For METLAKATLA, see Canada, West.
Present Conditions.—It may be said that at present practically every tribe
officially recognized within the United States is under the missionary influence
of some religious denomination, workers of several denominations fre2luently
la-boring in the same tribe. The complete withdrawal of Government aid to
denominational schools some years ago for a time seriously crippled the work and
obliged some of the smaller bodies to abandon the mission field entirely. The
larger religious bodies have met the difficulty by special provision, notably in
the case of the Catholics, by means of aid afforded by the Preservation Society,
the Marquette League, and by the liberality of Mother Katharine Drexel, founder
of the Order of the Blessed Sacrament, for Indian and Negro mission work. The
Catholic work is organized under supervision of the Bureau of Catholic Indian
Missions, established in 1874, with head-quarters at Washington. The report for
1904 shows a total of 178 Indian churches and chapels served by 152 priests; 71
boarding and 26 day schools, with 109 teaching priests, 384 sisters, and 138
other religious or secular teachers and school assistants. The principal orders
engaged are the Jesuits, Franciscans, and Benedictines, and the sisters of the
orders of St Francis, St Anne, St Benedict, St Joseph River, Mercy, and Blessed
Sacrament.
Of the other leading denominations engaged in Indian
mission work within the United States proper, according to the official Report
of the Board of Indian Commissioners for 1903, the Presbyterians come first,
with 101 churches, 69 ordained missionaries and a proportionate force of other
workers, and 32 schools. Next the Methodists, with 40 ordained missionaries, but
with only one school; Episcopalians, 14 missions, 28 ordained missionaries, and
17 schools; Baptists, 14 missions, 15 ordained missionaries. and 4
schools—exclusive of the Southern Baptists, not reported;' Congregationalists
(American Missionary Association), 10 missions, 12 ordained missionaries, and 5
schools; Friends, 10 missions, 15 ordained missionaries, and 1 school;
Mennonites, 5 missions, 6 ordained missionaries, but no school; Moravians, 3
missions, 3 ordained missionaries, and no school. Statistics for many other
denomination, including the Mormons, are not given. The missionary work of each
denomination reported is in charge of a central organization.
Canada, East; Newfoundland Etc.
Canada, being originally a French possession, the mission work for a century and
a half was almost entirely with the Catholics. Port Royal, now Annapolis,
Nova Scotia, was founded in 1605, and the resident priest, Father Flèche,
divided his attention between the French settlers and the neighboring Micmac. In
1611 the Jesuits, Fathers Peter Biard and Enemond Masse, arrived from France,
but finding work among the Micmac made difficult by the opposition of the
governor, they went to the Abnaki, among
whom they established a mission on Mt Desert Island, Maine, in 1613. The mission
was destroyed in its very beginning by the English Captain Argall (see
New England). In 1619 work was resumed among the Micmac
and the Malecite of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and lower Quebec under the Rêcollet
Franciscans and continued for at least half a century. The most distinguished of
these Rêcollets was Father Chrestien Le
Clercq, who, while stationed at the Micmac mission of Gaspé,
at the mouth of the St Lawrence, from 1655 to about 1665, mastered the language
and devised for it a system of hieroglyphic writing which is still in use in the
tribe. Another of the same order is said to have been the first to compile a
dictionary of a Canadian language, but the work is now lost. The eastern
missions continued, under varying auspices and fortunes, until the taking of
Louisburg, Nova Scotia, by the English in 1745, when all the missionaries in
Nova Scotia and New Brunswick were either deported or compelled to seek other
refuge. In their absence the Abbé Maillard,
of Nova Scotia, ministered for some years to the Micmac and the Malecite, at
first in secret and then openly after the peace of 1760. To him we owe a Micmac
grammar and a treatise on the customs of the Indians. It was not until within
the last century, when international and sectarian jealousies had largely passed
away, that the work was resumed, continuing without interruption to the present
time.
Work was begun in 1615 by the Rêcollets
among the roving Montagnais and Algonkin of the Saguenay, Ottawa, and lower St
Lawrence region. The pioneers were Fathers Dolbeau, Jamet, and Du Plessis,
together with Father Le Caron in the Huron field. In 1636 Dolbeau had extended
his ministrations to the outlying hands of the remote Eskimo of Labrador. The
principal missions were established at Tadousac (Montagnais), the great trading
resort at the mouth of the Saguenay; Gaspé
(Montagnais and Micmac) and Three Rivers (Montagnais and Algonkin), all in
Quebec province; Miscou, N. B., for the Micmac, and on Georgian Bay for the
Hurons. In 1625 the Rêcollets called the
Jesuits to their aid, and a few years later withdrew entirely, leaving the work
to be continued by the latter order. In 1637 the Jesuit mission of St Joseph was
founded by Le Jeune at Sillery, near Quebec, and soon became the most important
colony of the Christianized Montagnais and Algonkin. In 1646, at the request of
the Abnaki, Father Gabriel Druillettes was sent to that tribe. In consequence of
the later News England wars, large numbers of the Abnaki and other more
southerly tribes took refuge in the Canadian missions.
In 1641 Fathers Charles Raymbault and Isaac Jogues,
among the Ottawa bands on the headwaters of the river of that name, accompanied
a party to the far west and discovered the great Lake Superior, planting a cross
and preaching in the camps about the present Sault Ste Marie, Mich. In the next
year a regular mission was established among the Nipissing, on the north shore
of the lake of the same name. Other missions followed, continuing until the
dispersion of the Algonkin tribes by the Iroquois in 1650. Most of the fugitives
fled westward, roving along the shores of Lake Superior without missionary
attention until visited by the Jesuit Allouez in 1667. Other names connected
with this early Algonkin mission were those of Pijart, Garreau, and the pioneer
explorer René Ménard.
In 1657 the first Sulpicians arrived at Quebec from France, and soon afterward
began work among the neighboring tribes, but with principal attention to the
Iroquois colonies on both shores of Lake Ontario, at Quinté
and Oswegatchie. To this period belongs the wonderful canoe voyage of discovery
by the two Sulpicians, Galinée and Dollier
de Casson, in 1669-70, from Montreal up through the great lakes to Mackinaw,
where they were welcomed by the Jesuits Dablon and Marquette, and then home, by
way of French River, Nipissing, and the Ottawa. No less important was the
discovery of an overland route from the St Lawrence to Hudson bay in 1671-72 by
the Sieur St Simon, accompanied by the Jesuit Charles Albanel. Ascending the
Saguenay from Tadousac they crossed the divide, and after 10 months of toilsome
travel finally reached the bay near the mouth of Rupert River, where Albanel,
the first missionary to penetrate this remote region, spent some blow preaching
and baptizing among the wandering Maskegon along the shore. In 1720 a number of
the Christianized Iroquois, with fragments of the Algonkin bands, after years of
shifting about, gathered into a new mission settlement at Oka, or Lake of the
Two Mountains (Lac des Deux Montagnes), also known under its Iroquois name of
Canasadaga, on the north bank of the St Lawrence, above the island of Montreal.
