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diff --git a/21208.txt b/21208.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ad01301 --- /dev/null +++ b/21208.txt @@ -0,0 +1,3362 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Among the Sioux, by R. J. Creswell + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Among the Sioux + A Story of the Twin Cities and the Two Dakotas + +Author: R. J. Creswell + +Release Date: April 24, 2007 [EBook #21208] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AMONG THE SIOUX *** + + + + +Produced by K. Nordquist, Sigal Alon, Harvested one missing +illustration from Internet Archive and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +AMONG THE SIOUX + +_A Story of The Twin Cities and The Two Dakotas_ + + + +_BY_ + +THE REV. R. J. CRESWELL + +_Author of_ "WHO SLEW ALL THESE," ETC. + + + +_Introduction by_ + +THE REV. DAVID R. BREED, D.D. + + +1906 + +THE UNIVERSITY PRESS +MINNEAPOLIS, MINN. + + + + +_OUR PLATFORM_. + +For Indians we want American Education, American homes, American +rights,--the result of which is American citizenship. And the Gospel +is the power of God for their salvation! + + + + +_DEDICATION_. + + +TO NELLIE, + +(MY WIFE) + +Who, for forty years has been my faithful companion in the toils and +triumphs of missionary service for the Freedmen of the Old Southwest +and the heroic pioneers of the New Northwest, this volume is +affectionately inscribed. + +By the Author, + +R. J. CRESWELL. + + + + +_INTRODUCTION_ + +By the Rev. David R. Breed, D.D. + + +The sketches which make up this little volume are of absorbing +interest, and are prepared by one who is abundantly qualified to do so. +Mr. Creswell has had large personal acquaintance with many of those of +whom he writes and has for years been a diligent student of missionary +effort among the Sioux. His frequent contributions to the periodicals +on this subject have received marked attention. Several of them he +gathers together and reprints in this volume, so that while it is not a +consecutive history of the Sioux missions it furnishes an admirable +survey of the labors of the heroic men and women who have spent their +lives in this cause, and furnishes even more interesting reading in +their biographies that might have been given upon the other plan. + +During my own ministry in Minnesota, from 1870 to 1885, I became very +intimate with the great leaders of whom Mr. Creswell writes. Some of +them were often in my home, and I, in turn, have visited them. I am +familiar with many of the scenes described in this book. I have heard +from the missionaries' own lips the stories of their hardships, trials +and successes. I have listened to their account of the great massacre, +while with the tears flowing down their cheeks they told of the +desperate cruelty of the savages, their defeat, their conversion, and +their subsequent fidelity to the men and the cause they once opposed. I +am grateful to Mr. Creswell for putting these facts into permanent +shape and bespeak for his volume a cordial reception, a wide +circulation, and above all, the abundant blessing of God. + +DAVID R. BREED. + +Allegheny, Pa., January, 1906. + + + + +_PREFACE_. + + +This volume is not sent forth as a full history of the Sioux Missions. +That volume has not yet been written, and probably never will be. + +The pioneer missionaries were too busily engaged in the formation of +the Dakota Dictionary and Grammar, in the translation of the Bible +into that wild, barbaric tongue; in the preparation of hymn books and +text books:--in the creation of a literature for the Sioux Nation, to +spend time in ordinary literary work. The present missionaries are +overwhelmed with the great work of ingathering and upbuilding that +has come to them so rapidly all over the widely extended Dakota +plains. These Sioux missionaries were and are men of deeds rather +than of words,--more intent on the _making_ of history than the +_recording_ of it. They are the noblest body of men and women that +ever yet went forth to do service, for our Great King, on American +soil. + +For twenty years it has been the writer's privilege to mingle +intimately with these missionaries and with the Christian Sioux; to sit +with them at their great council fires; to talk with them in their +teepees; to visit them in their homes; to meet with them in their +Church Courts; to inspect their schools; to worship with them in their +churches; and to gather with them on the greensward under the matchless +Dakota sky and celebrate together with them the sweet, sacramental +service of our Lord and Savior, Jesus the Christ. + +He was so filled and impressed by what he there saw and heard, that he +felt impelled to impart to others somewhat of the knowledge thus +gained; in order that they may be stimulated to a deeper interest in, +and devotion to the cause of missions on American soil. + +In the compilation of this work the author has drawn freely from these +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," said the rumseller, "is a people for whose souls nobody cares. +They are utterly destitute of moral and religious teachings. No efforts +have ever been made by Protestants for their salvation. If you fellows +are looking, in earnest, for a _hard job_, there is one ready for +you to tackle on those bleak prairies." + +This man's description of the terrible condition of the Sioux Indians +in those times was fairly accurate. Those wild, roving and utterly +neglected Indians were proper subjects for Christian effort and +promised to furnish the opportunities for self-denying and +self-sacrificing labors for which the brothers were seeking. + +Mr. Pond at once recognized this peculiar call as from God. After +prayerful deliberation, Samuel determined to write to his brother +Gideon, inviting the latter to join him early the following spring, and +undertake with him an independent mission to the Sioux. + +He wrote to Gideon:--"I have finally found the field of service for +which we have long been seeking. It lies in the regions round about +Fort Snelling. It is among the savage Sioux of those far northern +plains. They are an ignorant, savage and degraded people. It is said to +be a very cold, dreary, storm-swept region. But we are not seeking a +soft spot to rest in or easy service. So come on." + +Despite strong, almost bitter opposition from friends and kinsmen, +Gideon accepted and began his preparations for life among the Indians, +and in March, 1834, he bade farewell to his friends and kindred and +began his journey westward. + +Early in April, he arrived at Galena, equipped for their strange, +Heaven-inspired mission. He found his brother firmly fixed in his +resolution to carry out the plans already decided upon. In a few days +we find them on the steamer's deck, moving steadily up the mighty +father of waters, towards their destination. "This _is_ a serious +undertaking," remarked the younger brother as they steamed northward. +And such it was. There was in it no element of attractiveness from a +human view-point. + +They expected to go among roving tribes, to have no permanent abiding +place and to subsist as those wild and savage tribes subsisted. Their +plan was a simple and feasible one, as they proved by experience, but +one which required large stores of faith and fortitude every step of +the way. They knew, also, that outside of a narrow circle of personal +friends, none knew anything of this mission to the Sioux, or felt the +slightest interest in its success or failure. But undismayed they +pressed on. + +The scenery of the Upper Mississippi is still pleasing to those eyes, +which behold it, clothed in its springtime robes of beauty. In 1834, +this scenery shone forth in all the primeval glory of "nature unmarred +by the hand of man." + +[Illustration: SAMUEL W. POND, + 20 Years a Missionary to the Sioux.] + +[Illustration: GIDEON H. POND, + For Twenty years Missionary to the Dakotas.] + +As the steamer Warrior moved steadily on its way up the Mississippi, +the rich May verdure, through which they passed, appeared strikingly +beautiful to the two brothers, who then beheld it for the first time. +It was a most delightful journey and ended on the sixth day of May, at +the dock at old Fort Snelling. + +This was then our extreme outpost of frontier civilization. It had been +established in 1819, as our front-guard against the British and Indians +of the Northwest. It was located on the high plateau, lying between the +Mississippi and the Minnesota (St. Peters) rivers, and it was then the +only important place within the limits of the present state of +Minnesota. + +While still on board the Warrior, the brothers received a visit and a +warm welcome from the Rev. William T. Boutell, a missionary of the +American Board to the Ojibways at Leach Lake, Minnesota. He was greatly +rejoiced to meet "these dear brethren, who, from love to Christ and for +the poor red man, had come alone to this long-neglected field." + +A little later they stepped ashore, found themselves in savage +environments and face to face with the grave problems they had come so +far to solve. They were men extremely well fitted, mentally and +physically, naturally and by training for the toils and privations of +the life upon which they had now entered. Sent, not by man but by the +Lord; appointed, not by any human authority but by the great Jehovah; +without salary or any prospects of worldly emoluments, unknown, +unheralded, those humble but heroic men began, in dead earnest, their +grand life-work. Their mission and commission was to conquer that +savage tribe of fierce, prairie warriors, by the two-edged sword of the +spirit of the living God and to mold them aright, by the power of the +Gospel of His Son. And God was with them as they took up their weapons +(not carnal but spiritual) in this glorious warfare. + +They speedily found favor with the military authorities, and with one +of the most prominent chieftains of that time and region--Cloudman or +Man-of-the-sky. + +The former gave them full authority to prosecute their mission among +the Indians; the latter cordially invited them to establish their +residence at his village on the shore of Lake Calhoun. + +The present site of Minneapolis was then simply a vast, wind-swept +prairie, uninhabited by white men. A single soldier on guard at the old +government sawmill at St. Anthony Falls was the only representative of +the Anglo-Saxons, where now dwell hundreds of thousands of white men of +various nationalities. + +Busy, bustling, beautiful Minneapolis, with its elegant homes; its +commodious churches; its great University--with its four thousand +students--; its well-equipped schools--with their forty-two thousand +pupils--; its great business blocks; its massive mills; its humming +factories; its broad avenues; its pleasant parks; its population of a +quarter of a million of souls; all this had not then even been as much +as dreamed of. + +Four miles west of St. Anthony Falls, lies Lake Calhoun, and a short +distance to the south is Lake Harriet, (two most beautiful sheets of +water, both within the present limits of Minneapolis). The intervening +space was covered by a grove of majestic oaks. + +Here, in 1834, was an Indian village of five hundred Sioux. Their +habitations were teepees, made of tamarack bark or of skins of wild +beasts. Their burial ground covered a part of lovely Lakewood, the +favorite cemetery of the city of Minneapolis. This band recognized +Cloudman or Man-of-the-sky as their chief, whom they both respected and +loved. He was then about forty years of age. He was an intelligent man, +of an amiable disposition and friendly to the approach of Civilization. +Here, under the auspices of this famous chieftain, they erected for +themselves a snug, little home, near the junction of Thirty-fifth +street and Irving Avenue South, Minneapolis. + +It was built of large oak logs. The dimensions were twelve feet by +sixteen and eight feet high. Straight tamarack poles formed the timbers +of the roof. The roof itself was the bark of trees, fastened with +strings of the inner bark of the basswood. + +A partition of small logs divided the house into two rooms. The ceiling +was of slabs from the old government sawmill at St. Anthony Falls. The +door was made of boards, split from a tree with an axe, and had wooden +hinges and fastenings and was locked by pulling in the latch-string. +The single window was the gift of the kind-hearted Major Taliaferro, +the United States Indian agent at Fort Snelling. The cash cost of the +whole was one shilling, New York currency, for nails, used about the +door. The formal opening was the reading of a portion of Scripture and +prayer. The banquet consisted of mussels from the Lake, flour and +water. This cabin was the first house erected within the present limits +of Minneapolis; it was the home of the first citizen settlers of +Minnesota and was the first house used as a school-room and for divine +worship in the state. It was a noble testimony to the faith, zeal and +courage of its builders. Here these consecrated brothers inaugurated +their great work. In 1839 it was torn down for materials with which to +construct breastworks for the defense of the Sioux, after the bloody +battle of Rum River, against their feudal foes, the Ojibways. Here amid +such lovely natural surroundings were the very beginnings of this +mighty enterprise. + +The first lesson was given early in May, by Samuel Pond to Big Thunder +chieftain of the Kaposia band, whose teepees were scattered over the +bluffs, where now stands the city of St. Paul. His chief soldier was +Big Iron. His son was Little Crow, who became famous or rather +infamous, as the leader against the whites in the terrible tragedy of +'62. Later in May the second lesson was taught by Gideon Pond to +members of the Lake Calhoun band. Both lessons were in the useful and +civilizing art of plowing and were the first in that grand series of +lessons, covering more than seventy years, and by which the Sioux +nation have been lifted from savagery to civilization. + +While God was preparing the Pond brothers in the hill country of +Connecticut for their peculiar life-work, and opening up the way for +them to engage in it, He also had in training in the school of His +Providences, in Massachusetts and Ohio, fitting helpers for them in +this great enterprise. In the early 30's, at Ripley, Ohio, Dr. Thomas +S. Williamson and Mrs. Margaret Poage Williamson, a young husband and +wife, were most happily located, in the practice of his profession and +in the upbuilding of a happy Christian home. To this young couple the +future seemed full of promise and permanent prosperity. Children were +born to them; they were prosperous and an honorable name was being +secured through the faithful discharge of the duties of his most noble +profession and of Christian citizenship. They regarded themselves as +happily located for life. + +The mission call to Dr. and Mrs. Williamson was emphasized by the +messenger of death. When the missionary call first came to them, they +excused themselves on account of their children. God removed the +seeming obstacles, one by one. The little ones were called to the arms +of Jesus. "A great trial!" A great blessing also. The way was thus +cleared from a life of luxury and ease in Ohio to one of great denial +and self sacrifice on mission fields. The bereaved parents recognized +this call as from God, and by faith, both father and mother were +enabled to say, "Here are we; send us." + +"This decision," says an intimate friend, "neither of them after for +one moment regretted; neither did they doubt that they were called of +God to this great work, nor did they fear that their life-work would +prove a failure." With characteristic devotion and energy, Dr. +Williamson put aside a lucrative practice, and at once, entered on a +course of preparation for his new work for which his previous life and +training had already given him great fitness. + +In 1833, he put himself under the care of the Presbytery of +Chillicothe, removed with his family to Walnut Hills, Cincinnati, and +entered Lane Seminary. While the Pond brothers in their log cabin at +Lake Calhoun were studying the Sioux language, Dr. Williamson was +completing his theological course on the banks of the beautiful river. +He was ordained to the office of the gospel ministry in 1834. And in +May, 1835, he landed at Fort Snelling with another band of +missionaries. He was accompanied by his quiet, lovely, faithful wife, +Margaret, and one child, his wife's sister, Sarah Poage, afterwards +Mrs. Gideon H. Pond, Mr. and Mrs. Alexander G. Huggins and two +children. Mr. Huggins came as a teacher and farmer. During a stay of a +few weeks here, Dr. Williamson presided at the organization of the +first Protestant congregation in Minnesota, which was called the +Presbyterian church of St. Peters. It consisted of officers, soldiers, +fur-traders, and members of the mission families--twenty-one in all; +seven of whom were received on confession of faith. It was organized at +Fort Snelling, June 11, 1835, and still exists as the First +Presbyterian church of Minneapolis, with more than five hundred members. + +[Illustration: The Old Fort Snelling Church Developed.] + +[Illustration: AT LAKE MINNETONKA.] + +Early in July, Dr. Williamson pushed on in the face of grave +difficulties, two hundred miles to the west, to the shores of +Lac-qui-Parle, the Lake-that-speaks. Here they were cordially welcomed +by Joseph Renville, that famous Brois Brule trader, the half-breed +chief who ruled that region for many years, by force of his superior +education and native abilities, and who ever was a strong and faithful +friend of the missionaries. He