The Chemawa American, December 23, 1936, Page 2, Image 2

If
2
The CHEMAWA AMERICAN
4Chem awa ¡ 0 A m ericans
•
.......—
....
..,... .
■ ,
~
MISS EDNA GURKIN, HEAD OF THE
HEALTH DEPARTMENT OF INDIAN
SERVICE TELLS OF PHILIPPINES
f . ' t ." .’-A,...,' . —
— ■
A bi-weekly paper devoted to Indian education. Published and printed on alternate
Friday’s during th& school year by the students of the Chemawa Vocational School,
Chemawa, Oregon.
EDITORIAL STAFF
Harry Wilder, Henry Sijolin, William Settler, Agnes Hall, Mildred McCrory, Wilma Mesplie
REPORTERS
Hazel Charles, June Courville, Dorothy Hayward, Josephine Juneau, Vivian McCleod, Zena
Hogsed, Lillian Mori nJ Martha Bingham, Naomi Mesplie, Josephine Reynolds, Florence Wolftail,
Agnes Thorpe, George Bostwick, George Christian, Vernon Jackson, Noble Sanderville.
P aul T. J ackson
R osalind E . C ruise
Superintendent
Journalism Class
±
▼
R obert T homas
H arry W ilder
Manager and Printer
Student Foreman
— Editorial—
To make others happy instead of yourself, is the true Christmas spirit. Even
if it does take a lot to make them happy, the attempt is worth the effort. If your
thoughts are only for yourself and how many presents you will receive, you do
not have “ true Christmas spirit.”
As a child your picture of Christmas was the day when Santa Claus gave you
a lot of toys with which you might play. And as you grow older, you realize the
holiness of this Christmas day.
A happy jolly family gathered about a warm cozy fire and everyone wearing
a broad smile on his face has always been my idea of a happy, merry Christmas.
A smile goes a long way—a smile lightens up a Christmas day and carries the mes­
sage of the “ true Christmas spirit” to everyone’s heart.— B eatrice S ampson .
Jdany people do not realize what Christmas means or,is. It is the celebration of
the Christ Child’s birth. T hereare many who think of“it only as a time Tor ex­
changing gifts, never once thinking that Christmas should be keptas a day of holi­
ness.
About two thousand years ago in Bethlehem, there was born of the Blessed
Virgin Mary a child that was to become our Redeemer. Wise men came from far
and near bringing frankincense and gold. That is where the tradition of giving
gifts on Christmas started. These wise men were guided by the eastern star that
was shining brightly, brighter than any other star in the heaven. These wise men
did not expect gifts in return for theirs.
Exchange your gifts and feel happy that you can be doing something for some
one else’s benefit. You may know of a family that is in need, a family that dbes
not have enough money to bujr food for a Christmas dinner or they have no one to
give them gifts. Those are the people thât are most thankful for gifts from you
that have more to share than they.—J une cour ville
Have you given any thought to your New Year’s resolutions? Probably not
all of us are familiar with the true meariing of the word “ resolution.” It is'an
act of determination to change our actions in the future. Most of us make our
resolutions with good intentions but after perhaps ¿three or four days forget all
abdut them.
Few, if any of us, are so nearly perfect that wh cannot stand improvement.
In this case a good resolution would be for our own personal improvement. May­
be we haven’t been getting our night work as regularly as we should. Should we
resolve to study harder in order to get better grades? There are also other possi­
bilities, that the demerit list has been too long.' Perhaps we should take it upon
ourselves to shorten this list by keeping our name off of it. Are you gradually
losing your friends or do they act differently to you? Perhaps you have been
slightly grouchy and critical at times. With the new year coming in let us turn
over a new leaf and make others as well as ourselves happier.—M argaret A rcasa
Miss Gurkin, head of the Health De­
partment of the Indian service, gave ag
interesting talk to the students in chapel
on December 29. Since she had been
transferred from the Philippine district,
her topic was on her experiences while
in the Philippine Islands. She was intro­
duced by the student chairman ,-Dorothy
Jones.
.
. Some of the interesting features that
Miss Gurkin brought out in her talk
were about the customs and habits of
the Philippino people. In the Philippine
Islands there are many mosquitoes and
the people that come there to visit are
convinced that it is necessary for them
to Sleep with mosquito netting. There
is. still another way they have of keeping
the mosquitoes away and that is by
having little lizards that crawl around
on the walls and aré perfectly harmless.
The Philippinos are very hospitable and
Miss Gurkin found that to be true on
several occasions. She happened to be
going up a river in a small boat and"
was supposed to meet her friends at a
certain place, but everything happened
on the contrary. When she landed it
was raining and her friends were not
there. She was undecided as what to
do so she thought she would sit on her
bags and wait. While she was waiting
a Philippino man came along and. took
her to his home. He and his wife were
very kind and ■ friendly to her. She.was
very much impressed when he.told her
not to be afraid because if there was any
danger, he and his wife would be the
ones to face it.
Miss Gurkin ended by sáying-that she
never realizedhow much that old phrase,
“ Home Sweet Home,” meant until she
had been gone and again returned to her
own people and living.
The students were well entertained by
Miss Gurkin and considered her speech
one of the most interesting of the year.
Pugilists Wapoed
The Indian pugilists journeyed to
Portland last week to show the Portland
“ pugs” a few tricks in the art of self-
defense, but due to lack of training and
experience most of the boys returned low
of spirit and with swollen eyebrows.
Champine, the only fighter who returned
with a scalp, won a three round decision
over Ace” Haynes, Oregon’s champion
feather-weight.:,~