Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this file which includes the original illustrations. See 42806-h.htm or 42806-h.zip: (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/42806/42806-h/42806-h.htm) or (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/42806/42806-h.zip) Images of the original pages are available through Internet Archive/American Libraries. See http://archive.org/details/maryandi00riggrich [Illustration: STEPHEN R. RIGGS, D.D., LL.D.] MARY AND I Forty Years with the Sioux by STEPHEN R. RIGGS, D.D., LL.D. Missionary to the Dakotas, and Author of "Dakota Grammar and Dictionary," "Gospel Among the Dakotas," etc. With an Introduction by Rev. S. C. Bartlett, D.D. President Of Dartmouth College Boston Congregational Sunday-School and Publishing Society Congregational House Copyright, 1880, by Stephen R. Riggs. Copyright, 1887, by Congregational S. S. and Publishing Society. Electrotyped by C. J. Peters and Son, Boston. To My Children, ALFRED, ISABELLA, MARTHA, ANNA, THOMAS, HENRY, ROBERT, CORNELIA, AND EDNA; TOGETHER WITH ALL THE GRANDCHILDREN GROWING UP INTO THE MISSIONARY INHERITANCE OF THEIR FATHERS AND MOTHERS, _THIS BOOK IS INSCRIBED BY THE AUTHOR._ PREFACE. This book I have INSCRIBED to my own family. It will be of interest to them, as, in part, a history of their father and mother, in the toils and sacrifices and rewards of commencing and carrying forward the work of evangelizing the Dakota people. Many others, who are interested in the uplifting of the Red Men, may be glad to obtain glimpses, in these pages, of the inside of Missionary Life in what was, not long since, the Far West; and to trace the threads of the in-weaving of a Christ-life into the lives of many of the Sioux nation. "Why don't you tell more about yourselves?" is a question which, in various forms, has been often asked me, during these last four decades. Partly as the answer to questions of that kind, this book assumes somewhat the form of a personal narrative. While I do not claim, even at this evening time of my life, to be freed from the desire that good Christian readers will think favorably of this effort of mine, I can not expect that the appreciation with which my Dakota Grammar and Dictionary was received, by the literary world, more than a quarter of a century ago, will be surpassed by this humbler effort.