Copway, George, 1818-1869

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George Copway (1818 – June 27, 1869) was a Mississaugas Ojibwa writer, ethnographer, Methodist missionary, lecturer, and advocate of indigenous peoples. His Ojibwa name was Kah-Ge-Ga-Gah-Bowh (Gaagigegaabaw in the Fiero orthography), meaning "He Who Stands Forever." In 1847 he published a memoir about his life and time as a missionary. This work made him Canada's first literary celebrity in the United States. In 1851 he published The Traditional History and Characteristic Sketches of The Ojibway Nation, the first published history of the Ojibwa in English. Copway was born near Trenton, Ontario, into a Mississauga Anishinaabe family; his father John Copway was a Mississauga chief and medicine man. His parents converted to Methodism in 1827. Beginning in the 1830s, the young Copway attended the local mission school.

In July 1834, together with an uncle and cousin, he was invited to work with a Methodist minister as a missionary to Ojibwe who lived near the western part of Lake Superior. His activities in two different areas over the next few years included working with Reverend Sherman Hall in La Pointe, Wisconsin to translate the Christian Acts of the Apostles and the Gospel of St Luke into Ojibwa. In 1838 the Methodists provided for Copway's education in Illinois, and later ordained him as a minister.

In 1840, Copway met Elizabeth Howell, an English woman whose family were farmers in the Toronto area. They married and moved to Minnesota to serve as missionaries. They had a son, George Albert Copway (1843 – 1873) and a daughter Frances Minne-Ha-Ha (Copway) Passmore (1863–1921) during their marriage.

The couple later returned to Canada in 1842, where Copway served as a missionary for the Saugeen and Rice Lake Bands of the Ojibwa. He was elected vice-president of the Ojibwe General Council. In 1846, he was accused and convicted of embezzlement by the Indian Department. Because of this, he was defrocked by the Methodists.

The Copways moved to New York City, where he wrote and published a memoir, The Life, History and Travels of Kah-ge-ga-gah-Bowh (1847), republished in London in 1850 as Recollections of a forest life; or, the life and travels of Kah-ge-ga-gah-bowh. It was the first book published by a Canadian First Nations person. It had six printings in the first year and rapidly became a bestseller.

During the 1840s, he toured and lectured in the United States and also traveled to Europe. That travel provided him with the material for his book of sketches of Europe, Running sketches of men and places, in England, France, Germany, Belgium, and Scotland, published in 1851 after his book on the history of the Ojibwe. During this period, Copway acted as an advocate for a Native American territory, suggesting a 150-square mile territory be established in what was the American Midwest east of the Missouri River.The tribes in the area were under increasing pressure of encroachment by European-American settlers. This proposal was never approved by the United States Congress, but Copway attracted considerable attention from leading intellectuals of the time, including the historian Francis Parkman.

In 1851, Copway started his own weekly newspaper in New York City, titled Copway's American Indian, which ran for approximately three months. He had attracted "letters of support from the eminent ethnologists Lewis Henry Morgan and Henry Rowe Schoolcraft, from Parkman, and from the novelists James Fenimore Cooper and Washington Irving.

Copway's career subsequently spiralled downward as he began drinking heavily and sank into debt, and in 1858 his wife Elizabeth Howell Copway took his daughter, Frances Minne-Ha-Ha, and left him. Copway traveled throughout New York and Michigan as a herbalist 'street healer' and a Union army recruiter. Copway died in 1869 in Ypsilanti, Michigan.

