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‘“ LIBRARY
Michigan State
University

 

This is to certify that the
dissertation entitled

BECOMING CHRISTIAN, REMAINING OJIBEW: THE
EMERGENCE OF NATIVE AMERICAN PROTESTANT
CHRISTIANITY IN THE GREAT LAKES, 1829-1900

presented by

Chad M. Waucaush

has been accepted towards fulfillment
of the requirements for the _

PhD. degree in History

 

 

///

Major Professgf’s Signature

8/1 3/09

 

Date

MSU is an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Employer

 

 

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PLACE IN RETURN BOX to remove this checkout from your record.
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5/08 K:/Proleoc&Pras/ClRC/DateDm.indd

 

 

BECOMI
AMEN

BECOMING CHRISTIAN, REMAINING OJIBWEt THE EMERGENCE OF NATIVE
AMERICAN PROTESTANT CHRISTIANITY IN THE GREAT LAKES, 1820-1900

By

Chad M. Waucaush

A DISSERTATION
Submitted to
Michigan State University
in partial fulfillment of the requirements
for the degree of
DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
History

2009

 

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ABSTRACT
BECOMING CHRISTIAN, REMAINING OJIBWE: THE EMERGENCE OF NATIVE
AMERICAN PROTESTANT CHRISTIANITY IN THE GREAT LAKES, 1820-1900
By

Chad M. Waucaush

During the mid-nineteenth century there developed a trans-regional, multi-ethnic alliance
of Native ministers and clergy throughout the Great Lakes. Their evangelistic work reached from
Mississauga, Ontario to the White Earth reservation in Minnesota. Many of these Native
ministers and missionaries delivered their sermons in the Algonquin language to a kaleidoscopic
assembly of Ojibwe, Ottawa, Potawatomi, Canadian, American, French and Métis adherents.
Some of the Indian preachers attained international acclaim as speakers, writers, and
governmental diplomats. Their ministerial endeavors which included hymn writing and
missionary work were vital in establishing a unique indigenous Protestant Christianity amongst
Indian communities throughout the Great Lakes. As a result of their labor, by the mid-to-late
nineteenth century there emerged several Ojibwe missions and churches comprised of various
denominations throughout the Great Lakes region. It is the aim of this work to chart the
emergence of the Ojibwe missions in this area and the remarkable ministerial network of
indigenous clergy and missionaries which emerged from original missions and established
additional mission sites. Given that many of the Christian Ojibwe in Upper Canada and western
Great Lakes were Methodists, the work of Methodist Ojibwe missionaries and the development of
Methodist Indian missions will be emphasized.

Ojibwe ministers and missionaries employed a variety of cultural techniques to
Christianize their communities in the Great Lakes. Christian Indian leaders were uniquely
situated to address the oppositional arguments which were contextualized within indigenous

cultural, societal, and religious frameworks. In doing so, they offered a gospel that was culturally

 

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palatable for nineteenth century Ojibwe communities. Christianity was used by the Christian
Ojibwe to address the manifold social changes thrust upon their communities due to colonialism
and eventually, western industrial expansion. Native missionaries utilized Christianity as a
rehabilitative tool to counter the social breakdown which was hastened by contact with non-
Indian neighbors. Indigenous Christian leaders proposed theological as well as practical
guidance to members of their tribal community as they struggled to maintain their tribal
autonomy. However, this guidance increasingly revolved around adopting cultural constructs
from white society. This acculturation process sometimes contributed to the social breakdown
which Native missionaries were trying to address. Yet, many Christian Ojibwe adapted Christian
expression to indigenous cultural practices, thus producing a unique brand of Protestant
Christianity which offered a sense of stability, structure, and hope in the face of overwhelming

odds. Hopefully this paper will shed some light on that process.

 

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

LIST OF FIGURES ........................................................................................... v
INTRODUCTION .............................................................................................. 1
CHAPTER ONE

Anglo American Missionaries in the Lake Superior Region, 1822-1833 .................... 52
CHAPTER TWO

Mississauga Christianity in Southern Ontario, 1820-1833........................................77

CHAPTER THREE

Evangelical Christianity in the Lake Superior Region ........................................ 103
CHAPTER FOUR '

Indian Missionaries: Peter Marksman (Gahgodahahquah),

George Copway (Kahgegagahbowh), and John Johnson (Enmegahbowh) ............... 150
CONCLUSION .............................................................................................. 21 1
BIBLIOGRAPHY ........................................................................................... 217

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 1: Western Great Lakes ............................................................. 34
Figure 2: Ojibwe migration ................................................................ 35
Figure 3: Geographic range of the Anishinabeg .......................................... 37
Figure 4: Indian communities of Southern Ontario ...................................... 40
Figure 5: Nineteenth century treaties ...................................................... 45
Figure 6: Michigan’s Eastern Upper Peninsula .......................................... 51
Figure 7: Straits of Mackinaw ............................................................. 57
Figure 8: Minnesota/Wisconsin Indian missions ......................................... 76
Figure 9: Indian communities of Upper Canada .......................................... 78
Figure 10: Minnesota Indian communities ............................................... 200
Figure 11: Greensky Hill Church .......................................................... 209
Figure 12: Anishinabe Methodist Ministers ............................................. 210

INTRODUCTION

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Part One: Review of the Literature

During the nineteenth century, Ojibwe communities throughout the Great Lakes
experienced profound and dramatic transformations. Traditional homelands were ceded away to
federal and provincial governments; traditional subsistence patterns were replaced with sedentary,
farm based agriculture and by wage labor in lumber camps; while, chronic poverty and
alcoholism dramatically transformed daily life and material culture. In addition, religious
practices changed as evangelical Protestant missionaries from the Northeast penetrated deep into
Indian country. These revivalists, whose hearts were set ablaze by the religious fervor of mid-
nineteenth century tent meetings, attempted to spread the message of salvation, redemption, and
grace beyond New England’s staid congregations.l Despite all of the social and economic
dislocations, the religious landscape of the Great Lakes proved far less fertile than what the
missionaries had been accustomed to in the Northeast. White missionaries struggled to
Christianize the Ojibwe of the upper Great Lakes and this dissertation contends that the Ojibwe
were effectively brought to Christianity not by the first white Protestant missionaries that entered
the region but rather by Native preachers, by Obij we converts that became missionaries and used

the message of Christianity to also revitalize embattled tribal communities in the western Great

 

1 For a description of the fervor at these revival meetings see Whitney Cross, The Burned-over District:
The Social and Intellectual History of Enthusiastic Religion in Western New York 1800-1850 (Ithaca,
Cornell University Press, 1950); John Corrigan, Business of the Heart: Religion and Emotion in the
Nineteenth Century (Berkley: University of California Press 2002); Melvin Easterday Dieter, The Holiness
Revival of the Nineteenth Century (New Jersey: Scarecrow Press, 1980); James Fraser, Pedagogue for
God’s Kingdom: Lyman Beechegnd the Second Great Awakening (Lanham: University Press of America,
1985); Charles Hambrick-Stowe, Charles G. Finney and the Spirit of American Evangelicalism (Grand
Rapids, Ml: W. B. Eerdman’s Publishing Co., 1996); Keith Hardman, Mes Grandison Finney. 1792 -1875:
Revivalist and Reformer (Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 1987); Marianne Percciante, Calling paw_n
Fire From Hmen: Charles Grandison Finney and Revivalism in Jefferson County, New York, 1800-1840
(Albany: State University Press, 2003). For revivals in the Midwest see Darrel Robertson, The Chicago
Revival, 1876: Society and Revivalism in a Nineteenth Century City (New Jersey:' Scarecrow Press, 1989).
Hymnody was heavily utilized by revivalist and missionaries who visited the Ojibwe. For a description on
the role of hymns in revivals and evangelical settings see Tamar Frankiel, Gospel Hymns and Social
Religion: The Rhetoric of Nineteenth Century Revivalism (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1978).
2

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Lakes. Many of these Obijwe missionaries of Lake Superior were not converted by evangelical
white preachers but rather, they became Christian at the hands of their Mississauga-Ojibwe
relatives fi'om the east, especially from the region around Southern Ontario.2

Many of the western Great Lakes missionaries came from the Ojibwe tribes of Southern
Ontario, who began their conversion to Christianity in the 18203 when they also began to replace
hunting with sedentary agriculture. This transformation primarily occurred under the leadership
of Peter Jones, a mixed ancestry Mississauga-Ojibwe who converted to Methodism in 1823.
Jones persuaded his Credit River community, near Toronto, to convert to Methodism by 1826 and
shortly thereafter, he began to establish Methodist Indian missions throughout Southern Ontario.
By the 18303, Peter Jones, along with several converted Mississauga-Ojibwe travelled to Lake
Superior country to evangelize their tribal counterparts.3

By the mid-nineteenth century, the evangelical work of these Christian Ojibwe
missionaries and ministers, resulted in the growth of a trans-regional, multi-tribal alliance of
Native ministers and clergy throughout the Great Lakes. Their ministerial network reached from
Mississauga, Ontario to the White Earth reservation in Minnesota. Many of these Native
ministers and missionaries delivered their sermons in the Algonquin language to kaleidoscopic

assemblies of Ojibwe, Ottawa, Potawatomi, Canadian, American, French, and métis adherents.

 

2 See Peter Schmalz, The Oflbwa of Southern Ontario (Toronto and London: University of Toronto Press,
1991).

3 For a biography of Peter Jones’ life and the Mississauga of Southern Ontario see Donald Smith’s Sacfl
fiaathers: The Reverend Peter Jones (Kahkewaquonatflnd the Mississauga Indians (Toronto and
London, 1987). For additional history on the role of Protestantism in Southern Ontario see chapter four
entitled ”Christianity and Civilization” of John Webster Grant's, Moon of Wjatertime: Missionar_ies a_nq
the Indiams of Canada in Encounter since 1534 (University of Toronto Press: Toronto and London).
Detailed conversions of nineteenth century individual Mississauga can be found in George Copway’s Lifa,
Life Letters aad Speeches of Kagegagahbowh or George Copway, (Chief of the Oiibwe Nation) (New York:
S.W. Benedict, 1850); Peter Jones, History of the Oiebway Indians with EMI Reference to the
Conversion to Christianig (London: Houlston and Write, 1867); Elizabeth Graham, From Medicine Mm
Missionary: Missionaries as_Agents of Cha_nge Amongthe Indians of Southern Onta_ri_q (Toronto: Peter
Martins Associates, 1975).

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Some of these Indian preachers attained international acclaim as speakers, writers, and
governmental diplomats. Their ministerial efforts included traditional endeavors, such as the
preaching of sermons and the administration of the sacraments and also extended to hymn
writing, the establishment of both Sunday and day schools, and other missionary work that were
vital in the establishment of a unique indigenous Protestant Christianity amongst Great Lakes
Indian communities. Due to their labors, there emerged several Ojibwe missions of various
denominations. It is the intent of this research to examine the emergence of the Ojibwe missions
in this area and to demonstrate that it was the exceptional ministerial network of the Indigenous
clergy and missionaries which emerged from these early missions and who, through their
missionary work, sought to spread Christianity to the West.

Although several Protestant denominations, such as the Baptists, Presbyterians, and
Congregationalists, were active in the Lake Superior region in the mid-nineteenth century, the
Methodists and the Anglicans were the most successful Protestant denominations in converting
the Anishinabeg (the term used by the Ojibwe to describe themselves, meaning “original man” or
“spontaneous human being”) of the Great Lakes.4 Practically all of the Ojibwe communities in

Southern Ontario were influenced by Methodist Indian missionaries. The Episcopal Church also

 

4 See Leroy Johnson, Enmegabowh,A Chippma Missionafll (North Dakota: S.l., 1908); For additional
descriptions of Anglican missions among the Ojibwe see Theodore Holcombe, An Apostle in the
Wilderness James Lloyd Breck, 0.0. His Missions apd His Schools (New York: T. Whitakker, 1903); Melissa
Meyer, The White Earth ngedy: Ethnicity and Diapossession at_a MinnesLm Anishnaape Reservat_iaa
(Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1994); J.B. Wicks, Domestic Missions. Protestht Episccgl Church
in the United States of AmericLT he Church Work Amonflhe ladians: Letters from the Rev. J. B. White
and Others (New York: 188?). For Methodist Indian missions see George Playter, A History of Methodism
in Canada: With aLAccount of the Risgnd Progress of God inong the Canadian Indian Tribes. €102
Occassionai Notices of the Civil Affairs of the Provinces (Toronto: A. Green, 1867). Walter Schoenfuhs,
“The Chippewa Indians in Michigan and the Missions of the Methodists, Presbyterians, and Lutheran
Churches, 1840-1855, Thesis. (Washington University, 1963). For an extensive history of the
interdenominational American Board of Commisioners for Foreign Missions, see William Boutwell, D_iag
Lent by William Thurston Boutwell, MissiLnary to the Oiibwa Indian_s (Minnesota: Minnesota Historical
Society, 1925); Stanley Edwards Lanthrop, A Historical Sketch of the ”Old Mission” and its Missionaries to
the Oiibway Ingiam, on Madeline Islands, Lake Superior, Wisconsin (Wisconsin: The Author, 1905).

 

 

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established a foothold among the Ojibwe of northern Minnesota, largely due to the efforts of the
first ordained Native Episcopal priest, John Johnson, following the Sioux uprising or Dakota
Wars of 1862. Anglicans became so influential in Minnesota, that several Native Episcopal
priests, deacons, and missionaries were ordained and commissioned at White Earth reservation,
the Episcopal Church’s base for Indian missions in the 18803. As a result of their effective work
in Ojibwe communities, and because so many Indian missionaries, ministers, and priests were
Methodists and Anglicans, these two ecclesiastical bodies will be the focus of this work.5

The Roman Catholic Church and a number of its missions were intermittently scattered
throughout Indian communities in the Great Lakes from the seventeenth-century to the present.
Consequently, there is over-three-hundred years of history associated with Catholicism and
Indian people. Recently, Catholicism received substantial in-depth analysis from several US.

and Canadian historians.6 During the mid-nineteenth century, the Catholic Indian missions in

 

5 For additional history of Presbyterian missions among Native Americans see Michael Coleman,
Presbflerian Missionary Attitudes toward American Indians, 1837-1893 (Jackson: Jackson University
Press, 1985); Ashbel Green, Presbyterian Missions (New York: A.D.F. Randolph and Co., 1893).
Presbyterian Historical Society, Guide to the American Indian Correspondence: The Presbfierian
Historical Society Collection of Missionary Letters. 1833-1839 (Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press,
1978). For Baptist missionary history among the Ojibwe and other Native people see, Abel Binghama_nd
Bingham Family Papers Collection, 1817-1910; Isaac McCoy, History of Baptist IndiaLn Missions: Embracing
Remarks on the Former and Present Condition of Aboriginal Tribe: Their Settlement within Indian
Territory. amd Their Future Prosgcts (Utica: Bennet Backus and Hawley, 1840). Periodical Account of
Baptist Indian Missions within Indian Territoryjor the Year Ending Dec. 31“I 1836 (publisher unknown:
Wesport, Missouri, 1837) For an extensive history of Lutheran missionary activity among the Ojibwe see,
E. R. Baierlein, In the Wilderness with the Red Indians: German Missiflry of the Michigan Indians. 1847-
;_8_S_3_ (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1996); Charles Luckhand, Faith in the Forest: A True Pioneer
of Luthegan Missionaries. Laboring Amoqg the Chippewaflzlians in Michngn. 1833-1836 (publisher
unknown: Sebewaing, Michigan, 1952). Homer Greenholt, ”A Study of William Loehe, His Colonies, and
the Lutheran Indian Missions in the Saginaw Valley of Michigan.” Diss. (University of Chicago, 1937);
William Polack, Bringing Christ to the Ojibways in Michkgan: A Story of the Mission Work of GR. Baierlein
(1848-1953) (New York: Ernst Kaufmann, 1927).

6 See Susan Sleeper-Smith, Indian Women and French Men (Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press,

2001); Allan Greer, Mohawk Saint : Catherine Tekakwitha and the Jesuits (New York : Oxford University

Press, 2005); The Jesuit Relations: Natives and Missionaries in Seventeenth-Century North America, ed.
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northern Michigan experienced a revival of sorts under the exhaustive efforts of Bishop Baraga,
the “Apostle to the Indians.” While there is some similarity between Methodist missionaries and
the work of Bishop Baraga, my work is far less concerned with the more formal hierarchical
structures that are associated with Roman Catholicism . A detailed analysis between Catholic and
Protestant Native Christianity during the mid-nineteenth-century would require a separate work
of research, one that is comprehensive and more judicious in its treatment of Catholic Christianity
in the Great Lakes.7

My research focuses on the role of Indigenous Christian evangelical practices, of how
initiates in Christianity tended to follow more emotion-laden means of conversion, especially
those practices that resonated with Indigenous religious practices. Unfortunately, the role of
Protestant missionaries and churches was long disparaged and associated with governmental
collusion, the destruction of tribal societies, and cultural 1033. Consequently, much of the older
historiography about religious practices ofien portrayed Christian Indians in a one dimensional

role and presented an oversimplification of the complex religious landscape of tribal

 

Allan Greer(Boston : Bedford/St. Martin's c2000); Carol Devens, CounteringColonization: Native America
Women and Great Lakes Missions. 1630-1900 (Berkeley, Calif. : University of California Press, 1992).

7 No primary source document is more revelatory for the work of the missionaries under the French
regime than the 71 volumes of The Jesuit Relations and Allied Documents [electronic resource];
(Cleveland: Burrows Bros. Co., 1896-1901). There are also extensive volumes written about the Jesuits,
which was the order that primarily served in the Great Lakes, such as John O'Malley, The First Jesuits
(Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1993). More recently, Jean Lacouture, Jesuits: A
Multibiography (Washington, D.C.: Counterpoint, 1995). For an extensive history of Catholicism in
Michigan, see George Paré, The Cath_o|ic Church in Detroit, 1701-1888 (Detroit, Gabriel Richard Press,
1951); Leslie Tentler Woodcock, Seasons of Grace : A History of the Catholic Archdiocese of Detroit
(Detroit : Wayne State University Press, c1990). For a more concise biography of the life and missionary
work of Frederick Baraga see Catherine Mary Ovnick, The Missionary Activities of Bishop Baraga among
the Chippewa ami Ottawa Indians (publisher unknown: Cleveland, Ohio, 1949). For Catholic missionary
work at the turn of the twentieth century see Father Fred Alban, A Century of Missionary Work among
the Red Lake Chippewa Indians, 1858-1958 (Red Lake, Minnesota: St, Mary’s Mission, 1958); Anshinabe
Enamiad, Zephyrin Engelhardt ed. (Harbor Springs, Michigan: Holy Childhood Indian School, 1912).

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communities. This view depicted Native Christian believers as bit players in the contest between
European superpowers or as culturally disingenuous and alienated from their tribal communities.
Several seminal works have contributed to this perspective, invariably reducing Indian converts
down to unwitting victims of colonization at the hands of overly aggressive missionaries when
analyzing religious conversion. In Native and Newcomers, a 2001 publication of a compilation
of essays largely written in the 19903, James Axtell largely attributed conversion of tribal peoples
to economic and political factors. According to Axtell, opportunities for material gain at the
hands of discerning missionaries or political posturing on behalf of prospective Indian converts in
order to garner the favor of the colonial government motivated Indigenous peoples’ decisions to
convert to Christianity. Such a view neglected the role of Native spirituality in conversion. For
Axtell, Native converts such as Sampson Occum, were whitewashed Indians who shed their
cultural identities to become white men. According to Axtell, these converts remained in some
type of fixed nether world in which they were neither Indian nor white. Contrary to Axtell’s
assertions, many Native converts remained Indian in their worldviews, social interactions, and
spiritual expressions.

George Tinker’s Missionary Conquest also perpetuated this view that Native people
converted to Christianity at the behest of white missionaries, converts who were viewed as one
cog in a colonial wheel which ultimately crushed Indian cultural identity. Tinker believed that
Indian people were vulnerable to conversion once they experienced severe cultural and societal
disruption, usually the result of colonization and disease. Although it is true that the arrival of
missionaries also signified the arrival of governmental and military authorities, Native people still
made autonomous decisions to follow Christianity; decisions which were undergirded by

substantive spiritual experiences. The conversion experiences of Christian Indians and the

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visions, dreams, and other tribal expression which accompanied conversion receives little if any
attention by Tinker.8

Ironically, it was James Axtell’s earlier work, The Invasion Within. published in 1985
that first signaled a new perspective for understanding the conversion process among Native
people. In The Invasion Within Axtell analyzed how the Iroquois and the Algonquin understood
Christian teaching and then, raised the issue of what led to successful conversions. Subsequently,
several works began to examine more carefully the conVersion process. The most impressive

scholarship to follow this new direction came with Bruce Trigger’s Natives and Newcomers,

 

whose book title was the same as that later published by James Axtell. In his work, Trigger
examined Huron religious change but eventually concluded that it was traditional practices that
helped the Huron survive both epidemics and first contact. Trigger’s work also influenced Daniel
Richter when he published his “Iroquois versus Iroquois: Jesuit Missions and Christianity in
Village Politics” research. Richter followed some of Trigger’s concerns and despite more
extensively analyzing the conversion process he continued to argue that conversion stemmed
from exterior processes, in this instance, compromised sovereignty.

The more significant shift in the literature about Native Christianity came with John
Grant’s Moon of Wintertime in which he traced how new orientations toward Christianity arose
from conscious breaks with traditional religious practices. Grant made a conscious attempt to
show how conversions were voluntary. Grant’s work made an especially important contribution
to understanding the conversion process in the Great Lakes because he argued that Christianity
was a compartmentalized adjunct to Indigenous practice. Most importantly, he examined the

contradictions between nativistic and Christian orientations. This emphasis became increasingly

 

8 James Axtell, _N_atives aad Newcomers: The Cultural Origins of North America (New York: Oxford
University Press, 2001); George E. Tinker, Missionary Conmst: The Goapel and Native Ame_rican Cultural
Genocide (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1993).

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important in the Great Lakes, where the prophet’s role in pan-Indian rebellion was overshadowed
by the military expertise of his brother, Tecumseh, and where the role of nativism would prove

central to understanding pan-Indian movements as forerunners of Christianity.9

The increased emphasis on the Native conversion process found its first scholarly
following among colonial scholars of New England, an area believed to have had Indians
disappear soon after contact and one where there was certainly no religious history of Indians. It
was William and Cheryl Simmons in Old Light on Separate Ways: The Narragansett Diamof
J osaph Fish that first examined a Narragansett praying town from the daily prespective of its
missionary leader, Joseph Fish. Two books soon followed that examined missionary practices
among other communities, William Simmons’s $42th of the New England Tribes and Neal
Salisbury’s Maaitou and Providence. Simmons examined the Wampanoag, Mashpee, Gay Head,
Mohegan, and Narragansett tribes while Salisbury looked at both Algonquian and Iroquian
religious change over a more defined early colonial period. Salisbury’s book was the more far-
reaching and effective because he examined the sociopolitical meanings attached to conversion.
Salisbury’s work then greatly influenced Jean O’Brien in her discussion of how Native people
interpreted Christian beliefs and how they were simultaneously motivated to retain possession of
their homelands. O’Brien attached importance to religious conversion and to how such

conversion was often influenced by Native preaching.

 

9 James Axtell, The Invasion Within: The Contest of Cultures in Colonial North America (New York: Oxford
University Press, 1985); Bruce G. Trigger, Natives and Newcomers: Canada's "Heroic Age" Reconsidered
(Kingston: McGill-Queen's University Press, 1985); John Webster Grant, Moon of Wintertime: Missionaries
and the Indians of Canada in Encounter since 1534 (Toronto; Buffalo : University of Toronto Press, 1984).
For an extensive history of religiously inspired navistic movements see, Gregory Dowd, A Spirited
Resistance (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1992) and Dowd's essay entitled”Thinking and
Believing: Nativism and Unity in the Age of Pontiac and Tecumseh,” American Indian Quarterly (1992):

309-35.

 

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Her book, Dispossession By Degree, was published in 1997 and much of what she
elaborated on in explaining conversion processes was then incorporated by Dan Richter into his
Facing East From Indian Country which examines the conversion narratives of Indian converts at
the Native “praying town” of Natick in 1652. He depicts seventeenth-century-eastern-woodland-
Indians reciting rehearsed testimonies to Puritanical church authorities in order to convince them
that they are worthy of admittance into the Puritan fold. Though Richter does a commendable job
of exploring religious expression among Puritan communities, he portrays Native converts as
merely spouting Puritanical dogma while they attempt to format their conversion experience to
Puritanical standards of acceptability. While intriguing, this analysis offers little insight into the
personal experience of the actual converts. The end result reveals very little about the spirituality
of the Native believers, other that their adeptness at structuring their testimonies to fit Puritanical
guidelines for admission into the church. It is against such publications that this work is
undertaken.‘0

Each of these approaches has merit and all of these authors have made invaluable
contributions to changing the field of Native religion, however, I hope to bring a more nuanced
and detailed analysis in regard to conversion and Christian Indian religious expression in this
work. By looking at how Ojibwe leaders embraced Christianity as a rehabilitative tool in order to

increase community morale, fight the destructive influences of alcoholism, and to combat

 

10 Joseph Fish, MM on Separate Ways: The Narragansett Diary of Joseph Fis_h. 1765-1776, William 5.
Simmons and Cheryl L. Simmons, eds. (Hanover, NH: University Press of New England, 1982); Simmons,
William Scranton. Spirit of the New England tribes : Indian history and folklore. 1620-1984 (Hanover:
University Press of New England, 1986); Alden Vaughan, New Eagland Frontier: Puritans and Indians,
1620-1675 (Norman and London: University of Oklahoma Press, 1995); Neal Salisbury, Manitou and
Providme: Indians. Europeans, and the Making of New England. 1500-1643 (New York: Oxford University
Press, 1982); Jean M. O'Brien, pfipossession By Degrees: Indian Land and Identity in Natg
Massachusetts, 1650-1790 (Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press, 1997); Daniel K. Richter,
Facathast from lndiaa Country: A Native History of Early America (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University
Press, 2001).

 

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fraudulent dealings by the government, I hope to unveil a more dynamic and palpable
interpretation of how Christianity took root among 19th-century Great Lakes Indian tribes. Also,
lacking in some of the aforementioned texts, is a systematic chronology of the development of
evangelical religion within a particular region. I hope to demonstrate how Christianity took root
in the western Great Lakes and evolved over time through the influence of Ojibwe missionaries
and ministers. By covering the following periods I intend to chart the evolution of Protestant
affiliation and how Indian ministers were at the forefront of Protestant missionary activity by
examining the following time periods: the 18203 and the difficulties of the first Protestant
missionaries in Lake Superior country; the 18303 which marks the arrival and emergence of a
Native clergy in that region; the 18503 when bands of Lake Superior Ojibwe sought out their
own communities in which to live and religious affiliation began to fall upon ethnic lines; and
finally in the 18803 and 18903 when the Minnesota-Ojibwe began to ordain Ojibwe priests and
deacons as the Episcopal Church took root in Ojibwe communities in northern Minnesota and
religious divisions representing Protestant, Catholic, and traditional loyalties became a permanent
fixture in tribal communities. As Christianity became established in these communities, the
evolution of Christian Indian practice in its myriad forms were underway. I intend to highlight
some of these practices and demonstrate how Christian Ojibwe embraced evangelical Christianity
and placed their own indigenous brand on it.

The conversion experience of Native believers takes center stage in this paper. A
detailed analysis of the religious expressions and worldviews of Native converts before, during,
and after conversion will reveal how indigenous peoples forsook, retained, and adapted elements
of their culture and tribal outlook to their Christian identity. Focusing on the personal religious
experiences of Ojibwe believers will reveal the intense struggles of conscience and conviction
that many endured. The examination of the conversion experiences of Christian Ojibwe leaders
also unveils the deeply mystical and spiritual aspects of tribal conversion and demonstrates how

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these experiences thrust many on a journey to personal and communal redemption; a fight that
ofien put them at odds with government officials, and at times, their fellow tribal leaders.

There are several ground breaking works which chronicle the emergence of religious
movements within embattled Native communities, which provide this more fi'uitful scholarly
approach to understanding the process in the Great Lakes. Most of the recent scholarship on New
England, as well as my own, relies on Anthony F. C. Wallace’s 1969 publication, The Death and
Rebirth of the Seneca. It is this monograph that marks a signature shift in the way historians
examined the conversion experience in Native communities. Wallace’s psychoanalytical study of
the Seneca and the emergence of the religion of Handsome Lake among the Iroquois in the early-
nineteenth century illustrates how Iroquoian peoples responded to endemic poverty, alcoholism,
and the loss of land. The religion of Handsome Lake, with its condemnation of witchcraft,
alcohol, abortion medicine, and materialism provided a spiritual salve to the devastating cultural
fragmentation that had occurred in Seneca society. Interestingly, Handsome Lake’s religion
incorporated aspects of Christian expression such as repentance, confession, preaching, and
personal testimony. Handsome Lake even relies on the testimony of Jesus whom he encounters
during a vision or “sky journey” and tells Handsome Lake that the Seneca people will “become

lost if they follow the ways of the white man.”ll

Although Wallace’s text deals with a non-
Christian religion, it reveals the spiritual innovation at work within Indian communities when
encountering times of cultural and economic flux. Like the Seneca of New York, many Ojibwe
in the western Great Lakes attached themselves to a similar form of religious experience through

evangelical Christianity, because it provided stability, inspiration, and understanding during

similar instances of tremendous social change.

 

11 Anthony F.C. Wallace, The Death and Rebirth of the Seneca (New York: Random House Inc., 1969),
244.

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Anthony Wallace built his rebirth of the Seneca around a visionary leader and in the
Great Lakes, this same type of leadership is crucial to understanding the conversion experience.
Wallace published The Death and Rebirth of the Seneca in 1969 and it was over fifteen years
before historians began to hear his plea to stop seeing tribal communities as remaining static and
unresponsive to the decline occurring in their communities. R. David Edmunds was one of the
first historians to follow Wallace’s historiographical direction and in 1985, he published TIE
Shawnee Prophet. Edmunds examines the Shawnee people and suggests that disease,
destabilizing social change, and the loss of lands led to cultural disintegration, especially the rise
of alcoholism and the fear of witches. Like Handsome Lake, Tenskwatawa responded to these
events with visions that linked nativist teachings. He not only prohibited interaction with whites
but urged the acceptance of a variety of European ideas: monogamy, temperance, and the
renunciation of shamanism.

Like Handsome Lake, the Shawnee prophet, Tenskwatawa, received apocalyptical
messages while in a state of personal degradation. After experiencing a supernatural vision,
Teskwatawa began to espouse a message of tribal nativism which promoted abstinence from
alcohol, a disuse of material items obtained from white traders, and prohibition of intermarriage
between Indians and whites. In Tecumseh and the Qpest for Indian Leadership, R. David
Edmunds also depicts how the tribes of the Ohio River valley dealt with a multitude of issues
including white encroachment on tribal land, shifting Indian frameworks of identity, and the new
religious movements which incorporated both aspects of Christianity and traditional tribal
spirituality. Though Tecumseh utilized Tenskwatawa’s religious message to promote a pan-

Indian movement, the central “doctrine” of the Shawnee prophet’s message illustrates how Indian

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peoples utilized new belief systems to help navigate amidst rapidly changing environmental
circumstances.”

William McLoughlin’s compilation of essays entitled The Cherokees and Christianity.

 

1794-1870 was the first significant work about religion that followed in the direction suggested
by Wallace and Edmunds. Published in 1994, a decade after Edmunds work on the Shawnee,
again examines the conversion experience from an Indigenous perspective. Of central
importance in Cherokees and Christianity is the way in which the Cherokees utilized Christianity
as means to empower their communities against white domination. The Cherokees drew
inspiration from biblical stories of creation and deliverance to help them adapt to relocation and
acculturation. They applied biblical stories such as the exodus of the Jews from Egypt to their
own circumstances in order to make sense of the physical dislocation and cultural loss
experienced by them at the hands of whites. I

According to Cherokee interpretation of Christian dogma, the Creator made the first
“Adam” an Indian, and bestowed character traits such as humility, love, respect, and ability to
endure privation on the first “Red man.” The white man was less moral, however, and was given
by the Creator the knowledge of the “arts” and the ability to create things. This mechanical
knowledge was contained in the Bible which the Creator gave to the white man. The Cherokees
used the gospel as a tool of community empowerment and interpreted biblical stories in a way
that situates them as morally superior to whites. Like the Cherokees, nineteenth century Great
Lakes Ojibwe also saw much of themselves in Protestant Christian teachings, but strained to see

the precepts of the Bible being practiced by their white neighbors. Many Ojibwe who were open

 

12 R. David Edmunds, The Shawnee Prophet (Lincoln, Neb. : University of Nebraska Press, 1985); R. David
Edmunds, Tecumseh and the Quest for Indian Leadership (Boston: Little, Brown, 1984).

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to Christianity wondered why the whites, given the biblical knowledge which they possessed,
hadn’t made more advancement in morality and religion.13

The 19905 was the most fruitful period of research for historians working on religious
leadership among Native communities in the Great Lakes. Much of the recent literature has
focused on extending Edmund’s scholarship on Tenskwatawa to an understanding of how similar
circumstances gave rise to other Indian leaders that also blended nativism and Christianity.
Melbum Thurman in “The Shawnee Prophet’s Movement and the Origins of the Prophet Dance”
contends that there was a continuity between the teachings of Tenskwatawa and religious change
in the American-Canadian Plateau region. Thurman analyzes an 1813 movement among the
Subartic Athapaskan or Chipeway to show how the Shawnee Prophet’s teachings were introduced
into those communities by an immigrant Ojibwe. In “Kenekuk the Kickapoo Prophet” Joseph
Herring examines another religious leader and attempts to show how this man acted as a prophet
through combining Christian doctrine with a selective retention of Indigenous concepts. Kenekuk
advocated social accommodation to the majority society, welcomed missionaries but then resisted
them after their arrival.M

Another invaluable approach to understanding the conversion process in the tribal
community, as part of a newly evolving leadership process, is Janet Chute’s The Legacy of

Shingwaukonse: A Century of Native Leadership. This important monograph, published in 1998,

has received minimal scholarly attention, and examines the life of Little Pine of Shingwakounse,

 

13 William G. McLaughlin, The Cherokees and Christia_nity, 1794-1870: Essays on Acculturation and
Cultural Persistence ed., Walter H. Conser, Jr. (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1994). Also see,
William Gerald McLaughlin, Cherokees and Christianity. 1794-1870 : Essays on Acculturation arid Cultural
Persistence (Athens : University of Georgia Press, 1994); William Gerald McLoughlin, Cherokees and
Missionaries 1789-1839 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1984).

 

 

 

14 Melburn Thurman, "T he Shawnee Prophet’s Movement and the Origins of the Prophet," Current
Anthropology (1984), 25(4), 530-31; Joseph B. Herring, ”Kenekuk, the Kickapoo Prophet: Acculturation
Without Assimilation,” American Indian Quarterly (1985), 8(1): 37-39.

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an Ojibwe chief of the Garden River Ojibwe, near Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario during the mid-
nineteenth century. Chute demonstrates how Shinwaukounse utilized white missionary teachings
to help his people and simultaneously, battled with those missionaries for control of his tribal
community and triumphed. Of critical importance is Chute’s examination of Ojibwe spiritual
expressions as they occurred within the practice of Christianity in the reserve’s Anglican Church.
For a portion of the Garden River community traditional indigenous religion failed them as they
struggled to maintain economic, political, and religious leverage in the face of rapid cultural
change and this led them to Christianity.'5

The last ten to twenty years has witnessed a growing body of literature which explores
the uses that Great Lakes tribal communities made of Protestant Christianity and often focuses on
issues of identity and on Christian Native practice. Michael McNally’s work on hymnal
translations in Ojibwe Singers provides invaluable insight into the use of hymns as a traditional
model of religious expression among the Ojibwe of the White Earth reservation in Minnesota.
His study of the translation of hymns and of the subsequent understanding of Native American
singers of the elemental concepts of the Christian faith is critical in gaining insight into
Indigenous comprehension and facility with Protestant theology. Oiibwe Singers has opened the
door for further inquiry about the use of Christianity among Indians of the Great Lakes. Another
author, James Treat, explores the formation of Christian Indian identity in North America and

charts the long and complicated relationship between Christianity and Native Americans in his

 

compilation of essays written by Indian authors entitled Native and Christian. 1"

 

15 Janet E. Chute, The Legacy of Shflgwaukonse: A Century of Native Leadership (Toronto, Buffalo:
University of Toronto Press, 1998).

16 Michael D. McNally, Oiibwe Singers: Hymns. GrieLflA Native Culture in Motion (Oxford ; New York :
Oxford University Press, 2000); James Treat. ed., Native and Christian: lndigmous Voices on Religious
Identity in the United States and Canada (New York : Routledge, 1996); For more elaborate description of
Native American Christian practice and its growing role in historical scholarship see Michael D. McNally,
”T he Practice of Native American Christianity.” Vol. 69, No. 4, Church Histm (2000): 834-859.

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More recently, Susan Elaine Gray examined the experiences of Ojibwa missionaries in I
Will Pear No Evil: Oiibwa Missionary Encounters Along the Berens River, 1875-1940. Gray
focuses on the Ojibwe of the Berens River, located in the Lake Winnipeg area of Manitoba,
Canada. Her approach to Ojibwe-missionary interaction has implications for the relationships
between missionaries and Anishinabeg throughout the Great Lakes. When considering recent
scholarship about Native-missionary relationships, Gray asserts, “The best new writing
recognizes that native perspectives are crucial to a full understanding of mission history.” She
goes on to argue that, “Many outside ideas, once thought to have been forced on unwitting native
victims, were actually filtered and moulded to fit native cultures and native frameworks. An
understanding of these processes comes only from studying individual native communities and
missions with as open mind as possible.” It is from this perspective that I hope to situate the
present narrative. Native people were active participants in conversion, adherence, and adoption
of Christianity. They negotiated theological frameworks on their own terms and adapted
Christian modalities of worship to indigenous cultural expressions. Native people acted
autonomously when responding to the message of missionaries, routinely rejecting, embracing, or
incorporating Christianity into syncretic modes of belief and expression.'7

Finally, the last part of my dissertation draws on the ways in which the missionary work
done in the Great Lakes, expanded westward to incorporate areas in Minnesota and the Great
Plains. What becomes apparent in much of this work is the limitation of missionization as an
instrument of direct acculturation. Much of the recent work focuses on how tribal communities
creatively redefined Christianity. Martin Zander in “Straight Tongue’s Heathen Words: Bishop
Whipple and the Episcopal Mission to the Chippewas” demonstrates the ways in which

missionary work was limited and suggests how places like White Earth were able to creatively

 

17 Susan E. Gray, I Will Fear No Evil: Oiibway-Missionarv Encounters Along the Berens River. 1875-1940
(Calgary: University of Calgary Press, 2006), xvii.

 

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redefine Chrisitinity to maintain their own identity. Also, in Singing for a Spirit, the irreplaceable
Vine Deloria, Jr. examined the emergence of an Episcopal priesthood amongst the Yankton-Sioux
and offers a fascinating glimpse into Lakota spirituality and traditional ceremony. In the
Minnesota area Rebecca Kugel does thorough research in exploring how the Anglican Church
relied on Native missionaries to spread Christianity in To Be the Main Lgaders of Our Peqrile.’8

Such works demonstrate the innovation taking place in Native American communities
under the influence of tribal leaders. Native Americans began borrowing different viewpoints
which they learned from missionaries or from their white neighbors. Once they acquired these
views, tribal leaders adopted them to traditional religious frameworks in order to help the Ojibwe
understand why their communities were experiencing such misfortune. Yet this adoption process
occurred within a uniquely tribal context. In times of combat, disease, and famine religious
leaders would ofien fast and pray for spiritual solutions and favor. The Ojibwe took elements of
Christian theology and began applying it to indigenous worldview. When Ojibwe Christian
ministers emerged, many Ojibwe communities had already been in the process of adapting to
various extents, information and misinformation, as they had acquired it through missionaries or
Christianized relatives.

Although the Ojibwe acquired notions of evangelic theology, mass conversions and
coherent doctrines did not evolve in Ojibwe communities until the emergence of a Native clergy
who were able to dispel misnomers about Christianity and address tribal religious practices which
were not congruent with Christian theology. These Christian Ojibwe ministers were also able to

interpret tribal practices which some white church leaders considered against the grain of

 

18 Martin Zander, ”Straight Tongue's Heathen Words: Bishop Whipple and Episcopal Mission to the
Chippewas," In Churchmen a_nd the Western Indians. 1820-1920, ed. C. Milner and F. O'Neil (Norman:
University of Oklahoma Press), 177-214; Vine Deloria, Jr., Singing for A Spirit : A Portrait of the Dakota
Sign; (Santa Fe, N.M.: Clear Light Publishers, 1999); Rebecca Kugel, To be the Main Leaders of Our Peom
: A History of Minnesota Oflbwe Politics, 1825-1898 (East Lansing, Mich.: Michigan State University Press,
1998)

 

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redefine Chrisitinity to maintain their own identity. Also, in Singing for a Spirit, the irreplaceable
Vine Deloria, Jr. examined the emergence of an Episcopal priesthood amongst the Yankton-Sioux
and offers a fascinating glimpse into Lakota spirituality and traditional ceremony. In the
Minnesota area Rebecca Kugel does thorough research in exploring how the Anglican Church
relied on Native missionaries to spread Christianity in To Be the Main Leaders of Our People.18

Such works demonstrate the innovation taking place in Native American communities
under the influence of tribal leaders. Native Americans began borrowing different viewpoints
which they learned from missionaries or from their white neighbors. Once they acquired these
views, tribal leaders adopted them to traditional religious frameworks in order to help the Ojibwe
understand why their communities were experiencing such misfortune. Yet this adoption process
occurred within a uniquely tribal context. In times of combat, disease, and famine religious
leaders would often fast and pray for spiritual solutions and favor. The Ojibwe took elements of
Christian theology and began applying it to indigenous worldview. When Ojibwe Christian
ministers emerged, many Ojibwe communities had already been in the process of adapting to
various extents, information and misinformation, as they had acquired it through missionaries or
Christianized relatives.

Although the Ojibwe acquired notions of evangelic theology, mass conversions and
coherent doctrines did not evolve in Ojibwe communities until the emergence of a Native clergy
who were able to dispel misnomers about Christianity and address tribal religious practices which
were not congruent with Christian theology. These Christian Ojibwe ministers were also able to

interpret tribal practices which some white church leaders considered against the grain of

 

18 Martin Zander, ”Straight Tongue’s Heathen Words: Bishop Whipple and Episcopal Mission to the
Chippewas,” In Churchmen and the Western IndiansL1820-1920, ed. C. Milner and F. O’Neil (Norman:
University of Oklahoma Press), 177-214; Vine Deloria, Jr., Singing for A Spirit : A Portrait of the Da_k_o;a
EMS (Santa Fe, N.M.: Clear Light Publishers, 1999); Rebecca Kugel, To be the Main Leaders of Our People
: A History of Minnesota Oji_bwe Politics, 1825-1898 (East Lansing, Mich.: Michigan State University Press,
1998).

 

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accepted Christian expression or even pagan in nature. The above texts illustrate how Christian
ministers and priests replaced the roles of traditional religious leaders in tribal communities.
They also demonstrate how Ojibwe ministers drew upon a pattern of religious adaptation to help
them spread the message of salvation in tribal communities. Finally, these works depict tribal
leaders spreading the message of Christianity and Native people practicing their faith with

minimal intrusion from white ministers.

Part Two: Christian Conversion

Ojibwe reactions to Christianity were many and varied. My research will demonstrate
that along the northern rim of Great Lakes lands, and especially along the Lake Superior and
Ontario shorelines, Indian people converted the most enthusiastically to Methodism. Its
missionaries would prove the most effective and while negative and favorable responses to
Christianity were also influenced by personal convictions, it was the historical context in which
these missionary encounters tOOk place and the sympathetic parallels to traditional religious
practices that proved the most decisive factors in the conversion process. Yet, despite the success
of Methodist preaching, conversion was far from uniform. Some Native people experienced
heartfelt conversions which led to an abandonment of traditional religious views. Others saw
membership in the church or adherence to Christianity as the best way to procure support from
the government and ensure their collective survival in a rapidly changing society. Many who
adhered to traditional religious frameworks and cultural identity equated Christianity as a means
employed by the government to strip them of their Indian identity and transform them into white
people. Native people also experienced all three responses; they periodically rejected, embraced,

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or nominally adhered to Christianity throughout their lives. This research does not relegate
Native people into fixed boundaries and patterns of behavior by attributing their motivations for
conversions to strictly economic or political means. There were tangible benefits to becoming
Christian which embraced both a collective spirituality and individual Ojibwe identity that cannot
be overlooked.

The traditional Anishinabeg worldview was governed by a spiritual world where spirits
inhabited all of creation. By following traditional religious practices individuals could influence
how these spirits responded through such intercessionary devices as intense acts of praying,
singing, and fasting. Each person had the ability to directly invoke experiences with the
supernatural and thus could influence the outcome. This spiritual orientation must be considered
when we examine nineteenth-century reactions to Protestant Christianity. Susan Elaine Gray
asserts that, “The careful tracing of individual native perspectives and responses over generations
can help place indigenous perspectives at center stage among the other voices that have too long
dominated these conversations?” By examining Native-to-Native interactions in regard to
Christianity we gain insight into the way in which Indian people thought, conveyed, processed,
and interpreted western concepts in purely indigenous frameworks.

