Langage

1893 · 76783 — Santee Agency: A. L. Riggs 1893. First edition. Twelvemo 4 3/8 x 5 5/8 inches. 17 1; 10 pp. Respectively; Life of Lincoln and Aesop. Publisher's plain stiff wrappers lettered on the front. Some minor foxing to top edge of front wrapper else and exceptionally clean copy."The Reverend Alfred L. Riggs a Congregational missionary founded the Santee Normal Training School in 1870. The primary purpose of the school was to provide training and education to members of the Santee Sioux Tribe who had been exiled from their ancestral home in Minnesota following the Sioux uprising of 1862. The Tribe was first placed on a reservation at Crow Creek Dakota Territory. When this location proved poor for farming purposes with little available timber it was determined to relocate the Santee on the Niobrara River in northern Knox County Nebraska. In the summer of 1866 the Santee were moved to Nebraska accompanied by the missions of the Episcopal Church and the American Board of Foreign Missions. Under the direction of the Reverend Riggs the Santee Normal Training School became a leader in educational work among the Indians. Its graduates included ministers missionaries teachers nurses and engineers as well as farmers and blacksmiths. Many students came to Santee from other reservations throughout the Great Plains area. At one time the institution boasted 18 buildings and 480 acres of land and enrollment exceeded 200. Courses offered included history literature physics chemistry mineralogy zoology botany mathematics music and art. Instruction was also offered in vocational fields such as agriculture carpentry and home economics" Nebraska Historical Society.Riggs believed wholeheartedly that the Native Americans should assimilate and to this end he required them to be in Western garb speak English and have their hair cut in an acceptable manner. But he also and oddly believed in the retention of the Dakota language. Thus numerous items were printed in that language at the Santee Press. This was important as it gave the students something of their own even within the establishment. It is reported that translating from English to Dakota was an onerous task not undertaken lightly. The translator of the Lincoln part. James W. Garvie was just one such graduate of the Santee Normal School. He later joined the faculty at the Santee Normal Training School as the printing instructor. There he encourage his students to translate and publish in the Dakota language. Later along with Charles and John Eastman He fought for the restoration of their people’s annuity payments following the Dakota War of 1862. In the following years Garvie traveled to Washington D.C. thirteen times to represent his tribe in front of Congress before finally securing the payments in 1924. A. L. Riggs unknown