Reverend

George McDougall
Born
George Millward McDougall

(1821-09-09)September 9, 1821
Kingston, Upper Canada
DiedJanuary 25, 1876(1876-01-25) (aged 54)
near Calgary, Alberta
OccupationMissionary

George Millward McDougall (September 9, 1821 – January 25, 1876) was a Methodist missionary in Canada who assisted in negotiations leading to Treaty 6 and Treaty 7 between the Canadian government and Indigenous nations of the prairies and what is now western Canada.

He was also responsible for the theft of the 145 kg meteorite called the Manitou Stone, or Manitou Asinîy ('Creator's Stone'). He took it from its resting site to the nearby Victoria Mission, believing that it would bring Indigenous peoples to the mission and help him convert them to Christianity.[1] Holly Quan wrote: "To the Blackfoot and Cree of the western plains, the Iron Stone was the embodiment of powerful spirits, a source of strength, power, protection and luck...To the Reverend George McDougall, the Iron Stone was a pagan symbol. With considerable effort, in the early spring of 1866 he had the stone dug from its resting place...to be proudly displayed on the lawn of the Methodist college where he was trained...That spring, when the Cree and Blackfoot came again to visit the Iron Stone...their link with the buffalo spirits...had mysteriously vanished. The elders predicted war disease and starvation. All their predictions came true."

Since 1972, Manitou Asinîy has been held in the collection of the Royal Alberta Museum, and since September 30, 2022 the Manitou Asinîy-Iniskim-Tsa Xani Center organization has been advocating for its repatriation.The stone is smudged regularly, is open to Indigenous visitors wishing to touch and pray with it, and is not allowed to be photographed, per the advice of Indigenous elders.[2]

Biography

McDougall Mission

McDougall was born in Kingston, Ontario (then Upper Canada).[3][4] In 1842 he married Elizabeth Chantler and they eventually had nine children.[5] After attending Victoria College in Cobourg, he was ordained in 1854. In 1860 he was sent to the Rossville near Norway House. In 1863 he established the Victoria Mission near Edmonton, the earliest Methodist mission in the West and was superintendent of Methodist missionary work in the Saskatchewan District. In 1871 he founded a permanent mission at Edmonton House, a Hudson's Bay Company outpost at what is now Edmonton, Alberta.

He and his son John McDougall served missions over a wide area, including to Indigenous groups at Pigeon Lake, Stoney Lake, Saddle Lake and Whitefish Lake.

He and his son founded the McDougall Orphanage and Training School an Indian residential school, around 1873.[6] The original school closed in 1908, but was re-opened in 1926 as McDougall Residential School. As at all residential schools, abuse and mistreatment was widespread. One notable incident in May 1953 saw all 32 boys abandon the school after a severe disciplinary action by the matron. The school was finally closed in 1969 following prolonged opposition from the United Church of Canada which ran it.[7]

George extended his ministry to southern Alberta, establishing McDougall Mission on the Bow River named Morleyville. It was on a hunting trip in January 1876 near the Nose Hill area that Rev. George McDougall was lost in a blizzard and was found dead several days later.[8] There is a cairn to mark the place of George's death, on Panora Way NW in Calgary.

References

  1. ↑ "Manitou Asinîy | Royal Alberta Museum". royalalbertamuseum.ca. 2021-11-30. Retrieved 2023-12-06.
  2. ↑ "Manitou Asinîy | Royal Alberta Museum". royalalbertamuseum.ca. 2021-11-30. Retrieved 2023-12-06.
  3. ↑ Nix, J.E. (1960). Mission Among the Buffalo: The Labours of the Reverends George M. and John C. McDougall in the Canadian Northwest, 1860-1876. Ryerson Press. Retrieved 2015-04-10.
  4. ↑ Nix, James Ernest (1972). "McDougall, George Millward". In Hayne, David (ed.). Dictionary of Canadian Biography. Vol. X (1871–1880) (online ed.). University of Toronto Press.
  5. ↑ Sanderson, Kay. 200 Remarkable Alberta Women. Calgary: Famous Five Foundation. p. 1.
  6. ↑ "ARCHIVES CANADA". archivescanada.ca. Archived from the original on 2014-10-25. Retrieved 2015-04-10.
  7. ↑ "McDougall Orphanage and Morley Residential School – The Children Remembered". Retrieved 2023-12-06.
  8. ↑ Mark, Watson. "Rev. George McDougall". Southern Alberta Pioneers and their Descendants (SAPD). Retrieved 2011-10-26.
  • Quan, Holly (2009). Native Chiefs and Famous Métis. Heritage House Publishing.

Bibliography

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.