1837-1839.--The Language.--Its Growth.--System of
Notation.--After Changes.--What We Had to Put into the
Language.--Teaching English and Teaching Dakota.--Mary's
Letter.--Fort Renville.--Translating the Bible.--The Gospels of
Mark and John.--"Good Bird" Born.--Dakota Names.--The Lessons We
Learned.--Dakota Washing.--Extracts from Letters.--Dakota
Tents.--A Marriage.--Visiting the Village.--Girls, Boys, and
Dogs.--G. H. Pond's Indian Hunt.--Three Families Killed.--The
Village Wail.--The Power of a Name.--Post-Office Far Away.--The
Coming of the Mail.--S. W. Pond Comes Up.--My Visit to
Snelling.--Lost my Horse.--Dr. Williamson Goes to Ohio.--The
Spirit's Presence.--Prayer.--Mary's Reports.
To learn an unwritten language, and to reduce it to a form that can be
seen as well as heard, is confessedly a work of no small magnitude.
Hitherto it has seemed to exist only in sound. But it has been, all
through the past ages, worked out and up by the forges of human
hearts. It has been made to express the lightest thoughts as well as
the heart-throbs of men and women and children in their generations.
The human mind, in its most untutored state, is God's creation. It may
not stamp purity nor even goodness on its language, but it always, I
think, stamps it with the deepest philosophy. So far, at least,
language is of divine origin. The unlearned Dakota may not be able to
give any definition for any single word that he has been using all his
life-time,--he may say, "It means that, and can't mean any thing
else,"--yet, all the while, in the mental workshop of the people,
unconsciously and very slowly it may be, but no less very surely,
these words of air are newly coined. No angle can turn up, but by and
by it will be worn off by use. No ungrammatical expression can come in
that will not be rejected by the best thinkers and speakers. New words
will be coined to meet the mind's wants; and new forms of expression,
which at the first are bungling descriptions only, will be pared down
and tucked up so as to come into harmony with the living language.
But it was no part of our business to make the Dakota language. It was
simply the missionary's work to report it faithfully. The system of
notation had in the main been settled upon before Mary and I joined
the mission. It was, of course, to be phonetic, as nearly as possible.
The English alphabet was to be used as far as it could be. These were
the principles that guided and controlled the writing of Dakota. In
their application it was soon found that only five pure vowel sounds
were used. So far the work was easy. Then it was found that x and v
and r and g and j and f and c, with their English powers, were not
needed. But there were four _clicks_ and two _gutturals_ and a _nasal_
that must in some way be expressed. It was then, even more than now, a
matter of pecuniary importance that the language to be printed should
require as few new characters as possible. And so n was taken to
represent the nasal; q represented one of the clicks; g and r
represented the gutturals; and c and j and x were used to represent
ch, zh, and sh. The other clicks were represented by marked letters.
Since that time, some changes have been made: x and r have been
discarded from the purely Dakota alphabet. In the Dakota grammar and
dictionary, which was published fifteen years afterward, an effort was
made to make the notation philosophical, and accordant with itself.
The changes which have since been adopted have all been in the line of
the dictionary.
When we missionaries had gathered and expressed and arranged the words
of this language, what had we to put into it, and what great gifts had
we for the Dakota people? What will you give me? has always been their
cry. We brought to them the Word of Life, the Gospel of Salvation
through faith in Jesus Christ our Lord, as contained in the Bible. Not
to preach Christ to them only, that they might have life, but to
engraft his living words into their living thoughts, so that they
might grow into his spirit more and more, was the object of our
coming. The labor of writing the language was undertaken as a means to
a greater end. To put God's thoughts into their speech, and to teach
them to read in their own tongue the wonderful works of God, was what
brought us to the land of the Dakotas. But they could not appreciate
this. Ever and anon came the question, What will you give me? And so,
when we would proclaim the "old, old story" to those proud Dakota men
at Lac-qui-parle, we had to begin with kettles of boiled pumpkins,
turnips, and potatoes. The bread that perisheth could be
appreciated--the Bread of Life was still beyond their comprehension.
But by and by it was to find its proper nesting-place.
