After thirty years of patient labor the reward seemed about to come. Christianity was proving its power to disintegrate heathenism, break down prejudice and survive the enmity of unprincipled white men. Then the outbreak and massacres of 1862 occurred, seemingly sweeping everything away. It was the death-struggle of heathenism, alarmed at the steady advance of Christianity. Other political causes and conditions merely made this outbreak possible. And yet what seemed annihilation was only multiplication and dissemination. Again was fulfilled the Scripture: “They that were scattered abroad went preaching the word.” And the conversion in the military prisons of hundreds as it were in a day, is one of the notable instances of the power of God’s spirit. Twenty years ago the field of Christian missions among the Dakotas was confined to a small section of the nation then dwelling in a corner of Minnesota. But now the field extends over the great Missouri valley and on northward toward the Saskatchawan in the British Possessions. The work whose beginnings we have noted, originally one under the American Board, has since been divided. In 1871, at the time of the general division of the missions of the American Board, that part of the Dakota Mission immediately under the charge of the venerable Dr. Williamson and his son, Rev. John P. Williamson, was transferred to the care of the Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions. But the larger portion remained with the other veteran of the mission, Rev. Stephen B. Riggs, under the care of the American Board. And now with the year 1883 another transfer is made to the American Missionary Association. But the five native churches, with a membership of 340, that had meanwhile grown up about Sisseton Agency are graduated from foreign missions into a home mission connection, and so naturally pass under the care of the Presbyterian Home Mission Board. It is not within the scope of this short article to speak of the work accomplished by the Episcopal Mission in the same field, which had its beginning about thirty years later than the original Dakota Mission, and in recent years has had very considerable success. Nor can we speak particularly of the portion of our great field lying across the British line, for though we have furnished the native laborers it is not organically connected with us. But as for the rest of the original mission, even though divided, it works as one. It has one General Conference, and in all its publications and matters of common concern acts as one mission still. The statistics of the Dakota Mission, as thus defined, show 7 stations, 6 ordained missionaries, 26 assistant missionaries, 13 churches, 12 native pastors and preachers, 9 native teachers, and 847 church members, contributing during the past year $779.83 for their own missions among the heathen Indians, and $1,080.58 for pastoral support and church expenses.