Mission Life in Cree-Ojibwe Country: Memories of a Mother and Son

In May of 1868, Elizabeth Bingham Young and her new husband began a long journey from Hamilton, Ontario, to the Methodist mission of Rossville. For the next eight years, she lived in two mission houses, Norway House and then Berens River. Unprepared for the difficult conditions and the "eight months long" winter, and unimpressed with "eating fish twenty-one times a week," the young Upper Canada wife rose to the challenge. Her account of mission life in these remote outposts, is the first of its kind to be archived and now to appear in print. Accompanying Elizabeth's memoir, and offering a counterpoint to it, are the reminiscences of her eldest son, "Eddie," who was born and raised in the Cree community at Norway House. These two remarkable recollections of mission life are an invaluable addition to the fields of religious, missionary, and Aboriginal history.