@prefix vivo: . @prefix edm: . @prefix ns0: . @prefix dcterms: . @prefix skos: . vivo:departmentOrSchool "Arts, Faculty of"@en, "History, Department of"@en ; edm:dataProvider "DSpace"@en ; ns0:degreeCampus "UBCV"@en ; dcterms:creator "Stevenson, Winona L."@en ; dcterms:issued "2010-09-09T16:43:57Z"@en, "1988"@en ; vivo:relatedDegree "Master of Arts - MA"@en ; ns0:degreeGrantor "University of British Columbia"@en ; dcterms:description """This ethnohistorical study examines the emergence of a Church of England, Church Missionary Society (CMS) Native Ministry in the Canadian North West. The intent is twofold. First it will re-evaluate the prevailing misconceptions and inadequate interpretations about the establishment, goals, and impact of Western Canada's first Indian education program. Second, it will analyse the conditions surrounding the decision of the CMS to recruit Native church workers and what motivated these men to participate. Rather than philanthropic evangelical zeal, it is clear that socio-economic and political factors forced the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) in Rupert's Land to open its doors to mission activity among peoples whose way of life it intended to protect and maintain for its own purposes. The local HBC played a significant role in the dissemination of Western values, social order, and intellectual tools. It determined who would have access to "higher" learning and the quality they would received. Furthermore, it had no intention of bogging-down its Native labourers and fur gatherers with "civilized" notions that might induce them to neglect or abandon their primary occupations. However, a handful of converted and formally educated Native men emerged from the Red River mission school, where they were primed to partake in the religious and cultural transformations of their respective societies. By the 1850s Native catechists and schoolteachers traversed the boundaries of the Red River settlement, charged with the responsibility of paving the way for European Christian expansion. Until now, these men - their attitudes, activities, goals, and impacts - have been neglected by ethnohistorians interested in Indian-missionary encounters and socio-cultural change. Yet these men, were the forerunners, the buffers, and the middlemen in this process. The case study of one such man, Charles Pratt, indicates that their purpose and loyalties may' very well have been at odds with those of their superiors. Pratt syncretized Indigenous and European spirituality, skills, and ways of life in the best interests of his peoples' survival. This thesis proposes that a closer examination of these spiritual "middlemen," from the perspective of their prospective converts, as opposed to their European superiors, will have a profound impact on our future understanding of Indian responses to Christian missions, and their relative success or failure."""@en ; edm:aggregatedCHO "https://circle.library.ubc.ca/rest/handle/2429/28298?expand=metadata"@en ; skos:note "T H E C H U R C H M I S S I O N A R Y S O C I E T Y R E D R I V E R M I S S I O N A N D T H E E M E R G E N C E O F A N A T I V E M I N I S T R Y 1 8 2 0 - 1 8 6 0 , W I T H A C A S E S T U D Y O F C H A R L E S P R A T T O F T O U C H W O O D H I L L S by WINONA L. STEVENSON B.A., Honours, Universitj r of Manitoba, 1986 A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS in THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES (Department of History) We accept this thesis as conforming to the required standard THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA June, 1988 ® WINONA L. STEVENSON, 1988 In presenting this thesis in partial fulfilment of the requirements for an advanced degree at the University of British Columbia, I agree that the Library shall make it freely available for reference and study. I further agree that permission for extensive copying of this thesis for scholarly purposes may be granted by the head of my department or by his or her representatives. It is understood that copying or publication of this thesis for financial gain shall not be allowed without my written permission. Department of The University of British Columbia Vancouver, Canada Date J D E - 6 ( 2 / 8 8 ) A B S T R A C T This ethnohistorical study examines the emergence of a Church of England, Church Missionary Society (CMS) Native Ministry in the Canadian North West. The intent is twofold. First it will re-evaluate the prevailing misconceptions and inadequate interpretations about the establishment, goals, and impact of Western Canada's first Indian education program. Second, it will analyse the conditions surrounding the decision of the CMS to recruit Native church workers and what motivated these men to participate. Rather than philanthropic evangelical zeal, it is clear that socio-economic and political factors forced the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) in Rupert's Land to open its doors to mission activity among peoples whose way of life it intended to protect and maintain for its own purposes. The local HBC played a significant role in the dissemination of Western values, social order, and intellectual tools. It determined who would have access to \"higher\" learning and the quality they would received. Furthermore, it had no intention of bogging-down its Native labourers and fur gatherers with \"civilized\" notions that might induce them to neglect or abandon their primary occupations. However, a handful of converted and formally educated Native men emerged from the Red River mission school, where they were primed to partake in the religious and cultural transformations of their respective societies. By the 1850s Native catechists and schoolteachers traversed the boundaries of the Red River settlement, charged with the responsibility of paving the way for European christian expansion. Until now, these men - their attitudes, activities, goals, and impacts - have been neglected by ethnohistorians interested in Indian-missionary encounters and socio-cultural change. Yet these men, were the forerunners, the buffers, and the middlemen in this process. The case study of one such man, Charles Pratt, indicates that their purpose and loyalties may' very well have ii been at odds with those of their superiors. Pratt syncretized Indigenous and European spirituality, skills, and ways of life in the best interests of his peoples' survival. This thesis proposes that a closer examination of these spiritual \"middlemen,\" from the perspective of their prospective converts, as opposed to their European superiors, will have a profound impact on our future understanding of Indian responses to christian missions, and their relative success or failure. iii T A B L E OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT ii LIST OF TABLES v LIST OF FIGURES vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS vii I. Introduction 1 A. The Historiography of Indian-Missionary Relations 1 B. Indian-Missionary Encounters in the Canadian North West 8 C. The Limitations of the Historiography on Indian Education 10 II. Religion and Education in Rupert's Land, 1800-1833 19 A. Obligations and Programs of the HBC 19 B. The Church Missionary Society and John West, 1820-1823 23 C. HBC Chaplain-CMS Missionary: Conflicts in Interests 26 D. Church and State: Compromise and Coexistance 37 III. Red River Indian Mission School and Students, 1820-1833 46 A. The Reverend John West, 1820-1823 46 B. John West's \"Little Charges,\" The Indian Students 49 C. The Indian Mission School, Program and Curriculum 57 IV. The Graduates of John West's Indian Mission School 71 A. Career and Occupational Opportunities 71 B. Traditional Occupations: Hunting, Trapping, and Fishing 72 C. Agriculture at Red River 73 D. The Hudson's Bay Company 77 E. The Church Missionary Society 81 V. The Expansion of the CMS Indian Mission Program 88 A. Background 88 B. The Red River Indian Settlement 91 C. Beyond Red River: The Emergence of a Native Ministry 98 D. Henry Venn and the CMS Native Church Policy 112 E. Indian and European Brothers in Christ 115 VI. Charles Pratt of Touchwood Hills (1816-1888), CMS Native Catechist .. 130 A. Askenootow Nihtowa-ki-nisin of the Young Dogs 130 B. \"Our Man in the Field\" 144 C. Askenootow and His People 148 D. The Legacy of Charles Pratt 157 VII. Conclusion 160 A. Summary 160 B. John West's Indian Mission School Reconsidered 165 C. Native Catechists: the Missing Link 169 Bibliography 176 APPENDIX I: FORT PELLY - PLAINS CREE TRADING FORMALITIES: AN ACCOUNT BY ABRAHAM COWLEY, 4 MAY 1852 188 iv LIST OF TABLES Table 1: CMS - HBC Joint Education Program Cost Sharing, 1822 31 Table 2: Indian Mission Students Recruited by the HBC, 1824-1825 41 Table 3: Indian Mission Students Recruited by John West, 1820-1833 50 Table 4: Protestant Schoolteachers in the Red River Settlement, 1833 86 Table 5: CMS North West America Mission Stations, 1860 104 Table 6: CMS Indian Missions Founded and Occupied by Charles Pratt 131 v LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1: Photographs of Henry Budd, James Settee and Charles Pratt 17 Figure 2: A Sketch of John West's Red River Indian Mission School, 1822 ....29 Figure 3: A Sketch of John West's Red River Indian Mission School, 1823 ....30 Figure 4: Protestant Day and Boarding Schools in the Red River Settlement, 1833 38 Figure 5: Map Showing the Origins of the Indian Mission Students Recruited by John West During his Inland Travels, 1820-1823 51 Figure 6: Letter from James Hope to the Church Missionary Society (London) 25 June 1823 59 Figure 7: Letter from Henry Budd to the Church Missionary Society (London) 26 June 1823 60 Figure 8: Indian Settlement, Red River, June 10, 1838 96 Figure 9: Map Showing the Locations of CMS Mission Stations, Central Division of the North-West America Mission, Founded by Native and European Missionaries, 1860 106 Figure 10: Region Covered by Charles Pratt, Native Catechist, 1851-1884, Showing the Location of Post-1876 Indian Reserves 132 Figure 11: \"Fishing Lakes, Qu'Appelle River\", 1859 134 Figure 12: \"Plan of the Fishing Lakes\", Showing the Location of the CMS Qu'Appelle Mission 135 vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This study would never have been completed without the encouragement, support, and advise of Arthur J. Ray, my advisor. Along with the American Indian Movement and Marylou Andrews of Seabird Island, Indians in the Fur Trade inspired me to pursue a life in search of answers to the once indomitable question: \"How did we get into this predicament in the first place?\" Unfailing encouragement and confidence also came from Verna Kirkness, Jennifer Brown, and Frank Tough. In addition, nikowiy Bernelda Wheeler ekwa nitanis Pahta-punT-skwasis, Theresa, provided my driving force and purpose. I want to thank my fellow graduate students, especially Paulette, for their nimble fingers, TLC, and advise, likewise, Gertie, Pauline and Vera, and my graduate committee members Jean Barman, James Huzel, Diane Newell, and Arthur Ray. My studies have been generously supported by Professor Ray who provided me with a research assistantship and the Fisher River band at Koostatak, Manitoba, who sponsored me through six years of book-learning with post-secondary funding. Ekosini Percy! This study is dedicated to the loving memory and strength of nimoshomak Colin, Josiah, and Charles Cowley Pratt. Kinanaskomitinawaw. vii I. INTRODUCTION A. THE HISTORIOGRAPHY OF INDIAN-MISSIONARY RELATIONS General trends in historical interpretations of first-contact Indian-christian encounters have undergone a series of re-evaluations over the past few decades. As a result, historical sources, methods, and questions have changed considerably. Earlier secondary accounts praised the self-sacrificing and courageous tenacity of missionaries who were presented as benevolent protectors of Indian peoples, warding off guileful fur traders and land hungry settlers while simultaneously \"improving\" their flocks. These ecclesiastical hagiographies are based on the journals and other archival remains of church workers.1 Lacking the inclination, or skills, to critically assess these primary sources, many historians have regurgitated the pervasive self-righteous, Eurocentric and paternalistic attitudes of the time. Since most of these early works were written by christian missiologists, or church historians, evangelical efforts were judged from the missionary perspective.2 It is apparent from the primary and secondary literature that early evangelical efforts were facilitated to a large degree by the labours and support 1 Hagiography isgenerally defined as the idealized or idiolized biographies of Great Men, be they saints in a theological sense, or, historically venerated persons or groups. A number of missionaries in Rupert's Land wrote about their experiences in Indian country. For example, John West, The Substance of a Journal During a Residence at the Red River Colony, British North America in the Years 1820-1823 (London: L. B. Seeley & Son, 1824; reprint ed., Vancouver: Alcuin Society, 1967); Egerton Ryerson Young, \"The Story of My Life\" Being Reminiscences of Sixty Years Public Service in Canada, J. G. Hodgins ed. (Toronto: William Briggs, 1888). 2 The two texts most frequently used by historians studying Indian mission activity of the Anglican church in Western Canada are excellent examples of this trend: T. C. B. Boon, The Anglican Church From the Bay to the Rockies: a History of the Ecclesiastical Province of Rupert's Land and its Dioceses from 1820 to 1950 (Toronto: Ryerson Press, 1962); Eugene Stock, The History of the Church Missionary Society, Its Environment, Its Men and Its Work, 4 vols. (London: Church Missionary Society, 1899). 1 2 of initial Indian converts.3 Nevertheless, though it was these men, and women, who often paved the way for European missionaries to enter hitherto untouched regions - by C h r i s t i a n i t y - they are credited with only peripheral significance, or in a few individual cases, as exceptional oddities. Larger factors help explain this perspective. History as a discipline has always been understood by scholars as the study of European activities prior to and following new-world penetration.\" Native peoples were treated as passive reactors, peripheral to real historical developments in North America. Early Church and frontier historians like Francis Parkman and Frederick Jackson Turner exemplify this attitude.5 The early development of anthropology was not much better: while historians chose to focus on dynamic European \"progress,\" anthropologists sought to study what they perceived to be static and inferior primitive cultures.6 Studies of Indigenous cultures in the \"ethnographic present\" simply ignored post-contact cultural changes resulting from missionary efforts and fur traders. The first major study in North America dealing with the reciprocal relationship between European and Native cultures was A. G. Bailey's The Conflict of European and Eastern Algonkian Cultures, 1505-1700.7 His work and methodological approach were not taken seriously by other anthropologists, however, until the field of ethnohistory emerged which prompted academics to 3William Bertal Heeney ed., Leaders of the Canadian Church, 2nd ser. (Toronto: Musson Book Co., 1920), p. 65; John Webster Grant, Moon In Wintertime-Missionaries and the Indians of Canada in Encounter since 1534 (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1984), p. 78-9, 174. \"Bruce G. Trigger, \"Ethnohistory: Problems and Prospects,\" Ethnohistory vol. 29, no. 1 (1982), p. 3. 5 Francis Parkman, The Jesuits in North American in the Seventeenth Century, 2nd ed. (Boston: Little, Brown & Co., 1927); Louis Phelps Kellogg ed., The Early Writings of Frederick Jackson Turner (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1938). 6 Trigger, \"Ethnohistory,\" pp. 3-4. 7 2nd ed. (Toronto: University of Toronto Press Reprint, 1967) 3 re-evaluate the role of Native peoples in the historical development of North America, and their responses to European domination. Anthropologists were gradually sensitized to the importance of understanding post-contact Native cultures, in the context of acculturation. Initially, the object of their studies was to help governments develop more humane and effective Indian policies. By the 1960s they were being called upon to give evidence for and against Indian land claims cases, which required the use of historical sources in an historical context. Initially the interdisciplinary approach to Native history now known as ethnohistory was initiated by archaeologists. Indian treaty and land claims issues provided for its practical application.8 Historians were slower to grasp the inter-disciplinary use of sources and methods. Such did not occur until the early 1970s.9 Since then, studies on the active roles Native people assumed in the past have increased dramatically. This new enthusiasm of historians was prompted by a number of contemporary events and forces. The counter-culture movement of the 1960s sensitized academia to the plight of colonized peoples and to the disadvantaged in their own societies. The new social history approach that emerged pulled historians away from nationalist-type historical studies to begin focusing on the daily lives of \"ordinary\" 8 Contrary toBruce Trigger's claim that the ethnohistorical approach to Native history was developed by anthropologists, Arthur Ray and Charles Bishop have shown that archaeologists were among the first to combine archival and archaeological data of historic Indian groups. The journal Ethnohistory grew out of the 1953 \"Ohio Valley Historic Indian Conference.\" Trigger, \"Ethnohistory,\" p. 4; Charles A. Bishop and Arthur J. Ray, \"Ethnohistoric Research in the Central Subarctic: Some Conceptual and Methodological Problems,\" The Western Canadian Journal of Anthropology vol. 6, no. 1 (1976), p. 119. 9 A handful of economic historians and human geographers have also been drawn to ethnohistorical research and have contributed new skills and unique approaches to the study of Native history. See for example, Arthur J. Ray, Indians in the Fur Trade: their roles as trappers, hunters, and middlemen in the lands southwest of Hudson Bay 1660-1870 (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1974); Abraham Rotstein, \"Fur Trade and Empire: An Institutional Analysis,\" (Ph.D. thesis, University of Toronto, 1967). 4 peoples.1 0 Anthropological studies, like Bailey's, introduced to historical enquiry theoretical concepts such as \"cultural relativism\" which were found to provide a useful approach to the study of post-contact socio-cultural change. Historians have since generally accepted the idea that in studying relations between two cultures, each needs to be understood in its own terms. The most significant force encouraging recent interest in Indian history however, has come from Native peoples themselves. Increased political activity and artistic expresssion have created among Euro-North Americans a new awareness of their past and present. Native people have demanded a place in America's past, and a major re-evaluation of previous interpretations of their worlds, motives, activities, and relations within the colonial context.1 1 All the developments in and around academia have profoundly influenced how scholars perceive the Indian-missionary experience. Historians began rejecting Eurocentric ideals of christian evangelicalism and developing new methods for assessing missionary literature more critically. By the late 1960s they were challenging ecclesiastical hagiographies. Missionary literature was found to reveal as much about the intellectual, moral, social and political premises of the men and their societies over time, as it did about the conditions and events of the past. As a result, major studies emerged on the \"missionary-mind\" and their particular attitudes towards Indian peoples.1 2 The work of such scholars as 1 0 Robin Fisher and Kenneth Coates eds., \"Introduction,\" in Out of the Background: Readings on Canadian Native History (Toronto: Copp, Clarke Pitman, 1988), p. 1. 1 1 For an overview of the impact Native people have had on the course of academic research see Francis Jennings, \"A Growing Partnership: Historians, Anthropologists and American Indian History,\" Ethnohistory vol. 29, no. 1 (1982): 21-34; Terry P. Wilson, \"Custer Never Would Have Believed It: Native American Studies in Academia,\" American Indian Quarterly vol. 5, no. 3 (1979): 207-28. 1 2 Harvey Roy Pearce, Savagism and Civilization: A Study of the Indian and the American Mind (Baltimore: John Hopkins Press Reprint, 1977); Robert F. Berkhoffer Jr., The White Man's Indian: Images of the American Indian From Columbus to the Present Day (New York: Random House Reprint, 1979); Cornelius J. Jaenen, Friend and Foe: Aspects of French-Amerindian Culture Contact in the 5 Robert Berkhoffer and Francis Jennings has demonstrated that mission efforts were not purely philanthropic; missionaries did not generally protect Native peoples from land, resource, and power hungry Europeans. Rather, these men strove to radically transform Indian societies and in the process, consciously or inadvertantly aided European expansion and conquest in North America.1 3 While this more recent literature provides a general understanding of the missionary world view and its residual effects on Native peoples, it still has ethnocentric undertones. The reasons compelling Native people to accept or reject Christianity have been treated only superficially. Native people were still generally seen as passive reactors or helpless victims; Missionaries were viewed as rigid and uncompromising, and were blamed for the loss of Indians' integrity.1 4 Many writing in this vein have taken presentist standards to moralize and condemn missionary activities.1 5 As James Axtell points out however, \"the historian's aim is not to chastize the actors of the past, who are mortally incorrigible, but to 1 2 (cont'd) Sixteenth and Seventeenth Century (Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1976); More recent regional analyses of missionary literature are, Sara Carter, \"Man's Mission of Subjugation: The Publications of John McLean, John McDougall and Egerton Ryerson Young, Nineteenth Century Methodist Missionaries in Western Canada\" (M.A. thesis, University of Saskatchewan, 1981); Vera K. Fast, \"A Research Note on the Journals of John West,\" Journal of Canadian Church Historical Society 21 (1979): 30-38. 1 3 Robert F. Berkhoffer Jr., Salvation and the Savage: An Analysis of Protestant Missions and America Indian Response, 1787-1862 (Lexington: University of Kentucky Press, 1964); Francis Jennings, The Invasion of America: Indians, Colonialism and the Cant of Conquest (Chapill Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1975); James P. Ronda, '\"We Are Well As We Are': An Indian Critique of Seventeenth-Century Christian Missions,\" William and Mary Quarterly vol. 34, no. 4 (1977): 67. 1 \"James Axtell, \"Some Thoughts on the Ethnohistory of Missions,\" Ethnohistory vol. 29, no. 1 (1982), p. 35. 1 5 For example see, Harold Cardinal, The Unjust Society: The Tragedy of Canada's Indians (Edmonton: M. G. Hurtig, 1969); More recent regional studies that follow this trend include, Eric Ronald Porter, \"The Anglican Church and Native Education: Residential Schools and Assimilation\" (Ph.D. thesis, University of Toronto, 1971); Emma LaRoque, \"White Control of Indian 'Education',\" (M.A. thesis, University of Manitoba, 1978). 6 let himself and his contemporaries be judged and instructed by the past.\"1 6 The tendency to condemn or apologize for past injustices still lingers however. Some ethnohistorians like Calvin Martin take the apologetic theme to great extremes by arguing that European historians will never truly understand the Native \"thoughtworld\" because history is an intellectual tool of European culture.1 7 While it is true that Euro-North American scholars can never thoroughly view Native history through Indian eyes and hearts, it is important to make every effort to understand it. Inter-disciplinary techniques of inquiry and the rising ranks of Native academics like Vine Deloria and the late D'Arcy McNickle, have opened doors to Indian peoples' world-views and rationales.1 8 Scholars are turning their attention towards how Indian people perceived missionaries and the active roles they assumed in their own cultural transformations. Ethnohistorians like James Axtell and Bruce G. Trigger have demonstrated that Native responses to missionary efforts were active decisions that were prompted by a wide range of factors in the Indian context. Changing demographic, economic, political, social and ideological factors affected an individual's or a group's decision to adopt, adapt, or reject the way of life offered by christian missionaries.1 9 However, scholars are still heavily influenced by the attitudes and 1 6 Axtell, \"Ethnohistory: A Historian's Viewpoint,\" in The European and the Indian: Essays in the Ethnohistory of Colonial North America (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1982), p. 13. 1 7Calvin Martin ed., The American Indian and the Problem of History (New York: Oxford University Press, 1987), pp. 16, 27. 1 8Vine Deloria Jr., Custer Died for Your Sins: An Indian Manifesto (New York: Macmillan Press, 1969), \"An Indian Plea to the Churches,\" Los Angeles Times, 6 February 1973, and God is Red (New York: Grosset & Dunlap, 1973); D'Arcy McNickle, Native American Tribalism: Indian Survivals and Renewals (New York: Oxford University Press Reprint, 1973). 1 9James P. Ronda and James Axtell, Indian Missions: A Critical Bibliography (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1978); Trigger, Natives and Newcomers: Canada's \"Heroic Age\" Reconsidered (Kingston: McGill-Queen's University Press, 1985); James Axtell, The Invasion Within: The Contest of Cultures in Colonial North America (New York: Oxford University Press, 1985). 7 standards of their sources. For example, the \"success\" or \"failure\" of Indian missions is still judged from in European terms.2 0 This one-sided appraisal has been challenged by ethnohistorians like James Axtell, for example, who has developed one of the most recent and innovative approaches to the study of missionary-Indian relations.2 1 Axtell offers an alternative set of standards for judging the success or failure of Indian missions that promises to revolutionize interpretations about how Indian peoples may have viewed their conversion to Christianity. His thesis is built on the premise that Christianity and its concommitant, agriculture, offered a comparatively better alternative to displacement, starvation, and subjugation or annihilation to Indian groups at difficult junctures in their history. Instead of using missionary goals, Axtell suggests that the success or failure of missions can be measured by the degree to which Indian people were able to defend their \"ethnic identity\" in the face of disruptive forces. \"Ethnic survival.\" as opposed to cultural transformation, he claims, promises to provide a better gauge for assessing how Indian people determined the success or failure of missions.2 2 By using this approach, Axtell convincingly demonstrates that missionaries were most successful when the very survival of Indian groups was threatened by European social, economic and military expansion, and Indian people were most successful when they accepted the least amount of Christianity and \"civilization.\" From this perspective it can be claimed that on the whole, missions were uniformly successful because Indian people took what they needed and accepted only as much as they had to in 2 °See for example, Ian A. Getty, \"The Failure of the Native Church Policy of the CMS in the North West,\" in Religion and Society in the Prairie West, ed. Richard Allen, (Regina: Canadian Plains Research Center, 1974): 19-34; Frits Pannekoek, \"Protestant Agricultural Zions for the Western Indian,\" Journal of the Canadian Church Historical Society, vol.14, no. 3 (1972): 55-66. 2 1 Axtell, \"Missions,\" Supra. 2 2Ibid., p. 37. 8 order to \"maintain their cultural integrity and ensure their survival.\" 2 3 Even though AxtelPs approach is a step in the right direction toward understanding how Indian people may have viewed missions, it still suffers from the same drawbacks as other ethnohistorical approaches because it emphasizes European-Indian christian encounters and neglects the impact that converted Native peoples had on the diffusion of C h r i s t i a n i t y among their country-men. Nearly all the literature consulted so far indicates that initial Indian converts, though few in number, played an important role in the expansion of Indian Christianity. Yet, these earliest Native church workers are given only cursory treatment. This is especially true of the literature focusing on missionary-Indian encounters in Canada and more particularly in the Canadian North West. B. INDIAN-MISSIONARY ENCOUNTERS IN THE CANADIAN NORTH WEST John Webster Grant provides the first major comprehensive overview of missionary-Indian encounters in Canada. 2 4 He documents the westward expansion of the mission activity of a number of churches, describes the methods of conversion employed b y each, and the various Indian responses. Grant demonstrates that the Church Missionary Society (CMS), above all other missionarj' organizations in the Canadian West, successfully nurtured a Native ministry and incorporated it into its own ranks. Even though Grant's appraisal of the role and impact of Native church workers is comparatively better than previous studies, it still pays very little attention to the roles, activities and impact of these men. The few major studies on individual Native missionaries and their missions are basically biographical in 2 3 Ibid., p. 39. 2 * Grant, Moon in Wintertime, Supra. 9 nature and as such do not offer very much in the way of comparative analyses. 2 5 A more significant reason why we know so little about the role and impact of Native church workers is that the writers of church and Indian mission history, like Grant, have only considered those Native missionaries who constituted an elite minority within their own ranks. Men like Henry Budd of the CMS and the methodist Peter Jacobs were ordained clergymen who were perceived to be even more European than their European counterparts. They were thoroughly indoctrinated, humbled by their origins, and considered themselves above or better than their less acculturated country-men. In the case of the CMS North West America mission, covering the region known as the Canadian mid-West, men of this calibre were few in number. By 1860 the total Native workforce of the CMS employed in Indian mission work was twenty-six and only three among them were ordained ministers. The bulk of CMS Native church workers was made up of lowly catechists and schoolteachers. The role of Native catechists should not be underestimated. They were the first CMS agents to traverse the boundaries of the the Red River Settlement in the first half of the 19th century and were the first to establish inland Indian missions and schools.2 6 They not only taught the children and translated sermons, they lived among their prospective converts and therefore lived closer to the Indian way of life. Though they encouraged sedentary farming and worked alongside Indians planting gardens and raising livestock, they also partook in 2 5 A few biographies of Canadian Native missionaries are, Kathrine Pettipas ed., Diary of the Reverend Henry Budd 1870-1875, vol. 4 (Winnipeg: Manitoba Record Society Publications, 1974); Isaac K. Makindisa, \"The Praying Man: The Life and Times of Henry Bird Steinhauer,\" (Ph.D. thesis, University of Alberta, 1984); Isabel Thompson Kelsey, Joseph Brant, 1743-1807: A Man of Two Worlds (Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 1984); Donald B. Smith, Sacred Feathers: The Reverend Peter Jones (Kahkewaquonaby) and the Mississauga Indians (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1987). 2 6 The Red River Settlement, presently named Winnipeg, is situated at the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine Rivers in Manitoba. 10 trapping, fishing, and hunting expeditions to suppliment their own livelihoods. Even more so than their Native superiors, these men entered the Indian realm, or rather, they maintained a closer connection to the ways of their country-men. Just as Euro-Canadian political history and biographies of Great Men tell little of the lives of ordinary peoples, church histories and biographies of highly Europeanized Native ministers offer little insight into the lives, expectations, and daily conditions of Native catechists and their Native congregations. What we desperately need therefore, are more systematic studies on the training and recruitment of Native catechists, their relations with the local church hierarchy and their respective Native congregations, as well as their comparative impacts in the field. We need to know more about these christian \"middlemen\" before we can ever hope to acquire a more complete understanding of the Indian-christian encounter and the active role Native people assumed in their own cultural transformations. C. THE LIMITATIONS OF THE HISTORIOGRAPHY ON INDIAN EDUCATION In the case of the CMS in Rupert's Land, however, it would be both futile and innaccurate to attempt to understand the rise a Native ministry without first considering the activities, authority, and influence of the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC). The HBC basically controlled or influenced both temporal and secular developments in its territories until the latter half of the 19th century. It dictated how Western education programs developed and who these served. The HBC also had very specific expectations of the CMS, which was bound to comply because its very existence in Rupert's land depended on the support and good-will of the Company. Thus, the HBC, the CMS, and Indian education in Western Canada during the first half of the 19th century were 11 inextricably bound together. Indian education during the early missionary period in Rupert's Land has received scant attention by writers of Indian and education history. Most studies focus on the post-1870 era when parochial mission schools were expanded into industrial residential schools under the direction and support of the federal government. Post-confederation Indian education programs have received comparatively more attention from scholars interested in directed socio-cultural change for three reasons: the thrust of government residential schools to restructure Indian childrens' world-views and values increased considerably from the early mission school era; historical sources such as DIA records made research much easier; and finally, the residential schools were far more effective from a Euro-Canadian perspective because Indian societies were less able to resist the government agents and missionaries who recruited their children.2 7 Fewer children were recruited by missionaries prior to the reserve era because Indian bands in the Canadian West were still politically and economically independent entities \"beyond the pedagogical reach of Europeans.\"2 8 One very significant point that will be discussed further on is that the first CMS missionary in Rupert's Land, Reverend John West, could not cajole or coerce Native parents into giving up their children in the 1820s. All but the orphans were sent to the Red River Indian school by choice. It is therefore apparent that historians interested in directed socio-cultural change have been far more attracted to Indian education during the period when Indian people were relatively powerless and least able to resist. The course and impact of Western education on Indian peoples in the previous era when missionary efforts were least successful and Indian people were successfully resistant, has been a far less appealing area of 2 7 David W. Adams, \"Before Canada: Toward an Ethnohistory of Indian Education,\" History of Education Quarterly vol. 28, no. 1 (1988), p. 98. 2 8 Ibid. 12 inquiry. Another reason why the development and impact of early Indian education programs has received very little attention is because historians of this earlier time period tend to treat the education of Company, settler, and Indian children indiscriminately. Little or no regard is given to the unique cultural mileaus, socio-economic roles and status, different educational \"needs,\" and the separate ideas and motives the HBC and CMS had for extending education to these three groups of children. The greatest weakness of studies on the development of Western religious and educational institutions in Rupert's Land is the preoccupation with the education of settler and Company children at the expense of the \"Indian factor.\"2 9 For example, John Foster and Frits Pannekoek, who are well known for their work on the impact of early CMS efforts on Red River fur trade society basically disregard the fact that the original goals of the CMS were directed towards Indian mission work.3 0 They pay too little attention to John West's Indian mission program or the results it achieved.3 1 Reverend John West is presented as an uncompromising, overzealous idealist whose mission was bound to fail. What Foster and Pannekoek neglect to consider is that while West's ideals and goals conflicted with the fur trade oligarchy, pleasing them was not his primary object. West was an Indian missionary and during his three 2 9 The earliest studies, for example, fall within the HBC hagiography genre, and as such, pay very little attention to the \"Indian\" aspect of the Red River mission school. See M. P. Toombs, \"Educational Policy of the Hudson's Bay Company,\" Saskatchewan History vol. 4, no. 1 (1951): 1-10; J. W. Chalmers, \"Education and the Honourable Company,\" Alberta Historical Review vol. 13, no. 3 (1965): 25-28, a more recent study by Chalmers on Indian education is Education behind the Buckskin Certain: a History of Native Education in Canada (Edmonton, 1974); W. B. Ready, \"Early Red River Schools,\" The Beaver Outfit 278:3 (1947): 34-37. 3 0 John E. Foster, \"The Anglican Clergy in the Red River Settlement, 1820-1826\" (M.A. thesis, University of Alberta, 1966); Frits Pannekoek, \"The Churches and the Social Structure in the Red River Area, 1818-1870,\" (Ph.D. thesis, Queen's University, 1974). 3 'John E. Foster. \"Program for the Red River Mission: The Anglican Clergy, 1820-1826,\" Social History 4 (1969), pp. 74, 65. 13 short years in Rupert's Land, he recruited a handful of Indian children who went on to become the first CMS Native missionaries. In terms of his own priorities and goals, West's efforts were successfully realized, in spite of the HBC's vigorous opposition. More generally, Foster and Pannekoek focus on the English-speaking Mixed-blood and settler factions of Red River society and thereby neglect to assess the impact of West's efforts among the Indian population.Their present elitist one-sided appraisals of mission activity from the perspectives of the HBC and its close and loyal CMS coherts who followed West are the direct result of their Turnarian approach: the frontier conflict between barbarism and \"civilization.\" 3 2 However, in fairness to Pannekoek and Foster, they merely reflect the state of historical inquiry in their field. Even studies that purport to focus on Native education fail to distinguish between the experiences, needs, and responses of Indians and the Mixed-blood sons and daughters of retired and active fur trade personnel.3 3 In sharp contrast to the general literature is Jennifer Brown's two-part article on the education of upper-echelon Country-born children.3 4 Brown carefully distinguishes the Country-born from the Indian students in terms of the quality of education available to each group. Although Sylvia Van Kirk and Brown analyse the impact of CMS missionaries on the social status of Native women and their Country-born offspring, neither provide any systematic treatment of the 3 2 Pannekoek, \"Churches,\" Supra, and, \"A Probe into the Demographic Structures of Nineteenth Century Red River,\" in Essays on Western History, ed. Lewis H. Thomas (Edmonton: University of Alberta Press, 1976): 83-95; and \"The Anglican Church and the Disintigration of Red River Society, 1818-1870,\" in The West and the Nation: Essays in Honour of W. L. Morton, eds. Carl Berger and Ramsay Cook (Toronto: McClelland and Stewart Ltd., 1976): 72-91. A. N. Thompson also follows this theme in \"John West: A Study of the Conflict Between Civilization and the Fur Trade,\" Journal of the Canadian Church Historical Society vol. 12, no. 3 (1970): 44-57. 3 3D. Bruce Sealey, Monographs in Education, Vol. Ill, The Education of Native Peoples in Manitoba (Winnipeg: University of Manitoba Press, 1980). 3 4 \"Ultimate Respectabilty: Fur-Trade Children in the 'Civilized World',\" The Beaver Part I (Winter 1977): 4-10, Part II (Spring 1978): 48-55. 14 impact of missionaries on Indian societies or consider Indian responses.3 5 However, their appraisals of the subsequent professional and social experiences of educated Country-borns provide a model to which the experiences of educated Indians can be compared. These two scholars make it clear, for example, that the experiences of first generation English Country-borns were quite different from those of later generations, and also of Indians in terms of both social mobility and degrees of acceptance within both the European and Indian frameworks.3 6 The overall goal of this study is to trace and describe the emergence of a Native ministry within the CMS in Rupert's Land during the first half of the 19th century. Given the above considerations, it is clear that the story must begin with the initial development of British educational and religious institutions. The circumstances and forces at work that motivated the HBC to open its doors to the educational and religious influences of CMS missionaries must be examined. A number of historical questions will be addressed. What were the goals and priorities of the CMS North West America mission? What role did the HBC play in the development of educational institutions? Who were these intended to serve? How did Indian education and conversion fit into the goals of the HBC and CMS? The fact that the establishment of. Indian educational facilities in Rupert's Land was wrought with complex political, economic, and 3 5 Jennifer S . I L Brown, Strangers in Blood, Fur Trade Families in Indian Country (Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 1980); Sylvia Van Kirk, \"Many Tender Ties,\" Women in Fur Trade Society, 1670-1870 (Winnipeg: Watson & Dwyer Ltd., 1980). 3 6 Carol Judd, like Brown, is sensitive to the fact that regardless of the amount of educational training Country-born sons received, by the late 1830s their chances to obtain positions in the HBC above the servant ranks were little better than those of their more \"Native\" counterparts. Carol M. Judd, \"Mixt Bands of Many Nations: 1821-1870,\" in Old Trails and New Directions: Papers of the Third North American Fur Trade Conference, eds. Carol M. Judd and Arthur J. Ray (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1980), p. 139, and \"Native labour and social stratification in the Hudson's Bay Company's northern department, 1770-1870,\" Canadian Review of Sociology and Anthropology vol. 17, no. 4 (1980): 305-14. 15 social conflicts, did not deter John West. In spite of the difficulties, he managed to recruit and train a handful of Indian children who were later to become the first Native church workers in Western Canada. As previously indicated, serious re-evaluations of John West and his Indian mission are required by scholars interested in the early development of Indian education in Western Canada. This study analyzes his ideals, goals, methods of outreach, and education programs as they relate to the direction of Indian education and the emergence of a CMS Native ministry. A systematic study of employment opportunties that were available to the first educated and converted Indian men in Western Canada will illustrate the types of work they were trained to undertake, and the socio-economic conditions that ' encouraged or prevented them from obtaining various positions. Since most of John West's Indian graduates entered the ranks of the Church Missionary Society a close examination must be made of why they chose to pursue careers in mission work; how they were incorporated into the local church hierarchy; and finally, how European and Native church workers related to each other and how each were treated by their respective superiors. General statements about the role and impact of Native catechists cannot be offered because too little is known of them at this time. A brief case study of the life and work of Native catechist Charles Pratt will demonstrate that they were a distinct class of men whose importance in Indian history can no longer be overlooked. Within the local church hierarchy their status was ranked the lowest, they had no voice or power in the decision-making process, and their accomplishments were given minimal recognition. Instead of asking if these Native church workers were successul in changing the world-views and ways of life of their respective peoples, this paper proposes that we follow the approach suggested earlier by James Axtell. 