520 pages
17 illustrations, 7 appendixes, 5 maps, 2 tables
Twenty-four-year-old Edmund F. Ely, a divinity student from Albany, New York, gave up his preparation for the ministry in 1833 to become a missionary and teacher among the Ojibwe of Lake Superior. During the next sixteen years, Ely lived, taught, and preached among the Ojibwe, keeping a journal of his day-to-day experiences as well as recording ethnographic information about the Ojibwe. From recording his frustrations over the Ojibwe's rejection of Christianity to describing hunting and fishing techniques he learned from his Ojibwe neighbors, Ely’s unique and rich record provides unprecedented insight into early nineteenth-century Ojibwe life and Ojibwe-missionary relations. Theresa M. Schenck draws on a broad array of secondary sources to contextualize Ely’s journals for historians, anthropologists, linguists, literary scholars, and the Ojibwe themselves, highlighting the journals’ relevance and importance for understanding the Ojibwe of this era.
Edmund F. Ely (1809–1882) spent sixteen years as a missionary and teacher among the Ojibwes of Lake Superior during the 1830s and 1840s.
Theresa M. Schenck is an associate professor of life sciences communications and American Indian studies and folklore at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. She is the author of William W. Warren: The Life, Letters, and Times of an Ojibwe Leader (Nebraska, 2007) and the editor of William W. Warren’s History of the Ojibway People: The Annotated Edition.
List of Illustrations
List of Maps
List of Tables
Introduction
Chapter 1: Albany, New York, to Sandy Lake, Iowa Territory, July 5 to September 28, 1833
Chapter 2: Sandy Lake, September 28 to December 7, 1833
Chapter 3: Sandy Lake to Leech Lake, December 8, 1833, to May 4, 1834
Chapter 4: Fond du Lac and Travels, May 4 to December 28, 1834
Chapter 5: Fond du Lac, January 1 to September 21, 1835
Chapter 6: Life at Fond du Lac, September 20, 1835, to December 27, 1836
Chapter 7: Missionary Life at Fond du Lac, January 7 to November 25, 1837
Chapter 8: Struggles at Fond du Lac, January 4 to December 14, 1838
Chapter 9: Closing Fond du Lac, January to October 20, 1839
Chapter 10: Events of 1840 to 1842
Chapter 11: Final Years in Missionary Life, 1842 to 1849
Aftermath
Appendix A: Manners and Customs of Ojibueg
Appendix B: Catharine Ely's Diary, 1835 to 1839
Appendix C: Select Ojibwe Vocabulary
Appendix D: Anishinaabeg of Fond du Lac and the St. Croix Valley
Appendix E: Missionary Community
Appendix F: List of Persons in the District of Fond du Lac, 1834 to 1835
Appendix G: Maps
Bibliography
Index
