Sacred Feathers: The Reverend Peter Jones (Kahkewaquonaby) and the Mississauga Indians

by Donald B. Smith

Much of the ground on which Canada's largest metropolitan centre now stands was purchased by the British from the Mississauga Indians for a payment that in the end amounted to ten shillings. Sacred Feathers (1802-1856), or Peter Jones, as he became known in English, grew up hearing countless stories of the treachery in those negotiations, early lessons in the need for Indian vigilance in preserving their land and their rights. Donald B. Smith's biography of this remarkable Ojibwa leader shows how well those early lessons were learned and how Jones used them to advance the welfare of his people.

A groundbreaking book, Sacred Feathers was one of the first biographies of a Canadian Aboriginal to be based on his own writings - drawing on Jones's letters, diaries, sermons, and his history of the Ojibwas - and the first modern account of the Mississauga Indians. As summarized by M.T. Kelly in Saturday Night when the book was first published in 1988, "This biography achieves something remarkable. Peter Jones emerges from its pages alive. We don't merely understand him by the book's end: we know him."

Genres: History, Biography, Nonfiction

372 pages, Hardcover

First published February 14, 1987

About the author

Librarian 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.

Reviews

[Eve-Lynn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well researched and well written, this book could have been quite dry but was not. I was pleasantly surprised. Smith writes sensitively about each person, refraining from judgment. A timeline might help the reader follow the events and some chapter organization would benefit from it--a bit of leaping back and forth got me confused at times and an earlier placement of the naming of the Mississaugas might help readers keep track of the clans and peoples. It has so much useful information that I believe I will need to buy it.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

Everyone who lives in southern Ontario should read this book. So much history I knew nothing about. It did take me a while to read it / I had to kind of force myself, but that's my fault, not the book's. I'm very very bad at reading history books. Every time I read a history book I want to put it down and pick up a good, juicy novel, or some essays, or some poetry, or ANY other genre. But, I love learning things and once I'm into it I'm hanging on to every sentence as if it's a very well-paced novel. That certainly happened with this book--it's well-written.

Definitely read the second edition because Don Smith's intro to the 2e gives a bit of his own history, where he's coming from, which I found illuminating and energizing.

Peter Jones is a controversial figure to this day. Check this article: https://www.mississauga.com/community.... Darin Wybenga currently (2020) Traditional Knowledge and Land Use Coordinator of (at? for?) the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation, is quoted in the article as saying "Some people think he sold us down the river ... [Jones] pushed the people into accepting Christianity and because of that they lost the old customs, traditions, language."

Reading this book will give a bit of context for how and why exactly that happened. I am left feeling like I want to know more of the other side, more perspectives on some of the events described -- but the extensive references in the book, many of them to publicly available archival material -- suggest that I can!

[Kristin Gleeson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Don Smith examines the life of Peter Jones,or Sacred Feathers, an Anishnabe man who worked as a Methodist missionary in the early part of the 19th century. This biography was of particular fascination to me because I used to be an archivist for the American Presbyterians and have written and read much about their mission work among the Native Americans. There were some interesting parallels, but what is most astounding to me is that there were so many primary sources, including a diary and numerous letters and sermons written by Jones himself.


Jones worked tirelessly for the Methodist mission and also to enable his people to be educated and have clear and free title to the lands they had left. The desire to have land deeds was particularly strong in the face of the wholesale removal of Native Americans east of the Mississippi that occurred during his lifetime.

This is not a popular biography but a scholarly and indepth treatment and analysis of a subject that is difficult to find-- the actual voice of a First Nations/Native American during the nineteenth century or earlier.

[Beth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Based on my relative Peter Jones life - so interesting. I remember doing research years ago with my Mom and searching the archives at Victoria College at U of T. Reading his and Eliza's Diaries was fascinating.

[John Tambakis · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Reverend Peter Jones grew up a hunter, became a Christian missionary and ended His life as a leader and advocate for the Aboriginal peoples. He lived at a time where natives were losing their land nearly completely. And in this time, he saw hundreds of natives come to faith through a bold, faithful yet culturally relevant preaching of the gospel.

There are so many interesting and moving parts of this book I don't even know where to begin! One could cite His conversion where he first learns of His sinfulness before God, and the great grace of God. You could also cite His meeting with Queen Victoria in 1837 where he asks her to give Title to native lands. You could also cite His wedding to Eliza which was derided openly in the press at the time for being an inter-racial marriage.

As a Christian pastor who lives and works in Mississauga, this was a powerful book which shows God's work in this region of Canada through an unlikely man. But it also shows that you won't always achieve what you set out to in this life. Peter Jones advocated and lobbied for a day where native Canadians would be equal and would be respected with title deeds on some of their lands. Yet, sadly for nearly a hundred years after His death Canada chose another path in their relations with natives. One can't help to think that if they chose the path that Jones had set out, aboriginal relations would be very different, and the history of our country would look very different.

Yet, the great legacy of Jones is clearly the souls that are now in Heaven because of His labours. He brought His people the gospel and they believed it. This is a book worth reading and a man worth imitating.

[Sam Malschaert · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very special read about a very special person from history; a man who was devoted to advocating for his people and helping them bridge the tumultuous times that shook at the very foundation of their culture as they were actively being subsumed by the society of the newcomers. He helped them to adapt to a new way of life without trying to eradicate everything that was 'indian' about his people. He was a man whose love for his people was clear from his boldness in proclaiming the gospel to them. White society's conduct could have turned him away from the gospel, but he did not see it as 'the white-mans gospel', he saw it for what it is: universal truth for all peoples, nations, tribes and tongues.

[Amber Thiessen · Rating 5 out of 5]

The story of Peter Jones, an aboriginal man who brought the Gospel to settlements around the Great Lakes of Canada. He worked hard to ensure land titles for his people, to bring the Gospel and education to the area. His story was one of hardship, as he struggled in uniting different groups of people together; one of leadership, as he led courageously building bridges between the white settlers and his people; and of family, as he married a British woman who came back with him to Canada to help his ministry. His story was encouraging and challenging! A great read!