The Word Carrier of Santee Normal Training School (Santee, Nebraska), 1915-03 - 1915-04

              the Word Carrier.
of Santee Normal Training School.
VOLUME  XLIV
HELPING THE RIGHT, EXPOSING THE WRONG.
NUMBER 2
SANTEE, NEBRASKA.
MARCH-APRIL, 1915
THIRTY CENTS PER YEAR
Our   Platform
For Indians we want American Education! We need
American Homes! We want American Rights! The result
0fwhich is American Citizenship! And .the Gospel is the
Power of God for their Salvation !
The Greatest Need of Indians
Of the 330,000 Indians in the United States
only one-third can be truly termed Christians.
It is evident that American Christianity is not
effectively reaching its Indian population. Af,-
ter two generations of educational work we may
wonder why the impact of 35,000 returned students is not felt by the race and why we are still
looking for race leaders dominated by altruistic
motives. We often bear of the "downward
pull" of the reservation. Why hasn't the reservation felt an upward pull from its students?
This situation may be explained as being tbe
result of several causes. First, our policy or
lack of policy in dealing with the Indians tends
to pauperize them and vitiate their manhood.
Second, through no fault of the missionaries,
the churches have failed to provide adequately
for t heir missions, and thei-e are only a few
schools where Christian character-training is
made the chief object. Ninety-seven per cent
of till Indian students enrolled are in secular
schools. Third, our various agencies devoted
to the civilization of the Indian have failed to
recognize the potentiality of the Indian's in-
nat- religious uature, which formerly controlled most of bis actions. This neglect of the
Indian's need of an anchorage—when he has
lost faith in bis old gods and has been carried
from old moorings by the wave of our frontier
civilization—accounts largely for what we now
term our "Indian problem."
The survival of the fittest is inevitable.
Christianity is the only hope of saving the Indian. The Federal Government is to be praised
for its provision for the Indian's temporal and
i mental needs, but it cannot give tbe spiritual
eiiiphasis to make its work effective. The Indian problem tbeu becomes oue of a relationship between the Indiau and Christianity. No
pateut road, subsidized by "the Government,"
has been or can be laid out to lead the ludian
through the period of transition frpiu racial
isolation to Christian citizenship. His is the
Way of the Cross, and he needs, as does everyone! else, character to help him fight out his own
destiny. I have never been able to understand
why Christian America is so willing to provide
Christian educatioi. for the white children, and
yet turn a deaf ear to the call of Indian missions
for the Christian education of ludian children,
who have not even the help of a Christian home
to back them in life's struggle. It is a striking
fact, known to all who have a comprehensive
knowledge of conditions in the Indiau country,
that our few Christian Indian schools of the
type of jjamptou and Santee have furnished
and are furnishing the largest percentage of
effective native leadership for the Indian race.
It is evident that we must sooner or later
face several facts which are increasingly forcing themselves upon our attention.
First, the solution of the Indian problem
rests with the Christian forces of the country
and not with tbe Government. We must stop
saying, "The Government will do it," and say
"What is my responsibility as a Christian citizen?"
Second, the future of the Indian race is determined by the character of our Indian students. Four years ago, scarcely over ten per
ceut of our Indian student-body was receiving
any adequate Christian training and even today
not over twenty per cent are being effectively
reached.
Third, there must be adequate facilities provided for the training of Christian leaders, taking them as they come from the Government
«chools and coaching them, in so far as ability
and character warrant, to enter the training
schools side by side with our white students.
Christianity is producing the best Indians.
The Christian Indian leads in utilizing opportunity ; he is the first to break from the retarding effects of tribal customs; he is best withstanding the onslaught of our civilization, with
its temptations; and it is the Christiau Indian
today who is insisting that his children shall
not only receive an education, but an education
with the Christian emphasis.—Robert D. Hall
in Southern Workman.
Congregational Indian Missions in California
Modoc County, the Indian mission field of the
American Missionary Association in California,
is in the northeast corner of the state and has
an Indian population of about seven hundred
and fifty, divided between two tribes, Piutes,
living on the border of Nevada, east of the
mountain barrier, and Pit River Indians, living along the river valleys sloping toward the
upper Sacramento River.
Many of the Modoc County Indians have received government allotments, but frequently
they ax-e on stony hillsides, and the Indians are
denied use of water for irrigation even when
streams flow through their own fields. Without instruction in agriculture or means to develop their holdings, they eke out a precarious
livelihood as laborers for the white farmers
in the short summer season, or in logging during the loug, cold winter. Though they are
x-egarded as excellent farm hands and Indian
women are frequently employed to wash for
white families, few can secure more than two
months work in the year.
HOW  THEY  LIVE
In periods of idleness they make long visits
at the homes of friends or relatives who are
fortunate enough to have something in the
house to eat. Hunting jack-rabbits and fishing
provide scanty subsistence during the winter,
and when they cau get flour coarse bx-ead is
stirred up and baked before an open fire.
