The Word Carrier of Santee Normal Training School (Santee, Nebraska), 1915-07 - 1915-08

              The Word Carrier
ok Santee Normal Training School.
e
VOLUME  XLIV
HELPING- THE RIGHT, EXPOSING THE WRONG.
NUMBER 4
SANTEE, NEBRASKA.
Thirty-Nine Years with the North Dakota Indians
Veteran Missionary at Elbowoods Celebrates Anniversary of Arrival
Times were hard among the Indians of the
Fort Berthold reservation in Dakota in the
spring of the year 1876. The grasshoppers
had cleaned their fields ; the Sioux had driven
their game far away; the agents of the Great
Father had stolen their goods. And then
came—a young missionary and his bride.
Rev. Charles L. Hall, D. D., Elbowoods, N. D., is today, May 10, celebrating the 39th anniversary of his
arrival at this station as missionary
to the Indians. He is a representative of the Congregational church.
He is hale and hearty in spite of his
67 years and he enjoys every minute
of life. He works just as hard as ever,
both on his model farm and in the
church work. Many of the Indians
come to this saintly old man, not
only for spiritual guidance but also
for advice as to farming and stock '
raising.
Rev. Mr. Hall was really the first
missionary to the Indians on the Fort
Berthold reservation, although Father De Smet passed through Berthold
prior to the coming of the Congregationalist.
One of the first Dakota entries in Rev. Hall's
diary is the following: "We arx-ived at Fort
Berthold on the 9th of May, 1876, landing at
the lower end of the bend where the Agency
buildings, newly built by Major L. R. Sperry,
were located. Two or three days afterwards
our lumber for the new house and our household goods, all purchased at Yankton, arrived
by a river boat."
When the youthful missionary (Mr. Hall
was 28 years old when he arrived in Dakota)
and his bride stepped from the boat and walked up the hill they stepped into the scene of
their life work. Three Indian tribes lived in
that country—the Mandans, the Grosventres
and the Arickaras— and all three tribes were
at the landing to see what the boat brought
them.
The Indians were hoping for food, clothing
and fire arms. They hoped for all the
goods the Great Father had promised them
and which had never come. And what they
got was a young couple, poor in these worldly
goods but rich iu faith and strong to tell them
of a better life.
In 1874 a journey to Ohio was considered a
long one; Illinois was on the frontier and Dakota the other end of the world and infested
by •'blood-thirsty" Indians and buffalo. It
was a jump into the dark,—a journey into • the
mysterious, to go to Dakota in those days.
Rev. Mr. Hall in telling of his mental struggle
before finally deciding to give up a business
career to become a missionary to the Dakota
Indians says; "My psychological battle was
fought out in New York when I was a member
of the Broadway Tabernacle church. We had
started the Bethany Mission and I was giving
much time to it. Finally in 1870, at 23 years
of age, I gave up and began to prepare for the
ministry. I had graduated at the age of 19
(1866) from the City College, in the scientific
course, and three years later was an M. S.
I took a year to study Greek and so on. Then
I went for a year to the Union Theological
Seminary of New York and then took the rest
of the theological course at Andover, Mass.
At 27-(1874) I was through at Andover and
the next October I landed in Dakota."
Rev. Hall's parents were just comfortably
fixed. He was the first recruit of his generation to the Mission field, all other missionaries
having come from missionary families. On
February 15, 1876, just before coming to Ft.
JULY-AUGUST, 1915
THIRTY CENTS PER YEAR
Berthold, Rev. Mr. Hall was united in marriage to Miss Emma M. Calhoun at Yankton,
Dakota. Mrs. Hall was a splendid helpmeet
and passed away all too soon, ou Easter day,
1881. Five years later Dr Hall was wedded to
Miss Susan Webb at Weymouth, Mass. and
she still shares his labors and his joys.
As soon as Dr. Hall started to build his
house Crows Relly, the chief of the Grosventres,
came and threatened to burn it down.   But a big
S. N. T. S. BASKET  BALL TEAM
feast was given and the work was talked over
with the Indians and Son of the Star, the
Ree chief, Crows Breast, a Grosventres chief,
and Red Cow, the Mandan chief, promised to
protect the missionaries and give them land to
build on.
It was at this big feast that Hard Horn, a
Grosventres, made the following speech: "You
have talked well, now I will. Did the President send you here? When you came you
brought sickness, grasshoppers and crying and
there has not been imuch rain since they planted. Now you have paid the chiefs and ax-e
building, I wonder how it will be when it is
done! I thought you had come here to have
mex-cy on us. The missionary- before (De
Smet) he brought rain and the people killed
Dakotas, and the sick people he raised to life."