gave them a temporary home and was +helpful in many ways. Well did the Lord repay him for his kindness to +His servants. His wife became the first full-blood Sioux convert to the +Christian faith, and his youngest son, John Baptiste Renville, then a +little lad, became the first native Presbyterian minister, one of the +acknowledged leaders of his people. + +June, 1837, another pair of noble ones joined the ranks of the workers +by the Lakeside. These were the Rev. Stephen Return Riggs and his sweet +New England Mary, he was a native of the beautiful valley of the Ohio; +she was born amid the green hills of Massachusetts. His father was a +Presbyterian elder of Steubenville, Ohio; her mother was a daughter of +New England. She herself was a pupil of the cultured and sainted Mary +Lyon of Mount Holyoke. + +They were indeed choice spirits, well-fitted by nature and by training +for a place in that heroic band, which God was then gathering together +on the shores of Lakes Calhoun and Harriet and Lac-qui-Parle, for the +conquest of the fiercest tribe of prairie warriors that ever roamed +over the beautiful plains of the New Northwest. He was a scholar and a +linguist; courageous, energetic, firm, diplomatic; she was cultured, +gentle, tactful, and withal, both were intensely spiritual and deeply +devoted to the glorious work of soul-winning. Both had been trained as +missionaries, with China as a prospective field of service. Step by +step in the Providence of God, they were drawn together as life +companions and then turned from the Orient to the Western plains. + +During these years of beginnings, Dr. Williamson formed the +acquaintance of Stephen R. Riggs, then a young man, which culminated in +a life-long alliance of love and service. During his seminary course, +Mr. Riggs received a letter from his missionary friend, to which he +afterwards referred thus: "It seems to me now, strange that he should +have indicated in that letter the possible line of work open to me, +which has been so closely followed. I remember especially the +prominence he gave to the thought that the Bible should be translated +into the language of the Dakotas. Men do sometimes yet write as they +were moved by the Holy Ghost. That letter decided my going westward +rather than to China." It was a lovely day, the first of June, when +this young bride and groom arrived at Fort Snelling. Though it was +their honeymoon, they did not linger long in the romantic haunts of +Minnehaha and the Lakes; but pressed on to Lac-qui-Parle and joined +hands with the toilers there in their mighty work of laying foundations +broad and deep in the wilderness, like the coral workers in the ocean +depths, out of sight of man. + +What a glorious trio of mission family bands were then gathered on +Minnesota's lovely plains, on the shores of those beautiful lakes! +Pond, Williamson, Riggs. Names that will never be forgotten while a +Sioux Christian exists in earth or glory. + +[Illustration: A PARK DRIVE, LAKE CALHOUN.] + +[Illustration: SOLDIERS' HOME.] + +When the American Mission Hall of Fame shall be erected these three +names will shine out high upon the dome like "apples of gold in +pictures of silver," Pond, Williamson, Riggs. "And a book of +remembrance was written before him for them that feared the Lord +and that thought upon his name. * * * And they shall be mine, saith +the Lord of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels." + + + + +Chapter II. + + +In 1836, within one year from the arrival of Dr. Williamson and his +missionary party at Lac-qui-Parle, a church was organized, with six +native members, which in 1837, consisted of seven Dakotas, besides +half-breeds and whites, and, within five years, had enrolled forty-nine +native communicants. Of this congregation Alexander G. Huggins and +Joseph Renville were the ruling elders. + +An adobe church edifice was erected in 1841, which for eighteen years +met the wants of this people. In its belfry was hung the first church +bell that ever rang out over the prairies of Minnesota, the sweet call +to the worship of the Savior of the human race. The services of the +church were usually held in the native language. The hymns were sung to +French tunes, which were then the most popular. At the beginning, +translations from the French of a portion of Scripture were read and +some explanatory remarks were made by Joseph Renville. + +The first school for teaching Indians to read and write in the Dakota +language, was opened in December, 1835, at Lac-qui-Parle, in a conical +Dakota tent, twenty feet in height and the same in diameter. At first +the men objected to being taught for various frivolous reasons, but +they were persuaded to make the effort. The school apparatus was +primitive and mainly extemporized on the spot. Progress was slow; the +attendance small and irregular, but in the course of three months, they +were able to write to each other on birch bark. Those who learned to +read and write the language properly, soon became interested in the +gospel. The first five men, who were gathered into the church, were +pupils of this first school. Of the next twenty, three were pupils and +fourteen were the kindred of its pupils. Among their descendants were +three Dakota pastors and many of the most faithful and fruitful +communicants. + +[Illustration: MINNEAPOLIS IN 1857.] + +One large log-house of five rooms, within the Renville stockade, +furnished a home for the three mission families of Dr. Williamson, Rev. +Stephen R. Riggs and Gideon H. Pond. One room was both church and +school room for years. Under this roof the missionaries met frequently +for conference, study and translation of the word of God. Here, +September 30, 1844, the original Dakota Presbytery was organized. + +For several years most of the members of this congregation were women. +Once in the new and then unfinished church edifice, more than one +hundred Indian men were gathered. When urged to accept Christ and +become members of this church, they replied that the church was made up +of squaws. Did the missionaries suppose the braves would follow the +lead of squaws? Ugh! Ugh!! + +For the first seven years, at Lac-qui-Parle, mission work was +prosecuted, with marked success in spite of many grave hindrances. But +for the four years following--1842-46--the work was seriously retarded. +The crops failed and the savages charged their misfortunes to the +missionaries. They became very ugly, and began a series of petty yet +bitter persecutions against the Christian Indians and the missionaries. +The children were forbidden to attend school; the women who favored the +church had their blankets cut to pieces and were shut away from contact +with the mission. The cattle and horses of the mission were killed, and +for a season the Lord's work was stayed at Lac-qui-Parle. Discouraged, +but not dismayed His servants were watchful for other opportunities of +helpful service. + +In 1846, the site of the present, prosperous city of St. Paul, was +occupied by a few shanties, owned by "certain lewd fellows of the baser +sort," sellers of rum to the soldiers and the Indians. Nearby, +scattered over the bluffs, were the teepees of Little Crow's band, +forming the Sioux village of Kaposia. In 1846, Little Crow, their +belligerent chieftain, was shot by his own brother, in a drunken revel. +He survived the wound, but apparently alarmed at the influence of these +modern harpies over himself and his people, he visited Fort Snelling +and begged a missionary for his village. The United States agent +stationed there forwarded this petition to Lac-qui-Parle with the +suggestion that Dr. Williamson be transferred to Kaposia. The +invitation was accepted by the doctor, so in November, 1846, he became +a resident of Kaposia (now South St. Paul). To this new station, he +carried the same energy, hopefulness and devotion, he had shown at the +beginning. Here he remained six years, serving not only the Indians of +Little Crow's band, but also doing great good to the white settlers, +who were then gathering around the future Capital City of Minnesota. +Here in 1848, he organized an Indian church of eight members. It +increased to fifteen members, in 1851, when the Indians were removed. + +Then followed the treaty of 1851, which was of great import, both to +the white man and to the red man. By this treaty, the fertile valley of +the Minnesota was thrown open for settlement to the whites. This took +away from the Sioux their hunting-grounds, their cranberry marshes, +their deer-parks and the graves of their ancestors. So the Dakotas of +the Mississippi and lower Minnesota packed up their teepees, their +household goods and gods, some in canoes, some on ponies, some on dogs, +some on the women, and slowly and sadly took up their line of march +towards the setting of the sun. + +No sooner did the Indians move than Dr. Williamson followed them and +established a new station at Yellow Medicine, on the West bank of the +Minnesota river and three miles above the mouth of the Yellow Medicine +river. The first winter there, was a fight for life. The house was +unfinished; a very severe winter set in unusually early, the snows were +deep and the drifts terrible; the supply-teams were snowed in; the +horses perished, the provisions were abandoned to the wolves and the +drivers reached home in a half-frozen condition. But God cared for His +servants. In this emergency, the Rev. M. N. Adams, of Lac-qui-Parle, +performed a most heroic act. In mid-winter, with the thermometer many +degrees below zero, he hauled flour and other provisions for the +missionaries, on a hand sled, from Lac-qui-Parle to Yellow Medicine, a +distance of thirty-two miles. The fish gathered in shoals, an unusual +occurrence, near the mission and both the Indians and the missionaries +lived through that terrible winter. Here, an Indian church of seventeen +members was organized by Dr. Williamson. It increased to a membership +of thirty in the next decade. + +In March, 1854, the mission houses at Lac-qui-Parle were destroyed by +fire. A consolidation of the mission forces was soon after effected. +Dr. Riggs and other helpers were transferred from Lac-qui-Parle to a +point two miles distant from Yellow Medicine and called Omehoo +(Hazelwood). A comfortable mission home was erected. The native +Christians removed from Lac-qui-Parle and re-established their homes at +Hazelwood. A boarding school was soon opened at this point by Rev. M. +N. Adams. A neat chapel was also erected. A church of thirty members +was organized by Mr. Riggs. It grew to a membership of forty-five +before the massacre. These were mainly from the the Lac-qui-Parle +church which might be called the mother of all the Dakota churches. + +There were now gathered around the mission stations, quite a community +of young men, who had to a great extent, become civilized. With +civilization came new wants--pantaloons and coats and hats. There was +power also in oxen and wagons and brick-houses. The white man's axe and +plow and hoe had been introduced and the red man was learning to use +them. So the external civilization went on. + +But the great and prominent force was in the underlying education and +especially in the vitalizing and renewing power of Christian truth. So +far as the inner life was changed, civilized habits became permanent; +otherwise they were shadows. Evangelization was working out +civilization. It is doing its permanently blessed work even yet. + +About this time occurred the formation of the Hazelwood Republic. + +This was a band of Indians somewhat advanced in civilization, who were +organized chiefly by the efforts of Dr. Riggs, under a written +constitution and by-laws. Their officers were a President, Secretary +and three judges, who were elected by a vote of the membership for a +term of two years each. Paul Maza-koo-ta-mane was the first president +and served for two terms. This was an interesting experiment, in the +series of efforts, by the missionaries, to change this tribe of nomads +from their roving teepee life to that of permanent dwellers in fixed +habitations. The rude shock of savage warfare, which soon after +revolutionized the whole Sioux nation, swept it away before its +efficiency could be properly tested. Surely it was a novelty--an Indian +band, regulated by written laws and governed by officers, elected by +themselves for a term of years. It now exists only in the memory of the +oldest of the tribesmen or the missionaries. + +In 1843, a new station was established at Traverse des Sioux (near St. +Peter, Minnesota,) by the Rev. Stephen R. Riggs. This station was +doomed to a tragic history. July 15, 1843, Thomas Longley, the favorite +brother of Mrs. Mary Riggs, was suddenly swallowed up in the +treacherous waters of the Minnesota and laid to rest under what his +sister was wont to call the "Oaks of weeping"--three dwarf oaks on a +small knoll. In 1844, Robert Hopkins and his young bride joined the +workers here. In 1851, July 4, Mr. Hopkins was suddenly swept away to +death by the fatal waves of the Minnesota and his recovered body was +laid to rest under the oaks where Thomas Longley had slept all alone +for seven years. Thus the mission at Traverse des Sioux was closed by +the messenger of death. It was continued, however, in the nearby +frontier town of St. Peter, whose white settlers requested the Rev. M. +N. Adams, one of the missionaries to the Sioux, to devote his time to +their spiritual needs. He complied and founded a white Presbyterian +church and it is one of the strong Protestant organizations of Southern +Minnesota. + +In 1843, also the Pond brothers established a station at Oak Grove, +twelve miles west of the Falls of St. Anthony. It was never abandoned. +For many years it was the center of beneficent influences to both races +for miles around. It developed into the white Presbyterian church of +Oak Grove, which still stands as a monument to the many noble qualities +of its founder, Rev. Gideon Hollister Pond. On the Sabbath scores of +his descendants worship within its walls. The surrounding community is +composed largely of Ponds and their kindred. + +In 1846, a mission was established at Red Wing by the Reverends J. F. +Aiton and J. W. Hancock, and another in 1860, at Red Wood by Rev. John +P. Williamson. + +In 1858, a church was organized at Red Wing with twelve members. This +was swept away by the outbreak in 1862. + +Dr. John P. Williamson, who was born in 1835, in one of the mission +cabins on the shores of Lac-qui-Parle, who has spent his whole life +among the Sioux Indians, and who with a singleness of purpose, worthy +of the apostle Paul, has devoted his whole life to their temporal and +spiritual uplift, thus vividly sketches missionary life among the Sioux +in his boyhood days: "My first serious impression of life was that I +was living under a great weight of something, and as I began to discern +more clearly, I found this weight to be the all-surrounding +overwhelming presence of heathenism, and all the instincts of my birth +and culture of a Christian home set me at antagonism to it at every +point. + +"This feeling of disgust was often accompanied with fear. At times, +violence stalked abroad unchallenged and dark lowering faces skulked +about. Even when we felt no personal danger this incubus of savage life +all around weighed on our hearts. Thus it was day and night. Even those +hours of twilight, which brood with sweet influences over so many +lives, bore to us, on the evening air, the weird 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 gathered into the church. The +faithful missionaries, who had toiled so long, with but little +encouragement, now looked forward hopefully into the future. + +Apparently the time to favor their work had come. But suddenly all +their pleasant anticipations vanished--all their high hopes were +blasted. + +It was August 17, 1862, a lovely Sabbath of the Lord. It was +sacramental Sabbath at Hazelwood. As their custom was, that +congregation of believers and Yellow Medicine came together to +commemorate their Lord's death. The house was well-filled and the +missionaries have ever remembered that Sabbath as one of precious +interest, for it was the last time they ever assembled in that +beautiful little chapel. A great trial of their faith and patience was +before them and they knew it not. But the loving Saviour knew that both +the missionaries and the native Christians required just such a rest +with Him before the terrible trials came upon them. + +As the sun sank that day into the bosom of the prairies, a fearful +storm of fire and blood burst upon the defenseless settlers and +missionaries. Like the dread cyclone, it came, unheralded, and like +that much-to-be-dreaded monster of the prairies, it left desolation and +death in its pathway. The Sioux arose against the whites and in their +savage wrath swept the prairies of Western Minnesota as with a besom of +destruction. One thousand settlers perished and hundreds of happy homes +were made desolate. The churches, school-houses and homes of the +missionaries were laid in ashes. However, all the missionaries and +their households escaped safely out of this fiery furnace of barbaric +fury to St. Paul and Minneapolis. All else seemed lost beyond the +possibility of recovery. + +In dismay, the missionaries fled from the wreck of their churches and +homes. There were forty persons in that band of fugitives, missionaries +and their friends, who spent a week of horrors--never-to-be-forgotten--in +their passage over the prairies to St. Paul and Minneapolis. By day +they were horrified by the marks of bloody cruelties along their +pathway--dead and mangled bodies, wrecked and abandoned homes. At +night, they were terrified