Among the Sioux | Page 9

cadences of the

heathen dance or the chill thrill of the war-whoop.
Ours was a serious life. The earnestness of our parents in the pursuit of
their work could not fail to impress in some degree the children. The
main purpose of Christianizing that people was felt in everything. It
was like garrison life in time of war. But this seriousness was not
ascetical or moroseful. Far from it. Those missionary heroes were full
of gladness. With all the disadvantages of such a childhood was the
rich privilege of understanding the meaning of cheerful earnestness in
Christian life."
[Illustration: REV. STEPHEN R. RIGGS, D.D., LL.D., Forty-five
Years a Missionary to the Dakotas.]
Chapter III.
Thus for more than a quarter of a century, the glorious work of
conquering the Sioux nation for Christ went on. It was pushed
vigorously at every mission station from Lac-qui-Parle to Red Wing
and from Kaposia to Hazelwood. Great progress was made in these
years. And such a work!
The workers were buried out of sight of their fellow-white men.
Lac-qui-Parle was more remote from Boston than Manilla is today. It
took Stephen R. Riggs three months to pass with his New England
bride from the green hills of her native state to Fort Snelling. It was a
further journey of thirteen days over a trackless trail, through the
wilderness, to their mission home on the shores of the Lake-that-speaks.
Even as late as 1843, it required a full month's travel for the first bridal
tour of Agnes Carson Johnson as Mrs. Robert Hopkins from the plains
of Ohio to the prairies of Minnesota. It was no pleasure tour in Pullman
palace cars, on palatial limited trains, swiftly speeding over highly
polished rails from the far east to the Falls of St. Anthony, in those days.
It was a weary, weary pilgrimage of weeks by boat and stage, by
private conveyance and oft-times on foot. One can make a tour of
Europe today with greater ease and in less time than those isolated
workers at Lac-qui-Parle could revisit their old homes in Ohio and New

England.
Within their reach was no smithy and no mill until they built one; there
was no post office within one hundred miles, and all supplies were
carried from Boston to New Orleans by sloops; then by steamboats
almost the whole length of the Mississippi; then the flatboat-men
sweated and swore as they poled them up the Minnesota to the nearest
landing-place; then they had to be hauled overland one hundred and
twenty-five miles. These trips were ever attended with heavy toil, often
with great suffering and sometimes with loss of life.
Small was the support received from the Board. The entire income of
the mission, including government aid to the schools, was less than one
thousand dollars a year. Upon this meager sum, three ordained
missionaries, two teachers and farmers, and six women, with eight or
ten children were maintained. This also, covered travelling expenses,
books and printing.
The rude and varied dialects of the different bands of the savage Sioux
had been reduced to a written language. This was truly a giant task. It
required men who were fine linguists, very studious, patient, persistent,
and capable of utilizing their knowledge under grave difficulties. Such
were the Ponds, Dr. Williamson, Mr. Riggs and Joseph Renville by
whom the great task was accomplished. It took months and years of
patient, persistent, painstaking efforts; but it was finally accomplished.
In 1852, the Dakota Dictionary and Grammar were published by the
Smithsonian Institute at its expense. The dictionary contained sixteen
thousand words and received the warm commendation of philologists
generally. The language itself is still growing and valuable additions
are being made to it year by year.
Within a few years, a revised and greatly enlarged edition should be,
and probably will be published for the benefit of the Sioux nation.
The Word of God too, had been translated into this wild, barbaric
tongue. This was in truth a mighty undertaking. It involved on the part
of the translators a knowledge of the French, Latin, Greek, Hebrew and

Sioux tongues and required many years of unremitting toil on the part
of those, who wrought out its accomplishment in their humble log
cabins on the shores of Lakes Calhoun and Lac-qui-Parle, and at
Kaposia and Traverse des Sioux, Yellow Medicine and Hazelwood.
But it, too, was completed and published in 1879, by the American
Bible Society. Hymn-books and textbooks had also been prepared and
published in the new language. Books like the Pilgrims Progress had
been issued in it--a literature for a great nation had been created.
Comfortable churches and mission homes had been erected at the
various mission stations. Out of the eight thousand Sioux Indians in
Minnesota, more than one hundred converts had been