Stephen Return Riggs

author

Stephen Return Riggs

1812–1883

A Presbyterian missionary and writer, he spent decades among the Dakota people and became closely involved in recording the Dakota language. His life and work sit at the crossroads of religion, language study, and the troubled history of U.S.–Dakota relations.

1 Audiobook

Mary and I: Forty Years with the Sioux

Mary and I: Forty Years with the Sioux

by Stephen Return Riggs

About the author

Born in Ohio in 1812, Stephen Return Riggs was an American Presbyterian minister, missionary, translator, and author. He graduated from Jefferson College and Western Theological Seminary, then went west in the 1830s to work as a missionary among the Dakota in what became Minnesota.

Riggs is especially remembered for his work on the Dakota language. He helped prepare religious texts in Dakota and was associated with a Dakota grammar and dictionary, making him an important figure in the written record of the language for nineteenth-century readers. He also wrote about his years in the region, including the well-known memoir Mary and I, which reflects both his personal life and his missionary career.

His legacy is complicated. Riggs played a major role in preserving linguistic material and documenting life on the Minnesota frontier, but he was also part of a missionary movement deeply tied to cultural change and pressure on Dakota communities. He died in 1883.