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Kiinawin Kawindomowin — Story Nations

The diary of a missionary on Ojibwe land

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Episode 7: The Story of Mr. Wood and His New Bride

https://storynations.utoronto.ca/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/07_The-Story-of-Mr-Wood-and-his-New-Bride.mp3
Black-and-white photograph of two people in a canoe
Ernest Oberholtzer paddling in the Rainy Lake area with Billy MaGee (?), ca. 1912. Courtesy of Minessota Historical Society.

Click on the “play” button to hear the diary episode read aloud, and click on the green tab 1 to learn more about a word or phrase.
Find Du Vernet on a map.

Mr. Johnston and “Charlie,” our Indian 2 Canoeman, carried the Canoe over a point to avoid the wild rapids, and Mr. Wood 3 and I got into the Canoe 4 a little lower down. About a mile below the Rapids we came to Mr. Wood’s house. (He has a settler’s grant of land 5 .) Next to him lives his wife’s sister and her husband. Mr. Wood (about 45 years old) was married last September in Winnipeg, but the Young lady to whom he was engaged, failed to appear in the Church on the appointed day. Mr. Wood, not to be out-done, quickly found another bride, a pretty young woman 6 of 22, before returning to his mission. She was also engaged to another person but then heard that he was already married– he himself writing to her to this effect. Though it was only a hoax. She seems now to have settled down, and the Indians are beginning to like her, as she shows an interest in them and in their children. After tea we had prayers. I read and commented on the 121st Psalm 7 . Since they have a good organ, we sang several Hymns 8 . Charlie listened attentively.

[July 14th, 1898]


« EPISODE 6: THE STORY OF GREAT HAWK
EPISODE 8: DOWN THE RAPIDS »

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Previous Post: « Fort Frances
Next Post: Episode 8: Down the Rapids »

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  1. X
    green tab
  2. X
    Indian

    Du Vernet constantly refers to the Ojibwe peoples he encounters as “Indians” – his use of the word reflects the language and concepts of his day. The category of “Indian” became a legal designation in Canada with the “Indian Act.” As a distorting collective noun for diverse Indigenous peoples the category of Indian originated in a profound error. As the story goes, when Christopher Columbus arrived in the Americas in 1492 he believed he had arrived in India – and therefore called the peoples he encountered Indians, ignoring their diverse languages, spiritual traditions, and forms of governance. Read more.

    A section of the 1876 Indian Act. Courtesy of Early Canada Online.

  3. X
    Mr. Wood

    Mr. Wood was an Anglican catechist who taught in the Manitou Rapids school at the same time that he worked to convert the Ojibwe residents of Manitou Rapids to Christianity. At the time of Du Vernet’s visit to Rainy River, Mr. Wood was about 45 years old and newly married to Mrs. Wood, a 22 year old woman. Together they lived on a settler’s grant of land near Manitou Rapids.

  4. X
    Canoe

    Du Vernet travelled by canoe between Little Forks, Manitou Rapids, and Long Sault. He rode as a passenger, while Jeremiah Johnston sterned the canoe and their guide Charlie paddled in the bow. Working as a canoe guide was a common occupation for Indigenous men in the 1890s. Charlie received $1.75 for his two days work, which translates to approximately $50 today. Charlie’s father was paid a sum of $0.30 for the rental of the canoe.

    While the steamer boat travelled mostly between small settler towns and trading posts, the canoe journey took Du Vernet to important Ojibwe sites. They may have travelled in a four-thwart birch bark canoe, a typical Ojibwe model. Voyaging by canoe, Du Vernet engaged directly with the river and his writing reflects this. He was especially thrilled by running the rapids.

  5. X
    settler’s grant of land

    The 1886 Rainy River Free Grants and Homesteads Act legally “allowed” Ontario to appropriate Ojibwe land in the Rainy River area as free grants for settlers. Towards the end of the nineteenth century, colonists increasingly used this law to settle on Ojibwe territory around the Rainy River. Read more.

    A map promising free land to settlers in “New Ontario.” Courtesy of the University of Toronto Map and Data Library.

  6. X
    young woman

    Mrs. Wood was the young wife of Mr. Wood, only 22 years old at the time of Du Vernet’s visit to Rainy River. According to Du Vernet, parents at Manitou Rapids liked Mrs. Wood, as she showed an in “an interest in them and in their children.”

  7. X
    121st Psalm

    A primary theme of Psalm 121 is that God provides safety. The opening two verses read in the King James Bible:

    “I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help.
    My help cometh from the Lord, which made heaven and earth.”
    Read more.

  8. X
    Hymns

    Singing hymns was not just something Du Vernet did in Church. With catchy melodies and lyrics often drawn from the Bible, hymns accompanied him on his daily walks, in people’s houses, and in church. He knew, however, that Christian hymns were not welcome everywhere on the Rainy River. Read more.

    Sheet music for the hymn “There’ll Be No Parting There” from 1858. Courtesy of hymnary.org.