a laboratory. The primary, intermediate and grammar grades are taught in
the new school-house, between the Mansion and Strieby Hall, the upper
part of which is a neat and commodious chapel. The primary school is
free of tuition as a practice-school for the Normal students, and brings
in many little ones from the region round about.
We send forth many teachers for the public schools, and despite the
shortness of the terms and the want of appliances, we see encouraging
evidences of better work done there from year to year. Besides test-book
teaching, these young home-missionaries labor in many lines for the
moral, social and material improvement of their people, and deserve much
help and cheer.
A Biblical department is preparing young men to preach the gospel, and
as they have the industrial training too, they will be fitted for a very
practical sort of evangelism.
A night-school supplies instruction for farm-laborers, laundry girls,
etc.
All school-room work, except that of the Biblical class and a part of
the Normal work, is women's work.
Let us step into the Ladies' Hall on the other side of the Mansion from
Ballard Hall. This is a very hive of female industry. Here is the girls'
dormitory, with a capacity of about seventy-five, and the boarding
department. All the work of the household, with trifling exceptions, is
done by the young women and girls of the school. Each one does an hour's
work a day, having it changed every month, and many do more to help
themselves along. The girls have the care of their rooms and generally
take great pride in having perfect "reports" for tidiness. Everything is
simple and cheap and common, but that does not prevent its being
homelike.
Personal cleanliness is required of course. Some few have been
accustomed to it at home. One large girl said, when told that she must
bathe, that she had not washed all over since she could remember, and
she still refrained until put "under discipline." Finally she yielded,
but in the evening was heard crying aloud from a seat on the top stair.
The matron asked, "What _is_ the matter?" and she replied, "Oh! oh! I've
wet my skin and it's made me sick." This is a very extreme case of
attachment to dirt, but it is interesting and marvellous to witness the
changes in appearance, expression and manners, during a prolonged stay
in school.
Besides general housework, the girls are given special instruction in
cooking, nursing and care of health, under their experienced matron.
They sew for an hour a day in classes, under the supervision of another
lady who also instructs a class in cutting by model and dress-making,
and sees that all the girls attend properly to their mending.
A Girls' Industrial Cottage has been started on a small scale, in which
the girls will have the entire charge of household expenses and
management. The little girls from round about are formed into
sewing-bands and make commendable progress. Their mothers meet with one
of the teachers on Saturday afternoons.
Underneath all these departments of training, it is sought to lay the
great foundation principles of character. The Bible is a constantly used
text-book in literally _every_ department. We seek to give a "Thus saith
the Lord," for everything that we inculcate, from order, punctuality and
cleanliness, up to honesty, personal and social virtue, temperance,
industry and benevolence.
There was a time when some distrust was manifest among the colored
people for what they called "book religion." They wished to hold fast to
"ole time 'ligion," and that sentiment is not entirely gone. We had a
very zealous little neighbor, more aged than she looked, so bright and
spry was she, whose husband was said to be over a hundred. She was a
seer of visions and dreamer of dreams. What we thought a bad feature of
her trances was, that she would sometimes speak in meeting of having
seen Tougaloo University marching in a procession down to torment with
our devoted matron and president at the head, their open Bibles in their
hands. That was years ago. Now, when she sees our matron in her visions,
it is up among the angels; and I believe the conviction is spreading
that book religion, taken into the head, sinking down into the heart,
and working out through the hands in deeds of active piety, is an
excellent thing.
Besides our regular religious services, including our large and
delightful Sabbath-school, we have various reformative and benevolent
societies. Our temperance society carries the triple pledge at the front
and saves many from the debasement of profanity, tobacco and ardent
spirits in all their forms.
Our societies for social purity are designed to help in the cure of a
terrible and terribly prevalent vice. The young men are taught, that
while it would often be simply throwing life, with all its
opportunities, away, for them to interpose by word or weapon in defense
of weak and tempted womanhood, after all, man best defends woman by
himself wearing the "White Cross" of manly virtue.
The girls are taught that woman's best defense is the "White Shield" of
her own determined virtue and genuine modesty. The Y.M.C.A. and the
Y.W.C.A. have interesting meetings conducted by themselves, with many
committees for Christian work. A committee of girls goes out on Saturday
to visit sick and aged ones, both giving and receiving good. Another
looks after new scholars who are often confused by their strange
surroundings, and homesick for a time.
Our Missionary Society studies both home and foreign fields, and gives
freely of its little fund. Recently a flame of missionary zeal was
kindled by letters from missionaries in Africa with whom a number of our
students were personally somewhat acquainted, and a large portion of our
Sunday-school collections was voted directly to them.
All our students sympathize with the Indians, and there are two
societies of the younger scholars who help them. The outside
sewing-bands too, devoted their very first quilt to the Rosebud Indian
Mission. "The field is the world" and "the work is one, _one_!"
Now, I ask you, friends, should not such work as this be amply
sustained? So much more could be accomplished if the funds and sympathy
were not so stinted! "The destruction of the poor is their poverty." We
do not believe in giving money outright to pauperize these young people,
but the money _must be there_ or they can not be taken into the
household, and trained and fitted to do valiant service for Christ, and
the nation and the world. There are manifold ways of helping, but I
shall not mention one, for if any are moved to help--as many are and
have been--it will be so easy to find out a way.
Mrs. Dinah Mulock Craik was prompted to write her last book--in behalf
of North of Ireland sufferers--by hearing a rough carter in a London
street, who had got down from his cart to help a timid child over a
crowded crossing, and had been rallied upon his soft-heartedness, say,
"O, aye! but a 'andful o' 'elp is wuth a cartload o' pity."
As I have visited institutions rich in buildings, books, scholarships,
professorships and every appliance, I have been very far from wishing
their abundance less, but I have said in my heart, ought not this and
similar missionary schools to be endowed also for their work of broad
beneficence, reaching not only the far South of our own land, but to the
heart of the great dark continent with its two hundred millions of
perishing souls?
* * * * *
THE SANTEE NORMAL TRAINING SCHOOL AND INDIAN MISSIONS.
BY MRS. CHAS. W. SHELTON.
Running Antelope, an Indian chief, describing the condition of the
Indians, said: "There was once a beautiful, clear lake of water, full of
fish. The fish were happy and content, had plenty to eat, and nothing to
trouble them. One day a man came and threw in a lump of mud, which
frightened the fishes much and disturbed the water. Another day a man
came again, and threw in some more mud, and even again and again, until
{20} the water became so thick that the fish could not see at all; they
were so blinded and so frightened that they ran against one another, and
they ran their noses out of the water into the mud, where many of them
died. In fact, they are in a bad condition, indeed. Now, the pond is the
Indian country, the fishes are the Indians, the false treaties and
promises of the white men are the lumps of mud," and, turning to the
missionaries, he said: "I hope you have come to clear up the water." A
glance at the work of the A.M.A. among the Indians will show that the
missionaries are clearing up the water.
We all have heard of the Santee Normal Training School for Indians, in
Nebraska. There is much in the name itself, and yet it is impossible to
have a clear idea of the work done there unless one has seen for
himself.
The Santee School is the largest of all the Indian mission schools under
the A.M.A., and faithfully has she performed the part of a leader. The
number of Indians gathered and instructed each year is in the
neighborhood of 175. Many tribes are represented, and the students come
from all directions. They are thoroughly trained from the very
foundation, not only in the ordinary branches of school work, but also
in housekeeping--sewing, cooking, washing, etc.,--on the part of the
girls (in which, too, the boys join largely), and in farming, carpentry,
blacksmithing and shoemaking, on the part of the boys.
Not only is this solid practical knowledge given them, but care and time
is devoted toward grace and politeness, and all the foundation rules of
etiquette. And this is not a thankless work. Anyone forming an idea of
Indians from those at Santee would tell you they are naturally a most
polite people--a people upon whom grace sits easily. There is many a
little story of Santee I would like to tell, that would show the spirit
which pervades the school. Something you may have read of their
impromptu prayer-meetings, and the desire of many to work and study, not
merely for themselves, but for their people.
But great as is the credit due the Indians for their advancement here,
little could be seen of gain were it not that the corps of teachers sent
out by the A.M.A. have been chosen, not from the lame, the halt and the
blind of this country, not from those who for support must resort to
something, but from those young women who are willing to leave homes of
comfort and refinement, in order that their lives may be worth something
in the world--young women who are consecrated beyond what we can even
imagine until we have seen the difficulties and annoyances which form so
large a part of their lives. Not for _support_ would these women have
gone into A.M.A. work, but cheerfully and gladly do they live on the
very smallest possible salaries, that more may be done for the Indian.
In describing Santee I have described all the schools, for the same plan
is carried out everywhere--the plan of Christianization; for that must
needs come before civilization can be hoped for.