It is the journals and writings of Native missionaries that reflect the more obvious
motivations for becoming Christian and elucidates a wide array of responses that are uniquely
indigenous. These types of responses are not generally described in most white missionary
accounts. The majority of interactions among Native missionaries and the Ojibwe people occured
at Native encampments, at sugar camps, annuity payment sites, and even, in Ojibwe homes. It
was in these settings that spiritual ideas and convictions were exchanged and processed. Ojibwe
missionaries also shared their message of faith at tribal assemblies where the community

respectfully listed and articulated their reasons of why the Indian missionary’s message should be

 

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either accepted or repudiated. Whether the Ojibwe were Catholic, Protestant, or of a traditional
orientation, they embraced one another as Anishinabeg first, and then listened to the respective
views that each brought to the interaction.

By examining the records left by Native missionaries who visited the Ojibwe in their
homes, encampments, and tribal councils we give agency to both parties as participants who
actively shaped the destinies of their communities. This approach amplifies the tribal voice
which often played a secondary role in the reports of white missionaries. Accounts left by
Native ministers and missionaries provide insight into the tremendous array of problems which
besieged nineteenth-century Ojibwe communities. Fighting to stay in tribal homelands; resisting
relocation; adapting to reservation life; surviving in a new market economy; transitioning to
sedentary agriculture; making sense of a capitalist and property oriented society; keeping
government officials accountable; resisting the dubious intentions of whiskey peddlers,
entrepreneurs, and land speculators looking to exploit tribes, were all part of the terrain that
Native clergy and missionaries had to negotiate while teaching and ministering in tribal
communities.

Christianity was used as a means for individual spiritual fulfillment and as a restorative
tool for community revitalization. A close investigation of the early texts written by nineteenth-
century white missionaries about the lives and work of Indian missionaries demonstrates how
missions to Indian communities were bolstered by the addition of Indian missionaries. Primary
sources include journals and logs lefi by Ojibwe missionaries. Peter Jones’ missionary log or
diary spans thirty-three years and describes several important historical processes including his
own conversion experience, establishing and maintaining Indian missions throughout Southern
Ontario, cultural bias from whites, and religious and cultural arguments employed by Ojibwe
resistant to Christianity. A similar journal written by another Mississauga missionary Peter
Jacobs (a convert of Jones) chronicles his experience as a missionary to the Ojibwe of Manitoba,

21

 

 

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Canada. Jacobs identifies cultural obstacles which he and hundreds of other Ojibwe faced when
presented with the gospel of Christ. He mentions how he was under the false impression that God
did not hear his prayers because they were not spoken in English, and several other notions of
racial inferiority which he acquired from the white community and subsequently internalized.

Also letters such as those exchanged between white and Ojibwe missionaries reveals the
obstacles and difficulties which non-Native missionaries faced when attempting to establish
missions in the Great Lakes. In these letters missionaries frequently cited language and cultural
barriers along with a general unfamiliarity with Ojibwe worldview as hampering their efforts.
Missionaries also identified a lack of trust demonstrated toward them on behalf of the Ojibwe
which impeded their ability to persuade them to adopt evangelical Christianity. These letters are
intriguing because they represent first- hand accounts of the techniques, methodologies, and
approaches employed by both Indian and white missionaries. Such writings demonstrate just how
critical the presence of a Native clergy was to Ojibwe communities who were reluctant to
embrace white missionaries or where the cultural distances separating the two groups proved to
be too large of an obstacle for effective evangelization.

Examining early missionary writing brings to the surface some of the latent prejudice
which affected relationships and handicapped the work of white missionaries among Indian
people. These writings provide insight into the cultural and political differences between the
Anishinabeg and white missionaries which ofien led to the abandonment of missionary outposts.
Finally, examining the letters, journals and published texts of Native missionaries who lived
among and served Ojibwe communities reveals how Indian clergy and missionaries reacted to the
dilemmas faced by their respective peoples. These writings also show Christian Indian leaders in
the role of cultural intermediaries and international diplomats that represented their tribe’s
interests at home and abroad. Such documents demonstrate the crucial role that Native leaders

played in securing land and political rights on behalf of their community.

22

 

(L.

Conversion narratives are also closely scrutinized in this research. A close examination of
conversion narratives reveals the powerful and heartfelt change that many Native converts
experienced and describes in astonishing detail the profound emotional experiences of these
converts, offering the scholar insight into the psychological and spiritual make up of nineteenth-
century Ojibwe believers. The depiction of visions, dreams, fastings, prayers, and the intensely
personal nature of nineteenth-century evangelical Christianity illustrates the parallels between
religious frameworks of traditional Ojibwe ideology and Christian practice. Equally insightful
are the journal accounts of such Indian missionaries as Peter Jones, George Copway, Peter
Marksman, Peter Jacobs, and John Johnson. These journals and early publications provide
excellent primary material for analyzing missionary trips, tent meetings, personal revelations,
episodic confrontations, evangelistic efforts, and offer an in-depth look into the suffering and
impoverishment of many Ojibwe communities caught between traditional subsistence living and

dependency on white material culture.

These sources demonstrate the interconnectedness of Great Lakes Indian communities
and are suggestive of a network of Ojibwe missionaries that worked within a circuit of common
mission sites. Such records also reveal how Indian missionaries frequently worked independent
of ecclesiastical authority or denominational affiliation; they labored in remote areas of the Great
Lakes where white missionaries seldom traveled. Journal accounts describe Ojibwe missionaries
preaching in Algonquin to mostly Indian congregations who gathered in traditionally constructed
lodges. What becomes evident in this research is the cultural compatability of Ojibwe
missionaries and the Christian gospel.

Certain Ojibwe preachers such as George Copway and Peter Jones attained international .
prominence, Jones as a governmental diplomat and minister, and Copway as a circuit lecturer. A
study of their published works, journals, and writings reveals the composite issues that concerned

23

511*?

h
h I “A.
.

nineteenth-century Ojibwe. These writers formed an Indian intelligencia that was politically
active and sought to make their voices heard in white society. Their correspondence to
missionary societies and “church fathers” also suggests the racism and the less than favorable
treatment that Indian preachers experienced while working with non-Native missionary boards
and sponsors. By identifying these types of issues I hope to provide an explanation for the
positive reception that many of these leaders from their tribal communities.

Of all the missionary societies which backed Christian Indian missions, no other religious
group had a greater impact than the Methodists. Peter Jones relied on Methodist teachings to
literally transform his own as well as other Ojibwe communities in Southern Ontario into
sedentary Christian settlements. It is perhaps an ironic twist of missionary fate that John Wesley
came to Georgia in the mid 1730s as a missionary to Georgia’s Native peoples, the Cherokee and
the Creek. While in Georgia, Wesley developed several “Methodist” practices which would
eventually form some of the central beliefs and structures of Methodism. The first Methodist
hymn book was published in Georgia in 1737 and Methodist expressions such as spontaneous
prayer and preaching, along with the utilization of lay believers for ministry, occurred first in
Georgia. According to Frank Baker, author of From Wesley to Ashbury: Studies iniarly
American Methodism. John Wesley, while in Georgia, formed separate societies, in addition to
church worship, that centered on prayer, singing, and fellowship.20 While Wesley had little
impact on local Native communities, it is evident that many of these religious practices that were
to form the backbone of Methodism in London, had their beginnings on the American frontier.
Because such worshipful expressions already existed in Native culture, Methodist missionaries

became some of the most influential missionaries to Native peoples in the Great Lakes.

 

2° Frank Bakker, From Wesley to Ashbury: Studies in Early American Methodism (Durham: Duke
University Press, 1976), 10.

24

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Prospective Ojibwe converts would have found many aspects of frontier Methodism
appealing. Methodist services were informal affairs which centered on hymn singing and the
preached word. Classes were conducted and “love feasts” or testimony services allowed
participants to share spiritual experiences and discuss personal revelations from their spiritual
lives with other believers. The egalitarianism of Methodism would have been immensely
attractive to the Ojibwe. Outdoor camp meetings which welcomed all races and ethnicities were
often the scene of expressive worship. Believers routinely shouted praise, danced, ran, and even
fell to the ground in states of suspended spiritual bliss.

These activities were familiar to those Ojibwe that attended the tent revival meetings.
Prospective Ojibwe converts saw parallel manifestations of spirituality in their own ceremonial
activities. Laymen could become Methodist exhorters through faithfulness, spiritual growth, and
facility with Protestant theology. Educational requirements for preachers were minimal.
Typically a sound conversion experience, a pattern of good works, a gift to preach, understanding
of the Bible, and familiarity with the sermons of John Wesley were all that was needed to obtain a
license to preach. There were no seminary degrees, fluency in foreign languages, or lengthy
ordination process to become a leader in the Methodist Church, as often existed in other
denominations. These informal criteria encouraged Native people to assume leadership positions
in the Methodist Church. Methodism became the religion of the American frontier because of its
informality, egalitarianism, and leadership opportunities and because of its minimal education
requirements. The same traits made it equally appealing to Native people. There were three main
Methodist bodies which raised firnds for and supervised the work of missionaries in the Great
Lakes. The Illinois and Detroit Conference oversaw missionary work in the American Great
Lakes and the Canadian Conference of Methodists managed the Methodist missions of Upper

Canada or Southern Ontario.

25

 

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Both Native and non-Native Methodist missionaries experienced mistreatment at the
hands of Canadian provincial officials, most of whom, were members of the Church of England
and harbored suspicious feelings toward Methodism. Although Canadian Conference of
Methodists separated from its American counterpart in 1794, authorities in Canada looked at the
activities of the Indian and white Methodists in Upper Canada with mistrust. To these officials,
Methodism came from the United States and its strains of republicanism stood in contrast to the
hierarchical nature of the Church of England.

While John Wesley, the father of modern Methodism, initially endeavored to bring
reform to the Church of England or the Anglican Church it was the highly expressive nature of
Methodist meetings that became an affront to the ceremonial and solemn religious assemblies of
the British Empire. Anglican clergymen who opposed Wesley forced him out of the Church of
England and Wesley resorted to preaching in barns, houses, fields, and in the country side. As a
result of its populist originations, Methodist services evolved into informal affairs that appealed
to the poor and working classes. The spontaneous and expressive nature of church worship
combined with a strict adherence to good works practiced outside of the church would have

appealed to Ojibwe society.

In multiple ways, this “spontaneous and expressive” nature of Methodism bore similarity
to Ojibwe religious practices. For the Ojibwe, religious expression revolved around a universal
relationship with all of creation. The Creator, “Kitchi Manitou,” was a distant spirit who did not
get personally involved with the affairs of man. Instead, spirits which animated the natural world
were to be appeased, communed with, and sought afler for protection and healing. During pre-
adolescence, Ojibwe youths were encouraged to fast and pray in order to make contact with the
spirit world in order to receive a vision which would reveal their gifts and chart their destinies.

The information revealed during such fasts was then relied on for the duration of the individual’s

26

life. Any time he/she or the community was in jeopardy, one’s “medicine” could be utilized or

relied on to bring help or understanding.

Though ceremonial behavior conformed to a communal set of standards, the prayers,
visions, or dreams of participants were highly individualized and fit within the life circumstances
of the individual. If one was seeking purification, they would pray during a sweatlodge
ceremony for themselves while in the midst of other supplicants. Sin, in the biblical sense, was
not something to be cleansed of or avoided. Maintaining a balance with the natural world and
seeking a relationship with the spirits which animated the natural universe governed Ojibwe
worldview. In Ojibwe culture, the secular and the spiritual blurred and held no distinction as in
European culture. Though there were individuals who had reputations for medical knowledge
and spiritual power, all Ojibwe were expected to maintain balance with the supernatural world
and live in accordance with their visions revealed to them during fasts. Regardless of one’s
respective calling, Ojibwe worldview dictated strict obedience to instructions from the spirit
world when revealed in visions or dreams. Spirit helpers were numerous and could be absorbed

into a continuously evolving framework of human-spirit relationships.21

 

21 For further descriptions of Ojibwe and other eastern woodland peoples’ spirituality see Elisabeth
Tooker ed., Native American Spirituality of the Eastern Woodlands: Sacred Myths. Dreams, Visions
Speeches, Healing, Formulas, Rituals and Ceremonies (New York: Paulist Press, 1979); John Grim, 111a
Shaman: Patterns of Siberian OLibway Heaflg (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1983); Michael
Angel, Preservipgthe Sacred: Historical Perspectives on the Oiibwa Midewiwin (Winnipeg: University of
Manitoba Press, 2002);Christopher Vecsey, 1r_aditional Oiibwa Religion and Its Historicflhangg
(Philadelphia: American Philosophy Society, 1983); Christopher Vescey, Belief and Worship in Na_tiv_e
North America (New York: Syracuse University Press, 1981); Ruth Landes, Oiibwa Religion and
Midewiwin (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1968); Basil Johnston, Honour the Earth Mother
(Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2004); Basil Johnston,The Manitous: The Spiritual World of the
Oiibway (New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 1995); Basil Johnston, Oiibway Ceremonies (Lincoln:
University of Nebraska Press, 1982); M. Inez Hilger, Chippewa Child Life and Its CulturarlBackground (St.
Paul: Minnesota Historical Society Press [1951], 1992); Frances Densmore, Chippewa Customs (St. Paul:
Minnesota Historical Society Press, [1929] 1979).

27

 

:4

The notion of a heavenly afterlife where believers would spend eternity with God as
outlined in the Christian tradition did not exist in Ojibwe culture in the same way as it did in
Anglo culture. For the Native people of the Great Lakes there existed a vague notion of an
afterlife. Most elders told of a place in the west where all Indians would go after their death; in
this place they could hunt, fish, dance and replicate much of the same behavior of their former
life. There were no criteria for being admitted into this “hunting ground” and how one came to
live in such a state was not known. Rather than prepare for an afterlife, the Ojibwe emphasized
spiritual fulfillment in daily life. Procuring favor from good spirits and appeasing evil spirits to
ensure health, abundant game, successful harvests, victory in war, and overall well being formed
Ojibwe “theology” and worldview. Sacrifices of tobacco, cloth, or any other item of value was
made to certain spirits to gain their favor. Ceremonies were conducted to restore balance to one’s
life and make contact with the spirit world to gain insight about future events and causes of
natural disasters and personal crisis. Witchcraft or “bad medicine” was practiced and many
diseases and individual and collective misfortunes were attributed to the action of witches.
However, the same belief in witches occurred in European culture and in the American colonies;
although witches were not usually punished or killed in Ojibwe society.

If one was suspected that they had been “bewitched” or had bad medicine worked on
them, they either retaliated by working their own medicine or if unable, visited someone who was
known for holding spiritual power in order to stop the bewitching. Maintaining balance with the
natural universe, appeasing and procuring favor from spirits, obtaining spiritual power, and
avoiding being bewitched comprised the “theology” of Ojibwe spirituality and to a great extent
molded Ojibwe worldview. An individual Ojibwe continually looked for spiritual experiences or
sought to gain different types of medicine to give them greater success in natural endeavors. If
one’s medicine was not strong enough to accomplish a certain task, than a higher and more

powerful spirit which ensured success, was sought.

28

’1}-
lap.

3.1

The highly fluid nature of Ojibwe spirituality partially accounted for the process through
which many Anishinabeg adapted and incorporated Christ and Christian precepts into preexisting
religious frameworks, without changing the nature of Indigenous spirituality. Early Jesuits were
sometimes mystified at how quickly Christ became a central figure in indigenous worship.

Jesuits noticed with alarm, that although many Ojibwe inducted Christ into their pantheon of
religious worship, their acknowledgement or obedience to other spirits continued. In other words,
many Ojibwe simply absorbed Christ and Mary and other saints within Catholicism into their
persisting framework of spirit helpers. Many Jesuit missionaries expected to see an abandonment
of previous beliefs systems, yet for Indigenous believers, such incorporation of spirit helpers fit
perfectly within their religious worldview. Eventually, manyJesuits realized what happened and
they pushed for a conversion of their proselytes that included an abandonment of non-Christian

based spirit worship.

Catholic approaches toward conversion were much more formulaic. Unlike many
Protestant missionaries Jesuits were wise enough not to challenge the societal constructs of
Ojibwe culture and were content with altering Anishinabe spirituality. Through diplomacy,
cultural sensitivity, and tolerance the Jesuits soon achieved a degree of credibility which
nineteenth century evangelical missionaries rarely attained. Catholic priests created ingenious
methods of conveying Christian theology and doctrine to tribal peoples. They carved images of
the crucifixion on pieces of wood which could be pieced together and placed in a frame. The use
of bells, incense, chanting, and statues of patron saints paralleled tribal ceremonies and resonated
with Native people. The Jesuits also studied Ojibwe culture to capitalize on similarities between
Catholicism and traditional Ojibwe religious practice. Eventually, they would win several
Ojibwe to the Catholic faith due to the parallels that many Anishinabeg saw between Catholic

ritual and their own indigenous ceremonial expressions.

29

The Jesuits lefi a lengthy record of their interactions with the Anishinabeg during the
seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The first interaction between the French and the Ojibwe
probably occurred during the early seventeenth century. Typically Jesuit missionaries followed
the exploration of French voyageurs and trappers to Indian villages where they established
Catholic missions. The French trader, Etienne Brule, an employee of Samuel de Champlain,
arrived in Sault Ste. Marie as early as 1622. Jesuits visited the area in the 16403 and a Catholic
mission was established at Sault Ste. Marie permanently in 1668. As the French and the Ojibwe
became reliable trading (and eventually marriage) partners, their exposure to Jesuit Catholicism
increased. At first the Anishinabeg viewed Jesuits or “Blackrobes” with suspicion due to their
celibacy and religious ways. However as the Jesuits remained in Ojibwe communities their

exoticism wore off and their message was received more readily by Ojibwe inhabitants.

As the relationship between the two groups matured, the influence of Jesuits missionaries
increased. During the seventeenth century Catholic missions were established in several areas
throughout Michigan including Sault Ste. Marie in 1668, on Mackinac Island in 1670, and St.
Ignace in 1671. A mission was also established at L’abre Croche, near Little Traverse Bay, in
northwest Lower Michigan in the eighteenth century. Jesuit missionaries such as Father
DuJaunay, Father Jacques Marquette, Father Claude Deblon, Father Isaac Jogues, and Father
Claude Allouez promoted Catholicism and established Catholic missions throughout the Great
Lakes. They were often charged with the task of mapping lakes, shore lines, and water routes for
the French crown. In many instances they were the first government officials to visit tribal
communities and map out new sections of North America. The Jesuits normally followed the
French fur traders and established missions where Native people frequently trafficked. Many
Ojibwe visited these missions while trading pelts with local French traders. Less frequently,
Catholic priests would visit Native settlements and proselytize there. The Jesuit missionary

presence declined in the eighteenth century as their order was dissolved. Though some Catholic
30

missions remained extant and were led by lay Catholic Indians. Most Catholic efforts of
conversion among Native people in the Great Lakes almost disappeared entirely until the mid-

nineteenth century.

In the nineteenth century, the “snow shoe” priest, Bishop Frederick Baraga, became well
known for travelling long distances on snowshoe to win converts in Anishinabe villages in
northern Michigan. Baraga revived many defunct missionary stations at places such as L’Anse,
L’Abre Croche or “Wawgawnawkezee” and Beaver Island.22 Baraga was a student of the Ojibwe
language and he produced a dictionary entitled A Dictionary of the Otchimve Language for other
Catholic missionaries and the general public in the 18503.23 Though many Anishinabeg had gone
without seeing a Catholic priest for a number of years, many remembered attending a Catholic
service or praying with a Catholic priest at least once in their life time. Many Native Catholics
went several years without the benefit of priestly visits and, as a result, Indigenous ceremonies
were practiced alongside Catholic rituals and a “folk” Catholicism developed throughout many
Ojibwe communities in the Great Lakes. By the time Protestant missionaries arrived in the
western Great Lakes in the 18203, the Ojibwe were familiar with Christianity, albeit Catholic

Christianity.

Ernst Cloeter, a Lutheran missionary who labored in northern Minnesota in the 18505
commented on Ojibwe familiarity with Christianity and observed, “In reference to Christianity,

the local Indians can in no way be called virgin soil. . .but for centuries they have been acquainted

 

22 James M. McClurken, Gah-Baeh-Jhagwah-Buk: The Way It Happened: A Visual Culture of the History of
the Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa (E. Lansing: Michigan State University Museum), 19.

23 Frederick Baraga, A Dictionary of the Otchipwe Language (Cincinnati: Hermann, 1853). For additional
biographical information on Baraga and his interaction with the Chippewa see Maksimilijan Jezernik’s
Frederick Baraga: A portrzfi of the first Bishop of Marquette based on the archives of the Congregatio de
Propaganda Fide (New York and Washington, 1967); Joseph Gregorich’s Bishop Baraga Collection (New
York, 1954).

31

 

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with Christian ideas, and have, in part, woven them into the fabric of their heathen concepts.”24

The Jesuits’ emphasis on religious practices with less focus on cultural assimilation encouraged
the persistence of Catholic Indians. Baraga encountered a nominal adherence to Catholicism on

behalf of some Anishinabeg who blended aspects of Catholicism with Ojibwe religious practice.

Protestant missionaries, on the other hand, viewed the conversion to Christianity as part
of a civilization process that emphasized cultural assimilation.25 Consequently, many Protestant
missionaries had difficulty finding converts among the Ojibwe. Earlier Jesuit missionaries,
though sometimes harsh in their assessment of Ojibwe religion, were much more culturally
tolerant of Indigenous behaviors. Protestant missionaries looked at Catholicism in much the same
way as they looked upon Ojibwe religion, as paganism. When they heard of the large number of
Ojibwe who were being baptized by Catholic priests, Protestant missionaries accused the priests
of admitting Ojibwe into their Catholic Church who had not truly been converted. For
evangelicals, Catholicism merely replaced a set of spirits and tribal ceremonial rituals with their
own system of saints and ritualistic masses. However, Catholic missionaries were astute cultural

brokers.

In the seventeenth century many Jesuits offered goods and food to tribal communities in
exchange for geographic and religious information. These diplomatic practices would be
continued during the mid nineteenth century by Catholic priests such as Baraga. Evangelical
missionaries were offended at Indian requests for food and supplies from the missionaries and

viewed such accommodations as cheapening the message of the gospel. For Protestant

 

2‘ Leland Stevens, ”Mission to the Chippewa, 1857-1868,” Concordia Historical Institute Quarterly vol. 58,
no. 3 (1985), 124.

25 See Robert Berkhofer, Salvation and the Savage: An Analysis of Protestant Missions and American
Ipdian Reaponses, 1787-1862 (Kentucky: University of Kentucky Press, 1965); C. L .Higham. Noble.
Wretched. and Redeemable: Protestant Missionaries to the Indizms in Canada and the United Stale;
1820-1900 (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 2000).

 

32

missionaries, such concessions as feeding a community or giving their personal belongings away
violated their role as spiritual mentors. They, unlike the Jesuits, did not realize that such behavior

endeared them to tribal communities and validated their claims of leadership.

Initially the Ojibwe did not trust white Protestant missionaries, and cultural
misunderstandings and misinterpretations frustrated both parties. Many Native people saw
evangelical missionaries as one component of an all-encompassing colonialism that demanded
dramatic lifestyles changes, and whose arrival signified the coming of traders who sold alcohol,
and American negotiators who dispossessed them of their lands. The scene was ripe for the
emergence of a new leadership; leaders whose religious orientation emphasized powerful spiritual
solutions within an operable Indigenous framework. To see the Anishinabeg through these times
required a culturally ambidextrous leadership which would inspire the community and skillfully
negotiate with a powerful governmental structure that was systematically intent on disposing

them of their land.

Part Three: Geographic Location

The unique geography of the Great Lakes linked the middle section of the country to the
east coast and the Great Lakes served as the highway along which people moved from the East to
the West. Great Lakes travel was crucial in establishing the context for religious conversion
among the Anishnabeg. This research often refers to Lake Superior, northern Lake Huron and
Lake Michigan and the surrounding land base in northern Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota
as the western Great Lakes. The white missionaries who came to the Lake Superior country in
the 1820s came from western New York State, which bordered the shores of Lake Ontario.

33

 

II":

Ojibwe missionaries of the 1830s came from Mississauga-Ojibwe communities, from Indian
lands and reserves along Lake Ontario and Lake Erie. This missionary activity had an “east-to-

west” flow to it as they travelled to the Lake Superior country to evangelize their tribal relatives.

 

Figure 1: Western Great Lakes. (Widder, Battle for the Soul, 1999).

The flow of missionary activity in the nineteenth century'is remarkably similar to the oral
history of the Ojibwe, which describes a migration from the eastern seaboard of North America to
the Great Lakes area of Lakes Ontario and Superior. Over a period that lasted several

generations, the Ojibwe migrated west from the St. Lawrence River basin and settled at various

34

 

   

 

   

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4
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- women;
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- 1.

Figure 2: Ojibwe mlgratlon from the east after 900 AD. (Meyer, White Earth Tragedy, 1999)

35

,ruh

Lit".

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.15.

places in Ontario, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota. According to the Ojibwe account of
their migration, a small sea shell called the miigis appeared on the surface of the “Great Salt
Water in the east” and reappeared at certain locations along the way to signify the direction in
which the people were to travel. During the migration, the Ojibwe settled at various places such
as Montreal, Sault Ste. Marie, Mackinaw Island, and La Point. The Madeline Islands in northern
Wisconsin was the last place where the sacred miigis shell appeared and from there, the Ojibwe
tribe “spread it branches in every direction.”26 Some scholars assert that the migration occurred
sometime after AD. 900 which lends credence to Ojibwe oral accounts of their movement from
the east.27 By the time the Jesuits encountered the Ojibwe in the early-to-mid seventeenth
century, they were firlly settled in the Great Lakes. Today Ojibwe communities are located in
Ontario, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, North Dakota, Manitoba, and as far west as the Rocky
Mountains. The nineteenth century Mississauga-Ojibwe author George Copway conjectured that
in the 18403 there were about 5,000 Ojibwe in Canada and 25,000 in the United States.28

The Ojibwe refer to themselves as Anishinabe or Anishinabeg (the g connoting the plural)

which roughly translated means “original man” or “spontaneous human being.” This designation

 

26 William Warren, History of the Oiibvgy People (St. Paul: Minnesota Historical Society Press, 1984
[1885]). 80.

27 George L. Cornell, James M. McClurken, and James A. Clifton, People Of The Three Fires: The Ottawa,
Potawatomi, and Oiibway of Michigfl (Grand Rapids: Grand Rapids Inter-Tribal Council, 1986), 76. For an
oral account of the Ojibwe migration see Edward Benton-Banai, The Mishomis Book: The Voice of the
Oiibway (St. Paul: Red School House, 1988); For additional accounts of the Ojibwe migration see Andrew
Blackbird, History of the Ottawa and Cflpaewa Indians of Michigg. (Ypsilanti: Ypsilanti Job Printing
House, 1887); Theresa Smith, The I_sl_and of the Anishinabeg: Thunderers and Water Monsters in the
Traditional Oiibwe Life-World (Idaho: University of Idaho Press, 1995); Gahbaehihagwahbuk, The Way It
flappened: A Visual Cultural History of the Little Traverse Bay Band of Odawa (East Lansing, Michigan:
Michigan State University Press, 1991).

 

28 George Copway, Recollections Of A Forest Life of the Life And Travels of KAH-GE-GA-GAH-BOWH or
George Copway. Chief Of The Oiibway Nation (London: C. Gilpin, 1851), 166.

36

applies to most Algonquin speaking people in the Great Lakes including the Cree, Potawatomi,

Ottawa or Odawa.

    
 

'1.

Satin;

 
 

 

.~._~...

WNWW «L..._...s..'_. ..
I

Figure 3: Geographic range of the Anishinabeg at the beginning of the nineteenth century. (Donald
Smith, Sacred Feathers, 1987).

The name Ojibwe derives from the Algonquin word ojib which means “puckered up,” indicating
the style of moccasin worn by the Ojibwe; a moccasin which was “puckered up” at the seam.29
The Ojibwe have also been called the Ojibwa, Ojibway, Ojebway, Odjibwa, Ochipwe,
Chippewa, and Chippeway. There are some assertions that the common American designation of
Chippewa and Chippeway are actually French corruptions of the tribal name Ojibwe.3o This
dissertation alternates between Ojibwe and the more tribally appropriate, Anishinabeg, when

discussing the Ojibwe. The “Anishinabeg” designation, the umbrella term for the Ojibwe,

 

29 Theresa Smith, The Island of the ‘ ' L' L Thunderes and Water ‘ ‘ ‘ in the Traditional
Oiibwe Life-World (Moscow: University of Idaho Press, 1995), 3. See also Gerald Vizenor, The People
Named the Chippewa: Narrative Histories (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1984).

3° George L. Cornell, James M. McClurken, and James A. Clifton, People Of The Three Fires: The Ottawa,
Potawatomi, and Oiibway of Michigan (Grand Rapids: Grand Rapids Inter-Tribal Council, 1986), 88.

37

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Potawatomi, and Odawa will be employed when discussing issues which impacted all three
groups, not just the Ojibwe. The Mississauga or the Mississauga -— Ojibwe are a subgroup of the
Ojibwe which traditionally resided in Southern Ontario. According to Anishinabe oral history,
the Mississauga settled in one of the first resting places during the tribe’s western migration from
the St. Lawrence sea way. Residing in southern and eastern Ontario they were and still are the
most eastern band of Ojibwe.

Two regions receive the most attention in this research: Southern Ontario or (Upper
Canada as it was called until 1841) and Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, located on the southern
shore of Lake Superior. Most of the Ojibwe missionaries who travelled to the Lake Superior
country and beyond in the 18305, were converted in Southern Ontario during the 18205. It was
the conversion of Peter Jones that had a major impact on the adoption of Christianity by Ojibwe
communities in Southern Ontario during the 18205. Converted in 1823, Jones had persuaded
most of the inhabitants of his own community at Credit River, 50 miles south of Toronto, to
convert to Methodism and take up sedentary agriculture by 1826. He also was instrumental in
establishing the Grape Island Indian Mission located in the Bay of Quinte in 1827. Jones had
made such an impact on the religious beliefs and adoption of sedentary farming in the Ojibwe
communities of Southern Ontario, that the Canadian governmental modeled their new “reserve”
system after his success in the 18305. By the 1840 Jones was instrumental in establishing or
ministering at over 12 different Ojibwe communities in Southern Ontario. Ojibwe missionaries,
several of them converted by Peter Jones, left Southern Ontario for Lake Superior in the 18305 to
duplicate their success of converting other Native people to Christianity by acting as interpreters,

missionaries, teachers, and preachers.3 '

 

31 See Peter Jones, History of the Oiebway Indians with Especial Reference to Their Conversion to
Christianig (London: Houlston and Write, 1867); A complete history of Jones’ missionary work and life are
in his diary, see Peter Jones, Life and Journals of_KahKewaquonaby (Toronto: Wesleyan Printing
Establishment,1860). For an autobiographical account of Peter Jones and the Mississauga-Ojibwe see,

38

Canadian Ojibwe bands relinquished most of their lands following the American
Revolution. As early as 1783 the Mississauga-Ojibwe surrendered their homelands around Lake
Ontario to make room for Loyalist and pro-British Iroquois groups, who were displaced from the
United States after the war. The Canada Act of 1791 divided Canada into two halves, Upper
Canada (present day Southern Ontario) and Lower Canada (present day Quebec); most Ojibwe
inhabited Upper Canada.32 Ojibwe bands residing along the southern coast 0f Lake Erie in
Southern Ontario ceded vast tracks of land during the 17905.33 The reserve period in Canada
began in the 18305 and resembled the assimilation policies of the United States. A partial
motivation for the new govemment’s reserve policy was to check the progress of acculturation
made by Methodists and Ojibwe Methodist leaders, such as Peter Jones. Canadian officials
feared that Jones and Methodism from the United States was instilling anti-monarchial notions
among the Ojibwe of Upper Canada and moved to place the civilization of Indian bands safely
under the parameters of royal authority.34 To facilitate assimilation, the Canadian government

usually included farming implements, teachers, houses, etc. in their treaties with Canadian

Indians.

Canada experimented with their own removal policies by setting aside Manitoulin Island
in northern Lake Huron as a national reserve for Ojibwe bands throughout Ontario in 1862.35

Though the Island was a popular refuge for Ojibwe and Odawa who were fleeing American

 

Donald Smith, _S_acred Feathers: The Reverend Peter Jones (Kahkewaquonaby) and the Mississauga
Indians (Toronto and London: University of Toronto Press, 1987).

32 Carl Waldman, ed. Atlas of the North American India (New York: Checkmark Books, 2000 [1985]),
213.

33 Helen Hornbeck Tanner, ed. Atlas of Great Lakes Indian Histom (Norman: University of Oklahoma
Press, 1987), 155.

3‘ Tanner, Alias of Great Ljaaes Indian History. 162.
35 Tanner, Aflas of Great Lakes Indian History. 160.

39

removal efforts in the 305, relocation to Manitoulin was met with heavy resistance from many
Canadian Ojibwe; as result, only a few hundred Canadian Indians ultimately moved to the island.
In 1850, the Canadian government acquired mineral rich Ojibwe lands, from the north shore of
Lake Huron to the tip of Lake Superior, in two treaties known as the Robinson treaties. From
1854-57, Canadian Ojibwe surrendered valuable land for mining on the Bruce Peninsula in
Ontario. In 1864 Odawa and Ojibwe bands who sought refuge fiom American removal efforts on
Manitoulin Island surrendered the island to the Canadian government with an area on the island

known as Wikwemikong set aside as a reserve.

 

Figure 4: A map of the Indian communities of Upper Canada around 1830. Jones’ Credit River
community was originally located within 20 miles of Toronto. Peter Jones is credited with
establishing the first Methodist Indian mission at Grape Island In 1827, located opposite the
town of Bellevllle, in the upper right portion of the picture. Methodist Indian missions were
also located at Muncey, Saugeen, New Credit, Scugog, Rice Lake, Mud Lake, Rama, and Snake
Island. (Donald Smith, Sacred Feathers, 1987).

40

By the 18705, most Ojibwe bands in Canada were settled on reserves and slowly adopted a

sedentary agricultural lifestyle.36

The Ojibwe of Upper Canada relinquished their homelands in a series of “surrenders”
which took place within a hundred year period between the 17805 and 18805. In The Ojibwa of
Southern Onta_rip Peter Schmalz argues that these surrenders occurred in three different periods of
time. Valuable waterfront lands along the St. Lawrence River, Lake Ontario, the Niagara River,
the Detroit River, Lake St. Clair, and St. Clair River were surrendered to the British between
1781 and 1803. From 1815-1825, the British government purchased several large tracts of lands
to accommodate the arrival of thousands of immigrants in the region. After 1830, Ojibwe groups
agreed to move to reserves on the Bruce Peninsula, Manitoulin Island, and the north Shores of

Lake Huron and Lake Superior.37

Afler the war of 1812, immigrants flooded into Southern Ontario which was the home to
forty one different Indian communities, 25 of which were Ojibwe settlements. The remaining
villages were comprised of Munsee, Delaware, Odawa, and Potawatomi Indians. There were also
2,000 Iroquois (who were loyal to the British during the American Revolution and came to Upper
Canada after the war), living in five different communities along the Grand River near the border
of Upper Canada and New York.38 Thousands of Loyalists migrated to Upper Canada, present-
day southern Ontario, in the decades following the American Revolution. Between 1783 and
1785 approximately 10,000 British soldiers and Loyalists from the United States inhabited Upper

Canada. By 1791 the population of whites in the region had grown to about 20,000 and by the

 

36 Tanner, Atlas of Great Lakes Indian History. 160.

37 Peter S. Schmalz, The Oiibwa of Southern Ontario (Toronto and London: University of Toronto Press,
1991Schmalz, 120.

38 Tanner, A_tlas of Great Lakes Indians, Pgs. 126-127.

41

end of the war of 1812 there were about 70,000 whites who lived in Upper Canada. The influx of
white settlers corresponded with a precipitous drop in the number of Mississauga who resided on
the north shore of Lake Ontario. In 1788, there were approximately 500 Mississauga in Upper
Canada. By 1827 the number of Mississauga who lived along Lake Ontario had declined to
191.39 Diseases such as cholera and small pox contributed substantially to this decline. About
9,000 Indians living in 41 different communities inhabited Southern Ontario during this time. As
a result of the arrival of thousands of immigrants into the area, the influence of Christianity on
Ojibwe communities in Upper Canada was more pronounced compared to their tribal
counterparts in the western Great Lakes. Many of the immigrants who came to Upper Canada
from the British Isles were Methodists. There were so many Methodists living in the frontier town
of Ancaster, located outside of Hamilton, many of the locals referred to it as “Methodist

Mountain?”

The Upper Peninsula of Michigan along Lake Superior’s southern shoreline bore
remarkable similarity to the Ontario area, both regions had Protestant Indian missions established
during the 18205 and 18305. When Protestant missionaries first arrived in the region in the
18205, most of the Ojibwe who resided in both regions of the Great Lakes were more aligned
with the British than the Americans. But in a very dramatically different way, the Lake Superior
region had a longer engagement with outsiders than did their more eastern Ojibwe neighbors.

By the 18305, several missionary societies sent missionaries into the “rapids” of St.
Mary’s, to convert the tribes of the region to Protestantism. Baptists, Presbyterians, Anglicans,
Catholics, and Methodists established Indian missions around the rapids area during the 18305.

Mississauga-Ojibwe missionaries from Southern Ontario visited these mission stations from the

 

39 Schmalz, 105.
4° Donald Smith, Sacred Feathers (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1987), 58.

42

18205-18505. Although the more northern Ojibwe communities were somewhat isolated from
outside contact, the Ojibwe of the rapids lived at the crossroads of the fur trade. As a result of the
high volume of human and cargo traffic that annually moved through the rapid, this region was a
popular location for Protestant missions.

Sault Ste. Marie and its rapids which connected Lake Superior and Lake Huron had
always been a traditional gathering place for the Anishinabeg and increased in importance during
the fur trade of the late eighteenth century. Whereas Southern Ontario had been settled by
farmers, many who were Methodists, the rapids attracted mainly fur traders and military officials
who were deployed at the fort at Sault Ste. Marie. Unlike what was happening in Upper Canada
in the 1820, there were no large tent revivals to visit or Methodist neighbors in which to interact
at the “Sault.” Alcoholism was rampant as the whiskey traders and distillers exploited the local
Indian community by trading alcohol for furs and goods. The land around Lake Superior was
frontier country which was inaccessible for at least four months out of the year as the waters
connecting Lake Superior and Lake Huron lay frozen. The Lake Superior region would not
resemble the sedentary farming communities of Southern Ontario until the 18705. Even then, a
cold northern climate diminished any hopes of living soley from farming. Most Lake Superior
Ojibwe supplemented any crops they planted with fishing, hunting, selling maple syrup, crafts,
and other goods to whites, and acting as river and wilderness guides to tourists.

Through the efforts of Native missionaries, cohesive Christian Indian communities began
to emerge along the south shore of Lake Superior in the 18505. Enough so, that by 1853, over
200 Christian Ojibwe were able to assemble at a week-long outdoor revival meeting at Whitefish
Point, thirty miles west of Sault Ste. Marie. Most of the Ojibwe believers at the meeting had been
influenced or personally converted by other Ojibwe missionaries. By the 18705, there existed

Christian Indian communities at several spots throughout Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. Sault Ste.

43

Marie, White Fish Point, Bay Mills, Munising, L’Anse, and Hannahville all had growing
Christian Ojibwe communities representing various denominations.

Between 1819 and 1855, the Ojibwe ceded the majority of their lands in the western
Great Lakes, in exchange for land reserves and cash annuities. Annuities were paid on an annual
basis in the villages that had the largest populations and took a variety of forms: cash, trade
goods, agricultural supplies, as well as salaries that were paid to teachers, blacksmiths,
missionaries, and farmers, who were to teach Indians to plow their lands.41 As Indian land
holdings became more tenuous, the importance and influence of Indian ministers grew. Ojibwe
missionaries were in frequent contact with white missionaries who were connected to important
leaders such as politicians, Indian agents, and military commanders. They utilized these networks
of communication as best they could to advocate for tribal political and land rights and to make
sure that supplies allocated in treaties reached their intended destination. Yet, despite their best
efforts, the Ojibwe land base was eventually reduced to a fraction of its original size and the

Ojibwe found themselves at the bottom of a capitalist society for which they were ill equipped.

 

41 Cornell, 56.

44

 

 

 

 

Figure 5: Nineteenth-century treaties between Anishinabeg and the government of the United
States. (Cornell, et. 31., People of the Three Fires, 1986)

45

Part Four: Chapter Summary

Chapter One entitled, “Anglo American Missionaries in the Lake Superior Region, 1822-
1833,” chronicles the arrival of the first Protestant missionaries to the upper Great Lakes. Many
of these missionaries were backed by the American Board of Commisioners for Foreign
Missions, an interdenominational missionary society based in the east. During the 18205, the
ABCF M society established several missions throughout the western Great Lakes and withdrew
after a few years, due to limited success. These missionaries faced several obstacles that included
language, cultural misunderstanding, inadequate transportation, and a general failure to
understand the nature and role of spirituality in Ojibwe society. As a result of these barriers, most
of these missionaries had minimal impact on Ojibwe communities. Conversions were infrequent.

Chapter Two, “Mississauga Christianity in Southern Ontario, 1820-1833” focuses on the
Christianization and conversion of the Mississauga of Southern Ontario in the 18205. The
conversion of Mississauga mixed blood Peter Jones is of central importance in this narrative. He
was instrumental in converting many Mississauga-Ojibwe and subsequnetly travelled to the
western Great Lakes to evangelize the Ojibwe of Lake Superior. Ojibwe preachers such as Peter
Jones, John Sunday, George Copway, and John Johnson were cultural insiders and thus, able to
convey the message of Christianity in a manner which led to the conversion of several Ojibwe
villages. The Mississauga-Ojibwe facilitated conversions by following previous means employed
in Southern Ontario.

Chapter Three, “Evangelical Christianity in the Lake Superior Region,” examines Indian
missions based in the Lake Superior region, primarily along the lake’s southern shore in
Michigan’s eastern Upper Peninsula. The chapter illustrates the influence that Ojibwe Methodist
ministers had in the Christianization of Ojibwe communities in the Old Northwest. The

preponderance of missionary activity in the Lake Superior country in the 18305 and the
46

involvement of a growing body of Christian Ojibwe had a decisive impact on the religious
identity of the entire region.

Chapter Four looks at the evangelical work of three Ojibwe missionaries: George
Copway, Peter Marksman, and John Johnson. George Copway, probably the most eloquent and
gifted of this trio, rose through the Methodist ranks rather quickly, and later in 1845, he was
accused and imprisoned for embezzlement. Eventually, C0pway left the Methodist Church and
for a brief time, enjoyed a career as a famous author and lecturer in the United States. Although
Copway fell into reproach later in his missionary career, he signified the opportunity available to
young Ojibwe men who opted for a life of missionary work. During the 18205, the Mississaugau-
Ojibwe were rapidly transforming from a mi gratory/hunter-gatherer life style to sedentary
agricultural. Opportunities which traditionally distinguished young Indian men such as hunting,
trapping, or warfare were no longer available. Becoming a missionary presented the prospect of
receiving an education, developing an occupation as a minister, seeing different parts of the
country, and attaining a level of prominence which may not have been otherwise achievable.

Copway had first-hand experience with Methodist tent revivals and saw his own father
powerfully converted at such as meeting in 1827. He underwent his own conversion in 1830 and
volunteered for missionary service in 1834. Among the Lake Superior Ojibwe he sought to
replicate the hymn singing, the personal evangelism, and the preaching that he learned from Peter
Jones and saw being practiced by the Mississauga-Ojibwe at his home community at Rice Lake,
Ontario. During his missionary work in the early 18305 at the Indian mission at L’Anse,
Michigan, Copway saw several spontaneous conversions of many who were opposed to his
message of Christianity. He also contributed to the conversion of many first-generation Christian
Ojibwe in these Lake Superior communities.

John Johnson Enmegabowh hailed from the same Rice Lake community as Copway.

Though they served for a time together as missionaries, Johnson found his calling further west, in

47

Minnesota. After serving together in the 18305, Johnson eventually joined up with Episcopal
missionaries in the 18405. He was ordained in 1867, becoming the first Native American
Episcopal priest. Johnson emerged as the most important Christian Indian leader at White Earth
reservation in Minnesota if not in the entire state, during the 18705 and 18805. He became
instrumental in bringing the Christian message into Minnesota and establishing the Episcopal
Church at White Earth, mentoring several emerging Anglican Ojibwe priests and deacons.

Peter Marksman who remained a Methodists throughout his life, worked tirelessly as an
evangelist for over fifty years. Marksman converted in the 18305 and was particularly active
during the 18405 and 18505. During the mid-nineteenth century Ojibwe groups were beginning to
fragment into different camps based on religious and cultural adherences. “Traditionalists” or
those Ojibwe who still wore their hair long, dressed in traditional garb, existed off of the seasonal
cycle, and belonged to the Mediwiwin Society represented one faction of the community.
Christian Ojibwe who had been converted, met regularly for church, abandoned traditional dress,
and had began to take up sedentary agriculture (at least to some extent) represented another. And
the Catholic Ojibwe and those who had combined both traditional and Christian practice (which
may have been the majority) formed yet another.

