Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. Dakota Mission

Missions to the Dakota Indians were initiated by the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM) around 1835; from 1837 to 1869 New School Presbyterians assisting in the work founded the ethnic presbyteries of Dakota, Blue Earth, and Minnesota; the ABCFM gradually reduced its activities with Native Americans and transferred its work with the Dakota to the Board of Foreign Missions of the Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. in 1870; in the 1880s, mission work with Native Americans was transferred from the Board of Foreign Missions to the Board of Home Missions, (called the Board of National Missions after 1923). Missions to the Dakota consisted primarily of organizing Native congregations and presbyteries, and of establishing schools and vocational training institutes.