It still exists as one of the principal Indian settlements.
Among the earlier missionaries in this region who have
made important contributions to Algonquian philology may be noted: Father Louis
Andre, Jesuit, who spent more than 40 years with the Montagnais and the
Algonkin, from 1669, leaving behind him a manuscript dictionary of the Algonkin,
besides a great body of other material; Father Antonio Silvy, Jesuit, of the
same period, author of a manuscript Montagnais dictionary; Father Pierre Laure,
Jesuit, with the Montagnais, 1720-38, author of a manuscript Montagnais grammar
and dictionary, and other works; Father Jean Mathevet, Sulpician, at Oka, 1746
to 1731, the author of an Abnaki dictionary; Father Vincent Guichart,
ministering to Algonkin and Iroquois at Oka from 1754 until his death in 1793,
master of both languages and author of a manuscript Algonkin grammar; the Abbé
Thavenet, Sulpician, at Oka, from about 1793 to 1815, author of an Algonkin
grammar and dictionary and other miscellany, still in manuscript; Father J. B.
La Brosse, Jesuit, with the Montagnais and Malecite, 1754 to his death in 1782,
author of a number of religious and teaching works in the Montagnais language.
Among the most distinguished laborers within the last century in the Montagnais,
Algonkin, and Maskegon territories, stretching from the St Lawrence to Hudson
bay, may be named Fathers Durocher (1829-73 ), Garin (1845-57), Laverlochère
(1845-51 ), Lebret (1861-69) Guéguen
(18(14-88 I ) , and Prévost (1873-88-1 ),
all of the Oblate order, and each the author of some important contribution to
American philology. Rev. Charles Guay has given attention to the language among
the Micmac of New Brunswick. In recent years the most prominent name is that of
Father J. A. Cuoq, Sulpician, already noted, missionary at Oka for more than
half a century, beginning in 1847, master of the Mohawk awl Algonkin languages,
and author of a dictionary of each, besides numerous other important linguistic
works.
According to the official Canadian Indian Report for
1906 the Catholic Indians of the five eastern provinces numbered 18,064,
including all those of Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick,
nearly all those of Quebec, and two-fifths of the Christian Indians of Ontario.
Every settlement of importance had a church, school, or visiting priest, the
standard for industry being fair, for temperance good, and for honesty and
general morality exceptionally high.
The noted Huron missions hold a place by themselves.
The beginning was made by the Rêcollet,
Joseph le Caron, who accompanied Champlain on his visit to the Huron country in
1615. The tribe at that time occupied the shores of Georgian bay, Ontario, and
with other incorporated bands may have numbered 10,000 souls or more (some
estimates are much higher), in from 15 to 30 towns or villages, several of which
were strongly palisaded. They were probably then of strength equal to that of
their hereditary enemies and final destroyers, the Iroquois of New York. In more
or less close alliance with the Hurons were the cognate Tionontati and Neutrals,
farther to the south and south west, in the peninsula between Lake Erie and Lake
Huron. Le Caron spent the winter with the Hurons and Tionontati, established the
mission of St Gabriel, made a brief dictionary of the language, and returned to
the French settlements in the spring. The work was continued for some years by
other Rêcollets, Gabriel Sagard, author of a
Huron dictionary and a history of the Rêcollet
missions, and Nicholas Viel, who was murdered by an Indian about 1624. In 1625
the Jesuits arrived in Canada to assist the Rêcollets,
and the next year the heroic Jean de Brebeuf and another Jesuit, with Father
Joseph Dallion, Rêcollet, reached St
Gabriel. The Neutrals also were now visited, but without successful result. The
work was brought to a temporary close by the English occupancy of Canada in
1629.
In 1634, after the restoration of French control, the
work was resumed, this time by the Jesuits alone, with Brébeuf
as superior, assisted then or later by Fathers Daniel, Garnier, Jogues, and
others of less note. The mission church of Immaculate Conception was built in
1637 at Ossossani, one of the principal towns; St Joseph was established at
Teananstayae, the capital, in the next year; the principal war chief of the
tribe was baptized, and Christianity began to take root, in spite of the
suspicions engendered by two wasting epidemic visitations, for which the
missionaries were held responsible and solemnly condemned to death, until the
current of opposition was turned by Brebeuf's courageous bearing. In 1639 there
were 4 established missions with 13 priests working in the Huron country and
visiting in the neighboring tribes. St Marys, on Wye River, had been made the
general headquarters. A visitation of smallpox again spread terror through the
tribe and for a time rendered the position of the missionaries unsafe. In
consequence of these successive epidemics within a few years several towns had
been depopulated and the tribe so much weakened as to leave it an easy prey for
the invading Iroquois, whose inroads now became more constant and serious than
before.
In 1641 the Iroquois invaded the Huron country in
force, killed many, and carried off many others to captivity. In 1648, after a
temporary truce, they resumed the war of extermination, perhaps 2,000 warriors
well armed with guns obtained from the Dutch, while the Hurons had only bow's.
On July 4 Teananstayae, or St Joseph, on the site of the present Barrie, was
attacked and destroyed, the missionary, Father Anthony Daniel, killed with
several hundred of his flock, and about 700 others were carried off as captives.
The whole country was ravaged throughout the fall and winter, and one town after
another destroyed or abandoned. On Mar. 16, 1649, a thousand warriors attacked
St Ignatius town and massacred practically the whole population, after which
they proceeded at once to the neighboring town of St Louis, where the burning
and massacre were repeated, and two missionaries, Brdbeuf and Father Gabriel
Laleprant, killed after hours of the most horrible tortures. An attack on St
Marys, where Father Ragueneau was stationed, was repulsed, after which the
Iroquois retired.
This was the deathblow to the Huron nation. Fifteen
towns were abandoned and the people scattered in every direction. Two whole town
populations submitted to the conquerors and removed in a body to the Seneca
country. Others fled to the Tionontati, who were now in turn invaded by the
Iroquois and compelled, by burning and massacre, with the killing of Fathers
Garnier and Chabanel, to abandon their country and flee with the rest. Others
took refuge on the islands of Lake Huron. Some joined the Neutrals, who soon
after met the same fate.
For the next 50 years the history of confederated Huron
and Tionontati remnants is a mere record of flight from pursuing enemies—the
Iroquois in the east and the Sioux in the west. A. considerable body which
sought the protection of the French, after several removals was finally settled
by Father M. J. Chaumonot in 1693 at (New) Lorette, near Quebec, where their
descendants still reside (see Hurons; Lorette). To Chaumonot we owe a standard
grammar and dictionary of the Huron language, only the first of which is yet
published. In the meantime, in 1656-57, two-thirds of this band had bodily
removed to the Iroquois country to escape destruction.
