Dakota Grammar: With Texts and Ethnography

Long out of print, this classic work on the Dakota language offers extensive information on Dakota grammar and contains a bilingual selection of Dakota myths. Dakota Grammar presents three interrelating aspects of language and culture, beginning with a detailed description of the Santee dialect of the Dakota language and its grammar. The texts of traditional stories, as recounted in Dakota by native speakers, are accompanied by full English translations. Riggs also provides an ethnographic overview of various aspects of Dakota culture and history that enhances the value of this book to all students of Dakota. A worthy companion to both Riggs's A Dakota-English Dictionary (MHS Press) and John P. Williamson's An English-Dakota Dictionary (MHS Press), this volume lives on as an important source for the preservation and revitalization of Dakota culture.

"This work on the language, grammar, tales, history, and culture of the Dakota Indians is the result of many years of linguistic study and personal experience spent in Minnesota by Stephen R. Riggs, who arrived as a Presbyterian missionary in 1837. A noted scholar of Dakota literature with a great gift for languages, Riggs (1812-83) was the author or coauthor of numerous publications, including A Dakota Dictionary (Minnesota Historical Society Press)." In Dakota Grammar, Riggs presents three interrelating aspects of language and culture, beginning with a detailed description of the Santee dialect of the Dakota language and its grammar. The text of traditional stories - as recounted in Dakota by native speakers Michael (Michel) Renville, David Grey Cloud, Walking Elk, and James Garvic - are each accompanied by full English translations. Riggs also provides an ethnographic overview of various aspects of Dakota culture and history that enhances the value of the book to all students of Dakota.

Stephen R. Riggs (1812-83) arrived in Minnesota in 1837 as a Presbyterian missionary to the Dakota Indians and was a noted scholar of Dakota literature. John D. Nichols is professor of American Indian Studies at the University of Minnesota and co-compiler of A Concise Dictionary of Minnesota Ojibwe.