No open-access location is known for this record yet.
No open-access location is known for this record yet.
In 1822, the enigmatic Eleazer Williams, lay minister, catechist and schoolmaster to the New York Oneida Indians, helped to lead portion of the tribe to land near Duck Creek, Wisconsin (ten miles west of Green Bay) where the Oneida reservation now exists.2 Williams has been described as a man of exceptional gifts who wrote music and poetry and preached excellent sermons of great length and earnestness.'3 Among his accomplishments was translation of the Anglican Book of Common Prayer and Selections from the Psalms and Hymns into the Mohawk (Iroquois) language.4 It is to this origin that Oneida hymn singing is usually traced, although every Oneida singer whom I have interviewed has insisted that the hymn singing in Oneida dates back before the move to Green Bay and the relationship with Williams. The assimilation of Christian hymnody has been one of the most obvious and enduring manifestations of the acculturation of American Indians since the earliest contacts between Native Americans and Chris-
Loading…
Imported from OpenAlex (CC0) — nothing here is generated.