Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #6728620 in Books
• Published on: 1919
• Binding: Unknown Binding
• 269 pages

Customer Reviews

A Warm Account of a Missionary to the Dakota Sioux in the 19th Century.
This is a delightful book, originally published in 1919 by Rev. Williamson's daughter. It is based on her recollections of her father's accounts of life with the Dakota Sioux. We may not know if every word can be accepted as the unvarnished truth, but she and her siblings lived through some of these events, as well as having heard their parents' retelling of the tales. She would seem to be a sincere narrator. Reverend John P. Williamson was the son of a missionary to the Dakota Sioux in Minnesota, the Rev. Dr. Thomas Williamson (also a physician). John grew up among the Dakota and spoke their language as a native speaker. He understood them about as well as a white man of that day could. He was a witness to many events of the Dakota War or Great Sioux Uprising of 1862 in Minnesota. He also accompanied the Dakota afterward, ministering to them in their captivity at Fort Snelling, Minnesota. He also accompanied them on their sojourn down the Mississippi and then up the Missouri, on a crowded steamboat. Life at the inhospitable Crow Creek Agency and the Santee Agency are covered. His life among the Yanktons is described. This book is well worth reading. As always, the scholars may debate the accuracy of some details, but as an account of one man's life as a missionary (described years later by his daughter) it is worth your time. More so by virtue of the nature of his life's experience and the era involved.