by the flames of burning homes and fears of +the tomahawks and the scalping knives of their cruel foes. The nights +were full of fear and dread. Every voice was hushed except to give +necessary orders; every eye swept the hills and valleys around; every +ear was intensely strained to catch the faintest noise, in momentary +expectation of the unearthly war-whoop and of seeing dusky forms with +gleaming tomahawks uplifted. In the moonlight mirage of the prairies, +every taller clump of grass, every blacker hillock grew into a blood +thirsty Indian, just ready to leap upon them. But, by faith, they were +able to sing in holy confidence: + + "God is our refuge and our strength; + In straits a present aid; + Therefore although the hills remove + We will not be afraid." + +And the God, in whom they trusted, fulfilled his promises to them and +brought them all, in safety, to the Twin Cities. And as they passed the +boundary line of safety, every heart joined in the glad-song of praise +and thanksgiving, which went up to heaven. "Jehovah has triumphed, His +people are free," seemed to ring through the air. + +Little Crow, the chieftain of the Kaposia Band was the acknowledged +leader of the Indian forces in this uprising. He was forty years of +age, possessed of considerable military ability; wise in council and +brave on the field of battle. He had wrought, in secret, with his +fellow-tribesmen, until he had succeeded in the formation of the +greatest combination of the Indians against the whites since the days +of Tecumseh and the Prophet in the Ohio country, fifty years before. He +had under his control a large force of Indian warriors armed with +Winchesters; and on the morning of the battle, he mustered on the hills +around New Ulm, the largest body of Indian cavalry ever gathered +together in America. + +[Illustration: MINNEHAHA FALLS.] + +[Illustration: PERILS BY THE HEATHEN + Missionaries fleeing from Indian massacre in 1862. + +Thursday morning of that terrible week, after an all-night's rain, +found them all cold, wet through and utterly destitute of cooked food +and fuel. That noon they came to a clump of trees and camped down on +the wet prairies for the rest of the day. They killed a stray cow and +made some bread out of flour, salt and water. An artist, one of the +company, took the pictures here given.] + +The whites arose in their might and, under the leadership of that +gallant general, Henry H. Sibley, gave battle to their savage foes. +Then followed weeks of fierce and bloody warfare. It was no child's +play. On the one side were arrayed the fierce warriors of the Sioux +nation, fighting for their ancestral homes, their ancient hunting +grounds, their deer-parks and the graves of their ancestors. "We +_must_ drive the white man east of the Mississippi," was the +declaration of Little Crow, and he added the savage boast; "We will +establish our winter-quarters in St. Paul and Minneapolis." Over +against them, were the brave pioneers of Minnesota, battling for the +existence of their beloved state, for their homes, and for the lives +and honor of their wives and daughters. The thrilling history of the +siege of New Ulm, of the battle of Birch Coullie, of Fort Ridgely and +Fort Abercrombie, and of other scenes of conflict is written in the +mingled blood of the white man, and of the red man on the beautiful +plains of western Minnesota. The inevitable result ensued. The Sioux +were defeated, large numbers were slain in battle or captured, and in +despair, the others fled to the then uninhabited regions beyond the Red +River of the North. Many of these found refuge under the British flag +in Prince Rupert's Land (now Manitoba). + +One of the redeeming features in this terrible tragedy of '62, was the +unflinching loyalty of the Christian Sioux to the cause of peace. They +stood firmly together against the war-party and for the whites. They +abandoned their homes and pitched their teepees closely together. This +became the rallying point for all who were opposed to the outbreak. +They called it Camp Hope, which was changed after the flight of Little +Crow's savage band to Camp Lookout. Two days later, when General +Sibley's victorious troops arrived, it was named Camp Release. Then it +was that the captives, more than three hundred in number were released, +chiefly through the efforts of the Christianized Indians. + +In 1902, at the celebration of the fortieth anniversary of the battle +of New Ulm, by invitation of the citizens, a band of Sioux Indians +pitched their teepees in the public square and participated in the +exercises of the occasion. This was a striking illustration of the +amity now existing between the two races upon the very ground, where +their immediate ancestors so eagerly sought each other's life-blood, in +the recent past. Here on the morn of battle, on the surrounding hills, +in the long ago, Little Crow had marshalled his fierce warriors, who +rushed eagerly in savage glee, again and again, to the determined +assault, only to be driven back, by the brave Anglo-Saxon defenders. +Tablets, scattered here and there over the plains, in the valley of the +Minnesota River, tell the story of the Sioux nation, in the new +Northwest. + +John Baptiste Renville, a licentiate of the Presbyterian church, and +who later was a famous preacher of great power among his own people, +remained inside of the Indian lines, and was a powerful factor in +causing the counter revolution which hastened the overthrow of the +rebellion, and the deliverance of the white captives. Elder Peter Big +Fire turned the war party from the trail of the fleeing missionaries +and their friends, thus saving two-score lives. One Indian alone, John +Other-Day, saved the lives of sixty-two whites. One elder of the +church, Simon Anakwangnanne, restored a captive white woman and three +children. And still another, Paul Mintakutemanne, rescued a white woman +and several children and a whole family of half-breeds. These truly +"good Indians" saved the lives of more than their own number of +whites,--probably two hundred souls in all. + +In token of her appreciation of these invaluable services, Minnesota +has caused a monument to be erected in honor of these real braves, on +the very plains, then swept by the Sioux with fire and blood, in their +savage wrath. + +It is located on the battlefield of Birch Coullie, near Morton in +Renville County. The cenotaph is built entirely of native stone of +different varieties. It rises to the height of fifty-eight feet above +the beautiful prairies by which it is surrounded. It bears this +appropriate inscription + + HUMANITY. + + Erected A.D. 1899, by the Minnesota Valley Historical Society + to commemorate the brave, faithful and humane conduct of the + loyal Indians who saved the lives of white people and were true + to their obligations throughout the Sioux war in Minnesota in + 1862, and especially to honor the services of those here named: + + Other Day--Ampatutoricna. + Paul--Mintakutemanne. + Lorenzo Lawrence--Towanctaton. + Simon--Anakwangnanne. + Mary Crooks--Mankahta Heita-win. + + + + +Chapter IV. + +"Who are these that fly as a cloud, and as the doves to their +windows?"--_Isaiah 60:8._ + + +But now occurred the strangest phase of this wondrously strange story. +In November, 1862, four hundred defeated Indian warriors, many of them +leaders of their people, were confined in prison-pens at Mankato, +Minnesota. While free on the prairies, these wild warriors had bitterly +hated the missionaries with all the intensity of their savage natures. +They had vigorously opposed every effort of the missionaries in their +behalf. They had scornfully rejected the invitations of the Gospel. But +now in their claims, they earnestly desired to hear the glad tidings +they had formerly scorned. They sent for the missionaries to visit them +in prison and the missionaries responded with eager joy. And the Holy +Spirit accompanied them. Thirty-eight of the prisoners were under the +death-sentence and were executed in December. + +"I remember," said Dr. Williamson, "feeling a great desire to preach to +them, mingled with a kind of terror partly from a sense of grave +responsibility in speaking to so many whose probation was so nearly +closed, and partly from a sense of fear of hearing them say to me "Go +home; when we were free we would not hear you preach to us; why do you +come here to torment us when we are in chains and cannot go away." It +was a great relief to find them listening intently to all I had to +say." + +The prisoners were supplied with Bibles and other books, and for a +time, the prison became a school. They were all eager to learn. The +more their minds were directed to God and His Word, the more they +became interested in secular studies. + +Very soon the Indians of their own accord began holding meetings every +morning and evening in which they sang and spoke and prayed. In a short +time, there were ninety converts that would lead in public prayer. Of +those who were executed, thirty were baptized. Standing in a foot of +snow, manacled two and two, they frequently gathered to sing and pray +and listen to the words of eternal life. Of this work, the Rev. Gideon +H. Pond wrote at the time; "There is a degree of religious interest +manifested by them, which is incredible. They huddle themselves +together every morning and evening, read the scriptures, sing hymns, +confess one to another and pray together. They declare they have left +their superstitions forever, and that they do and will embrace the +religion of Jesus." + +In March, Mr. Pond visited Mankato again and spent two Sabbaths with +the men in prison, establishing them in their new faith. Before his +departure, he administered the Lord's supper, to these new converts. +And again the Mankato prison-pens witnessed a strange and wondrous +scene. Three hundred embittered, defeated Indian warriors, manacled, +fettered with balls and chains,--but clothed and in their right +minds,--were sitting in groups upon the wintry grounds reverently +observing the Lord's supper. Elders Robert Hopkins, Peter Big-Fire and +David Grey Cloud officiated with reverence and dignity. The whole +movement was marvelous! It was like a "nation born in a day." And after +many years of severe testing, all who know the facts, testify that it +was a genuine work of God's Holy Spirit. The massacre and the +subsequent events destroyed the power of the Priests of Devils, which +had previously ruled and ruined these wretches' tribes. They +themselves, exploded the dynamite under the throne of Paganism and +shattered it to fragments forever. + +In 1863, these Indians were transferred to Davenport, Iowa, where they +were confined in prison for three years. In 1866 they were released by +the government and returned to their native prairies, where they then +became the nuclei of other churches, other Sabbath schools and other +church organizations; and so these formerly savage Sioux became a +benediction rather than a terror to their neighbors on the plains of +the Dakotas. The church of the prison-pen became the prolific mother of +churches. + +While these events were transpiring in the prison-pen at Mankato, a +similar work of grace was also in progress in the prison camp at Fort +Snelling, where fifteen hundred men, women and children, mainly the +families of the Mankato prisoners, were confined under guard. The +conditions, in both places, were very similar. In the camp as well as +in the prison, they were in grave troubles and great anxieties. In +their distresses they called mightily upon the Lord. Here John, the +Beloved (John P. Williamson D.D.) ministered to their temporal and +spiritual wants. The Lord heard and answered their burning and +agonizing cries. By gradual steps, but with overwhelming power came the +heavenly visitation. Many were convicted; confessions and professions +were made; idols reverenced for many generations were thrown away by +the score. More than one hundred and twenty were baptized and organized +into a Presbyterian church, which, after years of bitter wandering, was +united with the church of the Prison Pen and formed the large +congregation of the Pilgrim church. + +Thus all that winter long, '62-3, there was in progress within the rude +walls of those terrible prison-pens at Mankato, one of the most +wonderful revivals since the day of Pentecost. And in February, '63, +Dr. Williamson and Rev. Gideon H. Pond spent a week in special services +amongst them. + +The most careful examinations possible were made into their individual +spiritual condition and the most faithful instruction given them as to +their Christian duties; then those Indian warriors were all baptized, +received into the communion of the church and organized into a +Presbyterian church within the walls of the stockade; _three hundred +in a day_! Truly impressive was + +THE BAPTISMAL SCENE. + +The conditions of baptism were made very plain to the prisoners and it +was offered to only such as were willing to comply fully with those +conditions. All were forbidden to receive the rite, who did not do it +heartily to the God of Heaven, whose eye penetrated each of their +hearts. All, by an apparently hearty response, indicated their desire +to receive the rite on the proffered conditions. As soon as the +arrangements were completed, they came forward one by one, as their +names were called and were baptized into the name of the Father, Son +and Holy Spirit, while each subject stood with the right hand raised +and head bowed and many of them with their eyes closed with an +appearance of profound reverence. As each came forward to be baptized +one of the ministers addressed to him in a low voice a few appropriate +words. This was the substance of these personal addresses. "My brother, +this is a mark of God, which is placed upon you. You will carry it with +you while you live. It introduces you into the great family of God who +looks down from heaven, not upon your head but into your heart. This +ends your superstition, and from this time you are to call God your +Father. Remember to honor Him. Be resolved to do His will." Each one +responded heartily, "Yes, I will." + +Gideon H. Pond then addressed them collectively. + +"Hitherto I have addressed you as friends; now I call you brethren. For +years we have contended together on this subject of religion; now our +contentions cease. We have one Father, we are one family. I shall soon +leave you and shall probably see your faces no more in this world. Your +adherence to the medicine sack and the Natawe (consecrated war weapons) +have brought you to your ruin. The Lord Jesus Christ can save you. Seek +him with all your heart. He looks not upon your heads nor on your lips +but into your bosoms. Brothers, I will make use of a term of brotherly +salutation, to which you have been accustomed to your medicine dances +and say to you: "'Brethren I spread my hands over you and bless you.'"" +Three hundred voices responded heartily, "'Amen, yea and Amen.'" + + + + +Chapter V. + + +It was 1884. Fifty years since the coming of the Pond brothers to Fort +Snelling--twenty-one years since the organization of the church in the +prison-pen at Mankato. One bright September day, from the heights of +Sisseton, South Dakota, a strangely beautiful scene was spread out +before the eye. In the distance the waters of Lake Traverse (source of +the Red River of the North), and Big Stone Lake (head waters of the +Minnesota), glistened in the bright sunshine, their waters almost +commingling ere they began their diverse journeyings--the former to +Hudson's Bay, the latter to the Gulf of Mexico. At our feet were +prairies rich as the garden of the Lord. The spot was Iyakaptapte, that +is the Ascension. Half-way up was a large wooden building, nestling in +a grassy cove. Round about on the hillsides were white teepees. Dusky +forms were passing to and fro and pressing round the doors and windows. +We descended and found ourselves in the midst of a throng of Sioux +Indians. Instinctively we asked ourselves, Why are they here? Is this +one of their old pagan festivals? Or is it a council of war? We +entered. The spacious house was densely packed; we pressed our way to +the front. Hark! They are singing. We could not understand the words, +but the air was familiar. It was Bishop Heber's hymn (in the Indian +tongue): + + "From Greenlands icy mountains, + From India's coral strand. + * * * + Salvation! O Salvation! + The joyful sound proclaim, + Till each remotest nation + Has learned Messiah's Name. + Waft, waft, ye winds, His story, + And you, ye waters, roll, + Till like a sea of glory + It spreads from pole to pole." + +With what joyful emphasis, this strange congregation sang these words. + +We breathed easier. This was no pagan festival, no savage council of +war. It was the fifteenth grand annual council of the Dakota Christian +Indians of the Northwest. + +The singing was no weaklunged performance--not altogether harmonious, +but vastly sweeter than a war-whoop; certainly hearty and sincere and +doubtless an acceptable offering of praise. The Rev. John Baptiste +Renville was the preacher. His theme was Ezekiel's vision of the Valley +of Dry Bones. We did not knew how he handled his subject. But the ready +utterance, the sweet flow of words, the simple earnestness of the +speaker and the fixed attention of the audience marked it as a complete +success. When the sermon was finished, there was another loud-voiced +hymn and then the Council of Days was declared duly opened. + +Thus they gather themselves together, year by year to take counsel in +reference to the things of the kingdom. The Indian moderator, Artemas +Ehnamane, the Santee pastor, was a famous paddle-man, a mighty hunter +and the