The essays in this section explore Anishinaabemowin language texts in Huron’s Rare Book Collection. The first essay is about Missionary Wilson’s Manual on the Ojibway language. It provides background on the manual and on Wilson’s life through discussing his career and goals, while critiquing his work and placing it within its larger context. The second essay argues that religious syncretism, the blending of traditional Indigenous beliefs and practices with Christian teachings, persisted with the conversion of Indigenous peoples to Christianity. Similarly, the third essay focuses on Ojibway-Anglican Missionary Jacob’s hymnbook as a specific example of religious syncretism. The fourth essay discusses Ojibway-Methodist Missionary Jones’s collection of hymns, asserting that alphabetic literacy was used by Europeans to transform Ojibway society, while also being embraced by the Ojibway to preserve their culture.

Edward F. Wilson’s Manual for Missionaries

Edward Francis Wilson and Religious Syncretism in Nineteenth Century Upper Canada

Finding Syncretism in John Jacob’s Hymnbook

Peter Jones and Methodist Scripture Literature among the Mississauga Ojibwe