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Moon of wintertime: Missionaries and the Indians of Canada in encounter since 1534
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November 30, 2021
One of the recurring themes in the history of Christianity and, indeed, Western civilization, is the encounter of Christians with indigenous peoples. In the popular imagination, Christianity and Western civilization are intimately connected, despite the fact that the religion first arose in the Middle East and that some scholars assert that ancient Ethiopia was the first “Christian” nation. Christian missionaries are portrayed as malefactors who sought to impose sweeping changes on idyllic indigenous cultures by making them “civilized” in Western ways. These zealous proselytizers are but one brigade in the ranks of Western imperialism. Shame on European powers for wanting to stamp out the Aztecs' human sacrifice!
In ‘Moon of Wintertime: Missionaries and the Indians of Canada in Encounter Since 1534,’ respected Canadian historian John Webster Grant explores how both Roman Catholic and Protestant missionaries interacted with the various First Nations peoples that they met. In this valuable book, Grant reveals how missionaries WERE often (sometimes unwittingly) agents of Western civilization while also drawing attention to ways in which missionaries stood up for the First Nations. Importantly, Grant does not coddle the First Nations as liberal/revisionist paternalists do; whereas conservative paternalists infantilized the First Nations by disregarding their culture and customs, liberal paternalists treat indigenous peoples as if they had no agency, as if they were hapless and helpless in the face of the white man. Tens of thousands of Canada’s First Nations DID willingly embrace Christianity. Grant acknowledges the missionaries DID do good, often making tremendous sacrifices in hopes of “saving” the First Nations and he asserts that if we are to dispel with the myth of the “noble missionary” we must equally reject the romanticization of the “noble savage” (itself a European myth, pp. 205-06).
Grant begins with Catholic missionaries, as the French arrived in North America earlier than the British. In later centuries, French-Canadians and the First Nations would share some affinities, not only because of shared Catholic faith but also because both were minorities in British North America. As opposed to the British who more aggressively sought First Nations assimilation, Catholic missions tended to isolate First Nations from Europeans because they wanted to safeguard them from the vices of Western culture (indeed, one need only think of the havoc wrought by alcohol on many First Nations through the centuries, even into the present, p. 228, 234). The Jesuits, Oblates, and Récollets were particularly active in Canadian missions. Jesuits were well-known for their tactful adaptiveness; they were utterly dedicated to saving First Nations souls and their intellectual cunning effectively dispatched many of the objections to the faith that the First Nations raised (pp. 32-33, 37-38). They were often more tolerant of indigenous custom that rival religious orders (which historically led even their fellow Catholics to suspect them) but they did not celebrate indigenous custom; tolerance was calculated towards the greater aim of conversion (p. 38).
Protestant missions came later than the Catholics but they also eagerly evangelized Canada’s Native population. Among the most active were the Anglicans, Methodists, and Presbyterians, though they often excelled in different contexts, with Methodists being more supportive of the emotional fervour fostered by revivals and Presbyterians being at home in the staid classroom. Anglicans were accused of making “tobacco Christians” - Native believers enticed by material rewards (this reminds me of the similar phenomenon of “rice Christians” in Asia, p. 113, 235). Grant offers an interesting insight into how Calvinists and Arminians evangelized First Nations. Calvinists "expected a definite profession of saving faith to precede participation in the fellowship and sacraments of the church" while Arminians, "in this respect closer to Roman Catholics, placed more reliance on sacraments to effect growth into fullness of faith, and thus tended to be less stringent in their requirements for admission (pp. 226-27).
Grant critiques Canada’s missionaries but he balances this with positive appraisals. Missionaries often served as “middlemen,” both in fur trade parleys and in treaty negotiations between First Nations groups and the government but at times they were naïve in their diplomatic powers, at other times they had mixed motives. Missionaries DID exhibit genuine care and concern for the First Nations and they understood that white settlement was inevitable so how could they negotiate the fairest terms with the land's first inhabitants? They may have been too trusting of the Canadian government to treat Natives well. Their desire to ensure the First Nations would be saved also led them to push for the First Nations to establish permanent communities and give up their nomadic ways for it was easier to evangelize a settled flock than one constantly on the move (pp. 154-55). The missionaries generally improved the lot of indigenous women though they were also guilty of imposing on them Western standards and broke up polygamous marriages which left excess wives vulnerable (p. 110). Grant chides Canada’s churches for obdurately proclaiming the “Christianity and civilization gospel” even as American churches had progressively called for Native Americans to self-govern themselves (pp. 206-08).
There are obviously many different First Nations peoples in North America but Grant highlights some of the ways these various groups interacted with Christianity. The First Nations of North America viewed religion in similar terms to ancient Romans and their pantheon of deities; the First Nations freely borrowed and incorporated the supernatural beliefs and customs of their neighbours into their religious practice and were slow to realize that the missionaries were calling for exclusive commitment to Christianity because they had no concept of adherence to one single, true faith (pp. 39-40). Shamans and medicine men were particularly powerful in indigenous groups and the missionaries regarded them as their most formidable adversaries; one can easily think of how a Jesuit and a medicine man might compete with supernatural powers to call down rain on a parched land or heal a sick child (p. 34). Grant notes that when shamans WERE converted, they often became some of the most zealous evangelists for Christianity (p. 242).