It was very fortunate for the work of education among the Dakotas that
it had such a staunch and influential friend as Joseph Renville, Sr.,
of Lac-qui-parle. It was never certainly known whether Mr. Renville
could read his French Bible or not. But he had seen so much of the
advantages of education among the white people, that he greatly
desired his own children should learn to read and write, both in
Dakota and English, and through his whole life gave his influence in
favor of Dakota education. Sarah Poage, afterward Mrs. G. H. Pond, had
come as a teacher, and had, from their first arrival at Lac-qui-parle,
been so employed. Mr. Renville had four daughters, all of them young
women, who had, with some other half-breeds, made an English class.
They had learned to read the language, but understood very little of
it, and were not willing to speak even what they understood. All
through these years the teaching of English, commenced at the
beginning of our mission work, although found to be very difficult and
not producing much apparent fruit, has never been abandoned. But for
the purposes of civilization, and especially of Christianization, we
have found culture in the native tongue indispensable.
To teach the classes in English was in Mary's line of life. She at
once relieved Miss Poage of this part of her work, and continued in
it, with some intervals, for several years. Often she was greatly
tried, not by the inability of her Dakota young lady scholars, but by
their unwillingness to make such efforts as to gain the mastery of
English.
Teaching in Dakota was a different thing. It was their own language.
The lessons, printed with open type and a brush on old newspapers, and
hung round the walls of the school-room, were words that had a meaning
even to a Dakota child. It was not difficult. A young man has
sometimes come in, proud and unwilling to be taught, but, by sitting
there and looking and listening to others, he has started up with the
announcement, "I am able." Some small books had already been printed.
Others were afterward provided. But the work of works, which in some
sense took precedence of all others, was then commencing, and has not
yet been quite completed--that of putting the Bible into the language
of the Dakotas.[3]
[3] Completed in 1879.
"Nov. 18, 1837.
"I make very slow progress in learning Dakota, and could you
hear the odd combinations of it with English which we allow
ourselves, you would doubtless be somewhat amused, if not
puzzled to guess our meaning, though our speech would betray
us, for the little Dakota we can use we can not speak like the
Indians. The peculiar tone and ease are wanting, and several
sounds I have been entirely unable to make; so that, in my case
at least, there would be 'shibboleths' not a few. And these
cause the Dakota pupils to laugh very frequently when I am
trying to explain, or lead them to understand some of the most
simple things about arithmetic. Perhaps you will think them
impolite, and so should I if they had been educated in a
civilized land, but now I am willing to bear with them, if I
can teach them any thing in the hour which is allotted for this
purpose.
"As yet I have devoted no time to any except those who are
attempting to learn English, and my class will probably consist
of five girls and two or three boys. Two of the boys, who, we
hope, will learn English, are full Dakotas, and, if their
hearts were renewed, might be very useful as preachers of the
Gospel to their own degraded people."
Fort Renville, as it was sometimes called, was a stockade, made for
defence in case of an invasion by the Ojibwas, who had been from time
immemorial at war with the Sioux. Inside of this stockade stood Mr.
Renville's hewed-log house, consisting of a store-house and two
dwellings. Mr. Renville's reception-room was of good size, with a
large open fireplace, in which his Frenchmen, or "French-boys," as
they were called by the Indians, piled up an enormous quantity of wood
of a cold day, setting it up on end, and thus making a fire to be felt
as well as seen. Here the chief Indian men of the village gathered to
smoke and talk. A bench ran almost around the entire room, on which
they sat or reclined. Mr. Renville usually sat on a chair in the
middle of the room. He was a small man with rather a long face and
head developed upward. A favorite position of his was to sit with his
feet crossed under him like a tailor. This room was the place of Bible
translating. Dr. Williamson and Mr. G. H. Pond had both learned to
read French. The former usually talked with Mr. Renville in French,
and, in the work of translating, read from the French Bible, verse by
verse. Mr. Renville's memory had been specially cultivated by having
been much employed as interpreter between the Dakotas and the French.
It seldom happened that he needed to have the verse re-read to him.
But it often happened that we, who wrote the Dakota from his lips,
needed to have it repeated in order that we should get it exactly and
fully. When the verse or sentence was finished, the Dakota was read by
one of the company. We were all only beginners in writing the Dakota
language, and I more than the others. Sometimes Mr. Renville showed,
by the twinkle of his eye, his conscious superiority to us, when he
repeated a long and difficult sentence and found that we had forgotten
the beginning. But ordinarily he was patient with us, and ready to
repeat. By this process, continued from week to week during that first
winter of ours at Lac-qui-parle, a pretty good translation of the
Gospel of Mark was completed, besides some fugitive chapters from
other parts. In the two following winters the Gospel of John was
translated in the same way.