The Indian is not civilized who, forsaking his heathen gods, has learned
the ways of the white man without knowing his God; for invariably he
learns the vices and the crimes; and is in reality more of a heathen
than before.
Many are the villages of Indians in which the white man's _dance_ has
been introduced and is enjoyed much more than the native dance; it is
working much evil which is hard to uproot, for they say, "Is it not the
white man's way?--it must needs be all right."
The work among the older people is of course more limited than that done
in the schools. The age of study is with them past. The most
intellectual work of which they are capable is learning to read the
Bible; even this they cannot do in any other than the Dakota language.
It is impossible to teach an old man English that will ever mean much to
him. Our word "holy" could never mean what his own word "wakan" means;
our word "God" could never take the place of his "Wakantanka." His brain
would be so disturbed in his effort to learn and to comprehend our
difficult language, that when he had mastered the words, were it
possible, the sweet truth and the comfort would be all gone from him.
Any but a scholar must read the _Bible_ in his own language.
Thousands of Indians are learning Bible truths and are getting a little
light in the few years left them. They are learning a little of the way
of life, and receive the message with gladness. Spotted Bear, a
Christian Indian, said at the recent convention at Santee: "All we know
we have learned out of the Dakota Bible. Teach our children English, but
don't take from them and us the means of reading our own Bible."
James Garvey, another Indian, said: "Many can soon learn to read the
Dakota Bible; then they have a standard of morals and of interpretation;
for to get the real meaning of the English Bible, we go to the Dakota.
To make the best citizens you must Christianize the people, and to make
them Christians you must give them the Bible in their own tongue. All of
us have become white people through the gospel."
The little native churches of Dakota are most interesting illustrations
of the work going on among the Indians. It would be impossible to find
more attentive audiences. There is always an air of devotion, or of
serious attention to all that pertains to the service, which we are not
apt to find in our own churches. Men, women and children go; even the
babies are always taken. There is a quiet freedom there which allows the
Indian mothers to take the babies out and in again at any time, and the
preacher is never disturbed. They sing as if they enjoyed singing--men
and women together; and in fact the services are usually such as to give
one a new zeal in holy things, even though we can understand few words.
Each Indian church has its missionary society, and its woman's society,
which is also missionary. These have been working and giving for mission
work further out among the Indians, and this year have pledged
themselves to give to foreign missions. During the last year they have
raised $1,084, of which the women raised $500. The prayer-meeting is as
much an institution with them as with us--in fact, they live as we live
and work as we work.
Ehnamani, pastor of the Santee church--a fine old man, whose history in
connection with the Minnesota massacre of '62, and whose conversion and
present work are well known--was once asked, "Do you ever have the least
regret that the old life is gone--do you ever have any longing for the
war and for the dance?" His face grew stern and hard as he answered,
"Regret it! No, indeed! I cannot think of one good thing that I ever did
in that life, and I cannot bear to remember it." Few are there yet like
Ehnamani, though many are fast overtaking him, and a grand number of
Christian workers would you see could they be gathered before you!
Many are the Indian hearts given back to God their Creator. Many are the
Indian homes consecrated to the Wakantanka. Many are the Indian lives
devoted to His service. And yet there are facts--there are overwhelming
facts, sad enough to break the great, throbbing Christian heart of this
country--facts that should make us cover our heads with shame.
Out of 40,000 Sioux Indians, there are 35,000 still in heathenism. There
are sixty-six tribes on the Western prairies for whom nothing is yet
done. There are 40,000 Indians of school age; but when every school is
packed to its utmost only 12,000 can be accommodated. This includes
Government schools, Roman Catholic schools, and all; so that those under
mission teachers would be far less a number than 12,000.
And this is where the Indian work stands to-day. How can the A.M.A. do
its share in this great work, or how can the work already begun be
carried on, unless money is turned liberally into its treasury?
Shall the cry for help, coming 1,500 miles across the country, strike
against a hard wall of indifference and be thrown back to mock the red
man and to bid him wait yet longer?
* * * * *
THE DAKOTA MISSIONARY SOCIETY.
Its annual meeting was held in connection with the Dakota Conference, at
the Santee Agency and in the dining-room of the Normal and Training
School. There were two hundred Indian sisters present, besides the white
lady teachers. They represented six mission stations and twice as many
churches, each church having a wide awake woman's missionary society.
