Mixed Blessings

Tolly Bradford is an assistant professor of history at Concordia University of Edmonton, where he teaches Canadian and world history. Chelsea Horton is a research consultant working with Indigenous communities in Canada. She completed her PhD in history at the University of British Columbia.Contributors: Tasha Beeds, Jean-François Bélisle, Siphiwe Dube, Elizabeth Elbourne, Amanda Fehr, Carmen Lansdowne, Cecilia Morgan, Denise Nadeau, Timothy Pearson, and Nicole St-Onge

• Introduction: The Mixed Blessings of Encounter / Tolly Bradford and Chelsea HortonPart 1: Communities in Encounter1 Reading Rituals: Performance and Religious Encounter in Early Colonial Northeastern North America / Timothy Pearson2 Managing Alliance, Negotiating Christianity: Haudenosaunee Uses of Anglicanism in Northeastern North America, 1760s-1830s / Elizabeth Elbourne3 A Subversive Sincerity: The I:yem Memorial, Catholicism, and Political Opportunity in S'olh Téméxw / Amanda FehrPart 2: Individuals in Encounter4 "The Joy My Heart Has Experienced": Eliza Field Jones and the Transatlantic Missionary World, 1830s-40s / Cecilia Morgan5 Between García Moreno and Chan Santa Cruz: Riel and the Métis Rebellions / Jean-François Bélisle and Nicole St-Onge6 Rethinking Edward Ahenakew's Intellectual Legacy: Expressions of nêhiyawi-mâmitonêyihcikan (Cree Consciousness or Thinking) / Tasha BeedsPart 3: Contemporary Encounters7 Aporia, Atrocity, and Religion in the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada / Siphiwe Dube8 Decolonizing Religious Encounter? Teaching "Indigenous Traditions, Women, and Colonialism" / Denise Nadeau9 Autoethnography That Breaks Your Heart: Or What Does an Interdisciplinarian Do When What She Was Hoping for Simply Isn't There? / Carmen LansdowneConclusion: Reflections on Encounter / Tolly Bradford and Chelsea HortonIndex

[Mixed Blessings] is, of course, especially timely given the 2015 release of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada's Final Report… Taken together, the diverse and engaging essays in the collection suggest that the role of Christianity in Indigenous life is both intricate and extremely variable.- Sarah MacKenzie (Canadian Literature, 236) Indigenous studies needs more strong volumes like this one to further conversations about evolving societies and goals. Too many new works rely on old questions: did Indigenous peoples truly become Christians? Was Christianity better or worse for Indigenous societies? Volumes like this one remind us that by letting the subjects guide our questions instead of imposing our questions on our subject, better answers emerge.- Carol L. Higham, Department of History, University of North Carolina - Charlotte (Canadian Journal of Native Studies) Mixed Blessing is a highly readable update on what is happening in the field of missionary interactions. It exposes the silences – the factual voids in our understanding of the complex Indigenous encounters with Christianity in Canada – and for that reason, I recommend the book to those interested in achieving reconciliation. - Dorothy Kennedy (BC Studies) Bradford and Horton present an interdisciplinary study that spans multiple centuries, allowing space for both historical and theological considerations of First Nations interactions with Christianity… Divided into three sections that focus on "community, individual, and contemporary sites of encounter" respectively (6), Mixed Blessings progresses from detached to increasingly personal analyses and also moves forward in chronology from investigations of the 18th century all the way through the present day. - Rachel R. Luckenbill, Southeastern University (Transmotion) This book offers something truly unique that Canadian historiography very much needs at the moment: a nuanced approach to Indigenous history which returns agency to First Nations sources and actors … I would very much like to see a second volume.- Stephanie Pettigrew, Department of History, University of New Brunswick (American Review of Canadian Studies)