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The Ramona School
By Dist. Sec. J.E. Roy.
I had the pleasure, in Santa Fι, January
13th, of attending an entertainment given by
the Ramona pupils in honor of Miss Platt,
one of their teachers. Gov. Prince and his
wife, and several of the citizens, were
present as invited guests. After the singing
of several songs, and a statement made by
Prof. Elmore Chase, the Principal, fourteen
of the scholars rendered, in the action of
nature and the speaking of English, Mrs.
Bentley's dialogue, "The Old Year's Vision
and the New Year's Message," as found in the
January number of The Youth's Temperance
Banner. One of the large boys first came in
as an old man, clad in a mantle and
trembling on a staff, to repeat the "Old
Year's Vision." Then came in, one after
another, a dozen boys and girls, to recite
the greeting of the several months. It was a
temperance exhibit, and so each one had a
testimony for that cause. January, bearing a
New Year's card in hand, declared: "I've
promised that not a drop of wine shall touch
these temperance lips of mine." February
bore a fancy valentine, with an appropriate
motto. March lifted aloft a new kite, with
"Kites may sail far up in the sky, but on
strong drink I'll never get high." July,
bearing a flag and a bunch of fire-crackers,
declares: "I tell you I mean to celebrate,
with something that won't intoxicate:" while
December resolves: "No brandy fumes in my
Christmas pie; no wine-sauce in my pudding,
say I."
Then comes in a beautiful maiden, clad in
white and crowned with flowers, to be
greeted by a chorus of voices: "The king is
dead; long live the queen!" and then to
recite the "Message of the New Year."
Then comes another song in English, and then
the second unloading of the Christmas tree,
which has kept its place in the chapel since
its proper day of Christmas cheer. Then the
whole occasion is honored by an address from
the Governor, in simple words, with smiling
face and transparent good feeling. It is not
every children's holiday that has a Governor
at hand to grace the occasion. As the
President of the Board of Trustees which,
under the A.M.A. fosters the Ramona, and as
Governor of a territory which has nineteen
Pueblo villages and the reservations of the
Navajoes and the Mescalero and Jicarilla
Apaches, he is a faithful friend of the
Indians. This is apparent from his first
report just made to the Secretary of the
Interior. The 21,000 of the Navajoes he
reports as possessing 250,000 horses, 500
mules, 1,000 burros, 5,000 cattle, 700,000
sheep and 200,000 goats. Their wool-clip the
last year reached 2,100,000 pounds. Here is
a grand field for a mission.
Indian Civilization, Now For
A Push
Forward
The time has come for new vigor in the
Indian service. Gen. Morgan has been
confirmed as Indian Commissioner, and his
broad and well-matured plans are ready to be
put into operation. We hope that Congress
will make the necessary appropriations, and
that nothing will hinder the multiplication
of Indian schools and the ingathering of
pupils. With the Sioux Indians, a great
crisis has come. Their reservation is
severed, and a broad belt is opened in it
for the incoming of the white man. There
will, of course, be the rush and confusion
of new settlers, with the almost inevitable
demoralization of the Indians. But a still
more serious and protracted evil will grow
out of the conflict of the two races and the
temptations to the Indians. If ever the
friends of the Sioux Indians needed to
bestir themselves, it is just now. The
helping hand, the open school and the
sanctifying Gospel, must forestall all bad
influences. So far as the work of the
American Missionary Association is
concerned, the opening of this reservation
to white settlement will necessitate the
removal of five or six of its out-stations,
occasioning spiritual loss and additional
money appropriations.
While we hail with satisfaction the
inauguration of Gen. Morgan's broad plans,
we feel that there should not be the least
relaxation on the part of the churches, in
the "contract schools" and in the preaching
of the gospel. From John Eliot down, the
gospel has been the great civilizing power
among the Indians, and it will be a fatal
mistake to withhold it. If the new
Government policy is successful, the gospel
is its essential adjunct, and if there
should be hindrances in carrying out that
policy, the steady stream of gospel
influences will be all the more necessary.
Streaks Of
Light Rev. C.L.
Hall, Fort Berthold, North Dakota.
