904 



MISSIONS 



[ B. A. B. 



distribution among the wandering bands, 

 besides hymn collections and scripture 

 translations. "By means of this sylla- 

 bary 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 

 was unsuccessfully claimed by some for 

 Rev. William INIason. 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 vmtil 1854, when the mission 

 was abandoned by the Wesleyans. He 

 then attached himself to the Ejiiscopal 

 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 tinal return to 

 England in 1870, with the exception of 4 

 years sjtent in that country supervising 

 the publication of his great Bible trans- 

 lation in the Cree language, printed in 

 1861. This, with several other Scripture 

 and hymn translations, excepting a Gos- 

 pel of St John, was issued under the 

 auspices of the Episcopal Church Mis- 

 sionary 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, espe- 

 cially in the Bible translation, he had the 

 constant assistance of his wife, the edu- 

 cated half-breed daughter of a Hudson's 

 Bay Co. ofKcer. Rev. Mr Steinhauer, 

 after some years with Mr Mason, jomed 

 Mr Evans at Norway House as teacher 

 and interpreter. He afterward tilled 

 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 de- 

 voted and successful of our native Indian 

 missionaries" (Young). Among later 

 Methodist workers with the Cree may be 

 mentioned Rev. John McDougall, one of 

 the foun<lers of Victoria station, Alberta, 

 in 1862, and Rev. Ervin Glass, about 1880, 

 author of several primary instruction 

 books and charts m the syllabary. 



At the same time (1840) that Evans 

 and Mason were sent to the Cree, Rev. 

 Rolert T. Rundle was sent, by the same 

 authority, to make acquaintance with 

 the more remote Blackfeetand Assiniboin 

 ("Stonies") 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 

 P'dmonton, Alberta, in 1871. In 1873 he 

 founded another mission on Bow r.. Al- 

 berta, among the Stonies (western Assini- 

 boin), 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 Mor- 

 ley,inthesame territory. Themostdistin- 

 guished worker of this denomination 

 among the Blackfeet is Rev. John Mac- 

 Lean (1880-89), author of a manuscript 

 grammar and dictionary of the language, 

 several minor linguistic papers, 'The 

 Indians: Their i\Ianners and Customs' 

 (1889), and 'Canadian Savage Folk' 

 (.1896). 



Pirxhytfriaii mission work was inaugu- 

 rated 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 

 othcial 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 Re- 

 port for 1906, the Indians of Manitoba, 

 Saskatchewan, Alberta, and the North- 

 west Territories, classified under treaties 

 1, 2, 8, 4, 5, 6, and 7, designated as Chip- 

 pewa, 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 denomina- 

 tions, 80; pagan, 5,324. Some 3,308 re- 

 mote northern Cree, under Treaty No. 8, 

 and 165 non-treaty Indians are not in- 

 cluded in the estimate. 



Canada, British Columbia (including 

 Vancouver id. and Metlakatia). — The 

 earliest missionary entrance into British 

 Columbia was made by the ( 'ntholics in 

 1839. In 1838 the secular priests Demers 

 and Blanchet (afterward archbishop) 

 had arrive<i at Fort Vancouver, Washing- 

 ton, as already noted (see ('ulumhia Re- 

 gion) , to minister to the employees of the 

 Hudson's Bay Co. In the next year an 

 Indian nussion was organized at Cowlitz, 

 with visiting stations along the shores of 

 Puget sd. , and Father Demers made a tour 

 of the upper Columbia as far as the Okin- 

 agan in British Columl)ia, preaching, bap- 

 tizing,and givinginstructionbymeansofa 

 pictograph device of Father Blanchet's in- 

 vention, 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 



