INDIAN FAMILY AT FORT BERTHOLD, DAKOTA TERRITORY.
THE DAKOTA INDIANS.
BY REV. ADDISON P. FOSTER.
It was my rare good fortune last summer to spend nearly a month in a trip of investigation among the Dakota Indians. A record of observations thus made may perhaps be of interest.
Across the Missouri, in Northern Nebraska, is a reservation about twelve miles square on which are located the Santees. These Indians came originally from Minnesota, and were concerned in the terrible New Ulm massacre there. This was years ago. After that bloody outbreak a large number of Indians were imprisoned. While thus incarcerated they were deeply moved by the truths of religion. The long and faithful labors of Drs. Riggs and Williamson bore fruit, and very many were truly converted. These Minnesota Indians were subsequently removed, a portion to the Sisseton Agency, a portion to Flandreau, and a portion to the Santee Agency. At this last-named spot the Indians are practically civilized. They wear the white man's dress; they cultivate farms of their own; they sustain two churches, one Episcopal and one Congregational, the latter having its excellent native pastor and an outlying chapel where the native deacons conduct meetings in turn; they have recently, to the number of fifty, taken up land under the homestead laws and now own them in fee simple. There are three boarding schools on the reservation, one sustained by the American Missionary Association and in the charge of the Rev. A. L. Riggs, another sustained by the Episcopalians, under the jurisdiction of Bishop Hare, and a third supported by the Government, of which Rev. Charles Seccombe, a Congregationalist, is principal. The work in all these schools is admirable. The children are neat, intelligent, attractive, orderly, and studious, and while not as far advanced nor as quick, will compare favorably with the children of schools among white people. The development of Indian character under these Christianizing influences was remarkably shown in a visit to one of the cottages on the mission. Here dwell one of the native teachers, her mother and grandmother. The aged grandmother in her whole appearance bespoke the wild Indian. Gray and bent with age, she loved best to sit on the floor in a corner, after the fashion of her people. The mother, a comely matron of perhaps forty-five, was evidently more cultivated, was lady-like in her appearance, and had lines of thoughtfulness on her thin face. The work of civilization had made great advance in her. But the daughter, a young lady of eighteen, well educated, knowing only the ways of civilization, was as thoroughly refined and bright and attractive as the young ladies of our own Christian homes.
INDIAN BURYING GROUND.
At Oahe, fifteen miles west of Pierre, Dakota Territory, is a second mission station, under the charge of the American Missionary Association. Up and down the river, on what is known as the Peoria Bottom, are perhaps a hundred families of Indians, each living on their own homesteads, off reservation limits, cultivating their farms, dwelling in comfortable log-houses, dressed in civilized garb, and showing as much neatness and industry as the average white man. These people are recognized as citizens and are voters. They have a neat chapel, a native pastor, sustain admirable prayer-meetings—a woman's prayer-meeting among them—and live good reputable lives. In this spot and at Santee Agency the Indian is seen at his best. Life and property are respected, the land is fairly tilled, the homes are happy, intelligence is general, and religion is the universal motive-power.