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Perils of Missionary Life
Perils Of
Missionary Life
Rev. T.L. Riggs, our missionary at Oahe,
Dakota, thus describes the loss of a team
and the peril of his fellow missionary, Rev.
J.F. Cross:
"I wished to cross my team on the ice to the
west side of the Missouri and keep it there
for use during the breaking up of the river.
Being very busy with some writing, I asked
Mr. Cross to take my team over when he
started to return to the White River,
sending a man with him. Mr. Cross's team
went over safely, but mine, which Mr. Cross
himself was driving, broke through and were
drowned, in spite of every effort of the two
men. Mr. Cross had a narrow escape. He
managed to save the wagon, but the horses
went down with harness on as they were
driven. Mr. Cross took the loss so to heart,
that together with the strain and agony of
the moment, it quite prostrated him. He
started for White River in a day or two
after, though I felt that he was hardly fit
to go."
First Fruits
Rev. C.L. Hall, Fort Berthold, Dak.
In the fall of 1879, a young Gros-Ventre
Indian named Dahpitsishesh, "The Bear's
Tooth," began to attend the day school at
Fort Berthold, and although he was over
twenty years old and not very quick to
learn, he surpassed the younger pupils by
his industry. He attended the day school, in
the day time or in the evening, quite
regularly during the winter, and became a
help to the missionary in translating parts
of Scripture into the Gros-Ventre language.
He wore his long hair braided behind, and
banged and plastered with clay in front so
that it stood upright, and he dressed in
blanket, breech clout, leggings and
moccasins, and the lower joints of several
of his fingers were cut off in accordance
with the Indian custom of mutilating
themselves at the burial of a friend. His
first appearance to a new teacher who came
the following spring caused her no little
trepidation, but she soon learned to prize
him as her best pupil, and the next year the
influence of God's word upon him was seen by
his saying, after recounting some of his
Gros-Ventre religious fables, in which his
belief had been shaken; "I have been coming
to school now more than a year. Since
reading these books about God and angels I
cannot sleep at night, but have had dreams.
I think some harm will come to me. I am poor
and cannot help myself, but I pray God to
keep me from harm, and I want to trust him."
From that time on, we hoped he would take a
decided stand for Christ. As yet, none among
his people had been converted. A few
passages of the Bible and a few words of
song had been given to the Gros-Ventre in
their own tongue, and every Sabbath there
were attentive Indian listeners, but would
there ever be a Gros-Ventre convert? "The
Bear's Tooth" continued to come to us, and
learned to understand quite fully the
requirements of our faith. He became a
trusted helper in charge of the mission
cattle and the milking, working regularly as
few Indians would do at Berthold, and he
soon had stock of his own in which he took
great pleasure. He read the Bible on Sabbath
afternoons with one who was soon called to
her reward; it was almost her last prayer
that he might be saved. He came in spite of
dissuasions, jeers, and even persecutions
from his people, and yet he took no stand
for Christ. Three years after, there were
Indian inquirers, and he helped to explain
to them the demands of Christ, but they all
felt that "the way was too hard for them"
and "went away sorrowful."
Some of the young people who had been taken
away to school and removed from the
opposition of their people had confessed
Christ, but there were none to face it here
and say that they loved him. "The Bear's
Tooth" took a wife in the Indian way,
unwilling to marry, and removed, as it
seemed, away from our influence, to a claim
forty miles up the river from our mission
station.
But God dealt with him and afflicted him in
the loss of his babes, and of his stock, so
that he said, "It seems as though I could
acquire nothing. Explain it to me; the
Indians say it is because I follow your
teaching." I taught him from the book of
Job, and the words of Christ. His soul was
hungry, and when he came once in two weeks
for his government rations, he sought the
bread of life at the mission. Finally, after
nearly eight years, one summer day he came
and sat on a bench in the shade of the house
in a little flower garden, and after we had
talked awhile, he said to the missionary:
"Good Voice, now I can; I will be faithful
to my own wife, I will keep Sunday, I will
pray and avoid the dances and other heathen
customs; when you think best I will come
down and be received into the church." That
was a glad moment. To clasp the hand of the
first Gros-Ventre brother in Christ, won
through a strange tongue and from a people
who had sat in darkness for eighteen hundred
years since the great light shone in
Galilee!
I said, "Bring your wife and friends with
you to Christ." He went home but soon
returned, saying sorrowfully: "My wife and
my friends are none of them willing. If I
join I think it must be alone." "Well," I
said, "let it be so," and it was. His
clothes were second-hand and old, and he had
no natural attractiveness of appearance; but
in a simple, manly, determined way, he made
his confession and was baptized before an
audience of Indians in the little mission
chapel, (July, 1887), a poor Indian, but
another Daniel standing alone.
Then, as the man of Gergesa, he went home to
tell his neighbors what God had done for
him. He had a Bible in Dakota, of which
language he understood something, and a few
Gros-Ventre translations in writing, and
some attempts at hymns, and some pictures.
With these he preached, in neighbors'
houses, and then he would report to me of
his reception, and ask me questions about
the Christian life. A veritable man "Friday"
had come to me; I was no longer alone. Then
why did his health fail, and he forty miles
away where I could not see him? But so God
willed. Soon they brought me the word: Your
friend has gone. I gathered up his last
words, questioning his wife and lame old
father. He wanted to see his friend and tell
him some things. He thought he did see him
come in and then go out before he could
speak. He said, "I thought it was difficult,
but I joined with those who pray, and I find
now it is only a short way. I am going
above." With his last breath and his Bible
open, he asked to be shown the way, that he
might go in it.
