The Word Carrier (Santee, Nebraska), 1900-08 - 1900-10

              The Word Carrier.
VOLUME   XXIX.
IIELPINU   THE    RIGHT,   EXPOSING   THE    WllONG.
N UMliER 0.
SANTEE, NEBRASKA.
AUGUST-SEPTEMBER-OCTOBEE, 1900.
FIFTY CENTS PER YEAR.
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   RACE PROBLEM.
The Indian auestion ought no
more to be conjured with "Lo the
poor Indian." The general public
is well aware that the Indians are
imposed upon by the whites and
it is getting to be a pretty old story
to tell of the abuses and general
dealings with the Indian ; they are
too true to be denied. The solution
of the Indian question lies witb those
of us who receive Christian Education and who can show the good,
sympathetic people what we are,
what we can do, what we need most,
what we want to make of ourselves,
and more especially what we have
done witn what we receive from their
generous hands.
I used to believe and think that
showing up the frauds of the Government, cruelty of our white neighbors,
and many evils that the whites are
inflicting upon our Indian people
would remedy all evils; but my
experience teaches differently. So
instead of beating the air, I now
would go ahead and show by my
own labor what my people can do
and are able to do if they have
an equal chance with their white
brothers.
The Bible says: "Woe unto the
world because of offences, for it
must needs be that offences come;
BUT WOE TO THAT  MAN  BY WHOM  THE
offence cometh. And I am satisfied that God will carry out his part
of protection, if we show ourselves
worthy of protection. We must
show to the world that the Indian
is a man, that he is capable of performing and conducting every day
life as well as any ordinary being.
We must face manfully every obstacle without grumbling; overcome
all opposition witn agreeable manners; show as little disagreeableness
> as possible; keep race prejudices in
the back-ground; forget that we are
Indians; win friends with smiles,
and loving conduct, with honest,
upright faces; and above all show
that we are not afraid to do what
our hands find to do. These and
many other noble characteristics
we must show to catch up with those
who have three or four hundred
years the start of us. Let us not
forget that we shall always have
enemies, oppositions, obstacles,and
difficulties; but remember these are
our friends, in one sense of the
word, because these very elements
spur us on to a higher standard.
We can use these very elements of
life to a loftier purpose, or allow
them to destroy us.
We should never stand idle because opportunity does not happen
to drop into our hands. Many of
our returned students have gone
back into their old ways of living,
because they are waiting for an opportunity to come to them, instead
of hunting or making an opportunity. We ought to remember that
this world is a battle field, a place
of competition and "survival of the
fittest" and not a resting place or a
place for leisure. We remember
that the old bones we pick up any
where in the regions of the lake-beds
of the bad-lands, were once powerful animals, but for lack of adaptability and because of the littleness
of their brain, have passed away
and left their carcasses to teach the
great lesson of adaptability.
So must we learn to adapt ourselves in this new era which has
swept over our people; and woe unto those of us who do not learn this
lesson, for sooner or later we will
have passed into history and nothing but cigar signs will be left to remind the whites that there were
once such people who occupied this
great country of America; because
we neglected these few little laws
of life, and did not adapt ourselves
to meet the great wave of civilization.
Let us also remember that the
success of a family, or of a tribe, or
of a nation depends on the success
of one man like Alexander the Great,
Napoleon Bonaparte, George Washington, Abraham Lincoln,and Booker T. Washington.
The failure of any one of these
men would mean downfall and ruin
to their people and their country.
So must we believe that one individual who fails will mean failure
for the whole Indian race or the
success of one is the success of the
whole Indian race,and that our individual lives will mark the standard
of our Indian people, not as one
tribe but as a nation. If this be
true we must make a high standard
and show to the world that the Indian is a man among men.
Let those of us who receive a
Christian education show that the
Indian has character, moral stamina, a back-bone; that he can be educated, civilized, and Christianized;
and that he is a Christian, law abiding citizen. Then the world will be
willing to give all the aid and help
that is necessary to solve the Indian
question, simply applying the same
principles that they receive, which
is nothing more then christian
education. James Garvie.
native
them.
Cheyenne
River
Out  si ;il ions.
WHAT PROGRESS.
I should like to give you a glimpse
of the joy and gratitude and encouragement which has come to me
as I have recently had opportunity
to review the changes which have
come into our Mission field and into
the hearts and characters of the
Indians for and with whom we have
been laboring. I speak only of the
work in our field, that on the Cheyenne River Reservation.
„    ..t. Some  of   you   remem-
Conditions   , ... J    ,, ..
at Begin- ber with me the  condi-
nUlK- tions  of the  country al
most thirty years ago when our
mission among the Titon Sioux was
established.—The absence of white
settlements, save those of the military, the heathenism ofthe Indians
and their opposition to anything
like Christianity and civilization.
