Stephen Return Riggs
Stephen Return Riggs (March 23, 1812 – August 24, 1883[1]) was a Christian missionary and linguist who lived and worked among the Dakota people.
Riggs was born in Steubenville, Ohio. His career among the Dakota began in 1837 at Lac qui Parle in what is now Minnesota, where there was a mission. He worked among the Dakota Sioux for the remainder of his life, producing a grammar and dictionary[2] and a translation of the New Testament[3]
In his autobiography Mary and I, or Forty Years with the Sioux, Riggs describes his life.[4] In 1862, he served as interpreter at the trials of the Sioux Uprising. He died in Beloit, Wisconsin.
Selected works[]
- 1852 A Grammar and Dictionary of the Dakota Language[2]
- 1871 Dakota wowapi wakan kin. The New Testament, in the Dakota language[3]
- 1880 Mary and I, or Forty Years with the Sioux[4]
Archival Collections[]
The Presbyterian Historical Society in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, has Stephen Return Riggs' papers, including detailed correspondence written by Stephen and Mary Riggs to their family members and two manuscript church histories written by Stephen Riggs. The correspondence also includes an occasional sketch of the missions they served.
References[]
- ^ https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/48384864
- ^ Jump up to: a b Riggs, Stephen Return (1852). A Grammar and Dictionary of the Dakota Language. Washington DC, New York: Smithsonian Institution, G.P. Putnam.
- ^ Jump up to: a b Riggs, Stephen Return (1871). Dakota wowapi wakan kin. The New Testament, in the Dakota language. New York: New York, American Bible society.
- ^ Jump up to: a b Riggs, Stephen Return (1880). Mary and I or Forty Years with the Sioux. Chicago: W.G. Holmes.
External links[]
- Stephen Return Riggs in MNopedia, the Minnesota Encyclopedia
- Works by Stephen Return Riggs at Project Gutenberg
- Works by or about Stephen Return Riggs at Internet Archive
- People from Steubenville, Ohio
- Linguists from the United States
- Missionary linguists
- American Protestant missionaries
- Protestant missionaries in the United States
- Translators of the Bible into indigenous languages of the Americas
- 1812 births
- 1883 deaths
- 19th-century translators
- Linguists of Siouan languages
- American linguist stubs
- Bible translator stubs