When the Custer massacre was heard of at
Ft. Berthold many of the Indians were inclined to be ugly and insolent but no outbreak occurred although the missionaries had many
nights of anxious watching and waiting for
fear that the Sioux returning from the massacre might attack the village.
First the Halls visited the lodges of the Indians and helped to alleviate suffering and
cax-e for the dying. The first winter they had
twelve pupils in their little mission sehool.
They had no bell to call the Indians to worship so they used the American flag, which
was run up the flag staff when the service was
to begin.
In the spring of 1877 a baby was born in the
missionary's home. This little one served as
a lode stone to attract the women and children to the mission. In the summer of 1878
the baby died and this seemed to attract the
women and children in sympathy to the mission. Mr. Hall was given the name "Ho Waste" meaning Good Voice. The work of Dr.
Hall in planting trees around the house, setting out bushes and putting in vegetables and
and ex-ops of which the Indians knew nothing
served to make the Indians successful agricul-
turists and is worthy of especial mention. Dr.
Hall's farm today is a model one on the reservation and much experimental work is done
here.
Within three years some scripture and songs
had been translated into the Ree tongue. The
first convert at the mission was Otter Wolf,
who professed her faith on April 12, 1885.
more than eight years after the  mission  had
been started. Now there are three churches of
the Congregational denomination, three of other faiths, and a mission station on the Berthold reservation. There are about 1,200 Indians on the reservation and a majority of
them attend some church. Dr. Hall has a
congregation numbering more thau 100 Indian
families iu his three churches.
The doctor can recite thrilling adventures
without number but space will not permit them
here. Just one instance of his eax-ly
life among tbe Indians might be cited. A stage driver attempted an attack on an Indian woman who came
running to the missiou for help. Mr.
Hall protected the woman and the enraged stage driver retaliated by attempting to shoot the missionary
dowu.
Besides the strenuous work at the
reservation and on his farm, Dr. Hall
must also spend a part of his time
raising money for the mission work,
lecturing aud placing the work before
the churches of his denomination.
He also carries on a school for Indian
boys and girls. After 39 years of
the work Dr. Hall is au optimist
through and thx-ough. He has kept
a diary of his work from the very beginning and this has been copied by
Curator H. C. Fish and is on file in the State
Historical Society collections.
Dr. Hall has four children, all have been
well educated and have brilliant futures before
them. Robert and Hannah, the two children
of the first union and Evan Webb and Deborah of the second. Robert is traveling secre-
of the IndianY. M. C. A. in the United States
and Alaska. Hannah is the wife of a civil engineer in Montana. Evan Webb Hall is well
known in the northwest as a better farming
expert-located at Williston, N. D. and Deborah
is now a student at Fargo College.
Dr. Hall has already received many congratulatory messages from friends all over the country and North Dakota is proud of the record of
this servant of God.—Bismarck Dailv Tribune.
A Veteran Missionary Gone ^
Rev. Hackaliah Burt, a well knijSwn missionary of the Episcopal church to the Dakota
Indians died at the hospital at Chamberlain,-
S. D. June 8, 1915. He was buried oh his
mission field at Crow Creek, S. D. June 11.
Rev. Mr. Burt'was born Jan. 31, 1846 in
western New York. He came west in 1872
and began his work among the Indians of
South Dakota under Bishop Hare. In 1882 he
met and married Miss Harriet Blanchard, at
Pine Ridge S. D. and soon after moved to
Crow Creek S.D. where he served continuously to the time of his death. His loss will be
felt by a large circle outside his own church
as well as within it.
Responsibility for the Red Man
I am just in receipt of a copy of tbe "Word
Carrier" for May—June 1915 and note an article under the title of "Government Indian
Schools as Agencies of Pauperization", This
article is a very clear statement of facts and I
congratulate you for writing the same. I wish
that the Indian Bureau might be reorganized
so that the older people whose children are
sent to federal schools would come to have
some measure of interest and responsibility in
and for the cost of educating their youth.
It strikes at the very subject which we desire to promote and discuss at our next Con-
ference, that of "Responsibility for the Red
Man." Arthur C. PArker.
Entered as Second Class Matter, November 9, 1890,
at the Post Office at Santee, Nebraska, under
the act of March 3, 1879.