Among the Sioux: A Story of the Twin Cities and the Two Dakotas — John Shaqi
Among the Sioux: A Story of the Twin Cities and the Two DakotasCreswell, R. J. (Robert J.)
History
Among the Sioux: A Story of the Twin Cities and the Two Dakotas
Creswell, R. J. (Robert J.)
Dakota Indians -- Missions; Missionaries -- Great Plains -- Biography
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.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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