The other fugitives, composed largely or principally of
Tionontati, fled successively to Manitoulin Island in Lake Huron; Mackinaw; the
Noquet Islands in Green Bay, Wis.; westward to the Mississippi; back to
Green bay, where they were visited by the Jesuit Menard in 1660; to Chegomegon,
near the present Hayfield, Wis., on the shore of Lake Superior, where the Jesuit
Allouz ministered to them for several years; back, in 1670, to Mackinaw, whence
another party joined the Iroquois, and finally down to Detroit, Mich., when that
post was founded in 1702. In 1751 a part of these, under Father de la Richard,
settled at Sandusky, Ohio. From this period the Wyandot, as they now began to be
called, took their place as the leading tribe of the Ohio region and the
privileged lighters of the confederate council fire. Their last Jesuit
missionary, Father Peter Potier, died in 1781, after which they were served by
occasional visiting priests and later by the Presbyterians and the Methodists,
until about the period of their removal to Kansas in 1842 (see Interior States).
The work of the Episcopalians (Anglican Church)
among the Iroquois of New York, beginning about 1700 and continuing in Canada
after the removal of a large part of the confederacy from the United Father
States, has already been noted (see Middle Atlantic—New York). In 1763 Rev.
Thomas Wood of Nova Scotia, having, become acquainted with the Abbé
Maillard and obtained the use of his Micmac manuscript, applied himself to the
study of the language, dividing his ministrations thenceforth between the
Indians and the whites until his death in1778. He preached in the native tongue,
in which he produced several religious translations. This seems to have been the
only work recorded for this denomination in this part of the Dominion, and in
the official Canadian Indian Report for 1966 no Indians are enumerated under
this heading in the provinces of Nova Scotia, New the Brunswick, or Prince
Edward Island. In Quebec province the same report gives this denomination 119
Indians, including 60 Abnaki at St Francis and 48 Montagnais at Lake St John.
In Ontario province, besides the work already noted
among the Iroquois, active and successful missionary effort has been carried on
by the Episcopalians among the various Chippewa bands and others since about
1830. One of the principal stations is that at Garden River, opposite Sault Ste
Marie, begun in 1835 by Rev. Mr. McMurray, who was succeeded a few years later
by Rev. F. A. O'Meara, afterward stationed on Manitoulin Island, and later at
Port Hope on Lake Ontario. Be
- ently by Brother Jens Haven. It is now sides building up a flourishing
school, the chief settlement on the Labrador Mr O'Meara found time to translate
into coast. In 1776 Okak was esi .blished by the native language the Book of
Common Brother Paul Layritz, followed by Hope-Prayer, considerable portions of
both the dale in 1782, and Hebron in 1830. To these Old and the New Testament,
and a vol- have more recently been added Zoar and ume of hymns, the last ill
cooperation Rama!). The efforts of the missionaries with the Rev. Peter Jacobs.
lIe died have been most successful, the wander-about 1870. Of the more recent
period ing Eskimo having been gathered into the most noted worker is Rev. E. F.
Wil- permanent settlements, in each of which son, w ho began his labors under
the are a church, store, mission residence, and auspices of the Church Mission
Society workshops, with dwelling houses on the in 1868. To his efforts the
Indians owe model of the native igle. Besides receivthe Shingwauk and Wawanosh
homes at ing religious instruction, the natives are Sault Ste Marie, Ontario,
where some 60 taught the simple mechanical arts, but to or 80 children are eared
for, educated, guard against their innate improvidence, and taught the rudiments
of trades and the missionaries have found it necessary simple industries. A
school journal, to introduce thecornmunalsystem,bytakset up and printed by the
Indian boys, ing charge of all food supplies to distribute has also been
conducted at intervals, at their own discretion. All the missions under various
titles, for nearly 30 years. are still in flourishing operation, having Mr
Wilson is the author of a number of now under their influence about 1,200 of
Indian writings, of which the most im- the estimated 1,500 Eskimo along a coast
portant is probably a `Manual of the of about 500 nr. in levgth. The total
Ojibway Language,' for the use of mis- number of mission workers is about 30
sion workers. (see hind, Labrador Peninsula.)
In 1835 a mission was established also To these Moravian workers we owe a on
Thames r., among the Munsee, a rem- voluminous body of Eskimo literaturenant of
those Delaware refugees from the grammars, dictionaries, scriptural trans-United
States who for so many years of lations, hymns, and miscellaneous pub-the
colonial period had been the object of licatious. Among the prominent names
Moravian care (seeMiddle ill/antic Stales ). are those of Bourquin, about 1880,
author One of the pioneer workers, Rev. Mr of a grannnar and a Bible history;
Burg-Flood, translated the church liturgy into hardt, gospel translations, 1813;
Erd-
the language of the tribe. maun, missionary from 1834 to 1872, a
Of 17,498 Christian Indians officially dictionary and other works; Freitag, a
reported in 1906 in Ontario province, manuscript grammar, 1839; and Kohl-5,253,
or not quite one-third, are credited meister, St John's Gospel, 1810. The to the
Episcopal or Anglican church, in- majority of these Moravian publications
eluding—Iroquois in various hands, 3,073; were issued anonymously.
"Chippewas of the Thames, ' 593; "Ojih- In 1820 the Wesleyan Methodists, through
bewas of L. Superior," 554; "Chippewas Rev. Alvin Terry, began work among the
and Saulteaux of Treaty No. 3" (Mani- immigrant Iroquois of the Ontario
resertoba border), 709; "Munsees of the vations, which was carried on with
not-Thames" (originally Moravian converts able success for a long terns of years
by from the United States; see Middle el Hanle- Rev. William Case. In 1823 Mr
Case ex-Stales), 154; "Ojibbewasand Ottawas of tended his labors to the
Missisauga, a band Manitoulin and Cockburn ids.," 1(39; of the Chippewa N. of L.
Ontario. The Potawatomi of Walpole id., 79; and one most important immediate
result was the
or two smaller groups. conversion of Peter Jones (Kahkewakno-
The work among the Eskimo of the naby), a half-breed, who was afterward Labrador
coast—officially a part of New- ordained, and because the principal
luisfoundland—is conducted by the Mora- sionary among his people and the more
eians. In 1752 a reconnoitering mission- remote Chippewa bands until his death
ary party landed near the present Hope- in 1856. Ile is known as the author of a
dale, but was attacked by the natives, collection of hymns in his native
language who killed Brother J. C. Ehrhardt and 5 and also a small ` History of
the Ojebsailors, whereupon the survivors returned way Indians.' Another noted in
lesion-home and the attempt for a tisne was ary convert of this period was
Shawuuabandoned. One or two other exploring dais, or John Sunday. Another native
trips were made for the same purpose, worker of a somewhat later period was and
in 1769 permission to establish finis- Rev. Henry Steinhauer, Chippewa, after-sions
on the Labrador coast was formally ward known as a missionary to the Cree. asked
by the Moravians and granted by Still another pioneer laborer in the same the
British government. In 1771 the region was Rev. James Evans, afterward first
mission was begun at Nain, appar- also missionary to the Cree and inventor
of a Cree syllabary. Contemporary with the transfer of Evans and Steinhauer
to the Cree in 1840, Rev. George Barnley was sent to establish a mission at
Moose Factory, James Bay, which, however, was soon after abandoned. Beginning in
1851 Rev. G. M. McDougall established Methodist mission stations among the
Chippewa along the north shore of Laje Superior, at Garden River and elsewhere,
but afterward transferred his operations also to Cree territory. In 1861-62 Rev.
