The Word Carrier (Santee, Nebraska), 1900-04

              The Word Carrier.
VOLUME   XXIX.
HELPING   THE   RIGHT,   EXPOSING   THE   WRONG.
NUMBER 4.
SANTEE, NEBRASKA.
APRIL, 1900.
FIFTY CENTS PER YEAR.
x r
OUR PLATFORM.
For Indians we want American Education ! We want American Homes !
We leant American Rights! The result of which is American Citizenship '.
And the gospel is the Power of God for
their Salvation!
HOW MUCH EDUCATION  DOES IT PAY TO GIVE
THE ORDINARY INDIAN  CHILD.
All you can give from the age of
six to eighteen. The longer I consider the educational problem the
more sure I am that the Government system is not adapted to tbe
needs or demands of the Indian.
The Government school has not
accomplished what it should have
done in producing English speaking. In its tirade against the use
of the native language it has neglected to make the best use of teaching English. Here is an instance.
In a large school the classes in the
sewing room were required to keep
still. No talking was allowed. The
seamstress was a disciplinarian out
of place. She had order, but sacrificed her opportunity to do larger
and better work. The laundress encouraged talking, and yet had order.
Out of doors the boys talk more and
you invariably find boys to be more
free and ready in the use of English
than the girls. But English speaking and reading is only a means not
an end, which is not generally admitted in practice,even if in theory;
in all schools, of course, the school
room work will be English. This is
necessary because the Indian is now
living in an English speaking community. And not because the Indian language is poor, or bad. It
is necessary also because the inlet
of all kinds of knowledge is through
ernment school is not such as to
accomplish this end. Industrial
training now consists in doing the
hard and disagreeable work that belongs to a big school.
Of housekeeping, of needle work,
of gardening, of being bandy, is not
taught or acquired. Cooking and
baking are not taught. The girls
keep at such work, but get no training that makes them efficient. A few
boys work with the carpenter and
blacksmith. But they only do the
drudgery. In the proper use of tools
they have no training, and in principles of the work they have no instruction. Consequently they get
little from it.
A good handy man in the day
school has in many cases taught
more boys to be handy than a mechanic in a boarding school. The
kind of training that the children
should have could be given if the
schools were smaller. In a school
of twenty-five to forty pupils there
can be more likeness to family and
home life. The kitchen can be
more of a training room, the work
can be done in a more home-like
and family way, and the teacher
and pupil can come into more
familar and helpful relation. Ages
and sexes are not crowded and
crowding each other.
If   the  government must  have
schools of  150 to 300, then they
should provide for the same training in house or family-life by hav-
: ing  a cooking   school, a   manual
I training teacher and a house-keep-
| ing department in the way of cot-
! tages for different ages and sexes.  I
j have heard many teachers talk of
' the home life of the pupils, regret-
i ting the little huts that they live in.
of training in their schools.
Mission schools are doing it and
doing it at a far less expense
than the Government is paying
for herding them in a big dormitory and feeding them in a soup
house.
I do not mean to be harsh in my
judgment of Government Schools.
Thore is a far away purpose in
Washington to furnish good schools.
And there are many able and good
teachers and workers, men and
women of high character. But
the constant tendency and pressure is to quantity and not qual-
lity in the work. Schools are built
for 75 pupils and then crowded
to 125. I have yet to hear of a
school which is not filled beyond
its capacity, and crowds of white or
Indian children or adults are apt to
to be disorderly and ungentle-
manly.
The individual loses his identity.
This very largely affects one of the
most important parts of education,
the moral and religious training.
Neither time, place nor opportunity
are given for the teacher to do the
best by the pupil when both are
uncomfortable.
Much effort has been lost and is
being wasted now on account of this
very over crowding, and over working. If a pupil survives this at the
age of 18 he wants the freedom of
his home and the wide prairie. If
he has no aspiration for further
school life and little use for what
he has had, it does not imply that
it does not pay to give him 12 years
of education. But it implies that
it does not pay to;try to overcrowd,
and over tax in efforts for mere
numbers. 3. F. Cross.
AN INDIAN IMPROVEMENT SOCIETY.
These two programs have come
to us from Elbowoods,North Dakota,
artistically designed and illustrated
by pen drawings, which show the
facile hand of Mr. John Young, one
of our former pupils at Santee.
The programs are mimeographed.
