Settler Salvation and Indigenous Survival: George Copway’s Vision of “Reconciliation”

Abstract

In the hot summer of 1845, Anishinaabe missionary Kahgegagahbowh, better known as George Copway, hosted a large camp meeting in the village of Saugeen in the Province of Canada where he was serving as a minister under the auspices of the Canadian Methodist Conference. Anishinaabe ministers, chiefs, and elders travelled from bands scattered around the Great Lakes to discuss their prospects for the future. Settler farmers had been encroaching on their lands and despite mounting conflicts the Canadian government proved unwilling or unable to intervene effectively. The gathered leaders had concluded that to assert their rights they would need to unite politically. At the centre of the tent meeting, from an improvised stage, community leaders praised “Jesus Christ, Ke-sha-mon-edoo O-gwe-son, i.e., the Benevolent Spirit’s son” asking him to send aid where the government would not. Notions of Indigenous sovereignty, including the drafting of their own code of laws and plans for consolidating their remaining lands into one super-reserve, dominated the discussion and were summarized by Copway into a five-point plan. The Saugeen tent meeting proved to be a highlight of Copway’s career and he reflected on it glowingly in his autobiography: “Never was I more delighted than with the appearance of this body. As I sat and looked at them, I contrasted their