The Journals of Samuel Kirkland: 18th Century Missionary to the Iroquois, Government Agent, Father of Hamilton College ed. by Walter Pilkington (review)

REVIEWS 251 of theartefact,andremindusof thepriceless heritagewhichweentrusttoour museums. DOVGLAS COLE Simon Fraser University The Journals ofSamuel Kirkland: 18thCentury Missionary totheIroquois, Government Agent, Father ofHamilton College. Edited by WALTER PILKINGTON. Clinton, NY, HamiltonCollege,•98o.Pp.xii,459.$•7.95. From •764 to •8o8 SamuelKirkland wasa Presbyterian missionary to the Iroquois,for a shorttime to the Seneca,but primarily to the Oneida and Tuscarora.Asa boyhe hadbeeneducatedasa whitestudentat More'sIndian CharitySchool wherefromafriend,Joseph Brant,hebegan tolearnMohawk. Prior to the American Revolution, however, he broke with Brant and Sir WilliamJohnson , whohadhelpedhimwithhisearlyworkamongtheSeneca, to leadtheOneidatosidewiththeAmerican cause. Duringthewar- although the journalsdo notexistfor thisperiod- hewaschaplainanddirectorof Indian scouts in theAmericanarmy.After independence wasachieved he servedas adviserto federaland stategovernments on Indian affairs,participatedin treatyconferences atwhichIndiansweredispossessed of theirlands, witnessed theirresulting economic ruinandsocial collapse, andestablished theHamilton OneidaAcademyfor theeducation of bothIndiansandwhites. Thus Kirkland wasan unusuallywell-informedobserverof the Iroquois duringamostformative periodof theirhistory. Entirelybentontheiracculturationandconversion , however, helackedmuchof thatinterestin thestrange and alienthatinformedthewritingsof earlierJesuitobservers. Hisjournals, moreover- mostnotablywithregardto thosefor thepre-warperiod- make for irritatingreadingin that theyare clogged with idiosyncratic shortened forms,are repletewith piousreflection and sentimental religiosity, and are often disappointingly brief with respectto anecdotalmaterialof greater interest.Oddlyenough,theygreatlyimproveafter Kirklandsufferedanaccidentwhichmadeit nearlyimpossible for him eithertoreador towrite. Kirklandhasbeenverywellserved byhiseditorwhose carefulandcopious annotations from both American and Canadian sources make this a book of considerable scholarly service. G.H.PATTERSON University ofToronto MakingCanadian IndianPolicy: theHidden Agenda 1968-1970. SALLY M. WEAVER. Toronto,Universityof TorontoPress, •98•. Pp.xv,•36. $•5.oo cloth,$•o.oo paper. Lo!thepoorIndian...AffairsDepartment. Whenthemajority Trudeaugovernment waselected on• 5June•968three ...