The American Missionary | Page 8

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have suffered a sad bereavement. The place left vacant by Mrs. Frederick B. Riggs, who has just been taken away from the loving circle of missionary workers at this station cannot be filled. Her absence will be much more than the loss of one faithful missionary. She was the life, the light and the inspiration of any circle in which she moved. The brief tribute in another column to her memory calls attention to her wide usefulness. When we met in the Mission Council last year at Oahe, S. D., Mrs. Riggs's bright and confident faith lifted up all our hearts bowed down as they were by discouragement in view of the vast work to be accomplished and the retrenchment in funds. All who were present at this Council will remember how sure she was that light would come after the darkness, and that joy would come in the morning. There has come to her the richest, fullest light and joy of the better country. When we meet at the Council this year we shall be the richer for her strong faith and the abiding presence of her self-sacrificing love.
Santee Industrial School, through the rigid economy of Dr. Riggs and his faithful assistants, has enrolled more pupils than the appropriation permitted. Notwithstanding this, hundreds have been turned from the school because the funds were not sufficient to furnish them Christian instruction.
From Oahe comes the report that Rev. T. L. Riggs is gradually recovering the use of his eyes. Rev. James F. Cross, of Rosebud, has been assisting Brother Riggs during his sore affliction.
We are sometimes asked whether the hospital at Fort Yates is now in operation. It is not. Last year, by special solicitation, additional funds were gathered sufficient to conduct the hospital for one year. This was done. A hospital plant is always expensive, as it involves the salary of a trained physician and an assistant, together with medicines and other supplies. This year the funds have not come in outside of current receipts sufficient to provide for the expenses of the hospital, and it is, therefore, closed. This is to the serious loss of the religious work. Word comes from the prairie that the Indians, women and children especially, mourn sorely the loss of this hospital and the considerate and skillful care of our faithful physician.
Miss M. P. Lord, whose address at the annual meeting in Lowell attracted so general interest, remained in the East for some weeks presenting the Indian work to the churches, Christian Endeavor Societies and women's missionary societies. Her work was confined to New England. She remained as long as it seemed wise for her to be absent from the pressing duties of her mission, to which she has now returned.
The following letter was recently received from her.
"IN THE LAND OF THE DAKOTAS, LITTLE EAGLE'S VILLAGE, March 25, 1895.
"During the past week I have been twice down the river to Flying By's Village to attend their mid-week prayer meeting and Sunday morning service, and also to the Agency. My people seem to be active and earnest. Some of them are thinking they had better enlarge the little building they put up last year. A number of the people there are learning, teaching each other to read; and they are asking for a women's missionary society to be formed there. Catch-the-Enemy, who is active in the young men's society, said to me the other day that there were fifteen members at Flying By's Village. Their quarterly dues are ten cents, but the others have nothing with which to pay, and so he paid them all.
"David, dear, good, gentle David, was here to-day from Thunder Hawk's. I judge that he is getting on well there. As a teacher, I think he can not but be a success, he is so gentle, patient and good, and bright, too. A week ago we had a pleasant little visit from Mr. Reed over Sunday."
From this letter it will be seen that large opportunities are opening at this Indian mission, and most hopeful results are already being gathered. The Christian Indians are more and more realizing their own responsibility for carrying on Christian work, and are meeting it bravely. They are also responding to appeals for gifts to missionary work outside of their own tribes with self-sacrificing devotion. The collection of the Pilgrim Church at Santee, mentioned in the April magazine, increased to $241. This was to meet the debt on the treasury of the American Missionary Association.
Miss Collins, so well known to our readers, is now in the East in behalf of these needy Indian missions. Before leaving the prairies, she visited Oahe and Santee, and various missions aside from her own, that she might have the most recent information of the whole field. The object of her coming
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