Until he was about nine, Henry Bird Steinhauer was an Ojibwe—bornaround 1820, in the area of Lake Simcoe, and probably named Sowengisik.In 1828, he was baptized into the Christian faith, and his lifechanged. In 1855, he traveled to London to be ordained and was thenposted to Alberta. There, he founded a mission at Whitefish Lake, whichwould become his life’s work. But Steinhauer did not forget hisAboriginal roots. He was troubled by what he described as the“blighting and benighting” presence of white settlers inthe Northwest and by the fact that Aboriginal peoples were underpressure to surrender their independence and their land. Although henever renounced his Christian faith, in 1875 he severed his officialconnections to the Missionary Society and increasingly asserted hisAboriginal identity, acting as a political advisor to the peoples inand around Whitefish Lake. The Praying Man—the firstfull-length biography of Steinhauer—explores the tensionsinherent in the life of someone who owes allegiance to two cultures,one of which seeks to dominate the other.

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Daniel Johns holds an MA in Native Studies from the University of Alberta. A former journalist, he now works as an investigator for the Alberta Ombudsman.

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