The more progressive among tbe Pit River Iudians have frame houses, though many, especially among the Piutes, use the old tepee. Some
have bought cook-stoves and sewing machines
but do not know how to use them, and most
houses have few chairs and beds. The Indians
sleep on the bare ground or on mattresses
carelessly thrown on the floor in the several
cox-ners of the one room shanty. Until our
missionary, Mr. Bowman, bought lumber and
showed the Piute Indians how to build permanent cabins, almost all of them lived in
movable tepees or huts made of brush, matting,
sheet iron and anything they eould pick up to
keep out the wind.    Mr. Bowman writes:
"I wish you could see these Indians in their
winter 'homes.' It is deplorable in the'extreme.
I haven't been about many different tribes of
Indians to know bow they live, but if many of
the tribes have to live in tbe condition in which
these live, it is a shame to the Indiau Department and to the boasted white man's civilization. During the cold and snow of winter they
lie about in ragged tents, witb a little sagebrush fire in the middle, and the smoke filling
the place, wanting many of life's necessities,
exposed constantly to wet and cold and unsanitary conditions generally. These things are
not to be considered from the humanitarian
standpoint alone. The way in whicli these Indians have to live blocks the way for them to
moral, social or economic progress. And they
ax-e not blind to this, either."
GOVERNMENT BOARDING SCHOOL
The old militax-y post at Fort Bidwell where
troops were stationed for somo time after the
close of the Modoc war in 1873, has been taken
by the Indian Bureau for a boarding school,
and provides accommodation for 120 pupils.
Its has a lax-ge faculty, including a physician
and a farmer whose duty it is to teach agriculture to the adxdt Indians. The school x-eceives
an appropriation of $40,000 a year and would
be a very effective agency for the uplift of the
Indians if the superintendent and all teachers
and employes carried on their word in a missionary spirit. A new superintendent has just
been appointed who is an earnest Christian and
has done excellent work amongludians in other
places for many years. The Indian Bureau has
made it very clear that they intend the Indian
schools to be carried on iu a broad, missionary
spirit, and that they will welcome and cooperate
with the efforts of wise and tactful religious
teachers. An important part of our responsibility for the Indian Missions is to encourage
and strengthen the bands of Christian men
and women in the Government Indiau service,
and to advise young people of strong missionary consecration to take civil service examinations for Indian schools.
The Indians are faithful and honest, good
| horsemen and industrious workers when shown
I how, but in the presence of unscrupulous white
j people who wish to exploit them, they are like
helpless children. They have been for many
years in contact with the white pioneers of this
undeveloped section of California, and many of
the Pit River Indians speak English fairy well.
Among themselves, however, the Indians still
use their Pit River and Piute dialects, which
are quite distinct. Mr. Bowman has learned
enough of the Piute dialect to be of material
assistance to the government doctor and also to
give considerable religious instruction to the
people in their own tongue, though he finds
them pitifully destitute of religions ideas. He
is known among them as "The man that talks
about God" (Togo puat-no yedo wpta nana).
RELIGIOUS SERVICES
Audiences of seventy have crowded into the
little building at Likely for the Sunday services,
and the government boarding-school at Fort
Bidwell has generally been open to our missionary for religious services, which all pupils are
required to attend. An order of the ludian
Bureau x-equires the superintendent of every
Indian school to secure unsectarian x-eligious
instruction at frequent intervals for the pupils
of his school.    Mr. Bowman writes:
"About a month ago we began to hold services at the Indian camp. We began holding
the meetings in an old building that was not in
use, having no floor and but one small window.
I bought some windows and some stovepipe,
and they put iu the windows and set up the
stove. During the first service theyr sat on the
ground, an old piece of stove, on some chunks
of wood and on a coal-oil can. The following
Sunday when I went out, they had hunted up
some old boards with which they had constructed rude benches to sit on and had cleaned up
the place, sprinkling the floor to keep down the
dust. They seem to appreciate the services
very much. Last Sunday there were forty in
attendance.
"We have done the Lord's Prayer in their
dialect—a very free translation but it has about
the right meaning—and they are learning to repeat it with me. My wife goes out and sings
for them and we are trying to teach them to
sing."
Sunday school work is carried ou for the Indians at Alturas aud Adin. There are government day schools for Indians at Alturas, Likely and Adin and a government field matron at
Lookout a few miles west of Adin. Most of
the government day school teachers and field
matrons are real missionaries in spirit, and aid
in the religious work for the Indians. One
writes: "These people have no object in life.
I think they meet and gamble just to be together and visit. If we bad Ja church, their interests would veer that way."
The American Missionary Association is the
only agency doing missionary work for the Indians of Modac County. By mutual agreement
of all societies working among Indians this is
our field. Rev. George W. Hinman.