Peter Jones and Methodist Scripture Literature among the Mississauga Ojibwe

Peter Jones’ A Collection of English and Ojibway Hymns can be found in Huron University College’s Rare Book Collection. Read about Huron’s copy here.

Introduction:

A strange people landed, wise as the gods, powerful as the thunder, with faces white as snow. Our fathers held out to them a hand of friendship. The strangers then asked for a small piece of land on which they might pitch their tents; the request was cheerfully granted. By and by they begged for more, and more was given to them. In this way they have continued to ask, or have obtained by force or fraud, the fairest portions of our territory.[1]

Two-hundred years after Samuel de Champlain established Port Royal in Acadia, continued westward expansion saw European settlers enter into a shared cultural space with the Indigenous peoples of the Lower Great Lakes (this study will specifically focus on the experiences of the Mississauga Ojibwe). This period illustrates the complex relationships that emerged as a result of decades of dispossession suffered by Indigenous Nations, such as the Ojibwe, at the hands of the English after the Treaty of Paris and Royal Proclamation in 1763. As English colonists attempted to assimilate the Ojibwe into European-styled societies via missionary and educational efforts, alphabetic literacy became a critical instrument in both the facilitation of colonial expansion, as well as the way in which the Ojibwe were able to counter this dispossession.

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Methodist-Ojibwe missionary, Peter Jones, is one author whose missionary writings effectively demonstrate how alphabetic literacy was utilized during a dynamic period of shared cultural space. After an analysis of the man’s life, I will examine Peter Jones’, A Collection of Ojibway and English Hymns, for the use of the Native Indians, addressing how the text emerged and was used during this period of massive dispossession. Over the course of the nineteenth century, Ojibwe society was subject to economic restructuring, land division, and religious conversion through the use of alphabetic literacy. Jones, however, believed that literacy was also a tool that allowed his fellow Ojibwe to adjust to a permanent colonial presence. By embracing alphabetic literacies, and using them to compliment earlier Ojibwe literacies like wampum belts and bark scrolls, Jones prevented the perceived disintegration of the Mississauga Ojibwe during a period of colonial encroachment into Indigenous space. This study demonstrates how alphabetic literature such as Peter Jones’, A Collection of Ojibway and English Hymns, for the use of the Native Indians, facilitated missionary efforts to change Ojibwe lifestyle, but was also embraced by many Ojibwe as a means by which their cultural identity was preserved.

Peter Jones and the Methodist Faith:

Peter Jones was born in Burlington Heights (present day Hamilton), Upper Canada on January 1, 1802. His father, Augustus Jones, was a retired Welsh land surveyor, who married a Mississauga woman named Tuhbenahneequay. Though she took the English name Sarah Henry, Tuhbenahneequay was the daughter of a Mississauga chief, Wahbanosay, and this lineage ensured that Peter Jones and his brother John retained their Ojibwe identities.[2] The union between Augustus and Sarah, however, was complicated, as Jones was legally married to a Haudenosaunee woman from another settlement (also named Sarah). For this reason, the Jones children were left in the care of their mother where they were raised among the Mississauga Ojibwe of eastern Lake Ontario (specifically along the Credit River).[3]

Wahbanosay gave his grandson the name Kahkewaquonaby (translated as Sacred Feathers), and indeed, this Ojibwe identity resonated with Peter as he excelled at canoeing, fishing and most notably, hunting and tracking. Though Sarah taught the boys about the Christian faith, European religions did not appeal to the young Peter Jones, whom preferred the traditional Ojibwe beliefs practiced by his mother’s people.[4] Unfortunately, the Mississauga populations of Lake Ontario were threatened by the encroachment of English settlers onto their land. This dispossession led to a disintegration of Jones’ community, as the group faced a decline in wild game and drop in population. By 1816, this threat forced Augustus to withdraw Peter and John from their homes, and enrolled the Jones boys in missionary day schools.[5]