16 We c a n begin by trying to determine whether Native congregations considered christian missions successful or not in an Indian context; what did missions do for their ethnic survival? For example, those Indian missions that left a legacy of marginal agricultural development and syncratic C h r i s t i a n i t y were considered \"failures\" by the standards set in 19th century London, but who is to say that Indian people also considered the results that dismal. CMS agents offered agriculture as an alternative to starvation at a very critical stage in some bands' histories. It is likely then, that Indian peoples considered their adoption or adaptation of C h r i s t i a n i t y successful because it helped them to survive under trying conditions. The efforts of a Native missionary who in any way helped his people with his Western knowledge and skills, were surely considered successful by them. Then, we can seek to find out how Native catechists how they perceived their roles as as agents of an organization bent on restructuring Indian world-views and ways of life. The answers may shed new light on their goals, their impact, and their loyalties. Given the above, it is clear that more specific case-studies on Native catechists are required before we can better understand how Indians perceived their conversion and what it did for their collective well-being. Initially they made active decisions to convert, for various reasons, and to varying degrees. What roles did the Native catechists and schoolteachers take in their conversion and survival? And what did Native church workers understand their roles to be in all of this? Instead of critically attacking pioneer missionaries, as is the popular trend of late, we should stop to consider the the abilities of Indian societies to make adjustments at critical times in their histories. As James Axtell suggests, what at first glance might appear to be a social defeat may in turn be a cultural victory.3 7 Figure 1 continued Charles Pratt of Touchwood Hills, c. 1860s Credit: Nimoshom Colin Pratt, (private collection of writer) II. RELIGION AND EDUCATION IN RUPERT'S LAND, 1800-1833 A. OBLIGATIONS AND PROGRAMS OF THE HBC For the first one hundred years of the HBC's presence in Rupert's Land very little concern existed for the religious conversion of Indian peoples. The HBC did not consider Indians objects of Western conversion primarily for two reasons: it had no intention of giving Indian people the means to question Company accounts, and second, the HBC would not permit any outside forces to divert Indian attention away from the traplines. Christianity, the Company held, encouraged settlement which would interfere with the production of fur. For over a century then, Indian people within the boundaries of Rupert's Land were relatively free from external sources of directed cultural change outside of the economic sphere. The few meagre attempts to provide any intellectual or spiritual enlightenment at the Bay were initiated by Company employees for their country-born children.1 Unschooled and unskilled in Rupert's Land, Company sons and daughters had few options but to follow the paths of their Indian mothers. By the late 18th century though, the ever-increasing numbers of country-born children and the growing concerns of Company family men over the fate of their offspring forced the HBC London Committee for the first time to take seriously its colonization obligations. 2 At a time of extreme labour shortages, this potential \"colony of very useful Hands\" in their midst encouraged the London 1 John Webster Grant, Moon in Wintertime: Missionaries and the Indians in Canada in Encounter since 1534 (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1984), p. 98; Vera Kathrin Fast, \"The Protestant Missionary and Fur Trade Society: Initial Contact in the Hudson's Bay Territory, 1820-1850,\" (Ph.D. thesis, University of Manitoba, 1984), p. 35. 2 E . E. Rich, History of the Hudson's Bay Company, 1670-1870, 3 vols. (New York: Macmillan, 1961), vol. I, pp. 31, 54. 19 20 Committee to experiment in education.3 Between 1794 and 1810, large supplies of primary books and a number of school teachers were sent to bayside posts. Despite good intentions, circumstances at the Bay would not support the new policy. * While the London Committee was struggling to devise a satisfactory education program for the Bay, its exclusive monopoly trade rights, along with the monopoly rights of other Crown chartered corporations, were increasingly under attack. Parliamentary and commercial interest groups in Britain were publicly criticizing the Company for pursuing private economic goals, under the guise of its Charter, without encouraging British colonial or other commercial advancements.5 Thomas Douglas, the fifth Earl of Selkirk, was one of the Company's greatest critics. Having purchased enough HBC shares to override the Company's opposition to colonization, Selkirk developed his plan to establish an agricultural colony in the Red River Valley. He recruited colonists from Scotland and provided them with grants of farm land, temporary support, and the promise of educational and religious facilities. The colony not only offered the HBC temporary shelter from the storm of public criticism in England, it also promised 3 Provincial Archives of Manitoba, Hudson's Bay Company Archives, A.6/17, cited in Jennifer S. H. Brown, Strangers in Blood, Fur Trade Company Families in Indian Country, (Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 1980), p. 77 (hereinafter cited PAM HBCA) \"For example, James Cloustan was one of three schoolmasters hired by the Company in London and stationed at East Main post. He remained there for about five years, until he was swept away by the call of the fur trade. The rest of his life was spent as a Company clerk. Besides run-away teachers, irregular attendence was a great hinderance in maintaining Company schools. Children often joined their parents in tasks which took them away from the posts. Since more girls than boys reaped any benefit from these early schools, it was determined that the costs were too high and it would take too long to form the colony of useful hands they envisioned: Ibid., pp. 7, 16; J. W. Chalmers, \"Education and the Honourable Company,\" Alberta historical Review vol. 13, no. 3 (1965), p. 25. 5 Brown, Strangers in Blood, p. 200. to ease the problems stemming from the increasing numbers of dependent fur trade families at Company posts by providing a place for retired servants to settle with their families. A farming community would free the Company from the expense of supporting a superfluous population, and provide potential food supply base. The London Committee supported Selkirk's plan, and in 1812 the first settlers reached Fort Douglas at the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine Rivers.6 Another previously neglected obligation of the Company was to promote the \"moral and religious improvement of the Indians.\"7 Though the HBC's support of the Red River colony softened the blows from parliamentary and commercial interest groups, it did little to allay attacks from the rising ranks of British evangelicalism. The London Committee was well aware of its responsibilty. In a letter to the Governor, George Simpson, they stated that the \"civilization\", moral and religious improvement of Indians were duties imposed upon the Company as proprietors of the country, and as part of the conditions of their exclusive liscence. They also felt morally responsible, as British christian subjects, to fulfill this duty.8 Thus, the HBC became responsible for the educational and religious instruction of three distinct groups of children in Rupert's Land. The children of settlers, which by then included the country-born children of retired Company employees, were the most numerous. They were followed by the country-born children of active Company employees, and Indian children. Not only were the cultural backgrounds of each group of children different, socio-economic class differences were also prominent within Company 6 Ibid., p. 168; W. R Toombs, \"Educational Policy of the Hudson's Bay Company,\" Saskatchewan History\" 4 (1951), p. 2. 7PAM HBCA, A.6/21, fo. 50, Governor and Committee to George Simpson, 11 March 1823. 8PAM HBCA, A.6/21, fo. 284, Governor and Committee to George Simpson, 16 January 1828. 22 ranks. Company officers who previously had the option of sending their children to Canada or England for schooling were pushing the Company to establish boarding schools for \"higher\" education at Red River. However, class lines between Company officers and servants were so pronounced that the former strongly opposed their children receiving the same education, in the same facilties, as the children of Indians and \"common settlers.\"9 Therefore, the HBC London Committee was faced with finding a solution to meet the wishes and needs of everyone, as frugally as possible. In the end, costs, more than any other factor including the wishes of Company officers, determined the path of education in Rupert's Land. The previously ineffective attempts of the HBC to meet the educational needs of their employee's children, and the evangelical bent of leading London Committee members, encouraged the Company to seek the aid of Church of England missionary societies to meet its educational and spiritual obligations. As early as 1816 the London Committee was trying to entice into Rupert's Land missionary societies already at work among Indigenous peoples in the United States, Canada, and other British colonies. The challenge was not taken lightly and many opinions and options were carefully considered, especially those of local officers. Between 1816 and 1820, the London Committee sent detailed lists of questions to the Bay about the possibility of extending education to Indians. In these letters, it is clear that the London Committee was already committed to the idea of establishing an Indian boarding school at Red River, and to developing an all-encompassing education program.1 0 9 Sylvia Van Kirk, \"Many Tender Ties, \"Women in Fur Trade Society in Western Canada, 1670-1870 (Winnipeg: Watson & Dwyer Publishing, 1980), p. 149; PAM HBCA, D.4/3, George Simpson to the Governor and Council of the Southern Department, 1 December 1823. 1 °In a letter to James Bird dated 20 May 1818, the London Committee requested the following information: \"Could the parents of Indian children be prevailed upon to permit their children to be civilized and educated, would they 23 While there was no doubt that missionary societies were the best suited and most experienced in educating, converting, and \"civilizing\" non-christian peoples, the fact that they were also financially self-sufficient was a decisive boon in the Company's favour. From the beginning, the Company was committed to the idea of meeting the requirements of all parties by combining the duties of Company chaplain, schoolmaster, and missionary to Indians under the auspicies of an Indian mission.1 1 The major stumbling block in the Company's all-encompassing education plan was that established missionary societies focused their funds and resources on \"heathen\" Indigenous societies exclusively. They were not mandated to meet the needs of either European colonists or Company employees. Undaunted, the HBC hoped that a sufficient number of Indian children would \"induce\" a society to send out missionaries and schoolmasters. In the opinion of the London Committee members, \"the first object must be the number of native Indians who could be received for the purpose of civilizing and education,\" but the plan would, of course, be of great service to the families of settlers and inhabitants of the Bay.1 2 B. THE CHURCH MISSIONARY SOCIETY AND JOHN WEST, 1820-1823 Initially the HBC was unable to attract a missionary society into Rupert's Land that was willing to accept their proposal, so they sought one whose resolve could be tempered in time. A fledgling society, not yet very 1 0 (cont'd) allow them tobe placed in Schools for the purposes, would they be satisfied with occasionally visiting the children and could any number be so placed out and what would be the annual expense of clothing and feeding each child?.\" PAM Ecclesiastical Province of Rupert's Land Collection, P337/PRL-84-2/file 7-1008, Governor and Committee to James Bird, 20 May 1818, (hereinafter cited as PAM EPRLC); Ibid., Governor and Committee to Governor Semple, 8 May 1826. 1 1 Chalmers, \"Education,\" p. 37. 1 2PAM EPRLC, P337/PRL-84-2/file 7-1008, Governor and Committee to James Bird, 20 May 1818. 24 established or experienced, which also contained sympathetic factions, offered the greatest hope. Besides Lord Selkirk, the leading members of the HBC London Committee who were most involved in the extension of British education and religion to Rupert's Land were Benjamin Harrison, Nicholas Garry, and Andrew Colville.1 3 Along with other influential businessmen, politicians, and clergymen, these men belonged to an evangelical society known as the Clapham Sect. In 1799 the Clapham Sect founded the Society for Missions to Africa and the East for the purpose of propagating the gospel abroad. In 1812 the organization was renamed the Church Missionary Society.1 4 Since a number HBC London Committee members were intimately associated with the CMS, that society became the most likely choice for Rupert's Land. Though the CMS was interested in establishing missions in British North America, it was exclusively devoted to work among Indigenous peoples and refused to administer the Company's all-encompassing education plan.1 5 Nevertheless, Reverend John West, an active CMS member, saw the potential for Indian mission work in the Company's territories. In the spring of 1820 West accepted the position of Company chaplain in Rupert's Land. The Anglican catechist George Harbridge was hired by the Company as schoolmaster soon thereafter.1 6 Though the CMS could not be induced to offer full support to the HBC and Reverend West, he was able to secure from the Society a grant of £100 \"to make a trial of what could be done for the natives in Rupert's Land.\" 1 7 For the time being the full financial burden for education fell squarely 1 3 Chalmers, \"Education,\" p. 37. 1 \"Usher, \"Apostles and Aborigines: The Social Theory of the Church Missionary Society,\" 7 (1971), pp. 41, 28. 1 5Ibid.; Fast, \"Protestant Missionary,\" pp. 64-65; Grant, Moon in Wintertime, p. 82. 1 6 Canon E. K. Matheson, \"Old Days in Canada West,\" Canadian Churchman (26 May 1921). 1 7 William Bertal Heeney, John West and his Red River Mission, (Toronto: The Musson Book Company Limited, 1920), p. 36. 25 on the shoulders of the HBC. West and the Company were nonetheless optimistic that the CMS could be persuaded to extend an arm into Rupert's Land if it could be demonstrated that the region offered a fertile field for Indian mission work. In May of 1820 the London Committee notified Governor William Williams at York Fort that Reverend West had been engaged as Company chaplain. West's duties, as instructed by the London Committee, were to provide \"religious instruction and consolation to servants of the Company as the nature of the country and other circumstances permit\" and to establish and superintend schools at Red River \"for servants' children to save expenses of sending them to this country [England].\" Williams was instructed to ensure West performed religious services at York, to arrange for his transport to the Red River colony where he was to be stationed, and to \"make sure all treat him with due respect.\" 1 8 No where in the London Committee's instruction was any reference made to the religious or educational instruction of the children of Indians or settlers. Without the full support of the CMS or any other missionary society, the London Committee had no intention of financially supporting the instruction of any other children except its own. The all-encompassing education plan of the HBC was cropped and West and Harbridge were expected to focus their attention on the children of Company men, or more likely, Company officers.1 9 1 8 P A M EPRLC, P337/PRL-84-2/file 7-1008, Governor and Committee to Governor William Williams, 24 May 1820. 1 9 Company servants' wages were never enough to cover the costs of educating one or more of their children abroad. The only ones who were able to pay for education were those in the officer classes, so it is apparent that the Company children the London Committee was referring to were those of Company officers. 26 C. HBC CHAPLAIN-CMS MISSIONARY: CONFLICTS IN INTERESTS On August 5, 1820 Reverend West and George Harbridge landed at York Flats. From the moment of his arrival West proved to be more of a missionary than the Governor and Committee expected or were prepared to tolerate. Contrary to his instructions, West's immediate objective was to ameliorate the \"sad\" condition of the Native Indians.2 0 Accordingly, his plans went far beyond holding services at the numerous inland and bayside posts, and superintending the education of Company children. West was interested in all the Native and European inhabitants of Rupert's Land rather than only the small enclaves of Scots and English Company men and their Mixed-blood families. Undaunted by the CMS's refusal to support a mission in Rupert's Land and morally armed with their small show of confidence, West zealously pursued his personal goal - the establishment of an Indian mission school. He believed that if he could prove that the endeavour was feasible there was hope that the CMS could be pursuaded to support his plans. In West's capacity as Company chaplain he was expected to develop a plan for the education of Company officers' children. Soon after his arrival at York Factory in 1820 he submitted a proposal to the London Committee for the establishment of a boarding school at the Red River settlement that would house a large number of country-born children from outlying posts. The HBC would be responsible for the maintenance of the children and the buildings.2 1 The London Committee promptly rejected the plan. The Committee was too frugal to cover the expenses of the very school West was hired to establish and superintend, leaving him temporarily free to pursue his Indian mission and settler day school 2 0 John West, The Substance of a Journal During a Residence at the Red River Colony, British North America in the Years 1820-1823, (Vancouver: Alcuin Society Reprint, 1967), p. 12. 2 1 Ibid., p. 11; Heeney, John West, p. 13. 27 programs. West arrived at his station in the Red River settlement in October of 1820. During the winter he began formulating his education program. From the very start, he believed that the migratory, \"nomadic\" life of Indian peoples constituted the principal hinderance to their conversion. Significant progress could only be achieved when Indian people adopted sedentary ways: the best way to achieve this step was to teach them agriculture. Accordingly, West decided that his Red River education program would include the rudiments of agriculture. 2 2 While farming was supposed to instill the traits of industry and settlement, the prerequisites of \"civilization,\" he believed that schools were the most effective means of inculcating C h r i s t i a n i t y and the finer qualities of \"civilization.\" West planned to establish three schools at Red River to reach as many people as possible. First, and most important in West's opinion, was the Indian residential school, followed by the day school for settler children. Finally, West planned a Sunday school for the Indian and Country-born wives and older children in the settlement.2 3 The temporary accomodations provided by the Company for the mission staff and students were soon overcrowded so West drew up plans for his educational facilities. 2 4 He argued that a \"substantial building\" was neccessary to provide apartments for the schoolmaster and Indian students, a day school, 2 2 West, Substance, p. 139. 2 3 John E. Foster, \"The Anglican Clergy in the Red River Settlement: 1820-1826,\" (M.A. thesis, University of Alberta, 1966), p. 125. 2 4 When the West party first arrived at Red River they were temporarily housed in a room at Fort Douglas while repairs were being made on an abandoned farmhouse some three miles up river. The room served as sleeping quarters, school, and church for two months before Harbridge and the students moved up river: Wardens and Vestry of St. John's Cathedral, From Mission to Cathedral: John West (Winnipeg: St. John's Cathedral, 1945), p. 14, (hereinafter cited as St. John's, From Mission to Cathedral,). 28 Sunday school, and church.2 5 The construction of the school facilities began in the spring of 1821. The HBC provided twelve otherwise unemployed men for the job, but progress was slow and the facility not completed until January of 1823 because the missionary was often absent on his pastoral visits and therefore, unable to supervise the construction.2 6 Figures 2 provides a sketch of the Red River mission in 1822 and Figure 3 shows how it looked when John West left the colony in 1823. As Company chaplain, West performed services, baptisms, and marriages at the inland and bayside posts. Reflecting his primary interest and preoccupation with Indian people rather than the Company children, posts, and colony, West visited local Indian bands for the purpose of recruiting children for his mission school.2 7 During his annual visit to York Factory in the summer of 1821, West sent a formal proposal to the CMS in London to establish a regular mission station at the Red River colony. With his £100 grant, West had been able to secure a building and maintain three Indian boys which he hoped would prove to the CMS that his proposal was just and worthwhile. The HBC London Committee members Garry and Harrison attended the CMS meeting in London to support West's proposal, and in February of 1822 the CMS agreed. 2 8 From then on John West held the dual position of HBC Chaplain and Superintendent of the CMS Red River District Mission. George Harbridge was also re-appointed as the CMS schoolmaster. The Society promised to send an assistant clergyman 2 5West, Substance, p. 53. 2 6 Alfred C. Garrioch, First Furrows (Winnipeg: Stovel Co., 1923), p. 58. 2 7 St. John's, From Mission to Cathedral, p. 14. 2 8 P A M HBCA, A.6/20, fo. 65, Benjamin Harrison to John West, 26 February 1822. 29 Figure 2 A Sketch of John West's Red River Indian Mission School, 1822 \"Reverend John West's home, Red River Settlement\" Credit: Provincial Archives of Manitoba, Rupert's Land Collection, 2, c. 1822. 30 Figure 3 A Sketch of John West's Red River Indian Mission School, 1823 \"St. John's Cathedral\" Credit: Provincial Archives of Manitoba, Rupert's Land Collection, 3, c. 1823. and schoolmistress as soon as arrangements could be made.2 9 After one and one half years, West's efforts had finally convinced the CMS to enter into a joint venture with the HBC to educate all Rupert's Landers. Table 1 shows how the costs of the enterprise were divided between the Company and the Society in its initial phase. Following the CMS-HBC agreement, the HBC London Committee stressed to West that the new measures were intended \"not only to better the condition 2 9Ibid., fos. 66, 65. 31 Table 1 CMS — HBC Joint Education Program, Cost Sharing Agreement, 1822 Expenditures CMS . HBC Salaries: Minister £200 £100 Schoolmaster 100 100 Mission Buildings 200 200 plus labour School Supplies varied --Child Maintenance (Indian boarders) 350* --* £350 flat rate or £10 - £12 each, whichever is less. Source: PAM HBCA, A. 6/20, fo. 64, 66, Governor and Committee of the HBC to John West, 26 February 1822. of the native heathen but would be highly beneficial to all inhabitants of the whole country over which the Company have control or influence.\" 3 0 West was further reminded that his new situation as missionary was \"quite compatible with your office of Chaplain to the Company.\"3 1 Apparently the HBC was worried that its priorities would take second place to those of West, now that he had CMS support to expand his Indian mission work. Nevertheless, the London Committee wasted no time in conveying news of the joint' venture and its implications to George Simpson, who had replaced Williams as governor of York Factory in 1822. Having secured the financial support of the CMS, the London Committee instructed Simpson to pursue the neglected boarding school plan for 3 0Ibid., fo. 60, Governor and Committee to John West, 27 March 1822. 3 1 Ibid., fo. 66, Benjamin Harrison to John West, 26 February 1822. 32 the Country-born children of active Company men. They did so because Company servants with large families as well as orphaned children were becoming increasingly burdensome. The London Committee feared that if this population were \"to remain in their present condition they would become dangerous to the peace of the country and safety of the posts.\" Elaborating on this point they noted: It is both dangerous and expensive to support a numerous population of this discription in an uneducated and savage condition, and it would be impolitic and inexpedient to encourage and allow them to collect in different parts of the country, where they would not be under any proper superintendence. The establishment of Clergymen and Schools at the Red River settlement where means of religious instruction and education will be afforded them and where they will be under a regular police and Government by the establishment of Magistrates ...points out the proper mode of disposing of this numerous class of persons.3 2 The London Committee decided that it would be \"prudent and economical to incur some expense in placing these people where they may maintain themselves and be civilized and instructed in religion.\" 3 3 Apparently the threat of social unrest among the Company's lower ranks and their offspring required more immediate attention than did the desires of Company officers at this time. When the CMS and HBC entered into its joint religious and educational venture, neither party foresaw any major difficulties in having West act in the dual capacity of missionary to Indians and chaplain to all others. Before long however, ideological and personality clashes surfaced between West and the local HBC officials, especially Governor Simpson. Simpson was a devoted Company man; his every thought and action held the Company's interests paramount. Like the London Committee he had certain expectations of West that went beyond 3 2 PAM HBCA, A.6/20, fo. 40, Governor and Committee to George Simpson, 8 March 1822. 3 3Ibid., fo. 25, Governor and Committee to George Simpson, 27 February 1822. 33 purely religious matters. As a member of the local ruling elite, West played a major role in the exersize of social leadership and Simpson expected him to reflect a degree of loyalty to the Company which was responsible for the administration of local government. Whenever West was unable to support certain Company policies in his clerical position, the governor expected him to act with discretion. But, to Simpson's great irrition, West was not a loyal Company man; he was neither discrete nor silent in his opinions on the state of affairs in Rupert's Land. 3 4 The pulpit gave West religious, moral, and social authority in the settlement and at outlying posts. He took advantage of this position to vehemently attack various Company policies and the social mores of Company men and settlers. This made him unpopular with all but the most pious. West condemed \"custom of the country\" marriage practises especially among the officer ranks, and his accusations of alcohol abuse were aimed both at settler and Company men. He also attacked the Company for its use of liquor in the Indian trade.3 5 West's criticisms did not go unheeded and the London Committee increased restrictions on the export of rum to Rupert's Land. With the fur trade competition absorbed, via the 1821 HBC-NWC merger, the Company was re-established in its monopoly position and no longer needed to entice Indian traders to their posts. Furthermore, parliament ordered restrictions on alcohol trade as a condition for the renewal of their trading licenses. Not only was Simpson outraged by West's criticisms, he was even more furious that the London Committee supported West's position on the use of alcohol. All this only added to Simpson's contempt for the clergyman and his 3 \"Foster, \"Anglican Clergy,\" pp. 49-50. 3 5Ibid., p. 54; Public Archives of Canada, Church Missionary Society Archives (hereafter cited PAC CMSA), A. 98, West Journal, 25 December 1822. 34 mission.3 6 From the beginning, Simpson opposed West's program for Indian education. He saw Indian missions, like everything else, from the viewpoint of the fur trade and claimed that Indian missions: in my humble opinion will be attended with little other good than filling the pockets and bellies of some hungry missionaries and schoolmasters and rearing the Indians in habits of indolence. They are already too much enlightened by the late opposition and more of it would in my opinion do harm instead of good to the fur trade. I have always remarked that an enlightened Indian is good for nothing. 3 7 The London Committee admonished Simpson for his attitude and conduct towards the education of Indians. All monopolies were presently unpopular in Britain it claimed, and unless every reasonable encouragement and facility is afforded to the human endeavours of the Church Missionary Society towards the civilization of the native Indians in the neighbourhood...great and well merited odium will be exited in the country against the Company.3 8 However, many of the local HBC officers shared Simpson's opinions, and West was often engaged in verbal conflicts with them. From West's perspective the opinions of these officers were motivated by greed: \"they cannot conceal their fears lest the plans which we have in seeking to civilize and evangelize the poor Indian will be the means of lessening the quantum of fur and consequently 3 6 Simpson was against the London Committee's decision to withdraw alcohol from the Indian trade because, in his view; \"if Spirits were witheld it would materially discourage them [Indians] and produce a lassitude which Weight of other property could not remove.\" Furthermore, \"the people will not have an opportunity of disgorging their heavy Wages.\" George Simpson to Andrew Colville, 20 May 1822, cited in Frederick Merk ed., Fur Trade and Empire: George Simpson's Journals, Remarks Connected with the Fur Trade in the Course of a Voyage from York Factory to Fort George and back to York Factory 1824-1825; Together with Accompanying Documents, (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1931), p. 183. 3 7Ibid.. 3 8 P A M HBCA, A.6/21, fo. 262, Governor and Committee to George Simpson, 12 March 1822. 35 gain.\" 3 9 When West returned to London in 1823 he submitted a lengthy report to the CMS and HBC. The report constituted a major attack on the behavior of Europeans generally, and Company men in particular, which West deemed harmful to the operations of the mission. Apparently the London Committee decided that West's attitude and actions against certain officers - and hence the Company - were out of line and unacceptable. Soon thereafter, the HBC relieved West of his duties and he never again set foot in Rupert's Land. * 0 As promised, the CMS had sent a clergyman, Reverend David Jones to replace West during his furlow to England. He was also supposed to act as his assistant at the Red River mission when West's furlow was over. Shortly after West was relieved of his HBC Chaplaincy in the spring of 1824, Reverend David Jones was officially hired by the Company to replace him. At the same time the CMS promoted Jones to Superintendent of the mission station.11 1 Prior to his official promotion Jones received very detailed instructions from the HBC. The Company had no intention of allowing Jones to repeat West's \"mistakes.\" Accordingly, the London Committee warned him not to publicly criticize or hamper the Company in its fur trading operations. * 2 Furthermore, they directed the minister to meet the Company's needs and to act on their secular and temporal priorities. Finally Jones was ordered to pursue the long neglected boarding school plan for Company children and to focus on the 3 9 P A C CMSA, A. 98, John West to Henry Budd, 26 November 1822. ft0Ibid., A. 98, John West Report, 3 December 1823; John Foster, \"Program for the Red River Mission: The Anglican Clergy 1820-1826,\" Social History 4 (1969), p. 71. For a more thorough analysis on the relations and conflicts between Reverend West and the local HBC administration see A. N. Thompson, \"John West: A Study of the Conflict Between Civilization and the Fur Trade,\" Journal of the Canadian Church Historical Society 12 (1970), Supra. 4 1 PAM HBCA, A.6/21, fo. 87, Governor and Committee to George Simpson, 3 June 1825. \" 2Ibid., A. 6/21, fo. 322, Governor and Committee to David Jones, 12 March 1824. 36 educational and spiritual needs of the colony, as opposed to Indian families.4 3 These directives profoundly affected the future of the CMS Indian mission program. By the time Reverend Jones arrived at the Red River settlement in October of 1823, West's mission school was firmly established. The station consisted, as evident from Figure 3, of a number of buildings, the largest of which served as a church and schoolhouse. There were two cabins, or \"sleeping quarters\" for the minister and schoolmaster, and two for the Indian students.4 4 In addition to the Indian students, twenty to thirty settler children attended school every day.4 5 Among the day students were a handful of Company officer children who were boarded in homes at the settlement. The number of settler children attending the mission day school increased dramatically soon after Jones arrived. The steady influx into the colony of retired Company men and their families quickly over-taxed the resources of the mission and the already overcrowded day school.4 6 The increasing numbers of settlers forced Jones to expand the mission facilities in his second year. With all the added work, he petitioned the CMS Parent Committee to send an assistant.4 7 Since the number of church attendants also increased dramatically, Jones decided to build a second church and school some seven miles down river at Image Plain. St. Paul's Middlechurch opened for services in January of 1825, and the school was in operation by July. 4 8 The CMS in London responded to Jones's call for help by sending Reverend and Mrs. William Cockran. The Cockran's 4 3 Ibid. 4 \"West, Substance, pp. 139; St. John's, Mission to Cathedral, p. 5; PAC CMSA, A. 88, James Hope to the CMS, 26 June 1823. 4 5 St. John's, From Mission to Cathedral, p. 3. 4 6 PAC CMSA, A. 92, Jones Journal, 16 November 1823. 4 7 PAC CMSA, A. 92, David Jones to Josiah Pratt, 22 October 1824. 4 8Garrioch, First Furrows, p. 67; PAC CMSA, A. 92, Jones Journal, 26 July 1825; Historic Resources Branch, Manitoba Culture, Heritage and Recreation, St. Paul's Middlechurch. (Winnipeg: Historic Resources Branch, 1983), p. 1. 37 arrived at the mission school in October of 1825 and Jones moved down to Middlechurch.4 9 Jones and Cockran immediately set to work on the plans for the proposed boarding school for Company children. In 1827 Reverend Cockran opened St. Andrew's Lowerchurch at Grand Rapids, 14 miles down river from the mission (see Figure 4).5 0 St. Andrew's boarding school was established primarily for the daughters of active Company men. They received the bulk of their instruction alongside the ever increasing numbers of settler children who lived around Grand Rapids. This population also included a number of Indian families.5 1 Mrs. Cockran managed and taught the female boarders. In addition to their regular academic and religious instruction, the girls received training in \"the ways of civilized women.\"52 D. CHURCH AND STATE: COMPROMISE AND COEXISTANCE During West's chaplaincy Indian students were recruited from bands in the course of his pastoral visits to inland and bayside posts. Jones, on the other hand, was directed to attend the needs of the growing colony. Since Jones seldom traversed the boundaries of the settlement he had no opportunity to recruit new students for the Indian mission school. With all the resources at the mission's disposal, the CMS Parent Committee expected it to expand, if not flourish. In order to appease the Society, the HBC assumed the responsibility of keeping the mission station supplied with Indian students. On 19 July 1824 the Northern Council at York Factory passed Resolution No. 96 which directed Post 4 9 PAM HBCA, A. 6/21, fo. 87, Governor and Committee to George Simpson, 3 June 1825. 5 0Garrioch, First Furrows, p. 69; W. L. Morton, Manitoba: A History, 2nd ed. (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1967), p. 373. 5 1Ibid., p. 91; Garrioch, First Furrows, p. 70. 5 2 Van Kirk, \"Many Tender Ties,\" p. 146. 38 Figure 4 Protestant Day and Boarding Schools in the Red River Settlement, 1833 Saulteaux ^ ^ T I l i ' T r r i n r i i n n t Encampment f o Lafce Winnipeg St. Petr's School 183 (Muskagowak & Saulteaux) Indian Vilage) Sugar Point , Lower Fort Gary •/ St. Andrews A Grand Rapids JBk 1827 Mision School 182 Red River Academy ^ 1^ , 183 Sources: \"A Sketch of the Red River, by Wm. Cockran. Feb 10/29\", cited: Bredin, \"The Red River Academy\", The Beaver, Outfit 305:3 (Winter 1874), p. 10; \"Map of fort of the Valley of Red River North of the 49th Parallel to accompany a Report on the Canadian Red River Exploring Expedition by H.Y. Hind\", in John Warkenton and Richard I. Ruggles, Historical Atlas of Manitoba (Winnipeg: The Historical and Scientific Society of Manitoba, 1970), p. 212. 39 Factors to afford every assistance, to facilitate and promote the humane and benevolent intentions of the Church Missionary Society towards the procuring for the purpose of Christianizing, the children of such of the Indians as the parents may be induced to part with.5 3 The expense of this endeavour was divided between the Company, which absorbed transportation costs, and the CMS, which authorized the Company to expend up to £3 on goods to outfit each child for the journey. 5 * Prior to the passing of Resolution No. 96, Simpson made no effort to aid the Indian mission program under Reverend West, even though the London Committee continuously directed him to do so. Apparently, West's removal from Red River served to placate Simpson who immediately changed his attitude. The Governor not only tabled Resolution No. 96, he suddenly appeared alert to the potential benefits to accrue from having educated and converted Indians at hand: There may be a difference of opinions as to the effect the conversion of the Indians might have on the trade; I cannot however forsee that it could be at all injurious, on the contrary I believe it would be highly beneficial thereto as they would in time imbibe our manners and customs and imitate us in Dress; our Supplies would thus become necessary to them which would increase the consumption of European produce & manufactures and in like measures increase & benefit our trade as they would find it requisite to become more industrious and to turn their attention more seriously to the Chase in order to be enabled to provide themselves with such supplies.\" 5 5 Within a year of the Resolution, nine new students were admitted into the Indian mission school.5 6 Simpson even personally recruited two young boys for the mission during his Columbia River expedition, Spokan Garry and Kootenay 5 3 Resolution No. 96, Minutes of Council, Northern Department, 10 July 1824, in Merk, Fur Trade and Empire, p. 236. 5 \"Ibid. 5 5 I b i d . p. 108. 5 6 P A C CMSA, A. 87, William Garrioch to Edward Bickersteth, 8 August 1826; PAM HBCA, A. 4/la, fo. 64. 40 Pelly. Table 2 lists the names and origins of the chldren recruited by HBC officers up to the end of 1825. Simpson's sudden turn around proved superficial. He begrudgingly set aside his personal views on Indian mission work for the benefit of the Company, which was under continuous attack in London by evangelical social reformers. Though quietened by his superiors, Simpson still harboured contempt for Indian mission work which he strongly believed would interfere with the fur trade. Apparently Jones was heavily influenced by a number of Simpson's sentiments; soon after he took over the Red River mission, its focus and priorities were supplanted by those of the local HBC officials. During West's sojourn as Company chaplain and CMS missionary, the day school for settler children and the plans for a boarding school for active Company employees' children, had been subordinate to the Indian mission school. Following Jones' arrival in 1823, the priorities of the mission were reversed. Reverend Jones focused more on the needs of the settlement and Company. Contrary to West's opinions, Jones did not believe that the Indian mission school held much promise of success. As early as the winter of 1823 Jones urged that the Country-born, rather the Indian children, were the key to a successful Indian mission program in the Northwest. 5 7 In his plea to the CMS to allow him to extend the Indian mission resources to Country-born children, Jones stated; Should God make the Half-breeds subjects of his grace, they are the Missionaries for this country: they are initiated into the habits of the Indian and are consequently more able to expose themselves, - they can speak the language and can bear all the hardships that the Indian himself can. 5 8 When Jones requested the CMS to sponsor Cockran's female boarding school, he 5 7 PAC CMSA, A. 92, Jones Journal, 11 December 1823. 5 8 Ibid. 41 Table 2 Indian Mission Students Recruited by the HBC, 1824-1825 Date of Arrival Names Origin Nationality 12 Oct. 1824 James Settee Nelson River District Swampy Cree 12 Oct. 1824 David Jones Nelson River District Swampy Cree 12 Oct. 1824 John Spence Nelson River District Swampy Cree 12 Oct. 1824 William Garrioch Nelson River District Swampy Cree 12 Oct. 1824 Colin Leslie Fort Churchill Inuit Fall 1824 William Cochran ? Cree Winter 1824 Edwan Bickersteth ? Saulteaux 28 May 1825 Spokan Garry Columbian District Spokan 28 May 1825 Kootaney Pelly Columbian District Kootaney Sources: PAC CMS, A. 87, William Garrioch to Edward Bickersteth, 8 August 1826. PAM HBCA, E.4/la, fo. 64. justified the plan by claiming that it would produce the much needed female missionaries for Rupert's Land: Experience has taught the Society, the influence which female education is calculated to produce in an uncivilized Country... The females in question [Country-born daughters of Company officers] are never likely to see any Country, but this. In the course of time, they will be disposed of in marriage to persons of the Country: and may we not hope, that thus we shall have Female Missionaries by and by throughout the Indian Territories? 5 9 While Jones successfully convinced the CMS of the practibility of focusing mission efforts on the country-born at Red River, he effectively justified his decision to 5 9Ibid., David Jones to Secretaries, 24 August 1826. 42 act on Simpson's boarding school mandate. The boarding school was established specifically to meet the educational \"needs\" of the daughters of Company officers, who were the only Company employees who could afford the tuition and board. 6 0 At the boarding school Mrs. Cockran strove to train her girls in the finer qualities of housewifery, but the Company officers were still not satisfied. They persistently objected to their daughters being educated alongside common settler and Indian children, nor did they want their daughters learning \"menial domestic skills.\" A more \"refined English education\" is what they wanted. 6 1 Cockran was not in favour of turning these girls into \"ladies all at once,\" but Jones sided with the officers. 6 2 By 1830 new plans were underway for a fourth and far more prestigious church and boarding school at Red River (see Figure 4). When Jones approached the CMS for a tutor and governess for the new boarding school, the CMS was critical and they questioned his motives. Jones admitted that the school was planned specifically for the children of Chief Factors, Chief Traders, and clerks in the Company's employ. Nevertheless, he was able to coax the support of the Parent Committee with the threat of a Catholic intrusion. The Catholic Bishop at Red River was also planning to establish a boarding school in the settlement at this time,6 3 and could quite possibly attract protestant children by offering exclusive educational facilities for \"higher\" learning. By the fall of 1833 the Red River Academy was in full operation under the tutor John MacCallum and the governess Mrs. Mary Lowman, who were 6 0 Ibid. 6 1 Van Kirk, \"Many Tender Ties,\" p. 148. 6 2 PAC CMSA, William Cockran to Secretaries, 20 July 1831, cited in Ibid. 6 3 Thomas F. Bredin, \"Red River Academy,\" The Beaver Outfit 305:3 (Winter 1964), p. 11. 