Thomas Hurlburt, already a veteran worker, and considered the most competent
Chippewa linguist in the Methodist mission, conducted a monthly journal, 'Petaubun,'
in the language, at the Sarnia station.
According to the official Canadian Indian Report for
1906, the Methodist Indians of east Canada numbered 4,557 in Ontario and 505 in
Quebec, a total of 5,062, none being reported for the other eastern provinces.
Those in Ontario included nearly all of the "Chippewa of the Thames," "Mississaguas,"
and "Iroquois and Algonquin of Watha," all of the 348 "Moravians of the Thames,"
and a considerable percentage of the "Six Nations" on Grand River. Those in
Quebec province are chiefly Iroquois of the Oka, St Regis, and Caughnawaga
settlements.
Of other denominations, the same official report
enumerates 1,020 Baptists in Ontario, almost entirely among the Six
Nations on Grand River, with 99 Congregationalists, 17 Presbyterians,
and a total of 370 of all other denominations not previously noted. In the other
eastern provinces—Quebec, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward
Island—there is no representation.
The work of Rev. Silas T. Rand among the Micmac of Nova
Scotia stands in a class by itself. Educated in a Baptist seminary, he became a
minister, but afterward left that denomination to become an independent worker.
His attention having been drawn to the neglected condition of the Indians, he
began the study of the Micmac language, and in 1849 succeeded in organizing a
missionary society for their special instruction. Under its auspices until its
dissolution in 1865, and from that time until his death in 1889, he gave his
whole effort to the teaching of the Micmac and to the study of their language
and traditions. He is the author of a Micmac dictionary and of a collection of
tribal myths as well as of numerous minor works, religious and miscellaneous.
Canada Central (Manitoba, Assiniboia, Saskatchewan,
Alberta, south Keewatin ).—In the great plains region stretching from Hudson Bay
southwest-ward to the Rocky Mountains, the former battle ground of
Cree,
Assiniboin, and Blackfeet, the
Catholics were again the pioneers, antedating all others by a full century.
According to Bryce, "the first heralds it the cross" within this area were the
French Jesuits accompanying Verendrye, who in the years 1731-1742 explored the
whole territory from Mackinaw to the upper Missouri and the Saskatchewan,
establishing trading posts and making alliances with the Indian tribes for the
French government. Among these missionaries the principal were Fathers Nicholas
Gonnor, who had labored among the Sioux
as early as 1727; Charles Mesaiger, and Jean Aulneau, killed by the same tribe
in 1736. No attempt was made during this period to form permanent mission
settlements.
Then follows a long hiatus until after the
establishment of the Red River colony in the early part of the 19th century by
Lord Selkirk, who in 1816 brought out from eastern Canada Fathers Severe
Dumoulin and Joseph Provencher, to minister both to the colonists and to the
Indian and mixed-blood population of the Winnipeg country. In 1822 Father
Provencher was made bishop, with jurisdiction over all of Ruperts land and the
Northwest territories, and carried on the work of systematic mission
organization throughout the whole vast region until his death in 1853, when the
noted Oblate missionary, Father Alexandre Tactié,
who had come out in 1845, succeeded to the dignity, in which he continued for
many years.
The Catholic work in this central region has been
carried on chiefly by the Oblates, assisted by the Gray Nuns. The first
permanent mission was St Boniface, established at the site of the present
Winnipeg by Provencher and Dumoulin in 1816. St Paul mission on the Assiniboin
later became the headquarters of the noted Father George Belcourt, who gave most
of his attention to the Saulteux (Chippewa of Saskatchewan region), and who from
1831 to 1849 covered in his work a territory stretching over a thousand miles
from east to west. For his services in preventing a serious uprising in 1833 he
was pensioned both by the Government and by the Hudson's Bay Co. He is the
author of a grammatic treatise and of a manuscript dictionary of the Saulteur
(Chippewa) language, as well as of some minor Indian writings.
In the Cree field the most distinguished names are
those of Fathers Albert Lacombe (1848-90) Alexandre Taché
(1845-90), Jean B. Thibault (ca. 1855-70), Valentin Végréville
(1852-90), and Emile Petitot (18112-82), all of the Oblate order, and each,
besides his religious work, the author of important contributions to philology.
To Father Lacombe, who founded two missions among the Cree of the upper North
Saskatchewan and spent also much time with the Blackfeet, we owe, besides
several religious and text-book translations, a manuscript Blackfoot dictionary
and a monumental grammar and dictionary of the Cree language. Father Végréville
labored among Cree, Assiniboin, and the remote northern Chipewyan, founded five
missions, and composed a manuscript grammar, dictionary, and monograph of the
Cree language. Father Petitot's important work among the Cree has been
overshadowed by his later great work among the remote Athapascans and Eskimo,
which will be noted hereafter. Among the Blackfeet the most prominent name is
that of Father Emile Legal, Oblate (1881-90), author of several linguistic and
ethnologic studies of the tribe, all in manuscript.
Episcopalian work in the central region may properly be
said to have begun with the arrival of Rev. John West, who was sent out by the
Church Missionary Society of England in 1820 as chaplain to the Hudson's Bay
Co's establishment of Ft Garry (Winnipeg), on Red River. In the three years of
his ministrations, besides giving attention to the white residents, he made
missionary journeys among the Cree and others for a distance of 500 miles to the
west. He was followed by Rev. David Jones in 1823, by Rev. Wm. Cochrane in 1825,
Rev. A. Cowley in 1841, and Rev. R. James in 1846, by whom, together, the tribes
farther to the north were visited and brought within mission influence. In 1840
a Cree mission at The Pas, on the lower Saskatchewan, was organized by Henry
Budd, a native convert, and in 1846 other stations were established among the
same tribe at Lac la Ronge and Lac la Crosse, by James Settee and James Beardy
respectively, also native converts. In 1838 a large bequest for Indian missions
within Rupert's Land, as the territory was then known, had been made by Mr.
James Leith, an officer of the Hudson's Bay Co., and generously increased soon
after by the company itself. With the assistance and the active effort of four
missionary societies of the church, the work grew so that in 1849 the territory
was erected into a bishopric, and on the transfer of jurisdiction from the
Hudson's Bay Co., to the Canadian government in 1870 there were 15 Episcopal
missionaries laboring at the various stations in the regions stretching from
Hudson bay to the upper Saskatchewan, the most important being those at York
Factory (Keewatin), Cumberland, and Carlton (Saskatchewan).