Besides giving these portions of the Word of God to the Dakotas sooner
than it could have been done by the missionaries alone, these
translations were invaluable to us as a means of studying the
structure of the language, and as determining, in advance of our own
efforts in this line, the forms or moulds of many new ideas which the
Word contains. In after years we always felt safe in referring to Mr.
Renville as authority in regard to the form of a Dakota expression.
* * * * *
During this first year that Mary and I spent in the Dakota country,
there were coming to us continually new experiences. One of the most
common, and yet one of the most thrilling and abiding, was in the
birth of our first-born. In motherhood and fatherhood are found large
lessons in life. The mother called her first-born child Alfred
Longley, naming him for a very dear brother of hers. The Dakotas named
this baby boy of ours Good Bird (_Zitkadan Washtay_). They said that
it was a good name. In those days it was a habit with them to give
names to the white people who came among them. Dr. Williamson they
called _Payjehoota Wechasta_--Medicine man, or, more literally,
Grass-root man--that is, _Doctor_. To Mr. G. H. Pond they gave the
name _Matohota_, Grizzly-bear. Mr. S. W. Pond was _Wamdedoota_,
Red-eagle. To me they gave the name of _Tamakoche_, His country. They
said some good Dakota long ago had borne that name. To Mary they gave
the name of _Payuha_. At first they gutturalized the h, which made it
mean _Curly-head_--her black hair did curl a good deal; but afterward
they naturalized the h, and said it meant _Having-a-head_.
The winter as it passed by had other lessons for us. For me it was
quite a chore to cut and carry up wood enough to keep our somewhat
open upper room cosey and comfortable. Mary had more ambition than I
had to get native help. She had not been accustomed to do a day's
washing. It came hard to her. The other women of the mission preferred
to wash for themselves rather than train natives to do it. And indeed,
at the beginning, that was found to be no easy task. For, in the first
place, Dakota women did not wash. Usually they put on a garment and
wore it until it rotted off. This was pretty much the rule. No good,
decent woman could be found willing to do for white people what they
did not do for themselves. We could hire all the first women of the
village to hoe corn or dig potatoes, but not one would take hold of
the wash-tub. And so it was that Mary's first washer-women were of the
lowest class, and not very reputable characters. But she persevered
and conquered. Only a few years had passed when the wash-women of the
mission were of the best women of the village. And the effort proved a
great public benefaction. The gospel of soap was indeed a necessary
adjunct and outgrowth of the Gospel of Salvation.
"Dec. 13.
"My first use of the pen since the peculiar manifestation of
God's loving kindness we have so recently experienced shall be
for you, my dear parents. That you will with us bless the Lord,
as did the Psalmist in one of my favorite Psalms, the 103d, we
do not doubt; for I am sure you will regard my being able so
soon to write as a proof of God's tender mercy. I have been
very comfortable most of the time during the past week. As our
little one cries, and I am now his chief nurse, I must lay
aside my pen and paper and attend to his wants, for Mr. Riggs
is absent, procuring, with Dr. W. and Mr. Pond, the translation
of Mark, from Mr. Renville."
"Dec. 28.
"Yesterday our dear little babe was three weeks old. I washed
with as little fatigue as I could expect; still, I should have
thought it right to have employed some one, was there any one
to be employed who could be trusted. But the Dakota women,
besides not knowing how to wash, need constant and vigilant
watching. Poor creatures, thieves from habit, and from a kind
of necessity, though one of their own creating!"
"Jan. 10.
"The Dakota tent is formed of buffalo-skins, stretched on long
poles placed on the ground in a circle, and meeting at the top,
where a hole is left from which the smoke of the fire in the
centre issues. Others are made of bark tied to the poles placed
in a similar manner. A small place is left for a door of skin
stretched on sticks and hinged with strings at the top, so that
the person entering raises it from the bottom and crawls in. At
this season of the year the door is protected by a covered
passage formed by stakes driven into the ground several feet
apart, and thatched with grass. Here they keep their wood,
which the women cut this cold weather, the thermometer at
eighteen to twenty degrees below zero. And should you lift the
little door, you would find a cold, smoky lodge about twelve
feet in diameter, a mother and her child, a blanket or two, or
a skin, a kettle, and possibly in some of them a sack of corn."
