Heavens Are Changing: Nineteenth-Century Protestant Missions and Tsimshian Christianity

While the Euro-Canadian record dominates historical missionary sources, Aboriginal writings illustrate both a genuine evangelicalism and an indigenized Christianity. Christian meanings were constantly challenged from both within and without the mission context through revivalism and group evangelism. Neylan interprets the relationship forged between the Tsimshian and Euro-Canadian missionaries as a dialogue, although not necessarily a mutually beneficial one. The process by which power...
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While the Euro-Canadian record dominates historical missionary sources, Aboriginal writings illustrate both a genuine evangelicalism and an indigenized Christianity. Christian meanings were constantly challenged from both within and without the mission context through revivalism and group evangelism. Neylan interprets the relationship forged between the Tsimshian and Euro-Canadian missionaries as a dialogue, although not necessarily a mutually beneficial one. The process by which power was unequally distributed through missionization exposes the extent to which the social and cultural meanings of Tsimshian daily life were contested and negotiated in encounters with Christianity.