Among the most noted of those in the Cree country may
he mentioned in chronologic order, Rev. Archdeacon, Tames Hunter and his wife
(1844-55), joint or separate authors of a number of translations, including the
Book of Common Prayer, hymns, gospel extracts, etc., and a valuable treatise on
the Cree language; Bishop John Horden (1851-90), of Moose Factory, York Factory,
and Ft Churchill stations, self-taught printer and binder, master of the
language, and author of a number of gospels, prayer, and hymn translations;
Bishop William Bompas (1865-90), best known for his work among the more northern
Athapascan tribes; Rev. W. W. Kirkby (1852-79), , author of a Cree 'Manual of
Prayer and Praise,' but also best known for his Athapascan work; Rev. John
Mackay, author of several religious translations and of a manuscript grammar;
and Rev. E. A. Watkins, author of a standard dictionary. Among the Blackfeet,
Rev. J. W. Tims, who began his work in 1883, is a recognized authority on the
language, of which he has published a grammar and dictionary and a gospel
translation.
Methodist (Wesleyan) effort in the Cree and
adjacent territories began in 1840. In that year Rev. James Evans and his Indian
assistant, Rev. Henry Steinhauer, both already noted in connection with previous
work in Ontario, were selected for the western mission, and set out together for
Norway House, a Hudson's Bay Co's post at the N. end of L. Winnipeg. Evans went
on without stop to his destination, but Steinhauer halted at Lac la Pluie (now
Rainy Lake) to act as interpreter to Rev. William Mason, who had just reached
that spot, having been sent out under the same auspices, the Wesleyan Missionary
Society of England, by arrangement with the Canadian body. The joint control
continued until 1855, when the Canadian Methodists assumed full charge. Mr.
Evans had been appointed superintendent of Methodist work for the whole region,
and after establishing Rossville mission, near Norway House, as his central
station, spent the next six years until his health failed, in traversing the
long distances, founding several missions, mastering the Cree language, and
devising for it a syllabary, which has ever since been in successful use for all
literary purposes in the tribe. His first printing in the syllabary was done
upon a press of his own making, with, types cast from the sheet-lead lining of
tea boxes and cut into final shape with a jackknife. In this primitive fashion
he printed many copies of the syllabary for distribution among the wandering
bands, besides hymn collections and scripture translations. "By means of this
syllabary a clever Indian can memorize in an hour or two all the characters, and
in two or three days read the Bible or any other book in his own language"
(MacLean). In later years, the credit for this invention wigs unsuccessfully
claimed by some for Rev. William Mason. Rossville for years continued to be the
principal and most prosperous of all the Methodist missions in the central
region.
Rev. William Mason remained at Rainy Lake until that
station was temporarily discontinued in 1844; he was then sent to Rossville
(Norway House), where he was stationed until 1854, when the mission was
abandoned by the Wesleyans. He then attached himself to the Episcopal church,
with which he had formerly been connected, and was ordained in the same year,
laboring thereafter at York Factory on Hudson bay until his final return to
England in 1870, with the exception of 4 years spent in that country supervising
the publication of his great Bible translation in the Cree language, printed in
1861. This, with several other Scripture and hymn translations, excepting a
Gospel of St John, was issued under the auspices of the Episcopal Church
Missionary Society. In his earlier linguistic (Methodist) work he was aided by
Rev. Mr. Steinhauer and John Sinclair, a half-breed, but in all his later work,
especially in the Bible translation, he had the constant assistance of his wife,
the educated half-breed daughter of a Hudson's Bay Co. officer. Rev. Mr.
Steinhauer, after some years with Mr. Mason, joined Mr. Evans at Norway House as
teacher and interpreter. He afterward filled stations at Oxford House (Jackson
Bay), York Factory, Lac la Biche, White Fish Lake, Victoria, and other remote
points, for a term of more than 40 years, making a record as "one of the most
devoted and successful of our native Indian missionaries" (Young). Among later
Methodist workers with the Cree may be mentioned Rev. John McDougall, one of the
founders of Victoria station, Alberta, in 1862, and Rev. Ervin Glass, about
1880, author of several primary instruction books and charts in the syllabary.
At the same time (1840) that Evans and Mason were sent
to the Cree, Rev. Robert T. Rundle was sent, by the same authority, to make
acquaintance with the more remote Blackfeet and Assiniboin ("Stogies") of the
upper Saskatchewan region. Visiting stations were selected where frequent
services were conducted by Rundle, by Rev. Thomas Woolsey, who came out in 1855,
and by others, but no regular mission was established until begun by Rev. George
M. McDougall at Edmonton, Alberta, in 1871. In 1873 he founded another mission
on Bow Row, Alberta, among the Stonies ( western Assiniboin), and continued to
divide attention between the two tribes until his accidental death 2 years
later. Other stations were established later at Ft MacLeod and Morley, in the
same territory. The most distinguished worker of this denomination among the
Blackfeet is Rev. John MacLean (1580-89), author of a manuscript grammar and
dictionary of the language, several minor linguistic papers, 'The Indians: Their
Manners and Customs' (1889), and 'Canadian Savage Folk' (1896).
Presbyterian. mission work was inaugurated in
1865 by the Rev. James Nisbet, among the Cree, at Prince Albert mission on the
Saskatchewan. No data are at hand as to the work of the denomination in this
region, but it is credited in the official report with nearly a thousand Indian
communicants, chiefly among the Sioux and the Assiniboin, many of the latter
being immigrants from the United States.
According to the Canadian Indian Report for 1906, the
Indians of Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, and the Northwest Territories,
classified under treaties 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7, designated as Chippewa, Cree,
Saulteaux, Sioux, Assiniboin, Blackfeet, Bloods, Piegan, ,Sarcee, Stonies, and
Chipewyan, are credited as follows: Catholic, 5,633; Anglican (Episcopal),
4,789; Methodist, 3,199; Presbyterian, 1,073; Baptist, 83; all other
denominations, 80; pagan, 5,324. Some 3,308 remote northern Cree, under Treaty
No. 8, and 165 non-treaty Indians are not included in the estimate.
Canada, British Columbia (including Vancouver Island and Metlakatla).—The
earliest missionary entrance into British Columbia was made by the Catholics
in 1839. In 1838 the secular priests Demers and Blanchet (afterward archbishop)
had arrived at Fort Vancouver, Washington, as already noted (see Columbia
Region) , to minister to the employees of the Hudson's Bay Co. In the next
year an Indian mission was organized at Cowlitz, with visiting stations along
the shores of Puget Sound, and Father Demers made a tour of the upper Columbia
as far as the Okinagan in British Columbia, preaching, baptizing, and giving
instruction by means of a pictograph device of Father Blanchet's Invention,
known as the "Catholic ladder." Copies of this "ladder" were carried by visiting
Indians to the more remote tribes and prepared the way for later effort. A
second journey over the same route was made by Father Demers in the next year,
and in 1841 he preached for the first time
to a great gathering of the tribes on lower Fraser River. In the following year,
1842, by arrangement with the local Hudson's Bay Co. officers, he accompanied
the annual supply caravan on its return from Ft Vancouver, on the Columbia, to
the remote northern posts. On this trip, ascending the Columbia and passing over
to the Fraser, he visited successively the Okinagan, Kamloops, Shuswap, and
Takulli or Carriers, before arriving at their destination at Ft St James on
Stuart lake. Return was made in the following spring, and on descending the
Fraser he found that the Shuswap had already erected a chapel.
