animal life for ihe same service; in
short to command the services of
nature, for food, clothing, and shelter. Besides this control over nature, civilization should give man
access to the history of his race;
access to its literature; access to
its scientific discoveries; access to
its various inventions, and above
all access to its moral and religious ideals. Civilization, in short,
should give command of the earth
and likewise command of the experience ofthe entire race.—Dr. Harris in The  Red Man.
WHAT AN INDIAN HAS DONE.
Many an American boy has obtained his education by overcoming
great obstacles, but no American
lad has ever accomplished it by
greater persistence and determination than a young man who hails
from the far north. This young
American is a full-blooded Indian,
whose home is in the island of New
Metlakahtla, Alaska.
He is a graduate of the Sitka
Industrial School, of Marietta Collage, Ohio, and of Lane Theological
Seminary, from which he has just
graduated. His name is Edward
Marsden, and he is now on his way
back to labor as a teacher and a
missionary among the Indians of
Alaska.
Very few American students attempt what this young Indain has
mastered. Aside from the culture
received in college and seminary
his acquirements are almost amazingly varied.
Brick-laying and clock-repairing,
house-painting and gardening, tin-
smithing and steamboat-engineering, storekeeping and bookkeeping,
piano-tuning, machine-handling in
general and land-surveying, typewriting and a few other incidental
branches, have in less or in greater degree been taken up by him,
side by side with ordinary book
learning.
Besides his regular theological
studies, Mr. Ma.rsden has given a
brief time to study in the law department of the Cincinnati Young Men's
Christian Association, and is a member of one of the classes of the Chautauqua literary and scientific course.
He is thoroughly conversant with
two of the three Indian tongues
spoken in Alaska, in both of which
he hopes to be useful to his people.
This is a fairly long list of attainments for one who began his career
without the inherited qualities that
come from a civilized ancestry, or
the advantages and stimulus given
by cultured associations in early
youth. He did his first summer's
work at nine years old, and gained
by it a pair of trousers, a sack of
potatoes, and three dollars. Then
followed the accomplishment- of a
steady purpose to fit himself for
usefulness among his people.
He owes some of his training to
help given by friends in Alaska, who
took an interest in his career, and
cheered him by tlieir confidence and
encouragement; but his three years,
work in the Sitka Industrial Sehool,
the four at the Marietta College,
and the three at Lane Theological
Seminary, have been secured solely
by his own exertions.
Besides his college training Mr.
Marsden has travelled somewhat in
British Columbia and the United
States, eagerly studying the educational and mercantile institutions,
municipal government and social
organization of the places he has
visited.
If his future career develops in
usefulness as his friends anticipate
because of the foundations thus
laid, his life will be one of supreme
good to his race. In its large-minded purpose and unselfishness it is
a manifestation of public spirit
tbat every young American should
be ambitious to emmulate.— Youth's
Companion.