Marksman ministered at time when these communal differences were becoming more
pronounced. He worked with the Bay Mills Indian community during the 18705 and was
instrumental in helping select land parcels during the allotment process. By 1880 religious
divisions which began to occur in the mid-nineteenth century had become complete.
Communities were, to some degree, divided along religious lines. At L’Anse, Michigan and the
Keweenaw Bay area there were about 300 Catholics, just as many Protestants, and 300
traditionalists. At places such as White Earth reservation in northern Minnesota, where the
Episcopal Church had considerable influence, the divisions were even more evident. White
Earth, which boasted a population of 1,427 residents by 1876, had broken down into religious

48

affiliations which largely reflected ethnic differences. By the early 18905 there were about 300
Protestants (mostly members of the Episcopal Church), around 1200 Catholics, and a declining
number of traditionalists at White Earth.42

John Johnson Enmegabowh served as an ordained priest at this time and had personally
attracted at least one hundred converts to the faith at White Earth. He typified the new leadership
which was emerging among the White Earth Ojibwe and became the catalyst for a growing body
of Ojibwe deacons and priests which were ordained at White Earth. During this period Johnson
saw the White Earth Ojibwe adapt hymn singing to traditional singing and prayer groups which
lasted throughout the night. Ninety- percent of Episcopal clergy during this time were White
Earth Ojibwe. Episcopal services were conducting in the Ojibwe language and hymns were sung
in the native language.43 Although a small segment continued to practice the traditional
Midewiwiw religion, traditionalists increasingly formed the minority in many Ojibwe
communities. By the turn of the twentieth century, the majority of populations in Ojibwe
communities were nominally Protestant or Catholic. This is not to say that many Ojibwe did not
blend aspects of Christianity and traditional practice, however, by the early twentieth century
traditional beliefs were in the decline. Traditional practices fell into disuse and when they did
occur, it was normally done out of sight of other community members and church authorities.

During his life John Johnson witnessed this evolution of religious practice at White
Earth; an evolution which he contributed too in immeasurable ways. The generational links
which drew these men together, yet separated the Christian Ojibwe during the three time periods

(1820-305, 18405-505, 18705 & 805) serves as the focus of this chapter. I conclude by briefly

 

42 Melissa Meyer, The White Earth Tragedy: Ethnicity and Dispossession at a Minnesota Anishinaabe
Reservation (University of Nebraska Press: Lincoln and London, 1994), 110.

‘3 Meyer, 110.

49

analyzing the legacy of the Ojibwe missionaries and ministers in the Great Lakes and the impact
they made on Ojibwe religious frameworks as they spread Protestant beliefs into the West.

The Ojibwe of the Great Lakes adopted Protestant Christian theological frameworks and
reinvigorated indigenous modes of religious worship. In the process, a unique form of Native
American Christian practice emerged in the western Great Lakes. The emergence of a Native
clergy that was instrumental in Ojibwe conversions demonstrates why the mission stations failed
in the 18205 and shows how the chasms of language, culture, and worldview were bridged by
Native preachers. Chapter Two sets up Chapter Three by examining the conversion experiences
of the Mississauga-Ojibwe missionaries in Southern Ontario and the work of Peter Jones. Chapter
Three illustrates the impact of this Ojibwe missionary clergy on Indian communities in the Great
Lakes and shows how their presence facilitated conversion rates. Finally, in the last chapter, I
describe the evangelical work of these Ojibwe missionaries and show how their activities shaped

Ojibwe Christianity over a period of three generations.

50

 

_Laba
Michigan.

 

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Strain of Muir‘s»: c:~«\

 

1“... . Lair

x \Jorssuwc‘x H u r 0 n

_ ..... , x \ q ‘1 - . _

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) "m" 9' \ \.

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Figure 6: Michigan's Eastern Upper Peninsula: Sault Rapids, Mackinaw Island
and Whitefish Bay. (Cleland, Place of the Pike, 2001).

51

 

Chapter 1 - Anglo American Missionaries in the Lake Superior Region: 1822-1833

52

As the cool breeze from the straits of Mackinaw wafted through his large two story
dwelling at Mackinaw Island, William Ferry sat discouraged and perplexed at his makeshift desk.
Soon, a representative from the Episcopal Church would be visiting him to discuss their proposed
plan to establish a missionary school among the Indians at Green Bay. Though Ferry worked for
a separate denominational missionary board, he did not oppose the work the Episcopal Church
had planned at Green Bay. Yet, his own mission among the Anishnabeg of the straits areas was
failing. Looking at the expense reports, attendance sheets, and letters from the missionary
society, Ferry reflected on where he had gone wrong. He had travelled hundreds of miles from
New York to establish the first Protestant mission on the frontier of the upper Great Lakes. He
had developed an advanced academic curriculum which would rival any school out East while
designing a very useful vocational program which included blacksmithing, shoemaking,
gardening, cooking, and farming. By utilizing his contacts within Mackinaw’s fur trading society
and evolving Métis community he had hoped to attract a number of young Indian scholars from
all over the Great Lakes to his school at Mackinaw Island or Mishinemackinong, as it was called

by the Ojibwe.

For all intents and purposes, in the eyes of William Ferry, the plan to Christianize and
educate Indian children at a residential mission school should have worked. With a populace of
over 1,200 merchants, traders, American soldiers, and mixed blooded Indian families, Mackinaw
Island and the adjacent white community of St. Ignace comprised the second largest population
center in Michigan in 1830. Only Detroit exceeded Mackinaw for the number of people in its
vicinity. During the summer months, Mackinaw’s ranks would swell to more that 6,000 as
hundreds of Anishinabeg came to the island to trade, collect governmental annuities, and fish

from the straits which separated the island from Michigan’s Upper and Lower Peninsulas.44 At

 

4" Tanner, Atlas of Great Lakes Indian History, 131.

53

peak trading times the sands of the island’s 8 mile long shore line almost disappeared as
numerous Ojibwe families erected their temporary lodges on the beach along the island’s outer
perimeter. As the center of the fur trade in the western Great Lakes and home to the American
Fur Company (which remained on island until 1834), the region attracted hundreds of merchants,
traders, and Ojibwe visitors on a yearly basis. The Indian agency on the island served some 3,000
Ojibwe and Odawa from Au Sable, Point aux Chenes, L’Arbe Crouch, Grand Traverse, the Grand
River, Cheboygan, St. Martin’s Islands, and Beaver Island. Indian agent James Boyd came to the
island in 1819 and used the agency to fix the Indians’ firearms, provide medical treatment to
Native children, and implore the Anishinabeg not to aid the British and to stay on the American
side of the border.45 The Ferrys had hoped that local fur traders and mixed blooded families
would convince the Ojibwe to send their children to the island to receive an education from the

mission school and be exposed to Protestant Christianity.

Though F erry’s mission school was fairly expensive to run, thousands of dollars in
funding had been provided by the US. federal government and the American Board of
Commisioners for Foreign Missions. While the Presbyterian church which he founded for the
white residents of the island was steadily growing with a congregation of at least 200, Ferry could
not help feeling somewhat dejected. His sole purpose in coming to this remote outpost on the
American frontier was to win Indians to the Christian faith. Yet, of the couple of hundred
students who attended the school at the Mackinaw mission, only a few were full blooded Indian
children, the majority being children of fur traders. Resignedly, Ferry faced the fact that the
school would likely cease to exist in the near future. General Albert Ellis, the Episcopal

representative who visited Ferry that day, later reported of Ferry and his mission:

 

’5 Keith Widder, Battle for the Soul: Métis Children Encounter Evamgelical Protestants at Mackinaw
Mission 1822-1837, (East Lansing: Michigan State University Press, 1999), 59.

 

54

...that his school, which had been put into operation at great expense, had failed of the
object sought, and that he had already received instructions to reduce it in numbers as fast
as it could be done, and eventually discontinue it entirely; that which all their endeavors,
they had been able to secure the entrance into it of comparatively few Indian children;
that the great proportion of their nearly two hundred attendants were children of Indian
[Metis] traders, who were reaping all the benefits of education from which the Indian
children were being almost wholly excluded.46

Soon after the meeting with Ellis, Ferry left Mackinaw Island and the mission closed three years
later. He and his wife eventually moved to Grand Haven, a small community in southwest
Michigan where Ferry became an influential businessman in the lumber industry and established

the First Presbyterian Church. He never worked with Native people again.

The mission at Mackinaw Island faced several obstacles which contributed to F erry’s
ultimate problem of not being able to secure a high enough Native enrollment to justify its
existence. The Ferrys basic misunderstanding of Great Lakes Anishinabe culture, society, and
commerce led to a multitude of problems. Their misconceptions about the ethnographic
demography of the “straits” area in particular, facilitated a host of complications which ultimately
led to the failure of the mission on the island. A detrimental misconception on behalf of the
Ferrys was not adequately discerning the difference between Anishinabe society and the children
of fur traders." They initially lumped the first in with the second without realizing the political
and ethnic undercurrents which made each group unique. Although the island was a center of
Ojibwe trading activity, the Ojibwe who ventured to the island were there only to trade and enjoy
a brief respite while on journeys to places such as DeTour (where their annuities were paid) and

Sault Ste. Marie. Many Native families had travelled from as far as Wisconsin, Montreal, or

 

’5 Janet White, ”William Montague Ferry and the Protestant Mission on Mackinac Island,” Michigan
Histopy Magazine, (December 1948), 348.

‘7 Widder, xx.

55

Detroit, and had no intention of leaving their children at this trading outpost. Most of the
relations with Americans were still at an early stage for many Ojibwe of the western Great Lakes.
As recently as 1815, most of the area’s inhabitants resisted the presence of American troops at
various places in the Great Lakes, and supported the British in Canada. Outside of a military role,
the Ojibwe of the region had limited interaction with Americans and American forms of

government, education, and religion.

The main factor which contributed most to the mission’s failing was relying on local fur
traders to attract interest from full blooded Indian families. Unfortunately, these points of contact
never translated to a substantial Native American enrollment at the mission. By all purposes, it
appears as if fur trade families utilized the school at Mackinaw Island for their own benefit.
Unlike their Métis relatives, the area’s Ojibwe and Odawa people saw little incentive to leave
their children behind at the island. The cultural moorings of the Anishinabeg remained strong
enough in the 18205 to lead many Ojibwe to conclude that the school offered no real benefit for-
their children. Traditional practices of hunting, fishing, and networking with French fur traders
provided them with the material items necessary to survive in the Great Lakes. Though
immensely popular with the community that worked in the fur trade, their Indian relatives
remained unconvinced of the usefulness of the school. The low attendance of Indian students at
the school suggests that William Ferry and the eastern reformers who backed the mission were

drastically out of touch with the lives of Great Lakes Anishinabeg.

In the 18205, Indian families saw almost no utility whatsoever of turning their children
over to learn the history, geography, and philosophy of a country to which they had such limited
exposure. The vocational training of blacksmithing and shoe making had little appeal to families
who made comfortable moccasins from deer hide and obtained metal goods by simply visiting

traders. Also, the domestic and agricultural training had little usefulness for families who

56

speared fish, smoked meat, and harvested wild rice. Ojibwe families were migratory and though
the island was in the middle of Anishinabe territory, marry Indian people passing through were
temporary visitors. Anishinabe children learned how to work sugar camps in the spring, set

fishing nets in the summer, and build temporary shelters; these skills were necessary for survival.

Regardless of the intentions or dreams of the individuals who ran the miSsion, a

  
  
 

  

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Figure 7: Mackinaw Island Is located off the northeast corner of Michigan’s Lower Peninsula, In the
'Stralts of Mackinaw." It remained the trade capital of the Great Lakes until the American Fur
Company left the Island in the 18305.

57

residential manual labor school which taught classical studies was of minor importance to local

Ojibwe and Odawa bands.

In addition to the lifestyle incompatibilities, there was little evidence that the school’s
instructors demonstrated any appreciation or understanding of Ojibwe culture. The majority of
the staff was non-Indian and many did not speak Ojibwe. Unless the student was already familiar
with the English language or had planned on spending years living at the school, the language
discrepancy was too large to be overcome in any short time. In addition to the political and
cultural disparities, many Ojibwe of the western Great Lakes were still only vaguely familiar with
Protestant ideology in the 18205. So there was little compelling reason for Anishinabe parents to

leave their children at the Mackinaw mission school for any extended time.

As a result of the failure at Mackinaw, the American Board of Commissioners for
Foreign Missions (ABCFM) which employed Ferry, changed its method of evangelization.
Instead of establishing a central mission to attract the region’s Native inhabitants, missionaries
would be sent far into the “interior” to reach out to Indians, closer to their remote locations.
Learning the Ojibwe language would become an essential element to the future success of the
missionary stations. After 1830, the American Board established missions at La Point, Yellow
Lake, Sandy Lake, and Leech Lake."8 While the American Board continued to reshape its
missionary vision by establishing more posts elsewhere, other denominations labored around the

historical Ojibwe fishing grounds at the rapids of St. Mary.

In 1828, the Baptist minister Abel Bingham opened up a mission at Sault Ste. Marie
which also included a school to educate Indian converts. He had been met there by Alvin Coe, a

Congregationalist missionary who was leaving the field and turned over his missionary operations

 

‘8 White, 349.

58

at the Sault to Bingham. The Congregationalist missionary Alvin Coe was later mentioned by
Andrew Blackbird in History of the Ottawa_and Chippewa Indians of Michigan and is credited by
Blackbird as being the missionary that originally invited him to Ohio to attend school. In the
1826 Treaty of Fond duc Lac, the Ojibwe granted the United States mineral and mining rights
within their territory north of the Prairie du Chien. Included within the treaty was a $2,000
annuity to be paid at Sault Ste. Marie and the government pledged another $1000 to be delegated
through congress for the establishment a mission school for Ojibwe children at the Sault.
Congress awarded the task for establishing the school to the Baptist Board of Foreign Missions
who in turn selected Abel Bingham, who was currently working as a missionary among the
Seneca at Tonawanda in New York. 49 The Baptist mission at the Sault contained a 40 x 28 ft.
house which was 1 V2 stories high. The ground floor of the house included two large rooms and
five bedrooms. The upstairs housed a classroom which was 24 x 28 ft in size and was used to

board children who stayed at the school.50

Though his church services were only nominally attended by some Ojibwe and local
whites, the mission’s school enjoyed a great deal more success. The school was both a residential
school for students fi'om the interior and day school for local Ojibwe. According to Bingham’s
journal entries, during the first week of the school’s operation, 57 Ojibwe children had been
enrolled and were studying the alphabet.51 Though Bingharn’s energies were focused on the
school he was charged with preaching to the village’s white and Ojibwe residents which he did so
on Sundays. Bingham’s mission did enjoy slightly more success than the early missionary efforts

of other groups. James Cameron, a mixed blood Anglican from the Canadian side of the river

 

’9 John Cumming, "A Puritan Among the Chippewas,” Michigan History Magazine LI 3 (1967): 213.
5° Cumming, 218.
$1 .

Cumming, 216.

59

joined Bingharn’s mission and ultimately became a Baptist preacher. Cameron routinely
travelled to Ojibwe encampments which were remotely located in the interior. He eventually
married another Ojibwe woman and lived with the Ojibwe while they were at their sugar bush
camps and winter encampments. Also an Anishinabe convert and minor chief by the name of
“Shegud” became a deacon in the Baptist church at the mission. 52 Shegud was one of the
original signatories of the 1826 Fond du Lac Treaty; his name is listed on the treaty which states

that he is from the “St. Mary’s band” of Ojibwe.53

Using an interpreter, Bingham regularly visited Ojibwe families in their homes to talk
about Christianity. Many Indians at the Sault, like future Methodist preacher Peter Marksman’s
family, first heard the gospel from the Baptist minister. Although Bingham’s mission at the Sault
consisted of a small group of Ojibwe converts, his efforts in the temperance movement brought
him a great deal more success. Incredibly, he was able to gain the confidence of military officials
at Ft. Brady, influential traders, and important tribal leaders and convinced them to commit to the
struggle against the prevalent use of distilled spirits. As a result of Bingham’s efforts, the
consumption of alcoholic beverages in the Sault fell from 15,000 gallons a year to virtually none.
54 This was a monumental achievement given that the intake of whiskey and rum by the soldiers
at the fort was reaching endemic proportions. When Bingham first arrived in the Sault in 1828,
officials at Ft. Brady supplied a gill of whiskey to each soldier on a daily basis. In addition to
their daily ration of whiskey from the fort, soldiers were allowed to purchase another gill each

day at the army’s mercantile store in town. Traders also dealt large amounts of whiskey to the

 

SZCIeland, The Place of the Pike, 31.

53 The Institute for the Development of Indian Law, Treaties and Agreement of the Chflewa Indians,
(Washington D.C.: GPO, 1973), 42.

5’ Lynne A. Deur, ”Lost-Without Shadows: The Rise and Fall of Protestant Missions in the Western Great
Lakes Region, 1800-1854” (Ph.D. diss., Michigan State University, 1991), 40.

60

local Indian community.55 The overwhelming prevalence of alcohol was enough to make other

missionaries abandon their post and catch the next sailing vessel out of town.

The Presbyterian missionary Rev. Robert McMurtie Lard, backed by the Home Mission
Society in Maryland arrived in the Sault in the late fall of 1823. The missionary became so
disheartened by the level of drunkenness that gripped the region that he left on the first boat
departing from the rapids in the spring of 1824.56 Over the course of the Bingham’s 27 year
tenure at the Sault, he and his family were embraced by the Anishinabeg who attended his
mission. His children, who were raised alongside the Indian children at the mission, were
especially influenced by Anishinabe culture. Although there is little evidence that Bingham
learned the Ojibwe language, the Anishinabeg at the Sault named his daughter, Ahnishinabquuay

or Ojibwe Woman due to her fluency in the Ojibwe language. 57

During the 18305, the western Great Lakes became an epicenter of missionary activity.
Eastern missionaries, motivated by the revival meetings of the Second Great Awakening, began
targeting the tribes of the Old Northwest. The interdenominational American Board of
Commissioners for Foreign Missions established missionary stations throughout Michigan,
Wisconsin, and Minnesota. The Methodists, perhaps the most successful of all missionary bodies
in the western Great Lakes, established Indian missions along the southern shore of Lake
Superior at Sault Ste. Marie, “Kewawenon (near L’anse), Iroquois Point (present day Bay Mills),
and Whitefish Bay. There was an Episcopal mission established on the north side of the rapids at
the Sault and also at Green Bay. Jeremiah Porter, a graduate from Princeton arrived to the Sault

in 1832. The young missionary organized the first Presbyterian Church in Sault Ste. Marie and

 

55 Cumming, 218.
5” E.J. Sundstrom, ”Sault Church To Celebrate Its Anniversary,” gait Evening News, 18 May 1979, pg. 1.
5’ ”Child of the Sau[l]t” The 500 Evening News, April 1905.

61

enjoyed amicable relations with Abel Bingham and Henry Rowe Schoolcraft. Porter’s
congregants originally met in an old warehouse, however, Ozhawgusdaywaquay, the wife of local
trader and community leader John Johnston, orchestrated the construction of an edifice to house

Porter and his Presbyterian congregation.58

The Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions took advantage of the funds set forth in the
1836 Treaty of Washington and sent Peter Dougherty to establish a mission in Michigan.59 In
1838, while visiting Mackinaw Island, the Ojibwe convert Peter Greensky who had been
educated at the Little Rapids Methodist Mission in the Sault, was informed by Henry Schoolcraft
of the possibility of a Presbyterian mission being established near Grand Traverse Bay. After
meeting Peter Daugherty, the missionary assigned to the post, Greensky volunteered to assist as
an interpreter for the mission."0 Based on a suggestion from William Ferry, Dougherty
established his mission near the mouth of the Elk River near Grand Traverse Bay in the northwest
area of Michigan’s Lower Peninsula." Shortly after, he moved the mission to the north shore of
the Grand Traverse Bay peninsula. By 1847, the mission complex included a house, a school,

and twenty log cabins, and 200 hundred acres under cultivation’z.

Though one of the more successful missions, Dougherty experienced chronic under-
enrollment in his school and the Indians who attended the mission were in constant fear of

removal. Although the Ojibwe and Odawa Indians of Grand Traverse and Little Traverse Bay

 

58 Stanley Newton, The Story of Sault Ste. Marie and Chippewa County, (Sault Ste. Marie: The Sault News
Printing Co., 1923), 137.

59 Virgil Vogul, ”The Missionary as Acculturation Agent,” Michigan Histom, LI (1967): 187.

6° Dorothy Reuter, Methodist Indian Ministries in Michkgan, 1830-1990. (USA: Michigan Area United
Methodists Historical Society), 149.

5’ Vogul, 193.
62 Deur, ”Lost Without Shadows,” 48.

62

were never forced to relocate west, they did lose their land on the Grand Traverse Peninsula
which housed Dougherty’s mission. Dougherty, though establishing a nominally successful
mission, harbored some biased views toward the Indian people in his area. Reflecting back on his

career, Dougherty summarized his work:

I will briefly state some facts that show the work of the Board among these ignorant and
degraded people has not been without the many good fruits. Instead of heathen bands
ignorant, indolent, intemperate, clothed with a filthy blanket and living in smoky
wigwams we now see civilized families in comfortable houses, with farms and teams,
industrious and exercising all rights and duties as citizens, reading the testament, family
prayer, social meetings of prayer, regular attendance on the house of God, and many
giving pleasing evidence of hearty piety.63

Dougherty’s report is tinged with a condescending tone characteristic of many missionary
accounts during the nineteenth century. Though Dougherty speaks of glowing success, there is
evidence that not all Indians at his mission were content. Peter Greensky, who translated hymns
and lesson for the mission, parted ways with Dougherty because he continued to adhere to
Methodism. Greensky continued to assist local white Methodist ministers run open air revivals
during the summer months. He eventually attracted a number of Odawa followers, called
“Greensky Indians” who frequently held prayer meetings outside the presence of the Methodist
elder whom he helped assist. Eventually he and his followers parted ways with the missionary
after being accused of eccentric and excessively loud worship.64 Peter Greensky ultimately
ended up in Charlevoix where he ministered at the Pine River Methodist Mission, a church which
still in use today amongst the Odawa of northern Michigan. Eventually Dougherty’s mission was

moved to Omena, Michigan in 1852 where a residential boarding school for Indian children was

 

5’ Duer, ”Lost Without Shadows,” 50.
5’ Reuter, 150.

63

opened. The mission closed in 1871 and Dougherty spent the remainder of his life in

Wisconsin.65 There is no evidence to suggest that the missionary ever again worked with Indians.

Language proved to be a consistent barrier for white missionaries during the early years
on the frontier of the Great Lakes. The experience of one missionary, David Meeker Chandler,
illustrates how challenging the language barrier could be for young inexperienced missionaries.
After being asked to consider the prospect of travelling to the Lake Superior country for
missionary work by his minister, Chandler consented to go. The young missionary arrived in
Sault Ste. Marie in 1834. In addition to his missionary work among the local Ojibwe, he soon
carved out an interdenominational ministry among soldiers at Ft. Brady and influential members
of the town such as Abel Bingham and John Johnston. Though possessed with a peculiar spirit
for solidarity and sincerity of heart in regard to Indian missions, Chandler found it frustrating not
being able to speak to Ojibwe converts directly and having to preach through an interpreter. He
reported in his journal, “I found it somewhat difficult to preach by an interpreter, as it was a slow
process conveying my thoughts.” He later recorded, “1 am determined to learn the Chippeway
language the first thing, as I can now do little in comparison to what I might, could I speak the
language.” 66 Not being able to communicate directly to Native people proved to be only one of

many obstacles faced by white missionaries.

After 1830 the American Board would open up mission stations at La Point, Yellow
Lake, Sandy Lake, and Leech Lake. In 1831, Frederick Ayer of the ABCFM travelled to Sandy
Lake and Leech Lake in Minnesota in hopes of establishing missions at these sites. He eventually

established a mission at Yellow Lake in Wisconsin. However the Ojibwe of Yellow Lake were

 

65 Deur, ”Lost Without Shadows,” 49

66 0M. Chandler, Memoir of the Rev. David Meeker Chandler ed. Rev. Cyrus Prindle (Middlebury:
Ephraim Maxham, 1842), 16-17

 

64

apprehensive about a permanent missionary station in their country and ultimately told Ayers to
depart. Undoubtedly, the Ojibwe at Yellow Lake heard of the removal efforts of the US.
government and were troubled by the idea of an American missionary in their country. Although
he was eventually allowed to stay and build a school, the situation remained tenuous. Ayers

finally took a few of his converts and left for Pokegama in 1836.67

Another ABCFM missionary, William T. Boutwell struggled with his mission at Leech
Lake. He had originally come to Sault Ste. Marie to learn Ojibwe and before his deployment he
labored briefly as a missionary among the Ojibwe of Sault Ste. Marie and Mackinac Island.68
However the time at Leech Lake proved difficult for this missionary. The Leech Lake Ojibwe did
not take kindly to the presence of Boutwell and his wife, though she was of mixed Indian and
white blood. The Indians at Leech Lake routinely killed their cattle and robbed their garden. In
one violent episode, an American Fur Company agent was killed near their mission. Tensions ran
high and eventually the Boutwells abandoned the mission and retreated to the Sandy Lake
Mission where relations between Indians and missionaries were slightly better. The Boutwells

would eventually relocate again in 1838, moving to Pokegama Lake.69

D.M. Chandler was sent to the Kewawenon Mission (near L’Anse, in the Keweenaw
Bay), by Methodist superintendant John Clark in September of 1834. In November, with the help
of a couple of Christian Indians, Chandler erected a small cabin at the mission. On December
24th the rrrissionary received an unannounced visit by a group of Ojibwe men. The men
demanded that Chandler pay them in flour, corn, and tobacco for allowing him to build a cabin in

their country. According to Chandler, he “went directly to the Trader and engaged the flour,

 

67 Deur, ”Lost Without Shadows,” 71.
6’ Newton, 137.
69 Deur, ”Lost Without Shadows,” 71-72

65

corn, and tobacco,” and “before the wicked crew broke up” his Native exhorter “gave them an

exhortation to flee the wrath to come.”70

There is no evidence that the group responded to the
warning issues by Chandler’s Ojibwe interpreter, however this interaction does illustrate how
Native people reacted to the increasing presence of white missionaries. Indians thought it needful

to check white encroachment into their country and used the means of “rent” to extract what they

thought was appropriate for such an allowance.

The mission may have been built on their hunting grounds, and it was not uncommon for
hunters to apprehend and sometimes take the possessions of hunters of opposing bands who
hunted on their grounds. The hunting territory of certain families was defined by boundaries and
was usually avoided by hunters of other families. In this case, because Chandler was a non-
Indian, and typically Indian people treated white visitors differently fiom opposing tribes or

bands, they paid a rent in food stuffs and this was probably a happy medium for the Indian party.

In Wisconsin, missionary work was conducting among the Stockbridge, Oneida, and
Brotherton Indians who had immigrated from the east to settle in Wisconsin. Many of these band
members were nominally Christian and moved to Wisconsin to establish independent
communities free of disturbance from white neighbors. Both Methodists and Episcopal
missionaries had been active among the Oneida before their move to Wisconsin and the tribe
brought two Methodists teachers and an Episcopal priest to help them in their move.71
Eventually, through the efforts of individuals such as Bishop Henry Whipple, Rev. Joseph
Gilfillan, and Rev. James Lloyd Breck, Episcopal missions would be established throughout

northern Minnesota. The White Earth reservation became their main base of Indian missions in

 

7° Chandler, 38-39.
7’ Deur, ”Lost Without Shadows,” 63.

66

1868. Methodists also opened up missions at the Lac Court Orielles, Fond du Lac, and Sandy

Lake in the 18305.

Although the ABCF M revised their missionary policy by emphasizing language training
and outreach to specific Indian settlements, their mission stations were not without problems.
Troubled missionary William T. Boutwell described the cool reception he originally received

amongst the Leech Lake Ojibwe:

Few are desirous to learn anything of the religion of the Bible. Most seem to have the
impression that the white man’s religion is not made for them. . . They say they are a
distinct race, and the great spirit designed they should be different. . . .With this character
and these views, they do not regard the object for which we reside among them, as
anything very desirable, and in their estimation they derive little advantage from us.72

As mentioned, William Boutwell and his wife had much difficulty at their Leech Lake post.
Eventually they transferred to the Sandy Lake mission where their message was better tolerated.
Some missionary families were faithful to their posts and stayed for years in a single location.
Sherman Hall and his wife Elizabeth who were stationed at La Point, WI operated their mission
and a school for Indian children for over twenty years.73 Hall, one of the more progressive
ABCFM missionaries, learned the Ojibwe language and with the help of a Native assistant took
on the arduous task of translating the Old Testament into Ojibwe. Yet, some Ojibwe harbored
certain misgivings toward even this culturally adaptive missionary. An elderly Indian couple
remarked of Hall and his wife, “The two of them, seemed to be lost without shadows. . .sometimes

we whispered it was the missionaries who needed to be saved. Some of our friends think it

 

7’ White, 350.
7’ Deur, "Lost Without Shadows,” 68.

67

strange to find pale, weak, and shadowless, individual church heroes, in the middle of old

woodland families.” 74

Many Ojibwe “thought it strange” that whites from the east would travel to their tribal
communities and attempt to enforce upon them sustainable agricultural practices which were in
many cases entirely unfeasible. The above comment by the elderly Indian couple reveals a
cultural fissure between those who lived and worked in the woods (Indian and non-Indian) and
those who were unaccustomed to life in the northern wilderness. It also appears that the
missionaries would have benefited by adhering to Ojibwe modes of living in such an
environment. Yet there is little evidence to show that the missionaries valued anything of worth
among the Ojibwe, they even spurred many Indigenous techniques needed to survive in the
woods and on the lakes. Additionally, the above response from the Indian elders alludes to a
deeper perplexity on behalf of Native peoples over the lack of personality or emotional
transparency demonstrated by some missionaries. It is apparent that many Ojibwe were reticent
about sharing their true spiritual beliefs, world views, and personal experiences to such people
they thought so imperceptive. Surprisingly, few missionary accounts reveal anything of

substance in regard to Ojibwe culture or worldview.

Native people were much more forthcoming to individuals who approached them with
sincerity and a genuine willingness to learn their ways. Both William Warren’s Histogy of the
Oiibway People and Johann George Kohl’s Life Among the Lake Superior Oiibway demonstrate
the effectiveness of such an open handed approach. Although both authors harbored Christian
views, they were able to obtain in-depth cultural and historical knowledge from their Native

informants. Kohl, through his interviews, and Warren, through his sharing of stories, were able to

 

7’ Gerald Vizenor, The People Nalled the Chippewa: Narrative Histories (Minneapolis: The University of
Minnesota Press, 1984) 46.

68

obtain invaluable oral and written histories of entire tribes and of the spiritual experiences of
individual Ojibwe. Of his visits with tribal elders, Warren states how he listened to, “lodge
stories and legends of my Indian grandfathers, around whose lodge-fires I have passed many a
winter evening, listening with parted lips and open ears to their interesting and most forcibly told

”75 Warren, when older, would share stories of the Bible with these “Indian grandfathers” in

tales.
exchange for their “tales.” His attentiveness, respectfirl demeanor, and blood ties to the
community undoubtedly casted him in a favorable light in the sight of the Ojibwe elders.

Warren’s Bible stories were well received because he operated within an Indigenous framework

of sharing stories to impart knowledge.

Robert Bieder, who wrote the introduction to the latest reprint of Johann Kohl’s Krfihi
_Gami, asserts that Kohl’s approach to studying Indians was based on an “empathy for Indian
culture” that Americans such as Henry Schoolcraft lacked. Beider firrther argues that Kohl,
unlike most Americans, was able to be empathic in his approach because he was not “hampered”
with American preoccupations of “removal” and “acculturation” of Native people.76 Such
culturally insightful and open handed approaches exercised by Warren and Kohl elicited equally
insightful and open responses on behalf of the Indian people they interacted with. Such rich
anthropological information obtained by the two men could have helped missionaries of the
western Great Lakes immensely. Yet, while individuals like Kohl and Warren were able to

connect with their Indian informants, many missionaries lacked these intercultural skills.

The direct approach of most missionaries exaggerated cultural misunderstandings

between the two groups. Much of the frustration of the missionaries revolved around indigenous

 

75 Warren, 13.

76 Johann Kohl, Kitchi Gami: Life Among The Lake Superior Oiibway 2nd ed. (St. Paul: Minnesota Historical
Society Press, 1985), xxxi-xxxii.

69

concepts of work, reciprocity, and giving. Missionaries expected Native peoples to tend gardens,
farm a small plot of land, or do manual labor in return for food or other material items bestowed
by the missionary. Natives frequently accused missionaries of being selfish and not sharing vital
provisions with them when the tribal group needed their help. Contrastingly, missionaries
frequently thought of Indians as being lazy or slothful after the Ojibwe made repeated requests
for food and supplies. In Anishinabe society, sharing vital provisions such as fish or venison
ensured the survival of the entire group. A hunter willing shared his bounty with his band,
knowing full well that it could be his family who may need help next time. Spiritual and
religious community leaders were expected to embody these notions of generosity. An individual
leader’s stature in the community was frequently determined by their willingness to give and
share with others. In short, generosity authenticated leaders in the eyes of the tribal community.
In most instances, missionaries who set themselves up as moral and civic leaders did not

understand the expectations of generosity placed on them by the surrounding tribal community.

Though missionaries frequently commented on the hospitality and generosity they
experienced at the hands of Indians, they regularly accused Indians as being beggarly or lazy
when they asked missionaries to share their supplies and possessions. Some missionaries,
however, wisely reciprocated tribal acts of generosity and quickly earned the trust of Indian
friends. Commenting on this notion of reciprocity, a missionary named Wright, stationed in

Minnesota, wrote:

Sometimes they had fish or duck, or it might be a few muskrats: but whatever the fare,
they always invited me to share it with them. And thus it was, when I had the food they
boarded with me; and when they were provided for, 1 boarded with them. The good old
grandmother especially, ever after regarded me as her friend.77

 

77 Rev. James Peery Schell, In the Oiibway Country: A Story of Early Missions on the Minnesota Frontier
(North Dakota: Chas. H. Lee Publisher, 1911), 56.

7O

Wright spoke of the sagacity of sharing food in the hopes that it made Indian people more
receptive to the Christian message. He quickly began to operate on a cultural system of exchange.
Speaking of this practice he insightfully commented, “Perhaps, the little kindness I’ve shown
them in giving them a small piece of my corn bread when they were hungry, may have had

something to do with their reception of the gospel, and the bread of everlasting life afterward.”78

Unfortunately, most missionaries misinterpreted Indian notions of sharing and generosity
and grew resentful following repeated requests for food. William T. Boutwell, who had so much
difficulty with the Indians at Leech Lake, reached his breaking point when it came to sharing the

food he farmed:

Seven winters that I have been in the country I have fed the hungry, and they are none the
wiser, none the more provident. It’s enough! I will feed you no longer. If you chose to
smoke and sleep all summer, you may beg in the winter and get nothing. I have planted,
hoed, and dug potatoes with my own hands till I am tired, and if you will not raise them
for yourselves you shan’t eat them hereafter.79

Not surprisingly, Boutwell transferred to another agency soon after this. Frustrations over
expectations of generosity appear throughout missionary accounts and are frequent sources of
tension between white missionaries and Indians.

Another ABCF M missionary, Rev. Edmund Ely had similar difficulties at the Fond du
Lac mission. In her article “Of Missionaries And Their Cattle: Ojibwa Perceptions Of A
Missionary As Evil Shaman,” Rebecca Kugel portrays the missionary as upsetting the cultural
normative system of the Ojibwe community at Fond du Lac by his demonstrated intolerance of
Ojibwe culture, moral demands, confrontational demeanor, and unwillingness to help procure

food for the band. With a line of credit extended by the ABCFM with the American Fur

 

’8 Schell, 55.
7" Deur, ”Lost Without Shadows,” 68.

71

Company, Ely was looked upon by the Ojibwe as being a wealthy man. Yet his personal values
conflicted with the community expectations of a leader. He reluctantly shared food and clothing

with other Ojibwe and when he did so he “haggled” over the amounts given.80

A surprising number of missionaries ceased to work with Indians once their missionary
tours were over. The Doughertys, Boutwells, and Ferrys all left Indian missions never to work
with Native people again. The attrition rate for non-Indian missionaries can be attributed to
several factors. The task of transforming an entire culture’s normative system and societal
constructs in a few years proved to be a much larger mission than eastern missionaries
anticipated. Missionaries failed to realize that indigenous subsistence patterns had emerged over
hundreds of years and allowed Native people the maximum sustainability within their ecosystem
and natural environment. Cultural, societal, and religious practices had also evolved to ensure
collective survival, group safety, and to make sense of the universe based on a specific
worldview. As a result, certain misdeeds were controlled through social normative processes
which ostracized the individual from the group. Certain wrongs such as theft or selfishness were
virtually unheard of in Ojibwe society because they violated the social norms of the community

and threatened the survival of the entire group.

According to William Warren, before their interaction with whites, Ojibwe society
exuded a great deal of morality in these areas. In History of the Oi ibway People, Warren
affirmed, “There was a consequently less theft and lying, more devotion to the Great Spirit, more
obedience to their parents, and more chastity in men and women, than exist at the present day,

since their baneful intercourse with the white race.” Warren reflected on how much change had

 

8° Rebecca Kugel: Of Missionaries and Their Cattle: Ojibwa Perceptions of A Missionary as Evil Shaman”
in American Encounters: Natives and Newcomers from European Contact to Indian Removal, 1500-1850.
Eds. Peter Mancall and James Merrell (New York: Routledge, 2000), 163-164.

72

taken place in Ojibwe society just over a 20 year period and that “in former times there was

certainly more good will, charity, and hospitality.”8|

Ojibwe values inspired little admiration in many white missionaries. Most sought to
transform tribal societies into mirror images of their own. Missionaries, however, severely
underestimated the complexity, utility, and pervasiveness of Anishinabe spirituality and
worldview. It is doubtful that many missionaries were accustomed to seeing pre-adolescents
enduring four day fasts without food or water, or understood why the Ojibwe placed such
preeminence on their visions or dreams. Missionaries misjudged the pervasiveness of Ojibwe
spirituality and the extent in which it was interwoven into daily actions, thoughts, and deeds.

Yet, other travelers who visited the Ojibwe were awestruck at the spiritual discipline exhibited by
Anishinabe youth. In his ethnographic work Kitchi-Gami: Life Among the Lake Superior

Ojibway, Johann Koln was amazed by the dedication required for such acts:

When was it ever known among us Europeans, that boys or girls were able, at the
tenderest age, to fast for days on behalf of a higher motive, retire to the remotest forest,
defy all the claims of nature, and fix their minds exclusively on celestial matters, that
they fell into convulsions, and attained an increased power of perception, which they did
not possess in ordinary life? What courage! What self control! What power of enduring
privations does this presuppose!82

Such feats of accomplishment must have been known to missionaries, yet they were
rarely recorded in missionary logs or journals. When such acts did occasionally surface in
missionary writing they were hardly portrayed with the admiration or wonder displayed by

Johann Kohl. This German writer’s account of his time among the Ojibwe is filled with

 

81 Warren, 101.
3’ Kohl, 223.

73

appreciation of Ojibwe culture and society. He described the Ojibwe method of studying cloud
formation as almost “scientific” and told how the Ojibwe divided dreams into an ordered
hierarchy of psychological and spiritual meaning. Kohl’s approach provided him with several
opportunities to share precepts of Christianity, opportunities which apparently remained closed to
most missionaries. Western culture and missionaries also devalued Native culture and tribal
histories because religious and historical information was oral and not written. Yet, even this
summation of Native culture is somewhat misleading. As is evidenced in Kohl’s work, many
Ojibwe recorded their personal experiences by etching important events in pictorial form on the
backside of birch bark. Writing on birch bark was a common practice among Indians in the
western Great Lakes, but was seldom highlighted in missionary journals descriptions of Native
people. This omission of such a crucial practice may indicate just how little information most
Ojibwe actually shared with missionaries. As stated, the rich narratives of personal spiritual
experiences are outlined in depth in Kolh’s work. Yet, the lack of any mention of such writings
by missionaries in the western Great Lakes in the 19th century suggest that most missionaries did

not even come close to capturing this intimate of an audience with many Ojibwe.

Much of the missionary work amongst the Ojibwe of the western Great Lakes coincided
with US. removal policies of the 18305. The possible relocation of Lake Superior bands to
western lands made Anishinabe communities distrusting of American missionaries. Many bands
moved further inland, or like the Odawa bands near the Grand Traverse region of Michigan,
migrated to Canada to avoid the threat of removal. Treaties such as the 1837 Treaty of
Washington seized millions of acres of Ojibwe land and made the Anishinabeg of the western
Great Lakes especially sensitive to white encroachment. Tribal leaders did invite missionaries to

their encampments, but this was the exception and not the rule.

74

Relations between whitemissionaries and Indians were further complicated by the
missionaries’ reliance on interpreters who did not always convey the style or substance intended
by the original speaker. Misinterpretation and confirsion of key ideologies and fundamental
theology plagued these interactions. Missionaries, whether intentionally or not, conveyed
attitudes of cultural and racial superiority which was not lost on indigenous listeners. These
complexes of superiority displayed by missionaries created a great deal of resentment on behalf
of Native people and furthered their disdain for the missionaries and their desires for
acculturation and civilization. The continual emphasis by missionaries on assimilation of Indians
into American society and the abandonment of traditional tribal ways only hampered missionary

efforts, regardless of their intentions.

The Christianization of Anishinabe communities by non-Indian missionaries in the
western Great Lakes was largely a failure during the 18205. Not until the next decade would
there be substantial progress made in converting Indians to Christianity. A group of missionaries
were needed which could address these divisive issues and overcome colossal differences of
nationalism, racism, and cultural disparity. The stage was set for the emergence of a Native
clergy, a clergy which would emerge to lead the Anishinabeg through some very tumultuous

times while fundamentally altering the religious identity of their community.

75

 

   
 

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Figure 8: Nineteenth century Ojibwe communities in Wisconsin and Minnesota. 1) White Earth 2)
Leech Lake 3) Mllle Lacs 4) Nett Lake 5) Fond du Lac 6)Grand Portage 7) Red Lake 8) Bad River 9) Red
Cliff 10) Lac du Flambeau 11) Lac Courte Oreille 12) Mole Lake. Long lasting missionary work was
difficult in this region because of the incessant fighting between the Ojibwe and the Sioux along the
Mississlppl River which bordered the two natlons. During the 18305 Methodist missions were
established at Lac Court Orielle, Fond du Lac, Yellow Lake(located just west of Lac Court Oreille but not
on map) and L'Anse (not featured). During the 1820s and 30s, ABCFM sites were located at Red Lake,
Bad River, Lac Court Oreille, Leech Lake, Cass Lake (attached to Leech Lake) and Fond du Lac and Yellow
Lake Many of the missions were abandoned during the 1862 Sioux War. By the last quarter of the
nineteenth century Episcopal Missions occupied White Earth, Leech Lake, Cass Lake, Red Lake, Gull Lake
(located between White Earth and Leech Lake) and Fond du Lac. (Vizenor, The People Named The
Chippewa, 1984).

76

Chapter 2 - Mississauga Christianity in Southern Ontario, 1820-1833

77

 

   

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Figure 9: A map of the Indian communities of Upper Canada around 1830. Jones’ Credit River
community was originally located within 50 miles of Toronto. Peter Jones is credited with establishing
the first Methodist Indian mission at Grape Island in 1827, located opposite the town of Belleville, in
the upper right portion of the picture. Methodist Indian missions were also located at Muncey,
Saugeen, New Credit, Scugog, Rice Lake, Mud Lake, Rama, and Snake Island. (Donald Smith, Sacred
Feathers, 1987).

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The Methodist Episcopal Church was hugely popular with frontier communities in the
United State in the years after the American Revolution and spread quickly throughout the
Northeastern United States. The Methodist Episcopal Church separated from the Church of
England in 1784. 83 The prevalence of Methodism in Upper Canada and Methodist outdoor
revival meetings had a profound effect on Ojibwe communities. Curious to see these Christians
meeting out in the woods, many Ojibwe attended Methodist camp meetings for the first time in
the 18205. Several Ojibwe who visited these meetings were profoundly affected and experienced
conversions of their own. Peter Jones, a mixed blooded Mississauga-Ojibwe who was converted
at a camp meeting in Ancaster, Upper Canada in 1823 began to evangelize his own community at
Credit River, near Toronto, soon after his conversion. He established the first Methodist mission
at Grape Island, in the Bay of Quinte in 1827. Protestant Christianity began to spread throughout
Ojibwe communities in the region in the mid 18205 and converted Native people actively
evangelized other Indians. This was the single greatest factor in the spread of Christianity among

Indians of Upper Canada or what would later be called Canada-West.

