Mary and I: Forty Years with the SiouxRiggs, Stephen Return
History
Mary and I: Forty Years with the Sioux
Riggs, Stephen Return
Dakota Indians -- Missions; Riggs, Stephen Return, 1812-1883
The missionaries down there were charged with wanting to get hold of
the Indians' money; and so the provision for education made by the
treaty of 1837 effectually blocked all efforts at teaching among those
lower Sioux. What should have been a help became a great hindrance.
Indians and traders joined to oppose the use of that fund for the
purpose for which it was intended, and finally the government yielded
and turned over the accumulated money to be distributed among
themselves. The Wahpatons of Lac-qui-parle had no interest in that
treaty; and had yet made no treaty with the government and had not a
red cent of money anywhere that missionaries could, by any hook or
crook, lay hold of. Nevertheless it was easy to get up a fear and
belief; for was it possible that white men and women would come here
and teach year after year, and not expect, in some way and at some
time, to get money out of them? If they ever made a treaty, and sold
land to the government, would not the missionaries bring in large
bills against them? It was easy to work up this matter in their own
minds, and make it all seem true, and the result was the soldiers were
ordered to stop the children from coming to school. There were some
such moods as this, and our school had a vacation. But the absurdity
appeared pretty soon, and the children were easily induced to come
back.
Mr. and Mrs. Pond were now gone. For the next winter, Mary and Miss
Fanny Huggins took care of the girls and younger boys, and Mr.
Huggins, with such assistance as I could give, took care of the boys
and young men. The women also undertook, under the instruction of Mrs.
Huggins and Miss Fanny, to spin and knit and weave. Mr. Renville had
already among his flock some sheep. The wool was here and the flax was
soon grown. Spinning-wheels and knitting-needles were brought on, and
Mr. Huggins manufactured a loom. They knit socks and stockings, and
wove skirts and blankets, while the little girls learned to sew
patchwork and make quilts. All this was of advantage as education.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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