43 sent out from London by the CMS Parent Committee. The proposed cost of enrollment in the Academy exceeded the annual salaries of men in the lower servants ranks of the HBC; £20 per year, or £30 if it was decided that uniforms would be provided.6 4 Only the fur trade gentry, or the \"great nabobs of the fur trade\" as Alexander Ross described them, could afford to pay such tidy sums.6 5 Undoubtedly, Jones adopted Simpson's elitist and self-interested stance on the direction and quality of schooling at Red River. The educational programs were directed towards country-born children generally, and the quality of education was as disparate as their socio-economic situations were. Jones also reflected Simpson's sentiments on Indians and agriculture. Whereas West considered agricultural instruction a necessary subject at the Indian mission school, Jones de-emphasized its importance. To encourage Indians to pursue livelihoods as farmers, Jones stated, \"would bring on an unpleasant collusion with the Company.\"66 By the time Simpson returned to Red River from a visit to the Columbia District in May of 1825, his old intolerance of the Indian mission school had been rekindled. During his inland travels Simpson heard news of the death of two Indian mission boys. 6 7 At that time, rumours and fears about the deaths caused Indians throughout Rupert's Land to question the treatment the children received at the mission school. Angry Indians posed a major threat to the settlement and the fur trade. To avoid any troubles Simpson's response was 6 \"Bredin, \"Red River Academy,\" pp. 11-12. 6 5 Alexander Ross, The Red River Settlement: Its Rise, Progress, and Present State. With Some Accounts Of The Native Races and Its General History (London: Smith, Elder & Co., 1856, reprinted ed. Minneapolis, Minn.: Rass & Haines, 1957), p. 132. 6 6 P A C CMSA, A. 92, David Jones to Secretary, 1 July 1827. 6 7 P A M HBCA, D. 4/5, fo. 169, George Simpson to David Jones, 26 August 1825: The two boys who passed away that spring were William Sharpe and Joseph Harbridge. PAM HBCA, D. 4/lb, fos. 16, 17, 44 immediate; he closed the doors of the Indian mission school. In August of 1825 Simpson informed Jones that no more Indian students could be recruited from the interior.6 8 Simpson made no effort to conciliate the relatives of the deceased boys, nor did he defend the Indian mission school. On the contrary, he seized the opportunity as the just cause he needed to close the Indian mission school and withdraw his begrudged support. As expected, Jones complied with Simpson's order. Yet, Jones took advantage of the fact that the sole interest of the CMS in London was with Indian conversion and education. He decided to maintain the Indian mission school with the students who still remained, because both he and the HBC depended on the CMS for half the financial support of all the educational programs in Red River. 6 9 In the fall of 1832, a number of Company officer children boarded at Jones's parsonage in anticipation of the completion and opening of the Red River Academy. The Academy was built on the grounds of John West's Indian mission school. Before the doors of the Academy were officially opened, George Simpson took advantage of another unfortunate incident to remove the Indian students from the grounds entirely. The incident involved an encounter between two students which resulted in an \"unplanned\" pregnancy. The young lady, Annabella McKenzie, was an Academy candidate who boarded at Jones's house. The young man, Charles Pratt, was a residential student at the Indian mission school. The incident threatened to close the school before it was even opened when Simpson ordered its construction to halt in November. He demanded that Cockran relocate the Indian mission boys to St Andrew's and would not allow further construction on the Academy until April of 1833 when the boys were moved downriver. 7 0 6 8 PAM HBCA, D. 4/5, George Simpson to David Jones, 26 August 1825. 6 9 P A C CMSA, A. 92, Jones to Secretary, 1 July 1827. 7 0 P A C CMSA, A.96, William Smith to William Jowett, 18 December 1833; Bredin, \"Red River Academy,\" p. 12. 45 Simpson had successfully managed to push the Indian residential students aside to make way for the sons and daughters of active Company officers. The Indian mission, once the center of community life became peripheral - out of sight, out of mind. It is not difficult to conclude that the educational goals of the local HBC were realized through Reverend Jones. The education of Indian children became subordinate to the education of Company and settler children, and Jones convinced the CMS of the practicability of this change of focus. In effect, Jones acted to please the elite factions in Rupert's Land. As it turned out, however, the very children that Jones deemed unsuited for the ministry went on to become the groundbreaking missionaries of the Church of England in Rupert's Land. The pioneering efforts of the CMS among interior Indian nations were not carried out by Jones, or by any of his well-educated Country-born students. That feat was accomplished by the original students of the Red River Indian mission school. John West's proteges were out in the field as ground-breaking catechists, school teachers, interpreters, and missionaries, well ahead of their European and genteel Country-born contemporaries. It is clear that the political and socio-economic climate at Red River, and in Rupert's Land as a whole, did not support a serious plan for the education of Indian children. Nevertheless, the ten students John West recruited for his mission school did receive comparatively good academic, industrial, agricultural and religious training. Having discussed the issues surrounding the development, maintenance and status of the Indian school at Red River, a detailed examination of John West's Indian education program both during his tenure and under his successors will follow. III . R E D R I V E R I N D I A N M I S S I O N S C H O O L A N D S T U D E N T S , 1 8 2 0 - 1 8 3 3 A . THE REVEREND JOHN WEST, 1820-1823 Of all the European Church of England missionaries who came to Rupert's Land in the early 19th century only John West could be considered an \"initial contact missionary.\"1 Besides being the first missionary in Rupert's Land, West was the only one who actually traversed the boundaries of the Red River settlement before 1842. On his journies to the HBC posts West visited local Indian bands, spoke to them about Christianity, and recruited their children for his school at Red River. His background and general attitude towards Indian people is worth noting for three very important reasons. John West established the first Indian school and Indian education program in Western Canada. His ideas and programs became the cornerstone of the federal government's Indian education policies after confederation. And finally, John West was the missionary who recruited, guided, and influenced the first Native church workers of the CMS. John West was born in November of 1778 in England and graduated from St. Edmund's hall at Oxford University with a Master's of Arts degree.2 After graduating, the church posted him at Roothing Essex under the rectorship of Reverend Henry Budd. Budd was deeply involved in the Church Missionary Society and no doubt played a role in encouraging West to focus his attention on the potentially prosperous mission field of Rupert's Land. Reverend Charles Simeon, a good friend and relative through marriage, further influenced John West. Simeon was considered one of England's greatest evangelical leaders of the 1 Vera Kathrin Fast, \"The Protestant Missionary and Fur Trade Society: Initial Contact in the Hudson's Bay Territory, 1820-1850,\" (Ph.D. thesis, University of Manitoba, 1984), p. 64. 2PAC, EPRLC, P. 45, PR1-84-39, file 5-1002, \"Obituary Notice of the Reverend John West,\" Gentleman's Magazine, February 1846. 46 47 day and was a founding member of the Clapham Sect.3 West was so exited by the prospects of mission work among North American Indians in Rupert's Land that he gave up his curacy at Roothing in 1820 to accept the appointment of Chaplain to the the HBC. a Unlike many other missionaries of his time and later, West had a genuine interest in the cultures of the various Indian groups with whom he came into contact. His journals contain a considerable amount of valuable ethnographic data on the habits, occupations, characteristics, and dress of Indian peoples.5 Nevertheless, in true missionary fashion, West noted and denounced various Indian practices like polygamy, horse-taking, gambling, warring, religious rituals, and justice. His description of Indian education and child rearing strongly reflected his ethnocentric European view: He [an Indian] is a murderer by habit, engendered from his earliest age; and the scalping knife and the tomahawk, and the unforgiving pursuit of his own enemy, or his father's enemy, till he has drenched his hands in, and satiated his revenge with his blood, is but the necessary issue of a principle on which his education is formed.6 Though West made a concerted effort to study Indian religious concepts, he was always an evangelical missionary with an urgent goal: What can calm these furocious[sic] feelings, and curb this savage fury of the passion in the tortutous destruction of defenceless women and sucking infants? What, but the introduction and influence of Christianity, the best civilizer of the wandering natives of these dreary 3Fast, \" Protestant Missionary\" pp. 20, 65. \"Canon E. K. Matheson, \"Old Days in Canada West,\" Canadian Churchman (26 May 1921) 5 For example, in January of 1821 West carefully described the style of clothing worn by plains hunters he met in the Qu'Appelle Valley: \"The skin was the principal, and almost the only article of dress they wore, and was wrapped around them, or worn tastefully over the shoulders like the highland plaid.\" John West, The Substance of a Journal During a Residence at the Red River Colony, British North America in the Years 1820-1823, (Vancouver: Alcuin Society Reprint, 1967), p. 36. 6Ibid., p. 142. 48 wilds, and the most probable means of fixing them in pursuit of agriculture, and of those social advantages and privileges to which they are at present strangers.7 West was a European idealist, but he was not so impracticable as to believe that the Gospel, on its own, could bring about the cultural transformation of Indian peoples he envisioned. Nor was he ever troubled by the philosophical question of whether Indian peoples should be christianized or \"civilized\" first. To West the goals of achieving them, were not mutually exclusive. Like his contemporaries he could not envision a civilized man who was not a christian or a christian who was not civilized. 8 West was convinced that education was imperative before Indian peoples could \"be led to comprehend the benefits to be received from civilization\" or before their character would change under the influence of C h r i s t i a n i t y . 9 The primary object of schooling should be to inculcate the christian religion; Indians had to be taught to read before they could read the Bible. Overwhelmed by their independent nature, West determined soon after his arrival in Rupert's Land that the only hope for change lay in affecting the children of Indians: \"If little hope could be cherished of the adult Indian in his wandering and unsettled habits of life, it appears to me that a wide and most extensive field presented itself for cultivation in the instruction of native children.\" 1 0 West was convinced that C h r i s t i a n i t y and agriculture went hand in hand. He believed that significant progress in the conversion of Indian peoples could not be achieved until after they had adopted sedentary ways: 7 Ibid., p! 80. Much of West's interest in Indian peoples may well have been rooted in his belief that Indians were of biblical Hebraic origin and had arrived in North America from Asia over the land bridge. Ibid., p. 51. 8 Jean Usher, \"Apostles and Aborigines: The Social Theory of the Church Missionary Society,\" Social History 7 (1971), p. 37. 9 West, Substance, p. 140. 1 0Ibid., p. 12. 49 Necessity may compel the adult Indian to take up the spade and submit to manual labour, but a child brought up in the love of cultivating a garden will be naturally led to the culture of the field as a means of subsistence: and educated in the principles of Christianty, he will become stationary to partake of the advantages and privileges of civilization. It is through these means of instruction that a change will be gradually affected in the character of the North American Indian, who in his present savage state thinks it beneath the dignity of his independence to till the ground.1 1 John West proposed to incorporate as many e l e m e n t s of English r u r a l life as p o s s i b l e at his Red River Indian mission school. Among these he included C h r i s t i a n i t y , the r u d i m e n t s of e d u c a t i o n , a g r i c u l t u r e and a n i m a l h u s b a n d r y , a n d other utilitarian subjects s u c h as s e w i n g , c o o k i n g , and b u i l d i n g construction. B. JOHN WEST'S \"LITTLE CHARGES,\" THE INDIAN STUDENTS When the West party finally reached Fort Douglas at the Red River settlement in the fall of 1820 they had no church, school, or residence, but they had already recruited two Indian boys for West's proposed Indian mission school: Pemutewithinew - James Hope - the nine year old son of Chief Withaweecapo, and Sakacheweskam - Henry Budd - the eight year old son of a Mixed-blood widow from Norway House who gave her son to West during his journey to the settlement.1 2 By the summer of 1823 West had collected ten Indian children on his travels, from various inland regions. Table 3 lists who these children were, their national backgrounds, and dates of arrival. Figure 5 shows where West recruited them during his inland journies. West claimed that his recruitment modes were based on the principle of \"mild persuasion and conviction.\" 1 3 His claim appears to be plausible since there are no recorded instances of kidnapping or force. The day John West arrived at 1 'Ibid., p. 139. 1 2PAC CMSA, A. 88, Ceorge Harbridge to Josiah Pratt, 1 July 1824; West, Substance, p. 88. 1 3Ibid., p. 133. 50 Table 3 Indian Mission Students Recruited by John West, 1820-1833 Date of Arrival Original Names Christian Names Origin Nationality 14 Oct. 1820 Pemutewithinew James Hope York Factory Muskago 14 Oct. 1820 Sakacheweskam Henry Budd Norway House Muskago-Mixed-blood 25 May 1821 Pemuteuithinew Joseph Harbridge* Beaver Creek Plains Cree 24 May 1822 Askenootow Charles Pratt Qu'Appelle Lakes Assiniboine-Cree (Mixed-blood) 24 May 1822 Kananugusid John Hope York Factory Muskago 24 May 1822 Tackagouatim Harriette West York Factory Muskago 24 May 1822 Sakachesicoithenew Henry Sinclair 50 miles south of York Muskago Mixed-blood fall 1822 Nehougatim Sarah Budd Norway House Muskago Mixed-blood 15 Oct. 1823 Chimayarzey Thomas Hassel Fort Churchill Chipewyan 15 Oct. 1823 Chuckethee William Sharpe* Fort Churchill Chipewyan Sources: PAM CMS, A. 88, George Harbridge to Josiah Pratt, 1 July 1824, and A. 92, Jones Journal, 5 May 1825. PAM HBCA, E.4/la, fo. 43d. Isaac Cowie, The Company of Adventurers, A Narrative of Seven Years in the Service of the Hudson's Bay Company During 1867-1874, (Toronto: William Briggs, 1913), p. 235. * Joseph Harbridge and William Sharpe died of consumption (tuberculosis) while attending the Indian mission school, in February and March of 1825, respectively. Figure 5 Map Showing the Origins of the Indian Mission Students Recruited by John West During his Inland Travels, 1820-1823 — 6 Aug. - 14 Oct. 1820 >—15 Jan. -5 Feb. 1821 (West also went to York Factory in July and returned in Oct. but did not procure any children on that journeyl • • 22 July 1822-- 10 June - 18 Aug. 1823 'Thomas Hassel William Sharpe _- - , (1823) Churchill*-. ^ ^ Hudson 8ay York Factory 100 200 Miles Henry Budd (1820) I 1* Norway House ' Winnipeg STONE INDIANS i, :.\\SAULTEAUX\\ INDIANS CREE\\lNDIANS Manitoba Housed ASSINIBOINE OR\\STONE INDIANS Fort Qu'Appelle QuAPP^ ^ * / \\v Charles Pratt (1822) / ^ Joseph Harbridge (1821) ASSINIBOINE Brandon House INDIANS Souns Fort Douglas • Sarah Budd (1822)) f Pembina o-l-31 N A Source: John A. M. West, The Substance of a Journal During a Residence at the Red River Colony, British North America in the Years 1820-1823 (London: L. B. Seeley & son, 1824; reprinted ed., Vancouver: The Alcuin Society, 1967). 52 York Fort he surveyed the Indian parents of the area to find out if they would give up their children for his proposed mission school. With the aid of an interpreter West interviewed Chief Withaweecapo of York Factory and expressed his desire to take two of the ChiePs sons with him to the Red River settlement. West told Withaweecapo that he would maintain and educate the children \"in white man's knowledge and religion.\" Following their conversation Withaweecapo \"tearfully promised [West] two of his boys.\"1 * West was overjoyed and encouraged by this triumph believing that it \"established the principle that the North American Indian would part with his children\" for education and religious instruction.1 5 Over the years his experience with Withaweecapo and his family left a strong impression on him: He yielded to my request; and I shall never forget the affectionate manner in which he brought his eldest boy in his arms, and placed him in the canoe on the morning of my departure from York Factory. 1 6 Following his initial experience with Chief Withaweecapo, West made a practice of seeking out influential male leaders in each Indian community he visited. Through an interpreter he related his purpose. Discussion usually followed and the Indian people asked a number of questions. West did not record any of the discussions verbatim but he did keep notes on a few conversations he had with Chief Peguis of Netley Creek beginning in the fall of 1820. His first meeting with Peguis failed to win any of the Chiefs sons or other Indian children for the mission. No doubt West was disappointed, but he did not relent. Two years later he approached Peguis again, bluntly stating that he wanted two 1 \"PAC CMSA, A. 98, John West Report to the Hudson's Bay Company and the Church Missionary Society, 3 December 1823. (hereinafter cited as John West Report.) 1 5 West, Substance, p. 13. 1 6 Ibid., p. 12. 53 of the Chiefs sons to attend the Indian mission school. Peguis agreed that Indian children needed to be educated and he promised he would send two of his sons to the school the following spring. When making this pledge the Chief frankly told West that \"Indians like to have time to consider about these matters.\"1 7 Only after the two men smoked the pipe did Peguis finally express his reservations about West's Proposal. According to West Peguis; shrewdly asked me what I would do with the children after they are taught what I wished them to know. I told him they might return to their parents if they wished it, but my hope was that they would see the advantage of making gardens, and cultivating the soil, so as not to be exposed to hunger and starvation...[the children] would read the Book that the Great Spirit has given to them, which the Indians had not yet known, and would teach them how to live well and die happy.1 8 Peguis warned that his people might not be very receptive to the idea of adopting a sedentary life. Undaunted West then informed Peguis that certain Indian customs, such as polygamy, would also have to be abandoned when they embraced C h r i s t i a n i t y . The Chief retorted that he could see no reason why an Indian man could not have two wives when a certain settler he knew had two. In spite of these reservations Peguis arrived two months later at the mission school fulfilling his promise by bringing one young boy. However, instead of presenting West with one of his own sons, Peguis brought the son of his widowed sister. West was angered by Peguis's action and demanded an explanation. The Chief said he was still \"thinking about it.\" As it turned out, Peguis spent a long time pondering the issue; his first son was not baptized until 1837.1 9 Apparently the motives that impelled Indian parents, guardians, or 1 'West, Substance, pp. 95^ 96~! 1 8Ibid., p. 96. 1 9 Historic Resources Branch, Manitoba Culture, Heritage and Recreation, Chief Peguis (Winnipeg: Historic Resources Branch, 1984), p. 7. 54 leaders t o hand their children over to West varied greatly. Peguis and his people had little reason to give up their religion and way o f life. Even their close proximity to the colony and friendly associations with the settler did not entice the Saulteaux to change immediately. Ten more years passed before they began to choose a new way of life and worship, in growing numbers. Economic pressures seem to have been the motivation. By the 1830s the buffalo and other large game animals were becoming scarce, the Indians' land base was considerably reduced, and they were very dependent on supplies from the HBC and colony. 2 0 The choice was clear - revitalize or starve. Most of the Netley Creek Saulteaux chose C h r i s t i a n i t y and its concomitant, agriculture. Many other parents, like Peguis, were sceptical of West and his motives. In the spring of 1823 West reported that he had encountered many \"prejudices\" from Indians who were against giving their children because they feared he was collecting children to take back to England.2 1 One mother retrieved her two sons from West's care shortly after he obtained them because she feared they would be taken away. The mother lamented that, \"they would be all the same as dead to her, if what she heard was true.\" 2 2 Although many Indian parents balked at West's proposal for the education of their chilrdren, others were very receptive. The Plains Cree father of Pemuteuithineu - Joseph Harbridge - sent his son to the mission ' school to learn about West's religion. West came across Joseph's people on his return trip from Qu'Appelle in January 1821. He had camped among these Plains Cree hunters and the following morning while breaking camp, he came across the boy. West asked Joseph's father if he could take the child back to Red River with 2 0 Ibid. 2 1 PAC CMSA, A. 98, West Journal, 24 March 1823. 2 2 West, Substance, pp. 129, 130. West claims that these rumours were started by the Catholics in the settlement to prejudice the Indians against the CMS mission. PAC CMSA, A. 98, John West Report, 3 December 1823. 55 him and apparently the father responded favourably: \"as I asked for his son, and stood between the Great Spirit and the Indians, he would send him to me.\" Four months later when the Company boats reached Red River from the Swan River District they deposited Joseph into the care of the missionary.2 3 One year after Joseph arrived from the interior, the Company boats brought Askenootow -Charles Pratt - who came from a band of local Stonies or Assiniboines in the Swan River District known as the Young Dogs. Charles's people wanted him returned when he could read and write. 2\" Thomas Hassell, or Chinnayarzy, had every intention of returning home to Fort Churchill as a \"Scribe.\" 2 5 His Chipewyan father stipulated that he wanted his son to be \"taught more than the Indians knew.\" He also helped West procure another young boy named Chuckathee - William Sharpe - from his widowed mother to accompany his son on the journey to the mission school. When they parted their father told West that the boys were to be returned \"when they had learnt enough.\"26 Only two of the original ten students were actually orphans: Tackagouatim - Harriette West - who was given to West at York Factory in 1822 and Sakachesicoithenew - Harry Sinclair - who was apparently abandoned.2 7 Harry Sinclair was a Mixed-blood orphan whose people lived some 50 miles south of York Factory. In July of 1822 while West was enroute to York Fort, two Indian people paddled their canoe alongide West's and asked him to take the boy. Since Harry was nearly naked and suffering from the cold, West gave the boy a blanket and then agreed to take him to the colony on his 2 3 West, Substance, pp. 38, 54; PAC CMSA, A. 88, George Harbridge to Josiah Pratt, 1 July 1824. 2 \"Ibid.; Cowie, Company of Adventurers, A Narrative of Seven Years in the Service of the Hudson's Bay Company During 1867-1874 (Toronto: William Briggs, 1913), p. 235. 2 5 PAC CMSA, A. 88, George Harbridge to Josiah Pratt, 1 July 1824. 2 6 West, Substance, pp. 152-153. 2 7 PAC CMSA, A. 88, George Harbridge to Josiah Pratt, 1 July 1824. 56 return. West returned from that trip with three children. As well as Harry and Harriette, aged nine and six respectively, West obtained Chief Withaweecapo's second son Kananugusid - John Hope - who was only five years old. old.2 8 Besides Chuckethee the two other fatherless children at the school were Henry Budd and his sister Sarah. Sarah and their mother Agathus followed Henry to Red River in the fall of 1822. Sarah attended classes and Agathus was hired as the resident domestic.2 9 There were a few occasions when West believed that the parents' motives in sending their children to school were not as honourable or sincere as he had previously thought. Peguis's widowed sister's actions are a case in point. In early January of 1823 Peguis placed his nine year old nephew in West's care. The boy apparently adjusted well, was happy, and soon submersed himself in his studies.3 0 Two weeks after his arrival his mother returned and West \"permitted\" the boy to visit his mother on a regular basis. When West determined that the visits were far too frequent and too lengthy in duration he implored the mother to encourage her son to remain at . school. West's pleas went unheeded and eventually the boy refused to return to school. He then accused the mother of using her son to obtain the clothing and blanket the school issued, and of using the school as a temporary shelter while she was off with a \"lazy bad Indian she was living with.\"3 1 Most of the parents visited their children as often as they could. Some 2 8Ibid.; West, Substance, pp. 89, 91. 2 9 P A C CMSA, A. 88, George Harbridge to Josiah Pratt, 1 July 1824. 3 0 P A C CMSA, A. 98, John West Report, 3 December 1823. 3 'During their conversion the mother told West that the only reason she brought her son to the school was because she was unable to provide for him. West angrily offered the mother and son an ultimatum: either the boy return to school or stay with his mother and return the school supplies. The boy chose to stay with his mother so West took his clothes and blanket which \"rather offended them.\" The mother retorted that they had \"bad medicine for those who displeased them4.\" Ibid.; West, Substance, pp. I l l , 112. 57 parents like Agathus and Withaweecapo followed their children and permanently relocated to the settlement.3 2 No doubt the separation between parent and child was traumatic and lonely. Parents were probably curious and concerned about how their children were being treated and wanted to know what they were learning. At first West was sensitive to the bonds between parent and child and permitted family members to visit one another \"with little or no restraint.\"3 3 After a year of \"having the interuption of Indians in constantly visiting their children when near to them\" along with what he believed was the misuse of the mission by some families, he repealed his open visitation policy. West believed the best way to retain effective control over the students was to only enroll those from distant regions rather than those from the immediate vicinity. 3\" Thus, after his initial experiments with open access, West instituted a residential school program which became the cornerstone of later education programs in Western Canada. In West's view, children from more distant regions were \"reconciled to restraint and were happy on the establishment\" much more readily than were those who had easy access to their homes.3 5 C. THE INDIAN MISSION SCHOOL, PROGRAM AND CURRICULUM Since West's \"civilization\" and christianization goal for Indian children depended on their ability to read and speak English, he wasted no time in preparing them for that ultimate \"achievement.\" James Hope's education began on 3 2 Fast, \"Protestant Missionary,\" p. 420; Wardens and Vestry of St. John's Cathedral, From Mission to Cathedral: John West, (Winnipeg: St. John's Cathedral, 1945), p. 5. 3 3 West believed that the parents were not \"insensible to the care and kindness that were shewn to them [children]\" and cited an instance in which Joseph's father held a highly prized horse for the missionary as a gift of gratitude. West planned to repay the father for this kindness with \"blankets, or any other useful European articles he might want and which could be procured.\" West, Substance, p. 81. 3 \"Ibid.; PAC CMSA, A. 98, West Journal, 20 April 1823. 3 5 West, Substance, p. 130. 58 6 August 1820, the day he left York Factory with West. By the time they reached Norway House on the 5th of October, the boy was reciting in its entirety the Lord's Prayer each morning and evening. 3 6 A remarkable feat for a nine year old boy who could not speak a word of English. In fact, none of the original ten students brought to the mission school by West had any command of the English language, and most could not speak English long after they were able to read. After twenty-one months residence at the school, Harriette could \"read with tolerable ease any part of the New Testament\" but she did \"not know the meaning of any sentence.\" Schoolmaster Harbridge found this most exasperating: Until they learn to talk fluently it is next to impossible to convey an idea to their minds, they may read a sentence fluently, and even learn to repeat it; and not understand a single syllable.3 7 Thus, the first 'English as a Second Language program' (ESL) in Western Canada was based on constant drilling, recitation, and daily devotions. The children memorized the Church of England, Watt's, and Lewis's Catechisms, and the Chief Truths of the Christian Religion. They studied the Bible and prayer books, and sang hymns during and after school hours.3 8 Apparently singing gave the children great joy and soon after learning how to print they were encouraged to create their own hymns and poems. Samples of the students' hymns are available in Figures 6 and 7. Although each child progressed at his or her own pace, the records indicate that it generally took less than one year to read and print in monosyllables. Within two to three years a child could speak and understand English comfortably and was by then ready for baptism. This sacrament was a 3 6Ibid., pp. 12, 14. 3 7PAC CMSA, A. 88, George Harbridge to Josiah Pratt, 1 July 1824. 3 8 West, Substance, pp. 59, 104. Figure 6 Letter from James Hope to the Church Missionary Society (London), 25 June 1823 Church Mission House To the Committee Red River Colony North Church Mission Society America June 25th 1823 Gentlemen: I am a Missionary School Boy, and am taught to read the Bible, And keep it in mind. And I have a Brother here, and He is learning to read the first little Book. And I have been taught by George Harbridge. And my Name is called James Hope, I am an Indian Boy. And I have been baptized by Mr. West. And I pray, every Morning and Evening. And I have learnt the Hymn book and my Catechism. And I have been taught to do my sums: there are Five Boys and Two girls and the Names of them are Henry Budd, Joseph Harbridge, Charles Pratt, Harry Sinclair, John Hope, Sarah Budd> and, Harriette West. This letter comes from James Hope, it was written in the School at Red River Colony on the 25th of June 1823. Great God thy glorious name we praise. An Ebenezer we would raise Rich are the mercies that we share Thy goodness language cant declare This school is for thy service rais'd Here thou art to be sought and prais'd Thy gospel learnt - Thy day rever'd -Thy will obey'd - Thy threatenings fear'd For these great ends thy grace impart -Thy Spirit send to every heart Our benefactors richly bless And crown our teachers with success Source: PAC CMSA, A.88, George Harbridge to Josiah Pratt, 26 June 1823. Figure 7 Letter from Henry Budd to the Church Missionary Society (London), 26 June 1823 Teach us Lord to know thy word; And better learn thy will; Our minds, with sin and folly stor'd, Do thee with wisdom fill, Our hearts to every evil prone, In mercy Lord Subdue; Each foe to thee and us dethrone And form us all anew Oh let a vain and thoughtless race,-Thy pardning [sic] mercy prove; Begin betimes to seek thy face And thy commandments love. Tis ours to join in songs of praise, For thy indulgent care; Tis ours to learn thy sacred ways And mutual blessings share. Then be it ours with power to feel, Thine influence with in; Constraining us to do thy will And flee the paths of sin. This hymn was written by me - Henry Budd - in the School at Red River Colony June 26th 1823. Source: PAC CMSA, A.88, George Harbridge to Josiah Pratt, 26 June 1823. 61 test in itself. In order to pass, each student had to demonstrate they understood their three basic texts.3 9 Each child was baptized according to his or her progress. For example, Charles Pratt received the sacrament after thirteen months, while Henry Budd and James Hope recieved it twenty-one months after first arriving at the mission school. These three boys were considered to be the best of the young scholars and were looked upon favourably by the schoolmaster. Each was a \"good boy\" and possessed an \"amiable\" disposition. By Harbridge's standards Henry Budd was the most \"amiable\" of them all: \"He is remarkably still and quick, and apparently of a more thoughtful turn of mind than the rest.\"\" 0 Each child displayed distinct academic aptitude levels and personal characteristics which worked either for or against their \"progress\" at the school. For example, it took Thomas Hassel three years and nine months to earn the qualifications he needed for baptism, yet Harbridge considered him to be a \"very fine and promising lad.\" Thomas was also \"very amiable, Obedient and docile.\" Harry Sinclair, while a quick learner, was the most difficult to manage, and Harbridge thought William Sharpe was hopeless in any endeavour. Harriette was \"of a meek spirit tender feelings and of good disposition\" while Sarah was \"in many respects her inferior...she is foreward and rather bold and impudent.\" Harbridge had little faith in the academic potential of either of the girls, Harriette was \"not very quick\" and Sarah was described as \"rather dull.\" The English ministers, reflecting their own tradition, valued amiability and obedience, which they believed indicated a promising degree of learned \"civility.\" Nevertheless, even once attained it could be lost on occasion. For example, Harbridge noted in 1824 that \"John [Hope] is docile if not irritated, but when 3 9Ibid., p. 121; PAC CMSA, A. 98, John West to Josiah Pratt, 28 August 1822; PAM HBCA, E. 4/la, fo. 39. 0 0 P A C CMSA, A. 88, George Harbridge to Josiah Pratt, 1 July 1824. 62 he is, he is quite an Indian.\" 4 1 In the controlled and sedentary environment of the mission school, the Indian children were taught agriculture and stock-raising.4 2 The children and staff cleared and enclosed a portion of land immediately behind the school.4 3 Each of the older boys received his own little section to cultivate and apparently took \"great delight in their gardens.\" 4 4 Furthermore, as an outdoor activity, the gardens served to keep their spirits up. Some of the students suffered from severe melancholia which was known amongst Indian people as \"thinking long.\" A. C. Garrioch, a subsequent teacher at the school, stated that they attributed this illness to excessive booklearning, so the garden work helped to ease the students' transition from the old way of life to the new.4 5 The school farm expanded over time and included the cultivation of grains, root crops, and vegetables, as well as livestock.4 6 The farming operations became so extensive by 1830 that the schoolmaster complained that the boys' attendance at school in the afternoons was so irregular \"as to preclude any sanguine hope of their reaping much benefit from i t . 4 7 In the summer months the boys skipped school because they were employed on the mission farm, or on local farms by settlers who prized them for their agricultural sk i l l s . 4 8 In the sketches of the mission school shown in Figure 2, the enclosed garden can be seen to the left of the school and church building. Industry was considered a most important trait to teach the children, 4 11bid. 4 2 West, Substance, p. 81. 4 3 P A M HBCA, B. 235/a/5, fo. 44. 4 \"West, Substance, p. 81. 4 5 Garrioch, Correction Line, p. 91, cited in A. N. Thompson, \"The Expansion of the Church of England in Rupert's Land from 1820 to 1839 under the Hudson's Bay Company and the Church Missionary Society,\" (Ph.D. thesis, Cambridge University, 1962), p. 111. 4 6 West, Substance, p. 97. 4 7PAC CMSA, A. 87, William Garrioch to Edward Bickersteth, 1 August 1830. 4 8 Ibid., 24 February 1829. 63 boys and girls alike. After the arrival of the schoolmistress in the fall of 1822 the two girls received additional instruction in the \"domestic arts.\" Besides sending out the usual supplies of spellers, slates, pencils, and other educational condonments, the London office of the CMS dispatched quantities of sewing and knitting needles, threads, buttons, scissors, and other domestic tools. The girls were taught to sew \"clothes like white people wore\" and to cook and do housekeeping chores.4 9 During West's sojourn at Red River, he strove to make the mission school self-supporting. The combined support of the CMS and HBC could hardly provide for the students already in residence which meant they had to depend a great deal on the mission farm produce and country provisions. A contemporary, Alexander Ross, stated that the progress of agricultural development was slow and uncertain in West's time, but enough was produced at the mission to \"keep hope alive.\" Ross added: on the strength of that hope a few Indian children were collected together by Mr. West, and put to school among the children of whites. This was all that was or could well be done at this time; for everything was regulated by the prospect of the crops, the labour and success of the husband man.5 0 Thus, the mission farm effort bore important fruit. The students and staff also depended a great deal on nature's bounty. Raspberries from the woods, strawberries from the plains, black and red currants, gooseberries, cranberries, and wild root crops were harvested annually.5 1 The school also had in its employ an Indian hunter named Asau who 4 9 West, Substance, p. 96; PAC CMSA, A. 88, George Harbridge to Josiah Pratt, 1 July 1824. 5 0 Alexander Ross, The Red River Settlement: Its Rise, Progress, and Present State. With Some Accounts of The Native Races and Its General History, To The Present Day, (Minneapolis: Rass & Haines Reprint, 1957), p. 277. 5'West, Substance, p. 100. 64 performed two important tasks. He supplied the school with fresh meat and he tutored the Indian mission boys in hunting skills and the use and care of weaponry. In this aspect West's Indian mission school was unique. Later Indian schools and missionaries denounced the hunting way of life altogether. West was a realist in this regard. During his time the hunt was necessary to survive, and with much forethought Reverend West encouraged the boys to sharpen their skills whenever the opportunties arose.5 2 Furthermore, West knew that without dexterity in hunting and fishing, the boys would be despised in their home communities: \"Reading or writing will gain but little credit,\" but if a Native child \"has learned to mend a gun, he will be highly respected.\"5 3 Since the children were being primed primarily to carry the gospel back to their homelands, traditional skills and practical knowledge would not only be required for their own survival, it would help them gain acceptance and possibly prestige among their own people. Schoolmaster Harbridge reported many instances of furious tempers, \"Hatred of Control and Subjugation,\" and disciplinary acts which indicate that some of the children were dragged up the path to \"civility.\" Others, who exhibited \"unsocial,\" \"sullen,\" or \"meek\" dispositions may well have resigned themselves to their lot. True conversion required that all incompatible beliefs and practices be renounced as false. Christianity possessed absolute standards of right and wrong that went far beyond traditional Indian considerations of \"appropriate and inappropriate behavoir.\" Also in sharp contrast to Native customs, Christianity placed a premium on strict regularity, order, and discipline; none of these values could have been readily comprehensible to the young students.5 * In 5 2Ibid.; St. John's, Mission to Cathedral, p. 5; William Bertal Heeney, John West and His Red River Mission, (Toronto: Musson Book Co., 1920), p. 39. 5 3 P A C CMSA, A. 98, John West to CMS Committee, ? July 1822. 5 \"John Webster Grant, Moon in Wintertime: Missionaries and the Indians of Canada in Encounter since 1534 (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1984), p. 65 the final analysis, true conversion required these young children to denounce the world-views of their families, and join in its total eradication. After almost three years of schooling Henry Budd wrote a poem which gives a good indication of the effectiveness of Reverend West's indoctrination program: \"Oh let a Vain and Thoughtless race, Thy pardning [sic] mercy prove; Begin betimes to seek thy face And thy commandments love,\"5 5 Indian children were subject to psychological intimidation and corporal punishment. Schoolmaster Harbridge stated that the purpose of physical punishment was to aquaint the students with the \"distinguishing characteristics of right and wrong.\" 5 6 William Sharpe received frequent \"correction\" and Harbridge often made him an example in front of the the other children. As a means of control, various forms of punishment were employed by the schoolmaster on a regular basis. Young Sharpe received a disproportionate amount of such attention when he first arrived at the school. Apparently the schoolmaster's perseverence paid off as William exhibited less and less of his \"reprehensible inclinations\" over time.5 7 These approaches to instruction fostered many stories and fears about the mistreatment of the mission school children during West's chaplaincy and led Indian parents to take protective action. For example, one of the mothers \"clandestinely retrieved\" her two sons from the school soon after they were enrolled because she heard that West had threatened to cut their ears off if 5 \"(cont'd) 243. 5 5 PAC CMSA, A. 88, Henry Budd to the CMS, 26 June 1823. 5 6 PAC CMSA, A. 88, George Harbridge to Josiah Pratt, 1 July 1824. 5 7Ibid. 66 they left the school grounds without permission.5 8 The missionaries never went this far. However, it is within the realms of possibility that they did make these kinds of threats. Some Indian parents were unwilling to take chances and they did not approve of the disciplinary tactics used at the school. Native parents rarely struck their children and they did not enforce rigid rules of conduct. Rather, they taught their children socially acceptable behaviour by example. Schoolmaster Harbridge disdained what he regarded to be a complete lack of discipline in new Indian students. For him this was his greatest and most difficult challenge. As Harbridge saw it, pilfering and other \"reprehensible inclinations\" were a direct result of Indian child rearing practices \"where no restraint is laid either upon habits or appetites.\"5 9 The Indian students, on the other hand, must have experienced a lot of fear, confusion, and anger when subjected to various forms of English discipline and to a different set of social customs. Most of them had been raised in communities where sharing was commonplace and where children were usually free to help themselves to provisions at will. In sharp contrast, at the mission school they were punished for taking anything without permission, especially food which was rationed and served three times a day. Originally George Harbridge was the sole schoolmaster at the Indian mission school and West had been generally satisfied with how he carried out the numerous tasks he was responsible for. Besides providing daily instruction to the day and resident students, and acting in the capacity of mission clerk and Sunday School teacher, Harbridge also looked after the daily care and nurturing of the resident Indian students. The arrival of his fiancee, Elizabeth Bowden, in the fall of 1822 was a welcome addition to the mission. Miss Bowden, who was ^ P A C CMSA, A. 98, John West Report, 3 December 1823. 5 9Ibid., George Harbridge to Josiah Pratt, 1 July 1824. 67 married to Harbridge soon after her arrival, was hired in London by the CMS to serve as schoolmistress to the female students.6 0 Soon after Reverend West left Red River in 1823, the Harbridges came under much criticism which led to much contention at the Red River settlement. During the four months between West's departure and Jones' arrival, the Harbridges were left in charge of the mission station.6 1 Following Jones' arrival, complaints against the conduct and qualifications of both Harbridges were rife. Jones charged that prior to his arrival, Mr. Harbridge had all but alienated everyone connected with the mission school, including the Indian students because of his haughtiness, lack of respectability, and poor academic skills. 