Bill & Norma Jean Jancewicz

Tentmakers

Northern Translation Brief: “The Bible in Plain Cree”

Posted on November 22, 2014 by Bill Jancewicz

Mason Cree Bible

In 1891, The Smithsonian Bureau of Ethnology Bulletin, (Vol 13, issue 1, U.S. Govt. Printing Office) listed only two “whole Bibles” in its “Bibliography of Algonquian Languages”. The Bible in Massachusetts by J. Eliot, and the Bible in Cree by W. Mason. The “Eliot Bible” was published in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1663, and it is the first Bible of any language to be printed in North America, and the first Native American language Bible.

Almost 200 years later, the Mason Bible in Cree was published in London by the British and Foreign Bible Society in 1862, and thus was the second Native American (First Nations) language Bible.

The overleaf on the 1908 (J.A. Mackay) revision of the Mason Cree Bible says “The Old Testament in Plain Cree”, which is a reference to the variety of the Cree language that is spoken “on the plain“, which in modern times is referred to as “Plains Cree”. Although the names “W. (William) Mason” and “J.A. (John Alexander) Mackay” are the individuals generally associated with this book, how this Bible actually came to be is an engaging and remarkable story:

James Evans Teaching Syllabics

James Evans, a Wesleyan Methodist missionary, developed a syllabic orthography for translating religious works into Ojibwe in the mid 1830s. In 1840 he was assigned to Norway House at the northern end of Lake Winnipeg in present-day Manitoba. He lost no time in adapting his syllabic writing system to Cree, the language of the First Nations peoples there. Read more about this remarkable writing system here (click). You will recall that this is also the writing system used for Naskapi, and many other Canadian languages.

William Mason

Evans was succeeded at the Norway House mission in 1843 by William Mason, who also married Sophia Thomas that same year. Sophia was the daughter of a Cree woman who was married to Hudson’s Bay Company Chief Factor Thomas Thomas. Sylvia Van Kirk (1983) writes:

“Sophia, the youngest daughter of former governor Thomas Thomas, had been placed in the care of the Church of England missionaries at an early age. An apt pupil and “a good pious girl”, she grew up a devout Christian. In 1843, she married the Reverend William Mason and, with her knowledge of Cree and her sincere interest in the welfare of the Indians, was a great help to her husband’s ministry at Norway House. Although she had a delicate constitution, Sophia was reputed to have devoted herself unceasingly to the operation of the Indian day school, visiting the sick, and translating hymns and scripture. Her lasting work was the production of a Cree Bible.“

Anne Lindsay and Jennifer Brown (2009) continue Sophia’s story in an article by the Manitoba Historical Society:

“In 1858 the Masons moved to England where they oversaw printing of the New and Old Testament in Cree syllabics. These printed Cree syllabic texts were credited only to William Mason, which set off complaints from Native co-workers John Sinclair and the Reverend Henry Bird Steinhauer that they had contributed substantially to the work. William Mason’s own remarks suggest that his wife’s role in the translations was considerable. Sophia Thomas Mason, whose health had always been delicate, began to suffer pleurisy soon after arriving in England, and her work on translations was often stopped when she was overwhelmed by pain. In July 1861 she gave birth to her ninth child, and in the fall of that year the last of the Old Testament books was printed in Cree syllabics. On 10 October 1861 she died of tuberculosis.”

Sophia’s husband’s journal entry on her death stated, “She has been spared to accomplish a great work, the Cree Bible; and to bear such a testimony for Jesus amongst the heathen, by the patience with which she suffered, and her zeal and persevering labours to make known the glorious Gospel of salvation…”

Joseph Lofthouse (1922) wrote, “The translation of the Bible into Cree was to a very large extent the work of Mrs. Mason, who was a native of Red River, had grown up amongst the Indians, and understood their language perfectly. It is the most idiomatic and by far the best translation that has ever been made in Cree. … Mrs. Mason on her dying bed finished the last chapter of this marvelous book, which has been such a blessing to the Indians of the whole north country.”

Mason Cree Bible at St. Matthew’s Church, Kingfisher Lake, Ontario

It is this book that even today sits on the pulpits of hundreds of churches in First Nations communities across Canada, from Hudson’s Bay to the Rocky Mountains.

