Stephen Return Riggs
Mary and I: Forty Years with the Sioux
eBook
( Sept. 16, 2017)
The beginning of missionary work among the Dakotas dates from the year I834 when two brothers from Connecticut, by the name of Pond, built their cabin on the bank of Lake Calhoun. Dr. Williamson and Mr. Stevens followed them the next year, and on the first of June, I837, after a journey of nearly three months from Massachusetts, the Rev. Stephen R. Riggs and his wife Mary, missionaries of the American Board, landed from a steamer at the point where the Minnesota empties into the Mississippi, and there entered into the wilderness in which they were to sojoum forty years, as the friends and teachers of the Dakota Indians.
Stephen Return Riggs (1812 – 1883) was a Christian missionary and linguist who lived and worked among the Dakota people.
Riggs was born in Steubenville, Ohio. His career among the Dakota began in 1837 at Lac qui Parle in what is now Minnesota, where there was a mission. He worked among the Dakota Sioux for the remainder of his life, producing a grammar and dictionary and a translation of the New Testament. In his 1887 autobiography Mary and I, or Forty Years with the Sioux, Riggs describes his life.
Their first business was to master the language, and in this they had such meagre aid as could come from a vocabulary of five or six hundred words, which Mr. Stevens had gathered from the brothers Pond. Beyond this they must get their ears opened to catch strange sounds and their tongues trained to utter them; and the fleeting sound must be presented to the eye and perpetuated by fixed characters upon the written page. The English language might serve some purposes in the missionary work, but Dr. Riggs says, “for the purposes of civilization, and especially of Christianization, we have found culture in the native tongue indispensable.”
Dr. Riggs and his wife went to Fort Snelling. From that time they were leaders in all efforts to Christianize the Dakotas, and labored untiringly to understand and convert the Indian. The literary labors of Dr. Riggs in producing a Dakota Dictionary and Bible have made his work known among learned men, and given his influence a permanency it could not have otherwise secured. We are made acquainted with successes and defeats, with joys and sorrows,with privations and prosperity. There is nothing artificial or sensational in the narrative. It is good for young people to read such books, to show them what kind of a life is worth living, at least what the spirit of life should be in all time and everywhere. Dr. Riggs and his wife had the joy of witnessing the revival among the Indians who were captured and confined in Minnesota prisons. These two pioneer laborers have had a large household of children who have been closely identified with missionary work. Truly the heritage left by such parents is better than great riches.
Riggs writes:
"The chief work of my life has been the part I have been permitted, by the good Lord, to have in giving the entire Bible to the Sioux Nation. This book is only 'the band of the sheaf.' If, by weaving the principal facts of our Missionary work, its trials and joys, its discouragements and grand successes, into this personal narrative of 'Mary and I,' a better judgment of Indian capabilities is secured, and a more earnest and intelligent determination to work for their Christianization and final Citizenship, I shall be quite satisfied.
"The Forty Years are completed. In the meantime, many workers have fallen out of the ranks, but the work has gone on. It has been marvelous in our eyes. At the beginning, we were surrounded by the whole Sioux nation, in their ignorance and barbarism. At the close we are surrounded by churches with native pastors. Quite a section of the Sioux nation has become, in the main, civilized and Christianized. The entire Bible has been translated into the language of the Dakotas. The work of education has been rapidly progressing."
Stephen Return Riggs (1812 – 1883) was a Christian missionary and linguist who lived and worked among the Dakota people.
Riggs was born in Steubenville, Ohio. His career among the Dakota began in 1837 at Lac qui Parle in what is now Minnesota, where there was a mission. He worked among the Dakota Sioux for the remainder of his life, producing a grammar and dictionary and a translation of the New Testament. In his 1887 autobiography Mary and I, or Forty Years with the Sioux, Riggs describes his life.
Their first business was to master the language, and in this they had such meagre aid as could come from a vocabulary of five or six hundred words, which Mr. Stevens had gathered from the brothers Pond. Beyond this they must get their ears opened to catch strange sounds and their tongues trained to utter them; and the fleeting sound must be presented to the eye and perpetuated by fixed characters upon the written page. The English language might serve some purposes in the missionary work, but Dr. Riggs says, “for the purposes of civilization, and especially of Christianization, we have found culture in the native tongue indispensable.”
Dr. Riggs and his wife went to Fort Snelling. From that time they were leaders in all efforts to Christianize the Dakotas, and labored untiringly to understand and convert the Indian. The literary labors of Dr. Riggs in producing a Dakota Dictionary and Bible have made his work known among learned men, and given his influence a permanency it could not have otherwise secured. We are made acquainted with successes and defeats, with joys and sorrows,with privations and prosperity. There is nothing artificial or sensational in the narrative. It is good for young people to read such books, to show them what kind of a life is worth living, at least what the spirit of life should be in all time and everywhere. Dr. Riggs and his wife had the joy of witnessing the revival among the Indians who were captured and confined in Minnesota prisons. These two pioneer laborers have had a large household of children who have been closely identified with missionary work. Truly the heritage left by such parents is better than great riches.
Riggs writes:
"The chief work of my life has been the part I have been permitted, by the good Lord, to have in giving the entire Bible to the Sioux Nation. This book is only 'the band of the sheaf.' If, by weaving the principal facts of our Missionary work, its trials and joys, its discouragements and grand successes, into this personal narrative of 'Mary and I,' a better judgment of Indian capabilities is secured, and a more earnest and intelligent determination to work for their Christianization and final Citizenship, I shall be quite satisfied.
"The Forty Years are completed. In the meantime, many workers have fallen out of the ranks, but the work has gone on. It has been marvelous in our eyes. At the beginning, we were surrounded by the whole Sioux nation, in their ignorance and barbarism. At the close we are surrounded by churches with native pastors. Quite a section of the Sioux nation has become, in the main, civilized and Christianized. The entire Bible has been translated into the language of the Dakotas. The work of education has been rapidly progressing."
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