History of the Riggs Missionary Work This history appears in Chapter XCI of "History of South Dakota" by Doane Robinson, Vol. I (1904), pages 536-539 and was scanned, OCRed and edited by Joy Fisher, sdgenweb@yahoo.com. This file may be freely copied by individuals and non-profit organizations for their private use. Any other use, including publication, storage in a retrieval system, or transmission by electronic, mechanical, or other means requires the written approval of the file's author. This file is part of the SDGENWEB Archives. If you arrived here inside a frame or from a link from somewhere else, our front door is at http://usgwarchives.net/sd/sdfiles.htm CHAPTER XCIII MISSION WORK AMONG THE TETON DAKOTAS. BY LOUISA IRVINE RIGGS. In 1872 the mission work among the Teton Sioux was begun, though the field was visited and selection of location made the year previous, 1871. At that time a portion of the Indians of the Cheyenne River agency were distributed along down the Missouri bottoms in little villages and clusters of houses. In a village of this kind, a little below Fort Sully and on the west side of the river, Rev. Thomas L. Riggs erected his first mission station. It was a hewed- log house, with two rooms below, one of which was a schoolroom. The garret was arranged for sleeping apartments. This was called Hope Station. Fort Sully was a military post, the only civilized community within hundreds of miles. Of the experiences of those early days Mr. Riggs writes: "Beginning our mission among the Teton Sioux involved much of hard work and real danger. In the woods with an axe; rafting on the muddy and turbulent Missouri; lifting and fitting the green cottonwood logs to place in the station building- all is fresh and vivid, even to the soreness and pain in hands and back. I could get no help at that time-the summer of 1872. No white man would hire to work unprotected among Indians here, and hence, with the uncertain help of an occasional Indian, a younger brother and I worked at Hope Station. We lived as the natives live, on bacon, greasy bread and black coffee; an Indian woman, the helper's wife, cooked for us. After the burning heat of the day, we slept on the ground with our rifles under our blankets beside us. Often we were awakened at dawn and saluted during the day by the near report of a rifle, the ping of the ball overhead showing that it was the gun of some Indian to scare us, and grim fun it was. Two men were killed at the agency, a few miles away; a messenger was shot dead quite near by and at Fort Sully that haven of safety as we regarded it, on the opposite side of the river, an officer was shot and severely wounded in the head within sight of the fort. "We worked on the house weekdays and on the Sabbath services were held long before I could talk Dakota other than in a lame way. The attendance was fitful and uncertain,-now a full house and then but one or two dirty children. Then, as they would not come to us, I went to them. Into their dirty houses or smoky tents I took the A B C book and in this way gathered them in. More or less of opposition had to he met. In a general way the men talked and promised sweeter than honey; the women usually let us alone and the children were shy. On particular issues I had to take many a severe scolding. We did not feed and clothe the children,-they should not come to school! We did not feast all comers,--it would be well for us to leave at once! I would not pay the crowd for wood, in addition to the price paid the man of whom I bought it! On this issue we were besieged for two weeks,--fifteen to thirty armed warriors demanding: 'Will you do as we say?' They failed of course in the attempt, but the contest nearly used me up. This the first year. "After the coming of Mrs. Riggs and the sweet-tempered Miss Bishop to the mission, we soon began to see a change. The men quieted down; the children came more regularly to school and the women were interested in, a patchwork sewing school. Two boys had their hair cut, the nicely braided scalplock cut off with the rest. This, however, did not prevent war parties, the sound of whose drum and dance greeted the birth of our little Theodore. "A second station was soon established, and then a third. To one of these, that located upon Peoria bottom, selected to be the central and home station3 the mission family removed at the beginning of a winter. The cold weather came early. Our home was open and unfurnished and the winds of that November pinched and chilled us. The young mother and her lady assistant both were taken sick. The river closed and there would be no more boats. Our supplies had not reached us and they must be hauled nearly three hundred miles overland, and for a time the missionary's heart failed him; but the good Father cared for us. The sick recovered; we had food for the winter and to spare; our house was made comfortable and warm before the New Year. "A school was opened for the young men in the work shop. The plane and saw on the bench and the shavings underneath did not prevent study. All began with the A B C. The women, too, were interested in, a sewing school. Soon these also wanted to learn from books. It became popular to be able to read and we had to teach them other things as well-the women to wash and iron and the men to work. The gospel of cleanliness is emphatically taught. When a dirty hand is put out to take a book the boy is told to wash himself. A woman is advised to comb her hair, another is told to wash her gown and to clean her house. The men watch my ten-acre lot closely and learn. Many plan to set trees, seeing the success of my first attempt. The other day a shiftless fellow admired my potatoes: 'God helps you very much, I think,' said he. 'Yes,' I answered, 'He helps me. He would help you too if you worked as hard as I do.'" It was in 1874 that the station on Peoria bottom, fifteen miles below Fort Sully, and on the east side of the river, became the central station and Hope was continued as an outstation only. The other outstation was on the west side of the river at Chantier creek, five miles above the home station. This was the beginning. The missionaries were much encouraged. Mrs. Riggs, in writing of the outlook, said : "It seems like the glow before the dawn." In 1875 Miss Bishop, Mrs. Riggs' first misisonary helper, was called to the home above. That same autumn Miss Collins and Miss Whipple came together as assistants in the work at Peoria bottom. Two years later Miss Whipple was taken from the work she loved so well and engaged in so earnestly and in the following year, 1878, death again entered the mission home, taking from it the beautiful wife and mother. The day "dawned" indeed for her, but for those who were left it seemed as if the dark night had settled around, as though it were impossible to carry on the work without her dear presence and help. But God does not suffer such lives to go out: "Their echoes roll from soul to soul, and