"Thursday Eve., Jan. 11.
"Quite unexpectedly, this afternoon we received an invitation
to a wedding at Mr. Renville's, one of his daughters marrying a
Frenchman. We gladly availed ourselves of an ox-sled, the only
vehicle we could command, and a little before three o'clock we
were in the guest-chamber. Mr. Renville, who is part Dakota,
received us with French politeness, and soon after the rest of
the family entered. These, with several Dakota men and women
seated on benches, or on the floor around the room, formed not
an uninteresting group. The marriage ceremony was in French and
Dakota, and was soon over. Then the bridegroom rose, shook
hands with his wife's relations, and kissed her mother, and the
bride also kissed all her father's family.
"When supper was announced as ready, we repaired to a table
amply supplied with beef and mutton, potatoes, bread, and tea.
Though some of them were not prepared as they would have been
in the States, they did not seem so singular as a dish that I
was unable to determine what it could be, until an additional
supply of _blood_ was offered me. I do not know how it was
cooked, though it might have been fried with pepper and onions,
and I am told it is esteemed as very good. The poor Indians
throw nothing away, whether of beast or bird, but consider both
inside and outside delicious broiled on the coals."
"April 5.
"Yesterday afternoon Mrs. Pond and myself walked to 'the
lodges.' As the St. Peter's now covers a large part of the
bottom, we wound our way in the narrow Indian path on the side
of the hill. An Indian woman, with her babe fastened upon its
board at her back, walked before us, and as the grass on each
side of the foot-path made it uncomfortable walking side by
side, we conformed to Dakota custom, one following the other.
For a few moments we kept pace with our guide, but she, soon
outstripping us, turned a corner and was out of sight. As we
wished for a view of the lake and river, we climbed the hill.
There we saw the St. Peter's, which in the summer is a narrow
and shallow stream, extending over miles of land, with here and
there a higher spot peeping out as an island in the midst of
the sea. The haze prevented our having a good view of the lake.
"After counting thirty lodges stretched along below us, we
descended and entered one, where we found a sick woman, who
said she had not sat up for a long time, lying on a little
bundle of hay. Another lodge we found full of corn, the owners
having subsisted on deer and other game while absent during the
winter.
"When we had called at Mr. Renville's, which was a little
beyond, we returned through the heart of the village, attended
by such a retinue as I have never before seen, and such strange
intermingling of laughing and shouting of children and barking
of dogs as I never heard. Amazed, and almost deafened by the
clamor, I turned to gaze upon the unique group. Some of the
older girls were close upon our heels, but as we stopped they
also halted, and those behind slackened their pace. Boys and
girls of from four to twelve years of age, some wrapped in
their blankets, more without, and quite a number of boys almost
or entirely destitute of clothing, with a large number of dogs
of various sizes and colors, presented themselves in an
irregular line. As all of the Indians here have pitched their
lodges together, I suppose there might have been thirty or
forty children in our train. When we reached home, I found
little Alfred happy and quiet, in the same place on the bed I
had left him more than two hours previous, his father having
been busy studying Dakota.
"This evening two Indian women came and sat a little while in
our happy home. One of them had a babe about the age of Alfred.
You would have smiled to see the plump, undressed child peeping
out from its warm blanket like a little unfledged bird from its
mossy nest."
Mr. Pond had long been yearning to see inside of an Indian. He had
been wanting to be an Indian, if only for half an hour, that he might
know how an Indian felt and by what motives he could be moved. And so
when the early spring of 1838 came, and the ducks began to come
northward, a half-dozen families started out from Lac-qui-parle to
hunt and trap on the upper part of the Chippewa River, in the
neighborhood of where is now the town of Benson, in Minnesota. Mr.