Ironically, missionaries unwittingly represented a secularizing society with rationalistic assumptions compared to First Nations spirituality; for indigenous tribes, nature was imbued with mystery that Western knowledge had often successfully decoded (p. 25). Christianity accounted for historical change better than the First Nations’ beliefs for the missionaries brought with them an exposure to the Western worldview that First Nations had a hard time explaining (p. 244). Missionaries touted that “The Great Spirit has not given you any such BOOK, but he has given it to US” (i.e. the Bible, p. 245).
The very changes wrought by the white man - new diseases, alcohol, the introduction of new technology, the displacement of First Nations from their traditional territories, may have led many First Nations to convert to Christianity because “societies undergoing rapid and painful change make fertile soil for millennial and enthusiastic movements” (p. 63). Grant notes that many First Nations replaced their traditional religious gewgaws with Christian versions of these trinkets and that many indigenous people did not formally cease believing in paganism even while admitting that Christianity might be more powerful than traditional indigenous spirituality or else they held to a hybrid spirituality of both Native and Christian beliefs (p. 44, 246). As Grant states, "Conversion to Christianity was essentially a phenomenon of the moon of wintertime, when ancestral spirits had ceased to perform their expected functions satisfactorily and angel choirs promised to fill the spiritual vacuum" (p. 245).
First published in 1984, one can tell even from the subtitle that some of the terminology is antiquated (Grant also refers to the Inuit as “Eskimos”) and coverage ends in the early 1980s. He marvels at the explosive growth of pentecostalism among First Nations and of conservative evangelicalism’s inroads, noting that these expressions of Christianity are not saddled with the baggage of history like that of the historic churches (e.g. Catholic, Anglican, and Methodist). Grant does assess residential schools (which were originally inspired by American working schools that US-based Native Americans positively received) but in a more cursory way than readers in 2021 might expect, especially given how grievous the long shadow of residential schools have been upon Canada’s First Nations. Still, ‘Moon of Wintertime’ focuses on the missionary encounter (which is why prominent indigenous Christian leaders such as Edward Ahenakew don’t factor into this book) and it effectively demonstrates that the encounter between Canada’s First Nations and Christianity is not confined to rigid regimes of the residential schools but included tens of thousands of First Nations who willingly, if not always entirely self-awarely, sought conversion to Christianity. Grant ends by reflecting that in the past, the encounter between missionaries and First Nations was not on equal footing and that missionaries held the advantage. But now, with governmental and secular agencies offering services that used to be under the churches’ purview, non-Native Christians have had to be more attentive and receptive to the convictions, desires, and voices of First Nations, including indigenous expressions of Christianity. Grant sees hope for a fruitful future between Christianity and Canada’s First Nations where both sides encounter each other as equals (pp. 265-66).
In ‘Moon of Wintertime: Missionaries and the Indians of Canada in Encounter Since 1534,’ respected Canadian historian John Webster Grant explores how both Roman Catholic and Protestant missionaries interacted with the various First Nations peoples that they met. In this valuable book, Grant reveals how missionaries WERE often (sometimes unwittingly) agents of Western civilization while also drawing attention to ways in which missionaries stood up for the First Nations. Importantly, Grant does not coddle the First Nations as liberal/revisionist paternalists do; whereas conservative paternalists infantilized the First Nations by disregarding their culture and customs, liberal paternalists treat indigenous peoples as if they had no agency, as if they were hapless and helpless in the face of the white man. Tens of thousands of Canada’s First Nations DID willingly embrace Christianity. Grant acknowledges the missionaries DID do good, often making tremendous sacrifices in hopes of “saving” the First Nations and he asserts that if we are to dispel with the myth of the “noble missionary” we must equally reject the romanticization of the “noble savage” (itself a European myth, pp. 205-06).
Grant begins with Catholic missionaries, as the French arrived in North America earlier than the British. In later centuries, French-Canadians and the First Nations would share some affinities, not only because of shared Catholic faith but also because both were minorities in British North America. As opposed to the British who more aggressively sought First Nations assimilation, Catholic missions tended to isolate First Nations from Europeans because they wanted to safeguard them from the vices of Western culture (indeed, one need only think of the havoc wrought by alcohol on many First Nations through the centuries, even into the present, p. 228, 234). The Jesuits, Oblates, and Récollets were particularly active in Canadian missions. Jesuits were well-known for their tactful adaptiveness; they were utterly dedicated to saving First Nations souls and their intellectual cunning effectively dispatched many of the objections to the faith that the First Nations raised (pp. 32-33, 37-38). They were often more tolerant of indigenous custom that rival religious orders (which historically led even their fellow Catholics to suspect them) but they did not celebrate indigenous custom; tolerance was calculated towards the greater aim of conversion (p. 38).
