n 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.

[Illustration: 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.

[Illustration: WIGWAMS AMONG THE SIOUX.]

On the west side of the Missouri in Dakota lies the great Sioux
Reservation, containing 8,000 Indians at the Pine Ridge Agency,
nearly 8,000 at the Rosebud Agency, 1,500 of the Lower Brule Indians,
3,000 along the Cheyenne River and northward, and nearly 4,000 on the
Standing Rock Agency. It was my fortune to visit a number of villages
on the Cheyenne, Morrow, and Grand Rivers and at Standing Rock. The
Indians at these places are all wild--that is, still wear blankets,
breech-cloths, and leggings, feathers and geegaws, do little toward
cultivating the land, and are ignorant heathen. A Sabbath in a
village on the Cheyenne showed what wild Indians were. The morning
opened with two men disguised in buff