Missionary Work Among the Ojebway IndiansWilson, Edward Francis
History
Missionary Work Among the Ojebway Indians
Wilson, Edward Francis
Indians of North America -- Missions; Ojibwa Indians
A TRIP UP LAKE SUPERIOR.
It had been arranged that directly the holidays commenced at the
Shingwauk Home, the Bishop and myself should start on a Missionary tour
up Lake Superior, the plan being simply as follows:--We would take with
us our boat, _The Missionary_, five or six Indian boys to man it,
and provisions for six or seven weeks. We would first proceed by
steamboat 300 miles direct to Prince Arthur's Landing, taking our boat
on board; remain there about a week, during which we would pay a visit
into the interior; then coast the whole way back, visiting all the
Indians along the north shore of the Lake.
When we reached the Landing, the Indian superintendent, to our great
satisfaction, invited us to join him in an expedition to the "Height of
Land" where he was going to pay the wild Indian tribes their annuity
money.
At length after four days we reached the Hudson Bay waters, the
Savanne connecting through a long chain of lakes and rivers with Lake
Winnipeg. Lac des Milles Lacs, into which we soon entered, is a perfect
labyrinth of lakes and islands. Here and there were expectant Indians
come out to meet us in their frail bark canoes, and, paddling up
alongside, they joined the cluster at our stern. A strange and
impressive sight was it when we at length hove in sight of the "Height
of Land," a huge rocky eminence like an upturned basin, literally
swarming all over with Indians, in every position and every imaginable
costume. One solitary wigwam stood at the top and others could just be
seen, betraying a considerable village in the rear. A large Union Jack
also floated from a mast planted in the rock. There they sat and
crouched and smoked, or stood, or leaned with that majestic composure
peculiar to the Indian race; while below, on the slippery sides of the
rock, tumbled and rolled about their dirty children, or prowled their
grim and wolfish-looking dogs. It was a gay holiday time for them all.
For three days and three nights pork and flour and tobacco would be
flowing freely into their laps from their great and good mother, the
Queen; and to every individual, man, woman, and child, yea, to even the
papoose of a day old, would be given L1 to spend as they pleased.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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