son of a great conjuror and war-prophet, but withal a tender, +faithful, spiritual pastor of his people. Rev. Alfred L. Riggs, D.D., +the white moderator, who talked so glibly alternately in Sioux and +English and smiled so sweetly in both languages at once, was "Good +Bird," one of the first white babes born at Lac-qui-Parle. John, The +Beloved, one of the chief white workers, as a boy had the site of +Minneapolis and St. Paul for a play-ground, and the little Indian lads +for his playmates. That week we spent at Iyakaptapte was a series of +rich, rare treats. We listened to the theological class of young men, +students of Santee and Sisseton. We watched the smiling faces of the +women as they bowed in prayer, and brought their offerings to the +missionary meetings. Such wondrous liberality those dark-faced sisters +displayed. We marked with wonder the intense interest manifested hour +by hour by all classes in the sermons, addresses, and especially in the +discussion: "How shall we build up the church?" Elder David Grey Cloud +said, "We must care for the church if we would make it effective. We +must care for all we gather into the church." The Rev. James Red-Wing +added, "The work of the church is heavy. When a Red River cart sticks +in the mud we call all the help we can and together we lift it out; we +must all lift the heavy load of the church." The Rev. David Grey Cloud +closed with: "We must cast out all enmity, have love for one another +and then we shall be strong." + +"Does the keeping of Dakota customs benefit or injure the Dakota +People?" + +Deacon Boy-that-walks-on-the-water responded emphatically. "The ancient +Dakota customs are all bad. There is no good in them. They are all sin, +all sorrow. All medicine men are frauds. Jesus is the only one to hold +to." Rev. Little-Iron-Thunder said "When I was a boy I was taught the +sacred dances and all the mysteries; to shoot with the bag; to hold the +sacred shell. To gain a name, the Dakotas will suffer hunger, cold, +even death. But all this is a cheat. It will not give life to the +people. Only one name will give life,--even Jesus." Rev. Daniel +Renville declared: "Faith is the thing our people need; not faith in +everything, but faith in Christ; not for hope of reward." + +There were evening gatherings in the interest of the Young Men's +Christian Associations and the Young People's Christian Endeavor +Societies. These are two of the most hopeful features of the work. With +the young men and maidens of the tribe in careful training in Christian +knowledge and for Christian service, there must be far-reaching and +permanent beneficent results. + +Sabbath came! A glorious day! A fitting crown of glory for a week of +such rare surprises. A strange chanting voice, like that of a herald +mingled with our day-break dreams. Had we been among the Moslems, we +should have thought it the muezzin's cry. It was all Indian to us, but +it was indeed a call to prayer with this translation in English:-- + +"Morning is coming! Morning is coming! Wake up! Wake up! Come to sing! +Come to pray." + +Very soon, the sweet music of prayer and praise from the white teepees +on the hillside, rose sweetly on the air, telling us that the day of +their glad solemnities had begun. The great congregation assembled in +the open air. Pastor Renville, who as a little lad played at the feet +of the translators of the Bible into the Sioux language, and who as a +young man organized a counter revolution among the Christian Indians in +favor of the government in the terrible days of '62, presided with +dignity, baptizing a little babe and receiving several recent converts +into the church. A man of rare powers and sweet temperament is the Rev. +John Baptiste Renville, youngest son of the famous Joseph Renville. A +wonderfully strange gathering is this. Hundreds of Indians seated in +semi-circles on the grass, reverently observing the Lord's Supper. +Probably one-third of the males in that assemblage were participants in +the bloody wars of the Sioux nation. The sermon was delivered by +Solomon His-Own-Grandfather, who had taken an active part in the war of +1862, but was now a missionary among his own people in Manitoba. The +bread was broken by Artemas Ehnamane ("Walking Along"), who was +condemned and pardoned, and then converted after that appalling tragedy +in 1862. The wine was poured by the man whom all the Sioux lovingly +call John (Dr. John P. Williamson) who led them in the burning revival +scenes in the prison-camp at Fort Snelling in 1863. And as he referred +to those thrilling times, their tears flowed like rain. It is said that +Indians cannot weep, but scores of them wept that day at Ascension. One +of the officiating elders was a son of the notorious chieftain Little +Crow, who was so prominent against the Anglo-Saxons in those days of +carnage. As we partook of those visible symbols of our Saviour's broken +body, and shed blood, with this peculiar congregation, so recently +accustomed to the war-whoop and the scalp-dance, we freely mingled our +tears with theirs. And as our minds ranged over the vast Dakota field +and as we remembered the thousands of Christian Sioux, their Presbytery +and their Association, their scores of churches and their many Sabbath +Schools, their Y.M.C.A. and their Y.P.S.C.E. associations, their +missionary societies and other beneficent organizations, their farms +and homes, their present pure, happy condition, and contrasted it with +their former superstition, nakedness and filthy teepee life, we sang +joyfully; + + Behold! What wondrous works + Have, by the Lord, been wrought; + Behold! What precious souls + Have, by His blood, been bought. + +As the shades of evening drew on, the different bands held their +farewell meetings in their teepees. There were sounds of sweet +music--joyous ones--echoing and re-echoing over the prairies--"He +leadeth me, Oh precious thought," "Nearer, my God to thee," "Blessed +Assurance, Jesus hath given"--until the whole was blended in one grand +refrain:-- + + "Blest be the tie that binds + Our hearts in Christian love; + The fellowship of Christian minds + Is like to that above." + +The Council Tent was in darkness! The lights were out in the teepees. +The whole camp was wrapped in solid slumber. And as we sunk to rest in +our bed of new-mown hay, we breathed a prayer for the slumbering Sioux +around us; May the Cloud, by day, and the Pillar of Fire, by night, +guide the Sioux Nation through the Red Sea of Savagery, superstition +and sin to the Promised Land of Christian Civilization. + + +The Native Missionary Society. + +It is well worth a journey to the land of the Dakotas to witness an +anniversary gathering of their Woman's Missionary Society. You enter +the great Council Tent. It is thronged with these nut-brown women of +the plains. A matronly woman welcomes you, and presides with grace and +dignity. A bright and beautiful young maiden--a graduate of Santee or +Good Will--controls the organ and sweetly leads the service of song. +And oh how they do sing! You cannot understand the words, but the airs +are familiar. Now it is Bishop Coxe's "Latter Day" sung with vim in the +Indian tongue; + + "We are living, we are dwelling, + In a grand and awful time; + In an age on ages telling, + To be living is sublime." + +And now some sedate matron rises and reads a carefully written paper, +contrasting their past, vile teepee life of ignoble servitude to Satan, +with their present, pure life of glorious liberty in the Lord Jesus +Christ. And then they sing, so earnestly for they are thinking of their +pagan sisters of the wild tribes, sitting in darkness and the shadow of +death, in the regions beyond. The hymn is Draper's "Missionary Chant." + + "Ye Christian heralds, go proclaim + Salvation through Emmanuel's name; + To distant lands the tidings bear + And plant the Rose of Sharon there." + +And now a lively young lass, neatly attired, comes forward and with a +fine, clear accent, recites a poem of hope, touching the bright future +of their tribe, when the present generation of young men and maidens, +nourished in Christian homes, educated in Christian schools and trained +in the Young People's societies for efficient service, shall control +their tribe, and move the great masses of their people upward and +God-ward, and elevate the Sioux Nation to a lofty plane of Christian +civilization and culture; and enable them to display to the world the +rich fruition of Christian service. And, by request, their voices ring +out in song these thrilling words; + + "Watchman, tell us of the night, + For the morning seems to dawn; + Traveller, darkness takes its flight, + Doubt and terror are withdrawn. + Watchman, let thy wanderings cease; + Hie thee, to thy quiet home; + Traveller, lo, the Prince of Peace, + Lo, the Son of God is come!" + +Fervent prayers are frequently interspersed in these exercises. And oh, +what wondrous liberality these dark-skinned sisters of the Dakota +plains display! + +How full their hands are with rich gifts, gleaned out of their poverty +for the treasury of their Saviour-King. For many years, the average +annual contributions per capita to missions, by these Sioux sisters, +have fully measured up to the standard of their more highly favored +Anglo-Saxon sisters of the wealthy Presbyterian and Congregational +denominations, of which they form a humble part. + + + + +Chapter VI. + + +It was 1905. From the heights of Sisseton, South Dakota, another +striking scene met the eye. The great triangular Sisseton reserve of +one million acres no longer exists. Three hundred thousand of its +choicest acres are now held in severalty by the fifteen hundred members +of the Sisseton and Wahpeton Band of the Dakotas--the "Leaf Dwellers" +of the plains. Their homes, their schools, their churches cover the +prairies. That spire pointing heavenward rises from Good Will Church, a +commodious, well-furnished edifice, with windows of stained glass. +Within its walls, there worship on the Sabbath, scores of dusky +Presbyterian Christians. The pastor, the Rev. Charles Crawford, in +whose veins there flows the mingled blood of the shrewd Scotch fur +trader and the savage Sioux, lives in that comfortable farm house a few +rods distant. He has a pastorate that many a white minister might +covet. Miles to the west, still stands in its grassy cove on the +coteaux of the prairie, the Church of the Ascension, referring not to +the ascension of our Lord, but to "the going up" of the prairies. On +the hill above it, is the cozy home of the pastor emeritus, the Rev. +John Baptiste Renville, whose pastorate, in point of continuous +service, has been the longest in the two Dakotas. After a long lifetime +of faithful ministrations to the people of his own charge, enfeebled by +age and disease, he sweetly fell asleep in Jesus, Dec. 19, 1904. +Doubtless his is a starry crown, richly gemmed, in token of the +multitude of the souls of his fellow tribesmen, led to the Savior by +his tender, faithful ministry of a life-time in their midst. Round +about these two churches cluster half a dozen other congregations, +worshipping in comfortable church homes. These form only a part of the + +PRESBYTERY OF DAKOTA. + +The original Presbytery of Dakota was organized September 30, 1844, at +the mission Home of Dr. Williamson, at Lac-qui-Parle, Minnesota. It was +organized, by the missionaries, among the Dakotas, for the furtherance +of their peculiar work. The charter members were three ministers, the +Rev. Samuel W. Pond, Rev. Thomas S. Williamson, M.D., and Rev. Stephen +R. Riggs and one elder Alexander G. Huggins. It was an independent +presbytery, and, for fourteen years, was not connected with any Synod. +It was a lone presbytery, in a vast region, now covered by a dozen +Synods and scores of presbyteries. For many years, the white and Indian +churches that were organized in Minnesota, were united in this +presbytery and wrought harmoniously together. In 1858, the General +Assembly of Presbyterian churches (N.S.) invited this independent +presbytery to unite with her two Minnesota Presbyteries and form the +Synod of Minnesota which was accomplished. + +Solely on account of the barrier of the language, the missionaries and +churches among the Dakotas, petitioned the Synod of Minnesota to +organize them into a separate presbytery. And the Synod so ordered and +it was so done, September 30, 1867, just twenty-three years after the +first organization at Lac-qui-Parle. By this order, the limits of the +Presbytery of Dakota became the churches and ministers among the Dakota +Indians. It is the only Presbytery in existence, without any +geographical boundaries. At present, there are seventeen ordained +Indian ministers upon the roll of this presbytery--workmen of whom +neither they themselves nor any others have any cause to be ashamed. +There are, also, under its care, twenty-eight well-organized churches, +aggregating more than fifteen hundred communicants, and eight hundred +Sabbath-School members. The contributions of these fifteen hundred +Dakota Presbyterians in 1904, exceeded the sum of six thousand dollars +for all religious purposes. + +Among the "Dispersed" of the Sioux nation, in Manitoba, there is one +organized Presbyterian church of twenty-five communicant members. It is +the church of Beulah and is in connection with the Presbyterian church +of Canada. + +In all, twenty-one Sioux Indians have been ordained to the Presbyterian +ministry, by the Presbytery of Dakota. Of these, Artemas Ehnamane, +Titus Icaduze, Joseph Iron Door, and John Baptiste Renville have all +passed on, from the beautiful prairies of the Dakotas, to the celestial +plains of glory. And how warm must have been their greeting as they +passed through the pearly gates of the city, whose builder and maker is +God. Gideon Pond, Dr. Williamson, Samuel W. Pond, Stephen R. Riggs and +Robert Hopkins, Margaret Williamson, Mary Riggs and Aunt Jane and other +faithful missionaries and thousands of redeemed Dakotas, welcomed them, +with glad hozannas, and sweet are the songs they sing as they walk +together, under the trees, on the banks of the River of Life. + +The Dakota Congregational association has under its care thirteen +organized churches, with more than one thousand communicants and one +thousand Sabbath school members. The prominent leaders of its work are +Alfred L. Riggs D.D., of Santee, Nebraska, and Rev. Thomas L. Riggs of +Oahe, South Dakota. They are the worthy sons of their famous father, +Stephen R. Riggs, D.D., one of the heroic pioneers in the Dakota work. +The native ministers are Francis Frazier, Edwin Phelps, James Garvie, +James Wakutamani and Elias Gilbert. This association is a mighty factor +in God's plan, for the upbuilding of the Dakotas, in the things that +are noble and of good report. + +The Presbyterian and Congregationalists have wrought together, side by +side, for seventy years, in this glorious enterprise. Under their +auspices, forty-four churches, many schools and other beneficent +organizations are in efficient operation among these former savage +dwellers on these plains. + +Seven other natives have, also, been ordained to the priesthood in the +Episcopal Church, making thirty-three in all, who have served their +fellow-tribesmen in the high and holy office of the Christian ministry. +There is not a single ordained Romish priest among the Sioux Indians. + + "Watchman, tell us of the night, + What its signs of promise are." + +Seventy years ago, among the twenty-five thousand Sioux Indians in the +United States, there was not a single church, not even one professing +Christian. + +They were all polytheistic pagans. There were signs of pagan worship +about every teepee. It might be the medicine sack tied behind the +conical wigwam, or a yard of broadcloth, floating from the top of a +flagpole as a sacrifice to some deity. There was more or less +idol-worship in all their gatherings. One of the simplest forms was the +holding of a well-filled pipe at arm's length, with the mouth-piece +upward, while the performers said, "O Lord, take a smoke and have mercy +on me." In the feasts and dances, the forms were more elaborate. The +Sun-dance continued for days of fasting and sacrificial work by the +participants. + +Now these signs of pagan worship have almost entirely disappeared among +the Dakotas. These facts speak volumes--one in eight of the Dakotas is +a Presbyterian. There are two-thirds as many Congregationalists, twice +as many Episcopalians and twice as many Catholics. More than one-half +of the Dakotas have been baptized in the name of the Triune God and +thousands of them are professed followers of the Lord Jesus Christ. + +Now what has wrought this great change among the Dakotas? It was the +power of the Holy Spirit of the Lord, working through the means of +grace as employed and applied by these faithful missionaries. They +renounced heathenism, not because the government so ordered, but +because they found that there was no God like Jehovah and Jehovah said, +"Thou shalt have no other gods before me." Even those who have not +accepted Christ have generally cast away their idols. + +Now do missions pay? Do Indian missions pay? Let the grand work among +the Dakotas and its glorious results be an all sufficient answer. It +does pay a thousand fold. + +Hear the Christian tribesmen sing the Hymn of the Sioux. + + Lift aloft the starry banner, + Let it wave o'er land and sea; + Shout aloud and sing hosanna! + Praise the Lord, who set us free! + Here we stand amazed and wonder + Such a happy change to see; + The bonds of sin are burst asunder! + Praise the Lord who set us free. + Long we lay in darkness pining, + Not a ray of hope had we! + Now the Gospel Sun is shining: + Praise the Lord who set us free. + In one loud and joyful chorus, + Heart and soul now join will we; + Salvation's Sun is shining o'er us! + Praise the Lord who set us free. + + + + +_PART II._ + +SOME SIOUX STORIETTES + + + + +_Part II_ + + +_CONTENTS_ + +SOME SIOUX STORIETTES. + + + I. The Dead Papoose.