6 2 Governor George Simpson was the most outspoken critic of the Harbridges. He asserted that the mission school was suffering because the instructors were unqualified. More specifically Simpson stated that schoolmaster Harbridge was: self-conceited...stupid, ignorant, consequential and illiterate. Some of our half-breed boys in the colony can teach him instead of their receiving instruction from him.6 3 Simpson had no kind words for schoolmistress Harbridge either: she is above her situation, assuming more of the lady than is necessary, short tempered, paying little or no attention to her charge and treating the children under her care as menial servants without regard to their instruction or comfort.6 * 6 0 PAC CMSA, A. 98, John West to Josiah Pratt, 28 August 1822; West, Substance, p. 91. 6 1 Ibid., A.92, David Jones to Josiah Pratt, 24 July 1824; Ibid., A. 88, George Harbridge to Josiah Pratt, 18 July 1823. 6 2Ibid., A. 92, David Jones to Josiah Pratt, 24 July 1824. 6 3 George Simpson to Andrew Colville, 31 May 1824, in E. H. Oliver, The Canadian North-West, Its Early Development and Legislative Records, Minutes of the Councils of the Red River Colony and the Northern Department of Rupert's Land. (Ottawa: Government Printing Bureau, 1914), vol. 1, p. 259. 6 \"PAM HBCA, D. 4/3, fo. 140, George Simpson to Benjamin Harrison, 1 August 1824. 68 Of all the charges against the couple, Jones considered Mr. Harbridge's \"sinful\" intemperance intolerable. In July of 1824 Reverend Jones stripped Harbridge of his Sunday School station. He wanted Harbridge removed entirely from the mission but was forced to keep him on as schoolmaster because there was no qualified replacement available.6 5 The tension and conflicts between Jones, Simpson, and Harbridge reached a climax in June of 1825. Governor Simpson arrived at Red River from the Columbia District on 28 May 1825. On his homeward journey Simpson learned of the deaths of two Indian mission boys, William Sharpe and Joseph Harbridge who were buried in February and March of that year respectively.6 6 Jones claimed that the boys died of consumption; these two were the first of many Indian residential school students to die from tuberculosis.6 7 Simpson stated that news and rumours of the mission school deaths throughout Rupert's Land were rousing Indian fears and questions on the treatment their children were receiving there. He took advantage of the fears and reported threats of Indian parents to once again lambast the objects of the Indian mission school. George Harbridge obviously deserved the severe reprimand dolled out by Jones, but the attacks from Simpson were especially severe. Before Simpson arrived at Red River, Harbridge had defended his and his wife's positions. After two weeks of Simpson's uncontained antagonism and verbal affronts, Harbridge requested leave to return to England. He claimed that 6 S P A C CMSA, A. 92, David Jones to Josiah Pratt, 24 July 1824. 6 6 PAM HBCA, D. 4/5, fo. 169, George Simpson to Reverend David Jones, 26 August 1825; PAM HBCA, E. 4/lb, fos. 16,17. 6 7 Jones stated that during the winter of 1824-1825 the Settlement was plagued with severe starvation. The winter was mild and the buffalo remained out on the open prairie. Metis hunters and the mission hunter returned from the hunt empty-handed and starving. A number of boarding school students at the mission were ill and the Company surgeon told Jones that the lack of fresh meat in their diets was the cause. PAC CMSA, A. 92, Jones Journal, 5 May 1825. 69 his wife's \"ill-health\" necessitated their permanent departure.6 8 Jones secured William Garrioch, a retired Company clerk, as schoolmaster and granted Harbridge's request. In July of 1825 the Harbridge family boarded the Company boats for York Factory and England.6 9 Simpson's forceful and uncompromising attacks against Harbridge and the mission school were well rewarded. As we have seen Simpson exploited the situation the following month by closing the Indian mission school.7 0 Governor Simpson's accusations against the Harbridge's were not entirely self-seeking, in fact there was much truth to them. For example, Simpson's charge that Mrs. Harbridge took advantage of the children and used their labour for personal use was well-founded. Harriette West worked as a maid, or rather, a lady-in-waiting, during and after Mrs. Harbridge's pregnancy. While Mrs. Harbridge was confined, eight year old Harriette was removed from the care and comfort of Agathus at the girls' cabin to live with the Harbridges. The schoolmaster justified this irregularity by claiming that the girl was \"being made aquainted with Domestic usefullness,\" and was being taught how to sew.7 1 Harriette was not the only one who suffered on account of Mrs. Harbridge's \"confinement.\" Since the schoolmistress was unable to perform her usual task around the mission, Sarah Budd was withdrawn from full-time studies to assist her mother in the care of the students and upkeep of the mission.7 2 Following Simpson's official closure of the Indian mission school a few more students were in fact admitted. For example the two boys Simpson brought to the school from the Columbia District in 1825, Spokan Garry and Kootenay 6 8Ibid., A. 87, George Harbridge to Josiah Pratt, 20 October 1824; Ibid., George Harbridge to David Jones 10 June 1825. 6 9 P A M HBCA, B. 235/a/7, fo. 5. 7 ° P A M HBCA, D. 4/5, George Simpson to David Jones, .26 August 1825. 7 1 PAM CMSA, A. 88, George Harbridge to Josiah Pratt, 1 July 1824. 7 2 Ibid. 70 Pelly, returned from a visit to their homes in 1829 with five young friends or relatives from their country. Since these boys were also sons of Chiefs, they were not denied admission.7 3 7 3 P A C CMSA, A. 87, William Garrioch to Edward Bickersteth, 4 August 1829; Clifford M. Drury, \"Notes and Suggestions, Oregon Indians in the Red River School,\" Pacific Historical Review 7 (1938), pp. 50-51. IV. THE GRADUATES OF JOHN WEST'S INDIAN MISSION SCHOOL A. CAREER AND OCCUPATIONAL OPPORTUNITIES There appears to have been no official guidelines used by the teachers to determine whether or not the Indian students were qualified to graduate from the mission school. In fact, there is no indication that graduation ceremonies or any other public acknowledgement of academic accomplishment took place. Apparently the students left the establishment of their own free will, when they \"had grown up to manhood.\"1 When they left the school, these young men possessed many valued and unique abilities. They were the first Indians in Western Canada to have received a European education and unlike later graduates, they retained a variety of indigenous skills and knowledge. They could all still speak their languages, had maintained varying degrees of contact with their families and home communities, and possessed competent bush survival skills - hunting, trapping, and fishing. Each young man had also received between six and ten years of formal education; they were relatively well-read and possessed more than adequate writing and maths skills. 2 Furthermore, because of the emphasis Reverend Cockran placed on their industrial training, the students had received more and better qualified instruction in agriculture and stockraising than any of their Red River schoolboy peers. In short, these young men were well qualified to obtain fruitful employment, even in a fledgling settlement governed by a monopolistic corporation where the range of career opportunities were limited. They were qualified to live as hunters and trappers, intensive agriculturalists, Company clerks or accountants, schoolteachers, and with more training, Anglican missionaries. 1 PAC CMSA, A. 96, William Smith to Secretaries, 11 August 1833. 2 PAC CMSA, A. 87, William Garrioch Edward Bickersteth, 8 August 1826. 72 It is a difficult task to follow the career paths of all of West's proteges because there is very little primary data available about them. Three of the students, Harriette West, Sarah Budd, and Harry Sinclair have left no traceable trail. It is quite possible that the girls were married soon after leaving school, and Harry may have remained at Red River as a labourer. Fortunately, we can follow the career paths of the other five students, Henry Budd, Charles Pratt, Thomas Hassel, and James and John Hope. 3 The career paths of the five men mentioned have been pieced together from data available in the Hudson's Bay Company Archives, the Church Missionary Society Archives, and from a few newspaper articles and published primary sources. Only Henry Budd's life has been the subject of any major published works.4 B. TRADITIONAL OCCUPATIONS: HUNTING, TRAPPING, AND FISHING Apparently, hunting, trapping, and fishing were the least popular full-time career choices of the mission school graduates. The unpopularity of these more traditional means of living can be readily understood given the instability of the resources, market, and profits of the fur industry at that time. A more effective deterrant though, was no doubt the heavy Christian indoctrination the students experienced at school. All the early missionaries denounced the hunt and the way of life it necessitated. Reverend West firmly believed that \"little hope could be cherished of the adult Indian in his wandering and unsettled habits of life.\" 5 Reverend Cockran was constantly exhorting the same. That the students who 3 Two of\" the original ten students, Joseph Harbridge and William Sharpe died while attending the Indian mission school in the spring of 1825. PAM HBCA, E. 4/lb, fos. 16,17. \"Kathrine Pettipas ed., The Diary of the Reverend Henry Budd 1870-1875 (Winnipeg: Manitoba Record Society Publications, 1974), Supra. 5 John West, The Substance of a Journal During a Residence at the Red River Colony, British North America in the Years 1820-1823 (Vancouver: Alcuin Society Reprint, 1967), p. 12. 73 were the object of such constant discourses on the pious rightiousness of agriculture and the evils of the hunt would later view the latter as disdainful and unchristianlike is very understandable. Nonetheless, each of these men were forced to resort to the hunt for survival at various times in their lives. Charles Pratt made hunting his primary occupation at least twice in his life. He hunted for a living for two years following his flight from the mission school in the summer of 1832, and for another year in 1848. On the First occassion, which will be discussed later, Pratt may well have had little choice in the matter, having clandestinely fled the school after becoming entangled in a disreputable scandale.6 Neverthess, he was able to make his two year flight because he stead-fastly refused to snub the hunt. In fact he apparently chose to return to hunting for a living in 1848-1849, despite the indoctrination he received at school.7 In this respect he was unlike his other contemporaries for whom we have accounts. C. AGRICULTURE AT RED RIVER As noted, the graduates of the Indian mission school were proficient farmers. This was largely due to the efforts of Reverend William Cockran who took over the management of the the CMS farm in 1825. It had been established by West in 1822 to train the Indian students in agriculture and to provide them with food. Initially the mission garden was a small enclosed plot of land immediately behind the school but by 1829 the acreage under production quadrupled.8 The Red River census for that year indicates that the mission school possessed one of the most extensive farms in the settlement. It included 6Thomas F. Bredin, \"The Red River Academy,\" The Beaver Outfit 305:3 (1974), p. 12. 7PAC CMSA, A. 87, Cowley Journal, 18 December 1842, 15 March 1849. 8 PAM HBCA, B. 235/a/5, fo. 44. 74 20 cultivated acres, three houses, one barn, two stables, two horses, one mare, one bull, four cows, two calves, four oxen, 41 swine, three ploughs, two harrows, one boat, and two canoes. The mission farm was sufficiently productive to feed the twelve resident students, the families of the three mission employees, and yield a surplus which was sold in the settlement.9 The boys became such good farmers that in 1830 Schoolmaster Garrioch complained that they hardly attended afternoon classes in almost every season of the year because the boys, from the smallest to the biggest, found constant employment on the mission and neighboring farms.1 0 As soon as the young men left the mission school they were employed on local farms.1 1 Apparently Charles Pratt was the only exception. James Hope and Henry Budd were the first to leave school in 1828 at which time both went to work on local farms. The year before, Henry Budd's older brother The Cask, renamed James Budd, brought his family to Red River from Norway House.1 2 James and John Hopes' father Withaweecapo, who was baptized William Hope, moved his large family to the Indian settlement from York Factory. James remained at Red River until 1832 and he was employed either on his father's lot or elsewhere.1 3 John Hope remained at school until at least 9 PAM HBCA, E. 5/3; William Cockran to Dandeson Coates, 5 August 1829, cited in Corneluis J. Jaenen, \"Foundations of Dual Education at Red River, 1811-34,\" Transactions of the Historical and Scientific Society of Manitoba 3 (1965), p. 65. 1 °PAC CMSA, A. 87, William Garrioch to Edward Bickersteth, 24 February 1829, 7 August 1830. 1 1PAC CMSA, A. 96, William Smith to Secretaries, 11 August 1833. 1 2 Probably about the same time their sister Sarah and mother Agathus left the mission school considering that when James passed-away in 1829, Henry moved into the family farm to help his mother and sister-in-law: Pettipas, Diary of Henry Budd., p. xviii; A. N. Thompson, \"The Expansion of the Church of England in Rupert's Land from 1820 to 1839 under the Hudson's Bay Company and the Church Missionary Society,\" (Ph.D. thesis: Cambridge University, 1962), p. 373. 1 31 cannot determine exactly when Withaweecapo arrived permanently in the settlement so it is not certain whether James worked on the family lot or not. Thompson, \"Expansion\", p. 418. 75 1834, then worked on the farm of his brother-in-law Thomas Thomas until 1842.1 * John may also have worked on his father's lot following Withaweecapo's death in 1836.1 5 With the exception of John Hope, none of the mission school graduates under study chose to depend on employment as wages labourers in the farming sector of Red River for any great length of time. Generally this reflects the precarious state of early Red River agriculture at Red River as much as it does the persona] inclinations of the young men. Natural calamities like locusts, floods, and early frosts affected the hired hands as much as they did the farmers themselves. Furthermore, wage labour jobs in agriculture were usually seasonal or part-time. Alexander Ross stated in 1855, that agricultural work was a family affair though servants were engaged for various lengths of time. Some were hired daily, monthly, or for terms of one year, but their wages were determined by the season or volume of work done. For example, day labourers in the hay and harvest season received on the average about 2s 6d per day, while those hired in less work intensive seasons received about Is 6d per day. On the whole, farm labourers engaged for one year terms received the going rate of £20 per year which was about the same, if not more, than servant positions in the HBC. Besides wages, farm hands always received food and shelter regardless of the length of their terms.1 6 An Historian, Frits Pannekoek points out that by the end of the 1830s sufficient quantities of land for farming were almost impossible to obtain in the 1 \"P. C.Pembrum, \"Death of an Old Timer\", Saskatchewan Herald. 16, no. 20 (24 August 1894), p. 2; PAM HBCA, E. 4/lb, fo. 245d. John's sister Fanny Hope married Thomas in December of 1835. Pembrum's article states that Thomas Thomas was John Hope's cousin which could well be true if the family still practiced traditional cross-cousin marriages. 1 5 PAM HBCA, E. 4/lb, fo. 302d. 1 6 Alexander Ross, The Red River Settlement: Its Rise, Progress, and Present State, With Some Accounts Of The Native Races and Its General History, To The Present Day (Minneapolis, Minn.: Rass & Hines Reprint, 1957), p. 394. 76 colony.1 7 But there was still plenty of land available at the northernmost limits of the settlement and beyond. Given the above, one questions why the Indian graduates did not become landed farmers. Henry Budd took over his brother's farm at Grand Rapids, and John Hope may have taken over Withaweecapo's farm, but neither of them stayed very long at it. The rest worked as seasonal labourers for a short time as well. Jacqueline Gresko offers a few possible explanations for their apparent aversion to individual farming. Her studies on the late 19th century Catholic-run Indian residential schools at Qu'Appelle (Saskatchewan) and at St. Mary's (British Columbia) show that ex-pupils seldom chose to pursue individual farming.1 8 Rather, they returned to their people and joined them in communal seasonal wage labour work. Men generally harvested for white farmers and women took on domestic work or dug seneca root. Wage labour jobs were considered easier and more profitable than farming, but the most obvious attraction seems to be that it allowed Indian people to work together. In other words, seasonal wage labour jobs could be fit into traditional seasonal rounds and maintain traditional socio-economic ties. Furthermore, because the farming sector usually only offered seasonal work, the workers had free time to pursue more personal activities. In the case of Saskatchewan in the 1890s, that meant attending pow-wows and Sundance gatherings.1 9 Only a few of the earlier graduates of the Red River mission school returned to their home communities. It appears as though most made the Red 1 7 \"A Probe into the Demographic Structure of Nineteenth Century Red River,\" in Essays on Western History, ed. Lewis H. Thomas (Edmonton: University of Alberta Press, 1976), p. 83. 1 8 Jacqueline Gresko, \"Creating Little Dominions Within the Dominion: Early Catholic Indian Schools in Saskatchewan and British Columbia,\" in Indian Education in Canada vol. I: The Legacy, eds. Jean Barman, Yvonne Hebert and Don McCaskill (Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 1986), pp. 98-9. 1 9 Ibid. 77 River colony, or the Indian Settlement, their homes and community, especially Henry Budd and the Hope boys whose families relocated in the south from the north. Working together as farm hands with their families in the colony was apparently more appealing that establishing their own farms. Nevertheless, the agricultural training and experience they received at Red River served them well throughout their lives. Farming not only gave them a supplemental source of food, but they were able to share their knowledge with Indian bands that were in need of an additional source of subsistence. D. THE HUDSON'S BAY COMPANY Equipped with farming, the more traditional skills of hunting, trapping, and fishing, and their academic talents, the graduates of John West's mission school appear to have been prime candidates for employment in the specialized servant and clerical classes of the HBC. By the time the young men left school the HBC was actively recruiting servants from within the Country-born community at the Red River settlement, by the time Budd and James Hope left school in 1828, the Company had hired 51 new recruits, 11 of them from Red River. Between 1825 and 1836 the number of Country-born men recruited annually varied from four (1834) to twenty-five (1833) but averaged around thirteen.2 0 Though the Company had adjusted its hiring practices to include more Natives of Rupert's Land in the lower servant classess, Native men were effectively barred from entering the specialized servant and clerical ranks. Carol Judd states that this racially stratified hiring policy in the post-1821 period 2 0 Carol M. Judd, \"Mixt Bands of Many Nations: 1821-70,\" Old Trails and New Directions: Papers of the Third North American Fur Trade Conference, eds. Carol M. Judd and Arthur J. Ray (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1980), p. 133. 78 marginalized Native people in Company ranks: For the First time in the history of the fur trade, ethnic derivation, \"class,\" and status were intertwined. For the First time it meant that as a native employee of the Hudson's Bay Company one was with few exceptions also a low status member of the servant \"class.\" 2 1 Native men, generally the Country-born and Metis, were employed in the middleman ranks. During the winter months the middlemen did all the menial and labourious tasks at the posts which included; hunting, Fishing, chopping and hauling wood, cooking, constructing and maintaining the buildings. In the summer months they packed furs, rowed the boats or paddled the canoes, and portaged cargo among other things. Tripmen performed the same duties as middlemen on the inland brigades but were only hired for the duration of the voyage. These seasonal positions were also Filled by Mixed-blood men and occasionally Indians as well. In time, a middleman could be promoted to bowsman and eventually to a steersman. Each inland boat was manned by eight rowers and a steersman. Seven of these rowers were middlemen, the eighth was a bowsman. The bowsman was stationed at the boat's bow where he advised the steersman of upcoming obstructions and with a pole, he helped steer the craft out of danger. When his services were not required he worked at the oar with the rest of the crew. The steersman of each boat was actually the captain. His major task was to steer the craft, and to load the packets, which weighed 100 pounds each, on the backs of the middlemen at the portages. Middlemen salaries ranged between £16 and £20 per year but the average was £17. Bowsmen received £18 and steersmen generally received £20 annually. Opportunties for career advancement within this class ended with the position of the guide or \"commadore.\" He was 2 1 Carol M. Judd, \"Native Labour and Social StratiFication in the Hudson's Bay Company's Northern Department, 1770-1870,\" Canadian Review of Sociology and Anthropology vol. 17, no. 4 (1980), p. 314. 79 the most important official of the brigade and his major task was to look after business transactions at Company posts enroute. He also supported the authority of the steersmen. On rare occasions guide salaries went as high as £35. The highest level job a common servant could hope for was post-master of a Company outpost. However in the post-1821 period it became next to impossible for a Native man to attain this position.2 2 Native men were also barred from entering the specialized servant ranks until 1830. Then they were able to enter as apprentices to tradesmen such as masons and gunsmiths. However, these positions were limted to young unencumbered men with no immediate family members in the vicinity. 2 3 Even though the educational backgrounds of John West's proteges qualified them for the upper level clerical positions in the HBC, they could only gain employment in the lower servant ranks. At least five of the original six living male graduates of the mission school joined the servant ranks of the HBC. Of these, only one was promoted to the junior officer ranks. This was James Hope who joined the Company in 1832 and was stationed at the Athabaska District under Chief Factor Peter Warren Dease. From 1836 to 1839 Hope served in the Arctic Land Expedition under Dease and Thomas Simpson. By then he was earning £40 per year which placed him at the highest end of the pay scale for the specialized servant rank.2 fl His last known contract with the Company expired in May of 1840 and his wherabouts afterwards remain a 2 2 Judd, \"Mixt Bands,\" pp! 127-128, 139; Joseph James Hargrave, \"Annual Routine in Red River Settlement,\" in Historical Essays on the Prairie Provinces, ed. Donald Swainson (Toronto: McClelland and Stewart Limited, 1970), pp. 35-36, 32. 2 3 \"Minutes of the Northern Department at York Factory,\" 3 July 1830, in E. H. Oliver ed., The Canadian North-West, Its Early Development and Legislative Records, Minutes of the Councils of the Red River COlony and the Northern Department of Rupert's Land (Ottawa: Government Printing Bureau, 1914), vol. I, p. 653. 2 \"PAM HBCA, B. 239/g/79, fo. 14; Douglas Mackay, The Honourable Company, 2nd ed. (Toronto: McClelland & Stewart Ltd., 1966), pp. 239-41. 80 mystery. Henry Budd took leave of his farming to work for the Company for a short period of time between 1832 and 1835. He was stationed at Lac La Pliue (Rainy Lake) as a tripper or a middleman at an annual salary of £ 1 7 . 2 5 At the end of his contract, Budd returned to his farm at Grand Rapids in the Red River settlement. John Hope entered the Company ranks in 1842 and remained in the Athabaska district for seven years. His wherabouts between 1849 and 1852 are vague but it is clear that he spent a considerable amount of time farming at the Red River Indian Settlement and that he returned to the Athabaska District for at least one more contract term.2 6 Thomas Hassel worked for the Company for a short period of time between 1831 and 1840. He was stationed at Norway House under Chief Factor Donald Ross.2 7 Charles Pratt entered the Company's ranks after his two year sojourn as a hunter. He was hired as a middleman in the Swan Lake District in 1835 and remained in that capacity until 1846, except for a one year term as a bowsman (1837-1838). For the last two years of his HBC career (1846-1848) Pratt was promoted to steersman at an annual salary of £22. 2 8 Pratt was stationed at a number of Swan Lake posts while a Company servant, but apparently he spent most of his winters at Manitoba House on the eastern shore of Lake Manitoba. In 1844 Reverend Abraham Cowley commented that Pratt was the only person at that post who could read or write. 2 9 In fact, on at Z 6 P A M HBCA, B. 239/g/72-74, fos. 11. 2 6 John Hope acted as a witness for a number of marriages which are recorded in the HBC marriage registers. In 1858 Hope witnessed Chief Peguis sign his will. Pembrum, \"Old Timer,\" p. 2; George Van Der Goes Ladd, Shall We Gather at the River? (Toronto: United Church of Canada, 1986), p. 116. 2 7 Nan Shipley, The James Evans Story (Toronto: Ryerson Press, 1966), pp. 50, 52. 2 8 P A M HBCA, B. 159/d/26-41, fos. 1 for the years 1835 to 1848; Hargrave, \"Annual Routine,\" p. 35. 2 9 P A C CMSA, A. 86, A. Cowley Journal, 2 January 1845. 81 least one occasion, Charles Pratt was in charge of entering the Indian debts at the Shoal River outpost in 1837. 3 0 Pratt probably did a lot of book work and accounting while officially in the capacity of middleman, and at that salary level. E. THE CHURCH MISSIONARY SOCIETY John West had envisioned that his mission school would not only innure Indian boys in the more practical habits of \"civilized\" life, but would also prepare them to propogate the gospel in their homelands among their own people.3 1 Even schoolmaster George Harbridge paid close attention to the character and development of each boy, searching for traits which would indicate an aptitude for tenacious christian conversion.3 2 But when Reverend David Jones arrived, all faith in the missionary potential of the Indian mission boys was dashed. As previously mentioned, within a few months of his arrival. Jones took the view that there was no hope in the immediate emergence of an Indian ministry; that object would best be served by the Country-born population.3 3 Given his elitist predisposition, Jones was no doubt refering to the Country-born children of active and retired Company officers, as opposed to the more humble second, third, and older generations of Country-born settlers at Red River. Therefore, when Henry Budd and James Hope were ready to leave the mission school in 1827 it is not surprising that Jones had serious misgivings about sending any of the mission school students into the field.34 In 1828, Cockran agreed with Jones: \"if the Indian school boys reurn to their families with hearts 3 0 P A M HBCA, B. 159/a/17, fo. 3. 3 1 PAM HBCA, A. 6/20, fo. 63, Benjamin Harrison to John West, 26 February 1822. 3 2 PAC CMSA, A. 88, George Harbridge to Josiah Pratt, 1 July 1824. 3 3 PAC CMS, A. 92, Jones Journal, 11 December 1823. 3 \"PAC CMSA, A. 92, David Jones to Secretary, 1 July 1827. 82 unchanged by grace, they will likely become the worst of Indians.\" 3 5 Surviving records indicate that this prophesy was self-fulfilling even though there is every indication that the students had progressed favourably in their general studies while attending the mission school. Schoolmasters Garrioch and Smith were quick to praise the boys for their advancements in wordly knowledge, but both repeatedly expressed misgivings about the students' aptititudes or desires to acquire the Lord's knowledge. In August of 1826 Garrioch reported that all the Indian students were advancing in \"head knowledge\" but the \"work of grace in their hearts\" was not all that could be hoped for: \"knowledge in the brain gains some ground but the light of God [sic] in the heart does not yet manifest itself to our observation.\"3 6 Nor had the challenge been met by 1833. In August of that year Smith reported that they were still progressing in wordly knowledge but: \"the Saviors knowledge they do not exhibit a desire after.\" 3 7 By this time five Indian students had left the mission school. Schoolmaster Smith could not contain his disappointment: 5 have left us since my last communication to you and I am sorry to say not in such a way as I would have wished they had already grown up to manhood, & are now engaged as labourers to farmers & others through the settlement. None returned to their country and Tribe. None returned to impart the Glad tidings of Salvation, Shall I say - None Returned \"To give Thanks to God... \" 3 8 It is reasonable to suppose that Jones's attitude toward the students had a negative impact on their motivation to embrace Christianity by the standards he set. Jones, Cockran and Smith had expected to witness some manifestation of 3 5PAC CMSA, William Cockran to Edward Bickersteth, 7 August 1828, cited in Thompson, \"Expansion,\" p. 121. 3 6 P A C CMSA, A. 87, William Garrioch to Edward Bickersteth, 3 August 1826, 8 August 1826. 3 7 P A C CMSA, A. 96, William Smith to Secretaries, 11 August 1833. 3 8 Ibid. 83 a conversion experience, which they apparently did not detect in any of the Indian students. Under West's tutalege the students were the objects of much encouragement and were primed for missonary work. When Jones took over, they were basically brushed aside. By 1833 the local CMS held that the students had not lived up to West's expectations, or the vague, unstated, though obviously high standards set by Smith and Jones. Nevertheless, even if the mission school graduates exhibited the aptitude and inclination for missionary work by Jones's standards, there were no resources or opportunities for them to enter the missionary field in any capacity at this time. The HBC strictly forbade the CMS from proselytizing beyond the fringes of the Red River settlement until late 1839.3 9 Had the mission school graduates directed their full attention towards preaching to their country-men without CMS support or authority, they would have had no means to support themselves. They would have been forced to hunt, fish, and trap for survival, and in doing so, would have undermined the objects of the CMS. Not only were there no opportunities for these young men to partake in CMS mission work beyond Red River, racist attitudes against their ancestry and social status barred them from obtaining any CMS positions in the settlement. John West's proteges were as qualified to be schoolteachers and Sunday school readers as were many of the other local residents. The problem was that the Red River settlers and the CMS preferred those of purely European descent, followed by the upper class Country-born men. In order to meet the ever-increasing demands on the mission school facilities, Jones and Cockran turned to their parishoners for Sunday school teachers, bible class readers, and schoolteachers. Local recruitment not only saved the expense of transporting and re-establishing qualified instructors from England, it was an effective means of 3 9 PAC CMSA, A. 96, John Smithurst to Secretaries, 1 August 1843. 84 drawing settlers into the church.4 0 While Sunday school teachers were selected from the upper and lower strata of the settlement, schoolteachers were chosen from among the retired Company officer and clerical classes. Apparently though, there were not enough qualified European men in the settlement to meet the demands of the schools. Having retired after many years of Company service, most of these gentlemen were too old, too tired, or just too busy with their families and farms to work as teachers. The educated Country-born sons of these retired officers were given secondary consideration. The first of these was hired as early as 1825. John Bunn, the son of former Chief Factor Thomas Bunn of York Factory, became the first schoolmaster at Jones's Middlechurch school, St. Paul's. John Bunn had studied in England for ten years and he returned to Rupert's Land in 1819 with a medical licence.\" 1 William Garrioch who taught at the Indian mission school from 1825 to 1831, had two sons who also received CMS teaching appointments. John Garrioch worked with Reverend Cockran at St. Andrew's school and Peter Garrioch replaced William Smith as teacher of the old mission school, renamed St. John's Parish School. * 2 By the end of 1833, there were five protestant schools in the Red River colony. Of these, four were sponsored in whole or in part by the CMS. * 3 Three 4 0 John E.Foster, \"Program for the Red River Mission: The Anglican Clergy 1820-1826,\" Social History 4 (1969), pp. 66, 69. * 'Jennifer S. H. Brown, Strangers in Blood Fur Trade Families in Indian Country (Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 1980), p. 170; John E. Foster, \"The Anglican Clergy in the Red River Settlement: 1820-1826,\" (M.A. thesis, University of Alberta, 1966), p. 134. 4 2 Peter Garrioch left his teaching position in 1837 and soon after chose more exiting employment as a free trader. Pannekoek, \"Demographic,\" p. 89; Thompson, \"Expansion,\" p. 402. 4 3 The fifth school was a private non-parochial venture started by John Pritchard in 1829. In 1833 Pritchard received an education grant from the HBC Northern Department to subsidize the tuition fees. The school, which was called \"The Elms\" served local boys and a number of American fur trade sons: Jaenen, \"Dual Education,\" p. 67; J. A. Peake, \"Robert McDonald (1829-1913) The Great Unknown Missionary of the Northwest\", Journal of the Canadian Church Historical Society, vol. 18, no. 3 (1975), p. 55; Oliver, Canadian North-West, vol. II, pp. 755-6. 85 of the CMS schools catered exclusively to the middle and upper echelons at Red River. The only school in the settlement that looked after the educational needs of the poor was St. John's parish school which was located in the renovated buildings of John West's Indian mission school.4 * Table 4 outlines the types of schools in place at Red River in 1833, and the origins of their school teachers. Figure 4 shows where the schools were located in the colony. The preference for retired fur trade gentry and their Country-born sons for teaching positions at this time can be readily understood given that all but one school in the settlement catered to middle and upper elite levels of society. Needless to say, those very same Company officers who previously expressed displeasure about their children being educated alongside Indian and common settler children would undoubtedly have been strongly opposed to having their children instructed by Indians. Apart from the racial discrimination, they wanted their children educated in the more refined habits and cultured manners of English gentry. 4 5 It was these local attitudes which led the CMS to spend most of its energies on the settlers and HBC elite, even though the organization was founded and mandated to extend Christianity and English \"civilization\" to indigenous peoples. That a few Indian families reaped any educational benefits from St. John's and St. Andrew's schools at this time was almost accidental. Furthermore, little, if any consideration was given to the future prospects and 4 \"After the Indian students left this school in 1833, Reverend Jones tried to revive the tuition fee system that West established, to cover the wages of the teacher. But schoolmaster Smith refused to \"harass these poor people\" for fees, even when his salary was cut from £100 to £35 per year. In 1834 Smith pleaded with the CMS Parent Committee to let his be a free school. Those who could pay had already enrolled their children in the newer exclusive schools because they did not want their children educated alongside Indian children. In 1834 Smith was replaced by Peter Garrioch, and the tuition issue was resolved. Bishop of Rupert's Land, \"The Church in Manitoba,\" Mission Life, Vol. Ill, new series, Part I (London: W. Wells Gardner, 1872), p. 196; PAC CMSA, A. 96, William Smith to Secretaries, 1 August 1834. 4 5 S y l v i a Van Kirk, \"Many Tender Ties\", Women in Fur Trade Society in Western Canada, 1670-1870 (Winnipeg: Watson & Dwyer Publishing, 1980), pp. 147-48. 86 Table 4 Protestant Schoolteachers in the Red River Settlement, 1833 Name Origin of Birth Experience in Rupertsland School Status Support William Garrioch England retired H B C trader and second clerk St. John's (Upper Church) parochial day school CMS Peter Corrigal Orkney Islands retired H B C chief trader St. Paul's (Middle Church) parochial day school CMS & tuition Rev. William & Anne Cockran England sent by CMS in 1825 St. Andrew's (Lower Church) parochial day & boarding school CMS & tuition Mrs. Mary Lowman England sent by CMS in 1833 Red River Academy parochial boarding school CMS/ HBC & tuition John Macallum Scotland sent by CMS in 1833 Red River Academy parochial boarding school CMS/ H B C & tuition John Pritchard Scotland retired H B C officer The Elms secular day school HBC & tuition Joseph Cook* Rupertsland retired H B C labourer St. Peter's (Indian settlement) Indian day & boarding school CMS * Joseph Cook was an HBC labourer and the son of William H . Cook, former Chief Factor at York Factory, who retired to Red River after 33 years of H B C service. Along with William Garrioch and Peter Corrigal, William H . Cook was considered to be among the \"principal patriarchs\" of the colony. Sources: P A C , CMSA, A.96, William Smith to Secretaries, 29 July 1831; Foster, \"Anglican Clergy\", p. 134; Van Kirk, \"Many Tender Ties\", p. 149; Jaenen, \"Dual Education\", p. 67; Garrioch, First Furrows, p. 75; Fast, \"Protestant Missionary\", p. 75; Bredin, \"Red River Academy\", p. 12; A . N . Thompson, \"The Wife of the Missionary\", Journal of the Canadian Church Historical Society, vol. 15, no. 2 (1973), p. 36; Pannekoek, \"Demographic\", pp. 84, 86; Brown, Strangers in Blood, p. 170; Oliver, Canadian North-West, vol. II, pp. 755-56. 87 the potential contributions the Indian mission school graduates could make. Jones simply assumed the young men would be absorbed into the Red River community or possibly return to their home communities.ft 6 *6Frits Pannekoek, \"Protestant Agricultural Zions for the Western Indian,\" Journal of the Canadian Church Historical Society 14 (1972), p. 56. V. T H E EXPANSION OF THE CMS INDIAN MISSION PROGRAM A. BACKGROUND John Webster Grant has satisfactorily established that throughout British North America Native church workers played a prominent role in the cultural transformations of their respective societies. In time, the CMS would be heralded as the most successful missionary society to find a significant place within its ranks for Native leaders and John West's Indian mission school would be hailed as the foundation of one of the most prominent Native ministries in Western Canada.1 Any attempt to understand why the talents of the mission school graduates were not immediately utilized by the CMS must begin with an understanding of the role the church played in the colony, and its relationship with the colonial powers at this time. When seen in this context, it is apparent that a number of factors worked to delay the employment of Native church workers in the local church. As we have seen there was no \"need\"for Native catechists at Red River in the 1820s and early 1830s, and though there was a need for schoolteachers, conditions at the colony prevented the Native graduates from obtaining these positions. Racism was a major contributing factor to this state of affairs, but there were other equally important reasons. The CMS, like other missionary societies of its time, needed the financial support of secular authorities in major missionary work. In Western Canada the support and good-will of the local HBC was critical to the survival of the CMS. In turn, the HBC depended on support from the CMS to further its goals. The HBC authorities in Rupert's Land and England had certain 'John Webster Grant, Moon in Wintertime: Missionaries and the Indians of Canada in Encounter since 1534 (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1984), p. 115. 88 89 expectations of the CMS and since the Company held the balance of power and was the civil authority in Rupert's Land, it is not surprising that their priorities became the priorities of the local CMS. The immediate interests of the Company were clear; it was critically important to prevent the transformation of fur producing Indian workers into sedentary agriculturalists. In fact, the overriding policy of the Company toward Native peoples was aimed at keeping a cheap and accessible labour force in the bush.2 Therefore, the HBC had no intention of allowing the CMS to encourage Native peoples to leave the bush and congregate in farming villages. The local CMS had no option but to adhere to the wishes of the local HBC. As we have seen, going against Governor Simpson would have put the CMS in a vulnerable position with few allies, as John West's experience illustrates. Jones and the CMS Parent Committee realized that any further collisions with the Company could have similar repercussions. As a result, the CMS could not nurture and utilize Native church workers until such time as it had satisfied the immediate needs of the Company. With that accomplished, and a home-base firmly established at Red River, then the Sociey would be in a position to sponsor Native catechists and clergy in Indian mission work. Anglican mission activities focused exclusively on the families of English-speaking settlers and active Company servants until well into the 1830s. The function of the missionaries, as determined by the HBC and their own evangelical ideals, was to inculcate the socially stablizing values of Christianity and \"civilization,\" and to recreate at Red River an English agricultural community where fur trade cast-offs would support the trade rather than hinder i t . 3 The 2 Arthur J~. Ray, Indians Jn the Fur Trade: their role as trappers, hunters and middlemen in the lands southwest of Hudson Bay, 1660-1870 (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1974), p. 218. 3 Frits Pannekoek, \"The Anglican Church and the Dissintigration of Red River Society, 1818-1870,\" in The West and the Nation Essays in Honour of W. L. Morton, eds., Carl Berger and Ramsay Cook, (Toronto: McCleland & Stewart, 1976), p. 75; George Van Der Goes Ladd, Shall We Gather at the River? 90 HBC was especially concerned about this population because it had very little control over them. The CMS and Roman Catholic missionaries however, possessed the means to bring some semblence of social control to Red River and they were more than willing to take on that challenge. The task of transforming a motley collection of ex-fur traders, unruly fur trade progenies, and a handful of remnant Scottish settlers consumed all the resources and energies of Jones and Cockran. Nevertheless, though both men shared similar goals, their approaches and methods differed considerably. In keeping with his position and obligations as Superintendant of the Society's mission and Chaplain to the Company, Jones focused his attention on meeting the needs of the upper echelons of Red River society. Cockran, on the other hand, followed the flow of settlement to the northern limits of the colony where he focused on the ever-increasing numbers of Country-born families of lesser means. The vast majority of these second or third generation Country-born men were retired Company servants who were seperated from their European ancestors by two or more generations. These lower-class folk had few of the social and technical skills they needed to establish themselves as prototypes of English sedentary agriculturalists, which was a prerequisite to their assimilation into Red River society. fl Accordingly, most of Cockran's time was spent teaching them the rudiments of farm and home management, acceptable social behavior, and other moral christian values. Since the recipients were, on the whole, willing converts, Cockran was encouraged with the community that developed around his church at Grand Rapids. By the early 1830s the church had successfully reached 3 (cont'd) (Toronto: United Church of Canada, 1986), p. 59; John E. Foster, \"Program for the Red River Mission: The Anglican Clergy 1820-1826,\" Social History 4 (1969), p. 49. *Van Der Goes Ladd, Shall We Gather? p. 59; John E. Foster, \"Cockran, William,\" Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. IX, 1861-1870, ed. Frances G. Halpenny (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1976), pp. 134-35. 