The following excerpt from "Beginning at Whitefish Lake" was
written by Henry Steinhauer in
1857 and reveals
some of the daily concerns, such as obtaining food, that occupied much of
the early missionaries' time:
When we pitched our tent on the shore of White Fish
Lake it was a day of small things. Our party small, only two wigwams; the
inmates of them the extent of our first congregation. Our enemies prophesied
certain failure of the undertaking. What can an Indian do with Indians to
make prayer men and women of them? Besides, not having the garb of a true
minister or priest, the Indians will not look at him, in a year or two he
will gather up his duds and go back to where he came from.
Quite different were the feelings and intentions of the
despised worker. Though often weary or faint, yet he pursued the duties
marked out. He felt the awfulness of his situation, for the vows of God
were upon him, and he went forward trusting in the Lord Jehovah in whom
there is everlasting strength. Often when engaged in secular labour the
want of food was felt. The larder being empty, if in summer he goes to the
bush, picks a few berries for his dinner, or takes his gun and shoots a
partridge or a rabbit, and the missionary goes on at the same time not
neglecting to keep the old gospel musket in trim, ready for use at every
opportunity. The game of this kind that could be reached was at first shy
and wild, and far down in the valley and dark wilderness; but by and by
groans were heard, and sobs, with cries of great pain; then it was known
that the old musket had taken effect. As the aim was to kill now the
object was to heal and make alive. If the case of the humble worker has
been reached by the skill of the Great Physician, so can these dark and
benighted ones. Then the "shout of a king" was in our camp. This
was the first indication of the coming day upon the darkness of this
people.

This excerpt from a letter to the Missionary Society of the Wesleyan
Methodist Church in Canada, published in 1875, hints at Henry Steinhauer's
greater assertion of his Aboriginal identity.
A foreigner, either as a missionary or otherwise,
will never take so well with the natives of this country, let him be ever
so good and kind to them; there is always a distrust on the part of the
native to the foreigner, from the fact that the native has been so long
down-trodden by the white man.

Citation Sources
Hutchinson, Gerald. The
Roots of the Province: Alberta's First 50 Years and 100 Years of Christian
Service. Telfordville, Alberta: The United Church of Canada, 1955.
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