Peter was sent to a missionary school in Stoney Creek, where he eventually learned how to read and write in English. As his education progressed, Peter turned out to be an excellent student, and took greatly to alphabetic literacy. The young Peter attended the day school in Stoney Creek until 1817, at which point he moved to his father’s farm on the Grand River. Though Peter would return to school in 1822-1823, during his time off he lived with his father and Haudenosaunee stepmother.[6] While living with his father and adopted family, Peter became fluent in speaking English (applying his new-found literary skills in a practical environment), but was not as quick to accept the religion of the English and Haudenosaunee. Although Peter Jones had, by 1817, acquired the literary skill to read and write, he would not embrace Christianity until the 1820s.[7]

In 1820, Augustus Jones urged Peter and John to be baptized by the Church of England, but Peter did not seriously contemplate Christianity until 1823 (though it was at this point he received the name Peter Jones). Scholar Donald Smith describes Jones’ sentiment in the early spring of 1823:

Among the Christian Mohawks and the whites, he [Peter Jones] had come to reject many of his Mississauga religious beliefs. In effect he had abandoned his original faith without accepting another in its place. His spiritual crisis arose that summer.[8]

As is evident in Smith’s depiction, the experience of shared cultural space with settlers and Christian Indigenous communities led Jones to struggle internally with different notions of faith. Furthermore, Jones abhorred the European introduction of alcohol, and the effects it had on Haudenosaunee and Ojibwe communities in the Lower Great Lakes.[9] This vice led him to believe that faiths such as Catholicism and the Church of England, failed to adequately address the alcoholism prominent in many Indigenous communities. In the summer of 1823, Jones and his stepsister Polly decided to attend a Methodist meeting in the nearby community of Ancaster. It was here that he discovered a branch of Christianity that could counter the dispossession and loss brought about by the massive settler immigration of the late-eighteenth and beginning of the nineteenth centuries. After spending five days with the prayer encampment, Peter Jones became the first Mississauga Ojibwe to convert to Methodism.[10]

Two major focal points attracted the twenty-one-year-old Jones to Methodism. The first was the religion’s contempt for alcohol. As was the case in many Indigenous communities across early Canada, alcohol was introduced by European colonists and often used for bartering with these communities.[11] As demand rose among Indigenous populations, Jones observed how Europeans exploited his people. Jones was very critical of drunkenness and the, “evil it had done to my poor countrymen, many thousands of whom have had their days shortened by it, and been hurried to destruction.”[12] As is clear in the following excerpt from Smith’s, Sacred Feathers, Jones was also fully aware that the English colonists were responsible for this overconsumption, “Everywhere the whites promoted the vice, selling liquor to the Indians. The tiny village of Brantford, eight kilometres to the south (of Augustus Jones’ farm on the Grand River), already had two taverns or ‘liquor holes,’ nicknamed by Methodists Sodom and Gomorrah.”[13] In this respect, Jones was able to reconcile his disgust for “ardent spirits” with a religion in which he shared common ground.

Perhaps the more notable reason for Jones’ conversion to Methodism, was the outlook that both he and the faith had with respect to the future of the Ojibwe in the Lake Ontario region; in order to save these groups from disintegration due to settler encroachment, both Jones and many Methodists believed that the Ojibwe needed to adapt to some elements of settler society.[14] A fairly new religion at the time, Methodism centred on the concept of original sin and preached that to save mankind, the Judeo-Christian god had given the life of his son, Jesus Christ, to grant remission from this sin.[15] With this key principle in mind, the religion therefore taught that man could achieve salvation from original sin, “through God’s grace, freely given to all those who have faith in Jesus. After repenting the sinner can chase the devil out and be ‘born again.’”[16] As Jones understood it, this applied to both Europeans and the Ojibwe, and in this way he believed that his people could readjust to life based on Methodist values.