As you can see from the map, Cree territory covers a vast area and indeed includes several distinct language varieties. Linguistic work over the past half century has documented these varieties, and their characteristics are described in the Ethnologue. (click the link for more information). In many cases, the contemporary language variety spoken in these communities is quite different from the dialect of Cree used in Mason’s Bible. In these situations, previous generations of speakers learned to read the “Plains Cree” syllabics, and this practice developed a hierarchy of bi-literate “experts” who served as catechists, deacons, lay-readers and clergy, and these persons were able to teach others in their own language variety by translating from Mason’s Bible.

Over the years, some of the linguists who study these languages have quipped that “God Speaks Cree”, referring to the special position that the Mason Cree Bible holds in the hearts of many speakers of different varieties of Cree, Ojibwe and Oji-Cree. Indeed the situation is similar to the way the King James Bible is held in high esteem in many Protestant churches, or even, in communities where the local language is very different from the Cree in the Mason Bible, the situation may be compared to the way the Latin language was revered in Catholic churches before Vatican II allowed services in the local languages.

The copy that Bill is working from here pictured belonged to a member of the congregation at St. Matthew’s Church in Kingfisher Lake, Ontario. You can see how it is well-worn from use, and many pages have detailed annotations by the user.

Mason Cree Bible annotated in Oji-Cree

But because of a fundamental shift in the way literacy skills are passed on in these First Nations communities, many younger speakers of these Aboriginal languages are growing up not being able to understand the language in the Mason Cree Bible, making it necessary to produce contemporary translations and other language materials in the mother-tongue of the local community.

Nevertheless, the Mason Cree Bible still holds a place of honour and stature across Cree territory, and for that reason one of the priorities of the First Nations Bible Translation Capacity-Building Initiative is to produce a modern, digital publication of the legacy Mason Cree Bible. The Bible Society arranged to have the text keyboarded in the early 1990s, and in recent months is reviewing it for consistency and standardization.

To do this, reviewers compare the keyboarded digital version (either in a printout or on-screen) to a printed copy of the 1908 Mackay revision. Since Bill can read the syllabic script, he is participating in the efforts to complete the review along with other Plains Cree speakers and facilitators. Here pictured is an example of the review process from the book of Leviticus.

Leviticus Chapter 5 at verse 11

Mason Cree digital version @ Leviticus 5:11

Print version compared with digital version

Once the review work is done, not only will we be able to once again provide new and improved printed copies of this much-loved volume, but the text will also serve as an interactive, searchable digital resource that may be accessed on computers and handheld devices and also used as a reference work for contemporary Cree and Oji-Cree Bible translation work by translators for years to come.

This post has been an extended feature on the topic of just one of the “priorities” identified by the First Nations Bible Translation Capacity-Building Initiative. Keep watching for other posts right that feature some of the other “priorities”, including the following components of the vision:

(Cuthand) Plains Cree Translation project
Oji-Cree Translation project
Mother-Tongue Translator (MTT) Workshops
Naskapi Old Testament Translation project
Mushuau Innu language project

Serving with you, Bill and Norma Jean

Please also remember our daughter Elizabeth who is in Labrador this week with the “Labrador Creative Arts Festival” (LCAF)
https://www.facebook.com/131612796945171/photos/a.594239127349200.1073741827.131612796945171/594248440681602/?type=1&fref=nf&pnref=story

References:

Lindsay, Anne, and Jennifer Brown. 2009. “Sophia Thomas Mason, Cree Translator”, in Memorable Manitobans, The Manitoba Historical Society. Accessed November 20, 2014.
http://www.mhs.mb.ca/docs/people/mason_st.shtml.

Lofthouse, Joseph. 1922. A Thousand Miles From a Post Office, or, Twenty Years’ Life and Travel in the Hudson’s Bay Regions. Toronto: Macmillan Co. of Canada.

Peel, Bruce. 2003. “Thomas, Sophia”, in Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 9, University of Toronto/Université Laval. Accessed November 20, 2014. http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/thomas_sophia_9E.html.

Van Kirk, Sylvia. 1983. Many Tender Ties: Women in Fur-Trade Society, 1670-1870. Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press.

Kingfisher Lake

Posted on September 9, 2014 by Bill Jancewicz

Our Dear Partners,

Kingfisher Lake is one of a dozen Oji-Cree speaking First Nations communities in Northern Ontario. We spent the first week of September here meeting with church and community leadership, educators, elders, and other residents about the possibilities of helping them set up their own Bible translation program. They reminded us once again that for decades their church and people have had to get by with translations used by the surrounding languages (Moose Cree, Plains Cree, and Ojibwe) but they don’t yet have adequate access to the Scriptures in their own language. They were gracious, and we listened to them tell us about their desire to begin their own language project to address some of these needs.

