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MISSIONARY WORK
AMONG
THE OJEBWAY INDIANS.
BY THE
REV. EDWARD F. WILSON.
CONTENTS.
CHAP.
INTRODUCTION.
I. HOW IT CAME ABOUT THAT I WENT TO CANADA.
II. FIRST MISSIONARY EXPERIENCES.
III. OUR ARRIVAL AT SARNIA.
IV. KETTLE POINT.
V. INDIAN NAMES GIVEN.
VI. CHRISTMAS ON THE RESERVE.
VII. MISSION WORK AT SARNIA.
VIII. THE BISHOP'S VISIT.
IX. FIRST VISIT TO GARDEN RIVER.
X. BAPTISM OF PAGAN INDIANS.
XI. THE RED RIVER EXPEDITION.
XII. CHANGES IN PROSPECT.
XIII. ROUGHING IT.
XIV. CHIEF LITTLE PINE.
XV. OUR FIRST WINTER IN ALGOMA.
XVI. CHIEF BUHKWUJJENENE'S MISSION.
XVII. AN INDIAN CHIEF IN ENGLAND.
XVIII. A TRIAL OF FAITH.
XIX. LEARNING TO KNOW MY PEOPLE.
XX. A WEDDING AND A DEATH.
XXI. THE OPENING OF THE FIRST SHINGWAUK HOME.
XXII. FIRE! FIRE!
XXIII. AFTER THE FIRE.
XXIV. PROSPECTS OF RE-BUILDING.
XXV. LAYING THE FOUNDATION STONE.
XXVI. A TRIP TO BATCHENWAUNING.
XXVII. THE WINTER OF 1874-5.
XXVIII. THE NEW SHINGWAUK HOME.
XXIX. RUNAWAY BOYS.
XXX. CHARLIE AND BEN.
XXXI. A TRIP UP LAKE SUPERIOR.
XXXII. COASTING AND CAMPING.
XXXIII. UP THE NEEPIGON RIVER.
XXXIV. THIRTY YEARS WAITING FOR A MISSIONARY.
XXXV. THE PAGAN BOY--NINGWINNENA.
XXXVI. BAPTIZED--BURIED.
XXXVII. THE WAWANOSH HOME.
XXXVIII. A SAD WINTER.
XXXIX. WILLIAM SAHGUCHEWAY.
XL. OUR INDIAN HOMES.
XLI. A POW-WOW AT GARDEN RIVER.
XLII. GLAD TIDINGS FROM NEEPIGON.
PREFACE.
A few words addressed by the Bishop of Algoma to the Provincial Synod
may form a suitable preface to this little book, which aspires to no
literary pretensions, but is just a simple and unvarnished narrative of
Missionary experience among the Red Indians of Lake Superior, in the
Algoma Diocese.
"The invaluable Institutions at Sault Ste. Marie still continue their
blessed work of educating and Christianizing the rising generation of
Ojebways. Founded in a spirit of faith, hope, and charity,--carrying
out a sound system of education, and in the past 'approved of God' by
many signs and tokens, the friends of these two 'Homes' may still rally
round them with unshaken confidence. Their history, like that of the
Christian Church itself, has been marked by not a few fluctuations, but
their record has been one of permanent and undoubted usefulness.
"Only a person deeply interested and directly engaged in the work, as
the Rev. E. F. Wilson is, can understand the force of the difficulties
to be encountered from the ineradicable scepticism of Indian parents as
to the disinterestedness of our intentions with regard to their
children; the tendency of the children to rebel against the necessary
restraints imposed on their liberty; the reluctance of parents to leave
their children in the 'Home' for a period sufficiently long for the
formation of permanent habits of industry, and fixed principles of
right; the constitutional unhealthiness of Indian children,
terminating, as it has here in a few cases, in death; the all but
impossibility of obtaining helpers for subordinate positions, such as
teacher or servant, who regard the question of the evangelization of
the Indian from any higher stand-point than the financial.
"Against this formidable array of obstacles Mr. Wilson has not only
struggled, but struggled successfully, till now these two Institutions,
over which he has watched with all the jealous vigilance of a mother
watching her first-born child, stand on a basis of acknowledged
success, as two centres for the diffusion of Gospel light and blessing
among the children of a people who have been long 'sitting in darkness,
and the shadow of death.' During the past year sundry improvements have
been made in the Shingwauk Home, which will largely increase the
comfort of the occupants. The most notable event, however, to be
recorded in this connection is the completion and consecration of the
'Bishop Fauquier Memorial Chapel,' a beautiful and truly ecclesiastical
structure, designed, in even its minutest details, by Mr. Wilson, and
erected by means of funds sent mainly from England, in response to his
earnest appeals for some enduring and useful memorial of the life and
labours of the late revered Bishop of this diocese. Long may it stand,
as a hallowed centre for the diffusion of Gospel light among hundreds
yet unborn, of the Indian tribes he loved so well."
MISSIONARY WORK AMONG THE
OJEBWAY INDIANS.
INTRODUCTORY.
The largest freshwater lake in the world is Lake Superior, through the
centre of which runs the boundary line between the United States of
America and the Dominion of Canada. The Indians call it the "Ojebway
Kecheguramee," that is--literally translated--the Great water of the
Ojebways, or as they are often called the Chippeways.
The Ojebways are an extensive Indian tribe spreading over a large part
of Canada, the Northern States, and the North West; specimens of their
language and customs appear in Longfellow's song of Hiawatha. Lake
Superior may be regarded as the centre of their ancient possessions.
