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
One winter night, Sleepy Eyes had come in from Swan Lake, and placed
his horse at our haystack, while he himself went to the trader's to
spend the night. Just before we retired to rest, we heard voices and
feet hurrying past our door. I went out and found that two men and a
woman were at the stable--the men were shooting arrows into Sleepy
Eyes' horse. One of the men said, "I asked uncle for this horse, and
he did not give it to me--I am killing it." They had done their work.
Perhaps I had interfered unnecessarily--certainly unsuccessfully. As
they returned and passed by our cabin, I was behind them, and, as I
was stepping in at the door, an arrow whizzed by. Was it intended to
hit?
The next morning that Indian started off for whiskey, but a white man
passed down the country also, and told the story at Fort Snelling. The
result was that the man who killed his uncle's horse was put in the
guard-house. Not for that, but for shooting at a white man, he was to
be taken down into Iowa, to be tried for assault. The commandant of
the post at Snelling doubted whether good would come of it, and I
fully agreed with him. And so, in the month of March, Tankamane (Big
Walker) and I went down to the fort and procured his release. He
promised well--he would drink no whiskey while he lived--he would
always be the white man's friend. He signed the pledge and went back
with Big Walker and myself. A captain's wife asked how I dared to go
in company with that man. I said, "Madam, that man will be my best
friend." And so he was. He went up to the Blue Earth hunting-grounds,
and brought us in some fine venison hams.
But still intemperance increased. A drunken man went to the mission
singing, and asked for food. They gave him a plate of rice and a
spoon, but he did not feel like eating then. After slobbering over it
awhile, he compelled the white women to eat it. They were too much
afraid to refuse. One time Mr. Hopkins and I were both away until
midnight, when my friend, Tankamane, while drunk, visited the house
and threatened to break in the door. But we reached home soon
afterward, and the women slept. Thus we had the "terror and the
arrow," but the Lord shielded us.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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