On the last day of our visit, they met with us to say that they would be forming their own translation committee, and invited us to come back again to begin training them to start their own Bible translation project. We made plans to go back to see them in mid-winter.

We drove down through Thunder Bay and Michigan and we are now at the Bible Society offices in Kitchener, Ontario, where we will be meeting with them over the next few days to talk about progress with the Oji-Cree, Naskapi, Innu and Cree translation programs.

Thank you for your prayers for our travels and meetings. We went another 2000 miles by car since we last checked in with you all last week.

Serving with you, Bill and Norma Jean

Summer 2014 Newsletter (Part 2)

Posted on August 1, 2014 by Bill Jancewicz

In the previous post, we told you about several priorities that came out of the Prince Albert meetings with First Nations language speakers and church leaders:

Acceleration and continuation of the Plains Cree Bible Translation project.
The establishment of a Bible Translation and language development project for Kingfisher Lake Oji-Cree and the surrounding Oji-Cree communities.
The establishment of a Bible translation initiative that would result in a cluster of several Cree dialects working on the translation of the same books. This cluster could get its start with a series of workshops to train Cree speakers from each participating community in Bible translation and literacy (reading and writing) which would also include Naskapi from Quebec, Oji-Cree from Ontario and Innu from Labrador.

Multiplication as a sustainable strategy
This brings us back to Jesus’ story that we referred to in the previous post. God has been using us primarily in the Naskapi community–and He is still doing a great work there. Now, we are being invited to grow from there, and use our Naskapi project experience as a model and training opportunity for other communities. To fulfill this vision, we are asking God to send us six to eight new workers (that is, three or more new teams) who are willing to be trained and mentored to serve alongside the mother-tongue speakers of these languages in these new priority areas in Bible translation and language development.
While we are here in Langley BC, we are also connecting with CanIL, the Canadian Institute of Linguistics at Trinity Western University. CanIL is the Wycliffe and SIL International training partner in Canada. It is a good opportunity for us to present the language program needs to students that God has already been calling into this kind of ministry.
We will also be developing and deepening relationships with other First Nations language speakers and their communities that have been waiting for adequate access to the Scriptures in their mother tongue. At the same time, we will work on establishing learning opportunities so that more First Nations mother tongue speakers can become translators for their own languages, building their capacity for literacy and material development, while recruiting, guiding and mentoring the new language program workers God brings into these priority projects.

Fall development trip
This September-October we will be traveling to Cree, Oji-Cree and Naskapi communities to continue developing these relationships and to provide language and literacy training to Naskapi teachers and mother-tongue translators. We will also be meeting with Canadian Bible Society and First Nations church leaders to coordinate and support each others’ work on this initiative. Along the way, we also plan to visit with many of you who support our work with prayers and gifts to share our new and expanded vision and responsibility.
–To Be Concluded in Part 3

Summer 2014 Newsletter (Part 1)

Posted on July 31, 2014 by Bill Jancewicz

There is a story that Jesus tells in the Bible about a king who summoned his servants and entrusted them each with a sum of money as an investment (Luke 19:11-27). This story teaches about being faithful in serving God with the things he has given us, but what is interesting about this particular story are the rewards that the faithful servants receive: ‘Well done, my good servant!’ his master replied. ‘Because you have been trustworthy in a very small matter, take charge of ten cities.’
The First Nations Bible Translation Capacity-Building Initiative

Our Dear Partners,

Our work in Naskapi territory has begun to bear fruit. We have spent many years focusing on Bible Translation and Mother-Tongue education in a single community where Naskapi is spoken, in northern Quebec. It has been our privilege to witness a gradual transformation where more and more people are engaging with God’s Word in Naskapi. This June, two Naskapi women, Cheyenne and Marianne, joined us at a gathering for First Nations Bible Translation capacity-building, We heard them share how having the Bible in Naskapi has helped them in their relationship to God:

While testimonies like these are very encouraging to us on many levels, it is very significant that this was shared with some of their fellow First-Nations people from related Cree and Oji-Cree language communities across Canada’s north. Our meetings this June with people from First Nations communities has opened doors for work in these languages. Our dialogue with them identified several priorities:

Acceleration and continuation of the Plains Cree Bible Translation project.
The establishment of a Bible Translation and language development project for Kingfisher Lake Oji-Cree and the surrounding Oji-Cree communities.
The establishment of a Bible translation initiative that would result in a cluster of several Cree dialects working on the translation of the same books. This cluster could get its start with a series of workshops to train Cree speakers from each participating community in Bible translation and literacy (reading and writing) which could also include Naskapi from Quebec, Oji-Cree from Ontario and Innu from Labrador.

