Henry Bird 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. Henry spent nearly thirty years, the majority of his
teaching career, at a mission in 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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