R.M.K.

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THE INDIANS.

MISSIONARY LIFE AMONG THE DAKOTA INDIANS.

BY MRS. J.F.  CROSS.

It is hard to get the most interesting experiences of a missionary’s life, because they belong to the daily routine and so are often unmentioned.  But here is a description of life and travel among the Indians, by the wife of a missionary just going to the Dakotas: 

The land of the Dakotas—­what a distance!  How long the miles seemed from my home!  How frightful the land seemed to me, from the tales of blizzards and cyclones!  How strange to go to live among the Sioux Indians, known to me principally for the Minnesota, Fort Fetterman and Custer massacres; to be a friend to Sitting Bull, Brave Bull, Gall, Grass, Swift Bear, Red Cloud and many others with names no less picturesque!  With such impressions I left my home to accompany my husband to his home and work at Rosebud Agency, South Dakota.

I was soon relieved of the idea of the distance, for only a few hours took us across Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin and Minnesota to the border of Dakota.  Here we left the railroad to attend the general conference of the Dakota Mission at Flandreau.  How quickly all the impressions of years can be changed, when the impressions are wrong and we see the true state of affairs.  In this case, seeing hundreds of bronzed faces, lighted up with joy, as they sung “I hear Thy welcome voice” in their own tongue, there was enough to change all my former opinions of Indians in general and of the Dakota Indians in particular.  It was like coming into a new world.  That is, it was finding those whom I thought belonged to another, lower, baser life, living the same life with myself; rejoicing in that which is my greatest joy—­childhood with God the Father.  And after meeting Ehnamani, Grey Cloud, John Wakeman, Spotted Bear, and many others; after hearing them discuss living topics—­living topics to them because they belong to the change from heathen to Christian life; after hearing them pray—­though I could not understand a word, yet from their earnestness I could understand the spirit of their prayer; after all this, I could scarcely believe that these men had ever been Indians in paint, feathers, dances and on the war path.  Thus I spent my first four days among Indians.  And even if preaching, prayers, discussions were in an unknown tongue, I perhaps, understood as much as I would at many a Presbytery or Conference meeting.  And I got as much good from the Dakota sermon as I have from many an English sermon.

Not the least pleasing of my new impressions were those made by the missionaries present.  Rev. John P. Williamson, of Yankton Agency; Rev. A.L.  Riggs, D.D., of Santee Mission and Normal School; Rev. T.L.  Riggs of Oahe, or rather the apostle to the Tetons, were the life of the meetings whether in English or Dakota.  They came from and returned to the work to which their lives are given.  I