Pond went with them, and was gone two weeks. It was in the first of
April, and the streams were flooded, and the water was cold. There
should have been enough of game easily obtained to feed the party
well. So the Indians thought. But it did not prove so. A cold spell
came on, the ducks disappeared, and Mr. Pond and his Indian hunters
were reduced to scanty fare, and sometimes to nothing, for a whole
day. But Mr. Pond was seeing inside of Indians, and was quite willing
to starve a good deal in the process. However, his stay with them, and
their hunt for that time as well, was suddenly terminated.
It appears that during the winter some rumors of peace visits from the
Ojibwas had reached the Dakotas, so that this hunting party were
somewhat prepared to meet Ojibwas who should come with this announced
purpose. The half-dozen teepees had divided. Mr. Pond was with Round
Wind, who had removed from the three teepees that remained. On
Thursday evening there came Hole-in-the-day, an Ojibwa chief, with ten
men. They had come to smoke the peace-pipe, they said. The three
Dakota tents contained but three men and ten or eleven women and
children. But, while starving themselves, they would entertain their
visitors in the most royal style. Two dogs were killed and they were
feasted, and then all lay down to rest. But the Ojibwas were false.
They arose at midnight and killed their Dakota hosts. In the morning
but one woman and a boy remained alive of the fourteen in the three
teepees the night before, and the boy was badly wounded. It was a
cowardly act of the Ojibwas, and one that was terribly avenged
afterward. When Mr. Pond had helped to bury the dead and mangled
remains of these three families, he started for home, and was the
first to bring the sad news to their friends at Lac-qui-parle. To him
quite an experience was bound up in those two weeks, and the marvel
was, why he was not then among the slain. To Mary and me it opened a
whole store-house of instruction, as we listened to the wail of the
whole village, and especially when the old women came with dishevelled
heads and ragged clothes, and cried and sang around our house, and
_begged in the name of our first-born_. We discovered all at once the
power of a name. And if an earthly name has such power, much more the
Name that is above every name--much more the Name of the Only Begotten
of the heavenly Father.
* * * * *
Lac-qui-parle was in those days much shut out from the great world. We
were two hundred miles away from our post-office at Fort Snelling. We
seldom received a letter from Massachusetts or Ohio in less than three
months after it was written. Often it was much longer, for there were
several times during our stay at Lac-qui-parle when we passed three
months, and once five months, without a mail. We used to pray that the
mail would not come in the evening. If it did, good-by sleep! If it
came in the early part of the day, we could look it over and become
quieted by night. Our communication with the post-office was generally
through the men engaged in the fur-trade. Some of them had no sympathy
with us as missionaries, but they were ever willing to do us a favor
as men and Americans. Sometimes we sent and received our mail by
Indians. That was a very costly way. The postage charged by the
government--although it was then twenty-five cents on a letter--was no
compensation for a Dakota in those days. It is fortunate for them that
they have learned better the value of work.
Once a year, at least, it seemed best that one of ourselves should go
down to the mouth of the Minnesota. Our annual supplies were to be
brought up, and various matters of business transacted. I was sent
down in the spring of 1838, and I considered myself fortunate in
having the company of Rev. S. W. Pond. This was Mr. Pond's second
visit to Lac-qui-parle on foot. The first was made over two years
before, in midwinter. That was a fearful journey. What with ignorance
of the country, and deep snows, and starvation, and an ugly Indian for
his guide, Mr. Pond came near reaching the spirit land before he came
to Lac-qui-parle.
This second time he came under better auspices, and, having spent
several weeks with us, during which many questions of interest with
regard to the language and the mission work were discussed, he and I
made a part of Mr. Renville's caravan to the fur depot of the American
Fur Company at Mendota, in charge of H. H. Sibley, a manly man, since
that time occupying a prominent position in Minnesota.
To make this trip I was furnished by the mission with a valuable young
horse, gentle and kind, but not possessed of much endurance. At any
rate, he took sick while I was away, and never reached home. The
result may have been owing a good deal to my want of skill in taking
care of horses, and in travelling through the bogs and quagmires of
this new country. I could not but be profoundly sorry when obliged to
leave him, as it entailed upon me other hardships for which I was not
well prepared. Reaching the Traverse des Sioux on foot, I found Joseph
R. Brown, even then an old Indian trader, coming up with some led
horses. He kindly gave me the use of two with which to bring up my
loaded cart. That was a really Good Samaritan work, which I have
always remembered with gratitude.
