Stephen Return Riggs became a missionary to the Sioux in Minnesota in 1837. Thomas L. Riggs was born in 1847 and twenty-five years later was delegated to serve the Teton Sioux on the Missouri. His first station, Hope, was west of the Missouri opposite Fort Sully. On December 26, 1872, he married Nina Foster, and their son Theodore was born in July 1874 at Hope Station. They soon left to serve 300 Two Kettle and Sans Arc Sioux at Bogue, soon called Oahe Station, in a log building. A school and church were necessary, and lumber for them was brought by the steamer Durfee in June 1877. By September, Riggs, one carpenter, and Indian labor had created the present chapel, where the annual Dacotah church meeting was held. Two young Indians, Samuel Smiley and David Lee, were baptized there, and Roan Bear, Clarence Ward, was married to Estelle Dupree. Oahe, meaning "a place to stand upon" as near as the Sioux language came to a foundation, became the religious center of a huge area. The building has not been changed since it served as school and church. Some blackboard writing of Louisa Irvine, his second wife, who survived Thomas, has been preserved. The bell, inscribed "Wakan Tanka Ohala Po" meaning "Praise ye the Lord," was a gift of a New England Congregational church. Its original site was 11 miles upstream and is now under 150 feet of water. It is open for church services of any denomination and for marriages by any clergyman.