Enmegahbowh, J. J. (John Johnson), 1812?-1902

Ottawa-Chippewa Indian and protestant preacher who served first as a Methodist and later as an Episcopal clergyman among the Chippewa in Minnesota, 1839-1902.

Born in Canada around 1812, Enmegahbowh was educated at a Methodist mission school in Jacksonville, Ill., and ordained as the Rev. John Johnson. Working as a Methodist missionary to the Chippewas from 1839 until 1844, when the church abandoned its mission, Enmegahbowh convinced the Episcopalians to start a mission in 1852 at Gull Lake, Minn. There he served as assistant and interpreter, was ordained a deacon, took charge of the school, and after the 1862 Dakota uprising, remained as the only missionary. In 1868, Enmegahbowh, by now a longtime friend and associate of Bishop Henry Whipple, accompanied his people to the White Earth Reservation, where the mission was reestablished and where he remained until his death in 1902.

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