Along its northern shores, and back into the interior they still roam
in wild freedom, hunting, and fishing, and paddling their birch-bark
canoes;--but in more civilized places, they are confined to reserved
lands set apart for them by the Dominion Government, and many of them
now gain their living by farming or by working for the neighbouring
white people.
The Ojebway Indians are now just in that transition stage in which
they particularly require a helping hand to lift them up to a
respectable position in life, and to afford them the means of gaining
their livelihood as a civilised Christian people. As one of their own
Chiefs has said, "the time is passed for my people to live by hunting
and fishing as our forefathers used to do; if we are to continue to
exist at all we must learn to gain our living in the same way as the
white people."
It is with the view of making the wants of these poor people known,
and of increasing the interest in a work which amid many difficulties,
has for the past ten years been carried on among them, that these pages
are written. The writer will tell what have been his experiences with
the Indians since he first came to settle among them as a Missionary,
and will describe how God in His providence gradually opened the way
for him, how dangers were met, and difficulties overcome, and how in
the end two Institutions for the Christian training and civilization of
Indian children were brought into existence; the one called the
_Shinywauk Home_, with accommodation for about seventy Indian
boys, and the other called the _Wavanosh Home_ with room for about
thirty Indian girls,--both of them built, and now in active operation,
at Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, at the south-eastern extremity of Lake
Superior.
CHAPTER I.
HOW IT CAME ABOUT THAT I WENT TO CANADA.
All things are wonderfully ordered for us by God. Such has been my
experience for a long time past. If only we will wait and watch, the
way will open for us.
Where shall I begin with my history as a Missionary? When I was a
child, it was my mother's hope and wish that I should bear the glad
tidings of the Gospel to distant lands. She was a Missionary in heart
herself, and it was her earnest desire that one of her boys would grow
up to devote himself to that most blessed work.
However there seemed little likelihood of her wishes being fulfilled.
I disliked the idea of going to Oxford as my brothers had done. A wild
free life away from the restraints of civilization was my idea of
happiness, and after studying agriculture for a year or two in England,
I bade farewell to my native shores and started for Canada.
Then God took me in hand. I had been only three days in the country
when He put it into my heart to become a Missionary. The impulse came
suddenly, irresistibly. In a few days it was all settled. Farming was
given up, and I entered upon my course as a theological student. That
same summer I spent a month or six weeks on an Indian Reserve, and
became, as people would say, infatuated with the Indians. For this and
other reasons, I preferred remaining in Canada that I might study for
the ministry, to returning to England; and whenever opportunity
allowed, I paid a visit to some Indian Reserve, or went on an exploring
tour up the great lakes.
After rather more than two years' preparation, I returned to England,
and in December, 1867, was ordained deacon at the Chapel Royal, by the
Bishop of London, Dr. Tait, afterwards Archbishop of Canterbury.
Shortly after this, it was arranged that I should go out again to
Canada as a Missionary to the Ojebway Indians, under the auspices of
the Church Missionary Society, the Rev. Henry Venn being then Hon.
Secretary, and on July 1, 1868, accompanied by my wife and an old
faithful servant named Jane, we started for Canada.
My wife, accustomed to the refinement and comforts of a beautiful old
rectory home in Gloucestershire, knew not whither she was going--she
had never been out of England before, and all was new and strange to
her. Indeed, I for my part was going out also, "not knowing whither I
went." Whether our lot would be cast in one of the older and more
civilised dioceses of Canada, or whether we should find a home on the
very outskirts of civilization, I knew not. My instructions from the
Church Missionary Society Committee, were simply to go first to London,
Ont., where the late Bishop of Huron (Dr. Cronyn) then lived, and from
thence to travel around and select what might seem to be the best spot
to make the centre for a new mission. We had thought of Cape Croker on
the Georgian Bay, and we had thought of Michipicoten, on Lake Superior,--
but nothing could be settled until after our arrival in Canada, and as
for my wife she was content to go with me wherever I went.
We had a splendid view of icebergs on the eighth day of our voyage. It
was a clear, keen morning reminding one of Christmas time, the sailors
were washing the decks and all looked merry and bright, and around on
all sides were icebergs of every size and shape, some looking like
great sea monsters bobbing up and down on the water, others as if a
large extent of Dover Cliff were floating past. Twenty-seven we counted
at one time, and during the morning fully 150 must have passed us.
"Ah," said an old sailor, "if one of them had touched us, this ship
wouldn't be here." Then came the excitement of whales, spouting in the
deep, and at 10 a.m., on July 10th, the rocky coast of Belle Isle was
in sight.
When we landed at Quebec, the heat was intense, the glass standing at 99
deg. in the shade. My wife's first experiences of Canada are described in
a letter home, dated from London, Ont., July 22nd, '68. "At 4 p.m. we
left Quebec and started by boat for Montreal. The boats for the lakes and
river are simply splendid,--such large handsome saloons and everything
very nice, except that we had only one small towel between us and very
little water. After leaving Montreal we had to go through a succession of
locks which was slow work and made us feel the heat very much. On
Wednesday it was a little cooler, and we were able to enjoy the most
lovely scenery I had ever beheld, 'the thousand isles,'--that alone is
quite worth coming out for. From Hamilton we took train to London. No one
can remember such a summer before, for the last three weeks the glass has
been standing at between 103 deg. and 99 deg. except in the evening, when
we think it cold if it goes down to 80 deg. The boarding-house we are in
is cool and clean and quite English-like about a mile from the so-called
town."
Almost immediately after settling in at our London boarding-house I
started on my first Missionary tour, the object being to choose a spot
suitable for the centre of our Mission.