The Worthington advance. [volume] (Worthington, Minn.) 1874-1908, 1876-11-16
ANOTHER LETTER FROM THE sz&sE

Through the kindness ofs.Mr. Grant
ne ars enabledto furnish orr readers
another letter from the Sisseton Agen.
81, wrltten5by his daughter: /
Things are much better than I ever
expected to find. The school building
is about mile and Il half from the
Agency. 1t is a large three story house
(incduding basement), and commands i
fine view in all directions. The school
room is on the first floor, and is much
better furnished than any school room
in Worthington. There is an organ,
globe, hour glass eight maps, ETC.,
There are only about 26 children iii
school at present. butas the cold wealth
er comes on more will come in. The
children are never allowed to go home
without permission, and that not, very
often. Most of them at present are
under twelve but none. under five. The
work of the school is done mostly by
the pupils with the help of one Indian
womrn in the kitchen. There is a cook
that has charge Of all Fof the kitchen,
SO Media and do not have anything to
do about teaching them to cook or wash
dishes, or anything of the kind. The
kitchen is large and clean, anu we'll fur
nished. Our dining room is as large as
the one at Mr.. Shells, and looks very
much like it. We Il. e. the Principal
Mr.. Kimball, his wife and two children,
the matron, the cook, Media and my
self, sit at one table and the Indian
children eat at the same time at theirs.
We teachers furnish our own eatables,
and do our own cooking in a separate
kitchen from theirs. There are seven
of us, counting the two children one,
and share the expense equally. Don't
think it will be over So per month, but
it is hard to tell. Have to send to St.
Paul for everything, and some Of them
like to live pretty wen. We have lob
sters, oysters, etc: Mr.. Kimball bought
some cabbages this morning and they
were 10 cents apiece, and everything
you get of the Indians is dear. We
only get $500 year. That we found
soon after our arrival, but all of their
salaries have been cut down.
Only have school in the forenoon.
The school is so small at present that
am not III the school room over one
hour and half. We do not have to
learn the language, and we try III every
possible way to have them speak Eng
lish, and it is astonishing how fast they
learn it. I talk to all of them just the
same as l would to any one, and there
are very few that do not understand
almost everything. l have the whole
school III writing, and they are much
more apt than white children; and il,
singing they sometimes do better than
they do in our Sabbath School. There
is one little girl here that looks very
much like Birdie Sutton, and acts like
her, too. Her name is Sarah. Every
Saturday afternoon the chill lren all
battle and put on their clean clothes;
then they can get ready for their Sun
day School by nine O'Clock the next
morning without any trouble. There
is a mission church about Il half mile
from here where they hold their serv-
ices. Mr.. Morris, a son-in-laW of Mr..
Riggs, is their Superintendent. One of
the members of this family always goes
over with the children from here to
take care of them, and to teach them
in English in the Sunday School. So
you can see they are trying in every
possible way to make them give up
their language. No white person here
cares to learn it. There are about
twent y-6ve white people here, without
counting or children. They have i,
weekly prayer meeting alternating be.
tween here and the Agency, and so far
they have had service in the sclfDol
room. The first Sunday the Rev. Chas.
Chase preached. The next time Rev.
Mr.. Riggs. and last Sunday MI. Hart
read ore Of Talmage's sermons, and
think they Intend to have service of
some kind every Sunday.