Saint Paul weekly Minnesotian. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1858-1859, 1858-09-18
During the whole of this five

DUHiS Viz WIiOic vi tIlS llNC yCdio, AA'es
jOrity of these persons had their home at Lac
qui Parle, where food and clothing were dear
er than at any place in the United States, and
as dear as at any station sustained by the
American Board of Foreign Missions, in any
part of the whole world.
We had no smithshOp nor post office nearer
than two hundred miles, and no mill till we
erected one with our own hands. 1t is true
that at this time we received considerable do
nations of clothing and some of provisions,
from friends in Ohio, but after paying several
cents pound for freight and charges on those
as we'll as all our other supplies, we had to
haul them one hundred and twenty-five miles
over prairie where no men dwelt, and which,
on various occasions we traversed alone with
out seeing human being ora quadruped eX-
cept our team. In these Journeys in which,
for the sake of taking home little more OF
such things, as We needed, or getting home
little sooner, we mostly walked to drive our
team by day, often wading through boys IN
which occasionally we became mlred so that
it was necessary to unhitch, and taking out
our load from the wagon, carry 1t through
the swamp on our shoulders.
These labOrs by day with watching our
team and fighting the mosquitoes by ngnt,
caused such lassitude and exhaustion OF the
physical powers that on various OCCASIONS, Tor
week after getting home from one OF these
trips we were unfit for any labor bodily or
mental. These were years of hard labor and
not little suffering, but they were among our
MANIFEST wears. 1t is sweet to labor and suffer
for Christ, especially if he is pleased to smile
ON those labOrs, and make them successful.
In these five years from June 1887, to June
1912, more was accomplished in preparing
books in the Dakota language, especially trans
lation of the scriptures, than in all the other
eighteen years since it was begun, and what
is of still more consequence, besides several
whites, in these five years, forty-one adult
Dakotas were gathered into the visible church
of Christ, of whom number have departed,
we hope, to a better world, and half survive
and still hold fast their profession.
A bright morning is frequently the pre-
cursor of dark and stormy day, and so it
was in the Dakota mission at Lac qui Parle.
Our prospects were brightest in the early
part of 1872 Besides elementary books we
had most of the New Testament and some
parts of the Old translated and ready for the
press; also hymn book of nearly 100 pages.
Our school and religious meetings were well
attended, and the Dakota men were some of
them beginning to work like white men: and
our church numbered nearly fifty native mem
bers, most of whom appeared well. And
many of the women were learning to spin and
weave. But that remote station was destined
now to feel the storm which had been raging
among the Mdewakantonwan for some years.
These lower DakOtas having been told by
some of their traders that if they would not
listen to missionaries nor suffer any of their
children to attend school, and would demand
it, they might get in money perpetual an
nuity of not less than $4,000 per annum,
which according to the treaty of 1887 was to
be expended for their benefit in such manner
as the President of the U. S. should direct,
and which the President had said should be
expended for education, did as they were
told to do. Having withdrawn all their chill
dren from school and refused to receive relig-
ioug instruction till a part of their religious
teachers had left, and demanded the money
for several years without getting it, they
thought the school at Lac qui Parle was the
hndrance, and brought all their influence which
was not small, to bear on the Warpetonwan
to break up the school and mission there
Besides large presents of whiskey, as well as
other things, Il most influential young chief,
son-in-law of one of the chiefs at Lac qui
Parle, came there and instigated the Indians
there to kill our cattle and in two successive
years they killed each year twice as many as
they left us; and having killed our best horse
also, it was necessary to put yoke on our two
remaining milk cows to haul our fire wood.
The corn of the Indians, their main dependence
for subsistence at Lac qui Parle, was des-
troyed also by frost, and our congregation and
church were scattered, and not more than half
of our church members ever returned to reside
-. A. IL Of G.,
males unable to read or choose their place of
residence. A part of them went among the
wild Sssitonwan and IhanktOnwan and for
years followed the buffalo without any relig-
ious instruction or fixed place of abode. A
greater part fled from starvation to seek a
living among their relations the Mdewakan-
tonwan. They were exposed to more severe
trials. Their relations comparatively rich,
feeling, besides the natural hostility of the
human heart to the religion of the Bible, that
their pecuniary interests required the exter
mination of this religion in their nation, piled
their poor guests by turns with kindness,
presents, batteries and strong drinks, telling
them at the same time the basest falsehoods
in regard to their religious teachers, and when
these avaed not, with cruel mockings, scorn
and neglect, leaving them to suffer for want
of food and ranent That some of them
apostatised in such circumstances is not
strange All must have fallen but that lie
who has promised to keep those who trust in
him is ever faithful to His promises.
My BRETHREN: Those of you who have
attempted to make known the way of saliva
ton to persons who never 90 to any religious
meetings have probably found that it is not
easy to obtain hearing. We have experience
ed the same difficulties from the Sioux with
several superadded ones. Many of them
tell us plainly that however it may be with
white men they have nothing to do with
future state of existence, and when their body
dies there will be no more of them and the
more religiOusly inclined often feel that our
preaching is an insult as being a direct attack
on the religion of their fathers, and tell us
that if they should go to work as white men
do, they would die for they were made differ
emily, and were to live differently. Being
sensual race who never assemble to talk
about anything except when something is pre-
pared to eat, when we went to their tents
(for houses they had none) they inquired what
we came for, and when told, they asked why
we did not make feast of the best we had,
and call them as they would do in a like case,
asserting that if we did so they would listen
to all we had to say. If we were so impolite
as to proceed in delivering our message they
either proceeded in their work or amusements
-endeavoring to hear as little as possible of
what we said or soon interrupted us by tell
ing OF their wants, and as their necessities
were undeniable and often urgent, if we re-
fused to relieve them, of our comparative
abundance they thought and sometimes said
it was manifest that the religion we wished to
teach was not as good as theirs, for they were
accustomed to give even in their poverty to
relieve those poorer than themselves, and to
share their last morsel of food with the hun
cry. The story of the cross with persevering
efforts to do them good triumphed over these
things. Those who embraced Christianity
were scoffed at, neglected, spoken against
and tempted, but only during one winter was