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A resource for reliable information about significant people, places, events, and things in Minnesota history.
The reconstructed Lac qui Parle Mission building, 2012. Photograph by Wikimedia Commons user McGhiever, September 3, 2012. CC BY-SA 3.0 DEED
Lac qui Parle Mission in Chippewa County was the leading station of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions’ work among Dakota people between 1835 and 1854. Though missionaries cited it as the most successful project of its kind among the Dakota, the mission failed in its objective to replace Dakota culture with European American lifeways. Throughout its existence Lac qui Parle was a multicultural community, where Dakota people and European Americans cooperated with each other but experienced deep divides.
In the mid-1800s, the lake called Mde Iaúdaŋ (Small Lake that Speaks) was in the heart of Waȟpétuŋwaŋ Dakota homeland. The Waȟpéthuŋwaŋ had a village on the south side of the lake, where it empties into Mni Sota Wakpa (the Minnesota River). Sisíthuŋwaŋ Dakota people had a small village just to the south, at the mouth of Ptaŋ Siŋta Wakpa (the Lac qui Parle River). Iháŋkthuŋwaŋ and Mdewakaŋtuŋwaŋ Dakota visited the lake as well.
French fur traders reached the lake in the 1700s and translated its Dakota name into their language, calling it “Lac qui Parle.” In 1826, Joseph Renville, a fur trader of Mdewakhaŋtuŋwaŋ and French ancestry, established a trading post at the lake and became an influential leader there. Raised a Catholic, he invited the missionary families of Thomas Williamson and Alexander Huggins to establish a mission at Lac qui Parle. In July of 1835 the Williamsons and Huggins arrived at Lac qui Parle and began their mission work. The missionaries depended on Renville and his family for protection and influence among the local Waȟpéthuŋwaŋ.
Throughout the rest of the 1830s, the mission community grew. More missionaries arrived: Stephen Riggs and his family; brothers Samuel and Gideon Pond; and others. The Renvilles and their extended family made up the core of Dakota people who attended church services. Most of them were women and children, since the majority of Dakota men resisted the missionaries. Mary Renville (Tonkanne), the Mdewakaŋtuŋwaŋ wife of Joseph, and Tutidutawiŋ (Her Scarlet House, also called Catherine), a Waȟpéthuŋwaŋ woman, were early leaders of the mission community. The mission became a place of family life where the children of missionaries and Dakota children grew up.
The early 1840s were a time of success according to the missionaries, but their accomplishments depended on the desires of Dakota people. Some Dakota men joined the congregation, and a few began giving sermons in Dakota. Dakota women led the effort to build a church, which was completed in 1841. The missionaries plowed fifty acres for corn, and Dakota families, who had been planting corn before the missionaries arrived, took to the fields. For years, Joseph Renville and the missionaries worked to translate religious texts into a written Dakota language. In 1842 the first of many religious texts in the Dakota language were published.
The written Roman alphabet failed to capture the sounds, concepts, and nuances of oral Dakota. It also threatened to replace the Dakota language as part of a bigger project of assimilation. In response, most Waȟpéthuŋwaŋ and Sisíthuŋwaŋ people resisted. Some individuals killed the mission’s livestock, shot at its church bell, and threatened the missionaries. Some also harassed and ostracized the Dakota who were part of the mission community. The resistance culminated in 1842, when the Waȟpéthuŋwaŋ joined the Mdewakantunwan in an attempt to remove missions from Dakota lands. The mission survived these difficulties at first because a few influential Waȟpéthuŋwaŋ did not want the missionaries to leave. But in 1846, Joseph Renville died. Without his patronage, Lac qui Parle mission began to decline. By 1849, there were only eighteen members in the congregation.
The signing of treaties in 1851 brought changes to Lac qui Parle. Though the mission was within the boundaries of the reservation, many Dakota people relocated further downriver to Pajutazee (Phežíhutazizi K’ápi) Mission, near the Upper Sioux Agency. The missionaries at Lac qui Parle argued that the mission could continue as a government boarding school for Native children. This never happened, and in 1854, when the Riggs’ family home burned to the ground, the mission was abandoned.
In 1933 the Works Progress Administration (WPA) began a flood-control project at Lac qui Parle, leading to renewed interest in the old mission site. The Minnesota Historical Society excavated the site in 1940, and the Chippewa County Historical Society, in partnership with the WPA, reconstructed the mission in 1942. Lac qui Parle State Park was created in 1941. In 1973 the mission site was listed on the National Register as part of an archaeological historic district; in later decades, it was managed by the Chippewa County Historical Society.