In 1878, at the time when I entered
the Mission there were very few
church members. Even at
Oahe our central, station the
people were in native dress, many
of the men had two or three wives,
dancing and feasting were common
occurrences. About that time three
out-stations were  established and
Oalie.
teachers put in  charge  of
At one of these, the one located on the Cheyenne
river, a  short distance
from where the post office of Collamer now is, it was my
privilege to spend part of a winter
with an Indian companion, in order •
to more readily acquire the language i
as well as for the purpose of teaching [
the people as we had opportunity.
The impressions of the   heathen-
ism of the people is very vivid to me,
even now; the power of the heathen
customs, tbe comparative lack of |
interest in our own work,—the na- J
five dress, the feasting and dancing,
the games with their accompaniment   of   wagers   which   includes j
everything of value to the Indian
from a brightly ornamented article
of dress to a pony, all these stand
out as if in a color picture.    I seem
to see, too, the apparant hopelessness of our work, the seeming indif-
ferance to the preaching  and the
teaching, and to our desire to lead
them into  the  light.
Apparant    The   teachers   at   these
Hopeless. first out-stations faithfully
sowed the  seed, and  patiently taught as they could, but in
the course of a few years, the people
drifted away from these places and
these mission stations were abandoned, and other localities occupied.
Some of the workers passed away
or left the work without seeing any
result from their labors.    Appar-
antly the  effort  was  lost.    I say
apparantly,   but   the   promise   is
that God's word  shall not return
to him void, and in due time we
shall reap if we faint not.
present      A few weeks ago, I made
condition. a tour of our mission-field.
In ten days I traveled some 300
miles and visited seven of the nine
out-stations under our care.    During that time I saw no one in native
dress, and only one or two long
haired men.    At the Cherry Creek
Station and at Remington Station
on the Moreau were very many of
the people I had known as heathen
during that first experience in out-
station  work.    At both places the
deacons who examined candidates
for admission to the church, and
who assisted in the communion service, were those whom I had seen
in native dress with painted faces,
participants in the heathen dances
and feasts, irregular and indifferent
attendants   of   school  or church.
The women, now earnest church
members, good workers in the missionary society, and making effort
to train their children in better ways
are  those whom   I remember   as
dirty, indifferent heathen so  comparatively short a time ago.
As I considered the change I could
not but think what great things God
has wrought! and could not but be
grateful thafmine eyeshad seen the
glory of the coming of the Lord."
From the central station
>w ' and church at Oahe, has developed the Oahe Industrial School
and the Plum Creek Primary Boarding School, and nine out-stations;
at four of these are church organizations with neat chapels to the building of which the fndians themselves largely contributed. Every
station has in connection with it a
flourishing Women's Missionary
Society, and (almost every station
has its Y. M. C. A. organization.)
Every woman who is a church-
member is a member of the Missionary Society, and expects to contribute her due proportion of money
and work. On this recent trip
there was handed to me from these
different women's societies about
seventy-five dollars for mission
work,—and this does not represent
the entire contribution of the year
so far. At our mission schools are
missionary societies for the children
corresponding somewhat to Endeavor Societies which train the children
in giving and in christian work. But
although there has been so much
growth, and although we see so
much to encourage us, the work for
these people is by no means
stui done; and it sometimes seems
Done as though the work were now
in its most difficult stage. I
was interested in hearing two of
the native teachers compare the
work as it used to be, and as it is
now,—they both agreed that it was
much easier to preach the gospel
to the heathen than to be in charge
of churches and to try to help the
people in their christian growth and
development. The people are very
much like boys and girls between
the ages of twelve and twenty, their
bump of self-esteem is large, they
think often times that they have
learned all there is to learn, they
are impatient of direction and control, and it takes all the patience
and tact and wisdom that the
Spirit of God can give to guide them
through this critical period.
The work during the last few
years has been so hampered by reductions in the missionary force,
and by financial retrenchment, that
we are sometimes at our wits ends to
know how to carry it on. In our
own field we need more means and
more consecrated teachers to carry
on the school. We should like to
establish another Primary school
like that at Plum Creek, at another
point on the reservation, and there
would be work enough to employ
two missionary field matrons, but
it cannot be done until Christians
are. aroused to the need and to the
opportunity.
Being nothing but human, the
Indians have their faults and lapses
from rectitude, but it seems to me
that their sins are largely sins of
ignorance.
This winter, during the absence
of our missionary m charge on account of physical disability I have
been greatly interested and touched
to see how the people feel their added responsibility to carry on the
work, and to live not as eye servants
or men pleasers, but as directly responsible to the master.
"When Jesus saw the multitudes,
he was moved with compassion for
them, because they were distressed
and scattered, as sheep not having
a shepherd. Then said he unto his
disciples. The harvest truly is
plenteous, but the laborers are few,
Pray ye therefore the Lord of the
harvest, that he send forth laborers
into his harvest."
And the message is the same to
us even now.
Louisa Irvine Riggs.
Santee Normal Training School Press,
Santee, Neb.