The influence of a genuine life is strongest
at home, and so it comes that the wife is
seeking to follow her husband. There are
other converts with us now, but we shall
never forget this first Gros-Ventre
"friend," (madakina); and although the story
of his life is not a peculiar one to white
men, nay for that very reason, we are glad
to write this record of a once lowly, but
now glorified, believer.
One Day's Missionary
Work
Rev. T.L. Riggs, Oahe, Dakota.
Early in the winter, I had a pleasant day of
work regarding which I want to write you. It
was the day appointed for the observance of
the Lord's Supper at the out-station about
ten miles from home, and as the river had
not frozen over thoroughly, I thought it
better to go down in the saddle rather than
drive the cart. This made it impossible for
Mrs. Riggs to accompany me as she sometimes
does.
I brought out my saddle camp-pouches (small
square cases that strap to the horn of the
saddle) and emptied them of their camp
furniture, and in these were placed the
bread and wine and also the service for the
communion. My pouches are so small that I
could take but one glass and a little china
pitcher for our service. Usually I am able
to take a china plate as well, but this time
there was no room.
I went early in the day, and after some
little difficulty the river was safely
crossed, though my poor horse, not being
shod, fell upon the ice more than once. He
was not hurt, however, and I followed the
river shore down to the out-station which is
on the west side of the river.
I found the people gathered, and we had a
morning session of nearly two hours. It was
rather a preparatory service, and I talked
familiarly with those present, individually
as well as collectively. There were three
men and their wives who wished to be
married. Seven applied for admission to
church membership, and there were also
several infants to be baptized.
After dismissing the morning gathering, I
arranged for communion service. I had no
plate, so I sent a boy to his home to get
one. He returned saying they had none, and I
sent him to another house, from which he
returned saying he could not get in. Then I
decided to use the best I had, which was the
card-board back broken from a hymn book.
This I covered with a napkin and it answered
very nicely. I had not prepared for any
applications for baptism and had to send for
a bowl, instead of which a tin cup was
brought just as we were ready to begin
service.
After the opening of service, I first
married the three couples, (one of these
consisted of an old man and woman nearly
seventy years old, both of them
gray-headed). The applicants for Christian
fellowship were asked to give some public
expression of their faith and were received
into membership and baptized together with
the infants. We, also, at the close of the
service elected a deacon, who holds office
for two years, and then I talked to them
regarding the duties of another year. When
dismissed, all went to their homes. I, too,
went to a house near by and drank some
coffee, for by this time I was quite faint.
After this I rode home, reaching there just
as the family were separating from the
tea-table.
It seems odd to speak of men and their wives
coming to be married—it is meant that they
are husbands and wives after the Dakota
custom. When they come to understand
Christian marriage, and especially if they
desire to unite with the church, they ask to
have the marriage solemnized in a Christian
manner. Sometimes a man and woman who have
several children, perhaps a baby in arms,
present themselves for marriage.
It is required of married candidates for
admission to the church, that they be
married in a Christian way. This sometimes
seems hard, as in a case which has been
before our Oahe church for some time. A
woman of fine character whom we believe to
be a sincere Christian, desires to unite
with the church. Her husband, who is a
veritable heathen, refuses to marry her. He
says he never has had another wife and does
not intend to take one, but he is a Dakota
and does not wish to adopt white people's
ways. They have a large family of children,
and the wife does not feel that it is best
to separate from her husband, though she
really desires to do her whole Christian
duty. In such cases, this regulation seems
hard, but in the early days of the Dakota
Mission, anything else brought confusion and
trouble into the church, and this method of
action was decided upon.
What
Shall We Do About It?
Miss M.C. Collins, Fort Yates, Dak.
There is a time in our work, if it
progresses as we would like, when it seems
to go beyond us. The work here now is at
that point. When I came here the people were
beggars. Their acquaintance with the Agency
people and the Army people had been such as
to cause them to think that white people
were all wealthy, and that one had only to
ask for a thing to receive it. I have
labored diligently to induce them to earn
what they have. It is very seldom now that
any one begs, but I am over-run with
applications for work. Each individual is
jealous of another, if I give one work and
refuse another. If I hire a woman to wash, I
must hire another to iron, another to bring
in my wood, another to wash the floor and
still another to clean up my yard. If I hire
a man to make some repairs, I must hire
another to cut wood, another to haul water
or ice, and so it is. This is very
expensive, and yet I see no way to avoid it.
I cannot say to a man, "It is a disgrace to
beg bread for your hungry child," and then
refuse to give him work. Now, let some of
your wise people in the East who are friends
of the Indian try to remedy this great
difficulty. Let a part of the Indian money
be spent in educating the Indian in his home
to work and to earn something. The church or
the Government ought to devise some plan by
which Indians at their homes can earn money.
I do all I can, but the expense is more than
I can bear. There is no market for the
Indian, and no work to be done by which he
can earn anything, and no man can become
self-supporting until he is provided with a
way to support himself. What can we do about
it?
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American Missionary Association, 1888-1895
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