The programs are worthy of notice
as indications of progress. It means
much that these young Indian people are organizing for such purposes,
and with such inventive effectiveness. Their novel arrangements
would be sure to catch the public
attention anywhere, and impress the
lessons presented.
McCOlTirEI,!,
^gricuitural  and
Improvement Society
Will meet at  Elbowoods, N. D., Saturday,
2:oo p. m., March 3d, 1899.
PROGRAM.
Song Recitation Song
Recitation Orchestra
Speeches on the Duties of
Educated Young   Men  and Women  on the
Reservation.
Young.—Farrell.—Lee.
Orchestra.
Free Parliament.
Election of officers—Other business.
All ane Invited to   COME.
O     O
Agricultural    aQd    Improvement   jjoclety
Will meet at  Elbowoods, N. D.,
Saturday,  2:30  p. m., March   17,  1900.
PROGRAM.
Song by Quartette Paddy Duffy's Cart
Stock Cattle J. R. Jenson
Music Elbowoods Orchestra
Cruelty to Animals J. P. Young
Song by Quartette The Bull Frog
The Horse Walter Lee
Music Independence Band
Discussion Subject: Horses and Cattle
Business.- Music by Band.
All are   Cordially Invited,
Fence.
Hay stack   forty-nine   yards long.
This is to feed  thirty-six head of
cattle and thirty-one head of horses.
FEEDING   PLACE.
Stable.
Stable.
Gate.
•
THE RANCH HOME OF TWO FORMER SANTEE PUPILS
AT POPLAR, MONTANA.
This map is a copy of a sketch 1 made  in a   personal   letter,  with
found   in one  of   the   many   let-1 never    a  thought   of   publication.
JSTOBTH.
38 yards
between.
H  ■£
Bed.
Table.
D
eating
Stove.
Bed.
Bureau,
D
Cook
Stove,
16 x 16
KITCHEN.
Dish
'Closet.
D
Stove.
16 x 16
BED ROOM.
Wash
Stand.
Sewing
Machine
Water
Barrels.
Wood
Box.
! Store \
|Room]
□
Trunk.
OO     LZZI
Trunk.
Fence.
English books. Book and school
room work ought to go on steadily
for the whole time.
It is not so easy to explain how
the industrial work should be done.
Industrial work, as applied to Indian
schools, ranges all the way from
drudgery to learning a trade. The
thing to be accomplished is just what
is accomplished in the ordinary
town or community by the school
and home. The girls know the use
of materials and utensils in the
house, they know how to cook, bake,
sew. The boys know how to be handy
in the trade or occupation of the
father. They know the use of tools,
care of stock, poultry, gardening.
The organization of the present Gov-
(The two parts of this map are evidently drawn to different scales.
Door.
S O XT T H
Window.
But 1 venture this statement that
few Indian houses are more over
crowded than the average dormitory
and dining room of the Boarding
School. The outing system of
Carlisle is admirably adapted to
just the training that the Indian
child should have. But it won't
work in any very large numbers.
Carlisle has spent 20 years at it.
Flandreau and Genoa and Haskell
could not do the same in the same
number of years. Because South
Dakota and Nebraska and Kansas are not the rich well settled
farm regions of Pennsylvania
and New Jersey. But there is no
reason why the Government should
not try to approach that same kind
ters we are receiving from former
pupils of Santee. The author of
the above thus describes her home :
"We live in a little ranch on a little
creek called Tully Creek about half
way between Poplar and Wolf Point,
which is 21 miles between the two
places." This girl's husband was
also a Santee pupil. They are evidently living examples to their people of Christian citizenship.
They have a ranch !—stock!—
stables!—hay ! They have a well
furnished house, in which is a dish
closet!—and a store Room!! This
is not a before-and-after-taking kind
of a picture trumped up for the
occasion, but a sketch from real life
by one of the livers of it;  casually
The author thereof further writes:
"We would like to help our people
by our example, but they don't
realize what we are trying to do for
them .... All we received from
them is these words: "They are Indians but they think themselves
white people. They don't want to
do anything in the way of Indians.
But this does not hurt our feelings We are trying harder to do better."
Who says the Indians are not advancing in civilization! Here is an
Ogalala brave, a subscriber to the
Iapi Oaye (Dakota Word Carrier),
who already has reached the point
where he is competent to instruct
the editor how to edit his paper.