--The Maiden's Feast. + + II. Grand Mother Pond.--Oak Grove Mission. + + III. Anpetuzapawin.--A Legend of St Anthony Falls. + + IV. Aunt Jane--the Red Song Woman. + + V. Artemas--the Warrior-Preacher. + + VI. Two Famous Missions--Lake Harriet and Prairieville. + + VII. The Prince of Indian Preachers. + +VIII. An Indian Patriarch. + + IX. John--the Beloved of the Sioux Nation. + + X. The Martyrs of Old St. Joe. + + + + +THE DEAD PAPOOSE + + +The Indian mother, when her child dies, does not believe that swift +angels bear it into the glorious sunshine of the spirit-land; but she +has a beautiful dream to solace her bereavement. The cruel empty +places, which everywhere meet the eye of the weeping white mother, are +unknown to her, for to her tender fancy a little spirit-child fills +them. + +It is not a rare sight to see a pair of elaborate tiny moccasins above +a little Indian grave. A mother's fingers have embroidered them, a +mother's hand has hung them there, to help the baby's feet over the +long rough road that stretches between his father's wigwam and the +Great Chief's happy hunting grounds. + +Indians believe that a baby's spirit cannot reach the spirit-land until +the child, if living, would have been old enough and strong enough to +walk. Until that time the little spirit hovers about its mother. And +often it grows tired--oh so very tired! So the tender mother carries a +papoose's cradle on her back that the baby spirit may ride and rest +when it will. The cradle is filled with the softest feathers, for the +spirit rests more comfortably upon soft things--hard things bruise +it--and all the papoose's old toys dangle from the crib, for the dead +papoose may love to play even as the living papoose did. + + + + +THE MAIDENS' FEAST + + +Of the many peculiar customs of the Indians in the long ago, perhaps +the most unique was the annual "feast of Maidens." One was given at +Fort Ellis, Manitoba, some thirty years ago, in a natural amphitheatre, +surrounded by groves, fully one thousand feet above the Assiniboine +River. + +It was observed at a reunion of the Sioux, and of the Assiniboines and +the Crees, three friendly tribes. + +In his "Indian Boyhood," that brilliant Sioux author, Dr. Charles +Alexander Eastman, great-grandson of Cloudman or Man-of-the-sky, that +potential friend of the missionaries in pioneer days at Lake Calhoun, +graphically describes it thus:-- + +"One bright summer morning, while we were still at our meal of jerked +buffalo meat, we heard the herald of the Wahpeton band upon his calico +pony as he rode round our circle. + +"White Eagle's daughter, the maiden Red Star, invites all the maidens +of all the tribes to come and partake of her feast. It will be in the +Wahpeton Camp, before the sun reaches the middle of the sky. All pure +maidens are invited. Red Star, also, invites the young men to be +present, to see that no unworthy maiden should join in the feast." + +The herald soon completed the rounds of the different camps, and it was +not long before the girls began to gather. It was regarded as a +semi-sacred feast. + +It would be desecration for any to attend, who was not perfectly +virtuous. Hence it was regarded as an opportune time for the young men +to satisfy themselves as to who were the virtuous maids of the tribe. + +There were apt to be surprises before the end of the day. Any young man +was permitted to challenge any maiden, whom he knew to be untrue. But +woe to him, who could not prove his case. It meant little short of +death to the man, who endeavored to disgrace a woman without cause. + +From the various camps, the girls came singly or in groups, dressed in +bright colored calicoes or in heavily fringed and beaded buckskin. +Their smooth cheeks and the center of their glossy hair was touched +with vermillion. All brought with them wooden basins to eat from. Some +who came from a considerable distance were mounted upon ponies; a few +for company or novelty's sake rode double. + +The maidens' circle was formed about a cone-shaped rock, which stood +upon its base. This was painted red. Beside it, two new arrows were +lightly stuck into the ground. This is a sort of altar, to which each +maiden comes before taking her assigned place in the circle, and +lightly touches first the stone and then the arrows. By this oath, she +declares her purity. Whenever a girl approaches the altar there is a +stir among the spectators and sometimes a rude youth would call out; +"Take care! you will overturn the rock or pull out the arrows!" + +Immediately behind the maidens' circle is the chaperons' circle. This +second circle is almost as interesting to look at as the inner one. + +The old women watched every movement of their respective charges with +the utmost concern. There was never a more gorgeous assembly of its +kind than this one. The day was perfect. The Crees, displaying their +characteristic horsemanship, came in groups; the Assiniboines with +their curious pompadour well covered with red paint. The various bands +of Sioux all carefully observed the traditional peculiarities of dress +and behavior. + +The whole population of the region had assembled and the maidens came +shyly into the circle. During the simple preparatory rites, there was a +stir of excitement among a group of Wahpeton Sioux young men. All the +maidens glanced nervously toward the scene of the disturbance. Soon a +tall youth emerged from the throng of spectators and advanced toward +the circle. With a steady step, he passed by the chaperons, and +approached the maidens' circle. + +At last, he stopped behind a pretty Assiniboine maiden of good family +and said: + +"I am sorry, but according to custom, you should not be here." + +The girl arose in confusion, but she soon recovered her control. + +"What do you mean?" she demanded indignantly. "Three times you have +come to court me, but each time I have refused to listen to you. I have +turned my back upon you. Twice I was with Washtinna. She can tell the +people that this is true. The third time I had gone for water when you +intercepted me and begged me to stop and listen. I refused because I +did not know you. My chaperon Makatopawee knows I was gone but a few +minutes. I never saw you anywhere else." + +The young man was unable to answer this unmistakable statement of facts +and it became apparent that he had sought to revenge himself for her +repulse. + +"Woo! Woo! Carry him out!" was the order of the Chief of the Indian +police, and the audacious youth was hurried away into the nearest +ravine to be chastised. + +The young woman who had thus established her good name returned to the +circle and the feast was served. The "maidens' song" was sung, and four +times they danced in a ring around the altar. + +Each maid, as she departed, took her oath to remain pure until she +should meet her husband. + + + + +II + +GRANDMOTHER POND. + + +Grandmother Pond is one of the rarest spirits, one of the loveliest +characters in Minnesota. She is the last living link between the past +and the present--between that heroic band of pioneer missionaries who +came to Minnesota prior to 1844, and those who joined the ranks of this +glorious missionary service in more recent years. Her life reads like a +romance. + +Agnes Carson Johnson Pond is a native of Ohio--born at Greenfield in +1825. She was the daughter of William Johnson, a physician and surgeon +of Chillicothe, Ohio. By the death of her father she was left an orphan +at five years of age. Her mother married a worthy minister of the +Associate Reformed Presbyterian church, Rev. John McDill. She had +superior educational and social advantages and made good use of all her +opportunities. She was educated at a seminary at South Hanover, +Indiana. There she met her future husband, Robert Hopkins. He, as well +as she, was in training for service on mission fields. They were +married in 1843. He had already been appointed as a missionary teacher +for the Sioux Indians. The young wife was compelled to make her bridal +tour in the company of strangers, by boat and stage and private +conveyance from Ohio to the then unknown land of the upper Mississippi. +It required thirty days then, instead of thirty hours, as now, to pass +from Ohio to the Falls of St. Anthony. The bride-groom drove his own +team from Galena, Illinois, to Fort Snelling. + +[Illustration: GRANDMOTHER POND, + The Last Living Member of the Heroic Band of Pioneer + Missionaries to the Dakotas, in the 81st Year of Her + Age.] + + +HER HUSBAND DROWNED. + +Mr. and Mrs. Hopkins were first stationed at Lac-qui-Parle. After one +year they were transferred to Traverse des Sioux, near the present site +of St. Peter, Minnesota. Here they gave seven years of the most +faithful, devoted, self-sacrificing toil for the lost and degraded +savages around them. They built a humble home and established and +maintained a mission school. Five children were born to them there. Two +of these were early called to the celestial home on high. Their life at +Traverse des Sioux was a strenuous, isolated, but a fruitful and happy +one. It was destined, however, to a speedy and tragic end. + +Early in the morning of July 4, 1851, Mr. Hopkins entered the river for +a bath. He was never seen alive again. A treacherous swirl in the water +at that point suddenly carried him to his death. His wife waited long +the carefully prepared morning meal, but her beloved came not again. He +went up through the great flood of waters from arduous service on the +banks of the beautiful Minnesota to his glorious rewards on the banks +of the still more beautiful River of Life. + +Broken-hearted, the young wife, only twenty-six years of age, laid him +to rest on the banks of the river whose treacherous waves had robbed +her of her life companion. Sadly she closed her home in Minnesota and, +with her three little fatherless children, returned to her old home in +far-distant Ohio. + +Rev. Robert Hopkins enjoyed the full confidence of his colleagues and +was greatly beloved by the Indians. His untimely death was an +irreparable loss to the mission work among the Sioux. + + +SECOND BRIDAL TOUR TO THE WEST. + +Shortly after the tragedy at Traverse des Sioux, Mrs. Sarah Poage Pond, +wife of Rev. Gideon H. Pond, died at Oak Grove Mission of consumption. +In 1854 Mr. Pond visited Ohio, where he and Mrs. Hopkins were united in +marriage. She made a second bridal tour from Ohio to Minnesota, and +toiled by his side till his death in 1878. + +In every relation in life in which she has been placed, Mrs. Pond has +excelled. While she long ago ceased from active service in mission +fields, she ever has been, and still is untiring in her efforts to do +good to all as she has opportunity. She is strong and vigorous at the +age of eighty. She still resides at the Oak Grove Mission house, her +home since 1857, universally beloved and regarded as the best woman in +the world by about one hundred descendants. + +[Illustration: JOHN P. WILLIAMSON, D.D., + Superintendent of Presbyterian Sioux Missions. + Forty-five years a missionary to the Sioux.] + +[Illustration: ST. ANTHONY FALLS.] + + +OAK GROVE MISSION HOUSE. + +This old land mark is located in Hennepin County, Minnesota, twelve +miles southwest of Minneapolis. Here in 1843, Gilbert H. Pond +established his headquarters as a missionary to the Sioux Indians. He +erected a large log building in which he resided, taught school and +preached the gospel. Here, in 1848, the Presbytery of Dakota convened, +and ordained Mr. Pond and Robert Hopkins to the Presbyterian ministry. +For many years it was the sole source of social, moral, and spiritual +light for a wide region for both races. It was also the favorite +gathering place of the Indians for sport. In 1852, a great game of ball +was played here. Good Road and Grey Iron joined their followers with +Cloudman's band of Lake Calhoun in opposition to Little Six and his +band from Shakopay. Two hundred and fifty men and boys participated in +the game, while two hundred and fifty others were deeply interested +spectators. The game lasted for three days and was won by Cloudman and +his allies. Forty-six hundred dollars in ponies, blankets and other +such property changed hands on the results. + +In 1856, the present commodious residence was erected of brick +manufactured on the premises. For twenty-one years it was the residence +of Rev. Gideon Hollister Pond. He was for twenty years, also, pastor of +the white Presbyterian church of Oak Grove. He was a member of the +first territorial legislature; the editor of the "The Dakota Friend" +the first religious journal published in the state, and he was also the +first preacher of the gospel in the city of Minneapolis. + +In whatever position he was placed in life, he ever proved himself to +be a wise, conscientious, consecrated Christian gentleman. None knew +him, but to love him; none knew him, but to praise. He was born in +Connecticut, June thirtieth, 1810, and on the twentieth of January, +1878, he passed from his Oak Grove Mission Home through the gates of +the celestial city, to go no more out. They laid him to rest in the +midst of the people, whom he had loved and served so well for four and +forty years and by whom he was universally beloved and admired. None +were more sincere in their demonstrations of sorrow than the little +company of Dakotas to whom he had been a more than father. + + + + +III + +ANPETUSAPAWIN + +_A Legend of St. Anthony Falls_ + + Long ere the white man's bark had seen + These flower-decked prairies, fair and wide, + Long ere the white man's bark had been + Borne on the Mississippi's tide, + So long ago, Dakotas say, + Anpetusapawin was born, + Her eyes beheld these scenes so gay + First opening on life's rosy morn. + + --S. W. Pond. + + +In the long ago, a young Indian brave espoused as his wife this Indian +maiden of whom the poet sings. With her he lived happily for a few +years, in the enjoyment of every comfort of which a savage life is +capable. To crown their happiness, they were blessed with two lovely +children on whom they doted. During this time, by a dint of activity +and perseverance in the chase, he became signalized in an eminent +degree as a hunter, having met with unrivaled success in the pursuit +and capture of the wild denizens of the forest. This circumstance +contributed to raise him high in the estimation of his fellow savages +and drew a crowd of admiring friends around. This operated as a spur to +his ambitions. + +At length some of his newly acquired friends suggested to him the +propriety of taking another wife, as it would be impossible for one +woman to manage the affairs of his household and properly wait upon the +many guests his rising importance would call to visit him. They +intimated to him that in all probability he would soon be elevated to +the chieftainship. His vanity was fired by the suggestion. He yielded +readily and accepted a wife they had already selected for him. + +After his second marriage, he sought to take his new wife home and +reconcile his first wife to the match in the most delicate manner +possible. To this end he returned to his first wife, as yet ignorant of +what had occurred, and endeavored, by dissimulation, to secure her +approval. + +"You know," said he, "I can love no one as I love you; yet I see your +labors are too great for your powers of endurance. Your duties are +daily becoming more and more numerous and burdensome. This grieves me +sorely. But I know of only one remedy by which you can be relieved. +These considerations constrain me to take another wife. This wife shall +be under your control in every respect and ever second to you in my +affections." She listened to his narrative in painful anxiety and +endeavored to reclaim him from his wicked purpose, refuting all his +sophistry by expressions of her unaffected conjugal affection. He left +her to meditate. She became more industrious and treated him more +tenderly than before. She tried every means in her power to dissuade +him from the execution of his vile purpose. She pleaded all the +endearments of their former happy life, the regard he had for her +happiness and that of the offspring of their mutual love to prevail on +him to relinquish the idea of marrying another wife. He then informed +her of the fact of his marriage and stated that compliance on her part +would be actually necessary. She must receive the new wife into their +home. She was determined, however, not to be the passive dupe of his +duplicity. With her two children she returned to her parental teepee. +In the autumn she joined her friends and kinsmen in an expedition up +the Mississippi and spent the winter in hunting. In the springtime, as +they were returning, laden with peltries, she and her children occupied +a canoe by themselves. On nearing the Falls of St. Anthony she lingered +in the rear till the others had landed a little above the falls. + +She then painted herself and children, paddled her canoe into the swift +current of the rapids and began chanting her death song, in which she +recounted her former happy life, with her husband, when she enjoyed his +undivided affection, and the wretchedness in which she was now involved +by his infidelity. Her friends, alarmed at her imminent peril, ran to +the shore and begged her to paddle out of the current before it was too +late, while her parents, rending their clothing and tearing their hair, +besought her to come to their arms of love; but all in vain. Her +wretchedness was complete and must terminate with her existence! She +continued her course till her canoe was borne headlong down the roaring +cataract, and it and the deserted, heartbroken wife and the beautiful +and innocent children, were dashed to pieces on the rocks below. No +traces of the canoe or its occupants were found. Her brothers avenged +her death by slaying the treacherous husband of the deserted wife. + + They say that still that song is heard + Above the mighty torrent's roar, + When trees are by the night-wind stirred + And darkness broods on stream and shore. + + + + +IV + +AUNT JANE + +_The Red Song Woman_ + + +Miss Jane Smith Williamson, the subject of this sketch, was one of the +famous missionary women in our land in the nineteenth century. She was +widely known among both whites and Indians as "Aunt Jane." The Dakotas +also called her "Red Song Woman." She was born at Fair Forest, South +Carolina, March 8, 1803. Through her father she was a lineal descendant +of the Rev. John Newton and Sir Isaac Newton. Her father was a +revolutionary soldier. + +Her mother was Jane (Smith) Williamson. They believed that negroes had +souls and therefore treated the twenty-seven slaves they had inherited +like human beings. Her mother was fined in South Carolina, for teaching +her slaves to read the Bible. Consequently, in 1804, in her early +infancy, her parents emigrated to Adams county, Ohio, in order to be +able to free their slaves and teach them to read the Word of God and +write legibly. + +The story of Aunt Jane's life naturally falls into three divisions. + + +I--PREPARATION FOR HER GREAT LIFE WORK. + +This covered forty years. She grew up in an atmosphere of sincere and +deep piety and of devotion to Christian principles. Her early +educational advantages were necessarily limited, but she made the most +of them. She became very accurate in the use of language, wrote a clear +round hand and was very thorough in everything she studied. She was a +great reader of good and useful books, possessed an excellent memory +and a lively imagination and very early acquired a most interesting +style of composition. + +[Illustration: AUNT JANE, + Or, The Red Song Woman.] + +From her ancestors she inherited that strong sympathy for the colored +race, which was a marked characteristic of her whole life. In her young +womanhood, she taught private schools in Adams county, Ohio. The +progress made by her pupils was very rapid and her instruction was of a +high order. She sought out the children of the poor and taught them +without charge. She admitted colored pupils as well as whites. For this +cause, many threats of violence were made against her school. But she +was such an excellent teacher that her white pupils remained with her; +and a guard of volunteer riflemen frequently surrounded her school +house. She calmly pursued the even tenor of her way. + +In 1820, when she was only 17 years of age, she and her brother rode on +horseback all the way from Manchester, Ohio, to South Carolina and back +again, and brought with them two slaves they had inherited. They could +have sold them in the South for $300 each, and stood in great need of +the money; but instead, they gave to these two poor colored persons the +priceless boon of liberty. Miss Williamson's slave was a young woman of +her own age, called Jemima. She was married to another slave named +Logan. She was the mother of two children. Logan was a daring man, and +rendered desperate by the loss of his young wife, he determined to be +free and follow her. He fled from South Carolina, and after passing +through many adventures of the most thrilling character, he found his +wife in Ohio, and lived and died a free man. He was fully determined to +die rather than return to slavery. Jemima lived to a great age, +surviving her husband, who was killed accidently in the fifties. They +left a family highly respected. + +During all these years "Aunt Jane" was a very active worker in Sabbath +schools, prayer meetings and missionary societies. In her own day +schools, she made religious worship and Bible study a prominent feature +of the exercises. In 1835, when her brother, Dr. Williamson, went as a +missionary to the Dakotas, she strongly desired to accompany him. But +her duty required her to remain at home and care for her aged father, +who died in 1839, at the age of 77. She did not join her brother, +however, until 1843, at the age of forty. + + +II--HER WORK AMONG THE DAKOTAS. + +This covers one-third of a century. The missionary spirit was a part of +her life,--born with her,--a heritage of several generations. The blood +of the Newtons flowed in her veins. When she arrived in Minnesota, she +went to work without delay and with great energy and with untiring +industry greatly beyond her strength. She was very familiar with the +Bible. She taught hundreds of Indians, perhaps fully one thousand, to +read the Word of God, and the greater part of them to write a legible +letter. She visited all the sick within her reach, and devoted much of +her time to instructing the Dakota women in domestic duties. She +conducted prayer meetings and conversed with them in reference to the +salvation of their souls. Many of them, saved by the Holy Spirit's +benediction upon her self-denying efforts, are now shining like bright +gems in her crown of glory on high. + +Lac-qui-Parle,--the Lake-that-speaks,--two hundred miles west of St. +Paul, was her first missionary home. There she gathered the young +Indians together and taught them as opportunity offered. The +instruction of the youth--especially the children, of whom she was ever +a devoted lover, was her great delight. + +It was more than a year before any mail reached her at this remote +outpost. She was absent in the Indian village when she heard of the +arrival of her first mail. She, in her eagerness to hear from her +friends in Ohio, ran like a young woman to her brother's house. She +found the mail in the stove-oven. The carrier had brought it through +the ice, and it had to be thawed out. That mail contained more than +fifty letters for her and the postage on them was over five dollars. In +1846, she removed with her brother to Kaposia, Little Crow's village +(now South St. Paul), and in 1852 to Yellow Medicine, thirty-two miles +south of Lac-qui-Parle. The privations of the missionaries were very +great. White bread was more of a luxury to them then, than rich cake +ordinarily is now. Their houses and furnishings were of the rudest +kind. Their environments were all of a savage character. + +Their trials were many and sore, extreme scarcity of food in +mid-winter, savage threats and bitter insults. They were "in +journeyings often, in perils of waters, of robbers, by the heathen and +in the wilderness." All this she endured contentedly for Christ's sake +and the souls of the poor ignorant savages around for the +evangelization and salvation of the degraded Dakotas,--lost in sin. + +She possessed great tact and was absolutely fearless. In 1857, during +the Inkpadoota trouble, the father of a young-Indian, who had been +wounded by the soldiers of Sherman's battery, came with his gun to the +mission house to kill her brother. Aunt Jane met him with a plate of +food for himself and an offer to send some nice dishes to the wounded +young man. This was effectual. The savage was tamed. He ate the food +and afterwards came with his son to give them thanks. Scarcely was the +prison-camp, with nearly four hundred Dakota prisoners, three-fourths +of them condemned to be hanged, established at Mankato, when Aunt Jane +and her brother came to distribute paper and pencils and some books +among them. + +When their lives were imperilled, by their savage pursuers, during the +terrible massacre, Aunt Jane calmly said; "Well if they kill me, my +home is in Heaven." The churches were scattered, the work apparently +destroyed, but nothing could discourage Aunt Jane. She had, in the +midst of this great tragedy, the satisfactory knowledge that all the +Christian Sioux had continued at the risk of their own lives, steadfast +in their loyalty, and had been instrumental in saving the lives of many +whites. They had, also, influenced for good many of their own race. + + +III--THE CLOSING YEARS OF HER LIFE. + +After that terrible massacre the way never opened for her to resume her +residence among the Dakotas; but she was given health and strength for +nineteen years more toil for the Master and her beloved Indians. Her +home was with her brother, Dr. Williamson, near St. Peter, until his +death in 1879, and she remained, in his old home several years after +his death. During this period, she accomplished much for the education +of the Indians around her and she kept up an extensive and helpful +correspondence with native Christian workers. All the time she kept up +the work of self-sacrifice for the good of others. In 1881 she met a +poor Indian woman, suffering extremely from intense cold. She slipped +off her own warm skirt and gave it to the woman. The result was a +severe illness, which caused her partial paralysis and total blindness +from which she never recovered. In 1888 she handed the writer a $5 gold +coin for the work among the freedmen with this remark: "First the +freedman; then the Indian." Out of a narrow income she constantly gave +generously to the boards of the church and to the poor around her. She +spent most of her patrimony in giving and lending to needy ones. + +The closing years of her life were spent with her nephew the great +Indian missionary the Rev. John P. Williamson D.D. at Greenwood, South +Dakota. There at noon of March 24, 1895, the light of eternity dawned +upon her and she entered into that sabbatic rest, which remains for +the people of God. Such is the story of Aunt Jane, modest and +unassuming--a real heroine, who travelled sixteen hundred miles all the +way on horseback and spent several months that she might rescue two +poor colored persons whom she had never seen or even known. + +Without husband or children, alone in the world, she did not repine, +but made herself useful, wherever she was, in teaching secular learning +and religious truth, and in ministering to the sick and afflicted, the +down-trodden and oppressed. She never sought to do any wonderful +things,--but whatever her hand found to do, she did it with her might +and with an eye to the honor and glory of God. Hers was a very long and +most complete Christian life. Should it ever be forgotten? Certainly +not, while our Christian religion endures. + + "Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth; yea, + saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labors and their + works do follow them." + + --Rev. 14: 13. + + + + +V + +ARTEMAS, THE WARRIOR PREACHER + + +He was one of the fiercest of the Sioux warriors. He fought the +Ojibways in his youth; danced the scalp-dance on the present site of +Minneapolis, and waged war against the whites in '62. He was converted +at Mankato, Minnesota, in the prison-pen, and for thirty-two years, he +was pastor of the Pilgrim Congregational church at Santee, Nebraska. + +Artemas Ehnamane was born in 1825, at Red Wing, Minnesota, by the +mountain that stands sentinel at the head of Lake Pepin. "Walking +Along" is the English translation of his jaw-breaking surname. As a +lad, he played on the banks of the mighty Mississippi. As a youth, he +hunted the red deer in the lovely glades of Minnesota and Wisconsin. He +soon grew tall and strong and became a famous hunter. The war-path, +also, opened to him in the pursuit of his hereditary foes, the +Chippewas. He danced the scalp-dance on the present site of +Minneapolis, when it was only a wind-swept prairie. + +While in his youth, his tribe ceded their ancestral lands along the +Mississippi and removed to the Sioux Reservation on the Minnesota +River. But not for long, for the terrible outbreak of 1862, scattered +everything and landed all the leading men of that tribe in prison. +Artemas was one of them. He was convicted, condemned to death, and +pardoned by Abraham Lincoln. While in the prison-pen at Mankato, he +came into a new life "that thinketh no evil of his neighbor." The words +of the faithful missionaries, Pond and Williamson and Riggs, sank deep +into his heart. His whole nature underwent a change. Artemas once +explained his conversion thus: + +"We had planned that uprising wisely and secretly. We had able leaders. +We were well organized and thoroughly armed. The whites were weakened +by the Southern war. Everything was in our favor. We had prayed to our +gods. But when the conflict came, we were beaten so rapidly and +completely, I felt that the white man's God must be greater than all +the Indians' gods; and I determined to look Him up, and I found Him, +All-Powerful and precious to my soul." + +Faithfully he studied his letters and learned his Dakota Bible, which +became more precious to him than any record of traditions and shadows +handed down from mouth to mouth by his people. He soon became possessed +of a great longing to let his tribe know his great secret of the God +above. So when the prisoners were restored to their families in the +Missouri Vally in Nebraska, Artemas was soon chosen one of the +preachers of the reorganized tribe. His first pastorate was that of the +Pilgrim Congregational Church at Santee, Nebraska, in 1867. It was also +his last, for he was ever so beloved and honored by his people, that +they would not consider any proposal for separation. + +No such proposition ever met with favor in the Pilgrim Church for +Artemas firmly held first place in the affections of the people among +whom he labored so earnestly. He served this church for thirty-two +years and passed on to take his place among the Shining Ones, on the +eve of Easter Sabbath, 1902. + +Artemas seldom took a vacation. In fact there is only one on record. In +1872, his church voted a vacation of six weeks. True to his Indian +nature, he planned a deer hunt. He turned his footsteps to the wilds of +the Running Water (Niobrara River), where his heart grew young and his +rifle cracked the death-knell of the deer and antelope. One evening, in +the track of the hostile Sioux and Pawnees, he found himself near a +camp of the savage Sicaugu. He was weak and alone. They were strong and +hostile. + +He had tact as well as courage. He invited those savage warriors to a +feast. His kettle was brimming, and as the Indians filled their mouths +with the savory meat, he filled their ears with the story of the +gospel, and gave them their first view of that eternal life, purchased +by the blood of Christ. + +The deer-hunt became a soul-hunt. The wild Sicaugu grunted their +amicable "Hao" as they left his teepee, their mouths filled with +venison and their hearts planted with the seeds of eternal truth. + +Again he went on a deer-hunt, when he crossed another trail, that of +hunters from another hostile tribe. In the camp he found a sick child, +the son of Samuel Heart, a Yankton Sioux. But let Heart tell the story +himself in his simple way: + +"I was many days travel away in the wilderness. My child was very sick. +I felt much troubled. A man of God came to my tent. I remember all he +said. He told me not to be troubled, but to trust in God, and all would +be well. He prayed; he asked God to strengthen the child so I could +bring him home. God heard him. My child lived to get home. Once my +heart would have been very sad, and I would have done something very +wicked. I look forward and trust Jesus." + +This is how Rev. Artemas Ehnamane spent his vacations, hunting for wild +souls instead of wild deer. + +He was a scriptural, personal and powerful preacher. + +Faith in a risen Saviour, was the keynote of his ministry. As he said: +"Who of all the Saviours of the Indian people has risen from the dead? +Not one." "Our fathers told us many things and gave us many customs, +but they were not true." "I grew up believing in what my father taught +me, but when I knew of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, I believed in Him +and put aside all my ways." It was to him in truth, the coming out of +darkness into light. "Sins are like wolves," he said. "They abound in +the darkness and destroy men. When we enter the way, Jesus watches over +us. Be awake and follow Him. All over the world men are beginning to +follow Christ. The day is here." "Repent, believe, obey." + +He loved to sing: + + "Saved, by grace, alone; + That is all my plea; + Jesus died for all mankind; + Jesus died for me." + +The twenty grand-children of the old Sioux--all of school age--are +diligently prosecuting their studies in order to be prepared to meet +the changed conditions which civilization has made possible for the +Indians. One of his grand-sons is a physician now, in a fair practice +among his own people. + +This man President Lincoln wisely pardoned, knowing full well what a +great influence for good such a man could wield over his turbulent +people. And the President was not disappointed. One of his sons has +been a missionary among the Swift Bear tribe at the Rose Bud Agency for +twenty years; another son has been a missionary at Standing Rock, on +the Grand River, and is now pastor of an Indian congregation on Basile +Creek, Nebraska, and is also an important leader of his tribe. The Rev. +Francis Frazier, one of his sons, was installed September 10, 1902, as +his father's successor in the pastorate of Pilgrim church at Santee. + +His married daughter is also very earnest in the woman's work in the +church. Seventy-seven years of age at his death, Rev. Artemas Ehnamane +had filled to overflowing with good deeds to offset the first half, +when he fought against the encroachments of the whites and the advance +of