When the first snows were beginning to fall in the coming winter, and
not till then, Dr. Williamson was ready to make his trip to Ohio. The
Gospel of Mark and some smaller portions of the Bible he had prepared
for the press. The journey was undertaken a few weeks too late, and
so it proved a very hard one. They thought to go down the Mississippi
in a Mackinaw boat, but were frozen in before they reached Lake Pepin.
From that point the entire journey to Ohio was made by land in the
rigors of winter.
The leaving of Dr. Williamson entailed upon me the responsibility of
taking care of the Sabbath service. Mr. G. H. Pond was not then a
minister of the Gospel, but his superior knowledge of the Dakota
fitted him the best to communicate religious instruction. But it was
well for me to have the responsibility, as it helped me in the use of
the native tongue. I was often conscious of making mistakes, and
doubtless made many that I knew not of. Mr. Pond and Mr. Renville were
ever ready to help me out, and, moreover, we had with us that winter
Rev. Daniel Gavan, one of the Swiss missionaries, who had settled on
the Mississippi River, at Red Wing and Wabashaw's villages. Mr. G.
came up to avail himself of the better advantages in learning the
language, and so for the winter he was a valuable helper.
It pleased God to make this winter one of fruitfulness. Mr. Renville
was active in persuading those under his influence to attend the
religious meetings, the school-room was crowded on Sabbaths, and the
Word, imperfectly as it was spoken, was used by the Spirit upon those
dark minds. There was evidently a quickening of the church. They were
interested in prayer. What is prayer?--and how shall we pray? became
questions of interest with them. One woman who had received at her
baptism the name of Catherine, and who still lives a believing life at
the end of forty years, was then troubled to know how prayer could
reach God. I told her in this we were all little children. God
recognized our condition in this respect, and had told us that, as
earthly fathers and mothers were willing, and desirous of giving good
gifts to their children, he was more willing to give the Holy Spirit
to them that ask him. Besides, he made the ear, and shall he not hear?
He made, in a large sense, all language, and shall he not be able to
understand Dakota words? The very word for "pray" in the Dakota
language was "to cry to"--_chakiya_. Prayer was now, as through all
ages it had been, the child's cry in the ear of the Great Father. So
there appeared to be a working upward of many hearts. Early in
February Mr. Pond, Mr. Renville, and Mr. Huggins, Mr. Gavan and
myself, after due examination and instruction, agreed to receive ten
Dakotas into the church--all women. I baptized them and their
children--twenty-eight in all--on one Sabbath morning. It was to us a
day of cheer. To these Dakota Gentiles also God had indeed opened the
door of faith. Blessed be his name for ever and ever.
"Dec. 6, 1838.
"This is our little Alfred's natal day. He of course has
received no birthday sugar or earthen toys, and his only gift
of such a kind has been a very small bow and arrow, from an
Indian man, who is a frequent visitor. The bow is about
three-eighths of a yard long and quite neatly made, but Alfred
uses it as he would any other little stick. I do not feel
desirous that he should prize a bow or a gun as do these sons
of the prairie. My prayer is that he may early become a lamb of
the Good Shepherd's fold, that while he lives he may be kept
from the fierce wolf and hungry lion, and at length be taken
home to the green pastures and still waters above."
"Feb. 9, 1839.
"We mentioned in our last encouraging prospects here. The
forenoon schools, which are for misses and children, have some
days been crowded during the few past weeks, and a
Sabbath-school recently opened has been so well attended as to
encourage our hopes of blessed results. Last Lord's day we had
a larger assembly than have ever before met for divine worship
in this heathen land. More than eighty were present."
As Mr. Gavan was a native Frenchman and a scholar, we expected much
from his presence with us, during the winter, in the way of obtaining
translations. He and Mr. Renville could communicate fully and freely
through that language, and we believed he would be able to explain
such words as were not well understood by the other. And so we
commenced the translation of the Gospel of John from the French. But
it soon became apparent that the perfection of knowledge, of which
they both supposed themselves possessed, was a great bar to progress.
And by the time we had reached the end of the seventh chapter, the
relations of the two Frenchmen were such as to entirely stop our work.
We were quite disappointed. But this event induced us the sooner to
gird ourselves for the work of translating the Bible from the original
tongues, and so was, in the end, a blessing.