Jones’ conversion led to the introduction of Methodism to both his father and mother’s communities.[17] Though the religion was spreading rapidly after the events of the American Revolution and Second Great Awakening, members of Indigenous communities (such as Jones) allowed the faith to make significant inroads with the Ojibwe (who spoke little English) and Haudenosaunee (who had been converted by the Church of England). Jones’ reception of Methodism led the Reverend Alvin Torry to establish a congregation in the Grand River region at Davisville. With the assistance of Torry, Jones and local Mohawk Chief Tehowagherengaraghkwen (later known as Thomas Davis), began preaching to the Haudenosaunee in the region and Peter even invited his mother’s relations from the settlement at Credit River. In this way Jones ensured the growth of the Methodist community at Davisville.[18] For the next two years (until 1825) he worked tirelessly to convert members of his family and the community, built a chapel in Davisville and even began schooling Indigenous children on Methodism and literacy from his father’s farmhouse. Indeed, by 1825 his efforts had been successful, as over half of the Ojibwe and Haudenosaunee residing in this region along the Grand River had converted to Methodism.[19]

Peter Jones’ success at Davisville led Lieutenant Governor of Upper Canada, Peregrine Maitland, to commission Jones to establish a Methodist mission among the Mississauga Ojibwe at Credit River. Though his mother, brother and other relations converted to Methodism, many Ojibwe from Credit River remained unconverted.[20] Jones accepted the offer, but before moving back to Credit River, he formally joined the Methodist Church as an “exhorter” in the early spring of 1825. The role gave Jones the duty of speaking after an official preacher gave his sermon, and aided the preacher in missionary work.[21] As Smith notes, “They (the Methodists) needed a go-between, a bicultural, bilingual individual able to present Christian doctrine to the Indians in intelligible terms. The young Mississauga soon proved his worth.”[22] After being given this position, Jones moved back to his mother’s homeland at Credit River in 1826, where he would continue to excel at his missionary work.

Once again Jones’ efforts were a success, and the mission at Credit River led to the conversion of most of the Mississauga Ojibwe living in this region. In addition to preaching the modest ways of Methodism, Jones also taught the people from Credit River how to successfully implement European methods of agriculture.[23] In helping these Ojibwe adjust to the new shared space, occupied also by English settlers, Jones earned the position of chief among the Credit River Ojibwe, when the group’s council elected him to this position in 1829.[24] His prominence among both the Mississauga and the Methodists attracted the attention of Indigenous communites, white settlers and, eventually, curious minds across the Atlantic.

Seeking funding for future missions, Jones left for England in 1831, where his successes would lead to an audience with King William IV. During this period, Jones raised funds for the mission at Credit River, petitioned for Ojibwe interests and even married a devout Englishwoman named Eliza Field, with whom he would father five sons.[25] It was also during the early 1830s that Jones began translating the Bible and Methodist hymns into Ojibwe, and started work on his history of the Ojibwe (these texts are discussed in detail in the second half of this essay).[26] At thirty-two years old, Jones was recognized for his resilient efforts at the Credit Mission, and ordained an official Methodist minister in the fall of 1833.[27] After a second trip to England beginning in 1837 (and meeting with the newly crowned monarch Queen Victoria), he returned to Mississauga lands to resume full-time missionary work (though Jones did take a third trip to England in 1845).[28]

Jones spent the better part of the next decade conducting missionary work among the Ojibwe, Oneida and Muncey Nations living on the northern shores of Lakes Erie and Ontario. This rigorous and demanding station proved to be detrimental to Jones’ health, who by 1855, would not recover from his ailments. Peter Jones died in June, 1856, and was mourned by many, Indigenous peoples and white settlers alike.[29] Though he never finished most of his written works, his will ensured that his missionary diaries and historical notes were preserved by his wife Eliza. It was not until 1860 that Eliza, with the help of Reverend Enoch Wood of the Wesleyan Indian Mission (Methodist), was able to edit and publish Jones’ written work. Jones’ historic notes were compiled into the History of the Ojebway Indians (1861), and his scripture translations published as, A Collection of Ojibway and English Hymns, for the use of the Native Indians (1860).[30] Through an historiographical analysis of these texts, one comes to understand that this religious literature facilitated missionary efforts to change Ojibwe lifestyle, but was also embraced by many as a means by which they could counter dispossession.

