ement to the whites. This took
away from the Sioux their hunting-grounds, their cranberry marshes,
their deer-parks and the graves of their ancestors. So the Dakotas of
the Mississippi and lower Minnesota packed up their teepees, their
household goods and gods, some in canoes, some on ponies, some on dogs,
some on the women, and slowly and sadly took up their line of march
towards the setting of the sun.

No sooner did the Indians move than Dr. Williamson followed them and
established a new station at Yellow Medicine, on the West bank of the
Minnesota river and three miles above the mouth of the Yellow Medicine
river. The first winter there, was a fight for life. The house was
unfinished; a very severe winter set in unusually early, the snows were
deep and the drifts terrible; the supply-teams were snowed in; the
horses perished, the provisions were abandoned to the wolves and the
drivers reached home in a half-frozen condition. But God cared for His
servants. In this emergency, the Rev. M. N. Adams, of Lac-qui-Parle,
performed a most heroic act. In mid-winter, with the thermometer many
degrees below zero, he hauled flour and other provisions for the
missionaries, on a hand sled, from Lac-qui-Parle to Yellow Medicine, a
distance of thirty-two miles. The fish gathered in shoals, an unusual
occurrence, near the mission and both the Indians and the missionaries
lived through that terrible winter. Here, an Indian church of seventeen
members was organized by Dr. Williamson. It increased to a membership
of thirty in the next decade.

In March, 1854, the mission houses at Lac-qui-Parle were destroyed by
fire. A consolidation of the mission forces was soon after effected.
Dr. Riggs and other helpers were transferred from Lac-qui-Parle to a
point two miles distant from Yellow Medicine and called Omehoo
(Hazelwood). A comfortable mission home was erected. The native
Christians removed from Lac-qui-Parle and re-established their homes at
Hazelwood. A boarding school was soon opened at this point by Rev. M.
N. Adams. A neat chapel was also erected. A church of thirty members
was organized by Mr. Riggs. It grew to a membership of forty-five
before the massacre. These were mainly from the the Lac-qui-Parle
church which might be called the mother of all the Dakota churches.

There were now gathered around the mission stations, quite a community
of young men, who had to a great extent, become civilized. With
civilization came new wa