91 most of the English-speaking settlers, and the settlement was fast becoming a stable and orderly center. The local HBC could be satisfied with the efforts of Jones and Cockran in settling this once troublesome and superfluous population. B. THE RED RIVER INDIAN SETTLEMENT Retired Country-born servants were not the only prospective settlers attracted to Red River and its missions at this time. Large numbers of Indian people from distant regions, and from the immediate vicinity came to observe and sample the labours of the settlers, others chose to stay. The colony had hosted a steady flow of Native visitors since its inception. According to one of the earliest settlers, Alexander Ross, Indian peoples took little interest in the affairs of the infant colony, \"unless to look down with contempt on our slow and painful drudgery, or, it might be, interupt and annoy us.\"5 As industry developed, Ross stated, some of the more interested Indian people began edging themselves in, \"not indeed to labour themselves, but to partake, if possible, in the fruits of our toil.\" 6 Of these, the most attentive observers were the Swampy Crees from the lowlands and sea coast.7 Eventually, large numbers of Swampy Cree people from the regions within the present day boundaries of Northern Manitoba and Saskatchewan stayed on at Red River. The Swampy Crees, or Muskagowak as they were called by the local Saulteaux, were becoming increasingly numerous by the mid-1820s. With few options at hand, many sought refuge at Red River from their precarious existence in the north where declining ' resources and heavy competition for seasonal employment with the HBC created hardships, and often, destition. Some 5 Alexander Ross, The Red River Settlement: Its Rise, Progress, and Present State. With Some Accounts Of The Native Races and Its General History, To The Present Day (Minneapolis: Rass & Haines Reprint, 1957), p. 275. 6 Ibid. 7Ibid., p. 276. 92 joined relatives already established at the colony, others settled around the missions and at Netley Creek among the Saulteaux.8 Governor Simpson was alarmed by the southern migration of northern labourers and by the imposition of so many Indian people in the settlement. Hoping to prevent such large numbers from remaining in the colony, Simpson established an outpost at Netley Creek to supply their needs in the hopes that they would gather there. While some did, many continued on to the settlement.9 Having successfully established a sedentary farming community among the Country-born at Grand Rapids, Reverend Cockran was determined to accomplish the same among the local Saulteaux and Muskagowak. As early as 1829 Cockran was pressuring Chief Peguis to allow him to build an agricultural mission at Netley Creek. Peguis was reluctant because the majority of his band thoroughly opposed the plan. Being the evangelical missionary that he was, Cockran persisted. In 1831 he obtained permission from George Simpson to establish an experimental farm and mission at Netley Creek. Simpson was reluctant to give his consent but the growing numbers of Indian people in the settlement and political pressures from England left him little choice.1 0 By 1833 Peguis and a handful of Muskagowak followers relocated to Cook's Creek. This location offered better farm land than Netley Creek, but more significantly, the move protected Cockran's prospective farmers from the jeering Saulteaux traditionalists who wanted neither farming nor Muskagowak on their lands.1 1 BPAC CMSA, A. 96, William Smith to Secretaries, 11 August 1833; Van Der Goes Ladd, Shall We Gather? p. 92; Ross, Red River Settlement, p. 283; Jennifer S. H. Brown, Strangers in Blood, Fur Trade Company Families in Indian Country (Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 1980), p. 217; Ray, Indians in the Fur Trade, p. 118. 9 Ross, Red River Settlement, p. 283; Ray, Indians in the Fur Trade, p. 218. 1 0 Van Der Goes Ladd, Shall We Gather?, p. 66. 1 'Ibid. George Van George Van Der Goes Ladd presents an insightful account on the interplay of forces, both Saulteaux and British colonial, that motivated Peguis to accept Cockran's offer. In his discussion of the relationship between Peguis and Cockran, Ladd describes how these two men viewed and understood 93 All of the work Cockran did at Netley Creek, and later at Cock's Creek, occurred in addition to his usual ministerial duties because the CMS Parent Committee refused to grant him authority or funding to extend his mission to Indians until 1833.1 2 Despite this handicap, Cockran established a viable agricultural mission at Cook's Creek; ten families were farming that summer and by Christmas 34 children were attending the day school.1 3 Most historians agree that the initial success of the Indian agricultural mission at Cook's Creek was due entirely to the tireless efforts of William Cockran.1 * The problem with this view is that most of the Indians who were part of the initial success of the mission were Muskagowak, not Saulteaux. It is likely that the Muskagowak would have found their way into the farming sector eventually because many of them came to Red River for that specific purpose. After generations of dependency on the HBC, the Muskagowak had only vestiges of their traditional political, social, and economic systems left. Because of this, they were far more amiable and more prepared to adjust to Cockran's regime, than the independent Saulteaux who still maintained a relatively high degree of cultural cohesiveness.1 5 When William Cockran opened the Indian school at Cook's Creek in 1833 he hired Joseph Cook as the schoolteacher. Cook was the son of William Hemmings Cook the former Chief Factor of York Factory. He had worked alongside Cockran as a catechist since at least 1831 and was apparently a 1 1 (cont'd) each other as individuals and as representatives of their respective cultures. 1 2 Ross, Red River Settlement, p. 280; Van Der Goes Ladd, Shall We Gather? p. 65. 1 3Ibid., p. 93. 1 °See Frits Pannekoek, \"Protestant Agricultural Zions for the Western Indian,\" Journal of the Canadian Church Historical Society 14 (1972): 55-66; W. L. Morton, Manitoba: A History, 2nd ed. (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1967); A. C. Garrioch, First Furrows, (Winnipeg: Stovel Co., 1923). 1 5 Van Der Goes Ladd, Shall We Gather? p. 90; Ross, Red River Settlement, p. 287. 94 hard-working and dedicated church worker.1 6 Alexander Ross described Cook as a \"respectible and intelligent half-breed,\" who was \"highly instrumental in the accomplishment of whatever good has been done to the Swampies.\"17 A. C. Garrioch was also favourably impressed with Cook, who was not only a good worker, but also had perfect knowledge and understanding of the \"habits and peculiarities of the Indians.\"1 8 Nevertheless, though Cook had obtained some education in Canada, it appears that he was not highly qualified to teach. Cook spent 24 years in the Company's service as a labourer and later as a trader before he retired to Red River in 1823. In 1822 he was described in the Company's records as \"Steady and active deficient in Education but a tolerable trader.\" The following year he was described as \"Active and Steady but neither good Clerk nor Trader.\" 1 9 Given the above it is doubtful that Cook possessed better qualifications than any of the first graduates of John West's mission school. It is more probable that he was hired because of his relatively respectable social situation at Red River and his years of Indian experience in the interior. Starting a new mission required more hands than those of just Cockran and Cook to build the houses, barns, church and school that were needed. Sunday school and prayer meetings had to be conducted and someone had to oversee the operations of the day school, and the new settlers had to be instructed in cultivation and stock-raising, the handling of tools, the preparation and storage of farm produce, sewing, and much more. To overcome his labour shortage Cockran turned to the very Indian students neither he nor Jones had seen any hope for, a few years earlier. 1 6 Garrioch, First Furrows, p. 7o7 Foster, \"William Cockran,\" p. 135. 1 7Ross, Red River Settlement, pp. 279-80. 1 8 Garrioch, First Furrows, p. 75. 1 9 P A M HBCA, A. 34/1, fo. 57, cited in Brown, Strangers in Blood, p. 170. 95 The students who were relocated from the old mission school to Grand Rapids in 1833 were soon actively employed in the building and agricultural development at the Indian Settlement. 2 0 A few of those who had already left school also participated. John Hope, for example, was deeply involved in the community while working with his brother-in-law on his farm at the Indian Settlement. If nothing else, John Hope was an exemplary model of the Christian English-Indian that Cockran envisioned. A description of him by Reverend Smithurst in 1841 gives an indication of the degree to which Hope had, at least outwardly, assimilated the teachings of his youth: Had Mr. West been at the Indian church this morning and seen a fine looking young man of 27 dressed in an English made blue frock coat dark cloth trousers handsome wastecoat and a silk hankerchief[sic] neatly tied about his neck he would hardly have recognized the naked greasy little urchin put into his Canoe at York by Withaweecapo more than twenty years ago. Here indeed is the fruits of Mr. West's labours found after many days.2 1 The Indian Settlement became a training ground of sorts where young educated Native men were able to put their talents to work under the watchful eye of Reverend Cockran. Figure 8 illustrates how the Indian Settlement was planned out by Cockran and the number of Indian houses that had been built by 1838. In time, it produced a number of CMS catechists, school teachers, and clergy. None the least of these was James Settee, a Muskagowak from Split Lake, Manitoba, who had been sent to the mission school in 1825.2 2 Others included John Hope, Joseph Monkman, John A. Mckay, Henry Cochrane, and 2 0 A. N^ Thompson, \"The Expansion of the Church of England in Rupert's Land from 1820 to 1839 under the Hudson's Bay Company and the Church Missionary Society,\" (Ph.D. thesis, Cambridge University, 1962), p. 484. 2 1 PAC CMSA, A. 96, Smithurst Journal, 26 January 1841. Smithurst apparently confused John with his brother James in this instance since it was James who was lowered into John West's canoe by Withaweecapo in 1820. 2 2 PAM HBCA, E. 4/la, fo. 64; PAC CMSA, A. 87, William Garrioch to Edward Bickersteth, 8 August 1826. 96 Figure 8 Indian Settlement, Red River, June 10, 1838 Jor»€. 13 , IS3S Source: PAC'CMSA, A. 77, Jones Journal, 13 June 1838. possibly Henry Budd.2 3 James Settee and Henry Budd were the first Indian mission school graduates to become CMS catechists and school teachers. By the 2 3 Henry Budd was farming at Grand Rapids until 1837. No evidence has ben uncovered in the primary sources which suggest he was active at the Indian Settlement, so it is possible that he assisted Cockran around St. Andrew's church. Regardless of where he received his catechetical training, Budd was obviously highly regarded by Cockran to have received his 1837 appointment at St. John's parochial school. 97 late 1830s Settee was teaching at Park's Creek school, and in 1837 Budd replaced Peter Garrioch at St. John's parish school.2 * Given the general attitude of Jones towards the graduates of the Indian mission school, it was at first surprising to find Budd teaching at St. John's. A closer examination of the circumstances surrounding his appointment helps to clarify the matter. First of all, St. John's parish school looked after children from the lowest strata of the colony. It was attended by a handful of Indian children and by poor settler and Country-born children whose parents could not afford to pay tuition fees at the private schools.2 5 Apparently these parents were not so adverse to having an Indian teach their children as the more privileged ones were. Furthermore, the shortage of competant teachers in the settlement was such that much of Jones's time was spent searching for them.2 6 The high turnover rate of teachers at this school and the meagre salary it afforded also indicates that the position was not highly desireable.2 7 That Budd was appointed schoolmaster rather than Joseph Cook or any one of the other educated Country-born men in the settlement also suggests that he was well qualified for the position. 2 *Kathrine Pettipas ed., The Diary of the Reverend Henry Budd 1870-1875 (Winnipeg: Manitoba Record Society Publications, 1974), p. xix; A. 86, Cowley Journal, 21 October 1841. 2 5 PAC CMSA, A. 96, William Smith to Secretaries, 1, 3 August 1834. 2 6Foster, \"Program,\" p. 67. 2 7 Following the closure of the Indian residence at the mission school, the schoolmaster's salary was reduced from £100 to £35 a year under the mistaken belief that the parents would pay a small tuition fee. So far, there is no indication that the salary was increased when it became apparent that the parents could not pay. Since this was the reason William Smith left the school, it is very possible that the salary remained at £35. PAC CMSA, A. 96, William Smith to Secretaries, 1 August 1834. 98 C. BEYOND RED RIVER: THE EMERGENCE OF A NATIVE MINISTRY Governor George Simpson held a tight reign on the movements of the CMS missionaries at Red River. Reverends Jones and Cockran clearly understood that any missionary activity beyond the boundaries of the settlement required Simpson's approval.2 8 While Jones accepted this confinement, Cockran found it exasperating. His frustrations were further heightened by the lack of support he received from the CMS Parent Committee. Indian mission work at Red River received low priority because the CMS focused its efforts elsewhere and their financial means were limited.2 9 In the end, it was the threat of losing their feeble hold in Rupert's Land to other missionary societies, rather than philanthropic ideals, that pushed the CMS into action beyond the boundaries of Red River. The first troubled blow was struck in 1838 when two French Canadian priests, Fathers Norbert Blanchet and Modest Demurs received Governor Simpson's approval to establish a mission for retired Company servants in the Columbia District. When Cockran learned that the priests had been favourably received by some Cree peoples in the Saskatchewan region enroute, he became very anxious.3 0 His agitation was increased even more, when Jones permanently moved back to England that same year. 3 1 The CMS suffered further setbacks in 1840 when the Wesleyan Methodists arrived at their proposed new headquarters at Norway House, again with the blessings of the HBC, and when Bishop Provencher of Red River sent Father Belcourt to Lake Manitoba to survey the area for possible mission Z 8 P A M HBCA, D. 6/24, fo. 259; PAC CMSA, A. 92, David Jones to CMS Committee, 10 February 1829, 2 9 In 1839 the CMS allocated a paltry £1,000 towards efforts in British North America while New Zealand and the West Indies received £16,000 and £19,000 respectively. Eugene Stock, The History of the Church Missionary Society: Its Environment, Its Men and Its Work (London: Church Missionary Society, 1899), vol. I, p. 476. 3 0 Grant, Moon in Wintertime, p. 100. 3 1 Garrioch, First Furrows, p. 74. 99 sites.3 2 Belcourt established two tentative stations on that trip, one at Duck Bay on Lake Winnipegosis and the other near the HBC post Manitoba House.3 3 The Catholic intrusion into regions covetted by Cockran was more than he could bear. By the close of 1840 he entered the inland race for Indian souls. Cockran's major difficulty was that he had to enter the Catholic-Protestant contest with very little help from the CMS Parent Committee. Funds and other support for missionary efforts in Rupert's Land were sparse at that time, although promising. In 1838 Chief Factor James Leith of Cumberland House died and left half his estate for protestant mission efforts among the Cumberland House Swampy Cree.3 4 Apparently in anticipation of the expected funds, the CMS sent Reverend John Smithurst to Red River in 1839. Unfortunately, the expected monetary gift did not materialize immediately because the will was contested by Leith's relatives. The CMS was drawn into a tedious court battle that lasted until 1849.3 5 Smithurst relieved Cockran of his Indian Settlement duties but Cockran was still responsible for the other three churches in the colony.3 6 The 3 2 On 4 M a r c h 1840 the HBC granted four Methodist missionaries permission to establish missions at Norway House, Lac La Pluie, and Fort Edmonton. Contrary to established norms, the HBC offered to provide free transportation to the Methodists and accommodation and supplies equal to those allocated Commissioned Officers. The HBC supported the Methodist mission because it offered an opportunity to stem the southern flow of northern Cree trappers. Simpson personally approved of the Methodists because, unlike the Anglicans, they did not plan to develop sedentary agricultural Indian missions. E. H. Oliver, The Canadian North-West, Its Early Development and Legislative Records, Minutes of the Councils of the Red River Colony and the Northern Department of Rupert's Land (Ottawa: Government Printing Bureau, 1914), vol. II, pp. 801, 829-30; Grant, Moon in Wintertime, p. 101. 3 3 Reverend A. C. Morice, History of the Catholic Church in Western Canada from Lake Superior to the Pacific (1659-1895) (Toronto: Musson Book Co., 1910), vol. I, p. 177. 3 4 T. C. B. Boon, The Anglican Church from the Bay to the Rockies: History of the Ecclesiastical Province of Rupert's Land and its Dioceses from 1820 to 1855 (Toronto: Ryerson Press, 1962), p. 58. 3 5 Ibid.; Garrioch, First Furrows, p. 75. 3 6 Ibid. 100 ministerial duties connected with these four churches left both missionaries with no time to spare. Even if relief had been available, it is apparent that neither was prepared to establish new inland missions from scratch without additional funds.3 7 Nevertheless, Cockran was determined to face the challenge of the Catholic advance using whatever local resources he could muster. What he needed most was a cost-efficient, readily available pool of church workers who were familiar with the land and its people beyond the boundaries of Red River. The most obvious candidates were the graduates of John West's Indian Mission school. These men possessed all the necessary requirements for Cockran's purposes, and more. They had enough training and knowledge in the scriptures and sufficient secular education to preach and teach the fundamentals. But more important from Cockran's point of view was their access to inland bands and their self-sufficiency. These educated Native men not only knew Indian peoples in the interior, even better, they were related to them. Their skills and their kinship ties almost guaranteed their initial acceptance among inland bands, and held the promise of cutting-off rival denominations. Furthermore, Cockran could be satisfied that a proper mission station would be established by these men. Not onty were they well trained in carpentry, masonry, agriculture, and stock-raising, most of John West's graduates had wives and families by the early 1840s which also ensured that \"civilized\" female influences in the domestic realm would be visible and that the household tasks would be taken care of. The fact that these men had subsistence skills - hunting, gathering, and fishing - which had been nurtured under John West's tutelage was an additional boon. Even though Cockran abhored the hunt, he was relieved to know that these men could support their families on the bounties of the land. This meant there would be less of a strain on local church resources. No extra funds would be needed for 3 7Pettipas, Diary of Henry Budd, p. xi. 101 interpreters, schoolteachers, labourers, or domestics, because the mission school graduates and their families fulfilled all these capacities. Cockran's first candidates for inland missionaries were Henry Budd and James Settee. They were the first Native graduates the CMS had appointed as catechists and schoolteachers, and they had satisfied their superiors in carrying out their respective duties. Besides being the first Native catechist sent into the field, Henry Budd was also the first CMS agent to go beyond the boundaries of Red River since John West. In June of 1840 Cockran persuaded Budd to prepare Cumberland House for missionary work. On the 22nd of June Henry Budd, his wife Betsey and his mother Agathus, left the settlement.3 8 Governor George Simpson granted the CMS permission to establish a mission at Cumberland House in an attempt to stop local Swampy Crees from migrating to Red River. Previously in 1838, Simpson directed John Rowand, who replaced James Leith as Chief Factor that year, to promise the Indians a clergyman to help them settle and develop a farm near the fort. But, the HBC was unwilling to finance such an enterprise; nor were Cockran and Smithurst willing to do so without additional resources. Thus, the idea was shelved for a couple of years. The threat of Roman Catholic competition in the region forced the local CMS to take advantage of Simpson's self-serving offer, and Henry Budd and his family provided the necessary manpower.3 9 The following year James Settee wintered in the Beaver Creek-Moose Mountain region with a band of Assiboine Cree peoples under the leadership of Youstans Guide. In the spring of 1842 Settee returned to Red River and suggested that Fort Ellice would also be a likely place for a mission station. Since Settee had already obtained the approval of the local 3 8 Manitoba, Department of Cultural Affairs and Historic Resources, Reverend Henry Budd (Winnipeg: Historic Resources Branch, 1981), p. 1. 3 9 Not long after he arrived at Cumberland, conflicts with the local HBC officials forced Budd to relocate his mission to The Pas instead. Pettipas, Diary of Henry Budd, pp. xiii, xxi, xi. 102 Indians for this venture, the CMS agreed, and Settee returned to Fort Ellice with his wife Sally and family. 4 0 In the fall of 1841 the CMS Parent Committee sent two European assistants, catechist John Roberts and deacon Abraham Cowley to the Red River colony. They were immediately put to work as pastoral aids, the former at the Indian Settlement, the latter with Cockran at the colony churches. John Roberts was being primed for inland Indian mission work, but he soon proved unsuited for the task.4 1 Therefore, in the spring of 1842 Cowley was sent to Lake Manitoba to select another inland mission site. 4 2 Having decided on a location about 15 miles north of Manitoba House, on the eastern shore of Lake Manitoba, Cowley returned to Red River to collect his family and supplies. By September the mission was in operation.4 3 All three of these first CMS missions were strategically located to counter the inland moves of the Catholic missionaries. Father Darveau, who was stationed at Duck Bay in 1842, was hemmed in from the north by Henry Budd, 4 0 J . F. Klaus, \"The Early Missions of the Swan River District, 1821-1869,\" Saskatchewan History vol. 17 (1964), pp. 61, 71; PAC CMSA, A. 96, John Smithurst to Secretaries, 26 October 1842. 4 1 Roberts was constantly complaining to the Parent Committee about the working conditions and poor salaries of European catechists. What he sought was ordination and then an appointment to Cumberland House, but neither were forthcoming. Cockran claimed that Roberts not only lacked the skills needed to establish a new station, he failed to display any attachment to Indian peoples. PAC CMSA, A. 95, John Roberts to the CMS Committee, 16, 17 August 1842, and to Dandeson Coates, 16 August 1842; William Cockran to Secretaries, 9 August 1842, cited in Pettipas, Diary of Henry Budd, p. xxiv. 4 2 PAC CMSA, A. 96, John Smithurst to Secretaries, 4 January 1842; Ibid., A. 95, James Roberts to Dandeson Coates, 9 August 1842; Ibid., A. 86, Abraham Cowley to Dandeson Coates, 26 July 1842. 4 3 The first mission site Cowley selected was at Birch Lake near Elm Point. By winter it was apparent that the place was not a popular camping site among the local Saulteaux Indians, so in January of 1843 Cowley relocated the mission to Partridge Crop on Lake St. Martin. When he first visited the area in December of 1842, Cowley found ten log houses, numerous tents and canoes, and a storage house with over 22,000 whitefish in stock. Realizing that this semi-permanent village was home to a large population of Indian people, Cowley lost no time in joining them. PAC CMSA, A. 86, Cowley Journal, 17 January 1843. 103 the south-east by Cowley, and the south-west by James Settee. Much to the chagrin of the CMS this did not discourage Darveau whose itinerary encompassed Fort Pelly, Swan Lake Post, and even The Pas. Darveau was joined briefly that year by Father Thibault who visited a number of Indian camps enroute to his prospective mission site at Fort Edmonton. Thibault and Darveau were followed by Fathers LaFleche and Tache who opened a mission at He a la Crosse in 1846.4 * In an effort to check the highly mobile priests, the CMS catechists also made forays to Indian camps and fur trade posts within reasonable reach of their missions. As a result, the CMS was able to establish and maintain a qualified presence in Rupert's Land beyond Red River. By 1860 the CMS had thirteen mission stations in its North West America Mission; each of these are listed in Table 5. 4 5 These thirteen stations were manned by forty-one church workers, twenty-six of whom were Native. Of the fifteen Europeans in the field, twelve were ordained clergymen, and three were lay teachers and catechists. Conversely, of the twenty-six Native church workers, only three were ordained. The bulk of the CMS church workers were Native lay teachers and catechists. By 1860 there were twenty-three such men employed by the CMS at various inland missions.4 6 Figure 9 shows the locations of the CMS mission stations in the Canadian mid-west in 1860. Out of 4 4Morice, Catholic Church, pp. 177-78; Grant, Moon in Wintertime, pp. 102-3. 4 5 In 1860 the North West America Mission was divided into seven districts or principal stations which superintended a number of smaller stations and outstations. In 1873 the CMS divided the North West America Mission into three divisions: North Western, Central, and North Eastern and each of these was further subdivided into districts. Church Missionary Society, Church Missionary Atlas: Map of British North America (London: Church Missionary Society, 1873), p. 56; Henry Youle Hind, Narrative of the Canadian Red River Exploring Expedition of 1857 And of The Assiniboine and Saskatchewan Exploring Expedition of 1858, 2 vols. (Edmonton: M. G. Hurtig Reprint, 1971), vol. II, pp. 405-6. 4 6 This excludes those who were hired on a temporary basis for specific tasks. For example, many Native men were hired as labourers, guides, and in transportation for short terms. Ibid.; PAC CMSA, A. 86, Cowley Journal, 4 August 1842. 104 Table 5 CMS North West America Mission Stations, 1860 District Headquarters Stations 1. Red River Red River Settlement* (St. Andrew's) St. Andrew's St. Paul's St. John's Portage la Prairie* (St. Mary's) St. Mary's Indian Settlement (St. Peter's) St. Peter's Fort Alexander Fort Alexander Islington Landsdowne 2. Manitoba Fairford Fairford Fort Pelly Touchwood Hills Qu'Appelle Lakes 3. Cumberland Cumberland House (Devon) Devon Moose Lake Nepowewin Stanley 4. English River The Pas (Stanley) Stanley 5. York Factory York Factory York Factory 6. James Bay Moose Fort Moose Fort Rupert's House 7. Pacific Fort Simpson (Metlakatla) Metlakatla These mission stations were not Indian missions. They were parish churches, and the congregations were largely made up of European and Country-born settlers. Sources: Henry Youle Hind, Narrative of the Canadian Exploring Expedition of 1857 and of the Assiniboine and Saskatchewan Exploring Expedition of 1858 (Edmonton: M.G. Hurtig Ltd. Reprint, 1971, vol. 2, pp. 405-6; CMS, Church Missionary Atlas: Map of British North America (London: CMS, 1873), pp. 55-6. PAC, CMSA, A. 86, A. 87, A. 95, A. 96. 105 the thirteen major stations, three were founded by Europeans the rest were founded by Native church workers. All the Native church workers who were out in the field in the 1840s and early 1850s had been educated either at the old Indian Mission School or at St. Peter's in the Indian Settlement at Red River. Like Henry Budd and James Settee, the early Native church workers began their parochial careers as interpreters and schoolteachers. Unlike John West, the first European Anglican missionaries made no effort to learn any Native languages. They believed that the best way to inculcate \"civilization\" was to teach English to their prospective converts as quickly as possible. 4 7 As more inland mission stations opened, the need for Native interpreters grew. While Budd and Settee had no need for them because they retained their aboriginal languages. Abraham Cowley, on the other hand, was in dire need of a bilingual assistant. 4 8 As a result of Cowley's handicap, a number of Native men received \"on the job\" training as schoolteachers at his Partridge Crop mission. When Cowley first arrived at his new mission site in 1842, he was acccompanied by five assistants. 4 9 A year later the local CMS hired John Garrioch as his interpreter-teacher. Garrioch was a first generation Country-born from Red River who had replaced James Settee at Park Creek school in 1842, after a lengthy career in the HBC. 5 0 Within a year Garrioch became the 4 7Grant, Moon in Wintertime, p. 111. 4 8 Though Cowley never sought to achieve fluency in Saulteaux, he was interested in the language. In 1844 he proposed to rename his mission, then called Partridge Crop, to its original Saulteaux version, \"Penaoo Moota Seepe\". Such was never done though and in 1851 Bishop Anderson renamed Cowley's mission, \"Fairford.\" PAC CMSA, A. 86, Cowley to Secretaries, 19 November 1844, Cowley Journal, 10 March 1851. 4 9 P A C CMSA, A. 86, Cowley Journal, 4 August 1842. 5 0 John Garrioch was the son of William Garrioch, a retired Company Officer who served as schoolmaster at the Red River Indian Mission School from 1825 to 1831. John Garrioch was a middleman in the Swan River District from 1838 until the end of the 1840-41 Outfit. During his final year he was promoted to the position of interpreter and his salary increased from £17 to £30 per annum. 106 Figure 9 Map Showing the Locations of CMS Mission Stations, Central Division of the North-West America Mission, Founded by Native and European Missionaries, 1860 Sources: C.M.S., Church Missionary Atlas: Map of British North America, (London: C.M.S., 1873), pp. 55-6. P.A.C. C.M.S.A., Original Correspondence, Incoming, 1822-1900. H. Y. Hind, Narrative of the Canadian Red River Exploring Expedition of 1857 and Assiniboine and Saskatchewan Exploring Expeditions of 1858. (Edmonton: M. G. Hurtig Ltd. Reprint, 1971). 107 mission schoolteacher. Along with his wife Elizabeth, he was also responsible for the daily care of the students under the watchful eyes of Mrs. Cowley who was officially in charge of the mission school.5 1 Garrioch left Partridge Crop three years later and was replaced by Joseph Monkman, a Saulteaux or Muskagowak from the Red River Indian Settlement. The following year John Mckay took over Monkman's job because the latter had to return to his Red River farm. 5 2 John Mckay remained at his post until the late 1850s except for a one year absence in 1850/1851. That one year gap was filled by Charles Pratt, a contemporary of Budd and Settee.5 3 Some Native catechists were sent out to prepare new inland missions, others were sent to established missions as interpreters, and schoolteachers.5 4 In the first two decades of inland Indian mission activity, a distinct pattern in the use of Native catechists emerged. Native catechists who were selected to break new ground and establish new mission stations possessed very specific qualities that seperated them from other Native catechists; they were born \"Indian\" and raised as such up to the time they were removed from their families to attend mission school. While Country-born catechists like John Garrioch, Thomas Cook, and John Mckay were selected as assistants to European catechists and later, ordained Native catechists; Henry Budd, Charles Pratt, James Settee, and John 5 0 (cont'd) PAC CMSA, A. 96 Smith to Secretaries, 29 July 1831; Garrioch, First Furrows, p. 80. PAM HBCA, B. 159/d729-32, fos. 1. 5 1 PAC CMSA, A. 86, Abraham Cowley to Secretaries, 31 July 1843; Ibid., Cowley Journal, 18 April 1846. 5 2Ibid., 24 April 1846; Ibid., Abraham Cowley to Reverend Davies, 21 July 1847. 5 3Ibid., Cowley Journal, 15 April 1850, 15 April 1851. 5 \"The tasks of these men, and their families, were never as specific as their titles however. Outside their assigned duties, Native catechists were also expected to perform menial and labourious tasks at the missions, as required by circumstances. For example, while Charles Pratt was employed as Cowley's schoolteacher at Partridge Crop, he was also in charge of road construction and the procurement of country provisions. Besides overseeing these strenuous activities, he did more than his share of actual work. PAC CMSA, A. 86, Cowley Journal, 26 August 1850. 108 Hope were selected to establish new mission stations.5 5 The logic behind the selection criterion for ground-breakers are apparent when the mission locations and prospective Indian converts is considered. Budd was sent to Cumberland House among the Swampy Cree, and Pratt was sent among the Plains Cree and Assiniboine, or Stony bands. Both men were directed to regions where their own first languages were spoken, among people they were directly or indirectly related. Obviously, \"Indian\" catechists stood a better chance of being accepted into host communities than their Country-born counterparts who were raised by European or Europeanized fathers. Those in the latter group were generally taught to consider themselves as being above their maternal brethren, therefore Indians generally found them less agreeable than those who were not influenced by Europeanized parents. John Mckay, for example, did not even last a full year among the Beaver Creek Plains Cree when he attempted to reestablish a mission there in 1850.5 6 The condition that Native catechists possessed common kinship ties and dialect with their host bands is further indicated by the experiences of James Settee, a northern Swampy Cree, sent among southern Plains Cree bands. Settee's attempt to establish the first mission at Beaver Creek proved a dismal mistake by the end of 1845.5 7 In 1858 he was again sent to the Plains, this time to replace Charles Pratt at the Qu'Appelle Lakes Mission. By the spring of 1859, Settee was literally chased out of the region by the Plains Cree and Stonies. 5 8 In 1857 Henry Youle Hind pointed out that it was a mistake to send Settee to Qu'Appelle because 5 5 The only exception appears to have been Robert McDonald, the Country-born son of a retired European HBC servant. McDonald was ordained priest in 1853, and was sent to Fort Yukon in 1862. F. A. Peake, \"Robert McDonald (1829-1913): The Great Unknown Missionary of the Northwest,\" Journal of the Canadian Church historical Society vol. 17 (1975), pp. 55-6. 5 6 P A C CMSA, A. 86, Cowley Journal, 26 March 1850, 22 March 1851. 5 7 PAC CMSA, A. 96, William Smithurst to Secretaries, 1 August 1845. 5 8 Klaus, \"Indian Missions,\" p. 68. 109 difficulties would surely surface: It is a wrong policy to send a Swampy Cree among the Plain Cree, or an Ojibway amongst the Crees, as a teacher and minister of religion. These highly sensitive and jealous people do not willing accept gifts or favours which involve any recognition of mental superiority in the donor from one not of their own kindred, language, and blood; although he may be of their race.5 9 Though the Indian bands of the Beaver Creek - Qu'Appelle River region were notoriously independant and aggressive at that time, they were not so averse to having a missionary among them as the experiences of Mckay and Settee might indicate. Charles Pratt, a Mixed-blood Assiniboine-Cree, established the Qu'Appelle Lakes Mission in 1854 and lived rather harmoniously among the bands of the area up to the day he left in 1858. From 1858 to 1885 he made frequent excursions into the area and often stayed at Qu'Appelle Lakes for months at a time. 6 0 The major difference between Settee, Mckay, and Charles Pratt was that Pratt had close relatives among the bands he worked with, and he spoke the Plains Cree dialect.6 1 There were no opportunties available in Rupert's Land for any of these early Native catechists to prepare for the ministry. To do so would require further study in England. The local CMS had neither the funds nor the facilities to prepare Native catechists for ordination until the 1850s. A further block was the lack of bishops in the CMS who could ordain them.6 2 The CMS realized it needed ordained ministers in the field and encouraged church bishops to join its 5 9 Hind, Narrative, vol. I, p. 324. 6 0 P A C CMSA, A. 95, Pratt Journal, 31 August 1858, 2 September 1858. 6 1 PAC CMSA, A. 86, Abraham Cowley to Henry Venn, 15 August 1851. 6 2 Ian Getty points out that up to the 1840s there was very little cooperation between the high church leaders and the CMS. As the resources of the Society grew, its membership increased, and its missions spread throughout the Empire, it gained recognition as the evangelical wing of the Church of England. \"The Failure of the Native Church Policy of the CMS in the North West,\" in Religion and Society in the Prairie West, ed. Richard Allen (Regina: Canadian Plains Research Center, 1974), p. 20. 110 ranks. Bishops appointed to regions in the New World where the CMS was active, not only forstalled problems between the church and Society, it created better working relations between the local CMS bodies and the Parent Committee.6 3 The first tour of Rupert's Land by an Anglican Bishop occured in 1844. Bishop George Jehosaphat Mountain of Montreal visited the Red River mission stations and sent a lengthy report of his observations to the CMS in London. Mountain reported that the focus of the local CMS was on the European and Country-born community at Red River and that \"no systematic effort\" was directed at converting the Indian population. He therefore recommended that the CMS' send out more church workers and that a new bishopric be established in Rupert's Land. 6 4 The CMS Parent Committee responded favourably to Mountain's recommendations but was unable to support an increased thrust until 1849. That year the long, drawn out court battle with the relatives of the late Chief Factor James Leith was decided in favour of the Society. The CMS soon thereafter received a hefty £10,000 settlement for its North West Mission work. 6 5 The Leith endowment made possible the establishment of the Diocese of Rupert's Land and the appointment of Reverend David Anderson as its first bishop. When Anderson was appointed to his new position, the CMS Parent Committee voted £500 towards the establishment of a Native seminary at the Red River colony.6 6 When he arrived at Red River in October of 1849, the Bishop immediately moved into the Red River Academy. As fate would have it, the schoolmaster of the Academy, John MacCallum, died the very day Anderson b 3Ibid., pp. 20-1. 6 \"Bishop George Jehosephat Mountain, Journal of the Bishop of Montreal, During a Visit to the Church Missionary Society's North-West America Mission (London, T. C. Johns, 1845), pp. 203-4. 6 5 Boon, Bay to the Rockies, pp. 58-60. 6 6 Ibid., p. 60. arrived.6 7 The executors of MacCallum's estate sold the Academy buildings, livestock and implements to the Bishop for the sum of £330. 6 8 With the authority of the CMS Parent Committee, Bishop Anderson obtained the facilities for the specific purpose of establishing a training school for Native catechists and missionaries. Twenty-six years after John West left Rupert's Land the idea of a Native Seminary was revived. Bishop Anderson took full control of the Academy which he renamed St. John's Collegiate. The girls in attendence were removed and boarded at local homes until another school was established for them in 1851.6 9 The young men who remained were interviewed by Anderson and the two who claimed to be interested in a career in the ministry became Anderson's first seminary students.7 0 Scholarships were awarded to the Native and Country-born candidates which enabled them to attend the Collegiate. The scholarships were tenable for three years and provided free room and board, and £10 per year. 7 1 Soon after Anderson opened his seminary, a number of Native catechists and schoolteachers were enrolled. Among the first were Charles Pratt (1850), Robert McDonald (1850-52), Henry Budd Jr. and John Settee, son of James (1850-55), James Settee, John Garrioch, Thomas Cook (1853), and Henry Cockrane (1853-58). The closure of the Red River Academy and the opening of St. John's Collegiate was an ironic twist of fate. In 1832, the Native students of the Red River Mission school were expeditiously and maliciously forced off the mission 6 7 MacCallum was ordained by Bishop Mountain in 1844. 6 8Thomas F. Bredin, \"The Red River Academy,\" The Beaver Outfit 305:3 (1974), p. 15. 6 9 In 1851 the CMS sent out Schoolmistress Mills and her two daughters. Mrs. Mills set up a female boarding school at St. Andrew's in a house purchased from Archdeacon Cockran by the Society, which was named \"St. Cross.\" Ibid., p. 16. 7 0 The boys were Colin Campbell McKenzie and Roderick Ross. Both remained at the Collegiate for three full years, then went on to Cambridge. They returned to Rupert's Land in due time, but not in the CMS ministry. Ibid., p. 15. 7 11bid. 112 grounds to facilitate the more \"refined\" educational needs of the upper echelons in Rupert's Land. Eighteen years later, a handful of the original mission students returned and the genteel sons and daughters of the wealthy are forced to study alongside Indians, or, as in the case of the girls, relinquish their posh seats to Indians. D. HENRY VENN AND THE CMS NATIVE CHURCH POLICY Reverend Henry Venn was Secretary of the CMS Parent Committee from 1841 to 1872. The policies and principles developed by him guided CMS missionaries around the world throughout the second-half of the nineteenth century.7 2 Venn's basic ideas about the methods and goals of missionary work were outlined in his \"Minute Upon the Emploj^ment and Ordination of Native Teachers,\" which was issued to missionaries in the field . 7 3 By 1869, his ideas were consolidated into a number of working principles that came to be known as the Native Church Policy (NCP). The goal of Venn's NCP was to raise a local Native clergy supported by a self-governing and self-propogating Native church. The primary function of the European missionary, he believed, was to educate and train Native church workers. The missionary was to enter hitherto untouched communities, form congregations of converted Native peoples, and select from among them promising church leaders. Religious leadership was to pass to local Native pastors as quickly as possible so the European missionary would be free to enter new fields. 7 4 Venn also believed that a European missionary's stay in one community should be brief because experience in other parts of the world showed that 7 2 Jean Usher, \"Apostles and Aborigines: The Social Theory of the Church Missionary Society, \" Social History 7 (1971), p. 41. 7 3 Stock, History of the CMS, vol. II, p. 415. 7 \"Getty, \"Failure,\" p. 21. 113 converts became personally attached and dependent upon missionaries of a \"superior race\" if they stayed too long among them. Self-reliance among the converted was to be encouraged so funds and personnel could would be free for mission efforts further afield.7 5 Venn believed that in time these local Native congregations would form the basis of an Indigenous national Christian body which would then be integrated in the larger church structure.7 6 One historian, Ian Getty, considers Henry Venn's Native Church Policy a \"very remarkably enlightened social theory.\" While religiously and culturally ethnocentric, it was also based on \"optimism\" and \"up-to-date anthropology.\"7 7 The NCP provided an efficient model for the transformation of Indian cultures but it also implied a relatively high degree of respect and an embrionic form of cultural relativism. Missionaries were instructed to study their host cultures and make every effort to understand and learn their languages, thoughts, and views. Since many Native peoples saw Christianity as a \"White man's religion,\" Venn strongly believed that the church should be integrated into the daily lives of potential converts. Christianity should assume the qualities of an Indigenous religion rather than an imposing exotic one, he believed, so Native people would not have to choose between their \"nationality and religion.