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STEPHEN R. RIGGS, D.D., LL.D.
Mary and I
FORTY YEARS WITH THE SIOUX
WITH AN INTRODUCTION
BY
REV. S. C. BARTLETT, D.D.
PRESIDENT OF DARTMOUTH COLLEGE
BOSTON
Congregational Sunday-School and Publishing Society
CONGREGATIONAL HOUSE
Copyright, 1880, by Stephen R. Riggs.
Copyright, 1887, byCongregational S. S. and Publishing Society.
Electrotyped byC. J. Peters and Son, Boston.
To My Children,
ALFRED, ISABELLA, MARTHA, ANNA, THOMAS,HENRY, ROBERT, CORNELIA,AND EDNA;
TOGETHER WITH ALL THE GRANDCHILDREN GROWINGUP INTO THE MISSIONARY INHERITANCEOF THEIR FATHERS ANDMOTHERS,
THIS BOOK IS INSCRIBED BYTHE AUTHOR.
PREFACE.
This book I have inscribed to my own family. It will be of interest tothem, as, in part, a history of their father and mother, in the toilsand sacrifices and rewards of commencing and carrying forward the workof evangelizing the Dakota people.
Many others, who are interested in the uplifting of the Red Men, maybe glad to obtain glimpses, in these pages, of the inside ofMissionary Life in what was, not long since, the Far West; and totrace the threads of the in-weaving of a Christ-life into the lives ofmany of the Sioux nation.
“Why don’t you tell more about yourselves?” is a question which, invarious forms, has been often asked me, during these last fourdecades. Partly as the answer to questions of that kind, this bookassumes somewhat the form of a personal narrative.
While I do not claim, even at this evening time of my life, to befreed from the desire that good Christian readers will think favorablyof this effort of mine, I can not expect that the appreciation withwhich my Dakota Grammar and Dictionary was received, by the literaryworld, more than a quarter of a century ago, will be surpassed by thishumbler effort.
Moreover, the chief work of my life has been the part I have beenpermitted, by the good Lord, to have in giving[Pg 6] the