Alexander G. Huggins and family papers, 1833–1976 (bulk 1833–1976)
Manuscripts Collection, Minnesota Historical Society, St. Paul
Description: Correspondence, historical background materials, reminiscences, photographs, and other papers relating to the work of Presbyterian missionary Alexander G. Huggins and his family, who lived in the Minnesota River Valley during territorial and early statehood years. The papers provide information about the Dakota missions at Lac qui Parle (1830s) and at Traverse des Sioux (1840s–1860s); pioneer life in Minnesota; the Dakota Conflict (1862) and the Civil War; and family members and genealogy. Also included are eight essay books composed by Huggins’ daughters.
http://www2.mnhs.org/library/findaids/00679.xml
Clemmons, Linda M. Conflicted Mission: Faith, Disputes, and Deception On the Dakota Frontier. St. Paul: Minnesota Historical Society Press, 2014.
Eubank, Nancy. An Interpretive Plan for the Lac qui Parle Mission. St. Paul: Minnesota Historical Society, 1981. Available at the Minnesota Historical Society library as F612.C48 L33 1981.
Gates, Charles M. “The Lac Qui Parle Indian Mission.” Minnesota History 16, no. 2 (June 1935): 133–151.
“Local Press Reaction: Archaeological Investigation Lac Qui Parle Mission Station.” 1940. Available at the Minnesota Historical Society library as F612.C48 L8.
P1382
Lorenzo Lawrence papers, 1820–1897, 1898
Description: Includes information on the establishment of the mission at Lac qui Parle.
Manuscripts Collection, Minnesota Historical Society, St. Paul
Minnesota Department of Natural Resources. Lac qui Parle Flood Control Project.
https://files.dnr.state.mn.us/destinations/state_parks/lac_qui_parle/history-brochure.pdf
Minnesota Department of Natural Resources. Lac qui Parle State Park.
https://www.dnr.state.mn.us/state_parks/park.html?id=spk00197
Minnesota Historical Society. La qui Parle Mission.
https://www.mnhs.org/lacquiparle
“Mission Site Discovered at Watson: First Church Bell in Minnesota Was Housed There.” Redwood Gazette, June 25, 1940.
https://www.mnhs.org/newspapers/lccn/sn89064842/1940-06-25/ed-1/seq-1
Neill, Rev. Edward Duffield. “A Sketch of Joseph Renville: A ‘Bois Brule,’ and Early Trader of Minnesota.” Minnesota Historical Society Collections 1 (1902): 196–206.
https://archive.org/details/sketchofjosephre00neilrich/page/196
Nicollet, Jean. Hydrographical Basin of the Upper Mississippi River from Astronomical and Barometrical Observations, Surveys, and Information. Washington, DC: Published by order of the Senate, 1843.
https://www.loc.gov/item/78692260
“A Notable Missionary Memorial.” The Word Carrier of Santee Normal Training School, July–August, 1910.
https://www.mnhs.org/newspapers/lccn/sn96080197/1910-07-01/ed-1/seq-1
Parker, Donald Dean. Lac Qui Parle: Its Missionaries, Traders and Indians. Brookings, SD: South Dakota State University, 1964.
Pond family papers, 1800–2009 (bulk 1833–1935)
Description: Papers documenting the history of a Minnesota pioneer family, particularly the ministry of brothers Samuel W. and Gideon H. Pond, early Presbyterian missionaries among the Dakota.
Manuscripts Collection, Minnesota Historical Society, St. Paul
http://www2.mnhs.org/library/findaids/00717.xml
Pond, Samuel W. The Dakota or Sioux in Minnesota As They Were in 1834. St. Paul: Minnesota Historical Society Press, 1986.
Riggs, Stephen R. “Dakota Portraits.” Minnesota History Bulletin 2, no. 8 (November 1918): 481–568.
⸻ . “Fire at Lac qui Parle Mission: Buildings Destroyed.” St. Paul Minnesota Pioneer, March 30, 1854.
https://www.mnhs.org/newspapers/lccn/sn83025241/1854-03-30/ed-1/seq-2
⸻ . Mary and I: Forty Years With the Sioux. Chicago, IL: W. G. Holmes, 1880.
https://archive.org/details/maryandifortyyea00riggrich
[Riggs, Stephen R.]. “I Remember: ‘Father’s Paper.’” Iyapi Oaye: The Word Carrier, April 1880.
https://www.mnhs.org/newspapers/lccn/sn95063058/1880-04-01/ed-1/seq-1
Stephen R. Riggs and family papers, 1837–1988 (bulk 1837–1869).
