Among the Sioux | Page 2

publications, viz.:
THE GOSPEL OF THE DAKOTAS, MARY AND I, By Stephen R. Riggs, D.D., LL.D.
TWO VOLUNTEER MISSIONARIES, By S. W. Pond, Jr.
INDIAN BOYHOOD, By Charles Eastman
THE PAST MADE PRESENT, By Rev. William Fiske Brown
THE WORD CARRIER, By Editor A. L. Riggs, D.D.
THE MARTYRS OF WALHALLA, By Charlotte O. Van Cleve
THE LONG AGO, By Charles H. Lee
THE DAKOTA MISSION, By Dr. L. P. Williamson and others
DR. T. S. WILLIAMSON, By Rev. R. McQuesten
He makes this general acknowledgment, in lieu of repeated references, which would otherwise be necessary throughout the book. For valuable assistance in its preparation he is very grateful to many missionaries, especially to John P. Williamson, D.D., of Grenwood, South Dakota; A. L. Riggs, D.D. of Santee, Nebraska; Samuel W. Pond, Jr., of Minneapolis, and Mrs. Gideon H. Pond, of Oak Grove, Minnesota. All these were sharers in the stirring scenes recorded in these pages. The names Dakota and Sioux are used as synonyms and the English significance instead of the Indian cognomens.
May the blessing of Him who dwelt in the Burning Bush, rest upon all these toilers on the prairies of the new Northwest.
R. J. CRESWELL.
Minneapolis, Minnesota, January, 1906.


PART I.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER I.
The Pond Brothers.--Great Revival.--Conversions.--Galena.--Rum-seller Decision.--Westward.--Fort Snelling.--Man of-the-Sky.--Log Cabin.--Dr. Williamson.--Ripley.--Lane Seminary.--St. Peters Church.--Dr. Riggs.--New England Mary.--Lac-qui-Parle.
CHAPTER II.
The Lake-that-Speaks.--Indian Church.--Adobe Edifice.--First School.--Mission Home.--Encouragements.--Discouragements.--Kaposia.--New Treaty.--Yellow Medicine.--Bitter Winter.--Hazlewood.--Traverse des Sioux.--Robert Hopkins.--Marriage.--Death.--M. N. Adams, Oak Grove.-- J. P. Williamson, D.D.
CHAPTER III.
Isolation.--Strenuous Life.--Formation of Dakota Language Dictionary. --Grammar.--Literature.--Bible Translation.--Massacre.--Fleeing Missionaries.--Blood.--Anglo Saxons Triumph.--Loyal Indians.--Monument.
CHAPTER IV.
Prisoners in Chains.--Executions.--Pentecost in Prison.--Three Hundred Baptisms.--Church Organized.--Sacramental Supper.--Prison Camp.--John P. Williamson.--One Hundred Converts.--Davenport.--Release.--Niobrara. --Pilgrim Church.
CHAPTER V.
1884--Iyakaptapte.--Council.--Discussions.--Anniversaries.--Sabbath.-- Communion.--The Native Missionary Society.
CHAPTER VI.
1905--Sisseton.--John Baptiste Renville.--Presbytery of Dakota.

AMONG THE SIOUX.
PART ONE.
SOWING AND REAPING.
[Illustration: FORT SNELLING.]
They that sow in tears shall reap in joy. He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing Precious Seed, Shall doubtless come again With rejoicing, Bringing his sheaves.
Psalm 126.
Chapter I.
Now appear the flow'rets fair Beautiful beyond compare And all nature seems to say, "Welcome, welcome, blooming May."
It was 1834. A lovely day--the opening of the merry month of May!
The Warrior, a Mississippi steamer, glided out of Fever River, at Galena, Illinois, and turned its prow up the Mississippi. Its destination was the mouth of the St. Peters--now Minnesota River--five hundred miles to the north--the port of entry to the then unknown land of the Upper Mississippi.
The passengers formed a motley group; officers, soldiers, fur-traders, adventurers, and two young men from New England. These latter were two brothers, Samuel William and Gideon Hollister Pond, from Washington, Connecticut. At this time, Samuel the elder of the two, was twenty-six years of age and in form, tall and very slender as he continued through life. Gideon, the younger and more robust brother was not quite twenty-four, more than six feet in height, strong and active, a specimen of well developed manhood. With their clear blue eyes, and their tall, fully developed forms, they must have attracted marked attention even among that band of brawny frontiersmen.
In 1831 a gracious revival had occurred in their native village of Washington. It was so marked in its character, and permanent in its results, that it formed an epoch in the history of that region and is still spoken of as "the great revival". For months, during the busiest season of the year, crowded sunrise prayer-meetings were held daily and were well attended by an agricultural population, busily engaged every day in the pressing toil of the harvest and the hayfields. Scores were converted and enrolled themselves as soldiers of the cross.
Among these were the two Pond brothers. This was, in reality with them, the beginning of a new life. From this point in their lives, the inspiring motive, with both these brothers, was a spirit of intense loyalty to their new Master and a burning love for the souls of their fellowmen. Picked by the Holy Spirit out of more than one hundred converts for special service for the Lord Jesus Christ, the Pond brothers resolutely determined to choose a field of very hard service, one to which no others desired to go. In the search for such a field, Samuel the elder brother, journeyed from New Haven to Galena, Illinois, and spent the autumn and winter of 1833-34 in his explorations. He visited Chicago, then a struggling village of a few hundred inhabitants and other embryo towns and cities. He also saw the Winnebago Indians and the Pottawatomies, but he was not led to choose a field of labor amongst any of these.
A strange Providence finally pointed the way to Mr. Pond. In his efforts to reform a rumseller at Galena, he gained much information concerning the Sioux Indians, whose territory the rumseller had traversed on his way from the Red River country from which he had come quite recently. He represented the Sioux Indians as vile, degraded, ignorant, superstitious and wholly given up to evil.
"There,"