CHAPTER XVI THE CONQUEST OF THE SIOUX CHRISTIANIZING THE DAKOTAS-AMERICAN MISSIONARY BOARD STATIONS AT LAKE CALHOUN LAC QUI PARLE-TRAVERSE DES SIOUX-THE INITIATIVE OF CULTURE-TRANSLATION OF THE BIBLE INTO THE SIOUX-EAGLE HELP'S VISIONSIMON'S CONVERSION-EARLY SETTLERS OF SPIRIT LAKE-AFTER THE SIOUX MASSACRE OF 1862-CHURCH OF THE SCOUTS SPIRITUAL DEVELOPMENT IN PRISON-REMOVAL OF THE SURVIVORS AND PARDONED TO DAKOTA-JOSEPH RENVILLE, DOCTOR RIGGS AND ASSOCIATES THE PILGRIMS OF SANTEE FOUNDING OF THE RELIGIOUS PRESS-THE FIRST GENERAL CONFERENCE-THE SABBATH— MEN OF MARK AMONG THE MISSIONARIES-PROPHETS AND BLACK GOWNS. Fling out the banner! let it float Skyward and seaward, high and wide; Fling out the banner! angels bend In anxious silence o'er the sign; The wonder of the love divine. -Bishop G. W. Doane. CHRISTIANIZING THE DAKOTAS-THE INITIATIVE OF CULTURE In 1834, a Dakota village of about four hundred people existed on Lake Calhoun, extending to Lake Harriet, now embraced within the city limits of Minneapolis, Minn. Here that year the Rev. Samuel W. Pond and his brother, Gideon H. Pond, commenced the spiritual conquest of the Dakotas. In 1835, they were joined by the Rev. Jedediah D. Stevens and Dr. Thomas S. Williamson, also a medical practitioner, and Lake Calhoun became a station of the American Missionary Board. They immediately began a systematic study of the Sioux language in order to better reach the understanding of the natives, and by 1837, they had gathered a vocabulary of five or six hundred words, this, Dr. Stephen R. Riggs declared, forming the basis of the Dakota (Sioux) grammar. Two houses were built of tamarac logs, in one of which a school was established with half a dozen pupils, principally mixed-blood girls. In 1836, at the request of the Indian trader, Joseph Renville, a three-fourths blood Sioux (first mentioned on the Minnesota River in Part One), a congregation of seven members was organized, principally of the household of Mr. Renville, who rendered invaluable aid in the translation of the Bible into the Dakota language, until then a rude. Vol. I-16 spoken dialect. The Bible was translated and hymns composed or translated, and reduced to written form in the Dakota tongue. It was the beginning of the creation of the literature of a nation. In an upper room-10 by 12 feet-of a log house, Doctor Riggs lived and worked for five years. Here his first three children were born, and here his grammar of the Dakota language was prepared, and the greater part of the New Testament translated. Mr. Renville had great influence over the Sioux. The members of his own family learned to read, and some of the "Soldiers' Lodge" (council of warriors) were next to learn. In the lower room of the Williamson building, twenty-five or thirty men. and women gathered every Sunday, to whom Doctor Williamson preached and being a physician he was often able to contribute to their temporal welfare. They sang Dakota hymns composed by Mrs. Renville, and Mr. Pond prayed in their language. Mr. Renville's home at Lac qui Parle was known as Fort Renville, having been built for defense as well as trade with the Ojibways (Chippewas). It consisted of a store building, a reception room with a large fireplace, and a bench. running almost around the room, on which the men sat or reclined. Mr. Renville sat in a chair in the middle of the room, with his feet crossed under him like a tailor. Verse by verse the Bible was read, Renville translating into the Dakota language, written by Doctor Riggs or Mr. Pond, and again read from the Indian language. Thus from week to week the work went on until the missionaries became entirely competent to make their own translation, which was finally completed in 1879. Renville died in March, 1846, at Lac qui Parle. In the prosecution of their work they encountered the most bitter opposition, which was engendered in savage breasts by ignorance and superstition, and intensified by the malice, jealousy, avarice and licentiousness of white frontier traders. Eagle Help is claimed by Doctor Riggs-from whose book, "Mary and I," these facts are principally obtained-to have been the first Sioux to read and write the Dakota language, and to have been of great help in the work of translating the Bible. Eagle Help was not only a warrior but a prophet. After fasting and praying and dancing the circle dance, a vision of the enemies he sought to kill would come to him. In his trance or dream, the whole panorama -the river, lake or forest, and the Ojibways in canoes, or on the land, would appear before him, and the spirit he saw in his vision would say, "Up, Eagle Help, and kill." On one occasion having had a vision, Eagle Help got up a war party of a score of young warriors, who fasted and feasted, decked themselves in hostile array, danced the "No Flight Dance," listened to real war stories by the old men, and went off to war, first killing two Mission cows. When they returned, after many days, without having seen an enemy they blamed the missionaries for Eagle Help's false vision. Jean N. Nicollet and Lieut. John C. Fremont visited the camp soon afterward (1839), and induced the Indians to pay for the cows. Eagle Help accounted for his failure as a war prophet by the claim that his knowledge of the Christian religion had destroyed his powers. The treaty of 1837, providing for the education of the Sioux, Doctor Riggs held, had proved to be a handicap rather than a help, because the traders induced the Indians to oppose the use of the money for that purpose and to insist upon its being turned over to them for general purposes; and lest there might be a treaty some time that would permit the missionaries to get the money, they ordered the Soldiers' Lodge (Council of Warriors) to prevent the children from going to school. In the work of the missionaries the women were not only taught ordinary household