Albuquerque morning journal. [volume] (Albuquerque, N.M.) 1903-1926, 1915-11-23
NEWSPAPERS AND
CATALOGS TEXTS
USED BY INDIANS
Mrs. L, a. Richards Tells of
Novel Means Used TO Inter-
est and Instruct Indians of
Settlement of Zia,

I tN OF II hdliA newspaper WIS A'lu ny
Mrs. L. A. Richards at the Indian
school section of the New Mexico Ed
Vocational association yesterday Mrs.
Richards, who formerly was teacher
in the Zia day school. ascribed her
success. which was commented upon
livery highly by Chairman r. T. Loner-
gan in introducing her, 10 having got
her charges To desire To learn which
she declared had been accomplished
/ through reading 20 them each day eX-
tracts from a newspaper and from
showing them the pictures with which
that was illustrated
Mrs. Richards address was the
bright particular feature of a session
whose whole theme was English and
how To- teach 10 TO the Pueblos Her
audience included most of the Indian
school teachers within range Of Al
buquerQue. some men, some women
some Engiish-speaking 10y birth, some
spanish speaking, and one or two In
dams 4 good man teachers from
public schools also attended.
DAY Scnuui inspector Speaks.
T. II Hammond, day school in
spector. was the first speaker of the
day. telling Of methods and means Of
Teaching English" His address was
Ia brilliant one, somewhat technical in
places. but interesting and inspiring
10 an who heard it. Mr. Hammond
was questioned us many upon points
merely suggested in his main address
and took q leading part in the discus
sions which followed the mornings
papers.
Mrs Agnes a. Morrow, of the La
guna day school discussed in an able
way the correlation Of the teaching Of
+ English with other studies, and
brought out phases of this work which
We're discussed at length.
The last paper of the morning was
that of Mrs Richards. whom Chair
man Lonergan introduced by giving a
short sketch of her work. He de-
lelared that at the pueblo where she
had taught practically every Indian,
including even the old men had
learned to understand English and
Frequently to speak it understandable
from her He said that she had in
duced them to come to her for in
struction ana that she had won their
confidence
"Wm Confidence FIRST"
1t was this winning of the Indian
confidence that was the salient point
la The glimpse Mrs Richards gave into
her methods" Though she said she
had no method" it was apparent
that she had used an excellent one.
Mrs Richards told Of her advent
al Zb how She had been dlscour-
aged by the apparent difficulties ana
how She had found helps where least
expected
soon after / went to Zia the san
3,
said 'I was taking a daily paper and
when / read this news and saw the
pictures Of the fire and the damage
done by the earthquake ! had the
children tell their parents to come to
my house that night There ] read
them the stories of the earthquake
and showed them the pictures-you
know what folks they are for pic
lures Not long afterward there was
la feast at another pueblo. My people"
Mrs Richards called the residents
iof her pueblo her people through
lout went down there and II seems
they told these other Indians about
The earthquake. When they came
back they were immensely pleased.
because, they said Those people did
mot even know there WAS an earth
lquakc.
/ pride of knowledge Awakened.
I Pointing out how this incident had
awakened the pride of knowledge in
her charges, Mrs. Richard recounted
how She had played upon that pride,
step by step, until she had reached
practically AN of the Indians in Zia.
She gave several incidents of the way
which she had reached specific cases
and stressed the point that tact and
fricndlness. without too much for
wardncss, were the keys to the Indian
heart.
/ My people and 1 are Just neigh
4 bors." She said when they want TO
/ borrow they come to me, and they
know they must pay back, and they
do pay back, And every once in a
while / borrow something FROM them.
which perhaps do not need partic-
lularly, just 10 let them see 1 regard
lhem as neiEhhors.
/ Reached Women by Catalogue.
The women of the village Mrs.
1 Richards declared, she had reached
through a mail order catalogue, by
accident "A woman was in my room
lone day She said land looked at a
/ catalogue ! had on my desk She was
VERY much interested / asked her
whether she would like one of those
books She said yes, and others also
WANTED them. so ! wrote for some.
you know. while the men of the
I pueblos so out aud see things other
/ than I'm their own pueblo, the women
are great home bodies. Wen, from
these catalogues they found out about
the various kitchen oonveniences, etc,
4 that are ia general use. The pictures
+ interested in them and they learned
/ English from ,ac descriptions.
THE men. too, learned from the
/ catalogues They got the figures from
tine prices ana i was not very long
luutil one day "a man came to me with
IA catalogue different from the one
HAD and showed me that I'm his book
ia certain article was listed at dif-
Iferent price from that given in my
/ book
asked for the News
IL got So baG shut as went
/ through the village the people would
ask me What's the news and they
fused the word news too. always
lmade 1t a point To have something to
tell them bat often would say
something about something that had
] happened in the village They would
/ say No. know that Tell me about
. something OF which, perhaps
we had talked last. Thon | would tell
/ them.
Mrs, Richards declared that al
+ though they had to use extra help 70
+ get the mail across a nearby stream
+ the day the catalogues came. the mer-
chants had not lost anything by their
service to the Indians. For, she
said, "all the conveniences in the Zia
I homes today came there through the
Influence OF those catalogues.
Merchants Can Help.
THE merchants with whom the In
z 81 - D 49,