grow forever and forever." The new comers to the mission felt the inspiration of these beautiful lives. At this time there were about three hundred Indians living on Peoria bottom. The work was continued in much the same way, teaching in the day school being combined with teaching in the homes and helping in the attempts to farm, until 1879, when the land on the east side of the Missouri river, which had been a special reservation, was thrown open to settlement. At this time twenty-one heads of families took homesteads, entering their claims as white men do. Those who did not wish to take land moved to the west side of the river. Of the twenty-one families who took homesteads, only seven made final proof. This exodus changed somewhat the character of the mission work. The attendance at the home school was very small and there being but few children, those who came were mostly women-the necessity for our outstation work was greatly increased. Since that time ten new outstations have been established on the Cheyenne river reservation. Hope station, the one at Chantier creek, the first one built on Cheyenne river and one on Bad river were abandoned on account of the Indians having left the vicinity. The Indian families at Oahe, being Christianized and the day school work having grown so insignificant, it almost seemed as though that place as a mission station might be given up. The work done at the out- stations was, however, necessarily primary work, carried on by native teachers, wholly in the vernacular, and but little attention could be given to industrial and domestic training, so that it seemed to the missionary in charge a necessity to establish, somewhere in the near vicinity, a boarding school into which pupils from outstations could gather, and where they could be taught to cook and to sew and keep house, as well as to receive instruction in English and the higher branches of study. The foundation for such work had already been laid at Peoria bottom, or Oahe, as it had come to be called. The church organization was there; the Indian families living there were in sympathy with such work; then, too, the place was not so far distant from the Indian homes from which pupils would be secured that they would hesitate to come on that score. Consent was obtained from the American Missionary Association to begin an industrial school and in the winter of 1884-5 twelve Indian girls were taken into the mission home, and thus that phase of the work began. At that time there was no building suitable for the enterprise. A small house, twelve by fourteen feet, which had formerly done service as a day school building, was moved up into the mission enclosure to serve as a kitchen, dining and sitting room. Here the Indian matron and some of the girls slept, while the remainder were provided for elsewhere. In the summer of 1885 a substantial frame building was erected, one that would accommodate fifty pupils. This building was erected by individual gifts entirely and for five years the school was carried on without cost to the treasury of any missionary society, though reporting to the American Missionary Association. The school building is simply but suitably furnished. Here the pupils are taught to work; to cook, to sew, to keep house, to care for their bodies. In the school room the work is primary and intermediate. English is the everyday language. The Bible, both in the vernacular and the English, are studied daily. The great aim is to build up Christian character. At first girls only were taken in, but in the course of a few years the Indian parents asked that we take little boys also. This has been done to the number of ten or twelve, they being kept only until they are ten or twelve years of age. Notwithstanding the establishment of government school system, the day schools on the reservation, the large boarding schools at the agency and at Pierre, Oahe school holds its own popularity. It is essentially a home school. The pupils are treated as individuals; the Bible and Christian training are the foundation of all its teaching, and the Indian people themselves have grown to appreciate its worth. Now they are asking us to make some arrangement for boys from twelve to sixteen years of age. The Oahe church, which was organized in 1876 with one native and three white members, grew to have a membership of one hundred and nine, of whom more than twenty were white people. After a majority of the Indians moved to the reservation, it became the custom to hold communion service at stated times at the outstations. Finally at the more central ones church organizations were formed and neat church buildings erected; for these the Indians themselves contributed both money and labor. At the present time, 1903, there are the following churches: Oahe, Hughes county, fifteen miles from Pierre; Cheyenne river, Cherry creek, near Leslie; Remington, at Green Grass creek, Moreau river; Little Morean, further east on the Moreau, and Virgin creek, twenty miles from agency, on creek of same name. There are also four other out-stations: one about twenty miles from Cherry creek, at Touch the Clouds village; one at Bear Creek, called Hope Station, seven miles from Remington station; one at Thunder Butte, further west on the Moreau, and one opposite Lindsay, on the Cheyenne river, called Elizabeth Memorial Station. There has also been established at Plum creek, five miles from Cherry creek, a little boarding school for ten pupils, under the care of Mr. and Mrs. W. M. Griffiths ; this takes pupils of six years and upwards and keeps them three years, after which they are transferred to Oahe. This school has been a success in every way. The outstations are all in charge of native workers. The church organizations choose their own pastors and pay their salaries in part. The missionary at Oahe (Mr. Riggs) makes a tour of the field every two months, holding communion services at the different churches, exhorting, reproving, admonishing, comforting," keeping in touch with the people. To do this a journey of about three hundred miles by team is necessary and a stay of two days, or part of them, is made at each place. For a time the missionary at Oahe had charge of the outstations on Standing Rock reservation to the north. These have passed into the care of Rev. George W. Reed, with his headquarters at Fort Yates, and Miss Mary Collins, on Grand river. He also had charge of those on White river, one hundred miles southwest, now included in the field of Rev. James F. Cross, whose central station is at Rosebud agency. So the work goes on. It was never more prosperous, never more difficult, never required more wisdom or patience. It has been directed into new channels those whose presence and help seemed indispensable have been taken away,-workers come and go, but God's work goes on. ~1ay He grant to all engaged in it strength for every duty and the realization that now as ever, "Earnest work is prayer." "Laborare est Orare."