At Santee Industrial School and Mission in Nebraska they have suffered a
sad bereavement. The place left vacant by Mrs. Frederick B. Riggs, who has
just been taken away from the loving circle of missionary workers at this
station cannot be filled. Her absence will be much more than the loss of
one faithful missionary. She was the life, the light and the inspiration
of any circle in which she moved. The brief tribute in another column to
her memory calls attention to her wide usefulness. When we met in the
Mission Council last year at Oahe, S. D., Mrs. Riggs’s bright and
confident faith lifted up all our hearts bowed down as they were by
discouragement in view of the vast work to be accomplished and the
retrenchment in funds. All who were present at this Council will remember
how sure she was that light would come after the darkness, and that joy
would come in the morning. There has come to her the richest, fullest
light and joy of the better country. When we meet at the Council this year
we shall be the richer for her strong faith and the abiding presence of
her self-sacrificing love.
Santee Industrial School, through the rigid economy of Dr. Riggs and his
faithful assistants, has enrolled more pupils than the appropriation
permitted. Notwithstanding this, hundreds have been turned from the school
because the funds were not sufficient to furnish them Christian
instruction.
From Oahe comes the report that Rev. T. L. Riggs is gradually recovering
the use of his eyes. Rev. James F. Cross, of Rosebud, has been assisting
Brother Riggs during his sore affliction.
We are sometimes asked whether the hospital at Fort Yates is now in
operation. It is not. Last year, by special solicitation, additional funds
were gathered sufficient to conduct the hospital for one year. This was
done. A hospital plant is always expensive, as it involves the salary of a
trained physician and an assistant, together with medicines and other
supplies. This year the funds have not come in outside of current receipts
sufficient to provide for the expenses of the hospital, and it is,
therefore, closed. This is to the serious loss of the religious work. Word
comes from the prairie that the Indians, women and children especially,
mourn sorely the loss of this hospital and the considerate and skillful
care of our faithful physician.
Miss M. P. Lord, whose address at the annual meeting in Lowell attracted
so general interest, remained in the East for some weeks presenting the
Indian work to the churches, Christian Endeavor Societies and women’s
missionary societies. Her work was confined to New England. She remained
as long as it seemed wise for her to be absent from the pressing duties of
her mission, to which she has now returned.
The following letter was recently received from her.
"IN THE LAND OF THE DAKOTAS,
LITTLE EAGLE’S VILLAGE, March 25, 1895.
"During the past week I have been twice down the river to Flying
By’s Village to attend their mid-week prayer meeting and Sunday
morning service, and also to the Agency. My people seem to be
active and earnest. Some of them are thinking they had better
enlarge the little building they put up last year. A number of the
people there are learning, teaching each other to read; and they
are asking for a women’s missionary society to be formed there.
Catch-the-Enemy, who is active in the young men’s society, said to
me the other day that there were fifteen members at Flying By’s
Village. Their quarterly dues are ten cents, but the others have
nothing with which to pay, and so he paid them all.
"David, dear, good, gentle David, was here to-day from Thunder
Hawk’s. I judge that he is getting on well there. As a teacher, I
think he can not but be a success, he is so gentle, patient and
good, and bright, too. A week ago we had a pleasant little visit
from Mr. Reed over Sunday."
From this letter it will be seen that large opportunities are opening at
this Indian mission, and most hopeful results are already being gathered.
The Christian Indians are more and more realizing their own responsibility
for carrying on Christian work, and are meeting it bravely. They are also
responding to appeals for gifts to missionary work outside of their own
tribes with self-sacrificing devotion. The collection of the Pilgrim
Church at Santee, mentioned in the April magazine, increased to $241. This
was to meet the debt on the treasury of the American Missionary
Association.
Miss Collins, so well known to our readers, is now in the East in behalf
of these needy Indian missions. Before leaving the prairies, she visited
Oahe and Santee, and various missions aside from her own, that she might
have the most recent information of the whole field. The object of her
coming is to give the information, which she possesses so thoroughly, to
the people and so stir them up adequately to support this field of Indian
missions which is suffering so painfully for the lack of funds. There can
not be any further retrenchment of the Indian work if it lives at all. It
has been cut down two years in succession, and greatly suffered. Further
curtailment would mean crucifixion.