902 



MISSIONS 



[b. a. e. 



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 Fac- 

 tory, James bay, which, however, was 

 soon after abandoned. Beginning in 1851 

 Rev. G. M. McDougall established ]\Ieth- 

 odist mission stations among the Chip- 

 pewa along the n. shore of L. Superior, 

 at Gai'den River and elsewdiere, but after- 

 ward transferred his operations also to 

 Cree territory. In 1861-62 Rev. Thomas 

 Hurl hurt, already a veteran worker, and 

 considered the most competent Chippewa 

 linguist in the Methodist mission, con- 

 ducted a monthly journal, ' Petaubun,' in 

 the language, at the Sarnia station. 



According to the official Canadian In- 

 dian Report for 1906, the Metliodht In- 

 dians of E. Canada numbered 4,557 in On- 

 tario 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 " Chippewas of the 

 Thames," " Mississaguas," and "Iro- 

 quois and Algonquins of Watha," all of 

 the 348 "Moravians of the Thames," and 

 a considerable percentage of the "Six 

 Nations" on Grand r. Those in Quebec 

 province are chiefly Iroquois of the Oka, 

 St Regis, and Caughnawaga settlements. 



Of other denominations, the same offi- 

 cial report enumerates 1,020 Baptists in 

 Ontario, almost entirely among the Six 

 Nations on Grand r., with 99 Congrega- 

 tionalists, 17 Presbyterians, and a total of 

 370 of all other denominations not pre- 

 viously noted. In the other eastern prov- 

 inces — Quebec, New Brunswick, Nova 

 Scotia, and Prince Edward id. — 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 be- 

 come an independent worker. His at- 

 tention having been drawn to the neg- 

 lected condition of the Indians, he began 

 the study of the Micmac language, and 

 in 1849 succeeded in organizing a mis- 

 sionary society for their special instruc- 

 tion. Under its auspices until its disso- 

 lution 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 tradi- 

 tions. He is the author of a Micmac dic- 

 tionary and of a collection of tribal myths 

 as well as of numerous minor works, re- 

 ligious and miscellaneous. 



Canada, Central (Manitoba, Assini- 

 boia, Saskatchewan, Alberta, s. Kee- 

 watin). — In the great plains region 

 stretching from Hudson bay southwest- 

 ward to the Rocky mts., the former bat- 



tle ground of Cree, Assiniboin, and Black- 

 feet, the ('atholics were again the pio- 

 neers, antedating all others by a full cen- 

 tury. According to Bryce, "the first 

 heralds of the cross" witliin this area 

 were the French Jesuits accompanying 

 Verendrye, who in the years 1731-1742 

 explored the whole territory from Mack- 

 inaw to the upper Missouri and the Sas- 

 katchewan, establishing trading posts 

 and making alliances with the Indian 

 tribes for the Frencli government. 

 Among these missionaries the jirincipal 

 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 at- 

 tempt was made during this period to 

 form permanent mission settlements. 



Then follows a long hiatus until after 

 the establishment of the Red River col- 

 ony in the early part <*f 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 ju- 

 risdiction over all of Ruperts land and 

 the Northwest territories, and carried on 

 the work of systematic mission organiza- 

 tion throughout the whole vast region 

 until his death in 1853, when the noted 

 Oblate missionary. Father Alexandre 

 Tache, who had come out in 1845, suc- 

 ceeded to the dignity, in which he con- 

 tinued for many years. 



The Catholic work in this central re- 

 gion 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 Win- 

 nipeg 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 (Chip- 

 pewa of vSaskatchewan region), and who 

 from 1831 to 1849 covered in his work a 

 territory stretching over a thousand miles 

 from E. to w. For his services in i)re- 

 venting a serious uprising in 1833 he was 

 pensioned both by the Government and 

 by the Hudson's Bay Co. He is the au- 

 thor of a grammatic treatise and of a 

 manuscript dictionary of the Saulteur 

 (Chii:)pewa) language, as Mell as of some 

 minor Indian writings. 



In the Cree field the most distinguished 

 names are those of Fathers Albert La- 

 combe (1848-90), Alexandre Tach6 

 (1845-90), Jean B. Thibault {ca. 1855- 

 70), Valentin Vegrt'ville (1852-90), and 

 Emile Petitot (1862-82), all of the Ob- 

 late order, and each, besides his religious 



