The Word Carrier of Santee Normal Training School (Santee, Nebraska), 1914-09 - 1914-10

              The Word carrier.
of Santee Normal Training school.
VOLUME  XLIIi;
HELPING THE RIGHT, EXPOSING THE WRONG.
NUMBER 5
SANTEE, NEBRASKA.
SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER, 1914
THIRTY 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 !
Artcmas   Ehnamani—a Sketch
Ehnamani, as be was universally known
among his own people, was naturally religious.
This is indeed true of all Indians, for I never
knew an atheist among them. But Ehnamani
was much more thoughtful about religion than
most Indians. This led him to see that religion
had a molding influence ou the character of
man. So when a boy, living at the Indian village of Redwing, Minn.. and the white men were
just beginning to settle there as wood-choppers
and otherwise, he at once ascribed their greater knowledge to the superiority of their gods,
and was therefore one of the few lads that could
be induced to attend the instructions of the
missionary who located there for a short time.
My acquaintance with Mr. Ehnamani commenced in 1860 at Redwood, Minn. I had just
been appointed a missionary, and located there.
The Dakota Indians living on the Mississippi
River had made a treaty with the Government
selling all their lands, and agreeing to locate
on a reservation at Redwood. Owing to fear
of medicine men, as their religious leaders were
then called, the missionaries, who had labored
among them for more than a dozen years, had
not made as many converts as you could count
on your bands. So when they removed to Redwood reservation none of the missionaries followed them ; and the conjurors remained without molestation until iu 1860. I was appointed
by the American Board as a missionary to them,
and I immediately located at Redwood. Excepting Napeshni, who was a Wahpeton Indian
and had joined the chui-ch at Lacquiparle, and
Chief Little Crow, Ehnamani was one of the
first men to call on me.
He was then a man of some 30 years of age.
It was the first time I remember of meeting
him. He had little to say religiously, but he
said he was glad to see me, because he wanted
his children educated like white children. And
when I told him that if I taught them anything
I would teach them religion too, he made no objection. I think he had already made up his
xniud that Christianity was true, that-it would
some day be adopted by the Dakotas, and he
wanted his children at least to be ready.
The next two years the volcanic institution of
slavery was exploding in the South': and the
Redwood Indians, taking lessons therefrom
were exploiting their ancient institution of idolatry for a conflict with Christianity. ■ As in the
South, tbei-e were other side issues, but there
was one buruing volcano which if silenced, all
the rest would remain silent. . That volcano
was idolatry. The priests of Bttal and the Sun
saw it was a mortal conflict between them and
Christianity. Every man of prominence belonged to one of these Societies. The Societies
passed laws forbidding any of their members to
join church, or go to school. The first schools
among the Indians were conducted by missionaries, and were always opened with prayer, and
so were looked upon as religious exercises. For
these reasons Ehnamani, who was a cautious
man, didnot choose to be counted as a Christian,
but preferred to call on me alone; and I occasion -
' ally visited him, and was always received very
cordially, and he would ask me to teach his little
boy, but it was too far for them to come to me.
So Ehnamani remained a heathen till the Minnesota Massacre occured in August, 1862. He
remained with his people at Redwood till several
thousand white soldiers came to take the Indians
captive.
So with the rest of his people he resisted the
soldiers, who far out-numbered tnem. As tbe
Indians expected, the Indians lost; but they kept
up the fight to give their families time to escape,
and then followed them. After some more fight
ing and delay, a large part of the Indians surrendered with their families, to the number of
2000. Afterwards forty of the men were hung.
A few were liberated, but the most of the men
were kept in prison for four years, and then liberated; among whom was Ehnamani. Four
years imprisonment was a terrible ordeal for an
Indian, but it was the means used by God for the
spiritual development of Ehnamani and scores of
others. Several of them became afterwards useful ministers.- Those who remember them will
all agree that physically Elinaniani stood "head
and shoulders above the others." So and even
more do 1 think he stood mentally and spiritually, as the pastor of what was then the largest
church among the Dakota Indians.
■John P. Williamson.
Mrs. Kate Grace Lawson
Mrs. Kate G. Lawson died September 25,
1914, at Santee, Neb. She was the wife of
Mr. Charles R. Lawson, Superintendent of the
printing office of this school. For nearly a
year she had been suffering from a bone cancer
in the left shoulder. An operation pei-formed
in Chicago early last June was unusually successful, but a similar internal difficulty appeared and the opei-ation failed to save her life.
Mrs. Lawson was very brave and patient
during tbe trying mouths of her sickness, and
hopeful of recovery nearly to the end.
Kate Grace McMillan was borr. at Two Rivers,
Wis., August 27, 1858. The family removed
to Rochester, Minn., in 1860, and seven years
later went to Chicago, 111., to live. She was
married to Mr. Lawson, December 30, 1880,
aud in October, 1889 sbe came to Santee.
Mrs. Lawson was a homemaker, and gi-ew
vex-y fond of her home at Santee. It was an
attractive place where her husband and children were glad to be, and where she was always
ready to welcome friends.