In the meantime de Smet and the Jesuits had arrived
(see Columbia Region and Interior States—Flatheads) in the Columbia
region, and between 1841 and 1844 had established a chain of missions throughout
the territory, including three in British Columbia, among the Kutenai, Shuswap,
and Okinagan. De Smet himself extended his visitations to the headwaters of the
Athabasca, while in 1845-47 Father John Nobili, laboring among the upper tribes,
penetrated to the Babines on the lake of that name. In 1847 there were seven
chapels or mission stations in British Columbia, the northernmost being that
among the Carriers, at Stuart Lake. In 1843 the first Hudson Bay post had been
established on Vancouver Island at Camosun, now Victoria, and the beginning of
missionary work among the Songish and the Cowichan was made by the secular
priest, Father John Bolduc, already well known among the Sound tribes, who had
for this reason been brought over by the officers in charge to assist in winning
the good will of their Indian neighbors.
The Jesuit prosperity was short lived. Owing to
difficulty of communication and pressing need in other fields, it was found
necessary to abandon the British Columbia missions, except for an occasional
visiting priest, until the work was regularly taken up by the Oblates in 1865 by
the establishment of St Joseph mission near Williams lake, on the upper Fraser,
by Rev. J. M. McGnckin, first missionary to the Tsilkotin tribe. Within the next
few years he extended his ministrations to the remoter Sekani and Skeena. In
1873 the Stuart Lake mission was reestablished by Fathers Lejacq and Blanchet,
and in 1885 was placed in charge of Father A. G. Morice, Oblate, the
distinguished ethnologist and author, who had already mastered the Tsilkotin
language in three years' labor in the tribe. Aside from his missionary labor
proper, which still continues, he is perhaps bust known as the inventor of the Déné
syllabary, by means of which nearly all the Canadian Indians of the great
Athapascan stock are now able to read and write in their own language. His other
works include a Tsilkotin dictionary, a Carrier grammar, numerous religious and
miscellaneous translations, an Indian journal, scientific papers, 'Notes on the
Western Dines' (1893), and a 'History of the Northern Interior of British
Columbia (1904). Father J. M. Le Jeune, of the same order, stationed among the
Thompson River and Shuswap Indians since 1880, is also noted as the inventor of
a successful shorthand system, by means of which those and other cognate tribes
are now able to read in their own languages. He is also the author of a number
of religious and text books in the same languages and editor of a weekly Indian
Journal, the 'Kamloops Wawa,' all of which are printed on a copying press in his
own stenographic characters. Another distinguished veteran of the same order is
Bishop Paul Durieu, since 1854 until his recent death, laboring successively
among the tribes of Washington, Vancouver Island. (Ft Rupert, in Kwakiutl
territory), and Fraser River.
Episcopal work began in 1857 with the remarkable
and successful missionary enterprise undertaken by Sir William Duncan among the
Tsimshian at Metlakatla, first in British Columbia and later in Alaska. The
Tsimshian at that time were among the fiercest and most degraded savages of the
north west coast, slavery, human sacrifice, and cannibalism being features of
their tribal system, to which they were rapidly adding all the vices introduced
by the most depraved white men from the coasting vessels. Moved by reports of
their miserable condition Mr. Duncan voluntarily resigned a remunerative
position in England to offer himself as a worker in their behalf under the
auspices of the London Church Missionary Society. He arrived at Ft Simpson,
north coast of British Columbia, in Oct. 1857, and after some months spent in
learning the language and making acquaintance with the tribe, then numbering
2,300, opened his first school in June, 1858. By courage and devotion through
danger and difficulty he built up a civilized Christian body, which in 1860 he
colonized to the number of about 340 in a regular town established at Metlakatla,
an abandoned village site 16 miles of Ft Simpson. By systematic improvement of
every industrial opportunity for years the town had grown to a prosperous,
self-supporting community of 1,000 persons, when, by reason of difficulties with
the local bishop, upheld by the colonial government. Mr. Duncan and his Indians
were compelled, in 1887, to abandon their town and improvements and seek asylum
under United States protection in Alaska, where they formed a new settlement,
known as New Metlakatla, on Annette Island, 60 miles north of their former home.
The island, which is about 40 miles long by 3 miles wide, has been reserved by
Congress for their use, and the work of improvement and education is now
progressing as before the removal, the present population being about 500.
The first Episcopal bishop for British Columbia and
Vancouver Island was appointed in 1859. In 1861 the Rev. John B. Good, sent out
also by the London society, arrived at Esquimalt, near Victoria, Vancouver
Island, to preach alike to whites and Indians. At a later period his work was
transferred to the Indians of Thompson and lower Fraser Rivers, with
headquarters at St Paul's mission, Lytton. He has translated a large part of the
liturgy into the Thompson River (Ntlakyapamuk) language, besides being the
author of a grammatic sketch and other papers. In 1865 Kincolith mission was
established among the Niska branch of the Tsimshian, on Nass River, by Rev. R.
A. Doolan, and some years later another one higher up on the sane stream.
Kitwingach station, on Skeena River, was established about the same time. In
1871 Rev. Charles M. Tate took up his residence with the Nanaimo on Vancouver
Island, laboring afterward with the Tsimshian, Bellabella, and Fraser River
tribes. In 1876 Rev. W. H. Collison began work among the Haida at Masset, on the
north end of the Queen Charlotte Island, and in 1878 Rev. A. J. Hall arrived
among the Kwakiutl at Ft, Rupert, Vancouver Island. Other stations in the
meantime had been established throughout the south part of the province, chiefly
under the auspices of the London Church Missionary Society.
The first Methodist (Wesleyan) work for the
Indians of British Columbia was begun in 1863 at Nanaimo, Vancouver Island, by
Rev. Thomas Crosby, who at once applied himself to the study of the language
with such success that he was soon able to preach in it. In 1874 he transferred
his labor to the Tsimshian at Port Simpson, on the border of Alaska, who had
already been predisposed to Christianity by the work at Metlakatla and by
visiting Indians from the south. Other stations were established on Nass River
(1877) and at Kitamat in the Bellabella tribe. Statistics show that the
Methodist work has been particularly successful along the north west coast and
in portions of Vancouver.
There is no record of Presbyterian mission work,
but some 400 Indians are officially credited to that denomination along the west
coast of Vancouver Island.
According to the Canadian Indian Report for 1906 the
Christian Indians of British Columbia are classified as follows: Catholic,
11,270; Episcopal (Anglican), 4,364; Methodist, 3,285; Presbyterian, 427; all
other, 147.
