NOW: Eby aE Di, Cr Our. 
The Dakota, commonly known as the Sioux, forms the leading and 
best known division of the Siouan linguistic family. The Dakota language 
now consists of three well defined dialects, the Santee, Yankton and Teton. 
The earliest record of the Siouan languages mentioned by Mr. Pilling 
in his Bibliography! is that of Hennepin, compiled about 1680. The earliest 
printed vocabulary is that of the Naudowessie (i. e., the Dakota) in Carver’s 
Travels, first published in 1778. 
In 1852 the Smithsonian Institution published a grammar and diction- 
ary of the Dakota language, prepared by 8. R Riggs. In that work the 
following preface appeared : 
The preparation of this volume is to be regarded as one of the contributions to 
science made by the great missionary enterprise of the present age. It was not pre- 
meditated, but has been a result altogether incidental to our work. Our object was 
to preach the Gospel to the Dakotas in their own language, and to teach them to read 
and write the same until their circumstances should be so changed as to enable them 
to learn the English. Hence we were led to study their language and to endeavor to 
arrive at a knowledge of its principles. 
About eighteen years ago, Messrs. S. W. and G. H. Pond, of Washington, Comn., 
took up their residence among the Indians of the Minnesota Valley. In the summer 
following Dr. T. S. Williamson and his associates, from Ohio, under the direction of 
the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, reached the same country. 
They immediately commenced the labor of collecting and ascertaining the meaning of 
Dakota words. 
In the summer of 1837 we joined the mission and engaged in the same labors. 
Others who reached the country at a later period have rendered much assistance, 
among whom it is but just to mention the late Rev. Robert Hopkins, of Traverse des 
’ Sioux. 
In prosecuting this work we have at all times availed ourselves of the best native 
assistance; but during the first years of our residence among them the natives did not 
' Bibliography of the Siouan Languages, by James Constantine Pilling. Washington: Govern- 
ment Printing Office, 1887. 8°, 87 pp. 
v 