Unfortunately, the influence of nearby white farms and developing settlements had a
decidedly detrimental effect on Ojibwe communities in Upper Canada. I Of the 220,000 white
settlers in Upper Canada, only 200 of them lived in the capital city of York or present day
Toronto. Most settled on rural farms and forged remote frontier towns near indigenous
communities. The influence of white neighbors was often injurious to the well being of the
Ojibwe. Many frontier whites sold alcohol to neighboring Indians, squatted on Indian land, and
stole and swindled many Ojibwe out of their possessions and even their property. Overhunting of
game caused a depletion of important animals that the Ojibwe relied on to survive. Also

fisheries, rich in salmon, which sustained Indian communities such as Jones’ Credit River band

 

83 Smith, Sacred Feathers, 56

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were overrun by white fishermen. In areas that were not overfished, pollution of rivers and
streams was so bad that fish became scarce. In 1806, as conditions for the Ojibwe became
desperate, an Ojibwe chief at the Credit River named Kineunebae lamented that the river was
becoming so contaminated “by washing with soap and other dirt, that the fish refuse coming into
the River as usual, by which our families are in great distress for want of food.”84 In a petition to
the government which suggested they be moved to a more isolated part of Upper Canada the
Ojibwe argued, “white men seize on our furs, and take them by force, they abuse our women and
violently beat our people. We are poor in lands and have few places for hunting and much of our
hunting ground is covered by white settlements.” T.G. Anderson of Canada’s Indian Department
confessed in 1834 that the Ojibwe were “obligated frequently to submit to irritating and
extremely unjust Treatment on the Part of the Neighbouring White Settlers.”85 Many Ojibwe,
especially a growing number of Christian Ojibwe actually sought to be removed to more isolated

locations away from the corrupting influence of whites.

During the 18405, the more than 2 million acres of land at the Saugeen reserve, near the
Bruce Peninsula, was targeted by the Christian Ojibwe. However, Canadian officials planned to
use Manitoulin Island as a place where Ojibwe could be removed. Removal to Manitoulin Island
proved to be intensely unpopular with most Ojibwe throughout Southern Ontario. Indians who
had visited the island complained that the soil was too rocky for any type of planting or
agriculture. Eventually only a few hundred Ojibwe from Upper Canada removed to Manitoulin
Island. Most moved to other Indian communities or tried to survive as best they could amidst
increasing white encroachment. The Ojibwe of Southern Ontario were in a precarious situation.

Their traditional hunting lands and fishing grounds were being overrun with white immigrants.

 

8’ Schmalz, The Oflbwa of Southern 0mm 106.
’5 Schmalz, 161.

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An uneven judicial system which often condemned Indians and exonerated whites offered little
help when laws designed to protect the Ojibwe were systematically violated. Treaties which set
up vague boundaries between tribal land and state land created much confusion and led to
repeated misunderstanding between the two groups. Hundreds of Iroquois, historical enemies of
the Ojibwe, had moved into Southern Ontario at the end of the American Revolution and
established a handful of communities along the Grand River. The Iroquois who were loyal to the
Crown during the American Revolution received large tracts of land along the Grand River when
the war was over. Rumors of a joint British-Iroquois attack were a perpetual source of agitation
for the Ojibwe of Upper Canada. Ojibwe communities located on the north shore of Lake Erie
were hedged in by the Americans to the west. Politically, there were few alternatives to
negotiating a compromise with Crown authorities. The Ojibwe who were being starved out of
their traditional hunting and fishing grounds had little recourse but to adapt to their surroundings.
Peter Jones and the Methodist Indians knew Ojibwe communities were facing a crisis and that
adapting to white society was the only way in which their communities would survive. In the

mind of Peter Jones, Christianity served as the catalyst to this survival.

During the spring of 1826, the Christian Ojibwe at Davisville, a small community on the
Six Nations reserve followed Peter and John Jones back the Credit River Ojibwe community. By
fall of the same year the Credit River Ojibwe lived in twenty log homes provided by the federal
government who provided funds for the Christianized Indians. Some Ojibwe families replicated
their living experience of living in larger wigwams together by sharing log homes. A wooden
divider separated families who shared a cabin.86 Under the leadership of Peter Jones, the Credit
River Ojibwe learned how to plow fields, plant seeds, harvest crops, and maintain their new log

homes. Peter Jones or Kahkewaquonaby also emerged as community leader among the Credit

 

86 Smith, S_acred Feathers, 78.

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River Ojibwe. Being able to speak English and understand white culture enabled
Kahkewaquonaby to act as a cultural intermediary between the government and his tribal
community. He personally oversaw the distribution of annuities paid to the Credit River Ojibwe
by Crown officials. The young Mississauga also fought to have the Canadian government protect
the tribe’s fisheries, which it consented to do in 1829.87 Jones emerged as the most prominent
Mississauga leader of the nineteenth century. He was the driving force behind the progressive
movement which led the Ojibwe to adopt sedentary agriculture, log homes, and commercial
industry. The Canadian government, once it got over its misgivings of American Methodism,
modeled their reserve system after the Christian communities Jones helped establish in Southern
Ontario. He remained a staunch advocate for the Ojibwe of Upper Canada for the remainder of
his life. Though he served in various capacities for both his tribe and the Canadian government
he never lost sight of his original purpose, to Christianize the Ojibwe of the Great Lakes. As long
as his health permitted, he continued to be an active evangelist and minister for the remainder of
his life. The Mississauga preacher continued to make regular visits to Ojibwe communities
throughout Southern Ontario. Kahkewaquonaby served his people as a missionary, teacher,
evangelist, minister, and political intercessor. He translated scripture into the Ojibwe language
and his Ojibwe hymns were circulated in Anishinabeg communities throughout the Great Lakes

and enjoyed widespread use for years to come.

Several Ojibwe converts considered Kahkewaquonaby no less than a spiritual father.
One Christian Ojibwe even adopted the name Peter Jones in honor of the Mississauga minister.
He enjoyed international fame as well. In 1838, the Indian preacher met the Queen of England at

Buckingham Palace to ask that deeds to secure Mississauga land claims be given them.88 He

 

87 Smith, Sacred Feather, 79.
88 Smith, Sacred Feathers, xii.

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visited England a total of three times to raise money for Indian missions in Upper Canada and to
meet with the Queen. Hundreds of British subjects packed out churches and auditoriums in order
to hear the Indian preacher speak. Jones often dressed in traditional Ojibwe regalia when he
spoke to the crowd. Although he did become disillusioned when he realized that the crowd was
more interested in seeing an exotic native of the forest instead of listening to what he actually had
to say. Hi5 dignity, sincerity, and deeply inspired religious life however, made him as popular

with the English Methodists as he was among his own people.

Ultimately, Upper Canada would produce a class of Indian ministers and missionaries
who would propagate the gospel throughout the entire Great Lakes region. Individuals such as
Peter Jones or Kahkewaquonaby (Sacred Waving Feathers), George Copway or
Kahgegagahbowh (Stands Firm), John Sunday or Shawundais (Sultry Heat), John Johnson or
Enmegahbowh (He Who Stands Before His People), John Kabeege, and John Taunchey were all
Mississauga-Ojibwe who were converted in the late 18205 and early 305 and traveled to the
western Great Lakes as preachers, teachers, interpreters, and missionaries. Their conversions set
the stage for the cultural, religious, and spiritual transformation of many Great Lakes Indian

communities.

The outdoor camp meetings which characterized the Second Great Awakening swept
through the countryside in Upper Canada during the first half the nineteenth century. These camp
meetings became an instrumental tool of the evangelization of Indians. The interdenominational
character and openness of the meetings attracted Native people who may have normally avoided
such gatherings. The highly expressive nature of the outdoor camp meetings may have actually
appealed to Indian visitors at these gatherings (which often criticized by the conservative

Christian community of the day). Citing Charles Johnson’s Frontier Camp Meeting, Frank

 

Everett Johnson, in his published dissertation entitled Constructing the Church Triumphant:

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Methodism and the Emergence of the Midwest, 1800-1856. asserts that Johnson characterized the
Christianity of early nineteenth century “forest revivals” or outdoor camp meetings as an
“acrobatic” and “muscular,” which included spontaneous behavior such as “falling, jerking,
rolling, dancing, running, singing, etc.”89 Surprisingly, many of the Indian visitors to such
outdoor meetings in the 18205 were accustomed to similar activity in ceremonial and social
gatherings in Anishinabe culture. Singing as a form of spiritual expression was routinely relied
upon while fasting or praying. Participants of the Grand Medicine Lodge or the Midewiwin
Society (as were many first- generation Ojibwe converts) were accustomed to seeing individuals
occasionally running, falling, fainting, and dancing while acting out ceremonies in the long cedar

bark covered lodges used for such occasions.90

The rural settings in which camp meetings took place seemed less threatening than the
towns and cities which housed large churches and great cathedrals. The socializing which
characterized outdoor revivals made interactions with whites less daunting for Native people.
The tenuous social footing among whites was a reality that was confinle negotiated by every
Indian in the established church setting. The racial tensions of the frontier were often exploited
by individuals such as whiskey traders who stood to lose profits when their Indian clientele
became Christians. George Copway, a Mississauga-Ojibwe of Rice Lake, recalled how, in 1827,
his father was told by the tribe’s white trader that his people had been invited to the local camp
meeting, “for the purpose of killing all the Indians.”91 Upon arriving at his first camp meeting

with his father and other band members, George was given strict orders to remain behind in case

 

8” Frank Everett Johnson, ”Constructing the Church Triumphant: Methodism And The Emergence Of The
Midwest, 1800-1856” (Ph.D. diss., Michigan State University, 1996), 4.

9° M. Inez Hilger, Chippewa Child Life and Its Cultural Background, 2"d edition (St. Paul: Minnesota
Historical Society Press, 1992), 67, 69.

91 George Copway, The Life, Letters, and Speeches of KAH-GE-GA-GAH-BOWH oraG. Copway, Chief,
Oiibway Nation (New York, S.W. Benedict, 1856), 55.

 

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the whites at the meeting went on the attack. However, George’s father was soon converted at
the camp meeting and when he encountered his father who was “lying partly on the seats,” he
beckoned to him and said, “Come here, my son, I am not sick, but I am happy in my heart. . .I told
you you must keep away from the ground, that your life may be spared; but I find that these are
good, and not bad people.” 92 As the tales of treachery proved to be unfounded, more and more

Indians were drawn to the meetings.

Native people, however, had good reason to fear and avoid interactions with whites
during the first quarter of the nineteenth century. Land swindlers, whiskey peddlers, Indian
agents, traders, and merchants preyed on Great Lakes Anishinabe communities. For Indians who
committed crimes against whites, the retribution was quick and severe. Yet, crimes perpetrated
against Indians often went uninvestigated, and if the perpetrator was found guilty, the punishment
hardly matched the offense. In his late-nineteenth century publication, History of the Ottawa and
Chippewa Indians, Andrew Blackbird or Macketebenessi recounted an incident in which a
Chippewa from Sault Ste. Marie named Waubaunemkee or White Thunder was sentenced to be
hanged on Mackinaw Island for killing a white man. According to Blackbird, the accused said he
was “very happy to die” and thought what he had done “justifiable in the sight of the Great
Spirit” because he acted in self defense. The man claimed that, “this white man came to the
Indian’s Wigwam in the dead of night, and dragged the mother of his children from his very
bosom for licentious purpose.” According to the condemned man, a crowd of onlookers encircled
the Wigwam encouraging the perpetrator and was ready to “fall upon him” if the Chippewa man

resisted, so he stabbed the white man in defense of his wife.93

 

92 Copway, Life, Letters, and Speeches, 56.

93 Andrew Blackbird, History of the Ottawa and Chippewa Indians of Michigan (Ypsilanti: The Ypsilanti Job
Printing House, 1887), 16-17.

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During the early-nineteenth century, Indians in the Great Lakes were afforded very little
legal protection or representation when it came to crime and punishment. The clear double
standard when it came to punishing Indians caused them to tread cautiously when in the midst of
white gatherings. However, the fraternal spirit that welcomed Indians to camp meetings raised
the curiosity of several Ojibwe. The marginal existence experienced by Indians in white society
seemed to dissipate at these religious revivals and as more Indian spectators attended, they
underwent powerful conversions of their own. The conversion experience of individuals such as
Peter Jones set the precedent for the conversion experiences of Indian in the Great Lakes who

would be evangelized by the preachers from Upper Canada.

Peter Jones, born Kahkewaquonaby, or “Sacred Waving Feathers” was the son of a full
blooded Mississauga-Ojibwa mother named Tuhbenahneequay and a Welsh-American father by
the name of Augustus Jones. He spent the first sixteen years of his life with his mother’s people
at Rice Lake in Upper Canada before he and his older brother left to live with their father. He
attended his first camp meeting on June 1”, 1823 in Ancaster in present-day Ontario. Although
Jones had been persuaded by his father to be baptized a few years previously in an Anglican
church among the Mohawks, he considered himself unconverted. According to Jones, the
behavior of white neighbors proved a stumbling block which kept him from embracing

Christianity whole heartedly:

Previous to this I had been halting between to opinions. Sometimes whilst reading the
Word of God, or hearing it preached, I would be almost persuaded to become a Christian;
but when I looked at the conduct of the whites who were called Christians, and saw them
drunk, quarrelling, and fighting, cheating the poor Indians, and acting as if there was no
God, I was led to think there could be no truth in the white man’s religion, and felt

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inclined to fall back again to my old superstitions. My being baptized had no effect on
my life. 94

Though Peter Jones considered himself unconverted, he still maintained an interest in
Christianity. Curious to see how the white man “worshipped the Great Spirit in the wilderness,”
Jones attended his first camp meeting in the summer of 1823 with his sister Mary and a Wesleyan
Methodist Irish woman by the name of Mrs. Thomas.95 The young Mississauga’s spiritual
transformation began as soon as he entered the camp grounds. “On arriving at the encampment I
was immediately struck with the solemnity of the people, several of whom were engaged in
singing and prayer. Some strange feeling came over my mind, and I was led to believe that the
Supreme Being was in the midst of his people who were now engaged in worshipping him.”
Jones goes on to describe how he was moved upon hearing the message of salvation, “In spite of
my old. Indian heart, tears flowed down, at the remembrance of my sins. I saw many white people
powerfully awakened and heard them cry out for mercy whilst others stood and gazed, and some

mocked and laughed.”96

Almost all Anishinabeg who were converted during the early-to-mid-nineteenth century
were first generation believers. Their only experience with Christianity may have involved
adherence to folk Catholicism or perhaps some sporadic missionary efforts by the Moravian or
Episcopal missionaries. Given that Jones’ father lived near a Mohawk settlement which had been
under the guidance of the Episcopal Church for some time, he did possess some prior experience

with Christianity and even heard church services conducted in the Mohawk language, yet he

 

9"Peter Jones (Kahkewaquonaby). Life and Journals of Kah-ke-wa-quo-na-by (Rev. Peter Jones), Wesleyan
Missionam (Toronto: Anson Green and the Wesleyan Printing Establishment, 1860), 7.

 

9’ Jones, Life, 9.
96 Jones, Life, 10.

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remained uncommitted. Jones’ Indian identity conditioned his spiritual experience. Of his
conversion he writes that in spite of “his old Indian heart” the “tears flowed” as he “remembered
his sins.” Cultural inhibitions kept Indian men from openly weeping and Indigenous theological
frameworks converged on Jones and led him to lament his “old Indian heart.” Despite the
Indigenous religious processes, the young-Mississauga responded to the message of Christianity
with fervor. An intense personal struggle, followed by the conversion of Jones’ own sister

provided the catalyst for his own conversion:

1 saw my sister apparently as happy as she could be. She came to me, and began to weep
over me, and exhorted me to give my heart to God, and told me how she had found the
Lord. Her words came with power to my sinking heart, and I fell upon my knees, and
called upon God for mercy. My sister and others prayed for me. . At the dawning of the
day I was enabled to cast myself wholly on the Lord, and to claim an interest in the
atoning blood of my savior Jesus Christ. ...The Love of God now being shed abroad in
my heart, I loved him intensely, and praised him in the midst of the people. Every thing
now appeared to me in a new light, and all the works of God seemed to unite with me in
uttering the praises of the Lord.97

Soon after his conversion, when the new converts were asked to stand, the Superintendent of
Indian Missions in Canada, William Case, commented on Peter Jones conversion, “Glory to God,
there stands a son of Augustus Jones, of the Grand River, amongst the converts; now is the door
opened for the work of conversion of his own nation!”98
Kahkewaquanaby soon emerged as a leader among the Ojibwe communities of Southern
Ontario. He returned to the Credit River Indian community and began to evangelize among his
people. His mother, T ubenahneequay, was the first to be converted. She was baptized Sarah

Henry when she returned with her son to Davisville, the small mixed blood community on the Six

Nations reserve located on the east end of Lake Ontario. Soon Kahkewaquonaby ’s younger

 

97 Peter Jones, History Of The Oiebway Indians With Especial Reference To Their Conversion To
Christianity ed. 6. Osborn (London: A.W. Bennett, 1861), 9.

98 Jones, Life, 14.

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cousin David Sawyer, along with his parents, was converted as well. Peter also made an impact
on his brother John Jones. Though John had previously ridiculed Peter for his conversion and
affiliation with the Methodists, it wasn’t long before, he and his wife Christiana Brant,
granddaughter of Chief Joseph Brant, both joined the Methodist church.99 Over the next three
years Jones opened up a day school in his father’s house at Davisville, taught the Mississauga

how to plow fields and plant seed, and became an “exhorter” in the Methodist church.

Ojibwe converts to Methodism usually received a Christian name upon being baptized.
The conversion and subsequent baptisms of the first Ojibwe converts typically occurred around
white Methodists. Many Ojibwe in Southern Ontario were converted at Methodist camp
meetings which were organized and attended mainly by white Methodists. Peter Jones, the
leader of the Christian movement among the Mississauga took an English name when he and his
older brother John went to live with his father at Davisville on the Six Nations reserve in 1816.
At the age of fourteen, Kahkewaquanabe became known as Peter and his older brother
T yenteneged, age 18, went by the name John. The Mississauga brothers entered into the most
culturally transformative time of their lives. Though his stepmother was a Mohawk woman, she
dressed and managed the family’s domestic life after the manner of the whites. Peter and John
cut their hair and did away with their leather leggings, breech-clout, and blanket and adopted the
attire of their father’s society. They also learned how to farm while living with their father at
Davisville. '00 Peter slowly grew accustomed to sedentary agriculture and the stability of the
surrounding Mohawk community which was comprised of log homes, farms, a mercantile, and a
Mohawk church made a lasting impression on him. It provided the blueprint from which Jones

would base his vision of Christian Ojibwe communities that he would one day help establish

 

9" Smith, §acred Feathers, 62.
100 .
Smlth, Sacred Feathers, 43.

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throughout Upper Canada; a vision which would come to fruition after his own personal

conversion in 1823.

Many Mississauga-Ojibwe converts emulated the cultural adaptations of Jones and the
small but growing Mississauga-Ojibwe Christian leaders. Converts adopted English names upon
being baptized. As happened throughout North America, Native names were altered to
accommodate white society. Some Ojibwe names, which were long and too difficult to
pronounce for governmental officials, were shortened. Singular tribal names were made
surnames while the individual received an English first name. Indigenous names were changed to
suit the needs of a growing governmental bureaucracy which required a list of names for treaty
signings, annuity payments and record keeping purposes. Most Ojibwe converts, however,
voluntarily adopted a Christian name to make interaction with other white Christians more
tenable. Though many non-Christian Ojibwe in the Great Lakes would assume English names or
alter their indigenous names, they saw the adoption of English names by converted Ojibwe as a

clear step towards assimilation into white society.

Influenced by the his father, white residents at Davisville, and Anglican Mohawks at the
Six Nations reserve, Kahkewequonaby became convinced that adopting the agricultural and
industrial practices of the whites was the only way to insure the survival of Mississauga-Ojibwe
communities throughout Southern Ontario. He encouraged his people to adopt farming habits
and to send their children to Methodist missionary schools which were being established in their
communities with the help of local Methodist churches. By 1830, the impact of Jones and other
Ojibwe missionaries such as John Sunday, (who was converted while listening one of Jones’s
sermons) was known throughout Upper Canada. Peter’s own tribe at the Credit River had begun
to adopt sedentary agriculture, build log cabin homes, and attend church. By the 18405, the

Credit River Ojibwe even purchases two ships in which to transport tribally produced goods to

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Canadian ports. Though tremendous change had occurred under the influence of the guidance of
Mississauga Christian leaders, the Crown was hesitant to fully embrace the work of the Methodist

Indians.

In the late 18205, Canadian officials remained suspicious of the strong republican flavor
of Methodism that had come from the United States to Upper Canada. The Methodist church in
Upper Canada was indeed begun by the American Methodist Episcopal Church; however, the
Canadian conference had become a separate conference in 1824"" There was too much
American sentiment within Methodism for the likes of Anglican governmental officials. At
times, government officials hinged funding of Indian missions on the Christian Indians’ support
of the Anglican Church. To receive financial assistance for missions (and sometimes tribal
affairs), Peter Jones and the Methodist Indians of Upper Canada would have to turn from
Methodism and embrace the Church of England. In January of 1828 Kahkewaquonaby and
T yenteneged travelled to York, to meet with the governor general about governmental support for
the Credit River Indian community. The Anglican clergyman who was present at the meeting
told the Mississauga leaders that the governor “did not feel disposed to assist the Indians as long
as they remained under the instruction of their present teachers, who were not responsible to the
Government for any of their proceedings and instructions.” After several instances in which
Peter and John were told that affiliation with the Church of England was necessary to receive
funds from the government, an exasperated Peter Jones wrote in his diary, “ [Didn’t man have] a
right to worship God according to the dictates of his own conscious?...to worship God as they felt
it their duty. . .if a man thought it right to retire to the woods and pray, who had a right to prevent

him?” 102

 

’01 Smith, Sacred Feathers, 101.

102 Smith, Sacred Feathers, 103.

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As more Indians attended outdoor camp meetings and experienced conversion, they
began to actively evangelize other Indians. The increased presence of indigenous believers and
their evangelization efforts among other Native people did more to spread the gospel than any
tactic or ploy utilized by non-Indian missionaries. Another young Mississauga named
Kahgegagahbowh or George Copway was also converted at a camp meeting in 1830. During a
camp meeting held in Cobourg, Upper Canada in 1827, a group of Mississauga-Ojibwe who
attended the meeting set out to proselytize their fellow Mississauga at nearby Rice Lake. While
the delegation of Christian Indians was in route to preach to the Rice Lake Mississauga, George
Copway and his father had just returned from visiting a trader, where they secured a large keg of
rum. The band had just begun to drink when the Indian missionaries appeared on the bluff,

descending toward the group of Rice Lake Ojibwe.

According to Copway, the revelers mistook the oncoming Indians for “blackcoats” or
white missionaries. Copway’s father instructed the group to cover the keg of rum and invited the
missionaries to join them- However, to the surprise of the entire group these were not white
missionaries but were as Copway described them “Indians saved by grace.” The Indian
missionaries immediately told the group of thirty-to-forty people what had occurred at Cobourg
and preached to them Keshamenedoo 0gweson or the “Benevolent Spirit’s son.” The Indian
missionaries had all the Rice Lake Indians kneel down, pray, and sing hymns. According to
Copway, Peter Wason, who was part of the Indian delegation of missionaries, encouraged by
what he saw, cried out,” 0 Great Spirit! Here are some of my own relatives; open their eyes and

save them!”103

George Copway’s father, moved from what he had just witnessed, dumped the rum into

the lake and accompanied the Mississauga Christians to the camp meeting that evening. Almost

 

’03 Copway, Life, Letters, and Speeches, 54.

92

thirty Mississauga-Ojibwe “ran at once to their paddles and canoes” and Copway later described
the scene this way, “The missionaries had a skiff, in which they went from the island to the
opposite side. They sang again and their very oars seemed to keep time on the still water. 0 how
charming! The scenery of the water; the canoes moving in files, crossing the lake to visit their
first camp meeting.”'04 This scene provides insight into the way that ideas of race and religion
were inextricably linked during the first part of the nineteenth century. Initially Copway’s
father’s band identified the oncoming Christian Indians as “blackcoats” or white missionaries.
Evidently, the Mississauga Christians who returned from the Methodist camp meeting had been

previously converted and were dressed after the manner of whites.

During the summer of 1830 Kahgegagahbowh underwent his own dramatic conversion.
Moved by the conversion of his father and late mother, the younger Copway continued to
demonstrate interest in Christianity. Following his mother’s death in 1829, he attended another
summer camp meeting near Cobourg. While on the thirty mile walk under “a hot sun”
Kahgegagahbowh ’s father frequently took his son’s hand and prayed with him. Upon arriving to
the meeting, there were “multitudes of Indians” and a “large concourse of whites from many
various places” on the grounds.” Copway described listening to a message from a white
preacher given through an Indian interpreter. When an invitation for prayer was given, he
immediately made his way to the mourner’s bench at the front of the assembly. The young

Mississauga later described his feelings during the message and his experience at conversion:

1 was like a wounded bird, fluttering for its life. Presently and suddenly, I saw in my
mind, something approaching; it was like a small but brilliant torch; it appeared to pass
through the leaves of the trees. My poor body became so enfeebled that I fell; my heart
trembled. The small brilliant light came near to me, and fell upon my head, and then ran
all over through me, just as if water had been copiously poured out upon me. I knew not

 

104Copway, Life, Letter; and Speeches, 59.

105 Copway, Life, Letter, and Speeches, 61.

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how long I had lain after my fall; but when I recovered, my head was in a puddle of water
in a small ditch. I arose; and 0! how happy I was! I felt light as a feather. I clapped my
hands and exclaimed in English ‘Glory to Jesus.’...l felt as strong as a lion, yet as humble
as a poor Indian boy saved by grace, by grace alone. . ..As I looked at the trees, the hills,
and the vallies, 0 how beautiful they all appeared! I looked upon them, as it were with
new eyes and new thoughts.‘06

It is clear that race and religion intersected for Native believers in unique ways during
conversion. Many Great Lakes Ojibwe saw Protestant Christianity inextricably linked with white
culture. Non-Christian Indians continually rebuffed Christian conversion by suggesting that they
could not become white men after being raised as Indians. They viewed it as impossible for them
to dress, work, and live like whites. Non-Christian Ojibwe undoubtedly saw the cultural and
racial implications of conversion to Christianity and alluded to these factors when asked by

Indian missionaries to consider Christianity.

Religious beliefs, derived from the time of Neolin and Pontiac and before, espoused that
whites and Indians were created separately and that the Great Spirit gave whites and Indians two
disparate forms of religious expression and lifestyles. By the nineteenth century this “separate
creations” viewpoint was so widespread in Great Lakes Indian communities that it galvanized
resistance among traditionalist Anishinabeg against the message of universal salvation brought by
Protestant missionaries. Although individuals such as Jones and Copway were of mixed dissent,
both spent their childhoods in Native society and were likely taught Ojibwe spirituality and
cosmology; including the “separate creations” belief system. According to Jones, the belief that
the Creator had given Indians and whites two different forms of religion prevented him from

accepting Christianity before his conversion:

 

10’ Copway, Life, Letters, and Speeches, 61.

94

There was a time when I thought that the white man’s God was never intended to be our
God; that that the white man’s religion was never intended to be the red man’s religion;
that the Great Spirit gave us our way of worship, and that it would be wrong to put away
that mode of worship and take to the white man’s mode of worship. But I and my people
have found that there is but one true religion. . .the religion of the Bible.107

It is evident from the conversion narratives that initially issues of ethnic and religious
identity were Conflicting for potential converts. Their interactions with white society seemed to
reinforce traditional tribal perspectives that the Great Spirit designed separate religions for the
different races. During Peter Jones’ personal struggle to receive salvation, he almost abandoned
the effort. He said, “I tried to look up, but the heavens seemed like brass. I then began to say to
myself there is no mercy for poor Indians...” When it appeared that the young Mississauga had
been rejected by God, he fell back on “separatist” notions received from both white and tribal

society, that Christianity was not intended for Indians.

Without doubt many Ojibwe converts saw racial connotations interwoven within the
reception of Christianity. The choice of language when praying reflected the extent to which
notions of racial separation, superiority, or inferiority were internalized for first-generation
Ojibwe believers. Although George Copway appeared to be surrounded by Indian relatives at the
time of his conversion, he felt compelled to use English in his praise and initial prayer. Copway
makes it a point to say that he yelled out in English, “Praise be to Jesus.” The mere act of saying a

Christian prayer in one’s Native language was wrought with apprehension and trepidation.

Peter Jacobs or Pahtahsega, (One Who Makes The World Brighter), who was eventually
converted by Jones and became a missionary, wrestled with the idea of speaking to God in his

Native language. Jacobs later wrote, “I was very sorry that God could not understand my

 

“’7 Jones, History of the Oiebway Indians, 9-

95

Ojibway. I thought God could only understand English. . ..I then met with Peter Jones, who was
converted a few months before me. I now saw that God could understand me in Ojibway, and
therefore went far into the woods, and prayed, in the Ojibway tongue to God.”108 The young
convert also experienced a great deal of resistance from other Indians after his conversion.
According to Jacobs, after he told others of his experience and his desire to evangelize other
Native people, they responded, “No, that I was wrong; that I had been to the white man’s God,
and not the savior of the Indians.’”09 As Christianity became more prevalent in Indian
communities and as the Ojibwe language became the primary means in which the gospel was
spread (for both Indians and white missionaries alike) the separate creation theory began to lose
traction. Definitions of religious and racial identities would become more encompassing as

Indian converts matured into ministers, priests, deacons, and missionaries.

As the Missississaga-Ojibwe converts became rooted in their faith, they began to look
west to the Lake Superior Country or the Kitchi Gummi Aki and sought to bring the gospel to their
Anishinabe relatives. These prayers became reality when Peter Jones and John Sunday embarked
on a missionary tour to Lake Superior in the late 18205 and early 305. As they brought back news
of their success, other Mississauga Christians travelled west as missionaries, teacher, and
interpreters. The Mississauga missionaries were able to go where whites could not and reach

those who actively fought the message of Christianity brought by non-Indian missionaries.

Evangelical conversion was an unfamiliar concept to most Ojibwe in the 18205.
Although Ojibwe religion was highly individualistic and allowed for individual adherents to act

out personal visions received from the spirit world, these personal expressions were kept within a

 

’08 Peter Jacobs, Journfl of the Reverend Peter Jacobs, Indian Wesleyan Missionary, From Rice Lake To
113 Hudson's Bay Territory and Returning. (New York: Published for the author, 1857), 4.

109 Jacobs, 5.

96

ceremonial framework common to many Great Lakes communities. Anishinabe religion was
highly adaptive and accommodated a wide range of individual vieWpoints: an Ojibwe could have
a dream or a vision in which he was directed to perform a specific act, dress a certain way, paint
his face in a distinct fashion, or offer tobacco sacrifices in a certain manner. He was accountable
to the spirit world and his tribal community for obeying his visions and dreams. Though
reflecting his individual communications with the spirit world, his worshipful expressions did not
change his cosmological role in maintaining balance in creation or in the universe. Neither did
these acts change the way in which be viewed power. The Great Spirit was a distant force who
did not in intervene in the affairs of man, however, the multitude of good and evil spirits which
inhabited the natural and supernatural environment could be sought and manipulated. An
individual Ojibwe’s adaptation of religious expression did not change the worldview or the
religious framework of Anishinabe society. Evangelical conversion however hastened several

changes which were in stark contrast to customary Ojibwe behaviors.

The spiritual reorientation that an Ojibwe convert experienced was immediate and
precise. Access to the Great Spirit or spiritual power through the person of Jesus Christ
challenged the Ojibwe precept that spiritual power could be obtained through a variety of
different mediums; nor did sin as a concept of divine offence fit into the traditional Ojibwe
worldview and therefore, challenged Ojibwe notions of maintaining balance in the universe
through sacrifice and individual acts of appeasement. The Ojibwe convert saw his sin as
offensive to a divine and holy God; sin which could be reconciled only through the person of
Jesus Christ. Just as striking as this new message was for Ojibwe listeners, was the subsequent
actions of Ojibwe converts to Christianity. New converts to the faith denounced traditional forms
of ceremonial practice and ritual observance and they spoke out against the practice of obtaining
favor by seeking a number of spiritual beings in the form of manidoos. This oppositional stance

to Ojibwe traditional practice made Christian conversion stand out as a markedly different form
97

of religious expression and encompassed new notions of identity. Also, Native converts’ adopted
Anglo forms of culture, dress, and language and conveyed notions of ethnic and not simply
religious transformation. Many Indians believed that Christian conversion transformed Indians

into whites and thus, reinforced tribal teaching on the importance of staying separate from whites.

Yet many Native converts also adapted religious expression and their conversion
experience to cultural frameworks with which they were already familiar. Linguistically,
converts continued to use titles and names which were familiar to them. They continued to refer
to God as the “Great Spirit” and although the name of Jesus was being invoked more and more by
new Native converts, it became common to refer to Christ as Kechemanidoo 0gwison or the
Benevolent Spirit’s/Great Spirit’s son. Dreams and visions which occurred before, during, or
after conversion were important to Ojibwe believers and validated new forms of spirituality. In
Anishinabe culture, dreams and visions were a means by which an individual was allowed insight
into the spirit world. Records left by Indian missionaries demonstrate that following conversion
this process continued within a Christian context. Dreams continued to be a vital component of

the spiritual lives of converted Indians.

During the winter of 1832 and a year before he was baptized by Peter Jones in Sault Ste.
Marie, a young Ojibwe named Peter Marksman dreamed a “great and a mighty dream.”
According to Marksman, he saw the world divided into “two great companies” and a “great
ladder reaching to heaven, the other end downward, and the people going up, and the other
company going down into horrible darkness.” At the conclusion of the dream he says, “I saw the
heaven on fire.”1 '0 George Copway had a profound dream while travelling from Toronto to Rice

Lake to visit his cousin Thomas Kezhig who was confined to bed-rest due to illness. As he slept

 

11° John Pitezel, The Life of Rev. Peter Marksman, An Oiibwa Missionary: Illustratipgthe Triumphs of the

Gospel Amongthe Oiibwa Indians (Cincinnati: Western Methodist Book Concern, 1903), 42.

98

on a sofa aboard a steamship Copway dreamed of a “large granite rock” pyramid in which “a
great multitude” who “all had wings” sat upon and above them there was a throne in which, “One
sat upon. . .who shone like the sun.” Suddenly he encountered his cousin Thomas Kezhik (also a
Christian) whose body was transformed before his eyes and flew to join the multitude on the
pyramid. Copway said that upon awaking he was “still shaking and weeping.” As soon as the
steamship landed and he came ashore, his step-brother met him and delivered the unfortunate

news that “Our cousin is no more.” 1” He had died just a few hours earlier that afternoon.

Another Ojibwe man by the name of Yellowhead, a chief of the Lake Simcoe band (who
would eventually travel to the western Great Lakes to evangelize among the Lake Superior
Ojibwe ) had an open vision soon after his conversion. Peter Jones recorded that Yellowhead,
alter a prayer meeting, had left the fellowship and was walking home. While on the way to his
house, the Mississauga chief saw that “the path appeared like a blaze of fire, and his house was all
light, and everything was glorious and heavenly.”l '2 Sometimes visions occurred for Ojibwe
believers at the exact moment of conversion. When George Copway was converted at the camp
meeting he attended with his father in 1830, he saw in his mind a “small but brilliant torch”
passing through the trees. Copway says of his conversion, “The small but brilliant light came
near to me, and fell upon my head, and then ran all over and through me just as water had been
copiously poured out upon me.” He then fell to the ground where he laid for two hours, and upon
awaking claimed he had been converted. Although Copway’s vision occurred during his

conversion, some visions preceded conversion.

The well known Chief Shingwaukonse or Little Pine of the Garden River Ojibwe, who

later became a member of the Episcopal Church, experienced a powerfirl vision as a youth which

 

“1 Copway, Life, Letters, and Speeches, 121.

112 Jones, Lila, 256.

99

would chart the rest of his life. In her stellar work, The Legacy of Shingwaukonse, Janet Chute
cited the German explorer Johann Kohl who recorded the contents of Little Pine’s dream during a

visit to Garden River:

But he perceived a path hovering in the air, which gleamed in the darkness, and which,
commencing at his bed, ran upward through the doorway of his cabin...He went upon it
and it kept on rising higher and higher into heaven. There he found a house, from which
a man came out to meet him, wrapped from head to foot in white garments, like a priest.
The path, too, was decorated on either side with fluttering pennants, through which he
[Little Pine] triumphantly marched. The flags in the glistening path extended down to his
but, he started and woke up, and 10! All had suddenly disappeared.113

Though this dream happened in a strictly tribal setting it demonstrates how the legacy of dreams
and visions and how they impacted Native converts. The vitality of dreams to Ojibwe converts
took on even more significance as they were an accepted mode of spiritual manifestation in both
Ojibwe culture and among nineteenth-century evangelical expression. Themes of illumination,
lighted beings, and conversations with the spirit world were all familiar to Anishinabeg, and these

elemental themes reoccurred within a Christian context.

Many Ojibwe converts to evangelical Christianity did something that astonished non-
Christian Anishinabeg. They destroyed all of their previous “medicines,” religious symbols,
ceremonial implements, and sacred objects used to summon their spirit guides and access sources
of spiritual power. Peter Marksman described how after he was converted at Sault Ste. Marie, he
“went home rejoicing and praising God on the way” and he stated, “I took my images and my

gods of my fathers and did burn them and destroyed them?” ’4 On another occasion, after hearing

 

“3 Janet E. Chute, The Laaalcy of Shingwaukonse: A Century of Native Leadership (Toronto and London:
University of Toronto Press, 1998), pgs. 22—23.

“4 Pitezel, Life of Rev. Peter Marksman, 54.

100

John Sunday preach to a large tribal assembly at Penetanguishene near Lake Huron, an older
chief named Moozoomoonee, who had been among the number of those “who danced” the
previous night had a change of heart. He turned over his medicine bag, and “two balls of wood”
(which signified how many warriors he had killed) to a Christian Indian. He told the person, “Go,
Brother, and take it to the ministers, that they may see that I have done with these things. Tell
them I mean now to become a Christian and worship their God.” “5 Moozoomoonee who was
from the western Great Lakes and came to Penetanguishene to receive his annuities, implored
Jones and the others to send Indian missionaries to his home country where there were Indians
who he believed would “soon become Christians.” Peter Jones told the delegation of Indian
missionaries who were leaving Penetanguishene for Sault Ste. Marie, to make sure they visited

“the country of Moozoomoonee” and “preach the gospel to his people.”l ’6

As is evidenced by the reactions of several Indian converts, conversion of the
Mississauga-Ojibwe of Upper Canada had major implications for the way in which they viewed
their previous religious practices. Many converts renounced their former practices, discarded
medicine bags, and destroyed ceremonial items. This was no small feat, given that many of the
Christian Ojibwe (as were the Indian missionaries themselves) were former practitioners of the
Midewiwin religion, a religious movement that was very popular among the Ojibwe during the
nineteenth century. Their medicine bags would have contained sacred objects that were used in
personal ceremonial worship and held items representing spirit and animal helpers as revealed in
visions and dreams. Under no conditions would a medicine person or Midewiwin practitioner

discard such implements without fear of retribution from their “spirit” guardians or helpers.

 

1’5 Jones, m, 351.

116 Jones, i.i_f_e_, 354.

101

Some even went to the Mediwiwin lodge to announce to the other participants that they were

preparing to forsake the lodge and take up Christianity.

Ojibwe missionaries used these experiences in Upper Canada to provide a system of
parameters which defined accepted practice when it came to Ojibwe cultural practices not clearly
set forth in scripture. As Indigenous Protestant Christian theology took root among the
Mississauga converts from Upper Canada, the Indian missionaries were at the forefront of the
movement. They provided insightful direction to new Ojibwe converts when it came to grappling
with former religious practice. However, as chapter two reveals, when it came to cultural
conformity and assimilation into white society, Ojibwe missionaries allowed each convert the

autonomy to adopt white cultural constructs or to retain tribal modalities as they saw fit.

102

Chapter 3- Evangelical Christianity in the Lake Superior Region

103

On June 16th 1833, the log cabin which housed the Little Rapids Mission, located just off
the shore of the St. Mary’s River in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan reverberated with the harmonious
sounds of the old Methodist hymn “Jesus to all my heaven is gone.” Candidates for baptism lined
up throughout the small mission. Others, moved by the minister’s message of spiritual salvation
and redemption, went forward to the mourner’s bench placed at the front of the small church and
said prayers asking forgiveness and salvation. They soon joined the others in hopes of partaking
in the holy ordinance of baptism. One by one, the minister pronounced the baptismal blessing, “I
now baptize you in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost” and in according to nineteenth
century Methodist church custom, the candidates had water sprinkled on their foreheads. Tears
streamed down the cheeks of many, some overcome with joy shouted “Halleljuahl,” while others
quickly retreated to their pew and knelt down in holy reverence. The Reverend John Clark, the
Methodist Superintendent of Missions for the Lake Superior region, could not remember a more
moving baptismal service where the atmosphere itself seemed charged with a divine presence or a
service where the congregants where so reverential, so devout, so sincere. Making the event even
more remarkable was that service was attended by mostly Ojibwe Indians and orchestrated

entirely by Native ministers; Superintendent Clark and few other soldiers from the local fort

being the only non-Indians present.

During the meeting the Reverend Peter Jones, or Kahkewaquonaby (Sacred Waving
Feathers), a Mississauga-Ojibwe from the Credit River reserve in Upper Canada delivered the
sermon and baptized believers. John Kabeege and John Taunchey, two Mississauga Indians from
the same Canadian reserve as George Copway, gave personal testimonials of their missionary
endeavors along Lake Superior. A few days later John Sunday Shawundais (Sultry Heat) a
Mississaga-Ojibwe from Canada who had been converted under Jones, arrived from his mission

further up the Lake Superior coast at the “Kewawenon” Mission and joined in the week-long

104

meeting.l ’7 Many of the believers in attendance at the revival had been converted by Sunday
during a missionary trip to the Sault two years earlier in 1831. The week-long revival which
brought Native missionaries from Michigan and Canada, was conducted to encourage a handful
of Native clergy and the growing congregation of Indian believers at Bahweting or Sault Ste.

Marie; the meeting had its intended effect.

Peter Greensky or Shagasokicki, who was at the meeting would become a licensed
Methodist minister and would eventually go on to lead his own congregation in the Little
Traverse Bay area in the 18403. Another young Indian in attendance, Peter Marksman or
Gahgodahahquah of Fond du Lac, Wisconsin was in town with his brother Peter Wahsahquahum,
to visit relatives and sell Whitefish. The young Ojibwe was baptized at the meeting by Peter
Jones, whom he regarded as his spiritual father for the remainder of his life. In time, Marksman
would become a prolific Methodist preacher himself. Later in his life, while he and his close
friend and Methodist missionary John H. Pitezel walked along the shore of the St. Mary’s River,
he pointed to the dilapidated old cabin which used to house the Little Rapids Mission and told his

friend, “There in the door of that school house I was converted.”1 '8

Though Marksman had been exposed to Baptist minister Abel Bingham’s Indian mission
in Sault Ste. Marie as early as 1830, he was not moved to conversion until he witnessed other
Anishinabeg preaching the gospel. The presence of a Native clergy preaching in their Ojibwe
language intrigued Marksman and he was soon compelled to attend the meeting at the Little
Rapids Mission. “1 was very anxious, after I had heard of those men, to see and hear them

preach the Word of life. I never had an idea that any of our own people could preach Jesus

 

“7 Pitezel, Life of Peter Marksman, 50.

“3 Pitezel, Life of Peter Marksman. 52-

105

”l ‘9 The scene must have been truly surreal for the young

Christ, the resurrection and the life.
Ojibwe. Though Marksman had been exposed to Abel Bingham’s Baptist mission at the Sault he

was not moved to fully embrace Christianity until he saw a collected body of Anishinabe

ministers and missionaries preaching the gospel.

Abel Bingham’s mission and school for converts attracted a small following of
Anishinabe believers in the Sault, and it was through the Baptist missionary that Marksman heard
the gospel for the first time. But after hearing the message of salvation being preached from
Ojibwe ministers he took his “images, the gods of my fathers” who he served with “fasting and
prayer” and “burned” them. Just as the Mississauga -Ojibwe of Upper Canada, these new
converts to the faith, under the preaching of Mississauga missionaries, destroyed their ceremonial
items and tokens of spiritual power as part of their conversion experience. Yet, Marksman’s
reaction is indicative of many Ojibwe adherents who listened to the preaching of Sunday or
Jones. It is evident that Anishinabeg in the Lake Superior region were undergoing some very
powerful and authentic conversion experiences. Drastic enough to inspire a marked change in the
way they viewed their traditional medicine or belief patterns. The profound conversions and the
intensity of the subsequent devotional practices of these Christian Indians lefi many white

missionaries in wonderment.

The sight of Indians experiencing drastic conversions and making such fervent stances
toward their former spiritual ideologies was enough to enthrall American missionaries. Native
notions of sacrifice, experiential worship, and reverence of spiritual power translated directly over
to their Christian devotions. So much so, that missionary David Meeker Chandler, who was
assigned to the military fort at Sault Ste Marie in 1831, remarked in a Dec 25th journal entry:

“When an Indian is truly brought to God, and inspired with the power of gospel grace, he

 

“9 Pitezel, Life of Peter Marksman, 45.

106

becomes ardent and devoted to the simple duties of salvation, almost unequalled.” Two days
later he wrote, “I never saw so powerful a set of beings as the Indians are, after their conversion
to God. In prayer they are the most humble, and exercise the most faith; so that I feel like living

and dying with these humble and loving ones.”120

Evidently, Chandler observed something profoundly different than what he had been
accustomed to seeing in the religious life of the soldiers at the fort and the community at large.
He seemed to be overwhelmed at the spiritual lives and the devotions exhibited by these news
converts to the faith. The missionary appeared to comprehend the magnitude of the moment, as if
he knew something momentous and unprecedented was occurring and he was there to witness it
unfold. Although more missionaries gathered at the area of the rapids, the region still lacked a
large Protestant Christian community. Some missionaries such as Chandler made inroads into the

Native community, however major language and cultural barriers made progress difficult.