Canada Northwest (Athabasca, Mackenzie, Yukon, North Keewatin, Franklin).—The
earliest missionaries of the great Canadian Northwest, of which Mackenzie River
is the central artery, were the Catholic priests of the Oblate order. The
pioneer may have been a Father Grollier, mentioned as the "first martyr of
apostleship" in the Mackenzie district and buried at Ft Good Hope, almost under
the Arctic circle. In 1846 Father Alexandre Tache, afterward the distinguished
archbishop of Red River, arrived at Lac he a la Crosse, a Cree station, at the
head of Churchill River, Athabasca. and a few months later crossed over the
divide to the Chipewyan tribe on Athabasca River. Here he established St Raphael
mission, and for the next 7 years, with the exception of a visit to Europe,
divided his time between the two tribes. In 1847 or 1848 Father Henry Faraud,
afterward vicar of the Mackenzie district, arrived among the Chipewyan of Great
Slave lake, with whom and their congeners he continued for 13 years. To him we
owe a Bible abridgment in the Chipewyan language. In 1852 arrived Father
Valentin Végréville,
for more than 40 years missionary to Cree, Assiniboin, and Chipewyan, all of
which languages he spoke fluently; founder of the Chipewyan mission of St Peter,
on Caribou lake, Athabasca, besides several others farther south; and author of
a manuscript grammar and dictionary of the Cree language, another of the
Chipewyan language, and other ethnologic and religions papers in manuscript. In
1867 Father Laurent Legoff arrived at Caribou Lake mission, where he was still
stationed in 1892. He is best known as the author of a grammar of the
Montagnais, or Chipewyan language, published in 1889.
By far the most noted of all the Oblate missionaries of
the great Northwest is Father Emile Petitot, acknowledged by competent Canadian
authority as "our greatest scientific writer on the Indians and Eskimos" (
MacLean ). In 20 years of labor, beginning in 1862, he covered the whole
territory from Winnipeg to the Arctic ocean, frequently making journeys of six
weeks' length on snowshoes. He was the first missionary to visit Great Bear lake
(1866), and the first missionary to the Eskimo of the north west, having visited
them in 1865 at the mouth of the Anderson, in 1868 at the mouth of the
Mackenzie, and twice later at the mouth of Peel River. In 1870 he crossed over
into Alaska, and in 1878, compelled by illness, he returned to the south, making
the journey of some 1,200 miles to Athabasca lake on foot, and thence by canoe
and portages to Winnipeg. Besides writing some papers relating to the Cree, he
is the author of numerous ethnological and philosophical works, dealing with the
Chipewyan, Slavé, Hare, Dog-rib, Kutchin,
and Eskimo tribes and territory, chief among which are his Dènè
Dindjiè dictionary (1876) and his
'Traditions Indiennes' (1886).
Throughout the Mackenzie region the Catholics have now
established regular missions or visiting stations at every principal gathering
point, among the most important being a mission at Ft Providence, beyond Great
Slave lake, and a school, orphanage, and hospital conducted since 1875 by the
Sisters of Charity at Ft Chipewyan on Athabasca lake.
Episcopal effort in the Canadian Northwest
dates from 1858, in which year Archdeacon James Hunter, already mentioned in
confection with the Cree mission, made a reconnoitering visit to Mackenzie
River, as a result of which Rev. W. W. Kirkby, then on parish duty on Red River,
was next year appointed to that field and at once took up his headquarters at
the remote post of Ft Simpson, at the junction of Liard and Mackenzie Rivers,
62° N., where, with the assistance of the Hudson's Bay Co's officers, he built a
church and school. In 1862, after several years' study of the language, he
descended the Mackenzie nearly to its mouth and crossed over the divide to the
Yukon, just within the limits of Alaska, preaching to the Kutchin and making
some study of the language, after which he returned to Ft Simpson. In 1869 lie
was appointed to the station at York Factory, on Hudson bay, where he remained
until his retirement in 1878, after 26 years of efficient service in Manitoba
and the Northwest. He is the author of a number of religious translations in the
Chipewyan and Slave languages.
The work begun on the Yukon by Kirkby was given over to
Rev. (Archdeacon) Robert McDonald, who established his headquarters at St
Matthew's mission on Peel River, Mackenzie district, one mile within the Arctic
circle." Here he devoted himself with remarkable industry and success to a study
of the language of the Takudh Kutchin, into which he has translated, besides
several minor works, the Book of Common Prayer (1885), a small collection of
Hymns (1889), and the complete Bible in 1898, all according to a syllabic system
of his own device, by means of which the Indians were enabled to read in a few
weeks. In 1865 Rev. Win. C. Bornpas, afterward bishop of Athabasca and later of
Mackenzie River, arrived from England. In the next 25 years he labored among the
Chipewyan, Dog-ribs, Beavers, Slave, and Takudh tribes of the remote Northwest,
and gave some attention also to the distant Eskimo. He is the author of a primer
in each of these languages, as well as in Cree and Eskimo, together with a
number of gospel and other religious translations. Another notable name is that
of Rev. Alfred Garrioch, who began work in the Beaver tribe on Peace River,
Athabasca, in 1876, after a year's preliminary study at Ft Simpson. He is the
founder of Unjaga mission at Ft Vermilion, and author of several devotional
works and of a considerable vocabulary in the Beaver language. To a somewhat
later period belong Rev. W. D. Reeve and Rev. Spendlove, in the Slave lake
region. Among the principal stations are Ft Chipewyan on Athabasca lake, Ft
Simpson on the middle Mackenzie, and Fts Macpherson and Lapierre in the
neighborhood of the Mackenzie's mouth. Work has also been done among the Eskimo
of Hudson bay, chiefly by Rev. Edmund Pock, who has devised a syllabary for the
language, in which he has published several devotional translations, beginning
in 1878. The greater portion of the Episcopal work in the Canadian Northwest has
been under the auspices of the Church Missionary Society of. London.
Missisauga (Chippewa: misi, 'large,' sâg
or sauk, 'outlet (of a river or bay)' 'large outlet,' referring to the
mouth of Missisauga River.—Hewitt).
Although this Algonquian tribe is a division or
subtribe of the Chippewa, having originally formed an integral part of the
latter, it has long been generally treated as distinct. When first encountered
by the French, in 1634, the Missisauga lived about the mouth of the river of the
same name, along the north shore of Lake Huron, and on the adjacent Manitoulin
Island. Although so closely allied to the Chippewa, they do not appear to have
been disposed to follow that tribe in its progress westward, as there is no
evidence that they were ever found in early times so far west as Sault Ste
Marie, but appear to have clung to their old haunts about L. Huron and Georgian
bay. Early in the 18th century, influenced by a desire to trade with the whites,
they began to drift toward the south east into the region formerly occupied by
the Hurons, between Lake Huron and Lake Erie. Although they had destroyed a
village of the Iroquois near Ft Frontenac about 1705, they tried in 1708 to gain
a passage through the country of the latter, to trade their peltries with the
English. At this time a part or band was settled on Lake St Clair. About 1720
the French established a station at the west end of Lake Ontario for the purpose
of stimulating trade with the Missisauga. Near the close of the first half of
the century (1746-50), having joined the Iroquois in the war against the French,
the Missisauga were compelled by the latter, who were aided by the Ottawa, to
abandon their country, a portion at least settling near the Seneca E. of L.