Alphabetic Literacy & Mississauga Ojibwe Society and Culture

Feeling a desire to aid, as far as I am able, this part of the solemn worship of Almighty God, I have been induced, not only to fall in with their desires, but also to translate a number of additional hymns, all of which I hope and pray may be made a great blessing to my Indian brethren.[31]

It is important to note the ways that Mississauga Ojibwe lives changed during the period in which Jones translated Christian hymns. One must understand the broader context of dispossession these people faced, as texts like A Collection of Ojibway and English Hymns emerged. Though the history of the Ojibwe predates contact with Europeans by many centuries, interactions with French colonists began with the fur trade in the seventeenth century. While these initial transactions were relatively civil and made little impact to Ojibwa life ways, this changed after the French ceded most of their North American territory to England, a condition of the Treaty of Paris (1763), that ended the Seven Years War.[32]

As one of Jones’ contemporaries, William H. Warren, wrote, “The old French Canadian traders so congenial to the Indians… had all nearly died away, and disappeared from the stage of active live, and a new class of men, of far different temperaments, whose chief object was to amass fortunes, now made their appearance among the Ojibways.”[33] In addition to this, the Royal Proclamation of that same year, in its quasi-protection of Indigenous lands, likewise signalled that English colonists would begin to encroach on Ojibwe land. As the Ojibwe adjusted to these new pressures, they resisted choosing to fight with the British against the more settlement focused Americans in both the American Revolution, and the War of 1812.[34]Though the Ojibwe did not look favourably at British expansion, they were less inclined to side with the United States, a new nation that aspired to forcibly relocate the Indigenous populations of North America.[35]

By the early years of the 19th century, the effects of territorial treaties (the legal practice developing from the Royal Proclamation) and settler encroachment had severely disrupted Mississauga Ojibwe society. Often colonists were abusive or openly hostile towards the Ojibwe, were not respectful of burial sites, violated their fishing and hunting rights, and ignored (or made fraudulent) land deeds concerning Ojibwe territory. Despite these issues (and because they were cautioned from revolting against the English by prominent figures like the Mohawk leader Joseph Brant), the Mississauga were essentially unable to counter the dispossession they faced in these early years. During Jones’ life time, these conditions did not improve, as the predominantly illiterate (in the alphabetic literacy sense) Ojibwe were subject to fraudulent colonial settlement, a decrease in population due to disease (small pox and measles) and widespread alcoholism, all a result of interactions with English settlers.[36]

Even after Jones’ efforts to convert the Ojibwe to Methodism and to restructure their agricultural practices, the misfortunes of the Mississauga persisted into the 1840s. Constant infringement by English settlers, a depletion of wild game, fish and timber, and readjustment to English society, made the future of the Mississauga Ojibwe seem very uncertain.[37] This came to a culmination in 1847, when Jones and over two-hundred Mississauga from the Credit River relocated to the Grand River to live more closely with the Six Nations.[38]

This was the atmosphere of dispossession within which A Collection of Ojibway and English Hymns emerged. In this respect, one see’s Peter Jones apply the alphabetic literacy he learned in his youth to promote the wellbeing of his fellow Ojibwe. Indeed, Jones fits well into the category scholar Hilary E. Wyss calls the “Writerly Indian”,[39]. According to Wyss, in the eighteenth century, English colonists aspired to create “Readerly Indians.” That is, they sought to teach Indigenous peoples how to read and write so that they could be educated in Christian doctrine and made docile servants of the Crown. Despite this desire to create “Readerly Indians”, Indigenous multilingual authors such as Jones demonstrated the ways in which literate Indigenous peoples were able to use these skills to benefit their communities and counter the dispossession they faced.[40]

Perhaps we can best see the “Writerly Indian” in Jones’ work when he was tasked with choosing to use his Ojibwe or Anglo-Christian name in his writing. In Jones’ Ojibwe history and hymnbook, his name is given as Peter Jones, with the Ojibwe translation in brackets, giving credibility to the author in the eyes of a European audience.[41] While touring England, however, and while attempting to secure funds for missionary work at Credit River, Jones often went by his birth name, Kahkewaquonaby. This was due to the fact that many English expected to see a “Noble Savage”, and therefore, Jones exploited the desire for “the exotic” in Europe to what he perceived as the benefit of Ojibwe communities back home.[42] In this way, Jones used his knowledge of alphabetic literacy to counteract the dispossession his people faced by demonstrating agency in his choice of name.

