Joseph R. Renville’s mother was Dakota and his father, French. An explorer, fur trader, and Congregational minister, Renville helped found the Lac qui Parle Mission in Minnesota in 1835. This song, which is also known as the “Dakota Hymn,” was sung by thirty-eight Dakota prisoners of war as they were led to execution at Mankato, Mennesota, on December 26, 1862. This song was first published in the Dakota Indian Hymnal (1916).
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