Methodist Superintendent of Missions, John Clark, was acutely aware of the need for
Anishinabe missionaries in the western Great Lakes. Though mission posts were being
established throughout the region by a range of denominations, there was surprisingly little
progress in converting actual Indians. At many outposts such as Sault Ste Marie and Mackinaw
Island, white missionaries who came to convert Indians served a growing population of white
residents. Many ministers would divide their ministerial duties amongst both Indians and white
believers, ministering to Indians at one time of the day and to white congregants at another.
Although the growth of white congregations seemed to be progressing, for missionaries such as
John Clark, the process of converting Indians was occurring at an excruciatingly slow pace. He

was familiar with the success that Methodists missions had amongst the Mississauga-Ojibwe of

 

120Cyrus Prindle, Memoir of Daniel Meeker Chandler: For Several Years Missionary Among The Indians. At

Ke~W;-We-Non, and Sault De St. Marie. Lake Superior (Middlebury: Ephraim Maxham, 1842), 39.

107

Upper Canada and how some of those converts were now actively evangelizing their own people
with astonishing results. He also witnessed first-hand that when Native missionaries, such as

John Sunday or Peter Jones visited the region, the results were explosive.

John Clark began to send letters to ministerial friends in Canada requesting that native
converts be sent to the Indian mission field in the western Great Lakes. In June of 1834, Daniel
McMullen, the missionary at the Indian community of Rice Lake received a letter from Revered
William Case, Superintendent of Missions in Canada. The letter from Case indicated that he had
just received correspondence from John Clark of the Lake Superior country requesting that
Native preachers and teachers be sent to Sault Ste. Marie to help in the missionary effort there.
Upon receiving the letter from William Case, Rice Lake missionary Daniel McMullen acted with
haste. Of the Rice lake Mississauga, he selected individuals who had a clear conversion
experience, had some level of education, were bilingual, and demonstrated potential as a
missionary. Kahgegagahbow or George Copway, John Enmegahbowh or John Johnson, John
Taunchey, and John Kabeege (also known as John Cabauge) were selected to be sent to the
mission field in the west. John Taunchey was an uncle to Copway, and Johnson and Copway
were cousins.'21 John Taunchey and John Kabeege may have accompanied Peter Jones to the
June 1833 meeting at the Little Rapids Mission in the Sault, for they are mentioned by Marksman
as giving an “account of their labors” at the meeting. They may have been already teaching and
evangelizing among their community at Rice lake during this time. At any rate they were
selected along with George Copway and John Johnson to travel to the Lake Superior country as

missionaries.

By 1834, when the missionary at Rice Lake received the letter alerting him of the need

for Indian missions in the west, John Sunday and a group of Mississauga Indians had lefi Rice

 

121 Copway, Life, Letters, and Speeches, 64.

108

Lake for another tour of the Lake Superior country. Sunday had been making period visits of
varying length since183l and was successful in converting many Ojibwe along the south shore of
Lake Superior to Christianity. During his first tour, Sunday was instrumental in establishing
missions at Sault Ste. Marie (Little Rapids Mission) and Keweenaw Bay (Kewawenon Mission).
The mission at the Sault was originally established on Sugar Island as part of a plan in which
other Mississauga Christians from Grape Island, in the Bay of Quinte, Upper Canada (Sunday’s
homeland) could eventually relocate to establish an agricultural Christian community. However,
resistance from traditional and Catholic Indians, along with a cholera outbreak, forced the
mission to be reestablished opposite the south shore of Sugar Island in Sault Ste. Marie in
1833.122 At some point Sunday returned to Upper Canada and had some surprising news for the
Rice Lake band. According to Copway, upon his arrival the Indian preacher announced that the
Lake Superior Ojibwe were “eager to hear the word” and “that many had been converted.” His
report made such an impression on Copway that while in secret the young Mississauga prayed
that God would send him west to “instruct the children in the truths of religion.” ’23 Soon this

‘ opportunity would become a reality for Copway.

The young Mississauga originally balked at the idea of serving as a missionary in the
western Great Lakes. However after a two week hunting trip, which he intentionally planned in
order to be absent during the departure of his uncle John Taunchey, the young Mississauga had a
change of heart. According to Copway he was “dissatisfied” during his hunting trip and
something seemed to continually whisper, “George, go home, and go to Lake Superior with your

uncle John Taunchey.” After returning to the village and spending an anxious night of weeping

 

122 Chute, The Leggcvof Shingwaukonse, 46.

123 Copway, The Life. Letters, and Speeches, 64.

 

109

and praying, the young Copway awoke and told his father, “I have concluded to go, prepare me

for the journey.”124

John Johnson or Emegahbowh, an Odawa cousin of Copway’s who had also attended the
school at Rice Lake along with George, lefi with John Kabeege two weeks earlier. Yet his
decision to leave his home at Rice Lake proved as traumatic as Copway’s if not more so. When
the Methodist minister of Rice Lake, the Reverend James Evans, originally approached Johnson
and his family to explore the prospect of recruiting Enmegahbowh as a missionary to the Indians
of Lake Superior, John’s father was resistant to the idea of sending his son away. Enmegahbowh

recalled the interaction years later:

Mr. Evans, came to my father and asked him to let me go. My father said, ‘No, this is
our only son, you must not ask for him.’ Mr. Evans continued to ask, saying: ‘He may
himself become a missionary among his heathen race. You know the heathen of your
own race, far away toward the setting sun, are dying out without God. You should pity
your people and send your son to them."25

According to Johnson, the conversation between Rev. Evans and his father was enough “to turn”
both of his parents to the point of considering the idea. John’s mother and father gave the
minister three weeks to find someone else, which he never did. At which time, Enmegahbowh’s
mother asked the missionary, “Mr. Evans, will you promise in writing that my son comes to me
again in one year?” To which, according to Enmegahbowh, the reverend responded by promising
to fulfill his mother’s request. Upon leaving his family, his mother wept so expressively, that it
was enough to almost make the young missionary turn back. It would be the last time that John

Johnson Enmegahbowh would ever see his parents. According to Johnson, “Tears blinded his

 

124 Copway, Life, Letters, and Speeches, 65.

“5 Leroy Jackson, Enmegahbowh—A Chippewa Missionary, North Dakota State Historical Society, Vol. II

(North Dakota: S.l., 1908), 4.

110

eyes” as he “went forth to an unknown heathen country.”126 Without a doubt, Enmegahbowh
carried this traumatic scene with him for the rest of his life. Copway and Johnson would

eventually be reunited at the Little Rapids Mission in Sault Ste. Marie.

By surviving on “fishing and shooting gulls” Copway and the others reached Baweting
(Place of the Rapids) or Sault Ste. Marie on August 24‘“, 1834. He met up with the
Superintendant of Methodist Missions John Clark, John Kabeege, and his cousin John Johnson
Enmegahbowh at the Little Rapids Mission, about two miles down-river from the main rapids at
the Sault. According to Copway, they held services in the homes of Indians at the rapids who
were “comfortable in their new houses?”27 The new homes mentioned by Copway are
undoubtedly in reference to the houses erected at the Little Rapids Mission. Originally begun
with the missionary efforts of John Sunday who evangelized Ojibwe bands in the Sault area as
early as 1831, the emerging Christian Indian community at the rapids became a focal point for

Methodist missions.

Methodist Missionary John Clark, who had left New York to begin a mission at Green
Bay had heard of the success of John Sunday’s efforts at the Sault and immediately wrote the
Ojibe missionary to inquire about establishing a mission school at the rapids.‘28 With the support
of New York Board of Missions, Clark along with his wife, two children, and two women
assistants arrived at the mission. By 1834, with the assistance of the Christian Ojibwe, he built 13

log cabins, a log school house (which served as the church), and a missionary home.‘29 The

 

“6 Jackson, 4.

127 Copway, Life, Letters, and Speeches, 67.

 

“8 Reuter, 32.

129 Charles Nairn, et. al. One hundred years of Methodism in Sault Ste. Marie, 1833-1933, (Sault Ste.
Marie: Central United Methodist Church, 1983), 4.

111

mission, named the Little Rapids Mission, after the rapids which flowed off its banks, served
around 34 Christian Ojibwe. The satellite Methodist mission at Ft. Brady consisted of about 12
Ojibwe believers. By the time John Pitezel arrived at the site in 1843, the number of Ojibwe
converts at the Little Rapids Mission had grown to fifty five.I30 Describing the mission,

Methodist missionary John Pitezel wrote:

Lining the shore were about a dozen Indian houses, several wigwams, and the school
house, an old log building, which served for the chapel and schools. Forty or fifty acres
were then cultivated by the Indians, under the direction of the superintendent, aided by
other missionaries. A fine crop of vegetables, were in the ground when we landed, to
take care of which were the first of our duties. '3 ’

Pitezel, who was stationed at the Little Rapids Mission in 1843 went on to describe the church

services and prayer meetings which took place at the mission:

When in their meetings, even a stranger to their language could readily perceive that
religion is the same among untutored Indians as it is among the whites. Their fervent
prayers——their devoted hymns of praise—their subdued and often tearful attention to the
preached word—their consistent religious experience, as they relate in the class or love
feast, and the correctness of their general deportment, may be favorably compared to
their more knowing white brothers.”132

The Ojibwe converts made an indelible impression on the local white community. Many
frontier whites thought it improbable that Indians could become Christians. In some regions such

as Illinois and Minnesota where relations between whites and Indians were more tenuous, some

 

130 .
Nairn, S.

131

John H. Pitezel, Lights and Slgdes of Missionary Life: Containing Travels, Sketches, Incidents, and
Missionam Efforts, During Nine Years Spent In The Region of Lake Superior (Cincinnati: Western Book
Concern, 1861), 38.

132 Pitezel, fights and Shades of Missionary Life, 33.

112

thought that Indians would receive an education and then return and attack white settlements.’33
The Christian Ojibwe of the Sault not only shattered misconceived notions held by neighboring
whites but they may have inspired a religious awakening of sorts among the soldiers of Ft. Brady,
the military fort located two miles upriver from the Little Rapids Mission. In the morning of
June, 1833, an influential officer happened upon a group of Christian Ojibwe who were

worshipping in the nearby woods:

Rosy fingers seemed to unbar the gates of light. My ears were greeted with the soft of
sound music. They had risen with the day to worship God. They sang in three parts-
bass, treble, and tenor-and with time so true, and voices so true, as to add harmony even
to nature itself. As I listened to their praises and prayer, I felt humbled and ashamed of

. my country, in view of the wrongs it had afflicted, and continues to inflict, upon these
desolate and destitute children of the forest.”'34

Sault Ste. Marie or Baweting as it was called by the Anishnabeg, had always been a
gathering place for Great Lakes Ojibwe. There was a total of about 1200 mainly Ojibwe who
lived in 14 different villages in Upper Canada to the north and west of the rapids. Ojibwe from
the communities at Michipiticon, Garden River, Manitoulin Island, and along the north shore of
Lake Huron visited the rapids at least once a year. Another 1500 Ojibwe lived in 25 communities
throughout the Easter Upper Peninsula, along the south shore of Lake Superior, and on the north
Shore of Lake Michigan.‘35 The most prominent Indian villages being located at Sault Ste. Marie,
Mackinaw Island, Drummond Island, Grand Island, Escanaba, and L’Anse. There were probably
abOut 20,000 Indians living in all of Michigan and northern Wisconsin in the late 18303. The

majority of Ashininabeg in Michigan (12,000-15,000) lived in the southern half of the Lower

\
133
George Copway, Life, Letters, and Speeches, eds. Donald Smith and A. LaVonne Brown Ruoff, (Lincoln

and London: University of Nebraska Press, 1997), 28.

134
Reuter, 34.

135
Tanner, Atlas of Great Lakes Indian History, 131.

113

Peninsula where agricultural pursuits and production of food was more feasible. The remaining
5,000- 8,000 lived in the northern half of the Lower Peninsula and throughout the Upper
Peninsula. Some scholars assert that when the Potawatomi are included, the total Indian
populations of Michigan amounted to 30,000 in the nineteenth century. Most Anishinabeg
villages averaged between 50 and 150 inhabitants. Considering that most families averaged about

5 members per family, larger villages would have contained about 30 families.136

According to Ojibwe oral history, Baweting was one of the last resting points where the
Ojibwe settled during their migration from the east. Each summer hundreds of Ojibwe came to
the rapids to fish and trade. The town was officially founded in 1668 when Father Marquette
established a Catholic mission on the banks of the St. Mary’s river. French explorers named the
place, Sault de Ste. Marie, or the Rapids of St. Mary. By the early 18303 the village was home to
a diverse community of 950 American, F tench-Canadian, Indian, and Métis residents. During the
summer months the population swelled to over 3,000 as waves of Natives from throughout the
Great Lakes came to the rapids to fish and trade.137 Many Ojibwe flocked to therapids where an
assortment of fish including Whitefish and trout could be found in great quantity. Daily life for
the village’s white residents revolved around the military fort (established in 1822) and the
growing business districted located on Water Street which ran parallel to the St. Mary’s River.
An assortment of buildings lined the banks of the St. Mary’s including warehouses, hotels,
storehouses, retail stores, saloons, grocery stores, a bake house, a tailor shop, and a blacksmith
shop. A smaller but growing Canadian settlement was situated across from the American village

on the north shore of the river.

 

136 Charles E. Cleland, Rites of Conquest: The History and Culture of Michiggn’s Native Americans, (Ann

Arbor: The University of Michigan Press, 1992), 194.
”7 Tanner, 130.

114

The largest Indian settlement along the Canadian shore was 17 miles east of the rapids at
Garden River, where two groups of Ojibwe, led by Shingwaukonse or Little Pine were located.138
As part of the 1820 Treaty of Sault Ste. Marie, the Ojibwe at the rapids reserved for themselves a
parcel of land that lay adjacent to the American military fort. This reservation became a popular
encampment for Ojibwe who came to the rapids to fish, trade, and visit relatives. Most white
visitors who came to the Sault or passed through on their way to the western end of Lake
Superior, resided at the fort, one of the many hotels and boarding houses, or at the home of John
Johnston. An immigrant from Ireland, John Johnston came to Canada in 1792. After marrying
Ozhawguscodaywaquay, daughter of a prominent tribal leader by the name of Waubojig, Johnston

and his bride moved to the Sault from La Point, WI where he was engaged in the fur trade.

Sault Ste. Marie had been a center of fur trading activity since the mid-eighteenth
century. By 1800, roughly 1 million dollars worth of beaver pelts belonging to the North West
Company flowed through the small village at the rapids. At its height the North West Company
employed around thirty five guides, fifty clerks, seventy five interpreters, and eleven hundred
voyageurs.139 John Jacob Astor’s American Fur Company, founded in 1808 made Sault Ste.
Marie its central trading post for Lake Superior. About 50 miles south, the fur trader purchased
the fur trading company, Mackinaw Fur, from its English owners in 1811 and made Mackinaw
Island the base for operation for the entire Great Lakes region.’40 Counting the smaller X Y fur
trading company and the numerous independent fur traders, the number of furs that were
harvested around the rapids and shipped through the St. Mary’s River must have been enormous.

Thousands of beaver, martin, muskrat, fox, bear, deer, lynx, and wolf hides taken from the

 

’38 Tanner, 130.
139 Newton, 99.
1‘” Newton, 106.

115

western head of Lake Superior and beyond, came through the rapids every year bound for eastern

markets in Montreal, Detroit, and New York State.”'

By the 18205, however, widespread depletion of valuable fur bearing animals such as the
beaver, otter, and marten, forced Ojibwe hunters to focus on less valuable muskrat pelts and deer
hides. Though Ojibwe men continued to trap and trade, by the mid 18308 the industry had
changed dramatically. With supply at an all time low, and commercial markets replacing fiir with
other materials such as felt, the Ojibwe of Lake Superior were left in a desperate situation.142
The abandonment of the North West Fur Company and the American Fur Company had a
particularly harsh impact on Ojibwe communities, whose families were sustained with the cash
received from pelts and furs. For the Sault Ojibwe, the commercialization of the fisheries at the
rapids in the 18308 and the construction of the first lock in 1855 not only displaced an Ojibwe
band living near it but also destroyed a portion of an important environmental resource and had

devastating consequences for the Ojibwe at the Sault.

As the fur trade diminished, Ojibwe villages throughout the Great Lakes had to rely on
hunting, fishing, and tapping maple trees for sugar like never before. Some were employed by
commercial fisheries making nets and catching, packaging, and transporting fish to far away
markets. Overall, however, the decline of the fur trade threw Ojibwe communities such as the
one at Sault Ste. Marie into a state of flux. By the 18403, the need for receiving an education in
order to survive in an increasingly white dominated capitalist system became more pronounced
for the Lake Superior Ojibwe. The Christian missions and schools such as the Little Rapids
Mission grew more appealing as many Ojibwe grappled with providing a sustainable future for

their children. Sault Ste. Marie was also home to the newly established Indian department with

 

141 Newton, 99

“2 Cleland, Rites of Conquest, 180.

116

Henry Rowe Schoolcraft as its Indian agent. Henry Schoolcraft married Jane Johnston, the
daughter of John Johnston and Ozhawguscodaywaquay and developed a scholarly career studying
Ojibwe culture. He used the Indian agency at the Sault as a base for his linguistic and
anthropological studies of indigenous culture. His wife undoubtedly aided his understanding of

Ojibwe society.

George Copway spent about two weeks at the Little Rapids mission before departing to
the Kewawenon Mission at Keweenaw Bay. The Rev. Daniel Meeker Chandler, George
Copway, Copway’s uncle John Taunchey, and group of traders arrived at Kewawenon Indian
Mission in the fall of 1834.143 The Methodist mission was situated on the east side of the bay
near the town of L’Anse, MI; across the bay, near the town of Baraga, stood the Catholic mission.
The majority of the 600 Ojibwe inhabitants who lived year around at Keweenaw Bay were
Roman Catholics and traditionalists. Like the Ojibwe at the Sault they relied heavily on fishing
and making sugar to survive. The decline of the fur trade had also impacted Keweenaw Bay
Indian communities. During the summer they survived by consuming white fish, trout, and
herring which they obtained by spearing and setting gill nets. In addition to hunting and fishing,
during the summer months the Ojibwe harvested cranberries, blueberries, whortleberries, and
raspberries in great numbers. Whortlebenies and blueberries were so plentiful around Keweenaw
Bay that they made “the country look literally black.” Though the climate at Keweenaw Bay was
too cold for any long term agriculture, the Ojibwe sold an assortment of vegetables to miners

employed in the burgeoning mining industry of the western Upper Peninsula in the 18403 '44

 

“3 Goerge Copway, Life Letters, and Speeches. 69-

1“ Reuter, 45.

117

Hunting was difficult during the winter months because the number of large game such as bear

and deer had been severely reduced.145

By the 18603, these communities would merge into three factions; Christian (mostly
Methodists), Roman Catholic, and traditional (those who adhered to the Midewiwin religion and
lived from the season cycle). Each group consisted of about 300 people each. There was an
additional 600-800 Ojibwe who comprised about four to six bands living seasonally at Keweenaw
Bay, along the Ontonogan River, and at Lac Vieux Desert, near the American town of
Watersmeet. They came to Keweenaw during the summer months to visit their Christian relations

. . . . 4
and occasronally receive treaty annuitiesl 6

In the early 18303 however, the Protestant Ojibwe Christian community near L’Anse was
just being established. The Protestant community of Ojibwe consisted of about 30 Indians who
had been evangelized two years previously by John Sunday. The Mississauga missionary had
originally been invited to establish a mission at Keweenaw Bay by a white trader whom he met
while ministering at Sault Ste. Marie in 1832. Sunday began the mission by establishing a school
for local Ojibwe children. After he acquired a class of about 15 scholars, adults began to
demonstrate interest in his teachings. At least three adults were converted alter the children
including as staunch traditionalist. In two years time the mission had grown from 15 students
and a few adult converts to roughly 30 members.147 According to D. M. Chandler, the missionary
who had adored the worship services of the Sault Ojibwe, but struggled to communicate with

them due to language deficiencies, now had more than enough help. George Copway (mission

 

145 Edmund Danziger Jr., The Chippewas of Lake Superior. (Norman and London: University of Oklahoma

Press), 71.

“6 Cleland, Rites of Conquest, 241-242..

147 Reuter, 27.

118

teacher) and John Taunchey (the mission interpreter) were both bilingual. John Taunchey and
Copway were likely with Chandler when they were visited by the group of Ojibwe men who
demanded restitution for building on their land. The Ojibwe missionaries probably played a key
part in advising Chandler to provide the appropriate supplies in return for the use of their hunting
grounds. Although Copway’s official title was that of teacher, he soon joined Taunchey and
Chandler in actively evangelizing the unconverted Ojibwe and ministering to the Christian

Indians.

The three missionaries would routinely visit the Ojibwe in their lodges, sharing the
gospel and leading prayer meetings. They sang hymns translated by Peter Jones, learned the
Lord’s Prayer, the Apostle’s Creed, and the Ten Commandments in the Ojibwe language.
According to Copway, “Singing and Praying were their constant employment, and some of them
seemed to know nothing else but the enjoyment of the truth of the gospel, and that God can and
does ‘forgive sin.’ They became the happiest of beings; their very souls were like an escaped bird,

whose glad wings had saved it from danger and death.” '43

The Kewawenon Mission experienced a great deal of success. Speaking to converts
directly without an interpreter hastened conversions. Relations between the Catholic missions
remained somewhat amicable. In 1845, Bishop Baraga, who was in charge of the Catholic
mission, donated a bell to the Kewawenon Indian Mission which replaced the large conch shell
that was blown to summon Ojibwe converts to church service.‘49 The fruit of the labor of these
missionaries was evident during a week-long revival meeting held in June of 1835. During the

testimony service or “love feasts” several Christian Ojibwe shared their testimonies of how they

 

“8 Copway, Life, Letters, and Speeches, 69.
149 Reuter, 45.

119

were converted. Those who testified included Chief Yellowhead from Lake Simcoe, Chief Big

Shilling, Emma Rahmsega, William Snake, and Big Jacob (John Sunday’s brother).

The preponderance of chiefs at these meetings reflected the Indian missionary efforts to
convert tribal leaders. Community leaders held considerable sway with the rest of the members
(as was the case with Goerge Copway’s father and the Rice Lake Ojibwe) and were therefore
immediately targeted by Indian missionaries. The presence of Chief Yellowhead who came to
the meeting from Lake Simcoe, Upper Canada also signifies that many Christian Indians travelled
to Indian communities and missions to spread the message of Christianity, encourage other
Native believers, or to simply participate in Christian meetings with other Indians. Most Ojibwe
communities were tied into a regional network of migratory Ojibwe groups and families. Each
year, migrating families brought news, information, trade items, and stories of what was

occurring outside of the local communities.

A few years earlier in 1832 during a meeting near Lake Simcoe in Upper Canada, the
powerful leader of the Ojibwe at Ketegaunsebe or Garden River, Shingwaukonse or Little Pine
was evidently invited along with six other chiefs from the western Great Lakes. During this all-
Indian meeting, Shingwaukonse described how he had originally heard the message of
Christianity from John Sunday during one of the missionary trips to Lake Superior in 1831. He
told the tribal council of his initial reaction, “I began to think, ‘What shall I do without God?’ I
remembered John Sunday speaking about a great God; and I thought that I would come to this
country, to see who knew about John Sunday’s God. I have heard of many stars shining above

my head’ [meaning the different denominations of Christians].”150

 

15° Chute, 48.

120

Hearing of Shinghwaukonse '3 interest in Christianity, Peter Jones also sought out the
influential chief on his tour to Sault Ste. Marie in 1833. He travelled to the Canadian side of the
rapids in order to talk to Litte Pine and to “hold a meeting among his people.” During the course
of the meeting Little Pine told Jones and his delegation, “that he was glad we had come to see
them; that he had signified his desire to John Sunday for us to come and establish a mission
among them; and that he and the other men would then take the subject into consideration.”l5 '
Jones asked several of the Methodist Indians on the American side if they had indeed labored on
the Canadian side which they responded in the affirmative. Most of the residents of the rapids,
both Indian and non-Indian spoke of the effectiveness of the Ojibwe Christians is Sault Ste. Marie
and how they influenced many Anishinabeg in the region to embrace Christianity. According to
Jones, “All impartial persons in this place also testify that all of the religious impressions made
on the minds of the Indians on both sides of the river, have been produced through the labors of

our native speakers.” '52 However Shinwaukonse eventually became an Anglican and sought to

have an Anglican mission established among his people on the British side of the rapids in 1830.

During the summer of 1830 the Reverend George Archbold had travelled through the
Lake Huron district to select sights for an Anglican mission. He viewed several areas and
ultimately focused his sights on Sault Ste. Marie and LaCloche. In the fall of 1830 James
Cameron, a mixed Ojibwe man was sent to both locations to establish Anglican missions.
Although the LaCloche mission showed little interest in Christianity, Cameron received a warm

response from Little Pine at Sault Ste. Marie where a mission was established. Cameron,

 

151 Jones, _Lifg, 363.
152 Jones, Lifg, 363.

121

however, eventually joined Abel Bingham’s Baptist mission on the American side of the shore

and became a Baptist preacher.153

In 1832, William McMurray, an Episcopal priest had settled on the north side of the
rapids and was also well received by Little Pine. McMurray or Nazhekawasung (The Lone
Lightening) as he was called by Little Pine’s band had not yet been admitted to the Holy Orders
and therefore his ministerial duties among the Ojibwe were restricted. However given the
favorable welcome that he received from Little Pine’s band and realizing the potential for a long-
term mission at the rapids, he hurriedly set out in June of 1833 to for an emergency meeting with
the Bishop of the Anglican Church in Canada, Bishop Stewart, who was based in Quebec. After
travelling 3 months and 1500 miles he obtained an audience with the Bishop and was admitted
into the Order of Deacons although he was still a few months shy of the age required for

154

ordination. McMurray who took an Ojibwe wife, labored at the Anglican mission on the north

shore of the rapids from 1832-1836.

Peter Jones may have sensed the predilection of Little Pine for the Anglican Church and
questioned the Methodist Indians at the Little Rapids Mission to see if they had done everything
within their power to win Little Pine to Methodism. Denominational rivalry among white
missionaries could be quite intense as more missionaries came to the region to convert local
Anishinabeg to Christianity. In the late 18203 Abel Bingham’s Baptist mission enjoyed almost
total influence in the missionary field in the area. However by the mid 18303 the situation had
changed drastically. This was especially true of the region around the rapids where community

leaders vied for control and influence over both Indian and non-Indian residents. Baptist minister

 

1'” Chute, 51.

15‘ Mildred Harris Armstrong, A History of the First One Hundred Years of St. James Episcopal Church,
Sault Ste. Marie, MI, 1880-1981 ( Sault Ste. Marie: St. James Episcopal Church, 1982), 7.

 

122

Abel Bingham and Henry Rowe Schoolcrafi, head of the Indian agency at the Sault, found
themselves embroiled in a heated clash over an annuity set forth by the 1826 Treaty of Fond du
Lac, which provided $1000 to fund a mission school at the rapids. Henry Rowe Schoolcraft, the
leading political voice at the Sault felt that his authority had been undermined by Abel Bingham
and attempted to use his leverage as Indian agent to gain control of the finances of the mission
school. Bingham however would eventually win out in the struggle for control of the annuity and

financial management of the mission school.’55

Although Rev. Bingham won the battle of fiscal control on the mission school, he now
faced stiff competition from other missions which seemed to be multiplying in the area by the
year. By the mid 18303, competition from Methodists, Presbyterians, and Episcopal missionaries,
all vied for influence with the Indians. Political battles with Schoolcrafi had made Bingham
vulnerable and slightly suspicious. Jeremiah Porter, the young missionary from Princeton
Theological Seminary, had only been to the rapids for little over a month when Bingham revealed
to him possible plots by the Johnston family (Schoolcraft’s Presbyterian in-laws) and Mississauga
missionary John Sunday to undermine his influence. In his journal Porter states that Bingham
had arrived on the morning of Dec. 12’h to discuss the recent interest of the subject of religion on
behalf of the local Ojibwe. According to Porter, Bingham argued that the Johnston family was
being subversive in their dealings with him. “Mr. B[ingham] fears Sund[a]y wished to supplant
him here & that Mrs. J [ohnston]’s family are holding meetings to keep up his interests.” Porter
then claims he responded, “I endeavored to convince him that in the last opinion he was wrong

and promised to do what is in my power to prevent Sunday’s locating here.”156

 

155 John T. Fierst, "Return to ’Civilization’: John Tanner’s Troubled Years at Sault Ste. Marie” Minnesota

Histogy Spring , (1986): 26.

156 Jeremiah Porter, "A Missionary in Early Sault Ste. Marie: Journal ofJeremiah Porter” ed. Lewis Beeson,
Michigan Histog Magazine 38 (1954): 338.
123

The battle only solidified the growing feeling among Indian converts that Indian
leadership was needed to determine the allocation of missionary funds set forth in the various
treaties. This event only provided further traction for the message of solidarity which many
Ojibwe saw demonstrated by the many Anishinabe ministers and missionaries who came from all
over the Great Lakes to the Little Rapids Methodist Indian Mission. Native converts in
particular, held minimal allegiances to denominational bodies during the early 18303. For Indian
converts, being able to fellowship with other Christian Ojibwe was important and tribal identity
normally won out over denominational affiliation. Seeing a collected body of Indian ministers
and missionaries was also important to Indian converts. Peter Marksman, who was baptized at
the Little Rapids Methodist Mission by Peter Jones had originally belonged to Abel Bingham’s
Baptist Mission. Yet, because he desired to see Indian ministers preaching the gospel he was
compelled to visit the Methodist Indian mission at Little Rapids. By 1834, the Methodists
became so influential with the local Ojibwe that the Baptist Board of Foreign Missions thought
about abandoning the mission and considered selling it to the Methodists. During this time

Bingham confessed, “I think at present they exert more influence among the Indians they we

do ”l57

Although Bingham recognized that the Methodists were attracting more interest from the
Ojibwe than he was, he likely miscalculated the historical processes converging upon the
Anishinabeg at the rapids which moved them towards Methodism. The appeal to Methodism was
not just denominationalism, although the way Methodists formatted their services did parallel
traditional tribal gatherings. Bingham may have underestimated the magnetism of Anishinabe
ministers and missionaries who came in force to the mission at Little Rapids. A collected body of

Anishinabe clergy were able to not only convey complex Christian dogma using Ojibway

 

157

Cumming, 221-222.

124

language, but the large number of Methodist Ojibwe leaders also provided cohesive instruction on
sensitive cultural issues. They defined the boundaries of acceptability when it came to retaining
or embracing cultural practices which were not specifically addressed in Christian teachings. A
number of Methodist Indian missionaries had practiced traditional spirituality before their
conversions and were able to provide clear guidance to prospective converts about the propriety
of participating or not participating in cultural acts such as feasts, dances, sacrifices, vision

quests, purifications ceremonies, etc.

However, given these factors, Jones still must have been a little discouraged that the
Methodists did not win the infamous chief Shingwaukonse over to their side. Though Little Pine
was respectful and entertained the prospect of the Methodist mission proposed by Jones, Little
Pine saw the fate of his band intertwined with the Anglican Church. There were several reasons
for this, one being that the Canadian government was more inclined to provide material aid to
tribes who affiliated with Church of England or the Anglican Church, the official church of Upper

Canada.

The efforts of Jones and other Methodists Indian leaders were often resisted by Canadian
authorities due to their Methodist affiliation and principled stance against the doctrine and affairs
of the Church of England. Canadian officials felt threatened by the ties of the Methodist church
to the United States and were reluctant to support them wholeheartedly. Notwithstanding these
assorted loyalties, the Christian Ojibwe of various denomination affiliations throughout the Great
Lakes still interacted with one another on a regular basis. Despite Shingwaukonse ’s allegiance to
the Anglican Church, he was often courted by the Methodist convert Chief Yellowhead of
Simcoe Lake, to circulate messages in support of Christianity via wampum belt to various Lake

Superior Ojibwe bands.

125

Ojibwe missionaries employed a variety of culturally relevant evangelistic techniques
which enhanced the reception of their message among other Anishinabeg. Indian missionaries
visited wigwams, circulated wampum belts, visited Ojibwe sugar camps, constructed cedar bark
lodges (in which church services were held), and gave of their own belongings to those in need.
Chief Yellowhead or Mesquahkeense of Simcoe Lake, Upper Canada frequently carried with him
a wampum belt which was made up almost entirely of white beads and shells with a single string
of red beads sown down the middle of the belt. The white beads of the belt signified peace,
prosperity, good will and purity of heart; while the single line of red beads signified the shed
blood of Christ. When speaking to an Indian audience Yellowhead frequently used the color
coded belt to convey Christian ideas of purity, redemption, and holiness. During a council
meeting held at Penetanguishene (in the Georgian Bay of Lake Huron), several hundred Ojibwe,
Ottawa, and Menomonee from Upper Canada and northern Michigan came to receive their
annuities. Christian Ojibwe from Upper Canada utilized the meeting to share the message of

Christ and discuss several proposals to construct schools in their communities.

According to Peter Jones, “Chief Yellowhead rose up with a white string of wampum in
his hand, and went and shook hands with the Chippeway and Menoominee Chiefs, and then
addressed them. . .Brother Sunday also addressed them and gave a short account of his
conversion?”58 Wampum belts were usually circulated among Indian communities to pass along
urgent information. The belts contained encoded messages comprised of images and sequences
of colored beads which bespoke of war, treaties, and other important events. Yellowhead not
only carried the belt when speaking, but also sent it to tribal leaders like Shingwaukonse whom he
asked to circulate it through all the Indian villages of Lake Superior. Little Pine who was weary

of receiving black and red colored wampum belts which signified war must have been relieved

 

158 Jones, m, 350.

126

when he saw Yellowhead’s belt of peace. He dutifully delivered it to key villages such as Sault

Ste. Marie and to the Ojibwe bands at Keweenaw Bay.

Yellowhead also prepared a letter detailing his personal experience with Christianity to
be included with the wampum belt which he circulated among the Ojibwe of Lake Superior.
Shingwaukonse or Little Pine, was asked by Yellowhead to distribute the evangelical package to
the Lake Superior tribes during the 18303, which he faithfully did despite denominational
differences.ls 9 Yellowhead addressed the Ojibwe of the western Great Lakes in writing as

follows:

To ALL THE CHIPPEWA IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,-O my
nation! My eldest brother! Hear ye what I have to say to you. We have received a great
blessing from the Great Spirit. It is the word of the Great Spirit which teaches us his holy
religion, and which our forefather’ 3 never bad. This is a good religion for us. I am now
old and gray headed, but I find this to be a very good religion.

Once I was blind, but the Great Spirit made me see when his light shined upon
me through the thick midst that covered me up. When in this evil state of darkness, we
had no comfort at all, but were in a most wretched condition. We were lying about
taverns and in the streets, or before the doors in the mud, where the white people threw
out their dirty slops; while our wives and children, living in huts made of boughs and
trees, were naked, cold, and starving. This the work of the evil spirit, in giving us the
fire-water to drink, and this is the way he serves his children and gives them no
happiness. We then thought we were living; but we were all dead in sin; and when we
think of what we have been it makes us feel miserable. Therefore we speak to you, and
tell you to take the religion of the Great Spirit.

When we embraced this religion it made us happy in our hearts, and we were no
longer lying drunk in the streets, but lived in houses like the white men, and our women
and children were comfortable and happy. We drank no more fire water, which makes
men act like fools—like the hogs that live in the mud. Hear, this my nation, and take the
true religion of the Bible; which will make you happy, and drink no more fire water, and
let me hear from you then, and tell me how you like my words. Now we shake hands
with you in all our heart; also with your women and children. We love you all much in
our hearts. This is all I have to say.160

 

159

Chute, 48.
16° Pitezel, Life of Peter Marksman, 200.

127

ME SHUKEENCE

(Yellowhead)

With vivid illustrations and striking candor, Yellowhead described the woeful affects of
alcoholism and the poverty which gripped his tribal community and attributed Christianity as
being the catalyst which inspired a reformation at the Lake Simcoe community and within
himself. It is also clear in Yellowhead’s letter that many of the Christian Indians had begun
emulating aspects of white society. Chief Penashe of the Ojibwe community near Keweenaw

Bay responded to the message sent by Yellowhead:

I feel truly thankful to hear from our brothern at the east, and that they have found the
true religion, and received a blessing from the Great Spirit. I have taken the wampum in
which they sent us in my hand, and looked at it. It is all white. But the string is red,
which tells us that the Son of God came into the world and spilled his blood. Now we
must all listen to the words of the Great Spirit. I have now given my answer. We shake
hands with you all in our hearts. This is all I have to say.‘61

Penashe Quemezhan Shis Shaanwabetoo

It is not known whether Penashe was involved at the local Kewawenon Mission, however
he demonstrated enough facility with Christian theology to correctly interpret the message
encoded in the belt. In typical Indian fashion, Penashe’s response expressed thanks that his tribal
relatives to the east have found, “the true religion” and that “Now we must all listen to the words”
of the Great Spirit. Based on the chief‘s succinct reply, however, it is difficult to determine the
extent in which he adhered to Yellowhead’s message. Given that most of his reply entails
describing the message .of the wampum belt, it is fair to assert that the wampum left an
impression on Penashe. Christian Indians like Yellowhead used wampum belts to convey

complex Christian ideology in a culturally palatable context. Many Christian Indians probably

 

16’ Pitezel, Life of Peter Marksman 200-

128

used wampum belts when discussing Christian precepts with the Indian families they visited in

their homes.

Upon arriving to an Anishinabe settlement the method of evangelization employed by
Indian missionaries was to first visit Ojibwe families in their wigwams. A3 at Kewawenon,
Native missionaries would normally begin to visit Indians in their homes to share the message of
salvation, discuss spiritual subjects, and lead the occupants in prayer and singing if they were
willing. Usually the mission lacked a log cabin or church building so a large cedar bark lodge
was constructed in which to hold services. In the spring of 1833 Peter Marksman accompanied
Indian missionary John Kabeege on a brief missionary trip from Sault Ste. Marie to Mackinaw
Island. Though only there for a few days, they immediately began to visit the Anishinabe
families in their cedar bark homes. According to Marksman, “Our rule was, not only to preach to
them when they met together, but visit them from Wigwam to Wigwam, telling them of Jesus.”162
Unlike Upper Canada, where so many white Methodists lived, the small number of Protestant

believers of any denomination in the upper Great Lakes limited the opportunity for northern

Ojibwe to attend large camp meetings as the Mississauga did to the east.

Although more missionaries were choosing to come to the upper Great Lakes in the
18308, actual full-fledged congregations of Christians were concentrated in only a few areas such
as Sault Ste. Marie and Mackinaw Island. These communities contained small groupings of
Chl'iStians, and paled in comparison to the denominational assemblies back east. These small
groups of Protestant believers attended church services conducted by white missionaries who held
services for both Indians and whites at alternating times of the day. The limited number of

Protestant believers on the Great Lakes frontier made camp meetings or any large assemblies

\
162 _
I:‘Itezel, Life of Peter Marksman, 49.

129

 

unfeasible. As a result most Ojibwe had very limited interaction with Protestant Christians unless

they lived at or near the location of an actual mission.

Ojibway missionaries actively sought out native encampments and did not wait on

Indians to visit a mission or specific location. Although Indian missions were established where
Native populations were the heaviest, high migratory patterns diminished the number of
Anishinabeg in these regions at any one time. Dependency on the seasonal cycle of fishing in the
summer, hunting deer in the fall, and setting up sugar bush camps (or camps to extract and
process maple sugar by tapping trees) in the spring, led bands of Ojibwe to continually travel
throughout a particular region of the Great Lakes. Indian missionaries had grown up in these
conditions and sometimes relied on the seasonal cycle of harvest themselves. As a result they
made adequate preparations and followed Ojibwe bands as they made encampments at remote
locations. Ojibwe missionaries at these encampments would construct their own lodges, employ
the same subsistence patters as the rest of the group, share their venison and fish with the rest of
the band, and hold prayer meetings, church services, and teach children throughout the week in a
large cedar bark lodge. Marksman was reported as following the Ojibwe, most likely the Indians
from the mission, “to their fishing near Whitefish Point. Living in a Wigwam, he taught the

school under temporary shelter.”“53

Although many missionary accounts of the time speak disparagingly about the Ojibwe
mode of living in wigwams, Indian missionaries were completely at home. Many of them had
gr Own up in the exact same accommodations and knew the social etiquette expected of visitors to
a fEllnily’s Wigwam. Absent from writings of Indian missionaries when describing Anishinabe
culture and traditional ways of life is the condescending tone which frequents other non-Indian

InisSionary writings when describing the culture, society, and domestic lives of the Anishinabeg.

\
133 _
I’Itezel, Life of Peter Marksman, 131.

130

Peter Jones appeared to make every effort to describe the ingeniously erected wigwams in
uplifting and complementary terms when applicable. In addition to describing wigwams as well
kept and neat, he allocated a sacred space to them when used for divine services and religious

assemblies.

In 1829, while among the Matchjedash Indians in Upper Canada, Jones described the
reception the Indian missionaries received and the accommodations prepared for them, “We were
then conducted to a neat bark Wigwam, which had been prepared for our reception, in which we
took up our abode and felt quite at home.” While near Scoogog, in Upper Canada he visited an
encampment of 150 Ojibwe which lived in nine large “bark wigwams” and within every lodge,
“Each person occupies his or her place in the Wigwam without the intrusion of other members of
the lodge.” And after the conversion of the Scoogog Indians, Jones asserted, “but now the love of
God being shed abroad in their hearts, their smoky bark wigwams become palaces to them
because Jesus dwells there.””” Although the Scoogog Indians were in the process of erecting a
log school house and Jones who advocated Euro-American notions of agriculture encouraged
them in the effort; he did not criticize the use of wigwams among the Scoogog, nor did he deride
the shelters as being inferior to the permanent dwellings among the whites. In a subtle irony he
heartedly approved when he encountered some white missionaries at Spooke Island, Upper

Canada who were forced to build and live in a Wigwam of their own:

Since I last visited this Mission the family has moved their establishment from the main
land to an island called Spooke Island, where I found them living in bark wigwams, like
their Indian brethren, happy and contended. Why not? They are engaged in a glorious
work, and the blessings of God rests upon these devoted missionaries. The school was
also kept in a bark building, where they children are taught to read the Word of God.165

 

16" Jones, Lfe, 198.

165 Jones, Life, 176.

131

There was an overwhelming sentiment among Americans and Canadians during the
nineteenth century that Christianization and the “civilizing mission” was inextricably linked.
Civilization was the natural outgrowth of Christianization, and where there was no Christianity,
civilizing Indians would eventually pave the way to the gospel. Observing the fifty acres of land
under cultivation by the Christian Indians at the Sault, Methodist missionary John Pitezel,
summarized the view of the entire evangelical Christian community, “The Christianization of the
Heathen is fundamental—civilization is the legitimate fruit.”“’6 Though many Indian
missionaries shared similar sentiments such as receiving an education and slowly learning
sedentary agriculture practices, they resented the ethnocentric demeanor exhibited by this

missionary attitude.

Ojibwe ministers such as Jones also viewed assimilation as necessary for the Ojibwe to
survive and remain competitive with whites in a rapidly changing world. However, he viewed
“civilization” as an offshoot of Christianity and in slightly different terms than his fellow white
missionaries. Jones disagreed with the predominant assumption that civilization should be the
primary objective of missionary endeavors among the Indians. He also resisted the posture of
cultural superiority exhibited by many missionaries. Speaking of a certain Bro. Beatty, a white

missionary who actively assisted the Ojibwe in planting and harvesting crops, Jones says:

But alas, too many of those who have gone amongst the Indians have rather manifested a
domineering spirit, which has proved his want of success. The Indian is a free man
[italics placed by Jones], and will not be driven. Gain his confidence and esteem, and
then you can do anything with him. Some white people have imagined in order to
Christianize the heathen, you must first teach them the arts and sciences as a necessary
promotion of the Gospel; but I say, “No.” First teach him the Christian religion, and when
he has embraced this he will be prepared for the pursuits of civilized lifeI67

 

15‘ Pitezel, Ligm and Shades oil Missionary Life, 38.

167 Jones, Lifig, 228.

132

For Ojibwe missionaries, emphasizing conversion to Christianity rather than civilization and
assimilation made all the difference. One can almost hear Ojibwe missionaries tell one another, if
white missionaries would just appeal to the spiritual predilection and religious tendency of Indian
people without the continual demands to adopt Anglo culture, then more progress in converting
Indian might be had among white missionaries. Indian missionaries focused on conversion and
allowed Indian converts to conform to white society under their own volition. They believed that
if they focused on the spiritual sustenance of Christianity, then all other adaptations to white

society could be made in due time under the preference of the individual Indian believer.