After a hymn, the President, Mrs. Tasinasawin, led in prayer and read
the first three verses of the 21st chapter of Luke, following it with a
few words about that widow's mite, saying that it was not the amount
given, but the _spirit_ in which it was given. That was the important
thing. The Indian women are able to give but little, but if they give
willingly, as to the Lord, He will bless it. The minutes were then read,
and a new president and secretary elected. Two candidates were put in
nomination for each office. As the roll was called each woman arose and
voted _viva voce_. Mrs. Brascaw was elected president, and Miss Mary C.
Collins, secretary. I was delighted to see the cheery way in which these
sisters-in-red did their voting. There were several sallies of laughter.
Then the delegates made each a report of the work done in their
societies and how much money had been raised. One woman from the Brown
Earth Colony said: "We are poor, but we are interested in the work and
have done what we could. Mr. Williamson taught me to read, and when I
was young he taught many others to read. Now I am nearly blind but still
I have done what I could."
Another said: When the pastor's wife was well she had helped them very
much and had taught them many things, but now she was sick and could not
attend many of their meetings, but they worked on and did the best they
could.
Another said: "The gospel was sent to us when we were in darkness, and
now though we are few and scattered far apart, yet we are anxious to
send the same gospel to those who have not yet heard of it, and to help
those around us to love our Saviour and to love each other, and we give
gladly of the little that we have. It is not in our own strength that we
do this, but it is in God who helps us."
It was found that the women had raised this year over five hundred
dollars. This goes into the treasury of the Dakota Society to help to
sustain four native preachers, who are also teachers, out among the wild
Indians. One of the services of the Sabbath, the great day of the feast,
was to hear from those their own missionaries to the heathen. At that
meeting I counted five hundred and thirty Christian Indians, who also
partook of the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper. To help their treasury
the women had a Fair for the sale of articles of handiwork. The most
noted one was a _quilt_ which had been made and sent in by Caroline
To-tee-doo-ta-win (Scarlet House), of Brown Earth, now in her 97th year.
She was one of the first three converts who were organized into a church
in 1834, at Lac-qui-parle, Minn. Her husband had two wives, and she was
the second. Finding upon conversion that polygamy was contrary to the
ordinance of God she at once proposed to be put away. She had been a
member of the Order of the Sacred Dance, but this she renounced,
throwing away her "medicine sack," which by the medicine men was
regarded as a high crime. This subjected her to divers persecutions,
which she bore patiently. There were times when all were forbidden to
attend worship at the mission. Then she took joyfully to the spoiling of
her goods, the cutting up of her blanket, she received the Sabbath as
God's day, and more than once remained behind her company when they
travelled on that day, making it up on Monday. She learned from
missionaries to spin and knit, and weave garments for herself and
husband. At forty-five years of age she learned to read her Dakota
Bible, and of her children she sent one to Ohio to learn the ways of
Christian white people. She has adhered to the faith for these
fifty-four years. With her quilt she sent the message that it was the
last one she could make. It was bought by Miss N. Hunter, a teacher at
the Yankton Agency, for four dollars, to be presented to Rev. Dr. Arthur
Mitchell of the Presbyterian Board. It was this Miss Hunter who
interpreted for me the addresses of the woman's meeting. Surely the
Apostle Paul would say of these, "Help those women who labored with me
in the Gospel." He who was so fond of naming the Christians who were
"the first fruits of Achaia," would be very loving to this aged
disciple, the first fruits of Dakota.
JOSEPH E. ROY.
* * * * *
A missionary from the South writes: "In speaking on prohibition I call
attention to the fact that wherever there is a missionary school a
majority of the colored people are Prohibitionists, and in alluding to
places where local option has failed to banish the saloons because, as
is alleged, 'the negroes voted the wet ticket,' I add, 'To the white
citizens who make this complaint I would say, Oh, that ye had been wise!
Oh, that during all the years that have elapsed since the war, instead
of _keeping out_ you had _provided_ Christian teachers for these armed
but untrained citizens, these dwellers within the gates, with whose fate
your own is bound! Now would you have had able allies in this conflict
with the powers of darkness, this struggle between the home and the
saloon.'"
* * * * *
RECEIPTS FOR NOVEMBER, 1887.
MAINE, $302.27.
Augusta. "Friends," by Miss B.D.