She was devoted to her family, and her children's appearance always showed the tender,
loving mother-care.
Grace Letitia, the oldest of her family, died
five yeax-s ago. Charles William is married
and living in Inchelium, Washington state,
Hazel Lawson Slater lives in Bon Homme, So.
Dak., and Arthur Leslie, the youngest, now
seventeen, is attending the Normal School at
Springfield, So. Dak.
Sbe is survived by two bi-others: F. A. Me
Millan, of Gainesville, Flo., the youngest; and
E. J. McMillan, of Chicago, the oldest, whose
devotion and presence was a great comfort and
help to her in hospital trials, and her latter days
of illness.
Mrs. Lawson was a very faithful and helpful
member of the Women's Missionary Union, of
Pilgrim church, of which she was a member.
Her twenty-five years of quiet, faithful sex-vice
1 in her home and chxxx-ch at Santee furnish a
; noble example to the people about us. We
who have known and loved her will miss
her sadly.
In thinking of her diligent care of her home
and family we are reminded of the description
i of the excellent woman :    She looketh well to
I the ways of her household, and eateth not the
j bread of idleness.    Her children rise up and
call  her blessed;   be/  husband  also,   and he
praiseth her. E. Jean Kennedy.
Former - Pupils of Santee
Frank Corn who lives at Thunder Butte, post
office Dupx-ee S. D., has 75 cattle, 40 horses,
some money in the bank aud takes the Iapi Oaye.. He is government blackf mith in that district and learned this art at Santee.
David Flyinghawk who graduated from Santee
in 1902 and married Anna Fruh, has a ranch on
the west side of the Missouri River about 30
miles above Fort Pierre where he is i-aising
horses and cattle. He wen t as far east as Aberdeen this fall selling his horses.
From Crow Agency, Montana
We have new teachers at both of our day
schools this year. Miss Hattie Kaufman, of
tbe Reno school, has resigned but stays on as
"visitor" at her own expense, Miss Fuller of
Gibson, Montana has taken her place as teacher.
Miss Fuller comes of a missionary family and
is enthusiastic in her wox-k. Miss Hanson of
Ravinia, So. Dak., teaches the Blacl* lodge
school in place of Miss Deerking who is at home
taking care of her ■■mother this winter. Miss
Hanson has a way of getting the Indians to
work. She says that she does not mind loneliness and seems to just fit into tbe work thei-e.
We look forward to a year of progress all along
the line.
It looked for a time as if we should lose our
Blacklodge school. During vacation Mr. Carter, a clerk in the Educational Department was
sent out to investigate the day schools; (that is
Blacklodge in particular). He came to see us
and was most friendly, remarking that when
you talked with a man on the field that it put
quite a different construction on things. He
went straight back to Washington and recommended that the school be closed. I was notified by the chief clerk that I had better not
enumerate the children this year as there was
no doubt that the advice of Mr. Carter would
be acted on. The letter reached me during
the absence of the Agent and after tbe Chief
Clerk had left for Haskell Institute witb a
party of children. I went at once to Blacklodge and got a thumb marked petition signed by every Indian in the district demanding that the school be let alone. I then went
to Senator W. B. George of Billings and laid
the case before him, wrote a history of the
school, of its building aud of its work, and
also sent in a lot of photographs to prove
points. A very .nice .letter came back from
Mr. Sells saying that we should not be iuter-
ferred with at all until he could offer us something that we would be quite satisfied with
as an equivalent.
Mr. Sells himself has been with us for a week.
He is truly a fine man and dead in earnest
about his work. He is getting information at
first hand. He spent an hour at our house and
we mncb enjoyed meeting him. He seems to be
a true friend of the Indian. Of course we "enumerated" our children and opened school as
usual.
Our children, Aline and Orinsby, have gone
back to school. Aline to Hacketstown, Centi-
nary Collegiate Institute, and. Ormsby to the
Blair Acadamy, Blairstown, New Jersey. The
schools are within seventeen miles of each
other but the children are not able to visit except during vacation. They are much happier
this year and quite content at school, but Crow
Agency is still quite the most beautiful place in
the world to them. Aline spent her last Sunday with us at Reno. She was standing by one
of the windows saying goodbye to one of the
Indian women. The woman looked at her and
saw the tears roll down, she put her arm round
her so nicely and taking off a bar bx-ooche of
brilliants pinned it on Aline's dress. Aline
said afterwards, "Mother how much nicer the
Indians are than the white people. How I do
love the Crows."
Aline has a dress this year made entirely by
an Indian girl. She wears it with great pride
and says it quite meets the approval of the girls
at school.
Altogether we are vei-y happy and very grateful for our work and for all the blessings of
life. We are having the most perfect fall
weather and the country looks most beautiful. J. G. Burgess.
Enteredas Second Class Matter, November 9. 1908,
at tbe Post Office at Santee, Nebraska, under
the act of March 3. 1879.