Though most Indian missionaries subscribed to living in houses, dressing like whites, and
wearing short hair, they believed that these were individual choices and not necessarily
synonymous with Christianization. When Peter Marksman saw Indian missionaries preaching at
Sault Ste. Marie in the “cedar bark church next to the rapids,” he commented on how they were
dressed, “They appeared good, their [Indian preachers] dress was like that of the white man’s,
clean and neat.” Near the end of the summer in which the Indian preachers made their visit to
Sault Ste. Marie, Marksman changed his outward appearance as well, “About the month of
August. . .I changed my dress and wore my hair differently.”I68 Marksman was baptized the
following summer of 1833 by Peter Jones during a revival meeting at the Little Rapids Mission.
In 1835 he states he was “happily converted” at the Little Rapids Mission and in a letter to Bishop
T.A. Morris some years later, he says of himself after his conversion, “1 write to you a few lines
to tell you of the salvation of God towards me, since I cast my blanket away from my body, and
my images, or gods, before my eyes whom I worshipped many days, and served with much

prayer and darkness.”169 For Marksman, his spiritual transformation hastened a cultural change in

 

“’8 Pitezel, Life of the Peter Marrksman. 46.

’59 Pitezel, Life of Peter Marksman, 53-54.

133

 

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which he eventually shortened his hair, dressed after the fashion of whites, and began to be
identified with the English translation of his last name which meant He-that-shoots-at-the-mark

or Marksman.

However, other Indian preachers such as Peter Greensky (the Ojibwe convert which was
asked to leave the Methodist mission for excessively loud worship) continued to wear his hair
long and dress in a traditional manner. While ministering to local Odawa in Michigan in the

18503 he was described in this way:

Greensky had long black hair and from his ears hung bone earrings. With his blanket
wrapped around him, he preached in the little earthen floored Wog-nee-gon. Many
Indians gathered to hear him and many desired to be converted. He gave them
instructions before they could be baptized. The baptismal ceremony was held in the
waters of Pine Lake, and the little bay known as Oyster Bay.'70

Personal presentation and dress was a matter of personal conviction. However, most Anishinabe
converts usually adopted European styled clothing and shortened their hair. Though it appears
that many Ojibwe Christians shortened their hair and adopted white dress for several different
reasons, one thing is certain, that clothing and length of hair did signify a certain cultural
persuasion among Anishinabe converts. These choices were made on an individual basis and each
person retained native cultural traits, expressions, and clothing or conformed to Anglo society, as
they saw fit. Most Indian missionaries saw the need to begin to adapt white ways of agriculture
and education in order to compete with whites and to survive in a quickly changing world,
however, this process also occurred within the tribal context of respect, humility, and autonomy

for those involved.

Although the addition of Indian missionaries and ministers into the missionary field had a

tremendous impact in spreading the message of Christianity among Great Lakes communities, not

 

17° Reuter, 152.

134

all was well. Resistance on behalf of the traditionalists became particularly pronounced in some
areas. Many traditionalists actively worked against Indian missionaries. In 1831, John Sunday
was unable to sustain a mission at Sugar Island near the future sight of the Little Rapids Mission
at Sault Ste. Marie. Opposition from Roman Catholics and traditionalists forced him to abandon
the mission at the island and remove to the Little Rapids Mission sight. Persecution of Indian

missionaries in some communities had catastrophic results.

The tragic death of Peter Beaver, an Indian missionary among the Chippewa of the
Thames River in Southern Ontario during the late 18203, illustrates the immense struggle
occurring within many Ojibwe missionaries who found themselves caught between two cultures.
Laboring among a predominantlytraditionalist community, the young Ojibwe missionary faced
virulent opposition. On one occasion he was almost tomahawked to death by a woman who
attacked him while he was praying. The continual abuse and opposition took its toll on this
young Ojibwe missionary, he committed suicide in 1831171 The mission field could prove

extremely dangerous for these first generation Christian Ojibwe.

The Kewawenon Mission near L’Anse also experienced similar resistance by
traditionalists who were hostile to the message of Christianity. In 1834, Kahbewahbekokay or
Spear Maker, threatened to “tomahawk” Copway and Chandler if they visited his home with the
“white man’s religion.” Indian missionaries were also accused of witchcraft and practicing “bad
medicine” by traditionalists. An elderly Indian man at the Kewawenon Mission threatened to kill
the missionaries when his daughter became sick after the missionaries “prayed and sang over

her.”172 Fortunately, the man’s daughter recovered and he was eventually converted.

 

”1 Smith, Sacred Feathers, 110-

172 Copway, Life, Letters, and Speeches, 78.

135

Many non-Indian missionaries experienced a great deal of difficulty over Ojibwe notions
of propriety in challenging or openly disagreeing with someone. Ashininabe culture valued
consensus and conformity in formulating opinions and presenting ideas that had implications for
the entire community. Specifically when speaking about spiritual and religious topics, openness
and receptivity of ideas was the guiding edict. White missionaries, operating from a cultural
construct that valued individualism, confrontation, articulating differences, and openly airing
grievances, misinterpreted Ojibwe acquiescence for approval of their message. Indian
missionaries also encountered this diplomatic tactic, however, they were accustomed to such rules
of engagement. Many Anishinabeg throughout the Great Lakes frequently cited creation theology
and the immoral behavior of whites to explain their opposition to Christianity when listening to

Indian preachers.

After hearing Peter Jones and other Christian Ojibwe preach, a gathering of “Munceys
and Chippewas” (most likely at “Munceytown” near the Thames River in Upper Canada), called
a council in which to address the Indian missionaries. According to Jones, Captain Snake, a
“Muncey Speaker” addressed the assembly, “Brothers, I am happy to see you worship in the way
that you do. We will hold fast the blessing the Great Spirit has given the Indians. It makes my
heart glad. I worship God too. We will worship Pahtahmahwahsing (our Creator). We will
worship your way and our way.” Seeing that the Indian missionaries could elicit no other
response from the council, Jones records that they informed the tribes, that they “had nothing to
do with their lands, nor their presents and payments, only to give them good advice...” The

Indian missionaries soon had a “word of exhortation and prayer” and left for the Grand River.173

While on a missionary trip to Walpole Island, Peter Jones and other Mississauga

missionaries sought to persuade a local chief by the name of Pezhekezhikquasgum of the efficacy

‘

173 Jones, L_if_e, 252.

136

of Christianity. Walpole Island, a bastion for traditional religion, illustrates the diversity of
opposition encountered by the Indian missionaries. Upon speaking to the thirty or 30 Indians who
had assembled to hear their message, Peter Jones, according to tribal convention, appointed Bro.
Thomas Smith, the “oldest man in the company” to address the assembly first. Jones followed
the elder’s speech by giving the tribal assembly an account of the conversion of Mississauga-
Ojibwe communities and the basic tenants of Christianity. Pezhekezhikquasgum responded to the

Indian missionaries:

When the Great Spirit made the white man he gave him his worship, written in a book,
and prepared a place for his soul in heaven. He gave him his mode of preparing and
administering medicine to the sick different for that of the Indians. Brothers and friends,
when the Great Spirit made the Indians he gave him his mode of worship, and the manner
of administering and using medicine for the sick. I will tell you what happened to some
of our forefathers that once became Christians. When they had thrown away the religion
of their fathers, sickness came among them, and most everyone of them died, and but a
few escaped death. Now, brothers and friends, if I should follow the example of those
that once worshipped like the white man I should expect to incur the wrath of the Great
Spirit and share the same fate as those that perished. I will therefore remain as I am and
sit down alone and worship in that way that the Munedoo Spirit appointed our forefathers
to worship.'74

The Walpole leader then moved from a theological framework of resistance to describe his

personal justification for his opposition to Christianity:

Brothers and friends how can I, who have grown old in sins and in drunkenness, break off
from those these things, when the white people are as bad and as wicked as the Indians!
Yesterday two white men, Christians, got drunk, quarreled and fought with one another.
And one of them is now on the island with a black eye. Brothers and friends, what you
have said concerning the evil effects of fire water are very true. Strong drink has made us
poor and destroyed our lives. Brothers and friends, I am poor and hardly able to buy
enough cloth for a pair of leggings, and wherewith would I be able to buy cloth enough
for a pair of pantaloons to dress me like a white man, if I should become a Christian or
live like a white man? Brothers and friends, I am glad to see you as native brethren, but
will not become a Christian.‘75

‘

174 Jones, Lif_e_, 248.
175 Jones, _L_if_e, 248-249.

137

Chief Pazhekezhikguashkum ’3 response typified the type of reasoning employed by
Indian people who were resistant to Christianization efforts. His answer embodies a great deal of
the rational of why many Indians resisted Christianization attempts, even by other Indian
missionaries. He first alludes to the separate creation theory by suggesting that when the “Great
Spirit made the white man, he gave him his worship. . .different. . .from that of the Indians.” He
verifies his belief that whites and Indians were created by God to worship differently by relating
an account of his Indians ancestors who perished by divine retribution when they accepted the
message of Christianity. The Walpole chief may be referring to a much earlier time (before the
great migration westward) when many of the tribes on the east coast were wiped out by smallpox
epidemics during the seventeenth century. Or the chief may be eluding to a more recent time
period, such as during the French and Indian war, when the British attempted to spread smallpox
among Algonquin tribes in the Great Lakes, many of who sided with the French. He also indicts
the immoral behavior of white Christians and asserts that if Christianity is not strong enough to
regulate morality among the whites for whom it was intended then it certainly would not work for

Indians for whom it was not intended.

Pazhekezhikquashkum viewed Christian conversion as tantamount to transferring ethnic
affiliation to that of a white man. He asked rhetorically, “. . .wherewith would I be able to buy
cloth enough for a pair of pantaloons if I should become a Christian or live like a white man?”
His question illustrates just how closely many Great Lakes Indians associated religion and ethnic
identity. If anything, the chiefs assessment indicates that many Anishinabeg associated
traditional spirituality with a distinct “Indian identity” and suggests that Christian Ojibwe were
Viewed by non-Christian Anishinabeg as adopting an Anglo identity. So for many Indian people,

Christianity meant a denunciation of an entire way of life and cultural identity; a move many

138

were unwilling to make. The singular point in which the chief agrees, is the detrimental effect of
the use of whiskey or “firewater.” The Walpole Island chief recognized that his community
needed to be rid of certain elements such as “firewater,” however, he did not see Christianity as
the instrument by which his community could be purged. He also acknowledged his own struggle
with alcohol but viewed himself as too old to reverse his course. However, the Walpole leader
did not see Christianity as a viable solution for himself or his community. Pazhekezhikquashkum

remained unconverted.

Pazhekezhikquashkum ’5 response cited the separate creation story and the misdeeds of
white Christians as the reason many Indian leaders refused to consider the message of Protestant
Christianity. Indian missionaries faced a continual stream of responses which seemed to
inevitably lead back to the actions of whites or the Ojibwe accounts of creation. However,
Ojibwe preachers considered themselves uniquely situated to answer such rebuttals. Upon visiting
a small Ojibwe settlement north of the Thames River in Upper Canada, Jones called together the
members of the band to hear him preach. After hearing Jones speak, the Thames River leader

Kanootong, responded in much the same way as the Walpole chief Pazhekezhikquashkum did:

Brothers—I am glad to see you and hear from you, but with respect to Indians becoming
Christians, I cannot think it right; for when the Great Spirit made the white man and the
Indian he did not make them of one colour, and therefore did not design them to worship
the same way; for he placed the white man across the great waters, and there gave him his
religion in a book; he also made the white man to cultivate the earth, and raise cattle, &c.;
but when the Great Spirit made the Indian, he placed them in this country, and gave him
his way on worship written in his heart, which has been handed down from one
generation to another. . .and, more than this, I do not see the white men who are Christians
are any better than the red men, for they make fire-waters, get drunk, quarrel, fight,
murder, steal, lie, and cheat.176

\

17
6 Jones, Lif_e_, 124.

139

“In answer to these arguments” Jones told the chief, that “the good book said there was only one
way to worship God, and the Great Spirit required all nations to believe and accept the offer of
salvation.” He also stated that Christian Indians themselves had the “same prejudices to
overcome” but since they had begun to pray to the “Great Spirit,” they “found him to be the
Indian’s as well as the white man’s God.” And in regard to the behavior of “bad white men”
Jones explained “that all white people were not true Christians, &c., because they did not obey
the words of the Great Spirit. . .but that good Christians. . .did not deal in fire-waters, nor drank

them 9,177

This extraordinary exchange between Kanootong and Jones reveals much about the
methodology employed on behalf of Indian ministers. The interaction is revealing because it is
taking place before a large Indian assembly. Rarely do missionary accounts of the time offer
such culturally insightful interactions. Both parties were operating in a cultural context which
afforded them tremendous liberty to discuss seeming contradictions (and continuities) between
the white man and his religion. Jones utilized his own position as a Mississauga-Ojibwe to
identify with the chief’s objections, asserting that he too formerly shared the same opinion as the
chief in regard to the Great Spirit. Yet he drew upon his personal experience with Christianity to
demonstrate to the chief that the Great Spirit is the “Indian’s as well as the white man’s God.” In
regard to the behavior of whites, he pointed out that “not all whites are true Christians.”
Typically Indian ministers would reference the biblical story of creation to try to convince tribal
Opponents that “out one blood, God created all nations;” that the Great Spirit required all people
and all nations to salvation through Jesus Christ. Being raised with traditional Ojibwe teachings

gave Indian preachers a tremendous advantage over non-Indian missionaries.

\

177 Jones, Lie, 125.

140

During the 18203 and 18303 there was still many misnomers regarding Protestant
Christianity and due to lack of exposure or not being able to read English texts, misinformation
abounded in Indian communities. Most Christian Ojibwe did not speak English. So for an
individual who not only had read the Bible several times but had also translated scripture and
hymns into Ojibwe, Jones’ arguments were forceful. He had read the book they often referred to
and could relate to them the Christian message of salvation while allaying many of their fears
about what they may or may not have heard about the scriptures and evangelical Christianity. Yet
many tribal leaders still equated Christianity as a religion not designated for Indians. However,
as Ojibwe communities experienced the ravages of alcohol, the missionaries built on the

temperance movement which was inspired by Christianity to appeal to Native communities.

Tribal leaders and Indian missionaries witnessed the disastrous effects of alcohol on their
communities. Annuity payment locations were targeted by whiskey peddlers who strategically
set up their stands at or near payment sites. The level of drunkenness in certain areas shocked
early missionaries and they reported that Indian men, women, and children were regularly found
incapacitated at payment sights due to alcohol consumption. The number of accidents caused by
drunkenness also occurred at alarming rates in Great Lakes Indian communities. Most Indian
missionaries themselves were former alcoholics or were raised in households which were touched
by the tragic influence of whiskey. As a child, Peter Jones experiences the “woeful effects of fire
water, (alcohol).”178 According to tribal convention, Jones had been adopted out to a local chief,
whose own son had died. While Peter’s new family went on a “drunken frolic” he had been

179

exposed to the cold and was unable to walk for three months. John Sunday, a veteran of the

War of 1812 and well known warrior, who with face painted, wore a medal arm plate, and carried

\

178 Jones, Lif_e_, 4.
1
79 Jones, Life, 4.

141

a gun, drank heavily before his conversion. Both of Peter Jacob’s parents, his two brothers,
sister, and brother-in-law all died from drinking; alcoholism often decimated Ojibwe

communities and fractured Ojibwe families.

Most tribal leaders, whether they agreed with the message of Christianity or not, knew
that something had to be done to counter the effects of ardent spirits. During the same time
period, the Iroquois had been able to check widespread alcoholism among the confederacy by
following the teachings of Handsome Lake, who banned the use of whiskey. Indian missionaries
and tribal chiefs often described how Christianity provided Indians with the spiritual framework
necessary to resists the use of ardent spirits. They frequently explained to tribal councils and
assemblies how Christianity had been the catalyst to the reformation of several Indian
communities in Upper Canada. In a portion of the letter which be circulated with the wampum
belt among non Christian Indians, Chief Yellowhead described the band’s condition and
specifically singled out Christianity as the means by which his community at Lake Simcoe had

been transformed:

We were lying about taverns and in the streets, or before the doors in the mud,
where the white people threw out their dirty slops; while our wives and children, living in
huts made of boughs and trees, were naked, cold, and starving. This the work of the evil
spirit, in giving us the fire-water to drink, and this is the way he serves his children and
gives them no happiness. We then thought we were living; but we were all dead in sin;
and when we think of what we have been it makes us feel miserable. Therefore we speak
to you, and tell you to take the religion of the Great Spirit.

When we embraced this religion it made us happy in our hearts, and we were no
longer lying drunk in the streets, but lived in houses like the white men, and our women
and children were comfortable and happy. We drank no more fire water, which makes
men act like fools—like the hogs that live in the mud. Hear, this my nation, and take the
true religion of the Bible; which will make you happy, and drink no more fire water, and
let me hear from you then, and tell me how you like my words.180

\

180
Reuter, 24.

142

By spiritualizing the struggle against alcohol, Christian Ojibwe such as Yellowhead or
Mesquahkeense situated Christianity within a tribal context in which evil spirits could be induced
to leave by a higher spiritual power. Many Ojibwe converts relied on imagery from the Bible in
which God and angels were engaged in epic struggles with Satan and demons for the welfare of
mankind and drew on what Indians already knew of the spirit world in an effort to convert them.
As the Iroquois followers of Handsome Lake, Indian missionaries made sobriety a central tenant
in the message of Christianity. Regardless of the consumption patterns of white believers, most
Indian converts of various denominations equated abstinence as a core practice of Christian faith.
They saw in the message of Christianity, the spiritual apparatus needed to restructure their

communities around sobriety and piety.

While evangelizing among Indian settlements, Ojibwe ministers were able to extract
astonishing admissions about both the personal and communal wrestle with alcohol; confessions
which were rarely told to non-Indian missionaries in such a candid fashion. When encountering
leaders who appeared to be growing despondent with the use of alcohol among their band
members, Indian missionaries highlighted the transformation occurring among other tribes.
While visiting at Bear Creek (just north of the Thames River in Canada West), Jones’ message
gained traction with one chief by the name of Yellowbird. Although a staunch opponent of
Christianity, Yellowbird reexamined his stance after hearing the stories of reformation told to him
by Jones. After Yellowbird and another chief agreed to allow Jones to present the Christian
doctrine to the “general council of all the chiefs” he confided to the Ojibwe missionary, “We are
so... given to intemperance. . .it would be impossible for them to become good.” Jones then
Shared with the old chief the effect Christianity was having on his own Mississauga band at the
Credit River and since “they began to pray to the Great Spirit, they had been able to forsake their

drunkenness” and that Kezhamanidoo [God] was reconciled to them through the merits of his son

143

Jesus Christ.” According to Jones, Yellowbird “appeared amazed at this, and said it was

wonderful news.”'8'

Other Indian preachers such as Peter Marksman combated the effects of alcohol by
inducing converts to make temperance pledges. Marksman testified how Christianity led to

Indian believers making pledges of sobriety:

I immediately commenced preaching and visiting from lodge to lodge. The Lord blessed
the poor Indians, who once lay along the streets of white men. . .And now the Indians are
praising God in the streets and roads of white men. Now poor whiskey, or fire water,
traders are ashamed, for now the Indians have joined the temperance society, and keep
their pledges.182

Utilizing conversion experiences and religious gatherings such as tent meetings to secure
temperance pledges among Indian converts became a popular practice in evangelical circles.
Although Marksman facilitates a temperance movement, most Indian converts during the
nineteenth century abstained from alcohol as part and parcel of their religious devotion. Many
temperance meetings among Christians Ojibwe were began under the influence of white
missionaries. However, these temperance meetings quickly took on the character of Ojibwe

culture.

A camp meeting held on July 12‘”, 1852 at Whitefish Point in Michigan’s Upper
Peninsula which attracted over 200 Christian Indians and a handful of white missionaries,
concluded its weeklong gathering with a temperance meeting. In the evening the temperance
meeting was held among the camp meeting participants, which netted over 100 signatures from
Native believers pledging to abstain from the use of whiskey. In Lights and Shades of

&ssionary Life, John Pitezel included a description of Peter Jones’ account of the meeting which

 

\

181 Jones, Llfg, 126.
182 . .
Pitezel, Life of Peter Marksman, 83.

144

 

  
  
  
   

was published 11‘

meeting held at

temper;
through

deaths 1
f1 ghtin:

Wives,
Ogesta

Tempe
These meeting
“huh inducer
ChIiSlian den
pan 0f their p
believers 0hr
pledges PTOV
ll’Oll'l imOch
active in the
Pledge Serip
from his 0,,
described ht
community

133 P
lteZel, HE

was published in the evangelical newsletter entitled Christian Guardian of Toronto. Of the camp

 

meeting held at Whitefish Point, Jones relates:

Chief Waubojeig Washkee was called to the chair, after which. . .. Chief Ogestaih was
then requested to proclaim the number who had given their names to the cause of
temperance, which he did in a masterly manner, causing his powerful voice to resound
through the wood and along the shore of the Lake to a great distance. He rose up and
said, ‘Hear me, Hear me, Ogestaih has been chosen to proclaim the result of this meeting;
the number of Indians who now say that they will never again drink the fire-water, is one
hundred and five. The one hundred and five Indians now say, that there shall be no more
deaths by drowning in the water—no more burning to death—no more quarreling
fighting—no more bruised eyes—no more dragging the wife by the hair of her head—no
more murders—and you who are husbands now say you will be no more jealous of your
wives, and you wives say you will be no more jealous of your husbands—and last of all,
Ogestaih says, that he also will no more be jealous of his wife. This is all I have to say.”’3

Temperance meetings became an incredibly powerful tool in the cause for sobriety.
These meetings provided opportunities for Indian leaders to link authority to skilled oral rhetoric,
which induced their communities to adhere to their pledges. Such pledges complemented their
Christian devotion. Though Indian converts normally taught one another to avoid ardent spirits as
part of their religious devotion, the influence of white missionaries and Christians among Indian
believers often manifested in temperance pledges among Christian Indians. As it turns out, these
pledges proved to be an extremely effective method of solidifying ones commitment to refrain
from intoxicating drink. The chief from Garden River, Ogeistaih, (who would eventually become
active at the Episcopal mission there) waxed particularly passionate as he departed from the
pledge script and began to include practices and behaviors which he hoped would be eradicated
from his own community. In vivid detail, Christian Ojibwe such as Ogeistaih and Yellowhead
described how Christianity would provide the spiritual framework necessary to restructure their

community and restore orderliness by curbing the issues of domestic violence, poverty, neglect,

x.

183 Pitezel, Lights and Shades of a MissionarLLife, 361.

145

strained marital relations, homelessness, and accidental deaths brought on by use of alcohol. The
writings of Jones and Marksman suggest that Indians who did sign temperance pledges normally
upheld their commitment. These weeklong meetings were also times of cultural exchange

between Christian Ojibwe and their white brethren.

Ironically enough it was also the Ojibwe who bestowed Indian names on white
missionaries during the mid-nineteenth century. During the later stages of a weeklong meeting,
such as the revival at Whitefish Point, Christian Ojibwe would hold a naming ceremony for the
white missionaries present. These naming events always stirred a great deal of interests among
the non-Indian missionaries and demonstrated that Christian Indians in the Great Lakes retained a
great deal of their culture while adopting Christianity. It also demonstrated that there was
emerging a steady leadership of Indian ministers and the formation of a cross-regional Protestant
Christian Indian community that was quite devout; a community which left their mark on white
missionaries. Non-Indian missionaries often looked forward to these occasions and delighted in
the names bestowed on them. During the naming ceremony performed at the Whitefish Point
meeting in 1852, white missionary leaders were given Ojibwe names by the Christian Ojibwe.
Ogestaih, the chief from Garden River, opened the naming ceremony with a speech in which he
alluded to, “the benefits the Indians have received from the labors of the ministers, and that they
wished to remember them, but they had names that it was difficult for them to speak.”184 He then
announced the name of the honorees to the tribal assembly. Reverend Warner was given the
name Shingwauk or the “Pine Tree,” a name of high esteem among the Lake Superior Ojibwe and
was the name of Ogestiah ’s own father; John Pitezel received the named Wazahwahwadoong” or
“Yellow Beard,” which was the name of a extremely devout Christian Ojibwe who belonged to

the T e-quah-men-nah band and had recently passed; Rev. Steele was called Iahbewadic or “Male

 

 

18" Pitezel, Lights and Shades of a Missionary Life, 358.

146

Elk.” After the naming ceremony the white missionaries were embraced by the Anishinabe
believers and non-believers alike as each was now considered, “a brother now adopted by the

Indians.”185

In 1835 Methodist superintendant John Clark assigned John Johnson or Enmegabowh,
George Copway, and Peter Marksman to Ottawa Lake or Lake Court Oreilles in Wisconsin
where they established a “promising” mission. Two years later, the three Indian missionaries and
two white youths were sent to Ebenezer Manuel Labor School in Jacksonville, Illinois.186 The
school, founded by the missionary Rev. Peter Akers of the ABCFM was based in his home and
was designed to help prepare young men for the mission field by offering them an academic as

well as a vocational trade.187

In 1837 while on their way to Prairie du Chein to assist Elder Brunson and the Sioux
Methodist mission at Kaposia on the west side of the Mississippi River, the three Ojibwe men had
to pass through the dangerous middle ground which separated the Sioux and the Ojibwe
territories. During the journey to Prairie du Chein, the three Ojibwe missionaries were

apprehended and held hostage at a Sioux encampment for three days.I88

According to George
Copway as soon they neared the village, a “war whoop” was given and warning shots soared over

the heads of the three Ojibwe missionaries. Copway recalled that the bullets “either splashed in

front of our canoe or whizzed over our heads.” They were kept “as prisoners” for three days.

 

ms Pitezel, Lights and Shades of a Missionary Life, 359.

18” Reuter, 62.

187 Jackson, Enmegahbowh—A Chippewa Missionm, 6-7.

188 Jackson, 6.

147

Yet, when the Sioux found out through an interpreter that the three Ojibwe men were

missionaries they were released and treated well by their captors.‘89

Not much is known of the experience of the Mississauga youth at this school, except that
all three finished the curriculum by 1839. Recalling his time at the school, Enmegahbowh said “I
completed the branches taught in the school. I was considered one of the best grammarians, and
was ready to be sent to college to study dead languages?”O Enmegahbowh had often resisted
learning Greek or Hebrew or the “dead languages” as he called them because, as be frequently

retorted, he was sent to work among the living, not the deadm

Having completed their vocational education, the young scholars received their official
charge for missionary work at the annual Methodist Conference in Bloomington, Illinois in 1839.
Peter Marksman was assigned to work at the Kewawenon Mission in L’Anse; Copway was sent
to the Elk River Mission which was recently established on the Mississippi (just above the Sioux
mission of Kaposia); and Enmegahbowh, along with the non-Indian missionary Samuel Spates
were charged with establishing the Sandy Lake mission around the upper Mississippi. Copway
returned to Upper Canada in the summer of 1840 where he married Elizabeth Howell in Toronto.
After returning to the Elk River mission, Copway and his wife were stationed at the Rabbit River
mission and then were assigned to Fond du Lac in 1841. However laboring in the upper
Mississippi region which divided Sioux and Ojibwe territory and was the scene of much tribal
warfare took its toll on the Copways. The Mississauga missionary frequently butted heads with

the American missionaries and was often viewed by the Lakota as being more French than Indian

 

189

Copway, LifeI Letters, and Speeches, 86.

19° Jackson, 7.
191 Episcopal Diocese of Minnesota, “The Rev. John Johnson Enmegabow, 1820-1902.” Soundings 24, no.

3 (2002): 12.

148

because of his Anglo styled clothing. At the behest of Peter Jones, the Copway’s gladly returned
to George’s home at Rice Lake in 1842 where he raised funds for the Methodists and represented

his tribe in political affairs.‘92

 

192 Smith, Life, Letters, and Speeches, 30-31.

149

Chapter 4: Indian Missionaries: George Copway (Kahgegagahbowh), Peter Marksman

(Gahgodahahquah), and John Johnson (Enmegahbowh)

150

George Copway, Removal, and Career

George Copway was born Kahgegagahbowh (Stands Firm) at the mouth of the Trent
River just outside of Trent, Ontario in 1818. George’s parents were full-blooded Ojibwe and
were members of the Rice Lake band of Mississauga-Ojibwe who lived on Lake Ontario’s north
shore near Cobourg, Ontario. Both were converted when Peter Jones and a delegation of Indian
missionaries visited his band at Rice Lake during the mid 18203. A summer after his mother’s
death in 1829, Copway was converted to Christianity at a Methodist camp meeting that he
attended with his father near Cobourg. He attended the Methodist school at Rice Lake for about
two years along with about 40-50 other students from the Rice Lake area, including his cousin

Enmegahbowh or John J ohnson.'93

In 1820, most Ojibwe from Southern Ontario were traditionalists. During Copway’s
boyhood, he would see a remarkable transformation occur among the Mississauga-Ojibwe.
Within a period of twenty years, Methodism became firmly entrenched in some thirteen Ojibwe

communities in Southern Ontariom

Many abandoned the hunter-gatherer lifestyle and adopted
sedentary farming; Methodism provided the impetus for such a movement. In 1820, most Ojibwe
in Upper Canada or present day Southern Ontario practiced the spirit-worship of their fathers and
belonged to the Midewiwin Society. As discussed in chapter 2, the conversion of Peter Jones
began what one scholar has termed the Mississauga “cultural revolution.”195 Jones not only

persuaded those who lived in his home community at the Credit River to become Christian but he

also played a major role in establishing or maintaining Indian missions at Grape Island,

 

193 Smith, Life, Letters. and Speeches of Copwitbzs-

19" George Copway, Life, Letters,and Speeches of Kahgegagahbowh or George Copway (New York: S.W.
Benedict, 1856).

195 See Donald Smith, Sacred Feathers: The Reverend Peter Jones (Kahkewaquonaby) and the Mississauga

Indians (Toronto and London: University of Toronto Press, 1987).

 

151

Munceytown, Mud Lake, Rice Lake, Lake Simcoe, and Saugeen, along with several other Indian
communities in Upper Canada. Like Jones, George Copway was also raised practicing traditional
Ojibwe spirituality, his father being the chief of the band at Rice Lake and one of the
community’s main spiritual leaders. However, the Rice Lake band turned toward Methodism in
1827, after the conversion of Peter’s father. Soon many Rice Lake Ojibwe began to attend

Methodist tent meetings and abandoned the Mediwiwin Society altogether.

Copway witnessed firsthand his people’s transformation from a migratory hunting
lifestyle to one that was centered on sedentary agriculture with the church as the hub of religious
life of the community. Copway’s father was a spiritual leader of the community and taught his
son early-on the necessity of seeking a relationship with the “manitous” or spirits. Copway says

of himself, “I was out early and late in the quest of the favors of the Mon-e-doos (spirits), who it

'9,

was said were numerous—who filled the air He goes on to describe his early conception of the

spirit world,

Early as I can recollect, I was taught that it was the gift of the many spirits to be a good
hunter and warrior; and much of my time I devoted in search for their favors. On the
mountaintop, or along the valley, or on the water brook, I searched for some kind of
intimation from the spirits who made their residence in the noise of the water fall. . ...I
looked with anxiety to catch a glimpse of the wings of the Great Spirit. . ..Yet he was a
kind spirit. My Father taught me to call that spirit Ke-sha-mon-e-doo—Benevolent
Spirit—for his ancestors taught him no other name to give to that spirit who made the
earth, with all its variety and smiling beauty.”6

Following Copway’s conversion, in 1834, he volunteered to travel west as a missionary at the
behest of his tribe’s Indian agent. When the Indian agent at Rice Lake received a letter from the

Superintendent of Indian missions in Canada requesting missionaries be sent to the Lake Superior

 

196 George Copway, Life History and Travels, of Kahgegahbowh (George Copway), A Young Indian Chief of

the Oiebwar Nation, A Convert to the Christian Faith, and a Missionary to His People for Twelve Years
(Albany: Weed and Parsons, 1847), 8.

152

region, George, who was sixteen, went west with thirty-year old John Kabeege and his thirty-five
year old uncle, John Taunchey. George’s cousin John Johnson, then in his mid-twenties, also
went west with them.197 Copway attended the Methodist school at Rice Lake for two years, along
with 40-50 other Native students. Here, he learned to read and write and was taught Methodist
theology. C0pway knew of the drastic change in Mississauga population levels, the community
numbered 500 in the late-eighteenth century and by 1825, there were only 100 to 200 people.
Disease, alcoholism, land 1033, and poverty had hastened decline. This loss motivated Copway,

who witnessed the same forces at work among the Lake Superior Ojibwe.

When Copway arrived at Sault Ste. Marie on August 24’“, 1834, there were Catholic,
Methodist, Baptist, and Presbyterian missions at the rapids of St. Mary, the Protestant missions
being fairly recent. Several weeks after their arrival at the Sault, Copway, along with Reverend
David Meeker Chandler and his uncle, John Taunchey, were dispatched to the L’Anse or
Kewawenon Indian Mission at Keweenaw Bay, farther to the west in the Upper Peninsula.
Copway contributed to the L’Anse mission and subsequent missionary trips in immeasurable
ways. He was sent to L’Anse as a teacher, however, it was not long before the ambitious Copway
began preaching and actively evangelizing the Ojibwe who lived at and around the Protestant

mission.

Each day, Copway and his uncle visited Ojibwe lodges where they sang, read scripture,
and prayed for the inhabitants; techniques they learned from Methodist missionaries in Southern
Ontario. Most of the converts at the mission were first-generation Christians who blended both
Christianity and traditional religion. As with the Jesuits, many Ojibwe incorporated evangelical
theology into a multidimensional spiritual framework that included several other spirit helpers.
Peter Marksman, an Ojibwe missionary who labored with Copway, explained this syncretic

‘

.197

Smith, Life, Letters,and Speeches of Copway, 26.

153

blending among his own family as a process in which they “leave off. . .the observation of the
rites of the Grand Medicine society, still our idols and our medicine bags which we regarded as so

sacred were in our possession.” They were converted by the Baptist minister, Able Bingham.

George Copway, brought up with this same religious orientation, cautioned these new
Christians from mixing theologies. During the 18303, many traditional Ojibwe interpreted or
rather misinterpreted the actions of Indian missionaries; misperceptions which frequently put the
lives of Copway and his fellow missionaries in danger. Copway described one Ojibwe man who
thought that the missionaries had practiced witchcraft and had threatened to kill the missionaries
if his sickly daughter died, the missionaries had recently prayed over her. Spear Maker, an
Ojibwe man at the L’Anse mission threatened to tomahawk Copway and the other missionaries if
they visited his lodge with “the white man’s religion.” Spear Maker justified the threat because

he reasoned that, “. .. some of my family were very sick and crazy.”198

During the 18303, Ojibwe communities expressed both curiosity and fear about the
evangelical Methodist message. As with Catholicism, many Ojibwe began mixed theologies to
create a syncretic practice of the two religions. Misinforrnation about evangelical Christianity
spread like wildfire. At the beginning of the 18303 the Lake Superior Ojibwe responded in one of
two ways: they rejected the message of Christianity, cited their belief in a separate creation
theology that prohibited them from praying like whites and often believed that missionaries were
witches who sang and prayed over people, that later died. There were also those that embraced
the message of the missionaries in order to bolster their preexisting spiritual power or “medicine.”

Copway continually combated these types of misperceptions.

 

19" George Copway, The Life, Letters, and Speeches of Kahgegagahbowh or George Copway (New York:

S.W. Benedict, 1856), 70.

 

154

Following Copway’s work at the L’Anse mission, George and his cousin John Johnson
Enmegahbowh were assigned to the new Methodist mission at La Point, WI. While at La Point,
Copway lived with the Rev. Sherman Hall, a missionary for the American Board of Foreign
Missions, where he helped translate the Book of Luke and Acts of the Apostles into the Ojibwe

’99 The La Point location had tremendous significance for Ojibwe people. According to

language.
Ojibwe oral history, this region, nestled within the Apostle Islands, became the terminus for the

Ojibwe’s long migration from the “great salt water” in the east. It was from this central location

that the Ojibwe would populate the western Great Lakes.

 

According William Warren, nineteenth-century author of the History of the Oi ibwg
PLOPE, La Point or Moningwunakauning (place of the golden breasted woodpecker) was “the
spot on which the Ojibwe tribe first grew, and like a tree it has spread its branches in every
direction, in the bands that now occupy the vast extent of the Ojibwe earth; and also ‘it is the root
from which all the far scattered villages of tribe have sprung.”’200 Copwaywas probably
overwhelmed by his first glimpse of La Point. During the mid-nineteenth century hundreds of
Ojibwe came to La Point from all over the western Great Lakes to trade, fish, dance, and receive
governmental annuities. Years later, Copway lamented his departure from La Point, “0 what a
field of labor in all these regions! Indians from every direction congregate hear every summer,

those, too who have never heard of a savior!”2°'

Like most Ojibwe communities along Lake Superior’s shore, La Point was a fur trading
and fishing center. Its deep harbor and central location annually attracted hundreds of traders and

Ojibwe. It was to La Point that Henry Rowe Schoolcraft sent subagent George Johnston in order

 

’99 Smith, Life. Letters, and Speeches of Conway, 26-

2°° Warren, 80.

201 Copway, Life, Letters, and Speeches, 79.

155

to establish a relationship between the American government and the Indian community. The
subagency established at La Point in 1836 became a filll agency in 1851.202 By 1830, it was
surpassed Mackinaw as the center of commercial trade in the Great Lakes. Around 2,000-5,000
Ojibwe resided in the vicinity of this historical gathering place.203 Indian agents and government
officials dispersed governmental annuities and supplies when the Anishinabeg gathered here
during the summer months, scattered among the ninety shacks and wigwams that housed La
Point’s diverse population. At the time of Copway’s arrival, the community’s main landmarks
included a store and warehouse owned by the American Fur Company, a large fish house used to

process and package fish, and buildings that housed the Protestant and Catholic missions.204

The Protestant mission was founded in 1831 by Frederick Ayers, an employee of the
American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, who left his position as a teacher at the
Mackinaw mission to come to La Point to begin the mission. The ABCF M sent several
missionaries to La Point to help with the conversion efforts. Missionaries from the northeast such
as William Boutwell, Edmund Ely, Sherman Hall, Granville Sproat, and Leonard Wheeler all
served as missionaries at La Point.205 During this time Copway lived with Reverend Hall, who
worked for the Presbyterian missionary society while Copway worked for the Methodists. He
willingly helped Hall translate the scriptures into Ojibwe because interdenominational
cooperation was frequent among frontier missionaries, especially during the 18203 and 303.

Copway felt passionate about avoiding “sectism” and thought they ought “. . .to know one another

 

202

Danziger, 83.

203 Stanley Lathrop, A Historical Sketch of the Old Mission, and its Missionaries to the Oiibway Indians, on

Madeline Island (Ashland, Wisconsin: 5.5. Edwards, 1905), 1.
20’ Danziger, 70.

205 Danzinger, 83.

156

as Presbyterians, Methodists, or Baptists, but only as missionaries of the cross. We should labor

with and for each other; and do all the good we can.”206

In 1836 Copway, Enmegahbowh, and Peter Marksman served as missionaries in the
newly founded Methodist mission at Ottawa Lake or Lac Court Orielle. The mission, situated
midway between Lake Superior and the head waters of the Mississippi River, was within the
borderland region separating Ojibwe and the Lakota territories, a scene of prior warfare between
the two tribal nations. John Clark, the Superintendent of Methodist Indian missions, promised
the Indian missionaries that if they remained faithful to their missionary post, they would have a
chance to attend Ebenezer Seminary in Jacksonville, Illinois. Subsequently, in the fall of 1837,
Copway, Enmegahbowh, and Marksman were admitted into Ebenezer Seminary just north of
Jacksonville, Illinois. Copway appeared to have enjoyed his time at the seminary. He and the

other students had the opportunity to visit local congregations and deliver sermons.

They were the only three Indians at the school but this did not affect Copway, who
formed several friendships with non-Indian students that endured for his ministerial career.
Copway’s experience at Ebenezer Seminar was positive, “At this institution I enjoyed some of the
happiest seasons of my life. The remembrance of many delightful acquaintances formed, the
appointments filled, the interesting meetings I attended in different parts, about Jacksonville, at
Lynville, Manchester, Rushville, and Versailes, will always hold a seat in my heart.” 207 Copway,

who spoke English tolerably well seemed to have been well received by the local white

 

“’6 Copway, Life, Letters. and Speeches, 82.

207 Copway, Life, Letters, and Speeches, 87.

157

congregations. His delivery “though broken,” explained one congregant, was “sensible and

forcible.”208

After completing his studies Copway returned home to visit his family at Rice Lake. He
enthusiastically described his journey through booming Great Lakes cities such as Chicago,
Detroit, Buffalo and also New York City, Albany, Syracuse, and Boston. These American
industrial cities impacted the twenty-one-year-old Mississauga missionary, who described
travelling “like a streak of lightening” on a Syracuse railroad car. However he was also critical,
“Boston was much overrated, having a few pretty spots” and the rest being “crooked and
narrow.” At one point while, enjoying a picturesque view of the city from Bunker’s Hill,
Copway was deeply moved and tears filled his eyes as he thought about the “noble race. of red

men” who once “roamed in all the land, and upon the waters.”209

While in Rice Lake, Copway met and married Elizabeth Howell, the daughter of a
Canadian military captain whose family lived near Toronto. Racial views in Upper Canada
during the mid-nineteenth century did not look approvingly on intermarriage. Native people were
at the bottom of Canada’s racial hierarchy. Even though Copway was a convert and missionary,
this marriage was looked down on. Undoubtedly the highly publicized marriage of Mississauga-
Ojibwe and Methodist minister Peter Jones and his English wife Eliza was an inspiration to
Copway. Peter and Eliza Jones spoke at length to George and Elizabeth about race relations in
Upper Canada and the negative way in which their marriage would be viewed. In June of 1840,

the two were united in matrimony, Peter Jones officiated at the ceremony. Following their

 

2°“ Smith, Life, Letters, and Speeches of Conway. 28

209 Copway, Life, Letters, and Speeches, 95.

158

marriage local Canadian papers railed against the union as “improper and revolting” and a

“disgrace” to Elizabeth’s family.“0

Following their marriage, the Copways returned to the western Great Lakes. From 1840-
1842, George and Elizabeth labored at missions located in the embattled region of the upper
Mississippi, where hostilities between the Lakota and Ojibwe still raged. Faced with Lakota
threats, the missionary families, like the Spates, Copways, and Enmegahbowhs (who labored with
them at the Rabbit River Mission), had to periodically abandon their missions and flee east to
safer Ojibwe territory. Though the Lakota usually honored the role of white missionaries, the
footing for Ojibwe missionaries remained tenuous at best. Speaking of the volatility of the
missions in these areas, Copway asserted, “This country is, indeed, a dangerous place for the
Ojibwe missionaries; but not so for the white, for they never pretend to interfere with them, in
any way.” Following his abduction by the Lakota, Copway describes the Sioux behavior as
“intimidating” him then they “pointed their weapons” at his chest and “flourishing their war
clubs” at his head. On one occasion they brandished their weapons and told the Ojibwe
missionary, “I wish you had longer hair, so that I could take good hold of it and scalp you.” 2”
The Sioux disliked these Ojibwe, who dressed like white men. While helping to construct
buildings at the Sioux Mission at Kaposia, the Lakota refused to believe that they were

Anishinabeg, they did not believe that the Chippewas worked in this way and accused them of

looking more like Frenchmen than Indians.”2

Not surprisingly, Peter and Elizabeth accepted Peter Jones’ invitation to return home in

1842. The Copways then began work. among the Saugeen Indian band of Lake Huron. Over the

 

21° Smith, mgLetters, and Speeches 0f CODWBV' 29-

2“ Copway, Life, Letters, and Speeches, 120.

212 Smith, Life, Letters, and Speeches, 31.

159

course of the next three year George acted as missionary for the Saugeen band while travelling
throughout Canada raising funds for Indian missions and transacting business for the various
tribes. Copway became very involved with the political affairs of the Ojibwe tribes in Canada-
West (Upper Canada became known as Canada-West in 1841). He was the youngest of a
delegation, which included Peter Jones, who visited Montreal in 1844 to meet with Governor
General Sir Charles Metcalf over the establishment of a manual boarding school for the tribe.213
In the mid 18403, there was a growing consensus among the Christianized Indians of Canada-
West that a reserve was needed that allowed them to separate from and be unmolested by their
white neighbors. Unceded tribal territory near the Saugeen Indian community at Owen Sound
was targeted by the Christian Ojibwe as an area where Christian Indians could remove and build a
religious community free of white interference. Copway participated in this removal movement
among the Christians Ojibwe of Canada-West and served as the vice president of the removal

committee.

There was a growing belief among Christian Ojibwe throughout the Great Lakes that
Native converts could grow in their faith if they were undisturbed by whiskey peddlers, land
grabbers, and traditionalist factions (who often bitterly opposed them) and could remove to their
own communities. Here they could focus on their faith and adopt sedentary agriculture, at their
own pace.‘ The Little Rapids mission was originally established on a tract of land on Sugar
Island, where John Sunday hoped to form a Christian community for the converts from his home
in Upper Canada and the Christian Indians at the Sault. They were opposed by both Ojibwe
traditionalists and Roman Catholics. A cholera outbreak forced Sunday to relocate to the

American mainland.“ However, most Methodist Indians in Canada-West continued to advocate

 

213 Smith, Sacred Feathers, 197

214 Chute, 46.

160

for a tract of land that could be set aside at the Saugeen reserve, near Owen Sound, off the shore

of Lake Huron.