civilization with as much zeal as later he evinced in his religious +and beneficent life. Abraham Lincoln pardoned Ehnamane and the old +warrior never forgot it. But it was another pardon he prized more +highly than that. It was this pardon he preached and died believing. + + + + +VI + +TWO FAMOUS MISSIONS. + +_Lake Harriet and Prairieville_ + + +In the spring of 1835, the Rev. Jedediah Dwight Stevens, of the +Presbyterian Church, arrived at Fort Snelling under the auspices of the +American Board of Missions. He established a station on the +northwestern shore of Lake Harriet. It was a most beautiful spot, west +of the Indian village, presided over by that friendly and influential +chieftain Cloudman or Man-of-the-sky. He erected two buildings--the +mission-home, first residence for white settlers, and the school +house--the first building erected exclusively for school purposes +within the present boundaries of the State of Minnesota. + +Within a few rods of the Pavilion, where on the Sabbath, multitudes +gather for recreation, and desecration of God's holy day, is the site, +where, in 1835, the first systematic effort was made to educate and +Christianize Dakota Indians. It is near the present junction of +Forty-second Street, and Queen Avenue (Linden Hills). + +In July, Mr. Stevens, and his interesting family, took possession of +the mission house. With the co-operation of the Pond brothers, this +mission was prosecuted with a fair measure of success till the removal +of the Indians farther west, in 1839, when it was abandoned, and the +connection of Mr. Stevens with the work of the Dakota mission ceased. + +Here on the evening of November 22, 1838, a romantic wedding was +solemnized by Rev. J. D. Stevens. The groom was Samuel Pond of the +Dakota mission. The groomsman was Henry H. Sibley, destined in after +years to be Minnesota's first delegate to Congress, her first state +executive, and in the trying times of '62, the victorious General +Sibley. The bride was Miss Cordelia Eggleston; the bridesmaid, Miss +Cornelia Stevens; both amiable, lovely and remarkably handsome. + +It was a brilliant, starry evening, one of Minnesota's brightest and +most invigorating. The sleighing was fine, and among the guests, were +many officers, from Fort Snelling, with their wives. Dr. Emerson and +wife, the owners of Dred Scott, the subject of Judge Taney's infamous +decision, were present. The doctor was, then, post-surgeon at the fort, +and the slave Dred, was his body-servant. The tall bridegroom and +groomsman, in the vigor and strength of their young manhood; the bride +and bridesmaid, just emerging from girlhood, with all their dazzling +beauty, the officers in the brilliant uniforms, and their wives, in +their gay attire, must have formed an attractive picture in the long +ago. After the wedding festivities, the guests from the fort were +imprisoned at the mission for the night, by a blizzard, which swept +over the icy face of Lake Harriet. + +In the previous November, at Lac-qui-Parle, the younger brother was +united in marriage to Miss Sarah Poage, by the Rev. Stephen R. Riggs. +It was a unique gathering. The guests were all the dark-faced dwellers +of the Indian village, making a novel group of whites, half-breeds and +savage Indians. Many of the latter were poor, maimed, halt and blind, +who thoroughly enjoyed the feast of potatoes, turnips, and bacon so +generously provided by the happy bridegroom. + + +PRAIRIEVILLE. + +In 1846, Shakpe or Little Six, extended an urgent invitation to Samuel +Pond to establish a mission at Tintonwan--"the village on the +prairies"--for the benefit of his people. He was chief of one of the +most turbulent bands of Indians in the valley of the Minnesota. He was +a man of marked ability and one of the ablest and most effective +orators in the whole Dakota nation. Yet withal, Shakpe was a petty +thief, had a "forked tongue," a violent temper, was excitable, and +vindictive in his revenge. These characteristics led him to the +scaffold. He was hanged at Fort Snelling, in 1863 for participation in +the bloody massacre of '62. He and his followers were so noted for +their deception and treachery, that Mr. Pond doubted their sincerity +and the wisdom of accepting their invitation. But after weeks of +prayerful deliberation, he accepted and began preparations for a +permanent establishment at that point. He erected a commodious and +substantial residence into which he removed, with his household, in +November 1847. + +This station, which Mr. Pond called Prairieville, was fourteen miles +southeast of Oak Grove mission, on the present site of Shakopee. The +mission home was pleasantly located on gently rising ground, half a +mile south of the Minnesota River. It was surrounded by the teepees of +six hundred noisy savages. Here, for several years they toiled +unceasingly for the welfare of the wild men, by whom they were +surrounded. + +In 1851, Mr. and Mrs. Pond were compelled, by her rapidly failing +health, to spend a year in the east. She never returned. She died +February 6, 1852, at Washington, Connecticut. Thus after fourteen years +of arduous missionary toil, Cordelia Eggleston Pond, the beautiful +bride of the Lake Harriet mission house, was called from service to +reward at the early age of thirty-six. + +Mr. Pond returned to Prairieville and toiled on for the Indians until +their removal by the government, in 1853. He himself, remained and +continued his labors for the benefit of the white community of +Shakopee, which had grown up around him. In 1853, a white Presbyterian +church was organized and, in 1856, a comfortable church edifice was +erected, wholly at the expense of the pastor and his people. The +congregation still exists and the mission house still stands as +monuments of the wisdom, faith and fortitude of the heroic builder. +After thirteen years of faithful service, he laid the heavy burdens +down for younger hands, but for a quarter of a century longer he +remained in his old home. + +During these last years, his chief delight was in his books, which lost +none of their power to interest him in advancing age; especially was +this true of the Book of books. He was never idle. The active energy, +which distinguished his youth, no less marked his advancing years. His +mind was as clear, his judgment as sound, and his mental vision as keen +at eighty-three, as they were at thirty-three. His was a long and happy +old age. He lingered in the house his own hands had builded, content to +go or stay, till he was transferred, December twelfth, 1891, to the +house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. + + + + +VII + +THE PRINCE OF INDIAN PREACHERS. + + +Without disparagement to any of his brethren in the ministry, this +title can be properly applied to the Rev. John Baptiste Renville, of +Iyakaptapte, (Ascension) South Dakota, who recently passed on to join +the shining ranks of the saved Sioux in glory. + +Timid as a little child, yet bold as a lion, when aroused; shy of +conversation in private, yet eloquent in the pulpit and in the +council-chamber; yielding yet firm as a rock, when duty demanded it; a +loving husband, a kind father, a loyal citizen, a faithful presbyter--a +pungent preacher of the gospel, a soul-winner--a courteous, cultured +Christian gentleman; such a man was this Indian son of a Sioux mother, +herself the first fullblood Sioux convert to the Christian faith. + +He was the youngest son of Joseph Renville, a mixed blood Sioux and +French, who was a captain in the British army in the War of 1812 and +the most famous Sioux Indian in his day. After the war, he became a +trader and established his headquarters at Lac-qui-Parle, where he +induced Dr. Thomas S. Williamson to locate his first mission station in +1835. + +John Baptiste was one of the first Indian children baptized by Dr. +Williamson and he enjoyed the benefits of the first school among the +Sioux. He was rather delicate, which hindered his being sent east to +school as much as he otherwise would have been. However, he spent +several years in excellent white schools, and he acquired a fair +knowledge of the elementary branches of the English language. The last +year he spent at Knox College, Galesburgh, Illinois, where he wooed and +won Miss Mary Butler, an educated Christian white woman, whom he +married and who became his great helper in his educational and +evangelistic work. + +[Illustration: +JOHN B. RENVILLE[1] JOHN P. WILLIAMSON, D.D. DANIEL RENVILLE +JOHN EASTMAN CHARLES R. CRAWFORD + +All Indian Ministers Except Dr. Williamson] + + [1] Died Dec. 19, 1904 + +[Illustration: The Rev. Thomas S. Williamson, M.D., + Forty-five years a Missionary to the Sioux.] + +He was the first Sioux Indian to enter the ministry. In the spring of +1865, he was licensed to preach, by the presbytery of Dakota, at +Mankato, Minnesota, and ordained in the following autumn. When he +entered the ministry, the Sioux Indians were in a very unsettled state, +and his labors were very much scattered; now with the Indian scouts on +some campaign; again with a few families of Indians gathered about some +military post, and anon with a little class of Indians, who were trying +to settle down to civilized life. + +In 1870, he became the pastor of Iyakaptapte, (Ascension) a little +church in what subsequently became the Sisseton reservation. Both +physically and in mental and spiritual qualities, he was best adapted +to a settled pastorate. His quiet and unobtrusive character required +long intercourse to be appreciated. However, in the pulpit, his +earnestness and apt presentation of the truth ever commanded the +attention even of strangers. Under his ministry, the church increased +to one hundred and forty members. More than half a dozen of them became +ministers and Ascension was generally the leading church in every good +work among the Dakota Indians. No one among the Christian Sioux was +more widely known and loved than Mr. Renville. In the councils of the +church, though there were seventeen other ministers in the presbytery +before his death, he was ever given the first place both for counsel +and honor. He twice represented his presbytery in the general Assembly, +and he was ever faithful in his attendance at Synod and Presbytery and +active in the discharge of the duties devolving upon him. + +Mary Butler, the white wife of his youth, died several years ago. Their +daughter Ella, a fine Christian young lady passed away at twenty years +of age. She was active in organizing Bands of Hope among the children +of the tribe. She sleeps, with her parents on the brow of Iyakaptapte +overlooking the church to which all their lives were devoted. +Josephine, the Indian wife of his old age, survives him and remains in +the white farm house on the prairie in which John Baptiste Renville +spent so many years of his long, happy useful life. He died December +19, 1904, in the seventy-third year of his age. + + + + +VIII + +AN INDIAN PATRIARCH. + + +Chief Cloudman or Man-of-the-sky, was one of the strongest characters +among the natives on the headwaters of the Mississippi in the earlier +half of the nineteenth century. He was one of the leading chiefs of the +Santee band of Sioux Indians. He was born about 1780. He was brave in +battle, wise in council, and possessed many other noble qualities, +which caused him to rise far above his fellow chieftains. He possessed +a large fund of common sense. Years prior to the advent of the white +man in this region, he regarded hunting and fishing as a too precarious +means to a livelihood, and attempted to teach his people agriculture +and succeeded to a limited extent. + +It was a strange circumstance that prompted the chief to this wise +action. On a hunting tour in the Red River country, with a part of his +band, they were overtaken by a drifting storm and remained, for several +days, under the snow, without any food whatsoever. While buried in +those drifts, he resolved to rely, in part, upon agriculture, for +subsistence, if he escaped alive, and he carried out his resolution, +after the immediate peril was passed. His band cultivated small fields +of quickly maturing corn, which had been introduced by their chief in +the early 30's. He was respected and loved by his people and quite well +obeyed. + +[Illustration: REV. JOHN EASTMAN.] + +Before the coming of the missionaries he taught and enforced, by his +example, this principle, namely, that it as wrong to kill +non-combatants, or to kill under any circumstances in time of peace. He +favored peace rather than war. He was twenty-five years of age, and had +six notches on the handle of his tomahawk, indicating that he had slain +half a dozen of his Ojibway foes before he adopted this human policy. + +His own band lived on the shores of Lakes Calhoun and Harriet, within +the present limits of Minneapolis. On the present site of lovely +Lakewood--Minneapolis' most fashionable cemetery--was his village of +several hundred savages, and also an Indian burial place. This village +was the front guard against the war parties of the Ojibways--feudal +enemies of the Sioux--but finally as their young men were killed off in +battle, they were compelled to remove and join their people on the +banks of the Minnesota and farther West. He located his greatly reduced +band at Bloomington, directly west of his original village. This +removal occurred prior to 1838. + +He was never hostile to the approach of civilization, or blind to the +blessings it might confer on his people. + +He was one of the first of his tribe to accept the white man's ways and +to urge his band to follow his example. This fact is confirmed by the +great progress his descendants have made. + +He was the first Sioux Indian of any note to welcome those first +pioneer missionaries, the Pond brothers. As early as 1834 he encouraged +them to erect their home and inaugurate their work in his village. In +all the treaties formed between the government and the Sioux, he was +ever the ready and able advocate of the white man's cause. He threw all +the weight of his powerful influence in favor of cession to the United +States government of the military reservation on which Fort Snelling +now stands. He died at Fort Snelling in 1863, and was buried on the +banks of the Minnesota in view of the fort. + +He was the father of seven children, all of whom are dead, except his +son David Weston, his successor in the chieftainship, who still lives +at Flandreau, South Dakota, at the age of seventy-eight years. He was +for many years a catechist of the Episcopal Church. His two daughters +were called Hushes-the-Night and Stands-like-a-Spirit. They were once +the belles of Lake Harriet, to whom the officers and fur traders paid +homage. Hushes-the-Night married a white man named Lamont and became +the mother of a child called Jane. She had one sister, who died +childless, in St. Paul, in 1901. Jane Lamont married Star Titus, a +nephew of the Pond brothers. They became the parents of three sons and +two daughters. Two of these sons are bankers and rank among the best +business men of North Dakota. They are recognized as leaders among the +whites. The other son is a farmer near Tracy, Minnesota. +Stands-Like-a-Spirit was the mother of one daughter, Mary Nancy +Eastman, whose father, Captain Seth Eastman, was stationed at Fort +Snelling--1830-36. Mary Nancy married Many Lightnings, a fullblood, one +of the leaders of the Wahpeton-Sioux. They became the parents of four +sons and one daughter. After Many Lightnings became a Christian, he +took his wife's name, Eastman, instead of his own, and gave all his +children English names. John the eldest, and Charles Alexander, the +youngest son, have made this branch of the Cloudman family widely and +favorably known. + +John Eastman, at twenty-six years of age, became a Presbyterian +minister, and for more than a quarter of a century has been the +successful pastor of the First Presbyterian church of Flandreau, South +Dakota. He was for many years a trusty Indian agent at that place. He +is a strong factor in Indian policy and politics. He has had a scanty +English education in books, but he has secured an excellent training, +chiefly by mingling with cultured white people. + +His proud statement once was; "every adult member of the Flandreau band +is a professing Christian, and every child of school age is in school." +During the "Ghost Dance War," in 1890, his band remained quietly at +home, busy about their affairs. In the spring of 1891, they divided +$40,000 among themselves. + +Charles Alexander Eastman was born in 1858, in Minnesota, the ancestral +home of the Sioux, and passed the first fifteen years of his life in +the heart of the wilds of British America, enjoying to the full, the +free, nomadic existence of his race. During all this time, he lived in +a teepee of buffalo skins, subsisted upon wild rice and the fruits of +the chase, never entered a house nor heard the English language spoken, +and was taught to distrust and hate the white man. + +The second period (third) of his life was spent in school and college, +where after a short apprenticeship in a mission school, he stood +shoulder to shoulder, with our own youth, at Beloit, Knox, Dartmouth +and the Boston university. He is an alumnus of Dartmouth of '87 and of +Boston University, department of medicine, of '90. + +During the last fifteen years, he has been a man of varied interests +and occupations, a physician, missionary, writer and speaker of wide +experience and, for the greater part of the time, has held an +appointment under the government. + +At his birth he was called "Hakadah" or "The Pitiful Last," as his +mother died shortly after his birth. He bore this sad name till years +afterwards he was called Ohiyesa, "The