Chippewa Testament

The Chippewa, more commonly known today as the Ojibwa, were among the most populous and widely distributed Indigenous peoples of North America. Some scholars have even estimated that they were the largest and most influential tribe north of Mexico. By 1800, the Ojibwa inhabited vast regions across Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Michigan, Minnesota, North Dakota, Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio.

Edwin James, serving as a physician with the United States Army at various frontier outposts in the Great Lakes region, first encountered the Chippewa during his military service. It was there that he met John Tanner, the son of a Kentucky pioneer family. Tanner had been captured as a boy during an Ojibwa raid. After spending two years in an Ojibwa village, he was adopted by a woman of the Ottawa tribe who raised him as her own. Tanner’s fluency in both English and Chippewa later led to his employment as an interpreter for the U.S. government.

This particular copy bears an autograph on the inside front cover: Propriété de Mr. Bonduel. This signature belongs to Belgian missionary Father Florimond Joseph Bonduel (1799–1861). Between 1830 and 1860, Father Bonduel founded missions and parishes throughout the Wisconsin, Michigan, and Minnesota territories. In the 1830s, he spent several years ministering among the Menomini, a Chippewa-speaking tribe in what was then the Wisconsin Territory.

There is a notable connection between Father Bonduel and one of the translators of this Chippewa Testament. Martha Tanner, daughter of John Tanner and an Ottawa mother, came to know Father Bonduel as a parishioner at his mission on Mackinac Island, Michigan. In a later letter, she expressed deep admiration for him and his ministry.

Notes by Rev. Lawrence B. Porter, Professor Emeritus of Systematic Theology