The hymnbook, though at first glance one would assume was written strictly to convert the Ojibwe, actually exemplifies the way in which Jones sought to help his people adjust, via religion, to a shared space with colonists. Ojibwe hymnbooks were first published in the 1830s,[43] and while the copy used for this study was published in 1860, it is safe to assume that this book can be situated in the same series of hymns that was translated by Jones during his time at Davisville, and later, Credit River.[44] As a Methodist, Jones believed that the way to help his people was through Christine doctrine, since he deemed many traditional Ojibwe practices incompatible with English ideologies.  As expressed in his manuscript, History of the Ojebway Indians with Especial Reference to their Conversion to Christianity, Jones writes,

Thus will they continue to fall until the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ shines into their hearts. Then the lion will be changed into a lamb, and every fierce passion be hushed into peace. “O Lord, hasten the time! Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live.”[45]

The hymnbook is one of the ways in which Jones was able to disseminate the Methodist faith among the Ojibwe. The earliest evidence for publication of hymns comes from 1827, and by 1870, five-thousand such Ojibwe hymnbooks were in circulation throughout Upper Canada.[46] The copy used for the purpose of this study, was published in 1860 by the Wesleyan Indian Mission Conference Office in Toronto. Interestingly, one of the blank pages at the front of the book includes a written name demonstrating ownership. Although the name given, Suzanna McCue, doesn’t show up in the written scholarship (though Ancestry.com does turn up an individual who matches this name and location), the location given by the owner, Snake Island, indicates the hymnbook was circulated among the Ojibwe of Lake Simcoe.[47] These inscriptions in the hymnbook demonstrate that Methodist-Ojibwe literacy continued, and included female students, a decade after Peter Jones had died. From this one may argue that Methodism undoubtedly resonated with the Ojibwe, but more importantly, was engaging them in practices of alphabetic literacy such as owning and reading the hymnbook.

The hymns in Jones’ compilation are arranged by headings, categorizing the scripture based on how it could be applied to Ojibwe life. Obviously, many of the headings deal with conversion and honouring Christian doctrine. These include: “Baptism”, “For the Sabbath”, “On the Spread of the Gospel”, and “Exhorting Sinners to Return to God”. Other headings can be interpreted to directly relate to the dispossession faced by the Ojibwe: “Believers Suffering”, “Christian Fellowship”, “On Death”, “On the Goodness of God” and “The Pleasantness of Religion”.[48]Having been subject to many hardships, the Ojibwe could resonate with notions of death, fellowship and suffering. The way in which Jones listed the hymn headings sought to guide the Ojibwe, as he believed Methodism to be the means through which harmonious coexistence could take place. A key element of Methodism, however, demanded that adherents to the faith be able to read scripture and understand what is written.[49] In this respect, efforts to encourage formal schooling paralleled the conversion of the Ojibwe to Methodism.

Schooling both facilitated missionary efforts to change Ojibwe lifestyle, but was also embraced by some Ojibwe as a means by which their cultural identity could be preserved. Day schools were critical to the Methodist missions, and Jones’ hymnbook was the exact type of literature that these children studied.[50] Whereas many Ojibwe were hesitant to embrace Christianity unless it was offered in their native language, Anglo-Ojibwe texts like Jones’ hymnbook provided a way in which the Mississaugas and others could accept Christianity, while retaining a key aspect of their Ojibwe identities.[51] Having been subject to the dispossession discussed earlier, some Ojibwe were no longer able to find comfort or answers in their traditional practices. In this respect, Methodism was seen as a new solution to combat alcoholism and provide spiritual comfort during difficult times.

Once Methodists saw that the Ojibwe were willing to embrace Christianity, day schools were established, as they were deemed critical to the success of the missions. As Hope MacLean points out, “A primary purpose of the schools was to carry out the detailed instruction of the Native people in Christian knowledge and thereby complete the process which began with conversion.”[52] Through the process of educating Ojibwe children, Jones and other Methodists believed that their teachings would also reach the parents and immediate family of these children.[53] In this sense, these day schools aimed to create a literate Ojibwe population that could fully read and write scripture. The grand vision was that by forming a literate base, other Ojibwe educators and missionaries like Jones would emerge from within the community.[54]