A girl about seventeen years of age writes
the following to her teacher while she is
away from school for a short vacation among
her people:
"DEAR FRIEND:I will now try to write a few
lines to-night to tell you all about what we
are doing now; first I tell you when first
we came home we told the girls to come to
our house that we would have prayer meeting
the first thing; I tell you they are real
good girls, L, M, A and M; we did
not expect them to come; it is far away and
they were so tired yet they did not mind,
they come right away before we saw them. We
went upon the hills, Mary and I, we prayed,
and when we came back we was surprise to see
the girls coming. So we had prayer meeting;
that was the first time that L ever
prayed; we thought we would have prayer
meeting to-day, but we are sorry the girls
did not come, they did not know; we expect
to go to Minot Monday if nothing should
happen."
Another says:"I don't want to see the
Indian dance. I like to stay in the house
and I like to read the Bible every morning,
and in the afternoon I ask God to bless the
boys and girls and keep you always, and I
know he will help all if we ask him."
N and G, two little sisters away on a
vacation where no Sabbath is observed, go
away on the prairie alone and have prayers
together. After evening service those who
wished to follow Christ were asked to remain
to an inquiry meeting, and eight remained,
and in their own language some expressed
very clearly a desire to follow Christ and a
consciousness of their own sin and weakness.
Mrs. B's husband died very earnestly
endeavoring to teach her the faith he had
come to have, and asking her again and again
to have no idols, but to worship and believe
in God alone. She is now an earnest seeker
after light, is visited on Sunday by a
leading man who lives near her, and who is
asked to tell them on the Sabbath of the
religion and the God of whom her husband had
told her.
A father, a hearer, but yet a heathen, says:
"I want to put the boy in a school where he
will learn God's ways. I do not want him in
a school where religion is not taught."
Elizabeth
Winyan
Many of our readers will remember being
interested at our meeting in Chicago by the
appearance and speech of an Indian woman
from our Oahe Station, Elizabeth Winyan. We
have now to communicate the sad tidings of
her death, after a brief, but severe
illness. Her life was an eventful and a
useful one. Elizabeth was the name given her
by the missionaries. Winyan was her Indian
name. She was born near Mankato, Minnesota,
in 1831. At the age of twenty-five she
became one of the early converts under Drs.
Williamson and Riggs. She came to live at
the mission, and learned to sew and do all
household work. Dr. Williamson set her to
teaching some women, and so began her
missionary labor. She was a woman of great
physical strength. When she was living at
the Sisseton Agency, she cut with her own
hands and hauled to the Agency, driving the
ox-team herself, wood enough to pay for
putting her little house in good repair and
to buy some farming implements. She was a
faithful friend. This fidelity she proved
during the Indian uprising in 1862. When the
mission families were fleeing from their
burning houses at midnight, they forgot to
take any food along. While they were hiding
on an island in the Minnesota River, she, at
the risk of her own life, carried to them
bread and meat. In 1875, she and Miss
Collins went to assist Rev. T.L. Riggs in
starting the Oahe Mission, near Fort Sully,
on the Missouri. At the time of her death
she was in charge of an out-station on the
Cheyenne River, forty miles from the central
mission. Her duties were to hold meetings on
the Sabbath, one general prayer meeting on
Thursday night, and a women's meeting on
Friday night, to teach every day, visit the
sick, attend funerals, and teach the women
to sew, cook, wash and iron.
Miss Collins says of her: "There is no one
to fill her place. She was one of the
grandest women I ever knew. May God help our
poor bereaved Dakotas."
An Exemplary
Mother The recent
death of Elizabeth Winyan calls to mind a
little story connected with the training of
her son, which may not be without point even
now.
Elizabeth Winyan taught Edwin, her son, to
believe in God and in prayer. She tells a
story of how Edwin, as a child, wanted to
wear "civilized clothes." She made him a
shirt and trousers, and then he needed a hat
and shoes. She said, "I told him to pray for
them; in the meantime I worked as well as
prayed, and on Saturday, when my work was
done, the missionary's wife gave me a hat
and a pair of shoes for Edwin. He was
delighted and so was I. Since that time he
has never doubted that God would answer
prayer." She said: "I taught Edwin to give
to the Lord from a baby. When he was not old
enough to know his duty, I put the penny in
his hand and held his hand over the basket,
and dropped in the penny. Sometimes I would
only be able to get one penny, and that I
would give to Edwin to put in the
collection, for I wanted him to form a habit
of giving; I knew I ought to give, and God
knows I would when I had a penny, but my son
must be taught." This son has grown up a
good Christian, speaks English, is a
teacher, and is now a missionary at Standing
Rock. He owes much to his faithful Christian
mother.
This site includes some historical
materials that may imply negative stereotypes reflecting the culture or
language of a particular period or place. These items are presented as
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American Missionary Association, 1888-1895
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