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Show Christmas Programs Climax Activities Of Uintah Basin LDS Indian Mission James E. Bacon, president of the Indian mission, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, has released a report of the activities of the mission during the year that just ended. Christmas programs, parties and special meetings heralded the progress that has been made by the missionaries and their president pres-ident during 1950. Special Christmas entertainments entertain-ments were held at Randlett, Whiterocks, Moffat, Ft. Duchesne Du-chesne and Ouray, with the Indian people assuming most of the parts on the programs, supplemented by the missionaries mission-aries and other members of the church living in the Indian mission. mis-sion. At Randlett on Dec. 22, 300 persons, mostly Indians jammed jam-med an old government building build-ing as a meeting place for the social functions that were enjoyed en-joyed by the group. The Whiterocks M.I.A. joined with the missionaries in sponsoring spon-soring the Christmas night activities, ac-tivities, which consisted of singing, sing-ing, Christmas carols, musical selections, square dancing, ' and regular ballroom dancing, with i music being supplied by an all- j Indian orchestra composed of Julius, Camp and Hanis Murray, Mur-ray, Pete Montez, and Lula Murdock. Of the 250 attending, 200 were Indians. On Dec. 28, the missionaries, who were just beginning their labors 'in the Moffat and Ft. Duchesne area, held their first meeting in the form of a holiday holi-day social at the Moffat ward chapel. Feature" of the party was the showing of colored pictures pic-tures of a trip down the Green river by boat; the Sammy Ho-tihis Ho-tihis party fishing trip to Montana, Mon-tana, and at Lake Atwood and Chain lakes in the Uinta mountains; moun-tains; and scenes from rodeos at Neola and at Vernal. The rodeo ro-deo scenes most generally showed the Indian boys on a wild Brahma bull or roping a calf. Following the pictures, the group participated in singing and the spoken word, with refreshments re-freshments being served by Indian In-dian girls in special costume for the occasion. Thirty-seven Indians were present. Of the various Christmas programs, pro-grams, the one at Randlett was perhaps the most unusual, Under Un-der the leadership of three missionaries mis-sionaries laboring in the districtLawrence dis-trictLawrence C. Wall, Jr., Madge K. Wall, and Delsa Dur-phy, Dur-phy, an Indian woman an old government building was scrubbed by a group of Indian women; the men and boys nailed cardboard over the window win-dow openings; and someone supplied sup-plied a stove and plenty of fire wood. The nearly 300 who assembled as-sembled at the crude meeting house were seated on planks that were stretched on stove-wood stove-wood blocks, and gas lanterns supplied the necessary light for the party and meeting. In keeping with the surroundings surround-ings was a hurriedly made stage that was constructed and decorated dec-orated so that one side por-jtrayed por-jtrayed a widow's home and the other arranged for nativity characters char-acters and scenes. In most instances ins-tances the costumes used in the program were supplied by the Indian people, and the boys and girls, who had been rehearsed by the missionaries, displayed talent in their various assignments, assign-ments, although the unexpectedly unexpected-ly large crowd that packed the building to -overflowing, made the littler children rather afraid. However, Albert and Connor Chapoose gave them encouragement encourage-ment and the show went on. The part of the mother was taken by Macgaret Are; the three children were portrayed by Andola Cespooch, Little Boy Oreves and Patso Pinnecoose. The nativity characters were: Bernice McCuren, as Mary; Laura Cespooch, an angel; Franklin McCook, Fredrick Mc-Cook Mc-Cook and Louis Arkansas, shepherds; shep-herds; George Cespooch. Richard Rich-ard McCune, and Glenn Loney, as wise men. A chorus of 20 Indian boys and girls sang carols. Under the direction of Henry and Al-1 bert Cespooch and Guy Pinne- , coose, who volunteered to serve as a finance committee, $15.80 in cash was donated by the Indian In-dian parents, and their kiddies were presented with a gift bag of candy and nuts by Santa Claus, who was portrayed by Franklin McCook. Various other Indian men and women helped in many ways to make the affair the sue-1 cess it was, and the following-statement following-statement by Henry Apooch was typical of the feeling of joy the Indians felt for the party planned for them: "Wonderful, we have enjoyed nothing, like this before in our lives." Roosevelt, Duchesne, Moon Lake and Uintah stakes contribute con-tribute missionaries to the Indian In-dian mission, which is presided over by Mr. Bacon, a member . of the Roosevelt stake high council. |