During the prime years of the Ojibwe days schools (1825-1833), Methodist efforts were supported by most members of the Ojibwe communities east of Lake Ontario.[55] One of the most beneficial aspects of schooling in the eyes of Ojibwe elders and parents, was that the enrolled children learned to read, speak and write English, an attribute that would benefit them in shared space with colonists.[56] In this sense, bilingual education provided future generations of Ojibwe a means by which they could cope with a changed way of life. The support of the community was also evident in the fact that many Ojibwe donated both money and labour to maintain schools, and by 1830, fifty out of a total seventy Mississauga children at Credit River were enrolled in the day school there.[57]

After 1833, however, the Methodist day school system fell into decline as interest in other religions arose. Eventually, (in Jones’ later years), the educational system shifted from day schooling to residential schools. Although some day schools remained open through the 1840-50s, funding became and issue, and the death of Peter Jones removed his charisma and intellect from the Methodist effort.[58] Although the Methodist day schools dwindled, they were, however, successful in teaching many Ojibwe to read and write, and this knowledge would henceforth help preserve their Ojibwe identity as it was shared with future generation.

While it cannot be disputed that alphabetic literacy was seen as a useful instrument by the Ojibwe, this is not to say that they abandoned traditional forms of literacy. In 1840, for example, Peter Jones recollected a council during which wampum belts were interpreted to renew treaties between the Mississauga Ojibwe and Haudenosaunee bands, “The third wampum was given at a great council held at the Maumee River, at which the late Captain Brant Joseph Brant was present.”[59] Often scholarly narratives fail to include the information conveyed through non-alphabetic literary traditions. According to Germaine Warkentin, this is due to the longstanding European classification as to what constitutes a book or “bookishness”[60] As is evident in Jones’ reflections on this meeting, wampum was still being used effectively, even as many delegates to this meeting (such as Brant) would have been alphabetically literate. It is important that we place Jones’s work within this context, remembering that wampum,[61] and other non-alphabetic forms of literacy, was also meant to be read (despite European definitions of literature).[62] Therefore, alphabetic literacy was not necessarily viewed as a replacement to traditional forms of knowledge, but rather allowed the Ojibwe to preserve their identities in a shared space with colonists.

By way of conclusion, it is necessary to address the legacy of literacy that Jones left behind, and how it was enacted by younger generations to counteract dispossession. During the height of the day school experiment, in 1824, an Ojibwe girl known as Nahnebahwequa was born along the Credit River. Also known as Catherine Brown Sunegoo, she was the niece and adopted daughter of Peter Jones. As the Methodist efforts expanded to Credit River in 1827, she became a Methodist as a young child, and, with her family, settled at the Mississauga Credit River Mission.[63] In this respect, Catherine learned to read, write and speak as was demanded by the Methodist Church. On the surface, she seemed a docile convert, wore English attire, and even married an English Methodist to add European legitimacy to her name. But Catherine did not forsake her Ojibwe identity. As Celia Haig-Brown argues, “Nahnebahwequa knew the laws and desires of the white colonizers but saw no reason to deny her Indianness because of this knowledge; existing in and negotiating two worldviews became her.”[64] In 1858, two years after Jones had died, Catherine was appointed by the chiefs of the General Indian Council as a representative to the Crown, and was sent as part of a delegation to England to petition Mississauga land disputes. Indeed, her education proved to be beneficial to her cause, as she turned out to be an excellent orator and received an audience with Queen Victoria.[65] The monarch afterwards wrote, “She (Catherine) speaks English quite well, and is come on behalf on her Tribe to petition against some grievance as regards their land.”[66]

Like her uncle Peter before her and other bilingual Ojibwe, Catherine used alphabetic literacy to aid and strengthen the Mississauga Ojibwe. What started as Methodist educational curriculum became a key instrument in preserving Ojibwe cultural identity and petitioning to maintain their lands and resources. This study demonstrates that by accepting the reading and writing of alphabetic scripts (to complement traditional literacies) texts such as Peter Jones’, A Collection of Ojibway and English Hymns, for the use of the Native Indians, helped the Ojibwe counteract dispossession at the hands of English colonists.