Manuscripts Collection, Minnesota Historical Society, St. Paul, MN.
Description: Letters, reminiscences, genealogical data, and miscellany of this Presbyterian missionary, his wife Mary Ann Longley Riggs, and other family members, focusing on the Riggs' missionary service at Lake Harriet (now Minneapolis) and Lac Qui Parle, Minnesota (1837–1862), his work as an interpreter during the US–Dakota War of 1862, and his subsequent activities as an author of Dakota-language teaching materials.
http://www2.mnhs.org/library/findaids/00797.xml
The Dedication of the Restored Lac qui Parle Indian Mission: Sunday, July 12, 1942; 11;00 A. M. MN: N.p., 1942. Available at the Minnesota Historical Society library as F614.L2 D42 1942.
P167
Historical Development of the Lac qui Parle Area, December 22, 1964; 1865–1966
Manuscripts Collection, Minnesota Historical Society, St. Paul
Description: A typewritten report on the sites of the Lac Qui Parle mission, Fort Renville, the Saienga Mound, the Hagen farm mounds, the Kivley site, and the Lac qui Parle Indian subagency. Maps and photographs are included. In addition to data on the sites listed above, there is information on Joseph Renville, Martin McLeod, John B. Bausmau (John W. Bushman), and other fur traders, missionaries, and settlers. Included is a photographic copy of an excavation report by Lloyd A. Wilford entitled, "The Saienga Site."
Willand, Jon. Lac Qui Parle and the Dakota Mission. Madison, MN: Lac Qui Parle County Historical Society, 1964.
https://www.google.com/books/edition/Lac_Qui_Parle_and_the_Dakota_Mission/CA1CAAAAIAAJ
Williamson, Thomas. “Opening Discourse of Dr. Thos. S. Williamson, on the Occasion of the Formation of the NS Presbyterian Synod of Minnesota, at St. Paul, September 9, 1858.” St. Paul Weekly Minnesotian, September 18, 1858.
https://www.mnhs.org/newspapers/lccn/sn90059500/1858-09-18/ed-1/seq-4
Wingerd, Mary Lethert. North Country: The Making of Minnesota. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2010.
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On Joseph Renville’s invitation, the Williamson and Huggins families establish Lac qui Parle Mission on July 9, 1835. They depend on Renville for shelter, food, and influence among the local Wahpetunwan Dakota people.
Native people are living at Mde Iaúdaŋ. They use tools made of chert from present-day South Dakota and southeastern Minnesota.
Joseph Renville establishes a trading post at Mdeiadan for the American Fur Company. The post comes to be known as Fort Renville.
On Joseph Renville’s invitation, the Williamson and Huggins families establish Lac qui Parle Mission.
Missionary Gideon Pond joins the Lac qui Parle Mission. While there he marries Sarah Poage, sister-in-law to Thomas Williamson.
Missionaries Stephen and Mary Riggs join the mission. Alexander Huggins builds a corn mill even as the mission is ordered to reduce its expenses.
Dakota leader Wambdi Okiya (Eagle Help) leads a war party against the Ojibwe over the protests of the missionaries. When the war party fails, Wambdi Okiya and his warriors blame the missionaries and retaliate by killing their cattle.
Simon Anawang Mani (He Who Goes Galloping Along) joins the mission. He is the first Wahpetunwan man to join the mission who is not a member of the Renville family.
Dakota women help build the mission church.
After working with Dakota people, missionaries publish a Dakota language primer, hymn book, and dictionary. Encouraged by Mdewakantunwan kin, Wahpetunwan people attempt to drive the missionaries out of their lands. Many stop attending church services.
Joseph Renville dies, leaving the missionaries without a powerful benefactor. Thomas Williamson leaves Lac qui Parle; Stephen and Mary Riggs, who had been at Lake Traverse, return.
The mission counts only eighteen Dakota people as members of the congregation.
After the formation of a Dakota reservation on the Minnesota River, many Dakota leave Lac qui Parle and move further downriver to Williamson’s Pajutazee Mission.
The Riggs family’s home is destroyed by fire. They leave Lac qui Parle to establish a new mission alongside Williamson’s. Lac qui Parle mission is abandoned.
After archaeological work by the Minnesota Historical Society, Lac qui Parle State Park is designated. The Works Progress Administration and the Chippewa County Historical Society reconstruct the mission.
The site is added to the National Register of Historic Places as part of the Lac qui Parle Archaeological Historic District.
Made possible by the Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund through the vote of Minnesotans on November 4, 2008. Administered by the Minnesota Historical Society.
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