—To Be Continued in Part 2

Northern Translation Brief: Redrawing the Map

Posted on July 28, 2014 by Bill Jancewicz

Our dear partners and “followers” (*),

In the last post, I had a map with a plan of our meeting with some Cree language speakers and church leaders at Prince Albert for the “First Nations Bible Translation Capacity-Building Gathering“. God is clearly still at work in these northern communities, and it became clear that the speakers of these languages do indeed want help from Wycliffe and the Bible Society with their Bible translation projects.

Cheyenne and Marianne did come from the Naskapi community, and they shared effectively how God’s Word in their own language has deepened their relationship to Him. But one of the new things that we learned was the translation need in the “Severn Ojibwe” language. Look at the map where it says “Prince Albert”. Right under that sign are several isolated communities of Severn Ojibwe speakers, also known as “Oji-Cree”. Bishop Lydia Mamakwa, a speaker from the Kingfisher Lake Oji-Cree community, shared her heart’s desire to see the Scriptures made available in her mother-tongue. Her plea, along with the other priority projects put forth by the group, are the beginning of an initiative to answer all the remaining First Nations Bible Translation needs in Canada.

See if you can find the new locations on the map that were missing from the first one:

We meet again by Conference Call this week with the working group to plan our next steps towards these goals:

Acceleration and continuation of the Plains Cree Bible Translation project.
The establishment of a Bible Translation and language development project for Kingfisher Lake Oji-Cree and the surrounding Oji-Cree communities.
The establishment of a Bible translation initiative that would result in a cluster of several Cree dialects working on the translation of the same books. This cluster could get its start with a series of workshops to train Cree speakers from each participating community in Bible translation and literacy (reading and writing) which could also include Naskapi from Quebec, Oji-Cree from Ontario and Mushuau Innu from Labrador.

Also, be watching this space during the coming week for a serial version of our Summer Newsletter that was mailed out today.

Serving with you, Bill and Norma Jean

(*) I understand that people who do websites like this one, that some call “blogs”, also have “followers”. You may apply “partner” or “follower” to yourself as appropriate.

Northern Translation Brief 03Jun2014

Posted on June 4, 2014 by Bill Jancewicz

Our Dear Partners,

This Sunday, June 8, we are scheduled to travel to the “First Nations Bible Translation Capacity-Building Gathering“, in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, Canada. This meeting will be attended by First Nations (Native) church leaders from Anglican, Catholic, Christian and Missionary Alliance, and Pentecostal Assemblies of Canada, and Cree language speakers from several communities across the Prairie Provinces.

During this two-day meeting, we will represent Wycliffe Bible Translators along side the Canadian Bible Society, as we listen to the needs and concerns of these people-groups that still do not yet have adequate access to God’s Word in their own languages.

Two Naskapi women, Cheyenne and Marianne, have been invited and are planning to travel from Northern Quebec to share how having God’s Word in the Naskapi language has helped them to know God better. This is the community that we served in since 1988 helping them to translate the New Testament into their language.

Please pray for all the delegates as they travel on Sunday and Monday; for safety and protection. Pray that all participants would be sensitive to God’s presence and guidance during the meetings, and that His will for how we should proceed to meet the translation needs in this region of Canada’s north will be clear to us, including how the work that God has begun with the Naskapi can result in more people knowing God in the language of their hearts.

It was 26 years ago now that God gave us the privilege of beginning our time in the Naskapi language community in 1988.

Almost 7 years ago now, they dedicated their New Testament in Naskapi in 2007. Today, more Naskapi speakers than ever are reading and hearing God speak in their own language, and there are Old Testament books finished and more underway.

This month, they are reaching out to speakers of other Algonquian languages at the meeting in Prince Albert. Thank you for prayig that God will be at work in their hearts and ours as we follow Him in the work He has already begun.

Serving with you, Bill and Norma Jean

Northern Translation Brief 05May2014

Posted on May 25, 2014 by Bill Jancewicz

Our Dear Partners and Friends,

You prayed last week when we shared about our hopeful possibility that Naskapi church lay-readers Cheyenne and Marianne might be able to come to the First Nations Bible Translation Capacity Building Gathering to be held this June in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan.