Protestant missions came later than the Catholics but they also eagerly evangelized Canada’s Native population. Among the most active were the Anglicans, Methodists, and Presbyterians, though they often excelled in different contexts, with Methodists being more supportive of the emotional fervour fostered by revivals and Presbyterians being at home in the staid classroom. Anglicans were accused of making “tobacco Christians” - Native believers enticed by material rewards (this reminds me of the similar phenomenon of “rice Christians” in Asia, p. 113, 235). Grant offers an interesting insight into how Calvinists and Arminians evangelized First Nations. Calvinists "expected a definite profession of saving faith to precede participation in the fellowship and sacraments of the church" while Arminians, "in this respect closer to Roman Catholics, placed more reliance on sacraments to effect growth into fullness of faith, and thus tended to be less stringent in their requirements for admission (pp. 226-27).
Grant critiques Canada’s missionaries but he balances this with positive appraisals. Missionaries often served as “middlemen,” both in fur trade parleys and in treaty negotiations between First Nations groups and the government but at times they were naïve in their diplomatic powers, at other times they had mixed motives. Missionaries DID exhibit genuine care and concern for the First Nations and they understood that white settlement was inevitable so how could they negotiate the fairest terms with the land's first inhabitants? They may have been too trusting of the Canadian government to treat Natives well. Their desire to ensure the First Nations would be saved also led them to push for the First Nations to establish permanent communities and give up their nomadic ways for it was easier to evangelize a settled flock than one constantly on the move (pp. 154-55). The missionaries generally improved the lot of indigenous women though they were also guilty of imposing on them Western standards and broke up polygamous marriages which left excess wives vulnerable (p. 110). Grant chides Canada’s churches for obdurately proclaiming the “Christianity and civilization gospel” even as American churches had progressively called for Native Americans to self-govern themselves (pp. 206-08).
There are obviously many different First Nations peoples in North America but Grant highlights some of the ways these various groups interacted with Christianity. The First Nations of North America viewed religion in similar terms to ancient Romans and their pantheon of deities; the First Nations freely borrowed and incorporated the supernatural beliefs and customs of their neighbours into their religious practice and were slow to realize that the missionaries were calling for exclusive commitment to Christianity because they had no concept of adherence to one single, true faith (pp. 39-40). Shamans and medicine men were particularly powerful in indigenous groups and the missionaries regarded them as their most formidable adversaries; one can easily think of how a Jesuit and a medicine man might compete with supernatural powers to call down rain on a parched land or heal a sick child (p. 34). Grant notes that when shamans WERE converted, they often became some of the most zealous evangelists for Christianity (p. 242).
Ironically, missionaries unwittingly represented a secularizing society with rationalistic assumptions compared to First Nations spirituality; for indigenous tribes, nature was imbued with mystery that Western knowledge had often successfully decoded (p. 25). Christianity accounted for historical change better than the First Nations’ beliefs for the missionaries brought with them an exposure to the Western worldview that First Nations had a hard time explaining (p. 244). Missionaries touted that “The Great Spirit has not given you any such BOOK, but he has given it to US” (i.e. the Bible, p. 245).
The very changes wrought by the white man - new diseases, alcohol, the introduction of new technology, the displacement of First Nations from their traditional territories, may have led many First Nations to convert to Christianity because “societies undergoing rapid and painful change make fertile soil for millennial and enthusiastic movements” (p. 63). Grant notes that many First Nations replaced their traditional religious gewgaws with Christian versions of these trinkets and that many indigenous people did not formally cease believing in paganism even while admitting that Christianity might be more powerful than traditional indigenous spirituality or else they held to a hybrid spirituality of both Native and Christian beliefs (p. 44, 246). As Grant states, "Conversion to Christianity was essentially a phenomenon of the moon of wintertime, when ancestral spirits had ceased to perform their expected functions satisfactorily and angel choirs promised to fill the spiritual vacuum" (p. 245).
First published in 1984, one can tell even from the subtitle that some of the terminology is antiquated (Grant also refers to the Inuit as “Eskimos”) and coverage ends in the early 1980s. He marvels at the explosive growth of pentecostalism among First Nations and of conservative evangelicalism’s inroads, noting that these expressions of Christianity are not saddled with the baggage of history like that of the historic churches (e.g. Catholic, Anglican, and Methodist). Grant does assess residential schools (which were originally inspired by American working schools that US-based Native Americans positively received) but in a more cursory way than readers in 2021 might expect, especially given how grievous the long shadow of residential schools have been upon Canada’s First Nations. Still, ‘Moon of Wintertime’ focuses on the missionary encounter (which is why prominent indigenous Christian leaders such as Edward Ahenakew don’t factor into this book) and it effectively demonstrates that the encounter between Canada’s First Nations and Christianity is not confined to rigid regimes of the residential schools but included tens of thousands of First Nations who willingly, if not always entirely self-awarely, sought conversion to Christianity. Grant ends by reflecting that in the past, the encounter between missionaries and First Nations was not on equal footing and that missionaries held the advantage. But now, with governmental and secular agencies offering services that used to be under the churches’ purview, non-Native Christians have had to be more attentive and receptive to the convictions, desires, and voices of First Nations, including indigenous expressions of Christianity. Grant sees hope for a fruitful future between Christianity and Canada’s First Nations where both sides encounter each other as equals (pp. 265-66).
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