Conflicted ABCFM Mission to the Dakotas, 1835-1862

Chapter 2. "We are not without heartfelt trials in this heathen land": Conflicts within the Mission Community, 1835-39

39 CHAPTER 2 “We are not without heartfelt trials in this heathen land” Conflicts within the Mission Community, 1835–39 In1837,whenStephenandMaryRiggsleftforwhattheycalledthe“farWest” to proselytize to the Dakota, they realized from their studies of evangelical literature that they would face privation and self-sacrifice. They admitted, however, that they had “very little appreciation of what its difficulties might be.” As they traveled from Massachusetts to Minnesota by a combination of stagecoach, wagon, and steamship, Stephen Riggs slowly recognized some of the difficulties he would experience; indeed, he depicted their journey as a gradual movement from the “civilized” east to the “savage” west. When he arrived in Minnesota, he described a “wild and almost uninhabited region” with “nothing but Indians and military.” He informed his relatives back home that he and Mary were “in the wilds of the West, beyond the cabins of the pioneer.”1 Of course, Dakota people, as well as present-day historians, would take exception to Riggs’s characterization of Minnesota as a wild and uninhab­ ited place. By Riggs’s standards, however, Minnesota stood outside the pale of Euro-American civilization. Statistically speaking, he was correct: very few settlers of European descent lived in Minnesota in the 1820s and 1830s. Indeed,theEuro-AmericanpopulationwhenMinnesotabecameaterritory in 1849 was only 4,852, and the first sizeable number of immigrants would not arrive until the 1850s. Likewise, when the ABCFM first came to Minne­ sota,MinneapolisandSt.Paulhadnotbeenestablished.Riggsandtheother ABCFMmissionariesencounteredsmallcommunitiesoffurtradersofboth Dakota and European descent. They also interacted with military officers associated with Fort Snelling, which was constructed by the U.S. govern­ ment in the early 1820s. As they talked with members of the Fort Snelling garrison and the Indian agent, the missionaries sought information about the location and size of Dakota villages to plan their stations. In order to 40 CONFLICTED MISSION reach as many Dakota villages as possible, the ABCFM missionaries de­ cided that at least one of their stations needed to be located on the prairie, further removed from Fort Snelling.2 Because of the frontier setting, the missionaries quickly realized that a number of ABCFM policies did not translate to the field. The Board’s selec­ tion process privileged piety, theological knowledge, and devotion to the missioncause.Theseattributes,however,didnothelpthemissionariesbuild homes, clear land and plant crops, hunt and gather food, produce products they had once purchased back east, or survive in general on the Minnesota frontier. ThemissionariesaskedtheBoardtohire“secular”laborerstoallow them to focus on proselytizing; tensions arose when the Board denied their requests for financial reasons. The missionary literature failed to discuss how to live and survive on the frontier, especially without the full financial support of their governing board. The missionaries also faced conflicts with members of the garrison at Fort Snelling, the Indian agent, and federal Indian policy in general. While the Dakota missionaries had not given much thought to surviving on the frontier, they were at least forewarned about potential problems with gov­ ernment officials based on the experiences of other ABCFM missions, espe­ ciallythosestationedwiththeCherokees.Whenconflictsarosewithfederal Indian agents over the focus of their program, their use of the Dakota lan­ guage,andotherissues,themissionariesattemptedtokeeptheircomplaints within the mission community. The missionaries’ changing evaluation and use of the Dakota language further divided them from government officials and the antebellum public. As the missionaries struggled to learn Dakota, theybegantoquestionwhetherDakotaactually wasaninferiorlanguage,as most antebellum commentators on language believed. Indeed, they slowly began to see Dakota as a difficult, complex language that even had the po­ tential to become equal to English. Missionary women faced unique conflicts on the Minnesota frontier, conflicts which differed from those of their husbands. Indeed, such unex­ pected stress led Mary Riggs to comment that while she “experience[d] many joys,” she was “not without heartfelt trials in this heathen land.” Riggs’s sentiment sharply contrasted with her initial optimism, which led her to enter into a hastily arranged marriage so that she could help to con­ vert the “poor Indians” in the “far [W]est.”3 Finally, both male and female missionaries experienced conflicts with CONFLICTS WITHIN THE MISSION COMMUNITY 41 other members of the Dakota mission. For example, several missionaries became embroiled in disagreements with Jedediah Stevens, one of the first Dakotamissionaries.Thetensionsescalateduntilallmembersofthemission community were drawn into the dispute. These internal conflicts challenged the image of missionaries as role models of “civilized” behavior. As such, the missionariesglossedoverthesedisputesintheirofficialcorrespondence,and the Missionary Herald omitted any references to discord among its Dakota missionaries.Insum,atmanydifferentlevelstherealityofmissionlifeonthe...