George Copway (; 1818 – June 27, 1869) was a Mississaugas Ojibwa writer, ethnographer, Methodist missionary, lecturer, and advocate of indigenous peoples. His Ojibwa name was ( in the Fiero orthography), meaning 'He Who Stands Forever'. In 1847 he published a memoir about his life and time as a missionary. This work made him Canada's first literary celebrity in the United States. In 1851 he published The Traditional History and Characteristic Sketches of The Ojibway Nation, the first published history of the Ojibwa in English.

Biography

Copway was born near Trenton, Ontario, into a Mississauga Anishinaabe family; his father John Copway was a Mississauga chief and medicine man. His parents converted to Methodism in 1827. Beginning in the 1830s, the young Copway attended the local mission school.

In July 1834, together with an uncle and cousin, he was invited to work with a Methodist minister as a missionary to Ojibwe who lived near the western part of Lake Superior. His activities in two different areas over the next few years included working with Reverend Sherman Hall in La Pointe, Wisconsin to translate the Christian Acts of the Apostles and the Gospel of St Luke into Ojibwa. In 1838 the Methodists provided for Copway's education in Illinois, and later ordained him as a minister.

The couple later returned to Canada in 1842, where Copway served as a missionary for the Saugeen and Rice Lake Bands of the Ojibwa. He was elected vice-president of the Ojibwe General Council. In 1846, he was accused and convicted of embezzlement by the Indian Department. Because of this, he was defrocked by the Methodists.

Legacy

Copway's 1847 memoir and his 1851 history of the Ojibwe The Traditional History and Characteristic Sketches of The Ojibway Nation included many details about their traditional culture. He dedicated a few chapters to the use of birch bark scrolls, the symbolic writing that was used, and the meaning of various symbols. These elaborate scrolls were used to remember songs, history, and ceremonies. The care and reproduction of these scrolls by a select few is described in detail.

A recurring theme in Copway's publications is the use of alcohol by Euromericans to weaken Native American social fabric:

<blockquote>The introduction of spirituous liquors...has been greater than all other evils combined. Intemperance and disease. The fire-water has done its work of disaster. By it the glad shouts of the youth of our land have died away in wails of grief! Fathers have followed their children to their graves. Children have sent their wail of woe, echoing from vale to vale. And around the cheering fires of the Indian, the white man has received the gain of avarice. Peace and Happiness entwined around the fire-side of the Indian once. Union, harmony, and a common brotherhood cemented them all. But as soon as these vile drinks were introduced, dissipation commenced, and the ruin and downfall of a noble race has gone on — every year lessening their numbers.</blockquote>

In 2018, Copway was designated a National Historic Person by the Canadian federal government (through the Minister of Environment & Climate Change).

Selected bibliography

  • The Life, History and Travels of Kah-ge-ga-gah-Bowh (1847), available online at Internet Archive
  • The Traditional History and Characteristic Sketches of the Ojibway Nation (1850), available online at Internet Archive
  • The Life, Letters, and Speeches of Kah-ge-ga-gah-Bowh, or G. Copway, a chief of the Ojibwa Nation (1850), available online at Internet Archive
  • Ojibwa Conquest (1850), available online at Internet Archive
  • Organization of a New Indian Territory, East of the Missouri River (1850), available online at Internet Archive
  • Running Sketches of Men and Places, in England, France, Germany, Belgium, and Scotland (1851), available online at Internet Archive
  • Indian Life and Indian History (1860), available online at Internet Archive

References

  • The Traditional History and Characteristic Sketches of The Ojibway Nation at Google Books.
  • The Life, History, & Travels of Kah-ge-ga-gah-bowh (George Copway): A Young Indian Chief of the Ojebwa Nation, at Google Books.
  • "George Copway", Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online.
  • "George Copway", The Canadian Encyclopedia.