Bibliography

Corbiere, Alan Ojiig. “Their own forms of which they take the most notice: Diplomatic metaphors and symbolism on wampum belts.” Anishinaabewin Niiwin: Four Rising Winds. Ed. Alan Ojiig Corbiere, Mary Ann Naokwegijig Corbiere, Deborah McGregot, Crystal Migwans. M’Chigeeng, ON: Ojibwe Cultural Foundation, 2014.

Gibson, Marian M., and Mississauga Heritage Foundation. In the Footsteps of the Mississaugas. 1st ed. Mississauga, ON: Mississauga Heritage Foundation, 2006.

Haig-Brown, Celia, and David Nock. With Good Intentions: Euro-Canadian and Aboriginal Relations in Colonial Canada. Vancouver: UBC Press, 2005.

Jones, Peter, et al. A Collection of Ojibway and English Hymns, for the use of the Native Indians. Toronto: Printed for the Wesleyan Missionary Society, at the Conference Office, 9, Wellington Buildings, 1860.

Jones, Peter. History of the Ojebway Indians with Especial Reference to their Conversion to Christianity. Toronto: Canadiana House, 1973.

MacLean, Hope. “A Positive Experiment in Aboriginal Education: The Methodist Ojibwa Day Schools in Upper Canada, 1824-1833.” The Canadian Journal of Native Studies 22.1 (2002): 23-63.

McNally, Michael David. Ojibwe Singers: Hymns, Grief, and a Native Culture in Motion. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000.

Peace, Thomas. (2015) A Brief History of Colonialism in Southwestern Upper Canada, HIS4202F Confronting Colonialism, Huron University College, September 21, 2015.

Schmalz, Peter S. The Ojibwa of Southern Ontario. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1991.

Sherwin, Allan L. Bridging Two Peoples: Chief Peter E. Jones, 1843-1909. Waterloo, ON: Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 2012.

Smith, Donald B. “Jones, Peter,” in Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 8, University of Toronto/Université Laval, 2003–, accessed November 10, 2015, http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/jones_peter_8E.html.

Smith, Donald B. Mississauga Portraits: Ojibwe Voices from Nineteenth-Century Canada. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2013.

Smith, Donald B. Sacred Feathers: The Reverend Peter Jones (Kahkewaquonaby) & the Mississauga Indians. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1987.

Warkentin, Germaine. “In Search of “the Word of the Other”: Aboriginal Sign Systems and the History of the Book in Canada.” Book History 2.1 (1999): 1-27.

Warkentin, Germaine. “Dead Metaphor or Working Model? ‘The Book’ in Native America.”Colonial Mediascapes: Sensory Worlds of the Early Americas. Ed. Matt Cohen, Jeffrey Glover. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2014.

Warren, William W., and Theresa M. Schenck. History of the Ojibway People. 2nd ed. St. Paul: Minnesota Historical Society Press, 2009.

Wyatt, Kyle Carsten. “‘Rejoicing in this Unpronounceable Name’: Peter Jones’s Authorial Identity.” Papers of the Bibliographical Society of Canada/Cahiers de la Société Bibliographique du Canada 47.2 (2009): 153-76.

Wyss, Hilary E. “Narratives and Counternarratives: Producing Readerly Indians in Eighteenth-Century New England.” in English Letters and Indian Literacies: Reading, Writing, and New England Missionary Schools, 1750-1830. 1st ed. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2012.


 

[1] Peter E. Jones, A History of the Ojebway Indians; with especial reference to their conversion to Christianity, (London: A.W. Bennett, 1861), 27.

[2] Donald B. Smith, Sacred Feathers: The Reverend Peter Jones (Kahkewaquonaby) & the Mississauga Indians, (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1987), 1-4.

[3] Ibid, 5.

[4] Ibid, 15.

[5] Smith, 41.

[6] Donald B. Smith, Mississauga Portraits: Ojibwe Voices from Nineteenth-Century Canada,(Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2013), 17.

[7] Smith, Sacred Feathers, 47.

[8] Ibid, 52.

[9] Jones, 30.

[10] Smith, Sacred Feathers, 60.

[11] Peter S. Schmalz, The Ojibwa of Southern Ontario, (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1991),154-5.

[12] Smith, 53.

[13] Ibid, 53.

[14] Smith, Mississauga Portraits, 18-19.

