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Mississauga Portraits: Ojibwe Voices from Nineteenth-Century Canada
The word “Mississauga” is the name British Canadian settlers used for the Ojibwe on the north of Lake Ontario – now the most urbanized region in what is now Canada. The Ojibwe of this area in the early and mid-nineteenth century lived through a time of considerable threat to the survival of the First Nations, as they lost much of their autonomy, and almost all of their traditional territory.
Donald B. Smith’s Mississauga Portraits recreates the lives of eight Ojibwe who lived during this period – all of whom are historically important and interesting figures, and seven of whom have never before received full biographical treatment. Each portrait is based on research drawn from an extensive collection of writings and recorded speeches by southern Ontario Ojibwe themselves, along with secondary sources. These documents – uncovered over the 40 years that Smith has spent researching and writing about the Ojibwe – represent the richest source of personal First Nations writing in Canada from the mid-nineteenth century.
Mississauga Portraits is a sequel to Smith’s immensely popular Sacred Feathers, which provided a detailed biography of Mississauga chief and Methodist minister Peter Jones (1802–1856). The first chapter in Mississauga Portraits on Jones tightly links the two books, which together give readers a vivid composite picture of life in mid-nineteenth-century Aboriginal Canada.
Donald B. Smith’s Mississauga Portraits recreates the lives of eight Ojibwe who lived during this period – all of whom are historically important and interesting figures, and seven of whom have never before received full biographical treatment. Each portrait is based on research drawn from an extensive collection of writings and recorded speeches by southern Ontario Ojibwe themselves, along with secondary sources. These documents – uncovered over the 40 years that Smith has spent researching and writing about the Ojibwe – represent the richest source of personal First Nations writing in Canada from the mid-nineteenth century.
Mississauga Portraits is a sequel to Smith’s immensely popular Sacred Feathers, which provided a detailed biography of Mississauga chief and Methodist minister Peter Jones (1802–1856). The first chapter in Mississauga Portraits on Jones tightly links the two books, which together give readers a vivid composite picture of life in mid-nineteenth-century Aboriginal Canada.
- GenresNonfictionHistory
496 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2013
About the author
Donald B. Smith
19 books1 followerLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
Please see: Donald B. Smith
Donald B. Smith (1946-) is a professor emeritus of History at the University of Calgary who focused his career on the history of Aboriginal Canada, Quebec, and the history of Calgary and Southern Alberta. He was born in Toronto and raised in Oakville, Ontario. He obtained his Honours B.A. in Modern History from the University of Toronto in 1968; his M.A. from Université Laval in Quebec City in 1969; and his Ph.D. from the University of Toronto in 1975. He taught Canadian History at the University of Calgary from 1974 to 2009, where he is now Professor Emeritus of History and member of the Order of the University of Calgary. He is married to Nancy Townshend, and they have two sons, David and Peter. Smith and his family live in Calgary.Donald Smith's publications include five biographies on individuals connected with Aboriginal Canada, Long Lance: The True Story of an Impostor (1982), Sacred Feathers: The Reverend Peter Jones (Kahkewaquonaby) and the Mississauga Indians (1987), From the Land of Shadows: The Making of Grey Owl (1990), and Mississauga Portraits: Ojibwe Voices from Nineteenth Century Canada (2013), as well as Calgary's Grand Story: The Making of a Prairie Metropolis from the Viewpoint of Two Heritage Buildings, a history of Calgary (2005). He tells the story of his interest in the Mississauga (Ojibwe) First Nations on the north shore of Lake Ontario in the introduction to the second edition of Sacred Feathers, published in 2013. In 2014, Smith's book Mississauga Portraits won the Floyd S. Chalmers Award for the best book on Ontario history published in the preceding calendar year.
Please see: Donald B. Smith
Donald B. Smith (1946-) is a professor emeritus of History at the University of Calgary who focused his career on the history of Aboriginal Canada, Quebec, and the history of Calgary and Southern Alberta. He was born in Toronto and raised in Oakville, Ontario. He obtained his Honours B.A. in Modern History from the University of Toronto in 1968; his M.A. from Université Laval in Quebec City in 1969; and his Ph.D. from the University of Toronto in 1975. He taught Canadian History at the University of Calgary from 1974 to 2009, where he is now Professor Emeritus of History and member of the Order of the University of Calgary. He is married to Nancy Townshend, and they have two sons, David and Peter. Smith and his family live in Calgary.Donald Smith's publications include five biographies on individuals connected with Aboriginal Canada, Long Lance: The True Story of an Impostor (1982), Sacred Feathers: The Reverend Peter Jones (Kahkewaquonaby) and the Mississauga Indians (1987), From the Land of Shadows: The Making of Grey Owl (1990), and Mississauga Portraits: Ojibwe Voices from Nineteenth Century Canada (2013), as well as Calgary's Grand Story: The Making of a Prairie Metropolis from the Viewpoint of Two Heritage Buildings, a history of Calgary (2005). He tells the story of his interest in the Mississauga (Ojibwe) First Nations on the north shore of Lake Ontario in the introduction to the second edition of Sacred Feathers, published in 2013. In 2014, Smith's book Mississauga Portraits won the Floyd S. Chalmers Award for the best book on Ontario history published in the preceding calendar year.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
January 30, 2016
First some disclosure, this book is written by a former history professor of mine at the University of Calgary. He was one of those professors or teachers that supported me when I wanted to do the work that I wanted to do and inspired me to continue my studies, particularly at a one notable moment when I wanted to give it all up. So for that I am eternally grateful. However, this review is not based on those feelings of debt and gratitude. This is an amazing work of scholarship. Don Smith has done a incredible job recreating the lives of these key Mississauga people. Using a myriad of sources, from oral histories to theatre playbills, Smith traces the lives of these people from their births in traditional Mississauga territory in Canada West/Ontario to their exposure and conversion to Methodism and into their careers beyond. Most interesting, and it is the focus of the essays, is the efforts all of these people, despite their conversion to Methodism, is their needing efforts to protect the traditional territory and communities from being absorbed into the waves of settlement that was heading their way. These essays chronicle lives filled with personal successes and failures all set against the narrative of the loss of traditional ways of living. This book is a very interesting read and an important contribution to the historiography of native-white relations.
August 10, 2014
Amazing portraits of Mississauga personalities. A real keeper for my bookshelf.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews