Abel presents the stories of Dene prophets, men and women who travel to a different world and return with lessons for humanity. Prophets, shamans, and medicine people existed before European contact, perhaps under different names. Post-contact, missionaries were concerned about Dene spiritual leaders. Prophets began to use the language of Christianity and thus claimed an authority equal to, or greater than, missionaries.

Abstract: 

Throughout the nineteenth century, European and Canadian observers recorded instances of “prophets” arising among the Dene in the northwest. These men and women reported having travelled to the land of the spirits or to heaven, where they learned new rules for human behaviour which would bring about a change of circumstances for the better. Missionaries of the Church Missionary Society and particularly the Oblates of Mary Immaculate were concerned about these events and interpreted them in a variety of ways. Anthropologists and historians have considered similar postcontact events in North American Indian societies as “revitalization movements” and “crisis cults.” These concepts are examined and found somewhat misleading when applied to the Dene prophets. Instead, the activities of these prophets are interpreted as manifestations of traditional cultural responses to the various pressures of life in a harsh northern environment.

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doi:10.7202/030954ar

Full text available from Érudit: https://id.erudit.org/iderudit/030954ar

Abel, Kerry. “Prophets, Priests and Preachers: Dene Shamans and Christian Missions in the Nineteenth Century.” Historical Papers 21, no. 1 (1986): 211-224.