“Oahe Mission School and Chapel”

1877

Stephen Return Riggs became a Missionary to the Sioux in Minnesota in 1837. Thomas L. Riggs was born in 1847 and twenty-five years later was delegated to serve the Teton Sioux on the Missouri. His first Station, Hope, was west of the Missouri, opposite Ft. Sully. On December 26, 1872, he married Nina Foster and his son, Theodore, was born in July, 1874, at Hope Station, which they soon left, to serve 300 Two Kettle and Sans Arc Sioux at Bogue, soon called Oahe Station, in a log building. A school and church were necessary. Lumber to create it was brought by the steamer ‘Durfee’ in June, 1877, and by September, Riggs, one carpenter and Indian labor had created the present chapel where the annual Dacotah church meeting was held. Two young Indians, Samuel Smiley and David Lee were baptized and Roan Bear (Clarence Ward) was married to Estelle Dupree. OAHE ‘a place to stand upon’, as near as the Sioux language came to a foundation, became the religious center of a huge area.

The building had not been changed since it served as school and church. Some blackboard writing of Louisa Irvine, his second wife who survived Thomas, had been preserved. The bell, inscribed ‘Wakan Tanka Ohala Po’, (Praise ye the Lord) is the gift of a New England Congregational Church, Thomas L. Riggs’ own faith.

It is open for church services of any denomination and likewise for marriages by any clergyman. Contact State Historical Society, Pierre (Its original site was 11 miles upstream and is now under 150 feet of water.)

Hughes County, SD 1804 east end of dam (2006)