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Overview
"Renville was captured from Rigg's Hazelwood mission and later wrote a narrative of her experiences." -Six Weeks in the Sioux Teepees (2015)
"A description of the missionaries' journey to safety and the help they received from Christian Dakotas." -Conflicted Mission: Faith, Disputes, and Deception on the Dakota Frontier (2014)
"Where other writers demonized the Dakota, Renville emphasized the efforts of the Dakota Peace Party to protect captives." -Annals of Iowa (2013)
"A Thrilling Narrative was the first Dakota war narrative to be published as a separate book." -ALH Online Review
The stories of those pioneers who have survived captivity among tribes during hostile outbreaks along frontier settlements are full of harrowing interest. Of particular interest is that told by Mary Butler Renville in her 1863 narrative of her captivity during the Sioux War of 1862 titled, " A Thrilling Narrative of Indian Captivity."
Prior to the Sioux outbreak in 1862, Mary Butler Renville (1830–1895) was working as a missionary among the Sioux after having married Rev. John B. Renville, son of a Sioux woman and Joseph Renville, a French-Indian trader active among the Sioux nearly a century before.
Mr. and Mrs. Renville were captured during the 1862 Dakota uprising, an ordeal that would become the basis for Mrs. Renville's provocatively titled book.
During this time Renville would offer shelter and to protection Jannette E. De Camp Sweet (who would later author "Mrs. J.E. De Camp Sweet's Narrative of Her Captivity in the Sioux Outbreak of 1862"), noting:
"Mrs. DeCamp came this a. m. with her three children, the eldest nine years of age, the youngest not two, her own health very delicate. She gave vent to her feelings by weeping, but we restrained her as well as ourselves for fear of those who are on the watch to see if our sympathies are not all enlisted towards the whites. This was the second time we had seen a white woman, and could we have wept freely it would have relieved our aching head."
In describing how Christian Dakotas had found refuge among friendly Dakotas, Renville relates:
"There were some of the lower bands entirely innocent of the massacre, and who were anxious to separate from Little Crow and all his followers. This was the occasion of their joining our band. The soldiers succeeded in driving them all back, for resistance only makes them more furious, and their numbers are the largest. How long we shall have a respite from their unearthly songs and firing of guns, we know not."
In describing one hostile encounter, Renville writes:
"Two Indian women came along with their hatchet in their hands, flourishing them about and looking 'daggers' at us, inquiring of Mary what white woman that was, and what business we had off on the prairie. Mary told them very pleasantly. The muscles of their faces relaxed. We have always felt they intended doing us harm, but finding out who we were, discouraged them. Some of the women, it is said, can fight as well as the men..."
During another tense encounter, "Chande, an old wicked heathen woman, said to Catherine, 'Where is your God? why don't he come and help you? You see now that our gods are strong and mighty, and have driven away all your teachers. You had better renounce your worship, and serve our Idols.'"
Renville concludes with a plea for the Dakota in the aftermath of the uprising.
"A description of the missionaries' journey to safety and the help they received from Christian Dakotas." -Conflicted Mission: Faith, Disputes, and Deception on the Dakota Frontier (2014)
"Where other writers demonized the Dakota, Renville emphasized the efforts of the Dakota Peace Party to protect captives." -Annals of Iowa (2013)
"A Thrilling Narrative was the first Dakota war narrative to be published as a separate book." -ALH Online Review
The stories of those pioneers who have survived captivity among tribes during hostile outbreaks along frontier settlements are full of harrowing interest. Of particular interest is that told by Mary Butler Renville in her 1863 narrative of her captivity during the Sioux War of 1862 titled, " A Thrilling Narrative of Indian Captivity."
Prior to the Sioux outbreak in 1862, Mary Butler Renville (1830–1895) was working as a missionary among the Sioux after having married Rev. John B. Renville, son of a Sioux woman and Joseph Renville, a French-Indian trader active among the Sioux nearly a century before.
Mr. and Mrs. Renville were captured during the 1862 Dakota uprising, an ordeal that would become the basis for Mrs. Renville's provocatively titled book.
During this time Renville would offer shelter and to protection Jannette E. De Camp Sweet (who would later author "Mrs. J.E. De Camp Sweet's Narrative of Her Captivity in the Sioux Outbreak of 1862"), noting:
"Mrs. DeCamp came this a. m. with her three children, the eldest nine years of age, the youngest not two, her own health very delicate. She gave vent to her feelings by weeping, but we restrained her as well as ourselves for fear of those who are on the watch to see if our sympathies are not all enlisted towards the whites. This was the second time we had seen a white woman, and could we have wept freely it would have relieved our aching head."
In describing how Christian Dakotas had found refuge among friendly Dakotas, Renville relates:
"There were some of the lower bands entirely innocent of the massacre, and who were anxious to separate from Little Crow and all his followers. This was the occasion of their joining our band. The soldiers succeeded in driving them all back, for resistance only makes them more furious, and their numbers are the largest. How long we shall have a respite from their unearthly songs and firing of guns, we know not."
In describing one hostile encounter, Renville writes:
"Two Indian women came along with their hatchet in their hands, flourishing them about and looking 'daggers' at us, inquiring of Mary what white woman that was, and what business we had off on the prairie. Mary told them very pleasantly. The muscles of their faces relaxed. We have always felt they intended doing us harm, but finding out who we were, discouraged them. Some of the women, it is said, can fight as well as the men..."
During another tense encounter, "Chande, an old wicked heathen woman, said to Catherine, 'Where is your God? why don't he come and help you? You see now that our gods are strong and mighty, and have driven away all your teachers. You had better renounce your worship, and serve our Idols.'"
Renville concludes with a plea for the Dakota in the aftermath of the uprising.
Product Details
| BN ID: | 2940162488903 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Far West Travel Adventure |
| Publication date: | 07/05/2021 |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| File size: | 289 KB |
About the Author
A Christian missionary and teacher, Mary Adeline Butler (1830–1895) married John Renville, a man of French and Dakota ancestry. The couple was held captive during the 1862 Dakota uprising, and event that would become a book with a sensational title, A Thrilling Narrative of Indian Captivity, originally published in 1863.
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