Robertson ...$6.59
Bethel. Cong. Ch. and Soc. ...23.18
Biddleford. J.R. LIBBY (30 of which to
const. himself L.M.) ...100.00
Brewer. Sab Sch. of First Cong. Soc. ...15.00
Foxcroft. Mrs. D. Blanchard ...2.00
Harrison. Cong. Ch., _for Mobile, Ala._ ...9.00
New Castle, Rev. and Mrs. C.D. Crane,
_for Student Aid, Santee Indian Sch._ ...25.00
North Auson. "A Friend." ...10.00
Portland. First Parish Ch., 30; St. Lawrence
St. Ch., 13.50 ...43.50
Portland. "Thank offering," _for Tillotson
C. & N. Inst._ ...2.00
Saco. "A few Friends" in First Parish
Ch. and Soc., to const. Rev. E.C. Ingalls
L.M. ...30.00
South Paris. Cong. Ch. ...5.00
Thomaston. Cong. Ch. and Soc. ...$11.00
Winthrop. Woman's State Aid, _for Woman's
Work_ ...20.00
NEW HAMPSHIRE, $209.04.
Atkinson. Cong. Ch. and Soc. ...4.17
Berry. Sab. Sch. of First. Cong. Ch. ...16.72
Goffstown. Mrs. M.A. Stinson, _for Student
Aid, Dudley, N.C._ ...2.00
Great Falls. Mr. Bartlett, 5; Mr. Freeman,
1 ...6.00
Jaffrey. Cong. Ch. and Soc. ...11.00
Keene. "Friends," by Miss B.D. Robertson ...1.90
Milford. First Cong Ch., to cont. ELMER
E. ARMSTRONG and MARTIN H. BROWN
L.M.'s ...75.00
Nashua. Miss Sarah Kendall, _For Brewer
Sch., S.C._ ...10.00
Nashua. Mrs. A.F. Stevens ...5.00
{25}
Pelham. Cong. Ch. and Soc. ...$1.75
Pembroke. Mrs. Mary Thompson, 10;
Sab. Sch. Of Cong. Ch.,2, _for Wilmington, N.C._ ...12.00
Rindge. Geo. G. Williams ...5.00
Rochester. Sab. Sch. of Cong. Ch., _for
Marie Adlof Sch'p Fund_ ...32.00
West Concord. "Granite Mission Band,"
_for Wilmington, N.C._ ...10.00
West Lebanon. Cong. Ch. ...16.00
Winchester. Mrs. S.S. Saben, by Rev. E. Harmon ...0.50
VERMONT, $767.08.
Brandon. Cong. Ch. and Soc. ...15.30
Brattleboro. Center Cong. Ch. and Soc. ...51.49
Brattleboro. Sab. Sch. of Center Cong.
Ch., _for Student Aid, Talladega C._ ...15.00
Burlington. Third Cong. Ch., 37.50; First
Cong. Ch., 35, _for Indian M._ ...72.50
Cambridge. Second Cong. Ch. and Soc. ...12.00
Dorset. Cong. Ch. and Soc. ...27.58
Holland. Cong. Ch. and Soc. ...5.00
Manchester. "A Friend." ...5.00
McIndoes Falls. Wm. R. Monteith ...5.00
Newport. Cong. Ch. and Soc. ...11.00
Orwell. Cong. Ch. and Soc. ...28.87
Putney. Cong. Ch. ...11.00
Saint Albans. Y.P.S.C.E., _for Student
Aid, Fisk U._ ...50.00
Sharon. "Eight Ladies," _for McIntosh, Ga._ ...6.00
Springfield. Cong. Ch. (10 of which _for
Avery Inst. and 6 for Indian M._) ...423.00
Westminster. Mission Band, _for McIntosh,
Ga._, by Mrs. Ellen D. Wild ...5.00
Westminster West. Cong. Ch. and Soc., to
const. Rev. H.A. GOODHUE L.M. ...18.34
West Townshend. N.W. Goddard ...5.00
MASSACHUSETTS, $9,522.25.
Abington. Sab. Sch. of First Cong. Ch.,
_for Rosebud Indian M._ ...15.00
Allston. Cong. Ch. to const. REV. ALONZO
H. QUINT, D.D., L.M. ...30.00
Boston. Park St. Ch. and Soc.,
Ad'l ...124.00
" "A Friend." ...95.00
" Sab. Sch. of Old South
Ch., _for Tougaloo U._ ...20.00
" Mrs. J.B. Potter, _for Wilmington,
N.C._ ...8.00
" Mrs. E.P. Eayres ...5.00
" Miss Tuttle ...2.50
" Dea. Merrill of Union Ch.,
_for Tougaloo U._ ...2.00
" Mrs. N.J. Ingraham ...1.00
Dorchester. S.S. Class, by Thos.
Knapp, _for Wilmington, N.C._ ...8.00