[15] Hope MacLean, “A Positive Experiment in Aboriginal Education: The Methodist Ojibwa Day Schools in Upper Canada, 1824-1833,” The Canadian Journal of Native Studies 22.1 (2002), 31-33.

[16] Smith, Sacred Feathers, 55.

[17] Ibid, 73.

[18] Ibid, 73.

[19] Schmalz, 159.

[20] Smith, Sacred Feathers, 102-103.

[21] Ibid, 64.

[22] Ibid, 64.

[23] Schmalz, 151-2

[24] Donald B. Smith, “Jones, Peter,” in Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 8, University of Toronto/Université Laval, 2003–, accessed November 10, 2015, http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/jones_peter_8E.html.

[25] Smith, Sacred Feathers, 130.

[26] MacLean, 40.

[27] Schmalz, 152.

[28] Kyle Carsten Wyatt, “‘Rejoicing in this Unpronounceable Name’: Peter Jones’s Authorial Identity,” Papers of the Bibliographical Society of Canada 47.2 (2009): 153.

[29] Smith, Sacred Feathers, 237.

[30] Smith, Mississauga Portraits, 25-7.

[31] Peter Jones, et al. A Collection of Ojibway and English Hymns, for the use of the Native Indians,(Toronto: Printed for the Wesleyan Missionary Society, at the Conference Office, 9, Wellington Buildings, 1860), v.

[32] Marian M. Gibson and the Mississauga Heritage Foundation, In the Footsteps of the Mississaugas. 1st ed., (Mississauga: Mississauga Heritage Foundation, 2006), 30.

[33] William W. Warren and Theresa M. Schenck, History of the Ojibway People. 2nd ed. (St. Paul: Minnesota Historical Society Press, 2009), 278.

[34] Schmalz, 86.

[35] Gibson, 46.

[36] Gibson, 46-9.

[37] Smith, Mississauga Portraits, 23.

[38] Gibson, 61.

[39] Hilary E. Wyss, “Narratives and Counternarratives: Producing Readerly Indians in Eighteenth-Century New England.” English Letters and Indian Literacies: Reading, Writing, and New England Missionary Schools, 1750-1830. 1st ed. (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2012), 48-49.

[40] Wyss, 73.

[41] Wyatt, 175-6.

[42] Ibid, 165-9.

[43] MacLean, 40.

[44]Michael David McNally, Ojibwe Singers: Hymns, Grief, and a Native Culture in Motion, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000), 52.

[45] Jones, A History of the Ojebway Indians, 30.

[46] McNally, 53.

[47] Smith, Portraits of the Mississauga, 247-8.

[48] Jones, A Collection of Ojibway and English Hymns.

[49] MacLean, 36.

[50] Ibid, 36.

[51] Ibid, 30.

[52] Ibid, 36.

[53] Ibid, 37.

[54] MacLean, 38.

[55] Ibid, 47.

[56] Ibid, 41.

[57] Ibid, 49-50.

[58] Smith, Mississauga Portraits, 32.

[59] Alan Ojiig Corbriere, “Their own forms of which they take the most notice: Diplomatic metaphors and symbolism on wampum belts.” Anishinaabewin Niiwin: Four Rising Winds. Ed. Alan Ojiig Corbiere, Mary Ann Naokwegijig Corbiere, Deborah McGregot, Crystal Migwans, (M’Chigeeng,: Ojibwe Cultural Foundation, 2014), 51.

[60] Germaine Warkentin, “In Search of “the Word of the Other: Aboriginal Sign Systems and the History of the Book in Canada,” Book History 2.1 (1999), 19.

[61] Ibid, 8.

[62] Germaine Warkentin, “Dead Metaphor or Working Model? ‘The Book’ in Native America,” Colonial Mediascapes: Sensory Worlds of the Early Americas. Ed. Matt Cohen, Jeffrey Glover. (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2014), 53-9.

[63] Celia Haig-Brown and David Nock, With Good Intentions: Euro-Canadian and Aboriginal Relations in Colonial Canada, (Vancouver: UBC Press, 2005), 134-6.

[64] Brown and David Nock, 149.

[65] Ibid, 138.

[66] Ibid, 143.