BOLL. 30] 



MISSIONS 



^03 



work, the author of important contribu- 

 tions to philology. To Father Lacoinbe, 

 who founded two missions among the 

 Cree of the upper North Saskatchewan 

 and spent also much time with the 

 Blackfeet, we owe, besides several reli- 

 gious and text-book translations, a nianu- 

 scrijit Blackfoot dictionary and a monu- 

 mental grammar and dictionary of the 

 Cree language. Father Vegreville la- 

 bored among Cree, Assiniboin, and the 

 remote northern Chipewyan, founded five 

 missions, and composed a manuscript 

 grammar, dictionary, and monograi)h of 

 the Cree language. Father Petitot's im- 

 portant \vt)rk among the Cree has been 

 overshadowed by his later great work 

 among the remote Athapascans and Es- 

 kimo, which will be noted hereafter. 

 Among the Blackfeet the most jiromi- 

 nent name is that of Father Emile Legal, 

 Oblate (1881-90), author of several lin- 

 guistic 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 So- 

 ciety of England in 1820 as chaplain to 

 the Hudson's Bay Co's establishment 

 of Ft Garry (Winnipeg), on Red r. In 

 the three years of his ministrations, be- 

 sides giving attention to the white resi- 

 dents, he made missionary journeys 

 among the Cree and others for a distance 

 of 500 m. to the w. 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 tril)es farther to the 

 N. were visited and brought within mis- 

 sion 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 Ru- 

 pert'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 assist- 

 ance and the active effort of four mis- 

 sionary 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 tlie Hudson's 

 Bay Co., to the Canadian government 

 in 1870 there were 15 Episcopal mis- 

 sionaries 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 iioted of those in the 

 Cree country may be mentioned in chron- 

 ologic order. Rev. Archdeacon James 

 Hunter and his wife (1844-55), joint or 

 separate authors of a number of transla- 

 tions, 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 f( )r 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 sev- 

 eral religious translations and of a manu- 

 script granunar; and Rev. E. A. Watkins, 

 author of a standard dictionary. Among 

 the Blackfeet, Rev. J. W. Tims, who be- 

 gan his work in 1883, is a recognized 

 authority on the language, of which he 

 has published a grammar and dictionary 

 and a gospel translation. 



MdhodiM ( 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 des- 

 tination, but Steinhauer halted at Lac 

 la Pluie (now Rainy Lake) to act as inter- 

 preter to Rev. William Mason, who had 

 just reached that spot, having been sent 

 out under the same auspices, the Wes- 

 leyan Missionary Society of England, by 

 arrangement with the Canadian body. 

 The joint control continued until 1855, 

 when the Canadian Methodists assumed 

 full charge. INIr Evans had been ap- 

 pointed superintendent of Methodist work 

 for the whole region, and after establish- 

 ing Rossville mission, near Norway House, 

 as his central station, spent the next six 

 years until his health failed, in travers- 

 ing the long distances, founding several 

 missions, mastering the Cree language, 

 and devising for it a syllabarj', 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 



