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Reverend Stephen and Mary Riggs

Reverend Stephen and Mary Riggs

Stephen and Mary Riggs, about 1860Born in Ohio in 1812, Stephen Riggs was educated at Jefferson College and Western Theological Seminary in Pennsylvania. As a licensed preacher, he was sent by the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions to help Dr. Thomas S. Williamson in his work with the Indians in Minnesota. 

After spending time at Fort Snelling starting in June of 1837, Riggs and his wife, Mary, spent the summer with the Reverend   Jedediah Stevens at Lake Harriet. They then traveled to Lac qui Parle where for five years they worked among the  Dakota and translated the Bible into the Dakota language with the help of Joseph Renville Sr. He would eventually publish this dictionary with the help of the Minnesota Historical Society and the Smithsonian Institution.  
 
In 1843 Riggs, with the help of Robert Hopkins, opened a Dakota mission at Traverse des Sioux, near modern-day St. Peter, Minnesota. Alexander G. Huggins was assigned to the station in 1846, and Riggs returned to Lac  qui Parle to take the place of Dr. Williamson, who was transferred to work among the Dakota at Kaposia near modern-day South St. Paul, Minnesota. 
 
In 1851, Riggs was one of the interpreters that helped explain terms to the Dakota signers at the Treaty  of Traverse des Sioux. The treaty created changes in the locations of Dakota missions due to the Dakota moving onto reservations in the Southwest part of Minnesota.  Dr. Williamson had chosen a new site on the Yellow Medicine River in 1852 which he called Payzhehooteze (the Upper Sioux Agency or Pezuhutazizi), and Riggs joined him there two years later. The Hazelwood mission and republic were then organized by the Riggs party near the Agency as an educational and agricultural center for Christian Dakota.
 

When the U.S.-Dakota War began, the Hazelwood party came down to the Upper Sioux villages. In the early morning hours of August 19, the Riggs family fled to their Christian Dakota neighbors, who hid them on an island in the Minnesota River, then guided them on their way toward safety that night. Riggs volunteered for service and was made the chaplain to General Sibley's forces. Hazelwood mission was destroyed and when the Dakota were exiled from Minnesota after the war, the missionaries traveled with them where they continued to set up mission stations. Riggs died in Wisconsin in 1883.

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Shared History

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Missionaries
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Bibliography

Riggs, Stephen R. "Dakota Portraits." Minnesota Free Press [St. Peter] 1858

Riggs, Stephen R. Mary and I: Forty Years with the Sioux. Williamstown, MA: Corner House, 1971.

Resources for Further Research

Primary

Riggs, Stephen R. "Dakota Portraits." Minnesota Free Press [St. Peter] 1858
Riggs, Stephen R. Mary and I: Forty Years with the Sioux. Williamstown, MA: Corner House, 1971.

Glossary Terms

Hazelwood Republic

Kaposia

Key People

Thomas Williamson
Thomas Williamson
Thomas Williamson

Thomas Williamson

Thomas Williamson was a medical doctor who arrived in Minnesota in 1835. Along with caring for a multitude of Dakota and white patients, he, along with John Renville, Stephen Riggs and Gideon and Samuel Pond, helped create the first written alphabet and grammar of the Dakota language. Thomas Williamson established a mission at Lac qui Parle in 1835.
He was at Pejuhutazizi (Yellow Medicine), his mission near the Upper Agency, when he received word of the war on August 18, 1862. Rather than fleeing immediately he stayed and supported the many Dakota men who, at great risk to their families, chose not to fight. Williamson; his wife, Margaret; and his sister, known as “Aunt Jane” Williamson, were finally convinced to leave on August 20. “Christian Indians had staid by us all night guarding us while we slept and assisting us when awake in every way in their power,” Williamson wrote. Two Christian Dakota men provided the Williamsons with a team of oxen and a wagon to use during their escape: Robert Hopkins Caske, a neighbor; and Simon Anawaƞgmani, who headed a Wahpeton band living near Stephen Riggs’s Hazelwood Mission. Peace Party members Lorenzo Towaƞiteton Lawrence, Little Paul Mazakutemani, Peter Tapataṭaƞka (Big Fire), and Enos Maḣpiyahdinape were also involved in this dangerous enterprise.
Williamson escaped to St. Peter, where he helped care for wounded war victims. He later ministered to Dakota men imprisoned at Mankato and at Camp McClellan in Davenport, Iowa. Williamson convinced President Lincoln to pardon 25 Dakota men in April 1864; after Lincoln’s death in 1865 he advocated for the remaining prisoners with Pres. Andrew Johnson. In 1866, Johnson pardoned the remaining prisoners, still at Camp McClellan. Thomas Williamson died at St. Peter in 1879.



Letter From Thomas Williamson to Stephen Riggs on November 24, 1862:

"[I] am satisfied in my own mind from the slight evidence on which these are condemned that there are many others in that prison house who ought not to be there, and that the honor of our Government and the welfare of the people of Minnesota as well as that of the Indians requires a new trial before unprejudiced judges. I doubt whether the whole state of Minnesota can furnish 12 men competent to sit as jurors in their trial. . . . From our Governor down to the lowest rabble there is a general belief that all the prisoners are guilty, and demand that whether guilty or not they be put to death as a sacrifice to the souls of our murdered fellow citizens."


View full article: Thomas Williamson

Related Images

Hazelwood Mission station of Reverend Stephen R. Riggs
Hazelwood Mission station of Reverend Stephen R. Riggs
Hazelwood Mission station of Reverend Stephen R. Riggs

Hazelwood Mission station of Reverend Stephen R. Riggs

Hazelwood Mission station of Reverend Stephen R. Riggs, taken in Yellow Medicine, Minnesota in approximately 1860

Related Documents

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Stephen to Mary Riggs2
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Stephen to Mary Riggs
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Stephen to Mary Riggs2

Letter from Stephen R. Riggs to Martha Riggs about Internment

In this letter dated October 27, 1862, missionary Stephen Riggs writes to his daughter Martha in the aftermath of the U.S.-Dakota War of 1862, describing the conditions of the Dakota internment camp at the Lower Sioux Agency. Riggs writes that the prisoners will soon be moved to either Mankato, South Bend, or Fort Snelling. He reports that he prefers that they stay at Fort Ridgely; if that will not work, he favors Fort Snelling.

Stephen to Mary Riggs

Letter from Stephen R. Riggs to Martha Riggs

In this letter dated November 4, 1862, missionary Stephen Riggs writes to his daughter Martha in the aftermath of the U.S.-Dakota War of 1862. He describes recent events at Camp Sibley, mentioning that the trials of Dakota prisoners are almost over and that the army has decided to move the remaining detainees to Fort Snelling.