Henry Bird Steinhauer | The Canadian Encyclopedia

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Henry Bird Steinhauer

Article by Gerald M. Hutchinson

Published Online March 2, 2008

Last Edited March 4, 2015

Henry Bird Steinhauer, Shahwahnegezhik (Ojibwa) or Sowengisik (Cree), meaning "Southern Skies"; Methodist minister, Indigenous leader (b at Rama Indian settlement, Lk Simcoe, UC c 1818; d at Whitefish Lake, Alta 29 Dec).
Henry Bird Steinhauer,
Reverend Steinhauer founded a native Christian community in Whitefish Lake, Alberta (courtesy Glenbow Archives).

Henry Bird Steinhauer, Shahwahnegezhik (Ojibwa) or Sowengisik (Cree), meaning "Southern Skies," Methodist minister, native leader (b at Rama Indian settlement, Lk Simcoe, UC c 1818; d at Whitefish Lake, Alta 29 Dec 1884). After an American benefactor named Steinhauer in Philadelphia provided his foster name and funds, he attended Cazenovia College, NY, and Upper Canada Academy, Cobourg, UC. He accompanied James Evans to the Hudson's Bay Company territories in 1840. Appointed to Oxford House in 1850, he was ordained by the Canada Conference (Methodist) in 1855 and sent to Lac La Biche, Alta. In 1858 Steinhauer moved to Whitefish Lake, Alta, to found an Indigenous Christian community.