Page:A Brief History of South Dakota.djvu/99

Rh and physical needs of these people. No other man has had so great influence with them, and even in the days of their greatest hostility and hatred for the white man, he was always a welcome visitor to their camps. When the authorities could get into communication with the hostile leaders in no other way, the devoted old missionary, alone and with great hardship and privation, would journey through the wilderness to carry the messages of the "Great Father," as the Indians call all communications from the President or his representatives, to his disobedient children. Good fortune attended all of his relations with the Sioux. During his first visit in 1851, Red Fish, an Oglala, had made an unprovoked war upon the Crows and had been soundly beaten for his pains, and in addition had lost his favorite daughter, a captive to his enemies. Humiliated and defeated, a butt of ridicule to his own people, he had hurried down to Fort Pierre to interest the traders in securing the recovery of his daughter. Learning that "a black gown," the Indian name for a priest, was in the settlement, he went to the good father and implored him to invoke his "medicine" for the recovery of the child. Father De Smet severely rebuked him for his unnecessary war, and then made a fervid prayer for the safety and return of the girl. Red Fish returned to his camp comforted, and as he entered his tepee the lost child bounded into his arms. She had eluded her captors and followed her father's trail to the post. The circumstance was by the Indians deemed miraculous, and they attributed it entirely to the medicine (prayer) of Father De Smet.