Henry Bird Steinhauer, Ojibwa teacher
Henry was born about 1820 in the upper Canadian village of Rama on the shore of Lake Couchiching.
At the age of eight, he was baptized and assumed the surname Steinhauer, after a wealthy American who arranged to pay for his education. Steinhauer attended college while teaching and learning the rudiments of farming and construction. He also helped develop an alphabet and 50-character syllabics system that would translate the scriptures into the unwritten Cree language. Steinhauer spent nearly 30 years, the majority of his teaching career, at a mission at a Cree community near Whitefish Lake, Alberta. He developed a positive relationship with the Cree and created the first school in the community. Steinhauer also helped the people clear the land for farming and building homes and participated in a proposed peace agreement between the Blackfoot and Cree of the area in 1869.
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