Yankton agency, to have some young men offer, without any pay, to cut
all the timber and do all the work on a building for the council-room
for the Mission. The change came sooner under their limited instruction
than I had expected, and almost immediately the chief, 'Swan,' offered
to cut logs and build a house for a chapel-school at his camp, opposite
Fort Randall. The chief, Mad Bull, offered the same for the other end
of the reservation, near Choctaw Creek.

"Among those heathens that have borne Christian fruits with the
Santees, is 'Little Pheasant,' chief of the wild Brule Sioux, who came
down to restore to the Yankton reservation some stolen horses, and
promised Paul Mazakuta to take a list of his men desiring instruction.
God is moving the hearts of these wild Indians in a wondrous way.

"At our Sunday evening service, over a hundred Yankton warriors and
chiefs were present. I preached from the parable of the prodigal son.
At the end of this passage, 'Though the elder brother be still jealous
of the kindness and mercy shown to you, and thinks your people only fit
to go down to the grave with the beasts that perish, yet God is good
and just; and though long lost and wandering so many years, now found
at last, He will lead you safely to his home.' Dulorio, a chief, said,
'Oh, my friends, this is where we all ought to cry Ko (yes) with a loud
voice!' But the chief, 'Swan,' replied, 'True, true, Koda (friend); but
men must not applaud in church. The words they give us ought to be laid
up in our hearts.'

"To-day, twenty-two plows are started in the fields, and two in the
prairies, to break an additional hundred acres for wheat. A little
opposition is shown to dividing the land, but only a few Indians
oppose. It is a great step, and one that many are prepared for; but it
must be executed by a wise and good man. It is _the death-blow_ to
heathenism, barbarism, and idleness, and therefore a medicine
absolutely necessary to restore health and quicken life; but yet it
must be administered by a brave and judicious physician. It is a
revolution of habit and of manner of life to the Indian. And in
Minnesota, the delay in perfecting it, and the lack of moral support
given to those who took farms, caused, as much as anything, the
outbreak of 1862, which was, in the beginning, a triumph of the hostile
party over the working bands. Philip the deacon, Thomas Whipple, and
Alexander Umbeclear, Indian catechists, and two Yankton