\" 7 8 Henry Venn was strongly influenced by the failure of the Anglican church in Ireland. There the Anglicans had failed because they attempted to impose the English language and refused to communicate in the Irish tongue. The Irish believed that the Anglicans were trying to impose English acendency and therefore rejected them outright.7 9 Venn believed that the only effective method of evangelizing was to translate the 7 5 Usher, \"Apostles and Aborigines,\" p. 44. 7 6 Getty, \"Failure,\" p. 21. 7 7 Ibid. 7 8Ibid., p. 21; Usher, \"Apostles and Aborigines,\" p. 43. 7 9 Jean Usher, William Duncan of Metlakatla: A Victorian Missionary in British Columbia (Ottawa: National Museum of Man, 1974): 13. 114 scriptures into the mother tongue of their prospective converts and to encouragae the development of an Indigenous church. Since Venn and other evangelicals of his day felt a great urgency in their objects it was more practical and expedient to educate the missionary in the language and views of the host culture, than attempt to impose a foreign language and exotic world-view on large numbers of Indigenous peoples. Venn's NCP differed only slightly from the ideas of John West. The most significant difference between them was that Venn encouraged missionaries to focus on the adult sector of the populations, while West believed that his efforts would be more effective directed at children.8 0 Jones and Cockran, on the other hand, had very different ideas on the objects and methods of missionaries in the field. While Venn strongly maintained that missionaries were to refrain from imposing their own ideas, habits, and tastes on prospective converts, Cockran and Jones did just the opposite.8 1 The ideas that each missionary simultaniously imposed on their respective congregations even differed greatly between them. As indicated earlier, Jones' emphasis was on inculcating the higher habits, mores, and values of \"civilization\" upon the upper strata of Red River society. Cockran was himself an industrious farming man, and he sought to impress a more functional, \"working man's\" form of \"civilization.\" Neither of them expended any energy on nurturing a Native ministry. The paternalistic and Eurocentric ideologies of Jones and Cockran precluded any vision of Native peoples playing a major role in their own conversion. That a few Native church 8 0 Eric Porter points out that by the late nineteenth century experience proved, and Anglican missionaries agreed, that conversion and \"civilization\" should be redirected towards the children rather than the adults. Thereafter, the education of Native children, via residential and industrial schools, became their primary focus. \"The Anglican Church in Native Education: Residential Schools and Assimilation,\" (Ph.D. thesis, University of Toronto, 1981), p. 29. 8 1 Henry Venn, \"Dismissal of Missionaries,\" cited in Usher, \"Apostles and Aborigines,\" p. 46. 115 workers could emerge at all in the 1840s was more the result of circumstance, rather than object. The employment of Native men and women in the field was an expedient measure to counter the potential impact of Catholic incursions afield. Nevertheless, by the time Bishop Anderson arrived at Red River there existed a handful of Native catechists and schoolteachers already in the field, and a - pool of potential candidates in the mission schools. With a relatively enthusiastic Parent Committee behind him, it was up to Anderson to introduce Venn's Native Church Policy to the North West America Mission. E. INDIAN AND EUROPEAN BROTHERS IN CHRIST In the course of its race to secure a hold in the interior, the CMS made a very important discovery. It realized that using Native catechists as ground-breaking mission builders was very economical. These men were generally quite able to survive off the land when necessary and the CMS was not bound to pay them the same salaries as their European counter-parts. In 1842 the single European catechist at Red River received an annual salary of £120. James Roberts was sent to the colony in 1841. As Cockran's pastoral aid he preached alternately at the Upper, Middle and Lower churches, officiated at Bible meetings and did pastoral visits. 8 2 Henry Budd on the other hand, not only preached and taught, he was also responsible for the secular tasks associated with carving a new mission station out of the woods. Henry Budd did twice the amount of work as Roberts yet only received £100 for his labours. This salary might not have been too inequitable except for the fact that Budd also had to cover all the expenses of establishing the mission.8 3 James Settee was also 2 PAC CMSA, A. 95, James Roberts to Dandeson Coates, 9, 16 August 1842. 3PAC CMSA, A. 78, John Smithurst to Secretaries, 1 August 1842. 116 given £100 for his labours and expenses at Beaver Creek. 8 4 James Roberts found it extemely difficult to survive on his £120 salary, which is a strong indication of the Indian catechists' poverty level. Expenses incurred by Roberts included provisions, clothing, transportation, charities to Natives, and subscriptions. 8 5 In his appeal for higher wages, Roberts stated: \"The Clergyman and the Catechist must eat and drink the same things and wear the same clothes.\" £150 or £160 would better meet his personal needs. 8 6 Abraham Cowley was expected to accomplish the same objectives as Budd and Settee but his status as a deacon and a European provided him a far better salary. 8 7 Cowley received £200 per annum. Unlike Budd and Settee however, Cowley received an additional allowance of £100 to cover the costs of building a new mission station,8 8 and a number of servants and labourers to assist him. In August of 1842, when Cowley left Red River for his new post on Lake Manitoba, his outfit consisted of; eight oxen with loaded carts, four of which I have bought for the purpose, two I have hired, & the others are drawing the property family etc of my interpreter [John Garrioch], five cows, three heifers, eight calves, one bull, six ewes, six lambs, two wethers[sic], two pigs, & four fowls, myself & Mrs. Cowley, the interpreter his wife & six children, a man servant & a maid servant, a carpenter, a labourer, the old man of whom I hired the carts together with Indians & a half breed who happened to be crossing & offered to assist with the 8 \"PAC CMSA, A. 96, John Smithurst to Secretaries, 30 July 1844. 8 5 The price of horses ran about £20 each and Roberts claimed that the keep and blacksmith bills totalled about £25 per year. He also complained bitterly that Indians and Half-breeds were always looking for hand-outs and cared \"but little where we get our support from. They also know that we have flour, meat grocery, money tc. tc. in our houses and they consider that they ought to have a share in need as we preach to others the duty of helping and assisting one another.\" PAC CMSA, A. 95, James Roberts to Dandeson Coates, 16 August 1842. 8 6 Ibid. 8 7 Cowley was ordained to the priesthood by Bishop George Jehosephat Mountain during his tour of Rupert's Land in 1844. 8 8 PAC CMSA, A. 96, John Smithurst to Secretaries, 26 October 1842. 117 cattle. 8 9 Settee on the other hand, was given the assistance of one labourer. He and his man were expected to do the work of four men and Sally Settee was expected to perform all the chores Mrs. Cowley, Mrs. Garrioch and the maid servant performed at Partridge Crop.9 0 Charles Pratt was provided with a hunter when he began the mission at Fort Pelly but after 1854, when he was transferred to the Qu'Appelle Lakes, he was left to fend for himself. 9 1 If it were not for the assistance he received from his brother-in-law Thomas Sinclair, Pratt and his family may very well have starved out on the Plains. On more than one occassion Pratt pleaded with the Corresponding Committee for a man or two to help him with the work at the mission: I often find it very hard, when there is no man to assist me in my labours labouring for the Gospel amongst the heathen & supporting a sustenance of my large family, hunting food for them & to preserve our cattle. It is too much for one man.9 2 Throughout Pratt's thirty-eight years as a CMS catechist in Indian country, his only complaint was that he could barely provide for his family. In August of 1859, in a state of near starvation he wrote; \"nothing to eat for breakfast this morning for my 9 children how often do they suffer with me since I have become a member of the Church Mission'y society.\"9 3 Quite often Pratt was forced to make as many as two trips a month to the Plains in search of game. In the winter of 1858-1859, for example, Pratt went on five buffalo hunting expeditions that lasted from two to eleven days each, depending 8 9 PAC CMSA, A. 86, Cowley Journal, 4 August 1842. 9 0 PAC CMSA, A. 96, John Smithhurst's Instructions to James Settee, 1 October 1843. 9 1 PAC CMSA, A. 86, Cowley Journal, 6 April 1852; A. 95, Pratt Journal, 30 January 1859. 9 2 Ibid. 9 3Ibid., 29 August 1859. 118 on the location of the herd. 9 4 A total number of thirteen animals were killed by the Pratt party which consisted of himself, his thirteen year old son Josiah, and his good friend and brother-in-law Thomas Sinclair. 9 5 Charles Pratt only went buffalo hunting when absolutely necessary. Usually it was Josiah and Thomas who joined the local Crees on buffalo expeditions.9 6 Besides hunting, the Pratt's often travelled with the local Crees to various fishing lakes. While stationed at Qu'Appelle Lakes from 1854 to 1858, fish were readily available when they were running. Usually the whole family was spearing or tending nets and hooks. But even there life was often precarious. On at least one occasion Pratt's sons and daughters were forced to fish on Sunday in order to stave of hunger: greatly am I grieved today all my children are hangling for fish from the least to the greatest, they are, really hungary [sic], cannot wait until tomorrow, I alone excepting with two of the youngest. O lord, pardon our inequity, for it is great.9 7 Hunting and fishing were not the only means employed by the Pratt family to supplement their livelihood. Sometimes they trapped furs which were traded at the Company posts for provisions.9 B Other times they depended entirely on the produce of their farm, or on donations and collections from neighbouring HBC posts.9 9 S 4Ibid., 13-21 October 1858, 4-15 December 1858, 21-24 December 1858, 11-15 January 1859, 24-30 January 1859. 9 5 Ibid. 9 6Ibid., 8 December 1858. 9 7Ibid., A. 81, Pratt Journal, 28 February 1869. 9 8 P A M HBCA, B. 159/a/18, fo. 18; PAC CMSA, A. 98, Pratt Journal, month of November 1869. \"Ibid., A. 95, Pratt Journal, 14 June 1859. In 1868 HBC officers and servants made a collection among themselves and presented the proceeds to Pratt and his family at Touchwood Hills. PAC CMSA, A. 87, Minutes of the Meeting of the Finance Committee, 7 May 1868. Local HBC post-masters also donated small gifts of. provisions and sometimes provided for his family while he was off chasing buffalo on the Plains. Ibid., A. 95, Pratt Journal, 14 December 1858. 119 Fritz Pannekoek stated that farming operations at Pratt's mission did not expand because Pratt preferred to \"trap, trade and hunt buffalo than grub potatoes.\" 1 0 0 Recent research proves this judgement too hasty and in err. The entire Pratt family, and local Indians laboured hard in the mission gardens. The problem they all faced, besides lack of reliable provisions, was insufficient quantities of seed and adequate tools. In the spring of 1859, for example, Pratt had fifteen camps of Indians at Little Touchwood Hills mission, all of whom wanted to plant seed. All they had to work with were pieces of wood or sticks. As enthusiastic as his flock was on this occasion, Pratt barely had more than one seed potato for each.1 0 1 Even as late as 1878 Pratt was still without adequate tools at Touchwood Hills: I have but one hoe to work with, I feel often, discouraged, to be still hoeing, now, near twenty-nine years, in the Church Missionary service, I am now geting [sic] an old-man now, no plough yet, for me, why am I thus.1 0 2 There were also many instances when the threat of starvation compelled Pratt to slaughter his stock.1 0 3 The local CMS remonstrated these acts and accused Pratt of \"incompetency,\" \"improvidence,\" and \"want of economy.\"10\" However there were also times when European missionaries were obliged to kill their oxen for survival. Joseph Reader was stationed as superintendent of Pratt's Touchwood Hills mission from 1874 to 1881. The winter of 1877-1878 was so harsh and provisions so low that Reader was \"compelled to kill an ox\" to feed his family and students.1 0 5 Reader's pastoral work was even more hampered than was 1 0 0Pannekoek, \"Agricultural Zions,\" p. 58. 1 0 1 P A C CMSA, A. 95, Pratt Journal, 21 May 1859. 1 0 2 I b i d . , A. 104, Pratt Journal, 17 May 1878. 1 0 3 I b i d . , A. 95, Pratt Journal, 12 November 1859. 1 0 \"Ibid., A. 100, Abraham Cowley to Henry Wright, 18 December 1873. Ibid., A. 87, Abraham Cowley to Secretaries, 7 September 1868. 1 0 5 I b i d . , A. 103, Reader Journal, 6 December 1877. 120 Pratt because, he claimed, his allowance could not cover the \"necessities of life.\" Even though Reader received more than twice as much as Pratt, he was forced to spend most of his time farming. 1 0 6 Therefore, it is apparent that it was not for lack of effort that Pratt's mission farm did not flourish, or that he was often destitute. Disparate ranges between the salaries of European and Native church workers were institutionalized. Bishop David Anderson was instructed by Henry Venn before he even arrived at the colony, to adjust the salaries of Native ministers in accordance with \"Native wants and habits and not to European requirements.\" 1 0 7 Since the thrust of Venn's NCP was to nurture self-supporting Native churches, he did not want his Native ministers becoming \"too European in their habits.\" 1 0 8 By forcing them to remain in their \"proper positions,\" it was hoped that the Native pastors could more effectively encourage their congregations to share the mission costs and thus relieve the financial burden of the CMS. 1 0 9 Even before Venn's directive came into force, Native catechists in the field received less than half the financial support of their European counterparts. Venn's NCP merely formalized this racist practice. The greatest salary discrepencies occurred between the European and Native ordained priests. In 1873 there were eight European and eight Native priests stationed in Rupert's Land. Europeans received £200 per year while their Native counterparts received £100. Both groups received equal stipends for the expenses of the mission, an improvement over earlier practises, but only the Europeans received a family allowance. European missionaries recieved between £10 to £15 per child per year 1 0 6 I b i d . , A. 104, Joseph Reader to Christopher C. Fenn, 4 December 1879. 1 0 7 H e n r y Venn to the Bishop of Rupert's Land, 5 June 1849, quoted in Pettipas, Diary of Henry Budd, p. xi. 1 0 8 I b i d . 1 0 9 Ibid. 121 to help defray their education expenses. For example, in 1871 Reverend Henry George was allowed £60 to cover room and board and education fees for his sons attending school in England. George estimated that that the same education for his four daughters would cost him between £50 and £60 per year.1 1 0 Native ministers also had large families but they did not receive family education allowances. While a handful of Native clergy offspring were sponsored by the CMS to attend St. John's Collegiate, research suggests that only one was educated in England by this date.1 1 1 By the 1870s the salaries of the Native catechists and schoolteachers had not increased. They still received £50 per year, but the Finance Committee realized that the expenses of establishing and running a school were the same for catechists as it was for deacons so they equalized their incomes by providing the catechists with a £20 per year freight allowance.1 1 2 Every few years the schoolmasters received an additional allowance to cover repair and other school expenses. In 1870 Pratt received such an allowance of £50. 1 1 3 Even more insulting than the unequal pay scales were the double bonuses European ministers recieved when they took over missions started by Native church workers. In 1874 Joseph Reader, a European deacon, was sent to Pratt's mission with an additional allowance of £100 for building construction and other 1 1 °PAC CMSA, A. 99, Henry George to Christopher C. Fenn, 6 November 1871. 1 1 'Reverend Cowley and Bishop Anderson sponsored at least two of Pratt's children at St. John's. PAC CMSA, A. 86, Pratt Journal, 22 June 1855; A few of James Settee's children were also sponsored but not all children of Native clergy were. Thomas Vincent, for example, had to pay his childrens' board and fees at St. John's out of his own meagre salary. Ibid., A. 100, John Horden to Secretaries, 11 September 1872; However, Henry Budd Jr. attended Islington College in England under the sponsorship of Anderson. Budd Jr. returned in 1863 but had not finished his training because of illness. Pettipas, Diary of Henry Budd, p. xxxvi. 1 1 2 PAC CMSA, A. 99, Abraham Cowley to Secretaries, 30 August 1871. 1 1 3Ibid., Bishop of Rupert's Land to Christopher C. Fenn, 17 December 1870. 122 expenses.1 1 * The Little Touchwood Hills mission had been operating since 1858 and included a handful of Indian houses, a mission house, and a near complete church by the time Reader arrived, yet he was given a new mission allowance which in fact paid him for most of the work that Pratt had already done.1 1 5 By the late 1860s there were a number of complaints from Native missionaries about the difficulty of surviving on their low incomes.1 1 6 They were not insentive to Venn's goal for self-supporting Native churches. In fact, contrary to Eric Porter's position, Native church workers generally supported the idea.1 1 7 But their incomes were far too low to cover basic subsistence which meant that they spent more time in pursuit of provisions than evangelizing. Furthermore, Native congregations were too economically depressed to subsidize the livelihoods of their Native ministers, even if they had wanted to. By 1875 St Peter's Indian Settlement was still unable to help their minister, and it was the oldest Indian mission in Western Canada.1 1 8 The Bishop of Rupert's land empathized with the Native clergy men. In 1870 he wrote on their behalf to the Parent Committee in London: I believe some of the most effective of your staff or missionaries are several of the Native Clergy. It is doubtless a little trying to human Nature to see themselves labouring with great difficulty and hardship on £100 a year in this [sic] most expensive Country, whilst others inferior to them as they must feel in Efficiency -in everything in fact-...are receiving what really sometimes [sic] short of £300 simply because Europeans from England.1 1 9 1 1 * PAC CMSA, A. 100, \"Rupert's Land Missions - Estimates for the Year Ending September 30th, 1874\" Abraham Cowley; Boon, Bay To The Rockies, p. 157n. 1 1 5PAC CMSA, A. 81, Joseph Reader to Christopher C. Fenn, 20 January 1876. 1 1 6 PAC CMSA, A. 87, Abraham Cowley to Secretaries, 27 February 1869. 1 1 7 P o r t e r , \"Residential Schools,\" p. 22. 1 1 8 P A C CMSA, A. 81, John A. Mackay to Christopher C. Fenn, 27 March 1875. 1 1 9 P A C CMSA, A. 99, Bishop of Rupert's Land to Christopher C. Fenn, 17 December 1870. 123 On one occasion the CMS did consider a plan to equalize clergy salaries in Rupert's Land but apparently, because it required a decrease in European salaries, the idea was abandoned. Not even established non-Indian communities could support their churches.1 2 0 The only two Native clergymen to have ever received wage increases beyond the maximum limit prescribed for Native church workers were Henry Budd and Thomas Vincent of Moosenee. In 1872 Vincent's superior, Reverend John Horden, requested an increase of £40 or £50 per year on his behalf. John S. Long is of the opinion that the only reason Horden requested an increase for Vincent was because he wanted a £60 per year increase himself. 1 2 1 Horden claimed that the cost of living and Vincent's social status required extra income. Vincent's status in the community he claimed, was \"certainly considerably lower than that of mere clerks in the H.B.C. service, and to three fourths of them he is much superior both in intellect and energy.\" 1 2 2 Soon thereafter Vincent's salary was increased to £120 per year while the other Native priests, including Henry Budd, still only received £ 100.1 2 3 Kathrine Pettipas claimed that Henry Budd's salary was also increased in light of his social status. While this is partly true, the bulk of his increase was the result of his ordination to deacon's status in December of 1850. As a catechist Budd had received £50 per year plus £5 freight allowance and a month after ordination his total income was 1 2 Henry George at St. Mary's mission, Portage la Prairie, stated that his primarily \"Half-breed\" congregation was unable to render any material aid in support of the church. It might also be mentioned however that George was very concerned at this time because the CMS was seriously considering withdrawing funds because they no longer considered his an Indian mission station. Ibid., Henry George to Christopher C. Fenn, 6 November 1871. 1 2 1 John S. Long, \"Archdeacon Thomas Vincent of Moosonee and the Handicap of 'Metis' Racial Status\" The Canadian Journal of Native Studies 3 (1983), p. 104. 1 2 2 P A C CMSA, A. 100, John Horden to Secretary, 11 September 1872. 1 2 3Ibid., \"Rupert's Land Missions - Estimates for the Year ending September 30th, 1874,\" Abraham Cowley. 124 increased to £100, £25 more per year than what other Native deacons received. Venn stated that \"Budd has been so much identified with English habits that the salary was quite proper in his case.\"1 2 ft Contrary to Pettipas's claim, however, Budd's salary was never equalized to a European missionary's standard of pay. Even as a deacon at £100 per year he was getting £50 less than European deacons, and when he was ordained a priest his salary was not increased. It remained at £100, on par with his Native brethren. While the low salaries paid to Native agents were supposed to encourage self-sufficiency, in effect it kept them dependent on the church. 1 2 5 A more significant factor that contributed to their dependency was the inherent paternalism of local church officials. As early as 1845 the CMS Parent Committee was encouraging local missionaries to seek out prospective candidates for a Native ministry, but the locals were pessimistic. John Smithurst believed that a Native ministry would take a very long time to mature: There are young men of genuine piety and apt at learning, but at present lack the disposition for long and steady application. The remains of old habits and customs producing a love of change still clings to them, but in time [sic] will wear out, and then we may hope to see them capable of being placed in responsible stations were[sic] steadiness and close attention are requisite. 1 2 6 Five years later Smithurst was of the same opinion. He simply had no faith in the capacity of Native agents to assume responsibility for their own mission stations: The native character is generally unstable. A native does well enough under the guidence of a European but when left to himself sinks into indolent listnessess and does next to nothing. This has been the case 1 2 \" Henry Venn to\" Robert James, 4 April 1851 quoted in Pettipas, Diary of Henry Budd, p. xxx. 1 2 5PAC CMSA, A. 100, Bishop of Rupert's Land to Christopher C. Fenn, 17 December 1870. 1 2 ePAC CMSA, A. 96, John Smithurst to Secretaries, 1 August 1845. 125 in almost nine instances out of ten where the Hudson's Bay Company have put natives in charge of a Trading post with no one near at hand to keep them right. From the love of moving about inherent in the natives of the Country they would appear to me far better suited to break up new ground than be left in Charge of an old station.1 2 7 Smithurst was not basing his opinions on the experiences of those Native catechists already in the field, rather he based his opinions on the experiences the HBC had with their Native employees. Contrary to Venn's NCP, the local CMS employed its Native agents to prepare new mission stations for European missionaries. In doing so they contravened three of Venn's main principles; most did not bother to aquaint themselves well with their host cultures or learn the language fluently, Europeans were not sent into hitherto untouched regions, and they did not encourage independence. The result was not only a dependent congregation, but an unhappy and dependent Native ministry. Evidence indicates that the European ministers were not prepared to take on all the strenuous tasks associated with building a new mission station, and many were probably fearful of entering Indian country without having first established friendly relations with the locals. There were a few exceptions of course, Cowley at Lake Manitoba and William Duncan at Fort Simpson, for example. The European missionaries sent to take over Indian missions were usually over-zealous greenhorns with fanciful ideas and superior attitudes which could hardly have sat well with their Native \"seconds.\" A case in point is the relationship between Charles Pratt and Charles Hillyer of Fort Pelly. Tensions, jealousies and open conflicts between the two men reached such heights that the local CMS was compelled to step in. Taking Hillyer's side in the conflicts, they suspended Pratt. Only after Hillyer successfully alienated the local Indians and 1 2 7 I b i d . , John Smithurst to Henry Venn, 6 August 1850. 126 HBC personel did the CMS realize that it was Hillyer's attitude and mismanagement that was the root of strife at Fort Pelly. Everything Pratt had built up Hillyer destroyed.1 2 8 For the sake of the mission, Hillyer was recalled to Red River and Pratt was reinstated at Fort Pelly. 1 2 9 The telling point of the Hillyer-Pratt affair was that the CMS automatically assumed that the chaotic state of the mission was the fault of their Native catechist, as opposed to their European catechist. Conflicts and ill-feelings were often prevelant in situations where European missionaries treated their Native assistants in a condescending manner. Vera K. Fast points out that there were a number of complaints from Native missionaries about unequal workloads and poor treatment. Joseph Cook, for example complained that he and his Native counterparts were often treated \"no better that a common labourer.\" He went on to add; \"I can assure you, Sir, we are beginning to get disgusted with our situation & the treatment & the distinction which has been made between us and the European Catechists, & the too-much Lordship being excerized over us.\"1 3 0 This innate British paternalism and arrogance was not confined to purely professional affairs. European missionaries even went so far as to meddle in the family and personal lives of Native missionaries. Following the death of Catherine Pratt in 1869, Abraham Cowley presumptuously selected a second wife for Charles. This woman, he believed, would be of great benefit to the workings of the society, and he was quite sorry when Pratt refused.1 3 1 Reverend and Mrs. Settee's marital relations were the topic of discussion at at least one meeting of the Finance Committee. 1 2 B P A C CMSA, A. 86, Cowley Journal, 28 December 1853, 17 February 1854. 1 2 9 I b i d . , 21 March, 12 April, 7 June 1854. 1 3 0 cited in Vera K. Fast, \"The Protestant Missionary and Fur Trade Society: Initial Contact in the Hudons's Bay Territory, 1820-1850,\" (Ph.D. thesis: University of Manitoba, 1984), p. 244. 1 3 1 P A C CMSA, A. 100, Cowley Journal, 9 September 1871. 127 In 1869 the Committee determined that Mrs. Settee's violent temper was hindering her husband's work. Apparently she was very resentful that Reverend and Mrs. Hale had been sent to take over the mission at Fairford which her husband had been supervising for a number of years. Initially the Committee decided that the only choices they had were to either suspend James Settee, or insist upon a \"temporary divorse.\" 1 3 2 In the end it was decided to send the Settees to the new mission at Scanterbury where they \"would be under European Superintendence & where are opportunities of reform might be afforded.\"1 3 3 It is telling that even in light of evidence to the contrary, European missionaries continued to insist that \"as a rule the natives don't do well alone.\" 1 3 4 Of all the European missionaries, Cowley was the worst hypocrite in this regard. After four years of intensive mission work at Partridge Crop, he could not boast of a single convert. The only baptisms he performed between 1842 and 1846 were for infant children of HBC employees. In a private letter to an old friend in England Cowley lamented the sorry state of his work. The church stood empty and the only way he could get anj' Indian adults to attend services was to bribe them with \"a pint of flour each day.\" He even had to bribe the children to get them to attend school with one-half a pint of flour a day.1 3 5 Henry Budd on the other hand produced far better results in half the time with less help at hand. After two years at The Pas Budd had 32 regular day students and 42 adults preparing for baptisms. During Smithurst's visit in June of 1842 he baptized 27 infants, 22 day students, and 39 adu l t s . 1 3 6 In i 3 2 p A C CMSA, A. 87, Abraham Cowley to Secretaries, 20 August 1867. 1 3 3 Ibid. 1 3 \"Ibid., Cowley Journal, 1 October 1861. 1 3 5 P A C CMSA, A. 86, Abraham Cowley to Reverend W. Davies, 17 July 1846. 1 3 6 T . C. B. Boon, \"Budd, Henry,\" in Dictionary of Canadian Biography vol. X, 1871-1880, ed. Marc La Ferreur (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1982), p. 108. 128 the numbers game used by missionaries to determine the relative success of an Indian mission, Budd's outshone Cowley's by leaps and bounds. It is difficult to assess the number of converts Pratt prepared for baptism because, as a catechist, he could not perform the sacrament. By 1877 Reverend Reader reported that there were 134 christian converts, 10 communicants, and 23 school children attending the mission school at Little Touchwood Hills mission.1 3 7 Not all the converts actually lived near the mission however because the people still migrated seasonally between the plains, Qu'Appelle River and the woodlands. During the summer of 1871, Pratt and his \"friends\" numbered about 30 at the Upper Lakes Qu'Appelle. Among this number were a handful of baptized converts with whom the Pratt family travelled, gardened, fished and hunted. 1 3 8 In the winter months his small group was usually reduced by about one-third as people went their separate ways to make a livelihood.1 3 9 The convert figures Reader gives in 1877 covered the entire Qu'Appelle-Touchwood Hills. Like Pratt, Reader travelled throughout the area at least once a year, though Pratt usually made three or more visits a year. Usually during their annual winter rounds they went by dogsled from Little Touchwood Hills to Fort Qu'Appelle then to Upper Lakes Qu'Appelle, Buffalo and Las Mountain Lakes, and back to Touchwood again (see figure 8). The journey and the daily visits at Indian camps dispersed throughout the area took about two to three weeks.1 * 0 The number of baptisms, however, are not fair criterion to judge the \"success\" of Pratt's missionary efforts for a number of reasons: First, since Pratt was usually alone on the prairie missions, all his adherents were baptised during 1 3 7 P A C CMSA, A. 103, Annual Letter of Joseph Reader, 16 January 1878. 1 3 8Ibid., A. 99, Pratt Journal, 6 June 1871. 1 3 9 I b i d . , 10 December 1871. 1 f t 0Ibid., A. 81, Pratt Journal, 25, 26 January 1877. 129 the annual or bi-annual tours of Archdeacon Cowley. Many Indian farmers were absent during these times so the head counts do not always include the actual number of followers. Furthermore, the \"numbers game\" is an inadequate quotient for determining the success of missions. Though the baptismal criterions were met, seldom is it ever indicated whether these individuals lived as christians. For example, most baptized Indians did not become sedentary farmers, nor did they regularly attend Sunday services. V I . C H A R L E S P R A T T O F T O U C H W O O D H I L L S (1816-1888) , C M S N A T I V E C A T E C H I S T A. ASKENOOTOW NIHTOWA-KI-NISIN OF THE YOUNG DOGS Charles Pratt, Askenootow, was the fourth student recruited by Reverend John West for the Red River Indian mission school.1 Following his ten years at school and a further thirteen in the HBC service, Pratt spent 38 years as a schoolteacher, interpreter, and catechist for the CMS in the HBC Swan River District. Like Henry Budd and James Settee, Pratt established and supervised a number of inland Indian mission stations. Table 6 outlines when and where these missions were founded and Figure 10 shows where they were located. Unlike his two contemporaries, however, Pratt was never ordained into the ministry. In fact, Charles Pratt was the only ground-breaking CMS church worker in Western Canada who was not eventually ordained. To date, very little has been published about Pratt or any of the other lower ranked Native church workers in the CMS.2 In order to more thoroughly appreciate the rise of a Native ministry in the CMS, the context of christian conversion, and the relations between Native church workers, the church, and their Native congregations, Charles Pratt and others like him deserve more serious attention. 1 Charles Pratt was named after Josiah Pratt who was the Secretary of the CMS in London during West's stay in Rupert's Land. Josiah Pratt was born in Birmingham England in 1768 and graduated from St. Edmund's Hall, Oxford, in 1789. Throughout his life he was a close friend of George West, elder brother of John. A. N. Thompson, \"The Expansion of the Church of England in Rupert's Land from 1820 to 1839 under the Hudson's Bay Company and the Church Missionary Society,\" (Ph.D. thesis, Cambridge University, 1962), p. 456. 2 Some of his exploits and experiences have been mentioned or discussed in a handful of published sources but the only piece focusing specifically on Pratt was done by Frits Pannekoek, \"Pratt, Charles\"' in Dictionary of Canadian Biography vol. XI, 1881-1890, ed. Francis G. Halpenny (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1982): 711-12; Jane McCracken also wrote an unpublished account of Pratt and his Qu'Appelle Lakes mission, \"The Church Missionary Society and It's Mission at the Qu'Appelle Lakes 1852-1870's\" (Regina: Saskatchewan Department of Culture and Recreation, 1985). 130 131 Table 6 CMS Indian Missions Founded and Occupied by Charles Pratt Dates Mission Location 1851-1853 Fort Pelly 1 mile west of HBC Fort Pelly 1854-1858 Qu'Appelle Lakes Between Echo and Mission Lakes, Qu'Appelle River 1858-18771 Little Touchwood Hills (St. Lukes) Present day Gordon's I.R.2 1877 Round Lake Present day Ochapowace I.R. 1878-1883 Big Touchwood Hills Present day Daystar's I.R. Sources: PAC CMSA, A. 95, A. 81, A. 98, A. 99, A. 103, A. 104, A. I l l , A. 112, Journals of Charles Pratt, 1851-1884. 'Following Settee's hasty retreat from Qu'Appelle Lakes in 1859, Charles Pratt divided his time equally between Qu'Appelle Lakes (summer and winter) and Little Touchwood Hills (spring and fall). 2 The location of St. Lukes mission changed twice. Pratt established the first site in 1858 about 2 miles from the HBC post. In 1874 Reverend Joseph Reader moved the mission 2 1/2 miles southwest of its original site. This posed a problem when the Reserve was surveyed because the mission was 3/4 of a mile west of Gordon's I.R. When Gilbert Cook took over the mission in 1883 he was successful in getting the government to extend the western boundary of the Reserve to include the mission. PAC CMSA, A. 103, Reader Journal, 6 December 1877; A. 104, Abraham Cowley to Reverend Purday, 20 May 1880; A. I l l , Minutes of the Finance Committee, 20 February 1883; Bishop of Rupert's Land to Christopher C. Fenn, 25 July 1883. Figure 10 Region Covered by Charles Pratt, Native Catechist, 1851-1884, Showing the Location of Post-1876 Indian Reserves Source: PAC CMSA, A. 81, 95, 98, 99, 103, 104, 111, 112, Journals of Charles Pratt, 1851-1884. 133 Charles Pratt arrived at Red River on 24 May 1822 aboard the HBC spring fur brigades from the Swan River district. Apparently he boarded the brigade at Fort Qu'Appelle.3 In the early 1820s, Qu'Appelle post was located near the junction of the Assiniboine and Qu'Appelle Rivers and Pratt was born some 115 miles downriver from there, between Mission and Echo Lakes on the Qu'Appelle River. Figure 11 illustrates the environmental landscape of the region in 1859 when Henry Youle Hind travelled through, and Figure 12 shows where Pratt was born. The approximate area of his birth place later became the site of the Qu'Appelle Lakes mission he founded in 1854.\" The exact date of his birth is difficult to determine. The closest estimation comes from his first schoolmaster George Harbridge who reported that Pratt's \"Suppos'd Age\" was eight years in 1824, which places his birth date around 1816.5 At the time of Pratt's birth, the Qu'Appelle Fishing Lakes region was occupied by Plains Cree and Assiniboine, or Stony bands.6 Pratt was born among a mixed band of Plains Cree and Assiniboine peoples known as the Young Dogs. His mother was Assiniboine and his father was the Mixed-blood son of a French fur trader and a presently unknown Indian woman.7 The Plains 3 John West, The Substance of a Journal During a Residence at the Red River Colony, British North American in the Years 1820-1823 (Vancouver: Alcuin Society Reprint, 1967), p. 80. \"In 1867 Pratt told HBC clerk Isaac Cowie that he was born at the fish barrier, about one-quarter of a mile downriver from the new location of Fort Qu'Appelle which was situated between the Second and Third Fishing Lakes on the Qu'Appelle River. Isaac Cowie, Company of Adventurers, A Narrative of Seven Years in the Service of the Hudson's Bay Company During 186 7-1874 (Toronto: William Briggs, 1913), pp. 201, 235. 5PAC CMSA, A. 88, George Harbridge to Josiah Pratt, 1 July 1824. 6 Arthur Ray, Indians in the Fur Trade: their role as trappers, hunters, and middlemen in the lands southwest od Hudson Bat, 1660-1870 (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1974), pp. 95, 235. 7 To date, the literature provides a number of speculations about Pratt's parentage. Harbridge stated that Pratt was procurred from the Assiniboine and he lists him as such in his 1824 annual report. Harbridge further stated that Pratt's father was a \"Half-breed son of a French Nobleman.\" In 1859 Henry Youle Hind stated that Pratt was simply a \"half-breed,\" while John Palliser (1859) and Governor Alexander Morris (1874) stated he was a pure Indian of 134 Figure 11 \"Fishing Lakes, Qu'Appelle River\", 1859 Source: Henry Youle Hind, Narrative of the Canadian Exploring Expedition of 1857 and of the Assiniboine and Saskatchewan Exploring Expedition of 1858. (Edmonton: M.G. Hurtig Ltd. Reprint, 1971) I: facing p. 321. 7 (cont'd) Cree extraction. There are two statements left by Pratt himself regarding his parentage. In his 1869 journal Pratt stated that his mother's first language was Assiniboine. Earlier in 1867 Pratt told fur trader Isaac Cowie that he was \"pure Indian...of the mixed Assiniboine and Cree blood of the sept [sic] known as 'Young Dogs' or 'Puppies,' in the Cree Equivalent.\" Pannekoek suggests that Pratt was \"probably the son of a Stony mother and a Cree or Metis father.\" The writer will not argue with Pratt's own statements and will qualify his claim about being a pure Indian because his people traced their identity through matrilineal lines. The photograph in Figure 1 indicates that there is little doubt he was of mixed European and Indian ancestry. PAC CMSA, A. 88, George Harbridge to Josiah Pratt, 1 July 1824; H. Y. Hind, Narrative of the Canadian Red River Exploring Expedition of 1857 And of The Assiniboine And Saskatchewan Exploring Expedition of 1858 (Edmonton: M. G. Hurtig Reprint, 1971), vol. I, p. 317; Irene M. Spry ed., The Papers of the Palliser Expedition, 1857-1860 (Toronto: Champlain Society, 1968): 137; Alexander Morris, The Treaties of Canada with the Indians of Manitoba and the North-West Territories (Toronto: Belfords, Clarke & Co., 1880), p. 82; PAC CMSA, A. 95, Pratt Journal, 30 May 1869; Cowie, Company of Adventurers, p. 235; Pannekoek, \"Charles Pratt,\" p. 711. 135 Figure 12 \"Plan of the Fishing Lakes\", Showing the Location of the CMS Qu'Appelle Mission SmU «Jiliw tm mm Jnm\\ Source: Henry Youle Hind, Narrative of the Canadian Exploring Expedition of 1857 and of the Assiniboine and Saskatchewan Exploring Expedition of 1858. (Edmonton: M.G. Hurtig Ltd. Reprint, 1971) I: facing p. 329. Cree and Assiniboine were primarily buffalo hunting equestrians at that time. In 1819 Chief Factor William Hemming Cook reported that bands from the two nations traded: dried provisions, buffalo robes, leather, and wolf, badger and fox furs in the Swan River District. 8 As competition between fur trade companies increased in the early 1800s, the demand for pemmican provisions and therefore pemmican provisioners increased.9 At the peak of the North West Company 8PAM HBCA, B. 159/e/l, fo. 6. 9 Ray, Indians in the Fur Trade, pp. 104, 133. 136 (NWC) and HBC competition period, the Plains buffalo hunters were the most economically and politically powerful and independent bands in the Canadian mid-west. They successfully played one fur company against the other in order to secure the best rates of exchange and privileges. Because the companies had little access to the buffalo themselves, they were forced to submit to Indian demands. 1 0 Their political and economic tactics were often considered ruthless, offensive, and sometimes even life-threatenning by inland fur traders.1 1 Cook reported that the Assiniboines, and those Plains Cree who permanently associated with them, were \"more haughty and resentful than those of the low country [woodlands].\"1 2 When John West travelled to Qu'Appelle fort in the winter of 1821 his party received two armed escorts from the HBC at Brandon House because the Stonies were reported to be in the immediate area.1 3 The Young Dogs band, under the leadership of Chief Piapot, harassed any strangers in their territories, especially white travellers and Metis buffalo hunters. 1 4 In 1861 Doctor John Rae's party happened to cross Piapot's path: \"They are particularly forward, troublesome, and thievish. They gave us a sample of their adroitness in the latter capacity by stealing 3 of our best horses.\" 1 5 He went on to add that, \"they were a very unruly set of curs who act in the most oppressive manner\" towards the few Metis who lived in the area by \"levying a heavy fine 1 ° P A M HBCA, B. 159/a/7, fo. 7; Ray, Indians in the Fur Trade, pp. 207, 213. 1 1 Earl of Southesk, Saskatchewan and the Rocky Mountains: A Diary and Narrative of Travel, Sport, and Adventure, During a Journey Through The Hudson's Bay Company's Territories in 1859 and 1860. (Edmonton: M. G. Hurtig Reprint, 1969) p. 327; Ray, Indians in the Fur Trade, pp. 133-34. 1 2 PAM HBCA, B. 159/e/l, fo. 6. 1 3 West, Substance, p. 34. 1 \"Chief Piapot was Charles Pratt's first cousin and was himself a mixed Cree-Assiniboine. 1 5Irene M. Spry, ed., \"A Visit to Red River and the Saskatchewan, 1861, By Dr. John Rae, FRGS,\" The Geographical Journal 140, Part I (February 1974): 11. 137 for every animal [buffalo] they k i l l . \" 1 6 As late as 1867 the Assiniboines were upholding their notorious reputations. Isaac Cowie reported that even their Plains Cree and Saulteaux neighbors around Qu'Appelle and Touchwood Hills held them in contempt.1 7 Cowie may have misinterpreted these exhortations as contempt rather than as more probable expressions of jealousy and respect. Nevertheless, evidence strongly indicates that Charles Pratt's people had a powerful reputation on the Plains that lasted well into the 1870s.1 8 Charles Pratt was sent to school at Red River in the spring of 1822. Less than one year earlier, the HBC and NWC competition ended, leaving Plains people with less bargaining power. It is not difficult to suppose that members of the Young Dogs band would seek to obtain as much of an upper-edge with the HBC as possible. The two things the Company possessed, that Indian people had no access to at that time, were reading and writing skills. What Company clerks wrote in their ledgers was no doubt understood in general terms but even a nominally inquisitive mind would hanker over the details, especially the words and symbols entered in the debt ledgers. Furthermore, any Indian person in possession of \"little writing,\" as hand-written notes were refered to in those days, was accorded a relatively high degree of status with the Company. HBC officials gave these notes of authority to recognized trading chiefs and when they were shown to Company men at the posts or on the plains, the bearer could expect a gift of tobacco, which was considered to be an expression of respect. 