God has been at work and there have been many steps of faith taken in the past week. The administrative director of the Naskapi Development Corporation, (where most of the Naskapi translation work takes place) has authorized the purchase of airfare for Cheyenne and Marianne. Their itinerary has them leaving Schefferville, in Northern Quebec on Sunday afternoon June 8, (the day after Cheyenne’s daughter Amanda’s wedding). They will overnight in Montreal and then go on from there to Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, scheduled arrival Monday 12:30 PM. The reservations have been made and the tickets have been bought!

By the time Cheyenne and Marianne arrive in Saskatoon, the Gathering in Prince Albert will have already been going on since Monday Morning, with the National indigenous bishop, other Cree church leaders and speakers, the Bible Society (and us) in attendance. We will be listening to what the Cree think about language development and Bible translation in their own language.

We are adjusting the agenda so that when the Naskapi representatives arrive, they can share how God’s Word came to them, how many are learning to read now because of it, and how they are learning to participate in the Old Testament translation work, and how precious it is to them.

Our prayer is that God will continue to work out the details of this meeting in a way that all the other First Nations languages that still need His message in their mother tongues can begin to participate themselves for their communities as well, and that Norma Jean and I will see and respond to the opportunities we may have to work along side the Cree, Naskapi and Innu people in the languages that speak to their hearts.

Thank you for your prayers. God is hearing and answering!

We look forward to sharing more news of how God is at work in our lives and the lives of those we serve and will be serving in the months and years to come.

Love, Bill and Norma Jean

Northern Translation Brief 28Apr2014

Posted on May 6, 2014 by Bill Jancewicz

Our Dear Partners and Friends,

We have been working on a new newsletter that fleshes out the details of our work and new ministry developments for First Nations mother-tongue Bible translation, but we have a pressing need related to the big picture that we would like you to join us in prayer about today.

Several persons in the Naskapi church and community have been reading the Bible in their own language more and more in the past few years since the dedication of the New Testament, and God has really been speaking to them in their heart language. More and more they desire to have Gods Word in their lives and to continue the work on the Old Testament, and reading the Bible to their children.

At the same time, there remain several other First Nations languages that are related to Naskapi that still do not yet have adequate access to the scriptures in their own language. To address this need, the Canadian Bible Society is partnering with Wycliffe and First Nations church leadership to convene a gathering with a view to building capacity for Bible translation in these languages.

The Naskapi who have been involved in working on their own translation could have a motivational, inspirational and partnering role with their Cree-speaking brothers and sisters who do not yet have the access to the scriptures that the Naskapi enjoy. Several Naskapi speakers are eager to come an share what it has meant to them, and to share the load by training or mentoring.

So we have been communicating with the Bible Society and church leadership to participate in these meetings, which are scheduled for June 9 and 10 in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan. We were hoping that a translator or a Naskapi lay-reader or church leader could come.

But here is the issue-today we realized that one of our Naskapi language specialists, Old Testament translator Amanda is planning to have her wedding day on June 7 (so she obviously can’t come!) But we were also hoping for Naskapi church lay-readers or translators to come.

However, of the main Naskapi church lay-readers, one (Cheyenne) is mother-of-the-bride, and another (Marianne) is the bride’s aunt. Silas, the church deacon (and our main translator), is officiating at the ceremony!

Yet, I have heard from Cheyenne again today and she feels that God would really want her to be at this Bible Translation gathering too, and has asked me if it would be possible for her to travel right after the wedding, and to arrive on the second day of the gathering.

She is praying about it, and so is the whole wedding party getting ready for a June Naskapi wedding.

We would ask you to pray about it too. Pray that everyone can have a wonderful day at the wedding. And then,

Pray that Cheyenne, and possibly Marianne or Silas or one other Naskapi can get a flight out of Schefferville the next day, and traveling via Montreal and Saskatoon, can arrive in Prince Albert in time to share what God has laid on their hearts about how He speaks to them now in their mother tongue.

Pray for all the participants of the meetings, for the bishops and other church leaders, and Bible Society and Wycliffe representatives (that’s us, Bill and Norma Jean) that we would listen to each other and to God and learn just how He is drawing these Nations to Himself in the language of their hearts, and how we and the Naskapi people are going to be used to help bring this about.

Thank you for your prayers. God is hearing and answering!

We are eager to share more of how God is at work in our lives and the lives of those we serve.

Love, Bill and Norma Jean