Moses N. Adams

Moses Newton Adams (February 14, 1822 – July 23, 1902) was an American missionary, Indian agent, military chaplain, and educator. During his career Adams was instrumental in missionary work and education at Kaposia and later the Lac qui Parle Mission including translating texts into the Dakota language. Adams is noted by the Minnesota Historical Society as being one of the first producers of a Dakota/English lexicon.

Early life and education Adams was born on February 14, 1822, in Rockville, Ohio where he attended common school, Adams was later educated at the Ripley College in Ripley, Ohio from 1839 to 1845 and the Lane Seminary in Cincinnati from 1845 to 1848. While at the Lane Seminary Adams was a classmate of Henry Ward Beecher. Adams was ordained on June 14, 1848, by the Presbytery of Cincinnati and was immediately appointed by the church to assist fellow missionary Stephen Return Riggs in ministering to the Dakota people in Minnesota Territory.

During the Dakota War of 1862 Adams assisted civilians in seeking refuge at St. Peter, Minnesota who had fled the attack at the Lower Sioux Agency, the Battle of Fort Ridgely, and the Battles of New Ulm. Adams was also responsible for carrying militia orders from Minnesota Governor Alexander Ramsey from St. Peter to Mankato, Minnesota during the conflict. Adams was not involved in the battle as he and the rest of the civilians had returned to Fort Ridgely. Adams was also appointed by the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions to be the head of the Goodwill Mission at Lake Traverse Adams which had been started by Adam's colleague Stephen Riggs in 1870. During this time Adams also worked as a military chaplain at various posts. Adams also proposed to the Dakota that they set aside many of their traditional practices in order to conform to Western society and be assimilated, these unfounded "laws" proposed by Adams were rejected. These "laws" passed by Adams created two major factions at the Lake Traverse Reservation, the so-called "Scout" faction under Ti'Wakan, and the so-called "church" faction under Adams. Ti'Wakan and others eventually wrote a letter to Samuel J. Brown, the son of Joseph R. Brown, as well as Henry Hastings Sibley and Henry Benjamin Whipple detailing their frustrations with Adams and requested the ability to choose their own agent to administrate the reservation. Adams was eventually relieved of his duties as Indian agent on May 1, 1875.

Adams eventually retired from missionary work altogether in 1892, Adams died on July 23, 1902, in Buffalo, New York and is buried in Oakland Cemetery in Saint Paul, Minnesota.