During the summer of 1845 Mississauga Christians such as George Copway (Council
Vice President), John Sunday, John Jones (Peter’s brother), and Joseph Sawyer (Council
President) worked exhaustingly with the provincial government to establish a reserve.
Meanwhile, Peter Jones was in England on a fundraising tour to raise money for the proposed
manual labor school which the Christian Ojibwe hoped to build at Saugeen. The “Grand Council
of Methodist Ojibwe of Canada West” consisted of eighty-four Ojibwe chiefs from the Great
Lakes, and forty-three from Canada -West.2'5 The purpose of the council was to discuss the
feasibility of establishing a home for Christian Ojibwe at the Saugeen reserve; to establish a
manual boarding school on the new reserve; and to procure the Governor General’s approval of a

reliable timetable for the distribution of presents and annuities.216

White encroachment continued to disrupt Ojibwe society and both Christian and non-
Christian Ojibwe foresaw disastrous results for their communities if they remained adjacent to
their white neighbors. Copway believed the move to Saugeen on the east coast of Lake Huron

would counter the following conditions:

1)The introduction of . .. alcohol. . .; 2) The introduction of new diseases. . . .; 3) Their
inability to pursue that course of living, after they have abandoned their wigwams, which
tended toward health and old age; 4) Their... race... becoming homeless, friendless,
moneyless, and trodden down by the whites; 4) Their future prospects... gloomy and
cheerless—enough to break down the noblest spirits.2 '7

 

215 Copway, Life, Letters, and Speeches, 132.

215 Copway, LifeLLetters, and Speeches, 134.

217 Copway, Life, Letters, and Speeches 139.

161

In addition, the Christian Ojibwe assembly affirmed:

As we [the Christian part of our nation] have abandoned our former customs and
ceremonies, ought we not to make our own laws, in order to give character and stability
to our chiefs, as well as to empower them to treat with the Government under which we
live, that they may, from time to time, present all our grievances and other matters to the
General Government.”8

Copway further asserted the final draft of the document entitled “The Petition of the ‘
Ojibwa Chiefs, in General Council respecting the unceded lands north of Saugeen and Owen’s
Sound, June 5th 1845” was presented by the council president Chief Joseph Sawyer to Governor
General of Canada-West and was “received with a simple nod.” Copway described this
reception as both “discouraging and chilling” and lamentably asked “is this forever to be our
destiny?”2'9 Their petition was never addressed and the Christian Indians living on established
reserves, near white settlements, formulated a community model that paralleled the Saugeen plan.
Copway, however, would not work on further relocation efforts. In 1845, George Copway was
accused of embezzling funds by the Saugeen band and after similar allegations were made by
Chief George Pudash and Copway’s own uncle John Taunchey, that he had embezzled funds
from his home band at Rice Lake, he was convicted and imprisoned for one year at Toronto. The
missionary was also dispelled from the Canada Conference of Wesleyan Methodists. Copway
did have a propensity to operate outside the counsel of his older more experienced peers. He was
characterized as being stubborn and bullheaded by both Indian and non-Indian ministers. Some
years before being appointed a preacher, Presbyterian missionary Sherman Hall described

Copway, as a young missionary who thought “his judgment in missionary matters among his own

 

213 Copway, Ufa Letters, and Speeches 134.

21’ Copway, Life, Letters. and Speeches. 141.

162

nation, was at least worth as much as that of his superiors,” and “Copway would not be happy if

he felt that his movements were to be directed by others.

”220

Peter Jones who served as a spiritual father for the young Mississauga missionary noted

in 1845 that Copway was “too hasty” and “neglects to seek the advice of those who have older

and wiser heads then his own.”22‘ Copway’s recklessness finally culminated in his imprisonment

and defrocking from the Canada Conference of Methodists. Although Copway never mentioned

his imprisonment in his published writings, he did allude to the trouble he had while working

among the Christian tribes to establish reserve land at Saugeen:

I give these for the benefit and instruction of those, who have been so kind as to
insinuate, or assert, that I was not an authorized agent to forward the interests of my poor
people. Those who have been the loudest and most active in this slander, have done the
least, in rendering the Indians any essential service. Let them go on, with their
gossipings, while I go on my way rejoicing in doing all I can for my poor people,
independently of the Canada Conference. Neither have I the disposition to court the
favor of this conference. Indeed my heart sickens at the divisions and sub- divisions of
the Canada Methodists.222

He barely censured his fellow Mississauga, whose charges led to his imprisonment. He appeared

to direct his frustrations at the Canada Conference. Copway does offer some justifications for his

actions, describing how difficult it was to survive on a missionary’s meager income:

I entered upon my Christian duties among the Christian Indians. I met with difficulties,
for I could obtain nothing without money; and even when a request was made, it was not
met by the Society. I could not be convinced it was my duty to starve, and therefore
concluded I must leave. My Indian brethren then stepped forward at this time, and
petitioned the Governor Metcalf, to afford me a living from the Government. Their
request was granted and I was paid by Government $400 per year, for three years. I

 

220

221

222

Smith, Life,Letters and Speeeches of C0pway, 27.
Smith, Life,Letters and Speeches of Copway, 33.

Copway, Life,Letters, and Speeches, 129.

163

should have continued here but my services were demanded among my relatives at Rice
Lake.223

After his release from jail, Copway went on to become a rather celebrated author and
lecturer in the United States. He capitalized on his transformational story of a benighted savage
of the forest to a product of enlightened western civilization. Copway adeptly played to his
audience’s yearning for authentic native culture and casted himself as a “Chief” of the Ojibwe
and a “missionary among his people” though he was never a “Chief” of his people and had been
dispelled from the Methodists.224 Yet his story captivated the imagination of the American
people and he published a series of works: The Life, History, and Travels of Kah-ge-gggah
_bo_wh (1847); Recollections of a Forest Life of the Life and Travels of Kah-ge-ga-gah-bowh
(1851); ILaditional Histwd C,h_ar_acteristic Sketches of the Oiibway Nation (1850); _R_u_nn'mg
Sketches of Men and Pl_a,ces (1851); a weekly newspaper called megy’s Americm Indigr; and
the poem Ojibway Conquest (1850), (allegedly an altered version of a poem originally written by
an Indian agent who allowed Copway to publish the work to raise firnds for Indian missions).
Copway even traveled to Germany in 1850 to attend the World Peace Conference.225 He
eventually moved to New York City and enjoyed the company of such well-known writers as

Washington Irving, James F enimore Cooper, and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (whose “Song of

 

“3 Copway, Life,Letters, and Speeches. 129.

224 For a further analysis of George Copway’s career descent and bicultural difficulties see, Bernd C. Peyer,

The Tutor’d Mind: Ingan Missionary Writers in Antebellum Amefl (Amherst: University of
Massachusetts Press, 1997); for afresh perspective on Copway, one which illustrates how Copway
attempted to challenge nineteenth century notions of race see, Cathy Rex, ”Survivance and Fluidity:
George Copway’s The Life History, and Travels of Kahgegagahbowh,” StudiesiLAmerican Indian Literature
(Summer 2006) Vol. 18, Iss 2: pg. 1.; for a new synthesis on the roles of whites in Copway’s writings see
Mary Ruff, ”Tracking Whiteness: Portrayal of Whites in American Indian Literature” diss. The University
of Texas Arlington, 2008.

225 Smith, Life, Letters, and Speeches of Copway, 41-42.

 

164

Hiawatha” was supposed to have been inspired by Copway). However, his appeal as an
American Indian author faded and when he fell on hard times, his continual requests for money

alienated him from the elite social circles which had once embraced him.

Historical information on Copway is scant after 1851. He worked with his brother David
in recruiting Indians to fight in the American Civil War in 1864. An article in the Detroit Free
Press in 1867 advertised the medical skills of an Indian doctor by the name of Copway. In 1869,
he resurfaced at the Lake of Two Mountains Reserve, west of Montreal, without his wife and
daughter. He allegedly proclaimed himself a pagan and was baptized into the Catholic Church as
Joseph Antione. He died soon after his baptism, right before he was scheduled to take his first
communion.226 Even Copway’s legacy with his home community at Rice Lake became

- 2 7
dubious. 2

Of the three Ojibwe missionaries, Copway, Johnson, and Marksman; it is Copway who
most admired white society. Although all three were educated at Ebenezer Seminary, it was
Copway that spoke glowingly of his time at the school, his tour of American cities, and the
“prosperity of the white man.” Both Marksman and Johnson rarely referred to their time at
Ebenezer Seminary and when they visited large cities, such as Detroit and Chicago, they rarely
mentioned the experience. Both Johnson and Marksman married Indian wives who grew up in
the woods of the Great Lakes. Copway, however, married a white woman from genteel society in
Upper Canada. Not surprisingly, it was Copway that viewed Native Americans as a noble but
inevitably doomed race. He capitalized on notions of Anglo superiority and projected himself a

benighted red man of the forest who saw the light of a white society and embraced it.

 

226

Smith,Life, Letters, and Speeches of Copway, 48.

227 Smith, Sacred Feathers, 197.

165

Copway became the poster child for what assimilation and civilization programs were
able to accomplish. Unlike Peter Jones, who became saddened when he realized that people in
England were attending his lectures and sermons to see an exotic native from North America and
that they were not interested in him as an intellectual. Copway seemed to promote his Indian
identity in order to bolster his reputation and for profit. Whether it was his idea to establish an
Indian state named after himself, or his promotion of himself as “Chief of the Ojibwe,” this was a
platform that suggested self-aggrandizement and financial gain for himself. Even his elite literary
friends became quite weary of his continual requests for fimds and his meteoric rise to
international fame was equaled by how quickly he was dropped by the New York literary

establishment, once he fell upon hard times.

Though the wives of Peter Jones and George Copway remained lifelong friends, the
relationship between the two men was strained following Copway’s expulsion from the Canadian
Conference. Although other Mississauga-Ojibwe ministers such as John Sunday appeared in
Copway’s later publications, Peter Jones, arguably the most prominent Ojibwe Methodist
minister, was rarely mentioned. Copway exhibited a propensity to overly exploit individuals and
circumstances to promote his commercial and social objectives. Copway’s own wife, who
considered leaving him on more than one occasion and whose writing ability be relied upon to
bolster his own works, became fi'ustrated with Copway’s exploitative behavior. In a letter
Elizabeth wrote to her sister on July 24th, 1856 she lamented, “It is very desirable to be loved but
to be a slave to an unworthy object is revolting to our pride.”228 The two soon parted ways,
however, Elizabeth sought to reestablish their relationship in 1858. It appears however, that the

two permanently parted ways prior to George’s death in1868.

 

223 Smith, Life, Letters, and Speeches of Conway. 42-

166

Copway remained active long enough to see the Ojibwe of Southern Ontario establish a
religious/political assembly that fought for land and political rights for the Ojibwe and to secure
land for a separate Christian community. Although there were several capable Indian
missionaries in the Lake Superior country, it would be years before this same type of religiously
backed political organization was formed. When Copway made his break with the Methodists
(and with missionary life altogether), other Indian missionaries, especially Peter Marksman,

began their rise to prominence among the Lake Superior Ojibwe communities.
Peter Marksman, the Evangelist

Born in 1815 to a full blooded father and a mixed blood mother in northern Minnesota,
Peter Marksman was given the name Madwagwunayaush or Ringing Feather. He later acquired
the name of Gahgodahahquah (Shooting-at-the-Mark) or Marksman from which his English sir
name is derived. Though born in Minnesota, Marksman’s grandfather and great-grandfather were
tribal leaders at Mackinaw Island. His father, Ahzhahwegwun eventually left the straits area and
moved to the western end of Lake Superior. While at Fond du Lac, he married a French Indian
woman by the name of Wametgoozhequa. Peter Marksman was the youngest of seven children
and was inducted into the Midewiwin Society when he was “but a child.”229 Any individual or
family could pay to have themselves or their children inducted into the religious order where they
learned medicinal uses of plants and fauna. “Mide” members also learned ceremonies to cure
ailments brought on by spirits and learned how to use their spiritual power or medicine for the
benefit of themselves and the community. Induction ceremonies were held in an elongated cedar
bark lodge which was about 6 feet wide and 120 feet long and lasted up to five days.

Marksman’s ordination ceremony was comprised of singing, dancing, presentation of medicine

 

229 John H. Pitezel, The Life of Rev. Peter Marksman,An Oiibwa Missionary: Illustrating the Triumphs of

the Gmpel Among the Oiibwa Indifl (Cincinnati: Western Methodist Book Concern, 1903), 26.

167

bags, and the explanation by elders of the history of the religion and how it was given to the

Ojibwe by the Creator.

Peter Marksman’s family, which belonged to the catfish clan, endured a personal
heartbreak while he was a boy. Nahwahquakezhig, Peter’s eldest brother was an exceptionally
gifted runner and hunter. He was known to have never lost a foot race and hunted using only his
bow and steel tipped arrows. Nahwahquakezhig or Middle Sky was struck with tuberculosis as a
young man and tragically died from the disease and according to Marksman, his parents “almost
wept to the grave” over the loss of their oldest son. Peter Marksman and his family probably left

Fond du Lac following the death of Nahwaquakezhig and appeared at Sault Ste. Marie by 1830.230

A US Indian department was established at “the Sault” in 1822, two years after Lewis
Cass and a delegation of government officials and soldiers visited the area and asserted American
control over the village and military fort located near the rapids. During his visit, Cass negotiated
a treaty with local Ojibwe leaders and established a permanent reservation adjacent to the fort.
Given the reservation’s close proximity to the rapids, it became a popular destination for the
region’s Ojibwe inhabitants who turned the reservation into a fishing village during the summer
month. It was at this fishing village that Marksman and his family most likely erected their
lodge, around 1830. Most of the area’s Ojibwe consisted of nominal Catholics, traditional
religionists, a handful of Protestants (Baptists), and many who mixed all three theologies.
Though a few Protestant missionaries visited the rapids in the early 18203 most returned east,
after a few months. It was not until Abel Bingham’s Baptist mission was built, just northwest of

the fort in 1828, that a permanent Protestant station was established.

 

23° Pitezel, Life of Peter Marksman, 19.

168

In the early 18303, Bingham made it a practice to visit local Ojibwe lodges to share the
gospel and pray with the occupants. He had a slight impact on the beliefs of a few Ojibwe
families. Bingham convinced Marksman’s parents to adopt Christianity, although they still
appeared to be active Midewiwin practitioners. After repeated visits by Bingham to his family’s
lodge in the Sault, Marksman’s family became Christians, although they still held on to their
“idols and our medicine bags” which were “regarded as... sacred.” The syncretism practiced by
Marksman’s family was representative of the religious outlook of many Lake Superior Ojibwe in
the early 18303 and it became characteristic of indigenous Christian practice for much of the

nineteenth century.

While at the Sault, Ojibwe missionaries John Kabeege and John Taunchey lived with
Peter Marksman and his family. The two missionaries taught Marksman how to read and write
and he listened to their sermons which they preached in the Ojibwe language. It was not long
before Marksman began accompanying the two Ojibwe missionaries on local missionary trips and
he was eventually converted in 1835, at the age of 20, at the Little Rapids Methodist Mission at

Sault Ste. Marie.

In 1837, Superintendant John Clark was replaced by D.M. Chandler, who had labored
with Copway and Taunchey at the Kewawenon Mission in 1834. Unfortunately, Chandler died
soon after his appointment and William Brockway was then appointed superintendent in 1840.231
From 1837-1839 Marksman, along with George Copway and John Johnson Enmegahbowh
attended Ebenezer Seminary and lived in the home of Dr. Peter Akers, a missionary for the
American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions. Marksman’s time at Ebenezer

Seminary was the only formal education he received?” In 1839, Marksman was appointed to

 

231 Pitezel, Life of Peter Marksman, 73.

2” Reuter, 58.

169

assist William Brockway at the Little Rapids Mission in Sault Ste. Marie. Though designated as
an “assistant missionary” Marksman became an evangelist, in the truest sense of the word. As a
youth, he made several trips from Wisconsin to Sault Ste. Marie to trade goods and fish.
Marksman was familiar with all of the Ojibwe settlements along the southern shore of Lake
Superior and the Eastern Upper Peninsula of Michigan. On several occasions he travelled
through familiar villages of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula to preach to Ojibwe bands and interpret

for white ministers. Marksman described one missionary voyage this way,

When I came down from Lake Superior, to my appointment this year, I took a
small birch-bark canoe from Iron River to Kah-ke-wa-oo-na-un [Kewawenon]
Mission, because I could not find any passage; but by the help of God, I
determined to come down myself; and when I started coming down, I had little
provision for my journey, and the chief at the place where I started gave me an
old tomahawk and one paddle. 23’

In 1842, he served as a missionary at the Lakeville Indian Mission in Lower Michigan’s
Oakland County and was ordained a deacon during the first Michigan Annual Conference in
Adrian, MI.234 He was then assigned to the Kewawenon Indian Mission near L’Anse, again in
Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. This mainly traditional and Catholic Indian community of about
600 inhabitants had a small group of Protestant believers which attended the mission. It was at
Kewawenon that Marksman briefly backslid from his Methodist beliefs and then married a
French Indian woman named Hannah Morien, on August 20, 1844. She was educated at the
Presbyterian mission at La Point in northern Wisconsin and dressed after the manner of the
whites, she was described as stately and dignified in her appearance. Hannah helped him at the
Kewawenon Mission and read and interpreted the Bible to Ojibwe women in their homes. By the

fall of 1844, Marksman returned to his Methodist beliefs and accompanied Methodist missionary

 

233 Pitezel, Life of Peter Marksman, 77.

23" Reuter, 62.

170

John Pitezel to Little Rapids Mission at the Sault where Marksmen was employed as Pitezel’s

- 3
interpreter. 2’ 5

Travel was an arduous test of endurance and strength for both Indian and white
missionaries. Most nineteenth-century Methodist missionaries rode on horseback and visited

missionary posts located along a thirty-five mile circuit.236

However, in the upper Great Lakes
that circuit included distances of more than 200 miles. The brush on the trails was so thick that
missionaries normally travelled by canoe, steamship, or on snowshoe during the winter months.
During the winter, when the lakes were frozen over, missionaries averaged an incredible 25-30
miles a day. William Brockway or Penabic (Iron Man) as he was called by the Ojibwe, eventually
became the Methodist superintendent of missions at Sault Ste. Marie. As a new missionary,
Brockway’s circuit consisted of 32 appointments every four weeks which were spaced out over a
distance of 300 miles.237 Missionary John Pitezel’s circuit on the south shore of Lake Superior
included missions at Kewawenon (near L’Anse), Grand Island (near Munising), and Sault Ste.
Marie; a 464 mile round trip! In January of 1844, while travelling 120 miles from Kewawenon to
Grand Island, missionary John Pitezel developed “mal du raquette” or snowshoe lameness, from
straining his Achilles’ tendon in his left foot. Pitezel was forced to tie a leather rope to the front
of his left snow show and with each step he pulled the thong with his left hand and lifted the

snowshoe as he walked. After travelling hours through the woods he came upon a solitary

Wigwam, near present day Marquette, which belonged to an Ojibwe by the name of Marji-

 

235 Reuter, 64.

236 Ronald Brunger, ”Methodist Circuit Riders,” Michigan History Magazine LI (1967): 257.

237 Mary Brockway Dickie, “Reminiscences of William Hadley Brockway” Michigan History Magazine 1

(1917): 48.

171

Geshick. The Ojibwe main alleviated the pain by applying an Ojibwe remedy which enabled

Pitezel to complete the remaining 40 miles to Grand Island.238

Most Indian communities were located adjacent to waterways and along the shorelines of
various lakes. Michigan’s Upper Peninsula was comprised of large forests of white pines. These
coniferous forests did not have the underbrush where large animals grazed, such as deer, moose,
and elk. It was the diversity in plant life near the coastal regions that tended to attract the larger
game. Also, because pelts and trade goods were transported by along rivers or the coastal waters
of a major lake, Anishinabeg communities were usually located near these waterways.239 Most
transportation in the Great Lakes occurred during the summer months. There was a system of
Indians trails that linked one Indian community to another and it was these land routes that were
used during the winter months. Most trails were located on elevated dry ground close to
watersheds and streams. Roadways were not developed until the twentieth century in the Upper

Peninsula and the long established systems of trails remained short distance and minimal.240

On several occasions, missionaries who found themselves many miles away from their
destination were forced to bed down in the woods. This could be especially taxing in the dead of
winter. Yet, Ojibwe missionaries were adept at surviving out-of-doors. Peter Marksman recalled
an instance in the winter when he was several miles from home, “When the snow was deep in the
winter-time, when I walked so many days that my feet bled, I was tired, hungry and cold.
Sometimes I was thinking of the brother’s house. If I could stay tonight how comfortable I

should be. But I must dig the snow, and make my nest in a cold place to lodge in during the

 

238

Larry Massey, ”La Bibliotheque," Michigan History Magazine May/June (1999): 22.
’3’ Cornell, 89.

24° Robert Warner, et. al., Chippewa Indians V, ed. David Agee Horr (New York and London: Garland
Publishing Co., 1974), 91.

172

night. Oh ye missionaries, be not discouraged, but rather rej oice.”24' In another instance, during
a winter storm in 1848, Marksman was forced to make camp just twelve miles from Sault Ste.
Marie. He slept with his feet near the fire and “dreaming that somebody was pinching and
hurting his feet,” upon awakening he discovered that his feet were too near the fire which singed
and ruined his moccasins. Yet, the next morning he gave thanks for his breakfast which consisted
of a single piece of bread, and “the presence of God,” according to Marksman, so filled his heart
that he “could not help weeping for joy.” After his breakfast he described his journey to the
Sault, “. . .as so filled with the presence of God that I did not suffer, though my feet were gashed

and bleeding. I reached home in time for my appointment.”242

Marksmen’s heroic feat probably took place during March or what the Anishinabeg call
onaabenii-giizis or “crust on the snow” month, when the snow in the most northerly areas of the
Great Lakes becomes hardened enough to walk on without giving way. The ability to endure the
cold made the Ojibwe legendary among Great Lakes peoples. In Lightiand Shadows of a_Lflg
Episcopate, Bishop Henry Whipple described how that during the winter months many Ojibwe,
after “the fire goes out, they roll themselves in their blankets, often with the thermometer thirty
degrees below zero, with the wind coming through the cracks of the Wigwam, and go to sleep.”
Whipple was amazed when he found that the Pembina band of Ojibwe, before setting out on a
long winter’s journey, put out their fires and sit in the cold weather in order to prepare their

bodies for the trip ahead.243

The hunting and trapping skills of Indian missionaries often benefited the white ministers

and missions with whom they labored. During the spring of 1847, Reverend Eri Day and Peter

 

241 Reuter, 62.

242 Pitezel, Life of Peter Marksman. 114.

243 Henry B. Whipple, Lights and Shfls of a Long Episcopate (New York: The MacMilIan Co., 1899), 42.

173

Marksman encountered a severe blizzard at Fond du Lac, Wisconsin. According to Day, the “air
was filled with falling snow,” the wind blew like “a hurricane,” and the “cold was intense.” At

this time, Day endured “the most trying incident” of his life. Missionary Day’s young son, while
running and playing with Peter Marksman’s son, had accidently knocked a kettle of boiling water
on to himself as he ran past the kitchen stove. Day’s son was severely burned. The two families
tried the best they could to tend to the child, but despite their best efforts the boy’s “skin clung to

his garments.”244

They were remotely located and had little food or supplies. Missionary Day fell into
despair but Marksman recalled a series of snares that he had previously set to catch rabbits. The
raging blizzard, however, made locating and retrieving the buried rabbits extremely difficult.
Marksman eventually located one rabbit from the snares he set, just as Day began to blame
himself, “Your boy will die and you cannot even get a piece of rabbit for him.” Suddenly, Day
felt a tap on the shoulder and there was Peter Marksman. He pointed to the frozen rabbit he
recovered from the snare and placed it under the kitchen table and said, “See there! God has given

'99

us just one rabbit Day, overwhelmed, stated “I can give you no impression the sight of that
rabbit and his words had upon me.”245 Remarkably, the boy recovered and with minimal scarring

or disfigurement.

During the 18403, the Indian population of the Sault area began to decline. The fur trade
had all but disappeared and there was no other commercial activity. The military fort at the Sault
was almost deserted and the United States Indian Agency, established in 1822, had been

transferred to Mackinaw Island. Not until the construction of the locks in 1853 would the area

 

244 Pitezel, Life of Peter Marksman, 115.
245Pitezel, Life of Peter Marksman, 117.

174

begin to recover.246 By the late 18403, Marksman and the Christian Ojibwe at Little Rapids also
moved from the Sault area. They wished to purchase land and dissolve the government ties to
their mission, they relocated 35 miles west to Whitefish Bay and established Naomikong Mission.

Peter Marksman and his wife Hannah were stationed at Naomikong from 1849-1852.

The fishing was quite good at Whitefish Bay during this time and the Christian Ojibwe
not only had ample supplies of Whitefish but they were able to find employment in the emerging
fishing industry. They made money when they caught and sold fish, or when they manufactured
rods, nets, and fishing boats to sell to white fishermen. John Pitezel often recorded Marksman’s
activities after they followed the Indians to their fishing grounds at Whitefish Point. While there
Marksmen and his wife lived in a Wigwam and taught school under a “temporary shelter,” of a
large cedar bark lodge that Marksmen erected. F ifty- two students attended Marksman’s school
in the cedar bark lodge.247 Then in 1853, Marksman was sent to the Janesville Indian Mission in
Saginaw County. Over the next seven years, the Ojibwe missionary served at several Methodist
Indian missions throughout Lower Michigan. Although growing old, Marksman continued to

labor with astonishing mobility.248

In 1856, when the Naomikong Mission was moved to Iroquois Point the Methodist
Church purchased land where their Native converts built their homes. The missionary houses,
buildings, churches, and Ojibwe settlement near the missionary property, was named Shawville
'or Gzoozhekaaning (Place of the Pike) by the Ojibwe. This land was later sold to the US.

government and eventually formed the reservation of the Bay Mills Indian Community/7'49 When

 

246 .
Nairn, 6.

2‘7 Pitezel, Life of Peter Marksman. 131-

243 Reuter, 66.

249

Cleland, Place of the Pike, 34.

175

he returned to Lake Superior country, Marksman attended a camp meeting at Iroquois Point and
he was greeted with much fanfare by the Christian Indians. During the summer of 1856, he

received the devastating news that his spiritual father, Peter Jones, had died. Twenty three years
had passed since he had been baptized by Jones at the Little Rapids Mission in Sault Ste. Marie.
It is likely that Marksman saw the Mississauga minister for the last time four years previously in

1852, during the Whitefish Point tent revival meeting.

In 1860, Marksman was assigned to work the “Indian circuit” which encompassed
Iroquois Point, Sault Ste. Marie, and Sugar Island. After serving two years at the Ocean Mission,

he was again appointed to Iroquois Point, where he labored for eight years.250

During this time,
he helped the Ojibwe at Iroquois Point select and record allotment plots, as designated by the
Treaty of 1855.251 During the 18703 Marksman served at various Methodist missions throughout
the Upper Peninsula. He and his wife also labored at the missions located along Lake Superior’s
southern shore for the duration the 18703: Kewawenon and Iroquois Point (Bay Mills), 1870;
Iroquois Point, 1871; Kewawenon and Iroquois Point, 1872; Kewawenon, 1873; Cedar River,
Grand Island (near Munising), and Kewawenon, 1874; Grand Island and Cedar River, 1875;
Kewawenon 1876, 1877; Supemumeracy (due to ill health), 1878; Hannahville Indian Mission,
1879; Hannahville and Grand Island Indian Mission, 1880, 1881. Peter adored children and he

and Hannah adopted a boy and a girl during the 18703. Unfortunately, their adopted son, Peter

William, died on July 19’“, 1879 and was buried at the Kewawenon Indian Mission.252

In 1879, Peter and Hannah helped the Potawatomi move from their lands in Lower

Michigan to their new home in the central Upper Peninsula, near Escanaba, MI. For helping

 

25° Reuter, 68.

251 Cleland, Place of the Pike, 35.

252 Pitezel, Life of Peter Marksman, 216.

176

them during their migration to the Upper Peninsula, the Potawatomi named their settlement
“Hannahville” in honor of Peter’s wife Hannah?” Marksman passed away at the Kewawenon

Indian Mission on May 28‘”, 1892.

Peter Marksman was the least controversial figure of the Ojibwe missionaries. He never
argued with church officials, although he withdrew from his missionary duties during a brief
backsliding episode, but was restored within the same year. He was taught to speak and write
English by John Taunchey, and because his only formal education was the Ebenezer Manual
School he possessed the least education of the three missionaries. His spelling was problematic
and he lacked the articulate and polished presentation of Copway, although he spoke quite
eloquently in the Ojibwe language. Like many Anishinabeg in the western Great Lakes he was
conversant in French. Described as being a “Christian gentleman” who had a “graceful and
dignified” appearance, he did not, unlike Enmegahbowh, have a forceful nature. Marksman
delivered most of his sermons in Ojibwe and yet, his artful speaking style captivated many white
missionaries. Despite not being able to speak or understand Ojibwe, the Rev. Salmon Steele, who
labored with Marksman at the Little Rapids Mission at the Sault, attended Marksman’s sermons.
He later wrote, “Although unable to understand, I was always an earnest listener at his services,
and there was something so dignified that I loved to be present and mark the effect of his

eloquence upon the people.”254

Marksman was one of the most earnest Methodist missionaries in Lake Superior country
during the mid-nineteenth century. Commissioned as a missionary in the mid 18303 and ordained
as a Methodist deacon in 1842, Marksman served as missionary for over 50 years at different

Indian missions, such as Sault Ste. Marie, L’Anse, Fond du Lac, Bay Mills, Whitefish Bay, Mt.

 

253 Reuter, 68.

25‘ Pitezel, Life of Peter MarksmarL 226.

177

Pleasant, Lac Court Oreilles, Grand Island, Hannahville, and Saginaw. Typically, Anishinabeg
were not outspoken about personal achievements or accomplishments in public settings. Such
sharing of information was reserved for elders and the more seasoned. This cultural trait was
personified by Marksman. Though a man of distinction, he always deflected attention when
others applauded his work. Rev. Steale, remembered the Indian minister as someone who, “. ..
never boasted in his skill as a hunter or anything he did. He spoke in high terms of what his
brothers could do. . ..If he related any incident in his own life, he simply related the facts. . .as
matters of common occurrence, losing sight of himself, when in others, what he accomplished

would have been the deeds of heroes.”255

Though Marksman embodied many facets of Ojibwe culture, he was not opposed to
adopting the cultural ways of white society, such as his adoption of Euro-American dress when he
converted to Christianity. After attending a church service near the Sault rapids, Marksman was
quite impressed with the Indian missionaries (most likely Peter Jones, John Sunday, etc.) who
preached at the meeting. He wrote “I was very much delighted when I saw those preachers.

They appeared good. Their dress was like a white man’s, clean and neat.”256 In August of 1832,
while helping the missionary Thomas Shaw “make hay,” Marksman says, “I changed my dress

and wore my hair differently.”257

By the mid-nineteenth century, Protestant missionaries, folk Catholicism, and persistent
adherence to traditional Ojibwe religion produced some interesting changes. Oral stories
emerged that clearly incorporated both Christian elements and traditional spirituality. While

traveling along the south shore of Lake Superior during the 18503, the German explorer Johann

 

255 Pitezel, Life of Peter Marksmfl, 280.

256 Pitezel, Life of Peter Marksmfl 45.

257 Pitezel, Life of Peter Marksman, 46.

178

Kohl recorded some very remarkable stories about “Kitchi Manitou” and the creation of
humankind. According to one story shared by an older Ojibwe man by the name of Kagagengs,
man emerged from a lake covered with scales. Soon Kitchi-Manitou made a woman by the name
of “Mani” (Ojibwe pronunciation of “Mary”) and placed both man and woman in a garden
complete with a “tree of knowledge” which bore forbidden fruit. One day, Mani was enticed by a
young Indian man who appeared near the tree to eat the fruit, which she did, and also persuaded
the man to do the same. After the couple partook of the fruit which Kitchi Manitou warned them
not to, scales fell from their bodies. They were soon discovered by Kitchi-Manitou who banished
them from the garden and forced to make a living by hunting and eating wild animals. While
hunting one day the man encountered a book under a tree, however it was too large to fit into his
medicine bag and be buried it. Soon after, he stumbled upon another book, however, this book
was made from birch bark and was very light-weight. It also contained information explaining
how to gather herbs, hunt animals, and fetch fish out of the water. The man kept this book as it

258

helped him in everyday life.

Another popular folk tale embodied the same syncretic Christian and traditional elements
and was widely circulated among the Ojibwe. An Ojibwe man died and approached the gates of
heaven but was turned away because he was an Indian. When he got to the “hunting ground” in
the West, where all the dead Indians went, he was also turned away because he had been a
Christian. An Ojibwe chief shared this same perspective with a Catholic priest in 1838. He
described the spirit of a person who had died and journeyed to the white man’s heaven but

discovered that, “baptized Indians weren’t received into heaven.”259

 

253 Johann Kohl, Kitchi-Gami: Wanderings Around Lake Superior Wanderings Round Lake Superior

(London: Chapman and Hall, 1860), 195-202.

25” Timothy Cochrane, Minong—The Good Place: Oiibwe and Isle Royal (East Lansing: Michigan State

University Press, 2009), 143.
179

Marksman and other Methodist Indian ministers worked to combat these hybridizations
but by the mid-century, Christian/traditional folklore was entrenched among the Ojibwe. Like
most Indian missionaries, Marksman attempted to establish a clearer division between non-
Christian and Christian beliefs and he encouraged converts to destroy items used in traditional
worship. Marksman himself, following his conversion took the “gods of his fathers” and
“burned” them. Unlike Catholic and Anglican missionaries, the Methodists had little tolerance
for traditional Ojibwe religious practice. While Indians connected with Anglican and Catholic
missions normally met with little reprisal from missionaries when they engaged in traditional
singing and dancing, both white and Ojibwe Methodist ministers strongly discouraged such

cultural practices.

Peter Jones, John Sunday, and others often preached against participating in ceremonies
or activities which appeared to conflict with their notion of Christian behavior. Marksman
embraced “sanctified” theology and when he became a missionary he urged his Ojibwe converts
to abandon many aspects of traditional Ojibwe religious activity. This became especially evident
in 1841 when Marksman was assigned to the Nebeseeng Indian mission in Michigan’s Genesee
County. One morning, after Marksman preached a message from St. Luke 15: 18, the Indians of
the mission presented Marksman their “images and bad medicines” (ceremonial items from their
medicine bags) and the Indian missionary burned them.260 By the end of the year he had
managed to win more that 100 converts at the mission.261 By destroying ceremonial items
Marksman followed the practices of other Methodist Indian ministers, who made the

abandonment of traditional practice the corner stone of their message.

 

26° Pitezel, Life of Peter Marksman, 85.

26’ Reuter, 63.

180

By the 18503, Indian communities were permanently divided into traditional, Catholic,
and numerous Protestant affiliations. Throughout several Lake Superior Indian communities
there was usually one Catholic mission and various Protestant missions.262 By the mid nineteenth
century Baptists, Methodists, Presbyterian, Anglican, Moravian, and even Universalist
missionaries had established missions in many Ojibwe communities. The
interdenominationalism of the 18303 was then replaced twenty years later with well entrenched
divisions. Protestant groups often established communities that were separate from their non-
Christian relatives. Although Protestant missions were better funded and employed staffs of at
least one teacher, missionary, assistant missionary, interpreter, and possibly a farmer or
blacksmith; Catholic missions still held considerable influence in Indian communities. Many
Ojibwe had either nominally Catholic or practicing Catholic relatives. Traditionalism also
continued to resonate with many Ojibwe. By the mid 18503, many Ojibwe living in places like
Sault Ste. Marie and L’Anse dressed like whites, attended church on a regular basis, and were

becoming fluent in English.

The death of Peter Jones in 1856 signified the passing of the first vanguard of Indian
missionaries and marked the emergence of younger missionaries, most of whom were converted
by or influenced by Jones. The Methodist missions that were established on the south shore of
Lake Superior signaled the beginning of outdoor evangelical camp meetings that were so popular
in Upper Canada in the 18203 and 18303. As described in chapter three, over 200 Ojibwe
assembled at Whitefish Bay in Michigan’s eastern Upper Peninsula to hold a week long outdoor

revival meeting. Christian Ojibwe (and some non-Christian relatives) came from as far as Lake

 

“'2 For an in-depth description between the contrasting goals of Catholic and Protestant missions see,

John Webster Grant, Moon of Wintertime: Missionaries and the Indians of Canada in Encounter since
£33 (Toronto and London: University of Toronto Press, 1984); for an examination of Catholic and
Protestant missionary rivalries see Christopher Vecsey, The Path of Kateri’s Kin (Notre Dame: University
of Notre Dame Press 1997).

 

181

Ontario to attend this revival meeting. For one week, Ojibwe preachers, community leaders, and
lay men preached, prayed, sang, and worshipped in ways that were similar to the Mississauga
Indians of twenty and thirty years earlier in Southern Ontario. Several preachers and missionaries
such as Peter Jones, John Sunday, and Yellowhead were nearing the end oftheir lives while
others such as Peter Marksman and Peter Greensky were just beginning or were at the peak of
their missionary careers. An Ojibwe clergy was clearly established and a growing Christian
Ojibwe identity permeated many Ojibwe communities. The future looked promising for

Indigenous evangelical Christianity in the western Great Lakes, as it began to spread from Lake

Superior to the west.

Enmegahbowh and the Indian Clergy at White Earth

By the 18803 and 903, traditional religious practices were forced underground and most
occurred out of the sight of missionaries, Indian agents, and Christian Indians. An influential
Indian clergy as well as a cohesive and well rooted Indigenous Christian community had moved
to the forefront in many Ojibwe towns. Week-long summer revivals, home church services,
youth choirs, and religious festivals became the focus of spiritual life in many Ojibwe ‘
communities. Although traditional religious ways declined there remained a small fraction of the
community who belonged to the Mediwiwin Society, practiced the “tent shaking” ceremony, held
ghost suppers (dinners where the spirits of the dead were honored and fed), and practiced
traditional healing. Christian practices, such as home prayer meeting and house services,
preserved many elements of Ojibwe culture. Home services occurred outside of the supervision
of church authorities and Ojibwe believers were free to interact and share tribal stories, histories,

and spiritual perspective as they had for generations.

182

This next section demonstrates that house meetings became the locales where Christian
Ojibwe prayed and sang over and sang for one another in ways that were considerably different
than what white missionaries viewed as customary. Traditionalism continued in one form while
there was simultaneously a growing stigmatization of these practices as church membership
increased among the Ojibwe. Ojibwe clergy who preached against traditional religious practices
contributed substantially to the decline of such activity. No person was more responsible for the
emergence of a vibrant Indigenous clergy in northern Minnesota than John Johnson

Enmegahbowh.

Like Copway, John Johnson or Enmegahbowh (One Who Stands Before The People)
attended the Methodist mission school at Rice Lake, Ontario and he was probably converted at
the same time as Copway. He was about 10 years older than Copway and he was not a
Mississauga-Ojibwe. Enmegahbowh was from an Odawa tribe that lived north of the
Mississauga territory, along the northern coast of Lake Huron. Though Odawa, his family lived
among the Ojibwe at Rice Lake. Given that the Odawa, Ojibwe, and Potawatomi people
considered themselves related and could linguistically communicate with one another, with slight
dialectal variations, it was not uncommon for them to reside in each other’s communities. John
Johnson Enmegahbowh, like Peter Marksman, grew up a member of the Midewiwin Society and
both were exposed to Christianity while young. Copway was converted by Peter Jones, (twenty
years his senior) while Enmegahbowh’s family was visited by Rev. Armour, an Episcopal
clergyman. He periodically visited the family at their winter encampment just outside of
Peterborough in Upper Canada. Enmegahbowh stayed with Rev. Armour for three months when

he attended school. Johnson learned to dress like whites and he attended school with Rev.

183

Armour’s sons. After a few months, Enmegahbowh suffering from homesickness, ran away and

rejoined his father’s band, 263

Over the course of the next five years, Enmegahbowh attended the Methodist mission
school at Rice Lake, along with his younger cousin George. At the behest of the Indian agent,
who had received a letter from William Case, the Superintendant of Indian missions in Canada,
Johnson agreed to travel to the western Great Lakes to work in the newly found Indian missions
along the southern shore of Lake Superior. In 1834, Enmegahbowh was sent to the Grand
Traverse Bay area in northwest Lower Michigan along with Peter Marksman and John Kabeege.
In 1835, the Odawa missionary was assigned to the Kewawenon Mission near L’Anse, Michigan
where he acted as an interpreter for the missionary William Herkmiker.264 During the summer of
1836 Enmegahbowh, Copway, and Marksman were assigned to the newly established Methodist
Indian mission at Ottawa Lake or Lac Court Oreille, where they labored until the following
summer. With funds made available through the Illinois Conference, the three Indian

missionaries attended the Ebenezer Manual Labor School or Ebenezer Seminary.

John Johnson’s experience at the school was somewhat different fi'om that of C0pway.
He seldom mentioned his time at Ebenezer Seminary and mentioned only that he was considered
“one of the best grammarians” and was prepared to be sent “to college to learn dead languages.”
In reference to the classical languages, he always said that he was sent to minister among the
living and not the dead, therefore, he had no desire to learn “dead languages.”265 As a result, he
refused to learn Greek and Hebrew, a prerequisite for clerical ordination, the requirement was

fortunately waived on his behalf by Bishop Whipple. According to Whipple, Enmegahbowh had

 

263
Jackson, 4

264
Jackson, 5
265

Whipple, 505.

184

“a good English education” and “was well-read in the scriptures.”266 The bishop was overjoyed

when the gifted Odawa deacon passed his ordination examination in 1867.

After graduating from the school, Enmegahbowh was charged with opening up a mission
with Methodist missionary Samuel Spates at Sandy Lake, located in the contentious
Sioux/Ojibwe borderland region of the upper Mississippi River valley, about 50 miles from the
western head of Lake Superior.267 Enmegahbowh remained at the Little Elk River in 1840 and
while at the Little Elk River mission, he served as an assistant missionary to Chief Hole-in-the
Day’s band. With the mission under siege from attacks by the Sioux, Enmegahbowh escaped
north with Hole-in-the-Day and helped establish a mission at near the Rabbit River.268 In 1841 he
wed Biwabikogishigoque or Iron Sky Woman, a niece of Hole-in-the-Day. Iron Sky Woman was
baptized as Charlotte just before her marriage to Enmegahbowh. According to Enmegahbowh
she belonged to the “Grand Medicine Lodge” or the Midewiwin Society, however, she agreed to
be baptized before they married. At the ceremony she knelt before the “Grand Medicine-men”
who came to witness her baptism and sat in a large circle around her. Dr. Kavanaugh, a
missionary who labored with Enmegahbowh, introduced the Odawa missionary to his new bride
just days before he called Biwabikogishigoque to the center of the circle. After she “answered all
the questions of this holy rite” Dr. Kavanaugh baptized her with a cup of water which he held in
his hand. After the ceremony the two were married, following Christian ritual.269 She
undoubtedly was exposed to Christianity through the Methodist mission established among her

father’s band in 1839 and may have been converted directly by Enmegahbowh. At any rate, with

 

266

Whipple, 178.

267 Jackson, 7.

268

Soundings, 12.

’69 Whipple, 503.
185

the most powerful chief as an in-law, Enmegahbowh acquired a position of influence among the

Ojibwe of upper Minnesota.

Three days after his marriage to Biwabikogishigoque, Hole-in-the-Day’s band again came
under attack and they relocated further up the Pine River. Once again Enmegahbowh established
a mission among his father-in-law’s band called the Whitefish Lake Mission, which he
subsequently abandoned in 1841. From 1842-1845, Johnson served as assistant missionary at

Sandy Lake, as well as assisting the missions at Red Lake, Leech Lake, and Cass Lake.270

The withdrawal of Methodist missionaries from Minnesota in the late 18403 left
Enmegahbowh disinherited and disillusioned, and he decided to return to his community in Upper
Canada. He had not been back to visit his family in almost ten years. Due to his limited
education, he had always considered white missionaries, educated in eastern colleges and with
doctorates of divinity, as more qualified to minister than himself but he also wondered, “if these
men of learning have failed to teach these heathen, who can succeed? And what am I that I
should attempt to train my people. If I remain in this country my days and years will become a

failure and a sorrow.”271 He settled it in his heart that he would return to Canada with his wife.

This journey back home became a watershed moment in his life. Unlike Copway,
Enmegahbowh felt duty bound to remain a missionary in the western Great Lakes. Although he
attempted to leave for Canada, his religious convictions manifested themselves in a unique way.
When he and his wife boarded the John Jacob Astor at La Point and were headed toward Sault
Ste. Marie, 3 terrible storm ensued. Despite the best efforts of the crew, the ship was forced to

turn back. According to Enmegahbowh, “the heavens were of ink blackness; there was a great

 

27° Soundings, 12.

”1 Whipple, 504.

