JUNE, 1946
247
"Wkat 4 j&tk (jo d W/tought" FOR THE GOODLAND INDIAN ORPHANAGE § am m y H OW WOULD you feel If you wiere six years old; had lost your mother only a week ago, D . Hogue of more than two hundred in the twelve grades, this institution—‘the oldest church and mission school in continuous existence in Oklahoma—is still training the Choctaw Indian youth in the things that shall abide. Two years before the little school Was started in the side room of the log manse, a Presbyterian mission had
The Choctaws Today The Choctaw Indians are one of the five civilized tribes, none of whom live on reservations. Before their re moval from the Old South, when the white man took their homes and churches and schools, they were civil ized and Christianized—C h o c t a w s , Chickasaws, Cherokees, Seminóles, and Creeks. Today they still live much as does the white man. Most of them have lost their money; many of the Choctaws are very poor. Many speak both English and Choctaw; some of the younger generation do not know their native tongue; whereas some know only Choctaw, especially when they are of pre-school age. Many have intermarried with the white people; and yet there are still some -25,000 Choctaws in southeastern Oklahoma, many of whom are full blood Indians. Some of the most highly respected citizens of Oklahoma are Indians, edu cated, cultured, and Christian. From the Goodland Indian Orphanage have gone on to college or university, where today they are serving in the professional world, in business, on farms—men and women who are a credit to the institution. A number are teaching; a few are ministers of the Gospel. At least 194 former stu dents served in the armed forces dur ing World War II, thirteen of whom gave their lives for their country. From the fox hole, from ships at sea, from lonely Pacific islands came their letters, expressing their love for the church, home, and school which they call “Goodland.” “That Is Where I Found My Saviour” From Anzio Beach, during the worst of the fighting in Italy, on March 14, 1944, a Goodland boy wrote to the superintendent of the home: “As I sat here many a day and night at my fox hole, my mind wan dered back to those dark days in my life, in ’31 and ’34, when my father and mother passed on to be with Christ. .There I sat at the crossroad, not knowing which way to turn or where to go. Then one day some men came and took me, my brother, and three sisters away. In about a half day we stopped. The men said that the place was Goodland—our new home. We \were taken to different buildings. I went to the little boys’ building. "Well, things started off all right,
following a long illness caused by a malignant disease; were sent to school, a stranger in a strange land; and did not know a word of English, the language of the classroom?” This question was asked a few years ago by one teacher of another; for little Betty Lou had just come to the Goodland Indian Orphanage to live. But there was another, brighter side to the picture; for this little full blood Choctaw Indian girl already had two older sisters and an older brother at Goodland; and they could speak both Choctaw and English. Soon after her arrival, she was seen standing on the campus with these she loved, clip ping off her native speech even as her brother, a protecting arm on her shoul der, was acting as interpreter. That was six years ago; and now Betty Lou .will soon be promoted to the seventh grade—a normal, happy, Christian girl. She is but one of many who have come to the Goodland Indian Orphan age from similar, tragic experiences— boys and girls from broken homes, or phans or worse than orphans, most of them very poor, often even destitute. Yet some of these have come from stalwart Christian parentage; and al most without exception, they receive Christ as their personal Saviour soon after they hear the sacred story. They are instinctively reverent; it does not occur to them to doubt the inspired .Word of God, Pioneering in the Wilderness Ninety-six years ago, the wife of the missionary to the Choctaws of Indian Territory gathered a few orphan chil dren into the side room of the log house which was the Presbyterian manse—there were only two rooms. It was then that the Goodland Indian Orphanage had its beginning—in the days when what is now southeastern Oklahoma was a veritable wilderness. Through the years, in this home, church, and school, hundreds of In dian boys and girls and young peo ple have found the Lord Jesus Christ as Saviour and Friend. With an en rollment during the 1945-1946 session
BILLIE MAE CARNEY Who wouldn’t love this sweet little six-year-old Choctaw maiden? She is in the first grade.
been established at Yakni Achukma (Choctaw for “Good Land” ) where the orphanage is still located, four miles from the present site of Hugo, Oklahoma. Eight years prior to the beginning of the Goodland Mission, Indian Presbytery had been organized; and not many years previously the missionaries had come with the In dians from their homes in the Old South, over the historic “Trail of Tears,” to the wilderness of Indian Territory. Since 1894, the Presbyterian Church, U. S. (Southern) has owned the Goodland Indian Orphanage; and since 1923, the Synod of Oklahoma has had full control of it.
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