"Very Serious Reflections": Inuit Dreams about Salvation and Loss in Eighteenth-Century Labrador

Abstract

Labrador Inuit were systematically exposed to Christianity for the first time when Moravian Brethren settled among them in the late eighteenth century. This was a period of crisis in aboriginal life caused by the combined effects of the missionaries' campaign to win souls and the socioeconomic changes arising from nearly two centuries of contact with Europeans. Contemporary mission journals contain accounts of dreams related by early proselytes, revealing aspects of their responses to the period. Several of these dreams are examined as personal documents, individual reflections on the times and on the motivations and consequences of religious conversion. The theme of this essay-Inuit dreams about religious conversion-presented itself in the course of research into the history of Inuit-European trade in Labrador. Though the topics are seemingly unrelated, the connection lies in the fact United Brethren (Moravian) missionaries, the first Europeans to settle permanently on Labrador's northern coast, simultaneously introduced the Inuit to Christianity and to stable, peaceful trade in the closing decades of the eighteenth century. Ostensibly about religious conversion per se, the dreams also provide interesting perspectives on the broader sweep of change affecting Inuit society at this time, of which religious conversion was one facet. With in mind, I have chosen to consider these dreams neither in isolation-that is, as cultural phenomena pertaining exclusively to the conversion process-nor with a view to reconstructing elements of the aboriginal or early Christian belief systems. Instead, they are treated in relation to the prevailing conditions under which evangelization occurred and particularly in terms of the social and economic costs-to individual converts and to the Labrador Inuit generally-of adopting Moravian teachings. In order to investigate the historical contextual referents of these Ethnohistory 36:2 (Spring I989). Copyright ? by the American Society for Ethnohistory. ccc ooI4-I801/89/$I.50. This content downloaded from 157.55.39.153 on Mon, 19 Sep 2016 05:15:24 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms Inuit Dreams about Salvation dreams, they are treated here as personal documents-testimonial statements reflecting on individual experience during a time of social upheaval, uncertainty, and challenge. The comparative rarity with which this type of information finds expression in ethnohistoric documentation has led, of necessity, to the portrayal of collective actions by interest groups, is, identifiable groupings that emerge within societies as a result of common interests shared by people in concrete historical situations (Trigger I985: I69). As a result, such units, rather than single personalities, become focal points of historical reconstruction and analysis. In this instance, however, the dreams Inuit related to the missionaries help us appreciate, at least in small measure, different forms of personal, psychological response to changes as they were unfolding. In turn, we may uncover instructive correlations between these individual viewpoints and the patterned responses of interest groups at the outset of the mission (and fur trade) period. What follows is a brief examination of Inuit dreams and of the dreams' sociohistorical referents. While all of the dreams touch on religious conversion in the first instance, they also illuminate the anxieties and conflicts engendered by a host of forces convulsed Labrador Inuit society in the late eighteenth century. After a brief discussion of the sources used, the paper begins by outlining the background of the period, accounting for factors-both indigenous and intrusive-that set in motion wide-ranging changes in aboriginal life. It then turns to an examination of specific aspects of sociocultural change, patterns of response to change, and the broader meanings of salvation and loss among Labrador Inuit in the early mission period. Finally, the dreams themselves are presented, and their historical referents considered.

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