Archival Resources
Role Title Holding Repository
creatorOf Copway, George, 1818-1863?. Letters, 1847-1858. Newberry Library
referencedIn Records relating to research on George Copway Victoria University Library
referencedIn Stewart, Charles H. Charles H. Stewart papers, 1852-1908. Cornell University Library
creatorOf Copway, George, 1818-1863?. Letter : New York, to H.B. Hurst [i.e. Hirst], Philadelphia, 1851 June 12. Newberry Library
referencedIn Leroy F. Jackson Papers The Huntington Library
creatorOf Copway, George, 1818-1863?. Pa-mah-duk ke-ne-bood = Life and death, 1850 December 24. Detroit Public Library, Detroit Main Library
referencedIn Sparks, Jared, 1789-1866. Letterbooks, 1789-1866 Houghton Library
referencedIn William N. Fenton papers, 1933-2001 American Philosophical Society Library
creatorOf Esbensen, Barbara Juster. The star maiden : an Ojibway tale : production material, 1988. University of Minnesota, Minneapolis
referencedIn Charles Eliot Norton papers Houghton Library
referencedIn Northwest missions manuscripts and index., 1766-1926. Minnesota Historical Society
referencedIn American Philosophical Society Library. Miscellaneous Manuscripts Collection. 1668-1983. American Philosophical Society
referencedIn Letters to Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, 1761-1904 (inclusive), 1820-1888 (bulk) Houghton Library
creatorOf Nute, Grace Lee, 1895-1990,. Northwest missions manuscripts and index, 1766-1926. Minnesota Historical Society, Division of Archives and Manuscripts
creatorOf Copway, George, 1818-1863?. George Copway papers, 1858. Library of Congress
Role Title Holding Repository
Relation Name
associatedWith Agassiz, Louis, 1807-1873 person
associatedWith Banks, Joseph, Sir, 1743-1820 person
correspondedWith Cooper, James Fenimore, 1789-1851 person
associatedWith Coues, Elliott, 1842-1899 person
associatedWith Cuvier, Georges, Baron, 1769-1832 person
associatedWith Darlington, William, 1782-1863 person
associatedWith Edison, Thomas A., (Thomas Alva), 1847-1931 person
associatedWith Einstein, Albert, 1879-1955 person
associatedWith Esbensen, Barbara Juster. person
associatedWith Everett, Edward, 1794-1865 person
associatedWith Fitch, John person
associatedWith Genth, F. A., (Frederick Augustus), 1820-1893 person
associatedWith Gray, Asa, 1810-1888 person
associatedWith Greeley, Horace, 1811-1872 person
associatedWith Hall, Sherman, 1800-1879 person
associatedWith Harding, Warren G. person
correspondedWith Hirst, Henry B. (Henry Beck), 1817-1874 person
correspondedWith Irving, Washington, 1783-1859 person
associatedWith Jackson, Leroy F. (Leroy Freeman), 1881-1958. person
correspondedWith Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth, 1807-1882 person
correspondedWith Morgan, Lewis Henry, 1818-1881 person
associatedWith Newcomb, Simon person
associatedWith Newton, Isaac, Sir, 1642-1727 person
associatedWith Norton, Charles Eliot, 1827-1908 person
associatedWith Nute, Grace Lee, 1895-1990, person
correspondedWith Pohlman, Henry N., 1800-1874 person
associatedWith Poinsett, Joel Roberts, 1779-1851 person
associatedWith Rittenhouse, David, 1732-1796 person
associatedWith Rush, Benjamin, 1746-1813 person
correspondedWith Schoolcraft, Henry Rowe, 1793-1864 person
associatedWith Seybert, Adam, 1773-1825 person
associatedWith Stevens, Henry person
associatedWith Stewart, Charles H. person
associatedWith Sully, Thomas, 1783-1872 person
associatedWith Thomson, Charles, 1729-1824 person
correspondedWith Thornton, John Wingate, 1818-1878 person
correspondedWith Vaux, Richard, 1816-1895 person
associatedWith Waterton, Charles, 1782-1865 person
associatedWith Wayne, Anthony person
Place Name Admin Code Country
Ontario 08 CA
La Pointe WI US
Minnesota MN US
Ypsilanti MI US
New York City NY US
Subject
American newspapers
Indian newspapers
Indians
Indians of North America
Indians of North America
Manuscripts, American
Memoir
Missionaries
Ojibwa Indians
Ojibwa Indians
Ojibwa poetry
Occupation
Authors
Chiefs, Indian
Civil Rights Activist
Ethnographers
Herbalists
Lecturers
Medicine
Missionaries
Activity

Person

Birth 1818

Death 1869-06-27

Male

Canadians

English,

Ojibwa

Information

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