Erie. Others, however, appear to have remained in the vicinity of their early
home, as' a delegate from a Missisauga town "on the north side of L. Ontario"
came to the conference at Mt Johnson, N. Y., in June, 1 755. As it is also
stated that they "belong to the Chippewyse confederacy, which chiefly dwell
about the Lake Missilianac," it is probable that "north side of Lake Ontario"
refers to the shores of Lakr Huron. Being friendly with the Iroquois at this
time, they were allowed to occupy a number of places in the country from which
the Hurons had been driven. This is inferred in part from Chauvignerie's report
of 1736, which locates parts of the tribe at different points on Missisauga
River, Maniskoulim (Manitoulin?) Island, Lake St Clair, Kente, Toronto River,
Matchitaen, and the west end of Lake Ontario. The land on which the Iroquois are
now settled at Grand River, Ontario, was bought from them. For the purpose of
sealing their alliance with the Iroquois they were admitted as the seventh tribe
of the Iroquois league in 1746, at which date they were described as living in
fine villages near Detroit. It is therefore probable that those who went to live
with the Seneca first came to the vicinity of Detroit and moved thence to west
New York. The alliance with the Iroquois lasted only until the outbreak of the
French and Indian war a few years later.
According to Jones (Hist. Ojebway), as soon as a Missisauga died he was laid out
on the ground, arrayed in his best clothes, and wrapped in skins or blankets. A
grave about 3 feet deep was dug and the corpse interred with the head toward the
west. By his side were placed his hunting and war implements. The grave was then
covered, and above it poles or sticks were placed lengthwise to the height of
about 2 feet, over which birch-bark or mats were thrown to keep out the rain.
Immediately after the decease of an Indian, the near relatives went into
mourning by blackening their faces with charcoal and putting on the most ragged
and filthy clothing they possessed. A year was the usual time of mourning for a
husband, wife, father or mother.
As the Missisauga are so frequently confounded with the
Chippewa and other neighboring tribes who are closely connected, it is difficult
to make a separate estimate of their numbers. In 1736 they were reported
to number 1,300, about 250 being on Manitoulin Island and Missisauga River, and
the rest in the peninsula of Ontario; in 1778 they were estimated at 1.250
living chiefly on the north side of Lake Erie and in 1884 the number was given
as 733. The population was officially reported in 1906 as 810 of whom 185
were at Mud Lake, 87 at Rive Lake, 35 at Scugog, 240 at Alnwick and 263 at New
Credit, Ontario. The New Credit settlement forms a township by itself and
the Indian inhabitants have often won prizes against white competitors at the
agricultural fairs. The New Credit Indians (who left the Old Credit settlement
in 1847) are the most advanced of the Missisauga and represent one of the most
successful attempts of any American Indian group to assimilate the culture of
the whites. The Alnwick reservation dates from 1830, Mud Lake from 1829,
Scugog from 1842. Beldom, Chibaouinani, and Grape Island were former
settlements.
GREENLAND.—Greenland was first colonized from Iceland in 985 by Scandinavians, who became Christian about A. D. 1000. The aboriginal in habitants were the Eskimo, with whom in the succeeding centuries the colonists had frequent hostile encounters, but there is no record of any attempt at missionary work. Some time shortly before the year 1500 the colony became extinct, there being considerable evidence that it was finally overwhelmed by the Eskimo savages. In 1721 the Norse Lutheran minister, Rev. Hans Egede, raider the auspices of the government of Denmark, landed with his family and a few other companions upon the s. end of the island, in the belief that some descendants of the lost colony might yet be in existence. Finding no white inhabit-ants, he turned his attention to the evangelization of the native Eskimo, and thus became the founder both of the Green-land mission and of the modern Green-land settlement. A mission station whicH was named Godthaab was established on Baal r. on the w. coast, about 64° N., and became the center of operations, while Egede was made bishop and superintendent of missions. After some years of hardship and discouragement the house government was about to withdraw its support, and it seemed as if the mission would have to he abandoned, when, in 1733, the Alorm,ia rs vohuitoered their aid. In the spring of that year three Moravian missionaries, Christian David, and Mat-
thew and Christian Stach, arrived from Denmark tc; cooperate with Egede, with
such good result that the principal work finally passed over to that
denomination, by which it has since been continued. Egede in 1736 returned to
Denmark to establish at Copenhagen a special train-ing seminary for the work. He
died in 1758, leaving the succession in office to his son, Rev. Paul Egede. The
elder Egede was the author of a `Description oft een land,' which has been
translated into several languages, besides several scriptural works in Eskimo.
His son, Paul, accompanied his father on the first trip in 1721, learned the
language, and in 1734 began the nussionary work which he continued to his death
in 1789, having been made bishop 10 years earlier. He is the author of a
standard Danish-Latin-Eskimo grammar and dictionary, besides a number of
religious works in the language and a journal of the Greenland mis-sions from
1721 to within a year of his death. Still another of the same family, Rev. Peter
Egede, nephew of the first missionary, was the author of a translation of
Psalms.
With the settlement of the country from Denmark and the organization of regular
parishes the Lutheran missions took on new life, special attention being given
to the more northern regions. Godthaab remained the principal station, and
several others were established, of which the most important to-day are Nugsoak
on Disko bay, w. coast, and Angmagsalik, about 66° N., on the E. coast, the
northernmost inhabited spot in that direction. The friendly cooperation between
the two denominations seems never to have been interrupted, the ministers in
many cases sharing their labors and results in common.
The Moravian work prospered. New Herrnhut, the first and most northerly mission,
was established in 1733; Lichtenfels was founded 80 in. farther s. in 1758; 300
rn farther s. Lichtenau was founded in 1774, tlien came Frederiksdal in 1824,
Umanak in 1861, and Igdlorpait in 1864. In 1881 the mission force numbered 19
and the native membership 1,545. Since 1801 the whole Eskimo population properly
resident within the Moravian mission area has been Christian, but others have
since moved in from the outlying territory. The work of civilization is nearly
as complete for the whole E. coast.
As the result of the literary labors of nearly two centuries of missionary
students, together with a few educated natives, the Eskimo literature of
Greenland is exceptionally voluminous, covering the whole range of linguistics,
Bible translations, hymn books, and other religious
rE. A. E.
works, school text-books, stories, and miscellanies, besides a journal published
at the Godthaab station from 1861 to 1885. With so much material it is possible
only to mention the names of the principal workers in this field. For de-tails
the reader is referred to Pilling's `Bibliography of the Eskimo Language.' In
the Lutheran mission the most prominent names are Egede, father and son,
Fabricius (1768-73); Janssen (period of 1850); Kjer (period of 1820); the
Kleinschmidts, father and son (1793-1840); Kragh (1818-28); Steenholdt (period
of 1850) ; Sternberg (1840-53) ; Thorhallesen (1776-89); A'Vandall (1834-40),
and Wolf (1803-11). In the Moravian list are found Beck (died 1777); Beyer
(period of 1750); Brodersen (period of 1790); Konigseer (period of 1780); Muller
(period of 1840); together with Cranz, author of the ` History of Greenland and
the Moravian Mission,' first published in 1765.