1 9 In 1869 Isaac Cowie claimed that the greatest ambition of Chief Piapot of the Young Dogs, was to obtain a masinahikanis, or \"writing,\" for his amulet. 1 6 Ibid. 1 7 Cowie, Company of Adventurers, pp. 311-13. 1 8 Ray, Indians in the Fur Trade, p. 213. 1 9W. P. Stewart, My Name is Piapot (Maple Creek, Sask.: Butterfly Books Ltd., 1981), p. 32. 138 The HBC refused to give Piapot one because they refused to recognize his authority and leadership among his people.2 0 As the evidence indicates, Indian peoples' understanding of the value of the written word cannot be underestimated. The desire to acquire such knowledge was so strong among the Young Dogs band that they gave up one of their sons for that specific purpose. At the tender age of six, young Askenootow was sent to Red River to acquire book-learning for the benefit of his people \"on the condition of being returned when he had learned to read and write.\"2 1 It is also significant to note that Askenootow was not recruited by John West as the other children were. His people voluntarily placed him on the spring fur brigade heading east to Red River and the Indian mission school. Apparently Charles Pratt took his responsibility to learn these new skills seriously. He applied himself thoughtfully to his studies and there is no indication that he ever misbehaved or got into serious trouble. In his 1824 report, Harbridge stated that Charles was \"an interesting boy, and upon the whole may be called a good boy.\" 2 2 The fact that he was baptized thirteen months after his arrival at the school is further indication that he was a hardworking and promising student.2 3 Pratt took less time to qualify for baptism than any of his peers, including Henry Budd who was at the school twenty-one months before he received the sacrament.2 ' Charles Pratt spent a little more than ten years at the Indian mission school. Though seldom mentioned specifically in the schoolmasters' reports, Pratt and the older students, meaning those who had been there the longest, progressed satisfactorily in their academic studies. The boys were also well 2 0 Cowie, Company of Adventurers, pp. 243-44. 2 1 PAC CMSA, A. 88, George Harbridge to Josiah Pratt, 1 July 1824. 2 2 Ibid. 2 3 PAM HBCA, E. 4/la, fo. 43d. 2 \"Ibid., fo. 39. 139 acquainted with the doctrinal parts of the Scriptures, but apparently just being familiar with the the teachings of the Bible did not satisfy the missionaries or schoolmasters.25 As previously stated, they expected to witness a \"conversion experience,\" some outward exhibition of evangelical enthusiasm that would indicate that the boys were truly prepared to turn their backs on almost every aspect of their own heritage. The mission staff sought in vain for some indication of an evangelical spark in their students because they truly believed that \"If the Indian school boys return to their families with hearts unchanged by grace, they likely will become the worst of Indians.\" 2 6 By 1833 Pratt and four fellow students had left the Indian school, and none had lived up to the evangelical expectations or standards of their teachers.2 7 However, contrary to the opinions of Jones, Smith, and Cockran, these young men were profoundly affected by their christian indoctrination. As indicated earlier, most of them also followed their evangelical inclinations to propogate the gospel among their country-men. The Red River missionaries and teachers were simply unaware and insensitive to the subtle-but-sure cultural transformations of their charges. It is also no doubt true that they were so blinded by their white superiority, Eurocentric and paternalistic attitudes that they could not believe these men were capable of absorbing christian doctrine and ideology or that they could be dedicated and powerful enough to capture and hold a congregation. By the summer of 1832, Pratt was sixteen years old and ready to leave the mission school. Three of his school chums had already left to rejoin their families. Since the families of Henry Budd and James Hope relocated to Red River, these two remained in the colony. However, Thomas Hassel returned 2 5 PAC CMSA, A. 96, William Smith to Secretaries, 29 July 1831. 2 6 William Cockran to Edward Bickersteth, 7 August 1828, cited in Thompson, \"Expansion,\" p. 121. 2 7 PAC CMSA, A. 96, William Smith to Secretaries, 11 August 1833. 140 to his people at Fort Churchill in the winter of 1832, and Charles Pratt was expected to rejoin his family the following autumn. Even though these young men held some missionary potential and inclination, Reverend Jones still had little hope that they could do any spiritual good among their kindred in distant regions: Thomas Hassel...wrote to me very affectionately last winter, lamenting the absence of any opportunity of attending the means of Grace. Charles Pratt...goes to Qu'Appelle this Autumn and will pass the winter among his relations; though we are not satsified as to the religious principles of these Boys still it is impossible to say what good consequences may arise from these visits. 2 8 About a month after Jones wrote the above, an unfortunate incident hastened Pratt's departure from the Indian Mission. In 1832 a number of students from prominent fur trade families were boarding at Jones' parsonage in anticipation of the opening of the Red River Academy. Among these was Annabella McKenzie, daughter of Roderick McKenzie, Chief Factor of the English River District who was stationed at Cumberland House.2 9 Charles and Annabella took a shine to each other and in August of 1832, when Annabella was discovered \"in the family way,\" general census held Charles responsible.3 0 Charles was either not prepared to assume responsibility and do the \"honourable\" thing, or he may not have believed he was the responsible party. Whatever his reasons, Charles clandestinely fled from the 2 8 PAC CMSA, A. 92, David Jones to Dandeson Coates, 25 July 1832. 2 9 E . H. Oliver, The Canadian North-West, Its Early Development and Legislative Records, Minutes of the Councils of the Red River Colony and the Northern Department of Rupert's Land (Ottawa: Government Printing Bureau, 1914), vol. I, p. 674. 3 0 Governor Simpson was of the opinion that it was Annabella who seduced Pratt. Simpson described the girl as \"a poor silly stupid creature ...[a] half idiot thing,\" who had \"absolutely commited rape\" upon another Indian boy of thirteen years. PABC, Donald Ross Correspondence, George Simpson to Donald Ross, 20 December 1822, cited in Sylvia Van Kirk, \"Many Tender Ties\", Women in Fur Trade Society in Western Canada, 1670-1870 (Winnipeg: Watson & Dwyer Publishing, 1980), p. 273n.; PAM HBCA, B. 135/c/2, fo. 96. 141 mission school soon after Annabella's condition became known.3 1 His flight left the poor girl in a delicate predicament, but arrangements for her care were soon made. In September of 1832 she was married to John Clarke Spence of Red River. 3 2 Exactly where Charles Pratt went after he left Red River is not known. Since he did not join the HBC until 1835, he probably returned to his people at Qu'Appelle as planned. Following his three-year stint as a hunter he was signed on with the HBC in the Swan River District as a bowsman.3 3 Following his first three-year contract, he was re-hired as a middleman and remained in that capacity until 1846. His final two years in the Company's employ were spent in the capacity of steersman. His salary for those thirteen years ranged between £17 and £22 per annum.3\" During his HBC career not all of Pratt's tasks were specific to his job as a labourer. As previously mentioned, he entered Indian debts on at least one occasion, which was the task of the post-master, clerk or trader.3 5 On another occasion Pratt was sent to Carlton House to instruct the Company clerk on how to prepare fresh vaccine during the 1838 smallpox epidemic that swept the Swan River District. 3 6 Obviously his skills and training were valued by the Company, but its racist hiring practices prevented Pratt from obtaining a clerk's position or a clerk's salary. 3 7 Throughout his HBC career, Pratt had the opportunity to 3 1 Thomas Bredin, \"The Red River Academy,\" The Beaver Outfit 305:3 (1974), p. 12. 3 2 P A M HBCA, E.4/lb, fo.235, 11 September 1832. June McCracken erroneously suggests that Pratt and his \"sweetheart\" may have been married. \"Qu'Appelle Lakes,\" p. 12. 3 3 P A M HBCA, B. 159/d/26-28, fos. 1. 3 \"Ibid.; PAM HBCA, B. 159/d/29-39, fos. 1. 3 5Ibid., B. 159.a/17, fo. 3. 3 6 Ibid., fo. 12. 3 7 June McCracken erroneously stated that Pratt was an interpreter in the HBC. Though he no doubt did a lot of interpreting in trade transactions, he was never officially classified or paid as such. \"Qu'Appelle Lakes,\" p. 12. 142 travel throughout the Swan River District among Indian bands he was related to, or with whom he soon became acquainted. Even though he left the mission under unfavourable circumstances, he never lost sight of the objects John West prepared him for. Pratt was a converted christian and his missionary zeal did not wane once he joined the fur trade. In his free time on Sundays, Pratt would read to and teach those around him who were interested.3 8 Pratt was not the only one of John West's proteges who remained faithful to the church and missionization during a HBC career. John Hope also volunteered his time to read and to teach visiting and neighbouring Indians while employed by the HBC in the Athabasca District. Hope was reputed to have single-handedly established a parochial school among the Dog Rib Chipewyans at Great Bear Lake. 3 9 Abraham Cowley met Pratt on the former's first trip to Lake Manitoba in the spring of 1842. At that time Pratt was stationed at Manitoba House which was located about fifteen miles across the lake from the soon to be established Partridge Crop mission.\" 0 At their first meeting, Cowley baptized Pratt's eldest daughter Anne.\" 1 A deep friendship was kindled between the two men that lasted a life time. Whenever he had the chance, Pratt would bring his family to Cowley's infant mission for Sunday services. On one such occasion in December of 1842, Cowley was unable to lecture because his interpreter was down at Red River on business. Since Pratt was well versed in the scriptures and bilingual, Cowley got him to interpret the day's sermon. Earlier in the day, the two men had a lengthy conversation. Pratt told Cowley of his CMS upbringing and his future intentions in Godly work. Cowley expressed great 3 8 P A C CMSA, A. 86, Cowley Journal, 2 Jan. 1845. 3 9 John Hope eventually joined the service of the CMS. In 1877 he was their catechist at the Battleford reserves and remained in that capacity until 1894. P. C. Pembrum, \"Death of an Old Timer,\" Saskatchewan Herald, vol. 16, no. 20 (24 August 1894), p. 2. fl0PAC CMSA, A. 86, Cowley Journal, 24 June, 18 December 1842. • 1Ibid., 24 June 1842. interest in Pratt and recorded his observations: 143 He seems aware of the deplorable spiritual state of his brethren after the flesh, & anxious to devote himself for their salvation. His plan is to embrace the Indian life, roam with them, & as opportunity serves speak of the Lord Jesus.\" 2 Cowley was pleased with Pratt's command over the English language and judged, as best he could, that Pratt \"interpreted with admirable precision.\"\" 3 In the end, Cowley remarked that the labours of his predecessors were not in vain. Cowley baptized three of Pratt's children between 1842 and 1846, and Pratt offered his assistance to Cowley and his mission endeavours whenever he could.\"\" Cowley's secular labours at Partridge Crop were crowned with success in the early years. The Saulteaux who were settled in the region of the mission were already a horticultural people, and the new techniques, produce, and livestock the missionary offered were very appealing. Pratt volunteered to build houses and he also assisted at the school.\"5 He was especially helpful from 1846 to 1848 when Manitoba House post was temporarily closed and its staff relocated at Partridge Crop.\" 6 At the close of the 1847-1848 Outfit Pratt left the HBC.\" 7 After thirteen years as a Company servant, he decided to return to the life of a hunter. By the spring of 1849 he was building a cabin on the southern end of Lake Manitoba and was doing volunteer catechetical work among \" 2 P A C CMSA, A. 86, Cowley Journal, 18 December 1842. \" 3 Ibid. \"\"Cowley baptized the following Pratts: Ann, 24 June 1842; Caroline, 6 October 1844; Josiah, 13 August 1846; Catherine, wife of Charles, and a newborn daughter, 20 April 1851. PAC CMSA, A. 86, Cowley Journal. \" 5Ibid., 10 October 1846. \" 6 Michael Payne, \"Fairford Mission\" (Unpublished Report, Department of Culture, Heritage and Recreation, Historic Resources Branch, Winnipeg, 1986), pp. 26-7. PAC CMSA, A.86, Cowley Journal, 22 August 1846, 24 October 1846. All in all over 30 people connected with Manitoba House moved near the mission. They included Post-master McKay, his wife and seven children; an interpreter, his wife and eight children; Charles Pratt, his wife and three children; another servant, his wife and one child, and four single men. \" 7PAM HBCA, B. 159/d/41, fo. 4. 144 his own people.4 8 B. \"OUR MAN IN THE FIELD\" The first diocese meeting in Rupert's Land was held at St. John's Collegiate in January of 1850. The meeting was attended by all the European CMS missionaries in Rupert' Land with Bishop Anderson presiding. The purpose of the meeting was to establish a Correspondence Committee, later called the Finance Committee, that would be responsible for evaluating local financial and organizational matters. * 9 The Corresponding Committee was ultimately under the control of the CMS Parent Committee, but generally Bishop Anderson's recommendations were approved.5 0 One of the most pressing matters discussed at this meeting was to develop a feasible plan for the expansion of inland Indian mission work. Abraham Cowley was the only European missionary, since John West, who had any inland experience. As early as the fall of 1848 Cowley was lobbying the CMS Parent Committee to establish a new mission in the HBC Swan River District. Large numbers of Plains Indians frequented the HBC posts there and Cowley was certain that many would be open to Christianity, at least those at Fort Pelly who had requested a schoolteacher.51 At the 1850 diocese meeting, Cowley suggested that a mission station should be established at Fort Pelly with outstations at the Shoal and Swan Rivers. Since lack of funds posed \"\"PAM HBCA, E.4/2, fo.61d. PAC CMSA, A.86, Cowley Journal, 15 March 1849, 28 March 1849. When Pratt left Partridge Crop in 1848 he left his eldest son Josiah with Cowley to attend the mission school there. Josiah was about six years of age at that time. Ibid., 14 April 1849. fl9Kathrine Pettipas ed., The Diary of the Reverend Henry Budd 1870-1875 (Winnipeg: Manitoba Record Society Publications, 1974), vol. 4, p. xv. 5 0 Ian Getty, \"The Failure of the Native Church Policy of the CMS in the North West,\" in Religion and Society in the Prairie West, ed. Richard Allen, (Regina: Canadian Plains Research Center, 1974), p. 22. 5 1 PAC CMSA, A. 86, Abraham Cowley to Secretaries, 2 August 1848. 145 the greatest obstacle, Cowley set aside £50 of his own funds for the new mission he proposed. 5 2 In the end, Bishop Anderson agreed with Cowley's suggestion to establish a new mission at Fort Pelly and further instructed that the abandoned Creek mission be re-established.5 3 Soon after the diocese meeting, Bishop Anderson and Charles Pratt were introduced. Cowley recommended Pratt as a catechist for Partridge Crop and Anderson was impressed by both his personal qualities and doctrinal faith: \"He [Pratt] is a very engaging young man, with a good knowledge of Scriptures... He is the best specimen of a Native that I have seen.\" 5 4 Anderson authorized Cowley's recommendation but decided not to send Pratt to Partridge Crop until the following spring so he could get a few months of catechetical upgrading at the Collegiate. His only concern over the upcoming appointment was that Pratt could not speak the Saulteaux language very well. However, Anderson did not plan for Pratt to remain at Partridge Crop very long. He had already decided that this catechist would be of \"eminent service\" in the Swan River District. 5 5 Anderson was no doubt informed of Pratt's background and the disreputable scandal of 1832. That Pratt was taken back into the fold at all is a strong indication of Anderson's faith in his sincerity and his potential.5 6 When Bishop Anderson was first appointed to the Bishopric of Rupert's Land, he received very specific instructions from the Society's secretary Henry 5 2Ibid., 8 July 1850. Cowley further suggested that if funds for \"aggressive action beyond among the heathen\" were too scarce, they should be pulled out of the \"more civilized parts\", meaning Red River and Portage la Prairie. Cowley was distressed that so much CMS Indian work monies were being used to support established settlement churches, and so little being used in actual Indian work. Ibid., Cowley Journal, 8 January 1850. 5 3 PAC CMSA, A. 82, Bishop of Rupert's Land to Henry Venn, 30 January 1850. 5 \"Ibid. 5 5 Ibid. 5 6 It is also quite possible, on the other hand, that Pratt's name had been cleared of the charges laid against him during the \"Annabella affair.\" 146 Venn on the application of the Native Church Policy. The raising of a Native clergy was Venn's primary object. Anderson was granted £500 to establish St. John's Collegiate for this purpose and was instructed to train James Settee and Henry Budd for ordination as soon as possible.5 7 However, even once the Collegiate was in operation neither Budd nor Settee were enrolled. Apparently they were already well established as responsible and valuable servants of the Society. More importantly, however, both were needed at their respective posts until qualified replacements could be found. As it turned out, Budd never did attend the Collegiate and Settee only attended for a few months in 1854 prior to ordination.5 8 Though the scholarships awarded to Native men at the Collegiate were for three year periods, Charles Pratt, like Settee, only attended for a little more than two months.5 9 The full scholarships went to younger candidates who had little or no prior mission work or volunteer experience. Anderson was apparently confident that Pratt was ready for his new posting. Pratt arrived at Partridge Crop to replace schoolmaster John McKay on 13 April 1850 and commenced his duties two days later. 6 0 Like other Native catechists and schoolteachers working under direct European supervision, Pratt performed a large number of purely secular duties. For example, in the fall of 1850 he was placed in charge of a road building project which was not ^Thompson, \"Expansion,\" pp. 372, 485. 5 8PAC CMSA, A. 95, Settee Journal, 6 July 1854. 5 9 P A C CMSA, A. 86, Cowley Journal, 13 April 1850. All the secondary sources the writer looked at that had any mention of Pratt's post-mission school education erroneously claim that he went to the Collegiate in 1848 and spent about two years there under the tutelage of Anderson or Cockran. See Pannekoek, \"Pratt, Charles,\" p. 712; McCracken, \"Qu'Appelle Lakes,\" p. 13; T. C. B. Boon, The Anglican Church from the Bay to the Rockies: History of the Ecclesiastical Province of Rupert's Land and its Dioceses from 1820 to 1955 (Toronto: Ryerson Press, 1962), p. 157n. However, according to Abraham Cowley, Pratt was a hunter from the time he left the Company in 1848 until he went to Red River in February of 1850. 6 0 P A C CMSA, A. 86, 13, 15, 18 April 1850. 147 completed until he left the mission, the following spring.6 1 Apparently, most of his secular tasks were performed when Cowley was available to assume Pratt's teaching duties. In March of 1851 Bishop Anderson recalled Charles Pratt to Red River. John McKay was withdrawn from Beaver Creek, for reasons discussed earlier, being sent back to Partridge Crop to replace Pratt. 6 2 Pratt left for Red River in May and, when he arrived, was instructed by Anderson to prepare Fort Pelly as a mission station and to establish a school there for any Indian children who wished to attend.6 3 Fort Pelly was selected for a new mission site for a number of practical reasons. First, it was the headquarters of the HBC Swan River District and as previously mentioned, was a central trading depot for large numbers of Plains Indian bands. Among those who traded there were relatives of both Charles and Catherine Pratt, which insured their reception, or at least, that they would be tolerated. Furthermore, the location offered direct access to buffalo herds.6 * Pratt was expected to partake in the occasional buffalo chase to subsidize his living and reduce the financial strain on the CMS. Cowley had great faith in Pratt's ability to manage his new responsibility: knowing the worth of his own soul he [Pratt] highly values theirs & desires earnestly to do something to set forward their salvation. He was ready & desirous of his own accord & therefore gladly fell in with my proposal to carry the word of God & go to instruct his kinsmen after the flesh. 6 5 6'Ibid., 26 August 1850, 16 May 1851. 6 2 Ibid., 22 March 1851. 6 3Ibid., and Abraham Cowley to Henry Venn, 15 July 1851. 6 \"Ibid. 6 5 Ibid. Though Cowley takes credit for suggesting Fort Pelly, it was actually Pratt who suggested that catechetical work should be done among his people in the Swan River District. Ibid., Cowley Journal, 18 December 1842. 148 Charles Pratt arrived at Fort Pelly in July of 1851 and immediately began preparing logs and clearing land for his new mission house. He chose to build about one mile west of Fort Pelly on the Touchwood Hills Trail at a site he called the \"Indian Elbow.\" 6 6 C. ASKENOOTOW AND HIS PEOPLE Like Settee and Mackay, Pratt was initially sent to live among people who were not directly related to him. Fort Pelly in 1851 was frequented by Plains Cree and Assiniboine, but the locals were primarily Saulteaux. However, Pratt's immediate reception was generally good. Within a few days of his arrival a handful of young Indian men volunteered to help him build the mission. Among these was an unnamed son of a local Cree Medicine Man, Cha-wah-cis, whose people were out hunting on the Plains at that time. 6 7 As the locals returned from the Plains they visited Pratt's camp and inquired about his purpose among them. When he told one large group that he intended to spread the gospel among all people, they comforted his apparent enthusiasm and impatience: \"do not be disappointed wait a while & then you shall have your will, when all the Indians come together.\"6 8 The next day the old Medicine Man Cha-wah-cis arrived with his people from the Plains. Following the usual fur trading ceremonials and business, grand celebrations enveloped the post, Indian camp, and new mission site throughout the night.6 9 During the affair, the Old Man, armed with his Medicine Bundle 6 6 P A C CMSA, A. 95, Pratt Journal, 31 July, 1, 2 August 1851; Ibid., A. 86, Cowley Journal, 3 April 1852; J. F. Klaus, \"The Early Missions of the Swan River District,\" Saskatchewan History 17 (1964), p. 65. 6 7 Pratt apparently got along well with the lad who showed his interest by accepting a deck of alphabet cards. PAC CMSA, A. 95, Pratt Journal, 3, 5 August 1851. 6 8Ibid., 11 August 1851. 6 9 By the 1850s the pre-trade activities at Fort Pelly were not as formal or lengthy as those described by Andrew Graham at York Factory fifty or more 149 and son, visited Pratt and indignantly demanded his removal: \"Who told you to come here? I never told you to come & build on my lands, go back, go back, from whence you came, ...& if you still build you shall find the dread of me so long as I [am] here you shall not be safe, go back and build on your own lands.\" 7 0 The two men argued violently, one intoxicated with rum, the other with evangelical zeal, until at length the old man was led away. Pratt apparently realized that night that, without Cha-wah-cis' approval, his mission was doomed, so the next day he met with the old man on Cree terms by paying him a visit with a gift of tobacco.7 1 Pratt was himself a Cree-Stony and understood the significance of tobacco as a peace offering. When it was presented, the receiver could be assured that the presenter's intentions were sincere and, if he accepted the gift, he was obliged to hear the presenter's case.7 2 Cha-wah-cis accepted Pratt's offering. The two men conversed well into the evening, shared a meal, and continued their discourses until sunrise the next morning. In the end Cha-wah-cis not only granted Pratt permission to stay and build, he also promised his protection. While Cha-wah-cis was not open to the idea of christian conversion, his greatest opposition to Pratt's presence was that 6 9 (cont'd) years earlier. However, they were stately affairs as described by Abraham Cowley in the spring of 1852. See Appendix I, \"Fort Pelly - Plains Cree Trade Formalities\"; G. Williams ed., Andrew Graham's Observations on Hudson's Bay, 1767-1791 (London: Hudson's Bay Record Society, 1969), pp. 316-19, cited in Arthur J. Ray and Donald Freeman, 'Give Us Good Measure': an economic analysis of relations between the Indians and the Hudson's Bay Company before 1763 (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1978), pp 55-7. 7 0Ibid., 12 August 1851. 7 1Ibid., 13 August 1851. 7 2 In January of 1872 Pratt recorded that the Blackfeet sent \"seven white bladders of tobacco of peace\" to bands inhabiting the lower Saskatchewan region. The inherent message of each bladder was that war and death would follow if the peace was broken. To accept the tobacco signified one's acceptance of the peace-treaty. PAC CMSA, A.99, 15 January 1872. For more information on Cree diplomacy and protocal see David G. Mandelbawm, The Plains Cree: An Ethnographic, Historical and Comparative Study (Regina: Canadian Plains Research Center, 1978). 150 he was an outsider. He initially told Pratt to go back to his own people, but when Pratt informed him that he was \"one of his country-men,\" meaning related through marriage or blood, Cha-wah-cis apologized for his initial outburst and welcomed him. 7 3 In following Cree protocal and diplomacy, Pratt won the favour of Cha-wah-cis. No doubt the Medicine Man was also impressed by Pratt's persuasive oratory abilties, another well-respected Indian skill. Another local Medicine Man named Little Shell, and Chief Gabriel Cote, showed great interest in Pratt's sermons. On behalf of their respective families and bands they invited him to speak to them about his knowledge. Both men were apparently very troubled over his message of sin and the afterlife and spent a considerable amount of time pondering the issue.7 * Pratt's interpretation of the Afterlife intrigued them the most. Before he pitched off for the Plains that September, Cote told Pratt: \"I am sure you will get all the Indians to your wish before long, for they see already they cannot live any other way to get God after death so you say.\" 7 5 Apparently Little Shell and Cote were not so taken by the whole concept of Christianity as they were with the messanger and his vision. Pratt's version of the Old Testament was strongly influenced by his belief that Indian peoples were connected to the biblical \"Lost Tribes\". 7 6 He in turn was no doubt influenced by John West who believed in the same notion. 7 7 In fact, similarities in the traits and customs of Isrealites and Plains Indians were Pratt's favourite topic of conversation. In 1867 he and Company clerk Isaac Cowie discussed the 7 3 PAC CMSA, A. 96, 13, 14 August 1851. 7 4 These two were so involved with Pratt's sermon on the topic that they ordered all the people to move their tents so their drinking and partying would not disturb the discussions. Ibid., 7, 15 August 1851. 7 5Ibid., 20 September 1851. 7 6 Cowie, Company of Adventurers, p. 235. 7 7 West believed that the North American Indians were of Hebraic origin, descended from some of the \"scattered tribes of the children of Isreal.\" West, Substance, p. 91. 151 subject at length and the latter found Pratt's arguments quite \"plausible.\"7 8 Pratt presented his prospective flock with evidence that they were distantly related to people in the Bible. He also adapted the Scriptures to their cosmosology and religious beliefs. Cowie recorded that as far as he could remember, it was his [Pratt's] idea to begin by ingrafting the religion of the old dispensation as more suitable to the understanding and conditions of the Indian than the higher truths of Chrisitanity, which, I understood, would be taught in due time after they, like the Jews, had been prepared to receive and comprehend them.7 9 Unlike Henry Budd and their European counterparts, Pratt did not attack the world-view of his people outright. He did not plan to destroy their entire way of life and replace it with European Christianity, rather, it appears as. though he sought to enhance it. The CMS locals, however, were not pleased with Pratt's methods or interpretations.8 0 Charles Hillyer complained on more than one occasion that Pratt's interpretation of his sermons were seldom verbatim. Hillyer knew enough Cree to understand that Pratt did not just read the Scripture lessons, he explained them in his own terms.8 1 Joseph Reader had the same complaint but he did not dispute the effectiveness of Pratt's methods: \"One Sunday afternoon as Charles was interpreting my Sermon on the coming of Christ, or rather, I think preaching another sermon on the same subject, this Indian was very much impressed...\"8 2 The old man mentioned had listened to Pratt's sermons on a number of occasions before Reader arrived in 1874, and was very interested in 7 8 Cowie was stationed at Fort Qu'Appelle when he knew Pratt. Cowie, Company of Adventurers, pp. 235, 190. 7 9 Ibid. p. 235. 8 0 Ibid. 8 1 PAC CMSA, A. 88, Hillyer Journal, 30 September 1852. 8 2Ibid., A. 81, Joseph Reader to Henry Wright, 22 January 1875. 152 the idea of the \"burning of this world.\" 8 3 Hillyer and Reader had little respect for the views or customs of their prospective flocks. For example, Reader could not tolerate the widespread practise of smoking and vowed he would put an end to it. His major complaint about this \"innate\" habit was that it consumed too much of their incomes and therefore prevented them from ever attaining a \"comfortable\" lifestyle.8 4 However, Hillyer was even more Eurocentric than Reader. He preached about the christian virtue of generosity and of helping ones' fellows in one breath, and in the next complained bitterly about Indians appearing at his home at dinner-time in the expectation of being fed. On one occasion, Chief Cote was visiting Hillyer and listening to him preach. After some time the old man stated he would stay longer to hear more \"if I am given food.\" 8 5 Hillyer found Cote's proposition offensive and turned him away. However, Cote was also offended. He was prepared to listen to Hillyer's words and no doubt expected the man to observe the local custom of feeding houseguests. Having been treated in such a disrespectful manner, Cote moved his camp a distance of one and one-half days travel from Fort Pelly. 8 6 Quite the opposite of Hillyer, Pratt was generous to a fault, by CMS standards. Between Hillyer's sojourn in the Swan River District (1852-54) and Reader's (1874-81), Pratt was alone on the Plains under the supervision of 8 3 Ibid. 8 4 Ibid., Annual Letter of Joseph Reader, entry dated 5 August 1874. 8 5Ibid., A. 88, Hillyer Journal, 30 September 1852. 8 6 Ibid. Following Pratt's suspension from Fort Pelly in 1853, Cote and Little Shell stayed away from the mission. Hillyer had all but alienated the locals with his superior and haughty attitude. By the time Hillyer was recalled in 1854 Cowley was of the opinion that he was not suited for practical Indian work, rather he was \"best adapted for a sphere where secular labours & the many trials connected with it need not trouble or embarass\" the CMS. Ibid., A. 86, Cowley Journal, 12 April 1854. 153 Abraham Cowley.8 7 Cowley's most consistent critism was that Pratt gave away all his food and supplies with little or no consideration for his future needs.8 8 Indian people were not the only recipients of Pratt's good will. When the Palliser expedition reached his mission at Qu'Appelle in September of 1857 Charles Pratt exchanged \"a very fine mare\" with them for two wretched horses they possessed. At a time when Plains people depended on horses for their livelihood, Pratt's action was indeed generous.8 9 The following year Pratt met Henry Youle Hind on the Fort Ellice-Qu'Appelle trail at Indian Head Hills, between Crooked and Qu'Appelle Lakes. Pratt gave Hind a great deal of information about the region, its resources, and people. Since he was unable to be at the Touchwood Hills Mission when the Hind party expected to arrive there, Pratt instructed James McKay, Hind's guide, to kill one of his young heifers in honour of their arrival. 9 0 Hind commented that Pratt was \"well acqainted with the habits of Indians and of buffalo, but apparently scarcely sensible of the importance of his duties and the responsibility of his charge.\"9 1 Pratt's generosity, he stated, was characteristic of the country, \"if not Christian sympathy.\"9 2 Jane McCracken is of the opinion that Pratt's selfless generosity revealed his \"true Christian spirit,\" but the writer disagrees.9 3 From Reverend Cowley's and Hind's criticisms, it is clear that true christian generosity was more practical, or frugal. Charles' actions were more in line with Indian generosity and honour feasting. After thirty-three years in the service of the CMS, Pratt's 8 7 The two usually met once or* twice a year; when Pratt went to Red River for his stipend and supplies, and to hand in his journals, or when Cowley made his annual inspection foray into the Qu'Appelle-Touchwood Hills area. 8 8 P A C CMSA, A. 100, Abraham Cowley to Henry Wright, 18 December 1873. 8 9 Spry, Palliser Papers, p. 138. 9 0Hind, Narrative, pp. 317-8. 9 1Ibid., p. 317. 9 2Ibid. 9 3McCracken, \"Qu'Appelle Lakes,\" p. 34. 154 extreme generosity was still a major point of centention with Cowley: I have occasionally to write him severely; but it is always like wounding an aged & dear friend. Year after year have I had to remonstrate with him, being so careless of himself, allowing Indians to sponge upon him, till he is reduced to great extremities; often to almost starvation. 9 \" What Cowley did not consider however, was that Pratt was no worse off than his neighbors and relatives. Pratt was initially accepted at Qu'Appelle Lakes because he was directly related to Indian bands who frequented the area. However, it is clear that his continued acceptance was due to the fact that he innured himself into the daily lives of the people he was sent to transform. Unlike his European and Europeanized counterparts, Pratt did not isolate himself from his people. Rather, he entered their realm in many aspects as an equal. During his shortlived suspension from Fort Pelly in 1852-1853, Pratt wintered at Qu'Appelle Lakes with his own people. It was there that his life-long friendship with Chief George Gordon began. Gordon was himself a Mixed-blood raised Cree who made his living hunting buffalo. The Gordon and Pratt families did not always travel and live together, but when they did, they shared everything: tents, cabins, horses, guns, tools, and food.9 5 Pratt had little choice but to cooperate with the locals in order to secure a livelihood. Even after he was stationed at Qu'Appelle he could not have existed on the Plains alone, and teach and preach on the salary the CMS 9 \"PAC CMSA, A. 112, Abraham Cowley to Christopher C. Fenn, 6 August 1884. 9 5 Gordon was baptized by Bishop David Anderson. In 1858 when Pratt was directed to leave Qu'Appelle Lakes mission to James Settee and build a new one at Touchwood Hills, the Gordon family and that of White Horse, moved with him. When Treaty No. 4 was signed in 1874, Pratt took out membership with George Gordon's band and spent the last years of his life on the Gordon's Reserve. His descendants still live there today. PAC CMSA, A. 103 Pratt Journal, 2 September 1872. 155 afforded him. As much as the CMS refused to believe it, Pratt depended on his people for his physical survival. One could not easily hunt buffalo alone; group efforts were more efficient and effective. Furthermore, when times were tough, everyone shared what little food they had amongst them. On many occasions the hunters Pratt lived with returned from the Plains with meat for him and his family. On other occasions Pratt left his family in the care of his neighbours while he went out hunting buffalo on the Plains. 9 6 It was, therefore, expected that he share his provisions and supplies when these were available. Despite the rantings and ravings of his superiors, Pratt could not hoard his provisions for his own consumption or ration them out in small amounts as Henry Budd did at Nepowewin.9 7 When he returned from Red River every summer with a cartload of supplies, his people expected him to share his wealth for as long as supplies lasted. Apparently, Pratt had no qualms about sharing, but it greatly bothered the local CMS. In 1859 Pratt convinced a few Plains families to settle at his mission in Little Touchwood Hills to farm. To encourage their efforts he took as much responsibility for their welfare as he could. In fact his prospective farmers expected him to help them out while they prepared their gardens because he was the one who talked them into moving to a region where buffalo were no longer readily available. On one occasion he made good by butchering his only bull to feed those about him who were trying to farm. 9 8 Pratt handed out seed from his own stock to those who wished to plant gardens and when converts were ready to establish their own farms, Pratt even provided them with livestock to help them get started. For example, in 1858 George Gordon and another unnamed convert each received a young heifer from Pratt. 9 9 S 6Ibid., 30 September 1859. 9 7Pettipas, Diary of Henry Budd, p. xxv. 9 8 P A C CMSA, A. 95, Pratt Journal, 12 November 1859. \"Ibid., 26 October 1858. 156 When the government started making plans to treat with the Indian nations of the Touchwood Hills-Qu'Appelle Lakes region, Pratt had pretty well given up any hope that the CMS would provide tangible assistance to his people as they adjusted to a new mode of living. They barely provided him with enough support to feed his family and he had no assistant to help the people farm or keep the mission stocked with country produce. If not the church, then Pratt was sure that the government would provide the people with supplies, tools, and the instruction they needed to settle and f a r m . 1 0 0 By the late 1870s however, it became clear that even the government could not be counted on to help. Pratt was very concerned about the future welfare of his people: It is discouraging for the poor Indians, would God, now put into the mind of the government to give more help to the indians, if not, the North American Indian race will, certainly, rebel, & that will be worse ever, the indian [sic] will never be able to settle down, without, great help.1 0 1 In the spring and summer of 1878 Pratt helped Daystar and his people move onto their newly established reserve. He helped them build houses and prepare gardens, and built a second mission among them.1 0 2 When he was not ploughing and teaching them to farm, Pratt was netting fish to help feed the people while they laboured. 1 0 3 1 0 0 I b i d . , A. 99, Pratt Journal, 15 January 1872. 1 0 11bid., A. 104, Pratt Journal, 7 May 1878. 1 0 2 I b i d . , 10 March 1878. He borrowed Joseph Reader's plow to dig the soil, since he had none of his own, but the oxen provided by the Indian Department were sickly and too wild to be harnessed. Pratt tried to hitch his bull to the plough harness but the animal went crazy and everyone scattered for fear of it. Ploughing could not be done until after someone ran over to Reader's mission at Little Touchwood to borrow his ox. PAC CMSA, A. 104, Pratt Journal, 7, 8 May 1878. 1 0 3 I b i d . , 16 March 1878. 157 D. THE LEGACY OF CHARLES PRATT Throughout his thirty-eight years of mission work, Pratt kept the best interests of his people at heart. He was related to them through blood and marriage so his concern was genuine. Unlike the highly Europeanized Budd, Pratt not only shared his knowledge and skills, he shared his livelihood and life. He did his best to live up to the CMS's expectations, but he also knew that there was little use in keeping children at his mission for Western education when their very survival was a constant issue. His major hunting expeditions were incorporated into his mission itinerary. Sometimes he spent up to a month hunting out on the Plains and visiting small bands. Daytimes were spent chasing buffalo alongside his friends and prospective converts, and evenings were spent sharing his visions over a meal and a campfire. He was respected for his traditional skills, which included hunting, speech-making, and story-telling. Zealous evangelical rantings would not have been tolerated for any great length of time in such close quarters and apparently Pratt respected that. His journals display a high degree of \"impression management\" in the form of zealous christian fervour, but Pratt no doubt constantly feared that his mission would be closed which would leave the people all alone, without any help, and himself out of a job for which he was well suited. Furthermore, he was always under the threat of being relocated at the whim of the local Finance Committee or a superintendent, when one was around. In order to keep his mission open and convince the Committee to keep him posted there, he had to give his superiors the impression he was doing things their way since he could not convince them of the practicability of doing it his way, and he had to impress upon them that the Indian people were receptive and responding to the christian call. Contrary to local CMS views, but in line with Venn's NCP, Pratt . gained his small following with his skillfully translated, syncratic version of christian theology, which was 158 more readily obsorbed into Plains Cree and Assiniboine cosmosology. Not only did he present a comprehensible version of Western theology, Pratt offered his people agriculture, which at first supplemented their livelihoods and later provided the mainstay. Given the above, Pratt's mission among the Plains Cree and Assiniboine was successful, contrary to the views of his superiors and, as mentioned, some contemporary historians. Pratt's efforts helped his people to survive as a culturally cohesive group, on traditional lands, with traditional leadership in tact at a point in history when their entire way of life and survival was threatened.1 0 \" Charles Pratt witnessed one of the most tumultuous cultural transformations Indian peoples experienced in the Canadian West. He knew his people as one of the most economically independant and politically powerful bands on the Plains, and experienced their starvation and subjugation in the reserve transition period. He watched his people die by the hundreds during the scarlet fever epidemic of 1856-1857 and could do little else but nurture the survivors.1 0 5 And it was their survival he was most concerned about. In 1878, for example, he wrote: \"poor Indians, I do not really know, how they can get along without guidence to show them, what to do... how shall they live, I know no t . \" 1 0 6 Unlike his contemporaries, Pratt rejoiced in his ability to share what he had with his people. He even borrowed provisions from the HBC and fellow CMS missionaries to give to his people.1 0 7 That Pratt's mission at Little Touchwood Hills \"achieved a permanence equalled by very few other missions\" attests to the fact that his secular and temporal efforts were, and still are, 1 0 \" See James Axtell, \"Some Thoughts on the Ethnohistory of Missions,\" Ethnohistory vol. 29, no. 1 (1982), Supra. 1 0 5 P A C CMSA, A. 95, 20, 28 December 1856 and 11 April 1857. 1 0 6 I b i d . , A. 104, Pratt Journal, 18, 19 April 1878. 1 0 7 I b i d . , 28 March 1878. 159 appreciated by George Gordon's band.1 0 8 Frits Pannekoek states that Charles Pratt died a bitter man because \"he knew only too well that the best days of the mixed-bloods had vanished.\" 1 0 9 The writer agrees that Pratt died lamenting the state of his world and people, but he was a Nehiyow, and his world was Nehiyawihcikewin, despite his mixed ancestry. George Gordon and most of his band were also of mixed descent, but as Cowie pointed out, they were \"born and brought up with the Indians\" and were unlike other Mixed-bloods in that respect. 1 1 0 It is difficult to say how bitter Pratt was towards the end, but it is certain that he lamented the treatment he received from the CMS and the hardships he and his people had to endure in their own country. His last journal entry dated 13 July 1884 indicates that his christian faith in the rewards of the Afterlife, or his Indigenous Spirit World kept him going through times that offered little hope. He wrote: Evening Service 21st Chap revelations, & God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes, no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying nor any more pain. Blessed Lord God prepare & fit us for that day.1 1 1 1 0 8 K l a u s , \"Early Missions,\" p. 69. 