186

roaring and booming, and the lightening seemed to rend the heavens.” Enmegahbowh had a
heartfelt conversation with his wife to whom he confessed that he believed the storm had been
sent by God to keep him from leaving his missionary post. The Indian preacher likened his

situation akin to that of the Prophet Jonah and reflected on his situation in this way:

...I know you. You are a fugitive. You have sinned and disobeyed God. Instead of
going to the city of Nineveh, where God sent you to spread His word to the people, you
started to go, and then turned aside. You are now on your way to the city of Tarshish,
congenial to your cowardly soul. . ..My friend. . .your position is precisely like mine. You
have run away from your work. . .The Lord has dealt with you as He dealt with me. Have
you faith to say as I did, ‘Take me up and throw me into the sea?’ If so, where is the big
fish to swallow you? There is no whale in this lake, no fish big enough for your huge
body. Hence, if they caste you in, it is the end of you. . ..Only contrition will save you.
Farewell! Farewell! May the Great Spirit pardon you, and bring you to dry land.272

After this visionary experience, Enmegahbowh decided to return to his wife’s people at Gull
Lake. After the incident Enmegahbowh asserted, “The more I thought of J onah’s advice, the
more I thought of God’s willingness to save the people from destruction, and that I might help in
the work; although like Moses of old, I asked myself, ‘Who am I that I should go unto the great
heathen nation? I am not eloquent, neither heretofore, nor since thou has shown me thy love.”’273
The decision to return to his wife’s people must have impressed Hole-in-the-Day, for in 1846 he

adopted Enmegahbowh as his son. However, their growing relationship was cut short by the

Ojibwe leader’s death a year later, in 1847.

Following the death of Hole-in-the-Day, an unfortunate incident forever altered
Enmegahbowh’s relationship with the Methodists. While laboring at the Fond du Lac mission in

1849, a white man hurled verbal insults at his wife and Johnson became upset and attacked the

 

272

Whipple, 509.

273

Soundings, 11.

187

74
”2 As a result

man. While he held the man down, his wife “administered a severe punishment.
of this altercation, the couple was expelled from the Methodist Church Meanwhile, Kwiwisens
or “Hole in the Day, the younger” became the chief and he moved back to Gull Lake in 1849. At
Gull Lake, the band utilized the government farm programs as provided under the Treaty of 1847.
In 1850, a delegation of tribal leaders, including Enmegahbowh, left Gull Lake to visit
Washington in hopes of securing funds for education and agriculture for their people.275 A
similar trip, following the resettlement at White Earth, found Enmegahbowh visiting at the White

House, where he met the president. He also received $1,000 from the famous nineteenth-century

singer, Jenny Lind.276

Following his expulsion, Enmegahbowh became disenchanted with the Methodist Church
and he later resurfaced at Ft. Snelling, where annual annuities where being paid to his tribe.
While there, he approached an Episcopal clergyman named E.G. Gear and spoke to him about the
need for a mission among the Gull Lake Ojibwe. Sometime afterward the reverend recalled
being approached by an Indian man who asked for a prayer book and inquired about the
availability of an Episcopal missionary for the Ojibwe settlement at Gull Lake.277 In 1851,
Enmegahbowh met James Lloys Breck and convinced him of the necessity of establishing a
mission at Gull Lake. In a letter to Dr. Breck, Enmegahbowh pleaded with the priest to send

missionaries to his people:

The Indians, particularly the chiefs and principal men, are very anxious to have teachers
among them. The field is open for the missionaries to come in. The Indians have left me
to select a teacher whom I think would likely benefit their nation, etc. The head chief is

 

274 Jackson, 10.

275 Soundings, 12.

275 Whipple, 452.

277 Jackson, 10.

188

ready to receive and embrace religious instruction, now or at any time. I think I shall
devout myself to teach him and his family what little I know. If the head chief first
embrace the Christian religion, a great change will immediately take place, for he has
great influence among his people. Everybody say, come to you. Come and teach. What
more can we want? No strong invitation can be given by poor Indians. There might be
some little translation of the liturgy, and some of the forms of prayer, etc. It would do a
great deal of good at present.278

In the summer of 1852, Breck and Enmegahbowh established the mission of St. Columba
on a piece of land provide to them at Gull Lake by Hole-in-the-Day, the younger. The St.
Columba Mission would serve as base of missionary operations for the Episcopal Church until
White Earth was established in 1868.279 Hole-in-the-Day, the younger showed periodic but not
sustained interest in Christianity. Although he rejected Roman Catholicism and its “system,” he
once invited Breck to come and meet with him, during an illness. He never followed through
with the meeting and kept Breck guessing as to his true intentions.280 In 1856, Breck left Rev. E.
Steele Peake and Enmegahbowh in charge of the mission at Gull Lake and established a mission
among the Ojibwe at Leech Lake, where after being forced out, he relocated to Faribault in

1857.2“ Conditions at St. Columba’s started to decline rapidly in 1856. Settlers flooded into the

 

2’8 Jackson, 12-13

279 For a history of Anglican Indian missions, see Owanah Anderson, 400 Years: Anglican] Episcrfl

Mission Among American Indiafi. (Cincinnati: Forward Movement Publications, 1997); for a nineteenth
century perspective on Anglican missionary work among the Ojibwe see, Rev. Edward F. Wilson.
Missmry Work Among the the OiebwaLIndians (London and New York: Society for the Promotion of
Christian Knowledge, 1886); Little Pine's Journal: The Appeal of a Christian Chippeway Chief on Behalf of
His People (Toronto: Copp, Clark, and C0. Printers, 1872); The Reverend E. O’Meara, Report of a Mission
to the Ottahwahs and Oiibwas, ontake Huron (London: The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel,
1846); Reverend E. O’meara, Second Report of a Mission to the Ottawahs and Oiibwas on Lake Huron
(London: The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, 1847).

 

28° Theodore Holecombe, An Apostle in the Wilderness: James Lloyd Breck. 00., His Missions and His

Schools (New York: Thomas Whittaker, 1903), 92.
28' E. L. Sheppard, Our Chippewa Missions (Minneapolis : Episcopal Diocese of Minnesota, 196-), 1.

189

surrounding region at Crow Ring and began to sell whiskey to the Ojibwe of the mission and the
surrounding area. The presence of whiskey peddlers in Crow Wing had disastrous results for the
Ojibwe at the St. Columba Mission. Soon, the mission was gripped in an atmosphere of violence
as drunken brawls and rowdy behavior erupted throughout the mission and surrounding area. As
the violence escalated, rumors of a war with the US government began to circulate. Rev. Peake
was forced to abandon the St. Columba mission and took up residence at Crow Wing.282
Emnegahbowh, who hoped to avert catastrophe and rid the band of the iniquitous influence of

alcohol, remained. at St. Columba.

The disorder at St. Columba was only exasperated by the mounting racial tension with
the area’s white settlers. As racial tension reached the boiling point and threatened to tear apart
the mission, Enmegahbowh’s role as intermediary emerged as increasingly important. In 1857, a
white man was killed by three Ojibwe at Gull Lake. An old Ojibwe woman alerted
Enmegahbowh of the murder and even showed him the spot where the murder took place. When
he found a body at the scene, Enmegahbowh notified the local trader and the three Indians were
apprehended. The three accused men were transported to Fort Riley for trial and meanwhile, a
mob of white men seized three Ojibwe and lynched them from a nearby tree. When news of the
hangings reached the Indians at Gull Lake Enmegahbowh was blamed for the deaths of the three
Ojibwe. Tensions over the lynching became so tumultuous that Enmegahbowh was forced to flee
to Ft. Ripley, where he remained for two months. He eventually returned to Gull Lake and was

283

received peaceably by his people. Yet, the situation demonstrated the precarious nature of his

position.

 

232 Jackson, 12.

283 Jackson, 13

190

In 1859, at the age of thirty-six, Enmegabowh was ordained a deacon in the Episcopal
Church by Bishop Kemper in Faribault, Minnesota. His ordination made him the first ordained
Indian deacon in the Episopal Church in the western Great Lakes.284 By the fall of 1859, the
Indian deacon’s church consisted of a small but faithful flock of Ojibwe and enjoyed support
among important tribal leaders, such as Wabonaquod (White Cloud) of Gull Lake, Minogeshig
(Fine Day) and Iahbay (Buck) of Mille Lacs, Mezhucegeshig (Horizon) of Rabbit Lake, and
Nabunashkong and Manidowab, both of Gull Lake. Many of these individuals found inspiration
in Enmegahbowh’s message but they were also attracted to the prospect of introducing

agricultural programs among their people as a means of stabilizing their communities.285

During the Civil War, white traders enlisted young Ojibwe men from Gull Lake to fight
for the Union. They typically got prospective inductees intoxicated and transported them to St.
Paul where, they received an enlistment bonus of $50 to $100 for each Indian. The apprehension
and enlistment of Ojibwe men into the Army angered many Gull Lake Indians and soon
Enmegahbowh was besieged by the parents, who pleaded for his help. The Indian missionary
walked to St. Paul, met with Army officials, and described the problem to them. They promised
that the practice would be stopped and he was given documentation that officially condemned the
practice and threatened the perpetrators with punishment. The Gull Lake Indians were pleased

with how Enmegahbowh acted under such critical circumstances.286

In 1862, an armed intertribal resistance movement between the Sioux and Ojibwe

threatened the United States and Enmegahbowh was forced to flee the St. Columba Mission.

 

28’ Holecombe, 95.
285 Melissa Meyer, The White Earth Tragedy: Ethnicity and dispossession at a Minnesota Anishinaabe
Reservation (Lincoln: University of Nebraska, 1994), 41.

286 Jackson, 13.

191

However before he left the mission, he met with Hole-in-the-Day and shared his thoughts about

the planned Sioux/Ojibwe attack:

I said to them, my friends, you all know me. For years I have stood before you and tried
to save you from your present condition and your sin’s doing. If you knew as much as I
know of the greatness and power of the whites against whom you are expected to fight,
you would not entertain the idea to thus strike against heavy rocks. You will kill a few in
the beginning, but in the end you will all be swept away from the face of the earth and
annihilated forever. I love you all. I see and know just exactly how the war will
terminate. As a friend who loves, I would ask you all as wise men to think and well
consider whether your present plan is to your salvation or death. Think ye well.287

Enmegahbowh left under cover of night and fled through the swamps, marshes, and lakes
as he pulled his children in a canoe (two of which tragically died due to exposure). He
successfully notified authorities at Chippewa Agency, Crow Wing, and Fort Ripley of the
impending attacks of Little Crow and Hole-in-the-Day, the younger. The warning gave the troops
and the residents enough time to build fortifications and thwart the planned attacks, which were
not carried out by Hole-in-the-Day, the younger.288 Enmegahbowh, was subsequently viewed as
a traitor by the young chief who pledged to kill the Indian missionary. Despite the leader’s
threats, Enmegahbowh spent the next five years making periodic missionary trips to the Ojibwe
settlements at Gull Lake, Mille Lac, and Rabbit Lake. The Oj ibwe/ Sioux unrest and ensuing
violence forced all the missionary societies to abandon their work in Minnesota. The Methodists,
the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, and the American Missionary
Association were all forced to withdraw their missionaries from the field. Enmegahbowh
remained the only Protestant missionary active during this time. Years of white encroachment,

fraudulent dealings by neighboring whites, and abuse by the government came to a head.

 

287 Jackson, 17- 18.

288 Jackson, 18.

192

Enmegahbowh seemed caught in the middle. He had personally witnessed the
catastrophic results of agreements brokered between the Ojibwe and the US. federal government.
In a letter to Bishop Whipple he described one of the treaty payments that he attended with his
wife. Enmegahbowh described a hauntingly fateful prophecy circulating among the Ojibwe that
foreshadowed the drastic changes that were to occur; a prophecy that appeared to become reality
as the Minnesota Ojibwe signed more treaties that ceded their lands to the federal government for
cash annuities and government rations. Enmegahbowh described the prophecy to Bishop
Whipple: “Our Fathers have predicted that there would be a day when a great and beautiful bird
would appear and sing a most captivating song to our people; that the songs could not be resisted.
I think it was at this treaty that some of our people first saw silver and gold dollars.” He also
describes the vivid reaction of the Ojibwe leader Hole-in-the-Day, the elder, after the Ojibwe

signed the treaty and attributes the prophecy to the chief’s lament:
After the treaty the great war chief, Hole-in-the-Day exclaimed:-

A fateful treaty!

Kuh quah ne sah gah nig!
Kuh quah ne sah gah nig!
Woe, woe be to my people!
Woe, woe be to my people!289

Enmegahbowh’s letter also describes to Bishop Whipple the fateful day when the
Mississippi, Mill Lacs, Gull Lake, Leech Lake, and Pokeguma bands of Ojibwe came to Sandy
Lake to receive their rations that they were promised by the federal government in the previous

treaty:

The first day they received their beautiful well-colored flour hard with lumps, and pork
heavily perfumed. The old chief brought me some of both and said, ‘Is this fit to eat?’ I

 

289 Whipple, 252.

193

said, ‘No, it is not fit to eat.’ But the Indians were hungry and they ate it. About ten
o’clock at night, the first gun was fired. You well know Bishop, that the Indians fire a
gun when a death occurs. An hour after another gun was fired, and then another and
another, until it seemed death was in every home. That night twenty children died, and
the next day as many more, and so for five days and five nights the deaths went on. Oh,
it was dreadful! Weeping and wailing everywhere. I and my companions were dumb.

As the deaths increased, wigwams were deserted, and the inmates fled to the forest. They
buried the dead in haste, often without clothing. The chief’s prophecy was true: ‘A fatal
treaty! Woe, woe be to my people.’290

During the tragic episode Enmegahbowh asked a friend, Chief Pakanuhwaush, how many had
died at the payment at Sandy Lake, to which the chief responded “Over three hundred.”29' Such
horrendous tales of suffering destroyed whatever trust existed between the Ojibwe and the United
States government as well as its missionary representatives. When considering such acts, Bishop
Whipple had once remarked in reference to white missionaries stationed among the Ojibwe, that
it was a wonder that the Natives even give audience to the words which come from the lips of

American mrSSlonarres after beholdmg such atrocrtres.2 2

In 1867, Enmegahbowh was ordained by Bishop Whipple and became the Episcopal
Church’s first Native American priest. The year 1867 became a turning point, not only for
Enmegahbowh but also for the Ojibwe bands of the upper Mississippi. That year, a treaty was
negotiated that reserved thirty-six square miles for the Mississippi-Ojibwe in northern Minnesota.

The new reservation was given the name of Gahwahbahbigonikah or White Earth, due to the

 

290

Whipple, 254

29’ Whipple, 254.

292 For a recent work on Bishop Whipple’s role in Indian affairs see, Andrew Brake, Man in the Middle: The

Reform a Influence of Heng Beniamin Whipple, the First Episcopal Bishop of Minnesota (Lanham, MD:
University Press of America, 2005): for comprehensive primary source information on Bishop Whipple's
Native American missionary history see, Henry William Whipple, Bishop Henry B. Whipple Records 1859-
&8_9 (Episcopal Church, Diocese of Minnesota)

194

“uhlte glaela
refused to all
threatened tc
lutlle begar
of Hele-in-t
warrior and
among trib
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0

Gull Lakl
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White E;
party an
enthusiz
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294 I

295

 

“white glacial loess” found just beneath the surface of the soil.293

Hole-in-the-Day, the younger
refused to allow any of his band members to relocate to the new White Earth reservation and he
threatened to kill the first person who attempted the move. In 1868, Nabunaskong or Isaac
Tuttle began the journey to White Earth, with most Gull Lake Indians accompanying him. Four
of Hole-in-the-Day’s men tried to stop him, however, they were afraid to attack the well-known
warrior and they allowed Nabunaskong and the rest of the Gull Lakers to leave.294 Sentiment
among tribal factions against Hole-in-the-Day, the younger was building. His nefarious ties to

Métis traders, thrusting his band into war with the US, and ruling with impunity did much to

foment hostility against him.

On June 27’“, 1868 Hole-in-the-Day, the younger was killed as he returned to his home at
Gull Lake. His assassination enabled Enmegahbowh to join the rest of the band at White Earth.
As the Episcopal priest and his small party of fifteen approached the Ojibwe encampment at
White Earth, a group of Ojibwe warriors mistook Enmegahbowh’s small group for a Sioux war
party and rode out to confront them. Upon realizing it was their missionary, the party
enthusiastically embraced their fiiend and leader. The Ojibwe then rode ahead to alert the rest of
the camp of Enmegahbowh’s coming to White Earth.295 Enmegahbowh epitomized the
characteristics the Ojibwe honored in a leader. He was incredibly selfless and gave away many
of his personal belongings to those in greater need. He demonstrated humility, restraint, and
genuine concern for other Anishinabeg. The Odawa priest conducted services in a large log cabin
church during the winter and assembled the congregation outside under the trees, during the

summer months. He often cooked for those who remained at the mission when they waited for

 

293

Meyer, 48.
294 Jackson, 19.

295 Jackson, 20.

195

the evening service. As a result, Enmegahbowh attracted a substantial following and enjoyed
widespread support from the band’s leadership, who converted to Christianity under

Enmegahbowh’s influence.

By 1894, the Episcopal Church emerged as the most successful of the Christianization
efforts by missionary societies in Minnesota. Widespread abandonment of missionary activity
during the Sioux/Ojibwe war gave the Episcopal Church total access to Minnesota’s entire Indian
population. Following the war, their only competition came from the Catholics. Yet this
tremendous opportunity was made possible only because Enmegahbowh approached Rev. Geer
that day at the fort and because he had not fled the Ojibwe missions, along with Breck and Peake
when hostilities broke out. As a result, by the 18903, Episcopal missionary work among the
Ojibwe of Minnesota flourished. At White Earth alone, the Episcopal Church built four churches,
three schools, and a hospital. In addition to the main mission at White Earth, the Church
established churches at Pine Point and Wild Rice River. In the 18903, about 300 Ojibwe were
members of the Episcopal Church in the vicinity of White Earth, at least 100 of which were

brought in by the singular efforts of Enmegahbowh.296

Following Enmegahbowh’s lead, several young Ojibwe trained for the priesthood and
were ordained deacons in the Episcopal Church. Missionary work among the Ojibwe of northern
Minnesota was augmented considerably with the arrival of Father Joseph Gilfillan who worked in
concert with the emerging Ojibwe clergy at White Earth. In 1857, the church at Leech Lake was
rebuilt and an Ojibwe clergyman, Charles Wright became the minister.297 Joseph Waukazoo, an

298

Odawa from Michigan, was also sent to Leech Lake as a lay assistant to Wright. The son of a

 

296

Meyer, 110.

297

Sheppard, 3.

298 Joseph Gifillan, Domestic Missions: The Indians Deacons at White Earth (Minnesota, S.l., 1880) 4.

196

head chief among the Mississippi-Chippewa, Wright was ordained a deacon by Bishop Whipple
at White Earth in 1887, along with Enmegahbowh’s son, George Johnson. The younger Johnson
was placed at the Church of the Holy Spirit among the Pembina band of Ojibwe at Wild Rice
River. Although he led a small congregation, he spent the majority of his energies fighting the
influence of an Ojibwe man who proclaimed himself Christ and boasted supernatural powers.299
In 1880, Gilfillan and three Ojibwe clergy and a recently converted Ojibwe medicine person
travelled to the non-Christianized Ojibwe at Lake Winnibigoshish where they established a
church called St. Phillip the Deacon. The Indian clergy were employed as teachers at the school

which was held within the church.300

Though given to micromanagement and petty politics, Gilfillan was an educated and
culturally astute Episcopal priest. He travelled with a group of Indian men to Red Lake in 1876,
armed with gifts of food, to make a good impression on the Red Lake band. This initial meeting
was designed to generate goodwill between the Red Lake Indians and the Episcopal missionaries
and to create a point of contact in which to eventually launch a mission. The following winter,
two Ojibwe ministers, Rev. Samuel Madison and Rev. Fred Smith, travelled with Gilfillan to Red
Lake and successfully established a mission there.301 Fred Smith, son of the famed Hole-in-the-
Day was taken by Rev. Breck to Faribault where he received an education. He was ordained a

deacon the same year by Bishop Whipple at the Church of St. Columba?02 Following another

 

299 GilfiIIan, Domestic Missions. 3.

30° Sheppard, 3.
3'01 Sheppard, 3.

’02 GilfiIIan, Domestic Missions, 1.

197

trip by Gilfillan and the Indian clergy, a mission was established on the north-shore of Red Lake

that soon boasted over 85 Christian converts.303

Their endeavors to establish an Episcopal mission at Cass Lake was initially met with
ambivalence by many residents. The ABCFM mission had previously failed.304 Efforts to
establish an Episcopal mission would have met a similar fate had Shaydayence, a converted chief
from White Earth, not accompanied the missionary delegation. The persuasive efforts of
Shaydayence, and the arrival of an Anishinabe minister, Mark Hart in 1881, appointed to lead
Prince of Peace Episcopal Church, made the mission a success. Hart was initially named
Obimweweiash (Sailing Along With A Thundering Sound) and acquired his English name while
attending the government school at White Earth. Students were often pressured to take English
names to ease administrative matters, but also to promote assimilation. According to Gilfillan,
Obimweweiash received the name Mark Hart after he read the name in a book. After falling
gravely ill he pledged to serve God, if allowed to recover. Eventually he was trained and

ordained at White Earth.305

The Otter Tail Pillager Band of Chippewa, long hostile to white encroachment, relocated
to Pine Point to escape white influence and missionary efforts. Although they initially rejected
Gilfillan’s offer to establish a mission, they permitted a Christian Ojibwe named Louis
Manypenny (a relative to many in the band), to establish a school among them in 1887.306 Rev.

George B. Morgan, son of a chief of the Mille Lac Band, was appointed to the Church of the

 

303

Sheppard, 3-4.

304 For early Presbyterian missionary accounts among the Ojibwe, see Rev. James Peery Schell, In the
Oiibway Country: A Story of Early Missions on the Minnesota Frontier (North Dakota: Chas H. Lee
Publisher, 1911).

”5 GilfiIIan, Domestic Missmns' 4'

306

Sheppard, 4.

198

Epiphany at nearby Wild Rice Lake and also taught at Manypenny’s day school, while at the
church.307 Eventually the Odawa minister, Joseph Waukazoo, was placed in charge of an
Episcopal Church founded among the Pillagers in 1892.308 Naytauwaush or Twin Lake Mission
was originally settled by Ojibwe families who migrated there from Mille Lacs in 1890. Gilfillan
erected the Episcopal Church at Naytauwaush in honor of Samuel Mason, an Indian minister who

had recently passed away.309

White Earth became the administrative center of the Episcopal Church’s missionary work
and Gilfillan selected and appointed Indian clergy to preside at Episcopal churches in Indian
communities throughout Minnesota. Gilfillan’s work among the Minnesota Ojibwe was later
bolstered by the arrival of Edward Kahosed, a Christian Ojibwe who came to Red Lake from
Ontario and was employed as an interpreter. He was ordained into the priesthood in 1899 and
produced many Ojibwe prayer books and hymnals, which were popular among the Christian
Indians of Minnesota. A training school for Indian clergy was eventually built at White Earth

and named Kahosed, in honor of the Indian missionary from Canada.3 '0

 

307 Gi|fi|lan, Domestic Missions. 3-

308 Sheppard, 4.

309

Sheppard, 4.

310

Sheppard, 4-5.

199

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Figure 10: Nineteenth century Ojibwe communities In Minnesota. After Its formation In 1868, the
White Earth reservation became the base of missionary operations for the Episcopal Church in northern
Minnesota.

200

Of all the Indian missionaries, Enmegahbowh most embodied those traits associated with
traditional views of Ojibwe leadership. His behavior reflected Ojibwe notions of generosity,
Enmegahbowh gave selflessly to those in need. During the winter of 1873, after a futile search
for Buffalo on the plains, a group of forty Pembima were forced to take shelter at the home of
Enmegahbowh. As was expected of Ojibwe spiritual leaders, Enmegahbowh accommodated the
visitors, as best he could. He later recalled that he had “given all the clothing away that I could
pick round my own house. I have given three pair of my old pants, three shirts of mine own two
coats and my wife three of her own dresses and here are fourteen men sitting around me asking

,

for food and clothing and here I have all my Christian Indians to come in with their old clothes.’
3 ” Enmegahbowh also cooked and fed members of his congregation between Sunday meetings
and he even conducted church services out of doors during the summer months. Although these

acts often brought the censure of church officials, Enmegahbowh continued to fulfill the

expectations of a community leader by giving to those in need.

Like most Ojibwe ministers, Enmegahbowh dressed in Euro-American clothing and wore
short hair. His first exposure to white society was as a child, when he spent three months with
Rev. Armour in a white community neat Toronto. Not only did he learn to read and write during
his stay, while in the Episcopal clergyman’s care, the young Enmegahbowh wore white styled
clothes, short hair, and attended school with white children. Given that Methodist missionaries
encouraged converts to adopt Euro-American culture, the Odawa youth probably continued to
wear his hair short and wear Euro-American clothing when he attended the Methodist school at
Rice Lake, during the 18203. For Enmegahbowh, who was exposed to white culture at an early
age, short hair and Euro-American clothing were not a drastic change. However, for many new

converts, who increased daily at White Earth, the adoption of white culture was more jarring.

 

an Michael McNally, Ojibwe Singers: Hymns. Grief. and Native Culture in Motion (Oxford and New York:

Oxford University Press, 2000), 98.

201

Enmegahbowh utilized Ojibwe conceptions of spiritual sacrifice and offering to compel some
converts to cut their hair. In Ojibwe society, hair played a significant role in the lives of
individual people. This was especially true during times of intense grief and spiritual
consecration. When mourning the death of a loved one, an Ojibwe person often cut their hair. In
some cases, a small bundle of hair mixed with pieces of clothing from the deceased was carried
by the moumer until the time of grieving was over.3 '2 Enmegahbowh described the response of
Nebuneshkung (who would emerge as a Christian leader at White Earth), who was moved by the

persuasive tactics that Enmegahbowh employed in regard to spiritual sacrifice and offering:

If the Great Spirit has so big love for poor Indian, surely Indian ought and must give
back big love. . .Now dear brother. . .to be true to return my big love to the GREAT
SPIRIT, I brought these scissors, to have you cut my hair locks which will be thrown
away for ever.313

As Goerge Tinker so artfully asserts in Missiofinary Conquest, the new convert appeared to “have
viewed” the cutting of his hair “as a spiritual act of self-sacrifice or offering so characteristic of
many Native American cultures.” 3 '4 This act of sacrifice made perfect sense for the Ojibwe who
routinely utilized material items such as expensive cloth, food, and even locks of hair as offerings
to complement their prayers. Bishop Whipple asserted that Ojibwe warriors cut their hair when
they decided to stop going out to war with raiding parties. Though short hair could symbolize
several different things, it is clear that it was cut after deep reflection and was indicative of an

inward commitment that had public implications.

 

312

Hilger, 86.
313 George Tinker, Missionary Conquest: The Gospel and Native American Cultural Genocide (Fortress
Press: Minneapolis, 1993), 101.

314

Tinker, 101

202

Enmegahbowh stayed in constant communication with church officials about the needs
and concerns of the Ojibwe at White Earth. His letters to Bishop Whipple, Dr. Breck, and
Reverend Gifillan updated them about the conditions at the mission. He was honest and upright
with both the non-Christian and Christian members of his community. During the Sioux war of
1862, when Hole-in the-Day, the younger sought Enmegahbowh’s advice about joining the
Sioux, he was honest and knew that it would make him a vulnerable target for political and
physical retribution. His leadership earned the respect of all White Earth factions and was hailed
as a genuine Anishinabeg leader when he died on June 12", 1902. He was buried in the

churchyard at St. Columba’s, the mission which he helped found.

Great Lakes Connections and Anishinabe Christian Practice

Much has been said about the work of the Indian deacons at White Earth. .In ij_bw_e
W, Michael McNally parallels the activities of the “Band of Singing Young Men” to that of
the former drum societies that had existed among the Ojibwe. These prayer and singing
gatherings played a pivotal role in helping Ojibwe believers synthesize, process, and interpret
complex Christian theology. These gatherings enhanced the spirituality of faithful followers and
also helped reclaim Ojibwe who had backslidden from the Christian faith. A further investigation
into these meetings also unveils another Christian Ojibwe practice that occurred throughout the

entire Great Lakes.

Shaydayence or The Little Pelican was an advanced Mediwiwin or Grand Medicine
Society practitioner. People came from great distances to be healed by one of his ceremonies.
Yet even this religious leader was influenced by the work of the Indian clergy at White Earth.

According to Shadayence 's own testimony, he was greatly touched by the conversion and

203

personal ministry of Nebuneshkung (also spelled Nabunaskong) or Isaac Tuttle. This was the
same warrior who had led the Gull Lakers to White Earth, despite Hole-in-the-Day’s threat to kill
the first person that left for White Earth. He described the meetings between himself and his

relative Nebuneshkung, who was on his sick bed:

I would go in the evening and to see Nebuneshkung who was my relative, and would find
him lying on his bed. As soon as I entered, he would begin to speak to me about religion
and about my soul, and to persuade me to become a Christian, but with a voice so low
and faint through extreme exhaustion that I could hardly hear him. By and by he would
get stronger, as if carried away with his subject; then he would rise from his bed and
begin to pace about the floor, his voice growing stronger and stronger, until he seemed to
me like a man inspired. Then he would call upon his wife to make him some tea, and so
he would continue, walking about the room, and exhorting me all night, yes even to the
break of day. This he did over and over again.3 '5

Nebuneshkung 's exhortations did not go unheeded. After his relative’s death, Shaydayence
considered embracing Christianity based on the words of Nabuneshkung, which he told church
officials during a visit by the Bishop. However, before he was baptized, Shaydayence made the
unprecedented move of attending a Grand Medicine ceremony, renounced his affiliation with the
religion, and declared his intention of becoming a Christian.316 He was baptized and confirmed

by BishOp Whipple in June of 1872.

Shaydayence credits the “Band of Singing Young Men” for his conversion. This band
which was comprised of young male converts, would visit people in their homes and pray and
sing for them for hours. Typically the meeting would open with a prayer, followed by a hymn.
Between hymns, certain individuals would be called on by the band leader to testify to the person

whom they visited, of the power of God in their own lives. Frequently these meetings lasted the

 

315 Joseph GilfiIIan, The Church and the Indians (New York: Office of the Indian Commission, Protestant

Episcopal Church, 1876), 5.
316 GilfiIIan, The Church and the Indians, 5.

204

duration of the night and sometimes, until day break Shaydayence described how his conversion

to Christianity was fostered by the Band of Singing Young Men:

But just at that point when I was almost ready to faint, God moved the Band of Singing
Young Men who go about from house to house, singing Chippewa hymns and exhorting
each another—and as I listened to their hymns and to their singing, and to their
exhortations to me and to each other between the hymns, it seemed to me that I
experienced as it were an opening of the mind, and I understood the truth and found
comfort in it. It seemed as if a heavenly light dawned upon my mind as I listened to
them, and since that day I have gone on and on in knowledge, in love, and in peace.317

Shaydayence, though in his upper 603, became the leader of the Band of Singing Young Men.
Reverend Gilfillan, a General Theological Seminary graduate and scholar, participated in many of
these prayer/singing sessions, and was frequently the only white person present. He was deeply

moved by what he saw at these meetings:

Some of the deepest truths of the Bible, which one would think could only be elaborated
by a Christian of long experience after much study and prayer in his closet, can there be
heard falling from the lips of these poor wild men of the forest. New lights and views of
the Gospel truth, brilliant and beautiful, flash over that dark faced throng, sitting in the
dim glimmer of a single candle, working out with each other the problem of Life and
immorality. Let no one think that it is but a little advance in Christian Life, which these
poor savages can make. Listen to them, and you will find that whatever region of
Christian experience your step has penetrated, they have been there before you.318

Enmegahbowh’s influence at White Earth cannot be overstated. His congregation of three
hundred probably included the individuals who comprised the Band if Singing Young Men.
Enmegahbowh himself probably participated in many of these all night prayer and singing

meetings.

 

317 GilfiIIan, The Church and the Indians, 6.
3” GilfiIIan, The Churmgnd the Indians. 8.

205

These nightly prayer and singing vigils which entailed in—depth spiritual discussions were
a Great Lakes-wide phenomena that occurred among the Christian Ojibwe. Peter Jacobs or
Pahtahsega, the Mississauga-Ojibwe converted by Peter Jones in Upper Canada, related similar

incidents while a missionary:

Once I had been preaching to eleven at night to the converted Indians at Lake Simcoe,
and was just finishing, when the Indians said: ‘When we were heathen, we never gave up
drinking the fire-waters the whole night; and why should we now go to bed? Why
shouldn’t we go on singing, and praising God till daylight?’ I was young and full of
spirits; and though I had just done preaching, I began again, and preached a great part of
the night.319

Peter Jones described numerous times in which they prayed and sang throughout the night. This
practice was especially illustrated at the death of the great Mississauga-Ojibwe preacher on June
29’“, 1856 at his home near Brantford in Canada-West. His wife Eliza recorded in his journal that
while he was dying his visitors included a small band of Indians from his home reserve. Of the
visit she says, “A number of Indians came from New Credit today. It was affecting to witness
their deep sorrow as they gazed on the emaciated form of their long tried, faithful friend. . .The

dear afflicted Indians met several times during the day for singing and prayer.”320

Expressive worship was characteristic of converted Anishinabeg throughout the Great
Lakes. While visiting Ojibwe families in their wigwams at White Earth, Father Gilfillan
encountered a Christian family. Gilfillan describes the domestic scene and the son who appeared
to be in a mode of worship while reading a hymnal (which contained hymns likely translated by

Peter Jones):

 

319 Jacobs, 5.

32° Jones, Life, 416.

206

On the other side, opposite them, lies on his back, on a mat, with his feet close to the fire,
an Indian young man, holding up an open Prayer Book in front of his face, out of which
he sings, or rather shouts, Ojibway hymns at the very top of his voice, in a manner that
would be to us earsplitting, but which to them is most delicious music.321

It is evident that the vocal expression of many Ojibwe Christians was considerably louder than
their white counterparts. This difference in worship styles frequently led to misunderstandings
and divisions when Indians and whites assembled together. This difference in religious
expression is aptly demonstrated in the story of Peter Greensky and a group of his Odawa
followers, known as “Greensky Indians” in northern Michigan. As mentioned, Peter Greensky or
Showskawageshik was originally converted under John Sunday in Sault Ste. Marie, in 1831. He
attended school at the Little Rapids Mission in the Sault and after being trained at the Methodist
mission in Bay Mills, he was sent to Duluth, Minnesota as a missionary. He returned to the Sault
and eventually left to assist Peter Dougherty at his mission in Grand Traverse Bay, acting as an

interpreter.322

Greensky and his followers frequently clashed with the Presbyterian missionary William
Dougherty and later, with Methodists who utilized Greensky as an interpreter and missionary
assistant. Around the year 1839, these differences came to a head during the celebration
festivities which marked the founding of the Northport Methodist Church near Charlevoix, MI.
While the celebratory service was being conducted, Greensky and his followers grew so
boisterous while shouting praise and giving thanks for the new building that they were instructed
by the presiding Methodist minister that if they did not quiet down, they would have to leave the
service. Offended and angered at this indignity, Greensky and his followers left the service. Peter

Greensky and twenty-seven Odawa families prepared their canoes and travelled across the bay to

 

321 GilfiIIan, The Church and the Indians, 11.

 

322 McClurken, The Way It Happened, 25.

207

the shore of Pine Lake (present day Lake Charlevoix). In a small clearing on the top of a hill,
near Pine River (which was rumored to be the legendary meeting ground of Anishinabe chiefs in
the past) they constructed a large bark lodge in which to hold services. Greensky received his
license to preach from the Methodists in 1844 and over the next two years he served as a
missionary at Fond du Lac and Sault Ste. Marie. After serving at various Indian missions in

Michigan, Greensky returned to the Pine River Mission in 1863, he died in 1866.323

Conducting home based “church services” was also important among the growing
Christian population of Odawa Indians in northern Michigan. During the last quarter of the
nineteenth century, many Odawa held positions of leadership in the church and served as
deacons, exhorters, preachers, and ministers. Each summer local Anishinabeg gathered to hold
open air revival meetings on the mission grounds. Many Christian Ojibwe and Odawa from
Grand Traverse Bay, Beaver Island, Charlevoix, Petoskey, and the Indian community of Harbor
Springs frequently conducted church services in each other’s homes, where they often met for
prayer meetings and fellowship activities.324 These house meetings were important in facilitating
a Christian Indian identity, with little interference from Anglo clergy or outside interests.
Believers were free to worship, sing, pray, share oral stories and relate tribal histories in their
native language. The Odawa of northwest Lower Michigan also built a log church on the Pine
Lake Mission site. The church building, constructed by the Odawa during the 1860s, is still in use
over 150 years later. The Odawa named their church Greensky Hill Church in honor of its

founder, Peter Greensky.325

 

323

Reuter, 152.

3'24 McClurken, The Way It Happened, 26.

325 Greensky Hill United Methodist Indian Mission Church is located in Charlevoix, Michigan. Always a

popular destination for summer camp meetings, it continued to host a variety of cultural and religious
functions for the local Odawa community.

208

 

Figure 11: Christian Odawa built this log church in the 1850s. The congregation enjoyed the leadership
of Methodist minister Peter Greensky, who was educated at the Little Rapids Mission in Sault Ste.
Marie in the 1830s. The church enjoys active use today by the Odawa of northern Michigan and Is
known by the name of Greensky Hill Church, in honor of their leader. (McClurken, The Way It
Happened, 1991).

209

 

Figure 12: Anishinabe Methodist ministers pose for a picture taken at a camp meeting at Sutton‘s Bay
in northern Michigan, 1880.

210

CONCLUSION

211

The chapters in this text have covered an extensive period of Great Lakes history. Early
chapters illustrate how several missionary organizations came to the Great Lakes during the
nineteenth century in search of Native souls. Yet, their experience differed drastically from what
they had experienced in white communities in the Northeast. Missionaries did not realize it, but
they stepped into a world in which they had little experience. They underestimated the
permeability and durability of Ojibwe religious practices, nor did they understand the substance
which comprised those practices. Not being able to speak the language, misunderstandings
surrounding giving and generosity, misinterpretations of Ojibwe ceremonies, and unfamiliarity
with Ojibwe migratory patterns were just some of the obstacles that impeded evangelization
efforts of the Anishinabeg by eastern missionaries. I argue that the emergence of Christian
Ojibwe leadership was critical to the Christianization of the Ojibwe of the western Great Lakes.
Missionary efforts to convert the Anishinabeg of the Lake Superior region failed miserably in the
18203. Although Abel Bingham’s Baptist mission was nominally successful, most missions in
the western Great Lakes were not. Bingham himself replaced two missionaries who had just

abandoned missionary efforts at Sault Ste. Marie when he arrived in 1828.

Ojibwe ministers and missionaries were able to communicate in the Ojibwe language and
had little need for interpreters. As a result, they were able to convey complex Christian theology
within an indigenous context, clearly understood by Ojibwe hearers. Because they held similar
world views and were raised participating in the same religious ceremonies of prospective
converts, they were able to address oppositional arguments which were rooted in Ojibwe religious
and cultural frameworks. Ojibwe ministers also fulfilled traditional definitions of Anishinabe
leadership by giving to those in need, representing the community at political functions (such as
treaty negotiations), and communicating in a non-confrontational manner. Many Ojibwe
ministers and missionaries were teachers whose literacy and experience working with

government institutions were sorely needed by tribal communities during an unprecedented era of
212

treaty meeting. They also employed culturally relevant techniques to spread their message such
as using wampum belts, preaching in the Ojibwe languages, using artistic oratory, and

incorporating Indian folk stories to better convey biblical precepts which were well received.

Ojibwe clergy’s ties to the community heightened their credibility and fidelity in the eyes
of many Anishinabeg. Depletion of the fur trade, commercial fisheries, spoiled government
food rations, inconsistent annuity payments, poverty, alcoholism, and fraudulent land deals
affected Indian missionaries just as they did the rest of the community, irrespective of religious
affiliation. However, Christian Ojibwe leaders like Jones utilized their recognition by the
government to counter the corrupt dealings of government and white society. While various
denominations of white Christians worked at cross purposes, Native Christians who worked
within the Methodist Church in Michigan and Upper Canada demonstrated a dynamic level of
leadership, spirituality, and culturally relevant messages. The same influence was yielded later
by the Indian deacons in the Episcopal Church in Minnesota. The cultural presence which the
Christian Ojibwe brought to the church, along with the prospect of receiving an education, and
opportunities for leadership, attracted non-Christian Indians who were previously unaffected by

the message of earlier white missionaries.

Ojibwe ministers often enjoyed extensive kinship networks in the communities where
they ministered. Some, such as Enmegahbowh and Peter Marksman, married into prominent
Indian and mixed blood families which strengthened their ties to local tribal communities. Their
personal concern for the long term survival and sustainability of Indian communities drove
Anishinabe ministers to continue with their labors when white missionaries turned back. During
the hostilities which led to the Dakota Wars of 1862, when missionary societies abandoned the

field in northern Minnesota, Enmegahbowh remained. Although his personal life was in

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jeopardy, he continued to ministers to the needs of Ojibwe communities and advised tribal leaders

against going to war with the US. government.

Peter Marksman frequently set out to visit remote Ojibwe settlements located in the
interior with nothing more than a birch bark canoe, hatchet, and small bag of supplies. Like most
Ojibwe missionaries, Marksman lived from the seasonal cycle which enabled him to visit remote
Ojibwe communities and live in them throughout the year. The ability to follow Ojibwe groups
to sugar encampments and fishing and hunting stations allowed Indian missionaries to minister at
sites where white missionaries did not regularly visit. Visiting sugar camps, hunting/fishing
stations, annuity payment sights, and attending treaty negotiations allowed Indian missionaries to
engage in face-to-face interactions with little or no outside white missionary representation.
These all-Indian gatherings permitted Christian and non—Christian Ojibwe to speak to each other
freely and with a great degree of candor; intimate discussions which rarely occurred between non-

Christian Ojibwe and white missionaries.

As a result of their kinship ties, communal oriented lifestyles, and connections to
American institutions these Indian missionaries were looked upon as valuable intercultural
mediators. Their message was well received because their personal welfare was so intimately
connected to the wellbeing of the entire community; they could be trusted. Their community and
kin networks facilitated an east-to-west flow of missionary work. Residents at one missionary
station often recommended Indian ministers visit other Ojibwe communities and even supplied
them with the names of relatives who served as points of contact. Though it was eastern
missionary societies who originally established missionary posts in remote locations in Wisconsin
and Minnesota, it was Indian missionaries who used their expanding network of community
contacts to reach outlying Ojibwe communities. And when these eastern missionary posts were

abandoned, Indian missionaries often remained behind to continue the work. Some missionaries

214

such as John Sunday and Peter Greensky periodically operated independent of any sponsoring
missionary society and established missions among Ojibwe communities, which had minimal, if

any, ties to an outside denomination or ministerial body.

It is clear that conversion to Protestant Christianity facilitated cultural and ethnic
adaptations. Most Ojibwe missionaries and ministers cut their hair, wore Euro-American
clothing, and adopted a Christian name upon being inducted into the overall evangelical
community. Many young converts, such as Peter Marksman saw this incorporation of white
culture and begun to emulate his new found religious leaders by adopting the same practices of
wearing short hair and Euro-American clothing. Yet these adaptations occurred in regions such as
Southern Ontario, Sault Ste. Marie, and Mackinaw Island, where white population densities were
highest and increased interaction between tribal and white populations brought interrnarriages
between the two groups. In places such as Wisconsin and Minnesota, however, where white
encroachment into Ojibwe territory was not as pervasive, Native cultural constructs remained

strong.

I assert, however, that as the Anishinabeg were Christianized, they adopted Christian
expression into pre-existing traditional frameworks. It is clear from the repeated accounts of
excessively loud Christian Ojibwe worship that the Ojibwe had a different idea of spiritual and
ceremonial expression than did white evangelical Christians. The intensity of their worship
experience also varied from what white missionaries were accustomed to seeing. Christian
Ojibwe would routinely pray and sing for hours at a time, which amazed many missionaries. Yet,
it was these Christian expressions of hymn singing and praying that replaced traditional Ojibwe
practices such as drum societies, which provided a model for indigenous worship before
conversion. Ojibwe ministers who were raised with such a worldview were able to encourage

Ojibwe converts to adapt previous ceremonial expression to their Christian worship. Their

215

cultural positioning enabled them to capitalize on expressions which were sometimes

mischaracterized by white missionaries as being pagan in nature.

Those Native converts that observed the cultural transformation that followed the
adoption of Christianity also expressed a readiness to transition to sedentary agriculture after
seeing the prosperity of white communities. Unfortunately, this process of agricultural adaptation
was often hampered by the assumed superiority of “white civilization” and by the dismissal of an
Ojibwe worldview of history, culture, and ceremonial practices. Although there was a clear
implication on the behalf of Indian missionaries that Christianization simultaneously entailed the
adoption of agrarian practices most Ojibwe missionaries emphasized conversion, before
acculturation. Ojibwe Methodist preachers also tended to allow the individual convert to make
their own decisions about hair length, clothing, and sedentary agriculture. Christian Ojibwe
leaders also genuinely cared for the well being of the communities in which they labored and
were willing to personally sacrifice for the benefit of those communities. This approach not only

facilitated conversions but also hastened the adoption of sedentary agriculture.

In the end, Ojibwe missionaries and ministers brought a credible, culturally relevant,
spiritually palpable, politically empowering, and socially personable message which provided
stability to Ojibwe communities devastated by American and Canadian expansion and
colonialism. Native people frequently looked upon non-Indian missionaries as agents of this
domination and were hesitant to participate in their own destruction by aiding missionaries, which
they not infrequently saw as extensions of governmental authority. Anishinabe ministers were
able to bridge the gap; they preached the message of Christianity, while looking out for the best

interests of the community.

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