duties, but to spin, knit and sew, and the little girls to do patchwork, that is, sew pieces of calico of various colors, cut in squares, together to form a quilt or counterpane for a bed. "Before the snows had disappeared or the ducks come back" in the spring, the annual hunting party would return laden with rich furs and other products of the chase, and the traders would then reap their harvest; to be followed by a long period of distress among the Indians dependent on hunting for their subsistence. In January, 1838, a hunting party of Sioux divided while in the vicinity of the present site of Benson, Minn., leaving three lodges there alone, which were visited by Hole-in-the-Day, a Chippewa chief, accompanied by ten warriors. The Sioux, although near starvation themselves, treated their guests hospitably, killing two dogs and giving them a feast, and in return the Chippewas arose at midnight and murdered the entire three families. In 1839, 1,000 Ojibways on a peaceful mission, left Fort Snelling, in two parties; one by way of the St. Croix River and the other by way of Rum River, and on their return to their homes both parties were followed by the Sioux in retaliation for the death by two young Ojibways of a prominent member of the Lake Calhoun Village to avenge the killing of their father by the Sioux. A terrific slaughter ensued and as a consequence the Sioux fearing to remain at Lake Calhoun removed to the Minnesota River and with them the missionaries who established themselves in a station at Lac qui Parle now in Minnesota. In 1840, the rate of postage was 25 cents on letters, and although Lac-quiParle was less than two hundred miles from Fort Snelling, the nearest postoffice, it was sometimes from three to five months before mail could be obtained from there at Lac-qui-Parle. In 1840, when Doctor Riggs visited Fort Pierre, where there were about forty lodges of Tetons then encamped, he decided that the time had not yet come to carry the work into that region, but in later years it was transferred to Dakota. In 1841, Simon Anawangomane (the Simon Peter of the Sioux) became the first Dakota brave to embrace the Christian religion. A considerable number of women had become converted, but the braves were not willing to follow their lead. It was hard for Simon to give up taking human life, says Doctor Riggs, and still harder to give up his surplus wives; but after three years of wrestling with the proposition, he yielded and led the Christian warrior band, becoming a bright and shining star to lead their way. and planted a field of corn and potatoes. He put on the white man's clothing him alone, but the women and children pointed the finger of scorn at him, which he resisted, but the temptation of strong drink mastered him and Simon went back for a time to his old Indian dress and ways, but in 1854 returned to the church. At first he only ventured to sit on the doorsteps, then he found a seat in the furthermost corner, advancing by degrees to his old place, and for more than twenty years he took a leading part in christianizing the Sioux; the last ten as a licensed exhorter. He was wounded in the battle at Wood Lake, and his son, who was wounded at the same engagement, died of his wounds. The mission at Traverse-des-Sioux was established in 1843, by Doctor Riggs and associates. That year two Sioux on the way to meet the missionaries were killed by Ojibways sneaking in the grass, and to avenge their death their friends shot the horse belonging to the mission and later two oxen at intervals met a similar fate at their hands. Traverse-des-Sioux was situated twelve miles above the present City of Lesueur, Minn., twenty-five miles from Lac-qui-Parle. St. Paul was then a mere collection of grog shops, depending principally on the Indian trade. The enterprising Indians from the Minnesota River would go to St. Paul, buy a keg of whiskey, have a carousal on part of its contents, fill it up with water, and then go to Dakota and trade it for a horse. By 1848, the attitude of the Indians toward the missionaries had so changed. that the Soldiers' Lodge was placed at their service. The Dakota Presbytery, organized in 1845, licensed and ordained George H. Pond and Robert Hopkins, ministers of the Gospel, and Rev. Moses N. Adams, Rev. John F. Alton and Rev. Joshua Potter came to that region for work among the Dakotas. Reverend Mr. Hopkins was drowned July 4th of the same year. In June, 1849, the Christian work was extended to Big Stone Lake. In 1851, the army offices at Fort Snelling had collected a Sioux vocabulary of five or six hundred words. The collection of Doctor Riggs had then reached 3,000, in two years more it had doubled, and in 1856, reached 10,000 words. The Dakota Dictionary when published in 1874 contained 16,000 words. In 1852, Doctor Williamson erected buildings at the Yellow Medicine Mission. In 1857, the mission-house at Lac-qui-Parle was burned and the station was moved to Hazelwood, six miles from the Yellow Medicine Agency, and there rebuilt. The Indians from Lac-qui-Parle followed to the same place. At first the Dakota children were educated in the families of the missionaries, but at Hazelwood a boarding school was established, starting with twentypupils. EARLY SETTLERS AT SPIRIT LAKE In 1857, when there were about fifty settlers at and near Spirit Lake, Iowa, Inkpadoota, who was the leader of a hunting party of Wahpetons, visited that locality. Game being scarce and the party in bad humor, they made demands on the whites which were not readily complied with, so the Indians helped themselves, and were insulting to the women of nearly the whole settlement. Four women were carried away captive; one of whom, Mrs. Marble, was treated kindly, having been purchased by friendly Indians and ransomed. One slipped from a log on which she was required to cross a stream, and while in the water ས ། |