1 0 9Pannekoek, \"Pratt, Charles,\" p. 712. 1 1 0Cowie, Company of Adventurers, pp. 362-63. 1 1 1PAC CMSA, A. 104, Pratt Journal, 13 July 1884. Pratt spent his last years as schoolteacher and catechist on Gordon's Reserve, Saskatchewan. In April of 1885 he suffered a parolytic stroke that left him paralyzed and helpless until his death in 1888. VII. CONCLUSION A. SUMMARY As we have seen, the Hudson's \" Bay Company had been firmly established in Rupert's Land for over one hundred years before any concerted efforts were made to provide its employees and the Native inhabitants, religious or educational \"improvement.\" At the turn of the 18th century, the culmination of a number of factors forced the Company to live up to its social and moral obligations. Bayside and inland employees demanded that the HBC provide Western instruction for their Country-born children. Little was done however, until the cries of British evangelicals, social reformers, and other commercial interest groups threatened the Company's exclusive licence to trade in Rupert's Land. In an effort to pacify its critics, the HBC hired Reverend John West as Company chaplain in 1820. West was also an active member of the Church Missionary Society, an evangelical organization that was devoted to the conversion and \"civilization\" of Indigenous societies throughout the empire. From the onset, the HBC realized that the intellectual and spiritual instruction of the inhabitants of Rupert's Land would be costly. To reduce this financial burden, the HBC, with the zealous lobbying of Reverend John West, convinced the CMS to establish an Indian mission at the Red River colony in 1822. Clearly the object of an Indian mission in Rupert's Land from the Company's perspective was not to convert and \"civilize\" Native peoples; to do so would inherently undermine the objects of the fur trade. Rather, the local HBC planned to provide its active and retired employees educational and spiritual services under the auspices of an Indian mission. In this manner, the costs were considerably reduced. Contrary to the best interests and wishes of the local HBC, John West's 160 161 primary object was the salvation of Indian souls. Even before the CMS officially entered Rupert's Land, West began formulating an Indian mission program. After a number of visits to inland Company posts and Indian camps, West determined that his most promising prospects for \"success\" would be found among the Indian children. In time, the program West developed for the \"civilization\" and education of Native children became the foundation of Indian education policies in Western Canada. John West's immediate goal for his Indian mission school was to convert his students and train them in the more practical aspects of \"civilization\" -agriculture - in the hopes that they would eventually disseminate their new-found knowledge among their country-men. Since the goals and policies of the local HBC and John West conflicted in both spiritual and mundane matters, West's stay in Rupert's Land was brief. Nevertheless, during his three year sojourn, the Indian mission program was firmly established and the conversion and education of eight resident Indian children was well underway. West's successors took up where he left off, but with much less zeal and enthusiasm. Bowing to the designs of local HBC officials, later missionaries transfered their energies and resources from John West's Indian mission school to the interests and immediate needs of active and retired Company employess and Red River settlers. Since the HBC and local missionaries depended on the financial support of the CMS, the Indian mission school was maintained until the early 1830s. By then the attention of the CMS was returning to its original objects - Indian missions. John West's students had reached adulthood and were leaving the school to seek employment. This small group of men constituted the first converted and formally educated Indian people in Western Canada. John West had seen in his students the means by which the gospel would be spread throughout Rupert's Land. His education program not only i 162 equipped them with the necessary European skills to become missionaries themselves, it also nurtured certain purely Indian skills which gave them a decidedly greater advantage over their European counterparts in the field. West encouraged his students to maintain their languages, and to develop their hunting skills. With much forethought he realized that without dexterity in hunting and fishing the students \"would be despised\" in their home communties: \"Reading or Writing will gain but little credit...[but] if he has learned to mend a gun he will be highly respected.\"1 West's successors had far less sanguine prospects for them. Within months of his arrival, Reverend David Jones stated that none of the Indian students had any ministerial potential and that sending them into the wilderness to propogate the gospel would be disasterous. Jones was loyal to the Company and its objectives, and told the CMS Parent Committee their only hope for reaching inland Indian nations lay with the Country-born, more specifically, the sons and daughters of active Company officers. Jones successfully convinced the CMS to put aside its Indian mission work for the time being and focus attention on the children of active and retired Company men. The Indian graduates of John West's school possessed unique and much valued skills but the opportunties available to them in a fledgling settlement governed by a monopolistic corporation were limited. They were qualified agriculturalists and hunters, their literacy and maths prepared them for employment as schoolteachers or accountants, and their religious background prepared them for further training in the ministry. Nevertheless, the prevailing social attitudes of the period precluded any prospects of their obtaining employment outside the wage labour sector. All the first graduates entered the lower servant ranks of the HBC at various times and for varying lengths of service. The only other wage jobs they could get were as farm labourers at Red 'PAC CMSA, A. 98, John West to CMS Committee, ? July 1822. 163 River. The local CMS had no place or use for the unique skills and qualities of these young men until it was ready to revive its Indian mission program and traverse the boundaries of the Red River settlement. The first Indian agricultural mission was established in the early 1830s just north of the Settlement, at Cook's Creek. The creation of new missions in unsettled regions required a great deal of physical and spiritual labour. Faced with limited manpower and financial resources, the local CMS was forced to look to its pool of Native graduates for labourers, interpreters, catechists, and schoolteachers. By the 1840s, all but one of John West's original Indian students were actively involved in Indian mission work. In 1840, interdenominational competition in the Canadian North West forced the Anglicans out of their Red River stronghold. Though CMS agents had been in Rupert's Land for twenty years, none traversed the boundaries of the Settlement to reach inland Indian bands since John West's last journey in 1823. The CMS had neither spare resources nor clergymen to send inland. In order to enter the inland race for Indian souls, they turned to their small pool of Native catechists and schoolteachers. By the close of 1840, CMS Native catechist Henry Budd established the first inland mission at The Pas among the Swampy Cree. He was followed two years later by James Settee who established a mission at Fort Ellice among the Plains Cree, and in 1851 by Charles Pratt who founded the Fort Pelly mission among the Saulteaux, Plains Cree and Assiniboine. The first tour of the CMS North-West Mission by an Anglican Bishop resulted in a number of changes in the focus of the local CMS mission program. Following his 1844 visit, Bishop George Jehosephat Mountain chastized the locals for their lack of a systematic Indian conversion program. The Bishop petitioned the CMS Parent Committee to send out more men and called for the establishment of a new Bishopric in Western Canada. In 1849 the Diocese of 164 Rupert's Land came into being under its first Bishop, the Reverend David Anderson. The establishment of local authority, an increased budget, and the renewed enthusiasm of the Parent Committee, spurred the expansion of Indian mission activities in the Canadian North West. Under the direction of the secretary of the CMS in London, Reverend Henry Venn, the ideas and policies of the Society were consolidated. Henry Venn's Native Church Policy, which evolved during the 1840s and 1850s, mapped out the means by which self-governing, self-supporting, and self-propogating Native churches could be nurtured. The NCP provided an efficient model for the transformation of Indian societies, but it was based on an implied respect for Indian cultures and their abilities to adapt and change. The role of the European missionaries was to establish these self-supporting congregations of Native christians. They were instructed to study the host cultures, learn the languages, and refrain from imposing European habits, tastes, and ideas in order that a distinctly Indigenous institution would develop in an Indigenous setting. Missionaries were to educate and train local Native clergy utilizing existing skills, talents, and resources. Once in place, the European missionaries would be free to enter new fields, and thus the gospel would be spread. Venn's ideas, similar in many respects to West's, offered every indication of missionary success. By the time Bishop Anderson arrived in 1849 a handful of Native catechists were already in place, and more soon followed. By 1860 there were twenty-six Native and fifteen European agents employed in Indian mission work. 165 B. JOHN WEST'S INDIAN MISSION SCHOOL RECONSIDERED It is clear that writers of Western Canadian education history and writers of Indian education history have neglected John West's Red River Indian mission school and his students. As a result, they have made erroneous judgements and have diminished the importance and impact of his unique approach. For example, Cornelius Jaenen's claim that there was no \"appreciable change\" in the Indian education program following West's removal in 1823, has been proven wrong.2 John Foster basically agrees with Jaenen but he does go a bit further by pointing out that the priorities and emphasis of the school shifted under Jones' direction from Indian conversion and \"civilization\" to that of the Country-born and settler population at Red River. His. analysis of why this shift occured, however, is doubtful because he disregards the fact that the original goals of the CMS were directed towards Indian mission work. He condones Reverend Jones' neglect for the primary object of the CMS and salutes his decision to yield to the immediate priorities and goals of the local HBC. The problem is, Foster does so without considering the Company's motivies and unrealistic plan to contain \"civilization\" at Red River in the hopes that inland Indian labourers and trappers would not be so affected by innovative changes as to abandon or neglect their primary occupations in the fur trade.3 The HBC only wanted that portion of the population in Rupert's Land that was not directly involved in its fur trade operations to become prototypes of English rural farmers. The Company hoped to contain this innovation at Red River in order to protect and maintain its inland pool of Native labourers and fur-gatherers. The fur trade would be doomed if large numbers of Indians became sedentary 2 Cornelius Jaenen, \"Foundations of Dual Education at Red River, 1811-1834,\" Transactions of the Historical and Scientific Society of Manitoba 3 (1965), p. 62. 3 John Foster, \"Program for the Red River Mission: The Anglican Clergy 1820-1826,\" Social History 4 (1969), pp. 67-8, 74. 166 farmers. John West has been portrayed as an overzealous, uncompromising idealist.\" But he can only be viewed as such from the perspective of the local HBC authorities and the \"weak-kneed\" missionary who followed him in 1823. Contrary to prevailing notions, West was a far more realistic Indian missionary than his successors. As indicated, Jones made no concerted attempts to affect any changes among Indian people because he feared local HBC reprimand. In this regard, he could very well have been considered a dismal failure as an Indian missionary. In the other extreme, William Cockran and Abraham Cowley went to great lengths to change almost every aspect of Indian life. They had little respect for Indian cultures and their abilities. Evidence so far indicates that John West's goals and methods of conversion were well ahead of his contemporaries. He spent considerable time and effort studying his host cultures. In effect he practiced an embryonic form of \"cultural relativism\" by attempting to understand Native habits, mores, economic activities, and religious beliefs. West made an especially significant attempt to understand Indian notions of the Afterlife, God, and Spirits. In the end he concluded that the religious ideas of the inland tribes were similar enough to those of the Jews that the former were undoubtedly related to the lost tribes of Isreal. Through this connection West was able to convince at least one of his Indian students that the Indians of Canada were distant kin to certain Europeans. Native catechist Charles Pratt later used this approach to convince inland Indian bands of the same. Apparently some Indian peoples were drawn in varying degrees to the christian teachings when they were shown \"proof that they were distantly related to important actors in the Bible. Thus, West provided for a certain amount of syncretism between Christianity and Indigenous religions. \"Ibid., pp. 52, 65, 71-3. 167 West also realized that in order for his students to be accepted and possibly looked up to by their country-men, they had to possess certain finely cultivated Indian skills, particularly hunting and gunsmithy. Whereas Reverend Cockran abhored the hunt and the way of life it necessitated, West realized that the hunt was not only vital for survival, it also provided his proteges the opportunity to be of service to inland Indian bands and possibly to gain prestige among them. Of all the early European CMS missionaries, West was the most accommodating in an Indian context. Generalizations based on post-1870 residential school circumstances do not generally apply to West's Indian school and should be carefully reassessed. For example, Emma La Roque claims that Indian parents \"watched helplessly\" as their children underwent coercive indoctrination.5 Evidence suggests that this could only occur in situations where directed cultural change met with weakened resistence, as in the post-1870 reserve transition era in the Canadian North West. It has been established here that West could not cajole or coerce Indian parents to give up their children, nor could he refuse them when they decided to withdraw their children from his school. In the early 1820s Indian bands were generally economically, socially, and politically independent enough to refuse missionary offerings outright. Therefore, another unique aspect of West's Indian mission school that has not been comparatively assessed is that attendence was voluntary. All but the orphans were sent to school by choice. One very important point made by LaRoque and substantiated here is that Indian parents appreciated the practical rewards of having educated children, especially their ability to understand weights, measures, and accounts in order to 5 Emma LaRoque, \"White Control of Indian 'Education,' (M.A. thesis, University of Manitoba, 1978), p. 47. 168 protect themselves from unscrupulous traders.6 In addition, Western education offered prestige and authority in the Indian-fur trade context, as well as alternative methods of supplementing their livelihoods. The way the question of the \"success or failure\" of West's Indian mission school has been treated in the secondary literature also needs reassessment. Foster claims that West failed because he was too unrealistic and uncompromising. His goals and his methods clashed with the goals of the HBC and their fur trade operations. Furthermore, he argues that West placed too much emphasis on Indians as opposed to the settlers at lied River. 7 Jaenen claims that the failure of the Indian mission school was due to the \"disinterest of the natives.\"8 Since the disinterest of Native peoples has never stopped evangelical missionaries in the past, Jaenen's analysis is inadequate and suggests that he had little interest in Indian education, as opposed to the education of others. West's Indian mission school can only be considered a \"failure\" if it is judged from the perspective of the HBC. Contrary to Foster's claim, it did in fact fulfill the objects of its founder and hence the CMS. John West's Indian students, rather than Jones' Country-born students, went on to become the CMS ground-breaking missionaries in the Canadian North West. From a missionary perspective, West's efforts were even more spectacular than previously considered. In the numbers game, West not only achieved a 100% conversion record, but 83% (five out of six) of his male students who reached adulthood became Indian missionaries. Using Axtell's model it is clear that West's efforts among the Indian 6Ibid., pp. 45, 38. 7Foster, \"Program,\" pp. 71-4. 8Jaenen, \"Dual Foundation,\" p. 66. 169 students were successful from their perspective. For the price of varying degrees of discontinuity with the world-views and traditions of their peoples, West's students found relatively secure employment and some authority and prestige. Furthermore, they were not only able to return and live among their people on traditional lands with traditional leadership intact, they were also able to assist their people in adjusting to a new socio-economic and political order. While the scope of this study does not allow for a thorough re-evaluation of the ideas, methods, and impact of John West, it does provide a starting point. Evidence suggests that West was unique and well ahead of his time in a number of ways. It is therefore hoped that further studies will take a more comparative approach. We do not know, for example: how West achieved such spectacular results by missionary standards, how many more of his scriptural interpretations had possible syncratic elements, how he explained these to his students, or how important syncretism was in his conversion methods and results. Furthermore, we do not know how many of West's ideas and methods were employed by his students in the field, or their comparative results. C. NATIVE CATECHISTS: THE MISSING LINK Almost all the literature on CMS Indian mission activities in the latter half of the 19th century considers the Native Church Policy of Henry Venn and its application in the Canadian North West. It is beyond the scope of this study to assess the relative success or failure of the NCP, but it is worthwhile to consider how it has been treated in order to suggest directions for future research. The reasons for the \"failure\" of the NCP have been fairly well treated by two historians. Frits Pannekoek and Ian Getty list a variety of factors contributing to its downfall. In part, the climactic and geographical realities of 170 the North West simply would not support \"ideal\" christian Indian missions. In addition, there were inherent shortcomings of the policy itself. It was too inflexible and did not take into account the inability of the missionaries to carry out its mandate. Missionaries in the field were too Eurocentric, intolerant, and incapable of respecting the differences and similarities of non-christian cultures in order to nurture the development of a truly independent Indigenous church.9 The analyses of Getty and Pannekoek are not as simplistic as stated, but the object here is to illustrate that all the factors considered were reached from the vantage point of the CMS Parent Committee, the local missionaries, and environmental constraints. From Henry Venn's perspective, the key to a successful Indian conversion program was the development of a Native ministry. European missionaries were to act as catalysts but the cultural transformation of Indian societies had to come from within to be effective. Given Venn's emphasis on the role of Native people in their own conversion it is surprising to find that scholars have given little consideration to the CMS Native church workers and their role in the relative success or failure of the NCP. Because historians .like Getty and Pannekoek neglect to take the \"Indian factor\" into account, their conclusions are purely one-sided or Eurocentric. The \"success\" or \"failure\" of the CMS Native Church Policy cannot be considered within these narrow confines. For a more complete understanding of the NCP specifically, and Indian-missionary relations generally, we must first consider the roles of Native church workers, their relations with their European counterparts and their respective Native congregations, as well as their comparative goals and impact. 9Frits Pannekoek, \"Protestant Agricultural Zions for the Western Indian,\" Journal of the Canadian Church Historical Society 14 (1972); Ian Getty, \"The Failure of the Native Church Policy of the CMS in the North West,\" in Religion and Society in the Prairie West, ed. Richard Allen (Regina: Canadian Plains Reserch Center, 1974). 171 It has been demonstrated that Native church workers were employed in the most labourious, risky, and menial tasks of CMS Indian mission work. They were sent inland as ground-breakers to build and prepare new missions and day schools. Once these were well established, they were taken over by European missionaries. In many cases Native church workers were sent inland among bands who were considered hostile and dangerous by outsiders. James Settee, John Mckay and Charles Pratt, for example, were sent into Plains Cree-Assiniboine territory with only a single assistant at a time when even HBC men would not travel alone when bands from these nations were reported to be nearby. Furthermore, since the bulk of the Indian mission work force was made up of Native catechists and schoolteachers, they performed most of the less prestigious tasks. Catechists and schoolteachers could be found working at a wide variety of labourious jobs, such as hunting, gardening, constructing and maintaining mission buildings, in addition to their teaching, interpreting, and itinerary tasks. Even Native deacons and priests were relegated to the status of \"seconds\" in the presence of European missionaries. The one point historians tend to neglect that the evidence strongly suggests is that the CMS made clear distinctions between who was Country-born and who was Indian within their ranks. Those who were referred to by their mixed ancestry, the Country-born or Mixed-bloods, were the direct offspring of European men and Indian or Mixed-blood women, who were also influenced in their growing years by the values and outlooks of their fathers. In other words, they were Europeanized to varying degrees. Those who were considered \"Indian\" were raised and influenced by their Indian mothers prior to the commencement of their Western education and conversion. Charles Pratt and Henry Budd were both Mixed-blood men, for example, but were considered \"Indian\" because of their early upbringing, and apparently also because they were not influenced by 172 Europeanized fathers. The local CMS was sensitive to the social standing of Indians and Europeanized Country-borns in the Red River settlement and inland Indian contexts. To appease its Red River clientele, the CMS strove to provide them first, with European schoolteachers and catechists and then, with first generation Country-born men from well established fur trade families. Second or older generation Country-born and Indian men only received Red River positions in the CMS when the demand increased dramatically and could not be met by persons from the preferred categories, and when the clientele was less discriminating. For example, the first Indian schoolteachers, James Settee and Henry Budd, were placed in schools that paid the lowest salaries and catered to Indians and settlers who occupied the lowest stratum of Red River society. In the context of Indian mission work, distinct roles were again allocated to Indian and Country-born church workers. Generally, Indian catechists were sent inland to establish new missions and gather potential congregations while Country-born catechists were sent to assist European missionaries. As indicated previously, this strategy proved to be very efficient and effective when followed, especially when Indian men were sent among their own country-men as in the cases of Henry Budd at The Pas and Charles Pratt at Qu'Appelle Lakes. Country-born catechist John Mckay, on the other hand, was literally chased out of the Beaver Creek region by the Plains Cree and Assiniboine. His experience disproves Jones' hasty and self-serving claim that the Country-born were potentially better equipped for inland Indian mission work than the Indian students were. Indian catechists were more easily assimilated by their prospective converts in the field and did possess all the skills and resources they needed to succeed in their efforts by European missionary standards. Did they in fact meet 173 the great expectations of their European superiors? If so, why has even the church hagiography literature been silent about their deeds? It is quite possible that any profound impact the lowly catechists had on the expansion of Indian Christianity was overshadowed by the European or Native priests who followed in their wake. Then again it is possible that catechists simply did not have the same impact on their Country-men as the European or highly Europeanized Native priests did. How then can their impact be ascertained? How were they treated by their prospective converts? Were they failures as missionaries? Were they as deeply touched by pure evangelical zeal? Were they as idealistic as their superiors? Or, were they more practical? So little is presently known about Native catechists. Before any general statements can be made more case-studies need to be done. It is clear, however, that Native catechists were a distinct class of men. The case study of Charles Pratt clearly indicates that that his goals, values, priorities, and loyalties were often at odds with his CMS superiors. As far as the local CMS was concerned, Charles Pratt held the promise of great evangelical victories and of creating successful Indian mission stations. In the end, however, his accomplishments never satisfied the expectations of his superiors. Pratt's mission station at Touchwood Hills never developed into the ideal christian Indian agricultural mission envisioned by the CMS. Neither did he successfully convince his people to give up the hunt in favour of agriculture and stock-raising. But it did achieve a longevity unequalled by very few others. Big Touchwood Hills mission was founded in 1858 and has never been closed. Though the original site was moved a few times and the buildings have been replaced, Touchwood Hills mission still stands among the descendents of Chief George Gordon and catechist Charles Pratt. By CMS standards though, it could only be considered mediocre; it was neither a dismal failure, nor was it considered successful. 174 Using AxtelPs model, however, it is clear that from the perspective of the Indian people it was meant to transform, Pratt's Touchwood Hills mission was successful. It helped them survive on traditional lands, with traditional leadership intact at a point in their history when their very survival as a people was threatened. As shown, it was their survival that consumed the energies of their catechist. He not only lived among them, he was one with them and their needs became his, if they were not prior to his return home. Pratt's people sent him away as a small child to learn and understand the ways of these European intruders so that his people could maintain and enhance their socio-economic and political position. As it turned out, Pratt's training served his people well, though not quite in terms of what they originally expected. As their economic and political independence waned, Pratt was there to help them adjust. He taught them farming which at first supplemented their livelihoods and later provided the mainstay. He spoke on their behalf to the increasingly powerful foreign authorities, interpreted their points of view and bargaining positions, and helped them face their changing world with hope. He unselfishly offered them all that he possessed - skills, knowledge, shelter, provisions. And, his people were not expected to pay such a heavy price as one like Abraham Cowley or Henry Budd would exact. Pratt's converts were his equals and they were not coerced or cajoled. Because he lived among them he could not raise himself above them, nor would they have let him. It appears therefore, that despite the very real sincerity of Pratt's own christian conversion, he may very well have undermined the primary objects of the CMS in the best interests of his people. The question still to be answered is, was Pratt an exception to the rule, or, were his values, priorities, and goals, shared by his fellow catechists? If Pratt is representative of his contemporaries, our understanding of the 175 Indian-christian experience, in Western Canada at least, will undergo some serious re-evaluations. For example, if it becomes evident that other Native catechists held views and values similar to Pratt's, it is conceivable that the failure of the Native Church Policy in Western Canada was in part due to the subversive activities of its own Native church workers. BIBLIOGRAPHY 1 PRIMARY SOURCES Most of the primary sources for this study came from the Incoming Correspondence and Journals of the CMS North-West America Mission. Local missionaries were under the direct supervision of the CMS Parent Committee in London so their records contain detailed reports of mission activity, education programs and local affairs. These must be assessed critically, however, because the writers were products of their time. Anything relating to Native people is tainted with self-righteous, Eurocentric, and paternalistic attitudes and opinions. Native missionaries also left journals and correspondence which are extremely valuable since they offer insights on the relations these men had with their hosts cultures, the HBC, and the local church hierarchy. But it must be remembered that these men were also products of their time and their writings exhibit a high degree of what Gerald Berreman terms \"impression management.\"1 In short, Berreman's thesis describes one group's attempt to control the impression another group develops about them. The literature left by Native church workers often conveys the same Eurocentric, patronizing and self-righteous attitudes of the European missionaries, because the. former group were under constant pressure to prove their evangelical orthodoxy and gain acceptance. HBC documents, on the other hand, provide rich material on the establishment of the church and schools at Red River and give insights on the relations between representatives of the Company and CMS. Servant account 1 Gerald B\\ Berreman, Behind Many Masks: Ethnography and Impression Management in a Himalyan Village (New York: The Society for Applied Anthropology, 1962), pp. 1-5 passim. 176 177 books used in conjunction with Baptismal and Marriage registers, provide enough data to follow the HBC careers of a number of Native men who were educated by the CMS. Company district reports offer a glimpse of the demographic, social and economic character of the regions where Indian missions were established. Like the CMS material, those of the HBC must be read critically especially in light of the Company's local anti-Indian mission stance and condescending attitudes of its officers towards Native people generally. Published primary sources are also valuable for the many detailed observations they offer on all aspects of the fur trade, early settlement, and early Indian missions era. John West's Substance of a Journal is particularly valuable because the CMS archives files contain only parts of his original journals. West's book tells where he obtained his Native students and how he obtained them, describes their early education program, elaborates on his ideas about their future employment, and reveals how he perceived his relations with the local HBC officials and inhabitants of Red River. Bishop George Mountain's journal of his tour of the North-West America Mission in 1844 provides a fairly objective view of the state of Indian mission work at that time. A. C. Garrioch's First Furrows offers an earlier secondary account of Indian mission efforts at Red River and beyond, but it falls into the church missiologists' genre and is more hagiographic than objectively historical. For the purpose of this study, his personal observations of active Native church workers is his most valuable contribution. Exploration journals also provide first-hand observations of Indian mission work and Native missionaries. Henry Youle Hind's narrative of his travels throughout the Red River, Assiniboine, and Saskatchewan Districts was by far the best source in this category. He offers historical overviews, detailed observations, and commentaries about, inland missions, missionaries, HBC 178 activities, the environment and resources, and specific Indian bands. To a far lesser extent, the Earl of Southesk's Diary and Narrative of Travel through the Canadian mid-west provides similar observations. Alexander Ross's Red River Settlement is useful for its first-hand descriptions of early life and mission work at Red River. His anti-Anglican stance provides a critical perspective of CMS Indian mission work, but must be considered carefully in light of its biases. Journals and other published records of the HBC are the last catagory of primary sources to be considered here. Frederick Merk's edited volume of George Simpson's travel journal to the Columbia District in 1824-1825 includes his personal opinions on Indian mission work. Oliver's synthesis of early administration and legislative records as they relate to Red River education and inland Indian mission work provides information about the Company's official policies and financial support, which were often quite different from Simpson's personal sentiments. Isaac Cowie's Company of Adventurers was particularly useful on the state of the HBC trade and mission activities in the Swan River District in the late 1860s. A. Published Sources Church Missionary Society. The Church Missionary Society Atlas, Maps of the Various Missions of the Church Missionary Society With Illustrative Letters and Press. 5th ed. London: Church Mission House, 1873. Cowie, Isaac. Company of Adventurers, A Narrative of Seven Years in the Service of the Hudson's Bay Company During 1867-1874. Toronto: William Briggs, 1913. Garrioch, Alfred C. First Furrows. Winnipeg: Stovel Co., 1923. Hargrave, Joseph James. \"Annual Routine in Red River Settlement.\" In Historical Essays on the Prairie Provinces, pp. 28-44. Edited by Donald Swainson. Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1970. 179 Hind, Henry Youle. Narrative of the Canadian Red River Exploring Expedition of 1857 And of The Assiniboine And Saskatchewan Exploring Expedition of 1858. 2 vols. Edmonton: M. G. Hurtig Reprint, 1971. Merk, Frederick, ed. Fur Trade and Empire: George Simpson's Journals, Remarks Connected with the Fur Trade in the Course of a Voyage from York Factory to Fort George and back to York Factory 1824-1825; together with Accompanying Documents. Cambridge, Harvard University Press, 1931. Morice, Reverend A. G. History of the Catholic Church in Western Canada from Lake Superior to the Pacific (1659-1895). 2 vols. Toronto: Musson Book Co., 1910. Morris, Alexander. The Treaties of Canada with the Indians of Manitoba and the North-West Territories. Toronto: Belfords, Clarke & Co., 1880; reprinted ed., Toronto: Coles Publishing Co., 1971. Mountain, Bishop George Jehosephat. Journal of the Bishop of Montreal, During a Visit to the Church Missionary Society's North-West America Mission. London: T. C. Johns, 1845. Oliver, E. H. The Canadian North-West, Its Early Development and Legislative Records, Minutes of the Councils of the Red River Colony and the Northern Department of Rupert's Land. 2 vols. Publication of the Canadian Archives, no. 9. Ottawa: Government Printing Bureau, 1914. Pettipas, Katherine, ed. The Diary of the Reverend Henry Budd 1870-1875. Vol. 4. Winnipeg: Manitoba Record Society Publications, 1974. Ross, Alexander. The Red River Settlement: Its Rise, Progress, and Present State. With Some Accounts Of The Native Races and Its General History, To The Present Day. London: Smith, Elder & Co., 1856; reprinted ed., Minneapolis, Minn.: Rass & Haines, 1957. Southesk, Earl. Saskatchewan and the Rocky Mountains: A Diary and Narrative of Travel, Sport, and Adventure, During a Journey Through The Hudson's Bay Company's Territories in 1859 and 1860. Edmonton: M. G. Hurtig Reprint, 1969. Spry, Irene M., ed. The Papers of the Palliser Expedition, 1857-1860. Toronto: Champlain Society, 1968. \"A visit to Red River and The Saskatchewan, 1861, By Dr. John Rae, FRGS.\" The Geographical Journal 140, Part 1 (February 1974): 1-17. Warkenton, John and Richard I. Ruggles, eds. Historical Atlas of Manitoba: A Selection of Facsimile Maps, Plans and Sketches from 1612 to 1969. Winnipeg: The Historical and Scientific Society of Manitoba, 1970. r West, John A. M. The Substance of a Journal During a Residence at the Red River Colony, British North America in the Years 1820-1823. London: L. B. Seeley & Son, 1824; reprinted ed., Vancouver: Alcuin Society, 1967. 180 Young, Egerton Ryerson. \"The Story of My Life\" Being a Reminiscences of Sixty Years Public Service in Canada. Edited by J. G. Hodgins. Toronto: William Briggs, 1888. B. Archival Sources a. Hudson's Bay Company Archives Including microfilm collection available on inter-library loan. Governor George Simpson Correspondence Outward, 1823-26, D.4/3, 5 and 10 (reel nos. 3M3, 3M4, 3M5). London Office Correspondence Books Outwards - HBC Official, 1822-28, A.6/20-21 (reel no. 40). Moose Factory Correspondence Books Inward, 1832, B.135/c/2 (reel no. 1M376). Red River Register of Baptisms, 1820-41, E.4/la (reel nos. 4M4 and 4M5). Red River Settlement Register of Marriages & Burials, 1820-41, E.4/lb (reel no.4M5). Red River Settlement of Baptisms, Marriages & Burials, 1841-51, E.4/2 (reel no. 4M5). Red River Census Returns, 1829, E.5/3 (reel no. 4M5). Servant's Characters and Staff Records, 1822-30, A.34/1. Swan River District Journal (Fort Pelly), 1818-19 and 1837-57, B.159/a/7 and 17-19 (reel no. 1M117). Swan River District Account Books-Servant Book Debts, 1835-48, B. 159/d/26-41 (reel no. 1M572). Swan River District Report (Fort Pelly), 1818-19, B.159/e/l (reel no.lM781). Winnipeg Post Journal, 1822-23 and 1825-26, B.235/a/5 and 7 (reel no. 1M153). 181 York Factory Post Abstracts of Servant's Accounts, 1832-34 and 1839-40, B.239/g/72-74 and 79. b. Provincial Archives of Manitoba Ecclesiastical Province of Rupert's Land Collection P.337/PRL-84-2/file 7-1008, West, John/ Correspondence. P.345/PRL-84-39/file 5-1002, Obituary Notice. c. Church Missionary Society Archives North West America Mission, Original Incoming Journals, Committee Minutes and Correspondence. Microfilm collection, Main Library, University of British Columbia, Microforms Division. fi. Newspapers Canadian Churchman Mission Life Saskatchewan Herald 2 SECONDARY SOURCES A. 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Berreman, Gerald D. Behind Many Masks: Ethnography and Impression Management in a Himalyan Village. New York: Society for Applied Anthropology, 1962. Bishop, Charles A. and Arthur J. Ray. \"Ethnohistoric Research in the Central Subarctic: Some Conceptual and Methodological Probles.\" Western Canadian Journal of Anthropology 6 (1976): 116-44. Boon, T. C. B. The Anglican Church from the Bay to the Rockies: History of the Ecclesiastical Province of Rupert's Land and its Dioceses from 1820 to 1955. Toronto: Ryerson Press, 1962. \"Budd, Henry.\" Dictionary of Canadian Biography. Vol. 10. 1871-1880, pp. 108-109. Edited by Marc La Ferreur. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1982. Bredin, Thomas F. \"The Red River Academy.\" The Beaver Outfit 305:3 (1974): 10-17. Brown, Jennifer S. H. \"Ultimate Respectability: Fur-Trade Children in the 'Civilized World'.\" The Beaver Pt. 1 Outfit 308:3 (1977): 4-10; Pt. 2 Outfit 308:4 (1978): 48-55. Strangers in Blood, Fur Trade Company Families in Indian Country. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 1980. Cardinal, Harold. The Unjust Society: The Tragedy of Canada's Indians. Edmonton: M. G. Hurtig, 1969. Chalmers, J. W. \"Education and the Honourable Company.\" Alberta Historical Review 13 (1965): 25-28. Education Behind the Buckskin Curtain: a History of Native Education in Canada. Edmonton: 1974. Deloria, Vine Jr. Custer Died for Your Sins: An Indian Manifesto. New York: Macmillan, 1969. . God is Red. New York: Grossett & Dunlop, 1973. \"An Indian Plea to the Churches.\" Los Angeles Times 6 February 1973. Drury, Clifford M. \"Notes and Suggestions: Oregon Indians in the Red River School.\" Pacific Historical Review 7 (1935): 50-60. Fast, Vera Kathrin. \"A Research Note on the Journals of John West.\" Journal of the Canadian Church Historical Society 21 (1979): 30-38. Fisher, Robin and Kenneth Coates, eds. Out of the Background: Readings on Canadian Native History. 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APPENDIX I FORT PELLY • PLAINS CREE TRADING FORMALITIES: AN ACCOUNT BY ABRAHAM COWLEY, 4 MAY 1852 188 189 APPENDIX I Fort Pelly - Plains Cree Trading Formalities: An Account by Abraham Cowley, 4 May 1852 Early in the morning of 4 May 1852 a lone Indian rode to Fort Pelly to announce the arrival of an unnamed band of Plains Cree who were apparently under the leadership of an old Medicine Man named Cha-wah-cis, and the Guard Post people who were coming to trade.1 Reverend Abraham Cowley was at Fort Pelly at the time, inspecting the efforts of Native catechist Charles Pratt, and recorded his observations of the trade events. The Crees halted at Pratt's, as I believe is their custom, to dress, & prepare to appear at the Ft. This gives Charles an opportunity to speak with them. When painted etc to their satisfaction they left Pratt's on their way to the Ft. firing salutes at intervals as they advanced but no flag or salute replied from the Ft. Still they fired as they proceeded, till they reached the Ft. where they arrived in due marching order & were met & welcomed by Mr. Buchanan. In the same stately order they proceeded through the yard & into the the room where I was sitting. The Chief walked first, an old Ojibwa followed & after him all the rest in single file & very stately. This seemed remarkable as I had never seen anything like it among Indians before; there was a dignity in their deportment which was quite imposing. The room had been previously prepared for their reception & they took their seats in the same dignified manner in which they had hitherto conducted themselves. Tobacco was on the table & the Interpreter [McKay] filled & handed a pipe to the Chief, who having smoked a little while passed it on to the next, meanwhile the Interpreter filled another pipe for him which he used as before... Buchanan then made a speech which Mr. McKay interpreted on the state of trade and its prospects, and the duties of the Chief. The Chief replied but Cowley did not indicate the details of his presentation. Following the speeches, one glass of rum was poured to each man present, then everyone left the room to conduct their trade. By late evening, the doors of the fort were closed and the Indians were celebrating the fruits of their labour. Source: PAC CMSA, A.86, Cowley Journal, 4 May 1852. 1 Cowley could have been referring to the Indians who generally frequented one of Fort Pelly's outposts, Guard House which was located in the Red Deer Valley to the north. PAM HBCA B.159/a/18, fol9. "@en ; edm:hasType "Thesis/Dissertation"@en ; edm:isShownAt "10.14288/1.0097815"@en ; dcterms:language "eng"@en ; ns0:degreeDiscipline "History"@en ; edm:provider "Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library"@en ; dcterms:publisher "University of British Columbia"@en ; dcterms:rights "For non-commercial purposes only, such as research, private study and education. Additional conditions apply, see Terms of Use https://open.library.ubc.ca/terms_of_use."@en ; ns0:scholarLevel "Graduate"@en ; dcterms:title "The Church Missionary Society Red River Mission and the emergence of a native ministry 1820-1860, with a case study of Charles Pratt of Touchwood Hills"@en ; dcterms:type "Text"@en ; ns0:identifierURI "http://hdl.handle.net/2429/28298"@en .