Winner," to commemorate a great +victory of La Crosse, the Indian's favorite game, won by his band, "The +Leaf Dwellers," over their foes, the Ojibways. When he received this +new name, the leading medicine man thus exhorted him: "Be brave, be +patient and thou shalt always win. Thy name is "Ohiyesa the Winner."" +The spirit of his benediction seems to follow and rest upon him in his +life-service. + +His grandmother was "Stands-Like-a-Spirit," the second daughter of the +old chief Cloudman. His full-blooded Sioux father was a remarkable man +in many ways and his mother, a half-blood woman, was the daughter of a +well-known army officer. She was the most beautiful woman of the "Leaf +Dwellers" band. By reason of her great beauty, she was called +"Demi-Goddess of the Sioux." Save for her luxuriant, black hair, and +her deep black eyes, she had every characteristic of Caucasian descent. +The motherless lad was reared by his grandmother and an uncle in the +wilds of Manitoba, where he learned thoroughly, the best of the ancient +folk lore, religion and woodcraft of his people. Thirty years of +civilization have not dimmed his joy in the life of the wilderness nor +caused him to forget his love and sympathy for the primitive people and +the animal friends, who were the intimates of his boyhood. + +[Illustration: DR. CHARLES A. EASTMAN, + Famous Sioux Author, Orator and Physician.] + +He is very popular as a writer for the leading magazines. "His +Recollections of Wild Life" in St. Nicholas, and his stories of "Wild +Animals" in Harper, have entertained thousands of juvenile as well as +adult readers. His first book, "Indian boyhood," which appeared in +1902, has passed through several editions, and met with hearty +appreciation. "Red Hunters and the Animal People," published in 1904, +bids fair to be, at least, equally popular. + +During the last two years, he has lectured in many towns from Maine to +California and he is welcomed everywhere. His specialty is the customs, +laws, religion, etc., of the Sioux. Witty, fluent, intellectual, +trained in both methods of education, he is eminently fitted to +explain, in an inimitable and attractive manner, the customs, beliefs +and superstitions of the Indian. He describes not only the life and +training of the boy, but the real Indian as no white man could possibly +do. He brings out strongly the red man's wit, music, poetry and +eloquence. He also explains graphically from facts gained from his own +people, the great mystery of the battle of the Little Big Horn in which +the gallant Custer and brave men went to their bloody death. + +He was married in 1891 at New York City, to Miss Elaine Goodale, a +finely cultured young lady from Massachusetts, herself a poetess and +prose writer of more than ordinary ability. + +They have lived very happily together ever since and are the parents of +five lovely children. They have lived in Washington and St. Paul and +are now residents of Amherst, Massachusetts. Whether in his physician's +office, in his study, on the lecture platform, in the press or in his +own home, Dr. Charles Alexander Eastman is a most attractive +personality. + + + + +IX + +JOHN + +_The Beloved of the Sioux Nation_ + + +Rev. John P. Williamson, D.D., of Greenwood, South Dakota, was born in +the month of October, 1835, in one of Joseph Renville's log cabins, +with dirt roof and no floor; and was the first white child born in +Minnesota, outside of the soldier's families at Fort Snelling. His +father, the Rev. Thomas S. Williamson. M.D., was the first ordained +missionary appointed to labor among the Sioux Indians. He came out to +the new Northwest on an exploring expedition in 1834, visiting the +Indian camps at Wabawsha, Red Wing, Kaposia, and others. + +He returned in the spring of 1835, with his family and others who were +appointed. + +After the arrival of this missionary party, Dr. Williamson and his +colleagues, lived and labored continuously among the Indians the +remainder of their lives. Their work for the Master has not suffered +any interruption, but is still carried on successfully and vigorously +by their successors. + +John P. Williamson grew up in the midst of the Indians. He mastered the +Sioux language in early boyhood. As a lad, he had the present sites of +Minneapolis and St. Paul for his playgrounds and little Indian lads for +his playmates. Among these, was Little Crow, who afterwards became +infamous in his savage warfare, against the defenseless settlers in +western Minnesota, in 1862. + +He was early dedicated to the work of the gospel ministry. In his young +manhood he was sent to Ohio, for his education. In 1857, he graduated +at Marietta College, and in 1860, at Lane Seminary, Cincinnati. In 1859 +he was licensed by Dakota (Indian) Presbytery, and ordained, by the +same body, in 1861. The degree of D.D. was conferred upon him by +Yankton, (S.D.) college in 1890. He recognized no call to preach the +gospel save to the Sioux Indians, and for forty-six years, he has given +his whole life zealously to this great work. He has thrown his whole +life unreservedly into it. And he has accomplished great things for the +Master and the tribe to which he has ministered. + +In 1860 he established a mission and organized a Presbyterian church of +twelve members at Red Wood Agency on the Minnesota. These were both +destroyed in the outbreak two years later. He spent the winter of +1862-3, in evangelistic work, among the Sioux, in the prison-camp at +Fort Snelling, where 1,500 were gathered under military guard. An +intense religious interest sprung up amongst them and continued for +months. Young Dr. Williamson so ministered unto them, that the whole +camp was reached and roused, and the major part of the adults were led +to Christ. Many, including scores of the children of the believers, +were baptized. A Presbyterian congregation of more than one hundred +communicants was organized. This church was afterwards united with the +church of the Prison-pen, at Crow Creek, Nebraska. + +In 1883, he was appointed superintendent of Presbyterian missions among +the Sioux Indians. He has ever abounded in self-sacrificing and +successful labors among this tribe. He has organized Nineteen (19) +congregations and erected twenty-three (23) church edifices. In +twenty-three years he has traveled two hundred thousand miles in the +prosecution of these arduous labors. The number of converts cannot be +reckoned up. + +In 1866, he was married to Miss Sarah A. Vannice. To them there have +been born four sons and three daughters, who are still living. In 1869 +he established the Yankton mission, which has ever since been a great +center, moral and spiritual, to a vast region. At the same time he +established his home at Greenwood, South Dakota, and from that, as his +mission headquarters, he has gone to and from in his great missionary +tours throughout the Dakota land. + +He has, also, abounded in literary labors. For sixteen years he was the +chief editor of "Iapi Oayi," an Indian weekly. In 1864, he published +"Powa Wow-spi," an Indian Spelling Book, and in 1865, a collection of +Dakota Hymns. His greatest literary work, however, was an edition of +the "Dakota Dictionary," in 1871, and other later editions. + +He has won the affections of the whole Sioux nation. They bow willingly +to his decisions, and follow gladly his counsels. To them, he is a much +greater man than President Roosevelt. While he has passed the limit of +his three-score years and ten--forty-six of them in frontier +service--his bow still abides in strength, and he still abounds in +manifold labors. He is still bringing forth rich fruitage in his old +age. + +Every white dweller among the Indians is known by some special +cognomen. His is simply "John." And when it is pronounced, by a Sioux +Indian as a member of the tribe always does it so lovingly, all who +hear it know he refers to "John, the Beloved of the Sioux Nation." + + + + +X + +THE MARTYRS OF OLD ST. JOE. + + +One of the most touching tragedies recorded in the annals of the new +Northwest, was enacted in the sixth decade of the nineteenth century, +on the borders of Prince Rupert's Land and the Louisiana purchase (now +Manitoba and North Dakota). It is a picturesque spot, where the Pembina +river cuts the international boundary line in its course to the +southeast to join the Red River of the North in its course to Hudson's +bay. + +Sixty years ago, in this place, encircled by the wood-crowned mountain +and the forest-lined river and prairies, rich as the gardens of the +gods, there stood a village and trading post of considerable +importance, named after the patron saint of the Roman Catholic church, +in its midst--St. Joseph--commonly called St. Joe. It was a busy, +bustling town, with a mixed population of 1,500. Most of these dwelt in +tents of skin. There were, also, two or three large trading posts and +thirty houses, built of large, hewn timbers mudded smoothly within and +without and roofed with shingles. Some of these were neat and pretty; +one had window-shutters. It was the center of an extensive fur trade +with the Indian tribes of the Missouri river. Many thousands of buffalo +and other skins were shipped annually to St. Paul in carts. Sometimes a +train of four hundred of these wooden carts started together for St. +Paul, a distance of four hundred miles. + +But old things have passed away. The village of old St. Joe is now +marked only by some cellar excavations. It possesses, however, a sad +interest as the scene of the martyrdom of Protestant missionaries on +this once wild frontier, then so far removed from the abodes of +civilization. + +James Tanner was a converted half-breed, who with his wife labored, in +1849, as a missionary at Lake Winnibogosh, Minnesota. His father had +been stolen, when a lad, from his Kentucky home, by the Indians. Near +the close of 1849 he visited a brother in the Pembina region. He became +so deeply interested in the ignorant condition of the people there, +that he made a tour of the East in their behalf. He visited New York, +Washington and other cities, and awakened considerable interest in +behalf of the natives of this region. While east he became a member of +the Baptist Church. He returned to St. Joe, in 1852, accompanied by a +young man named Benjamin Terry, of St. Paul, to open a mission among +the Pembina Chippewas and half breeds under the auspices of the Baptist +Missionary Society. Terry was very slight and youthful in appearance, +quiet and retiring in disposition and was long spoken of, by the +half-breeds, as "Tanner's Boy." They visited the Red River (Selkirk) +settlement (now Winnipeg). While there, Terry wooed and won one of the +daughters of the Selkirk settlers, a dark-eyed handsome Scotch lass, to +whom he expected to be married in a few months. But, alas, ere the +close of summer, he was waylaid, by a savage Sioux, shot full of +arrows, his arm broken and his entire scalp carried away. Mr. Tanner +secured permission to bury him in the Roman Catholic Cemetery in the +corner reserved for suicides, heretics and unbaptized infants. Thus +ended in blood, the first effort to establish a Protestant mission in +the Pembina country. + +June 1, 1853, a band of Presbyterian missionaries arrived at St. Joe. +It was composed of the Reverends Alonzo Barnard and David Brainard +Spencer, their wives and children. They came in canoes and in carts +from Red and Cass lakes, Minnesota, where for ten years, they had +labored as missionaries among the Chippewas. They removed to St. Joe, +at the earnest request of Governor Alexander Ramsey, of Minnesota, and +others familiar with their labors and the needs of the Pembina natives. +Mrs. Barnard's health soon gave way. Her husband removed her to the +Selkirk settlement, one hundred miles to the north, for medical aid. +Her health continued to fail so rapidly that by her strong desire they +attempted to return to St. Joe. The first night they encamped in a +little tent on the bleak northern plain in the midst of a fierce +windstorm. The chilling winds penetrated the folds of the tent. All +night long the poor sufferer lay in her husband's arms, moaning +constantly: "Hold me close; oh, hold me close." They were compelled to +return to the settlement, where after a few days more of intense +suffering, she died, Oct. 22, 1853, of quick consumption, caused by ten +years exposure and suffering for the welfare of the Indians. + +Mrs. Barnard was first interred at the Selkirk settlement, in Prince +Rupert's Land (now Manitoba). In the absence of other clergymen, Mr. +Barnard was compelled to officiate at his wife's funeral himself. In +obedience to her dying request, Mrs. Barnard's remains were removed to +St. Joe and re-interred in the yard of the humble mission cabin, Dec. +3, 1853. + +In 1854, Mr. Barnard visited Ohio to provide a home for his children. +On his return, at Belle Prairie, Minnesota, midway between St. Paul and +St. Joe, he met Mr. Spencer and his three motherless children, +journeying four hundred miles by ox-cart to St. Paul. There in the rude +hovel in which they spent the night, Mr. Barnard baptized Mr. Spencer's +infant son, now an honored minister of the Congregational church in +Wisconsin. On his arrival at St. Joe Mr. Barnard found another mound +close by the grave of his beloved wife. + +The story of this third grave is, also, written in blood. It was Aug. +30, 1854. The hostile Sioux were infesting the Pembina region. Only the +previous month, had Mrs. Spencer written to a far distant friend in +India: "Last December the Lord gave us a little son, whose smiling face +cheers many a lonely hour." On this fatal night, she arose to care for +this darling boy. A noise at the window attracted her attention. She +withdrew the curtain to ascertain the cause. Three Indians stood there +with loaded rifles and fired. Three bullets struck her, two in her +throat and one in her breast. She neither cried out nor spoke, but +reeling to her bed, with her babe in her arms, knelt down, where she +was soon discovered by her husband, when he returned from barricading +the door. She suffered intensely for several hours and then died. And +till daybreak Mr. Spencer sat in a horrid dream, holding his dead wife +in his arms. The baby lay in the rude cradle near by, bathed in his +mother's blood. The two elder children stood by terrified and weeping. +Such was the distressing scene which the neighbors beheld in the +morning, when they came with their proffers of sympathy and help. The +friendly half-breeds came in, cared for the poor children and prepared +the dead mother for burial. A half-breed dug the grave and nailed a +rude box together for a coffin. Then with a bleeding heart, the sore +bereaved man consigned to the bosom of the friendly earth the remains +of his murdered wife. + +Within the past thirty years civilization has rapidly taken possession +of this lovely region. Christian homes and Christian churches cover +these rich prairies. The prosperous and rapidly growing village of +Walhalla (Paradise) nestles in the bosom of this lovely vale and +occupies contentedly the former site of Old St. Joe. + +June 21, 1888, one of the most interesting events in the history of +North Dakota occurred at the Presbyterian cemetery, which crowns the +brow of the mountain, overlooking Walhalla. It was the unveiling of the +monument erected by the Woman's Synodical Missionary Society of North +Dakota, which they had previously erected to the memory of Sarah +Philena Barnard and Cornelia Spencer, two of the three "Martyrs of St. +Joe." The monument is a beautiful and appropriate one of white marble. +The broken pieces of old stone formerly placed on Mrs. Barnard's grave, +long scattered and lost, were discovered, cemented together and placed +upon her new grave. The Rev. Alonzo Barnard, seventy-one years of age, +accompanied by his daughter, was present. Standing upon the graves of +the martyrs, with tremulous voice and moistened eyes, he gave to the +assembled multitude a history of their early missionary toil in the +abodes of savagery. It was a thrilling story, the interest intensified +by the surroundings. The half-breed women who prepared Mrs. Spencer's +body for the burial and who washed and dressed the little babe after +his baptism in his mother's blood, were present. The same half-breed +who dug Mrs. Spencer's grave in 1854 dug the new grave in 1888. Several +pioneers familiar with the facts of the tragedy at the time of its +occurrence were also present. + +"The Martyr's Plot," the last resting place of these devoted servants +of our Lord Jesus Christ, is a beautiful spot, on the hillside, in the +Presbyterian Cemetery at Walhalla. It is enclosed by a neat fence, and +each of these three martyr's graves is marked by a white stone, with an +appropriate inscription. + +The Rev. Alonzo Barnard retired to Michigan, where he gave five years +of missionary toil to the Chippewas at Omene and many other years of +helpful service to the white settlers at other points in that state. In +1883 he retired from the work of the active ministry and spent the +remainder of his days with his children. + +He died April 14, 1905, at Pomona, Michigan, at the home of his son, +Dr. James Barnard, in the eighty-eighth year of his age. There is a +large and flourishing Episcopal Indian church at Leech Lake, Minnesota, +the scene of Mr. Barnard's labors from 1843-52. + +The rector is the Rev. Charles T. Wright, a full-blood Chippewa. He is +the eldest son of that famous chieftain, Gray Cloud and is now himself, +chief of all the Chippewas. "Thus one soweth and another reapeth." + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Among the Sioux, by R. J. 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