The "Heathen Party": Methodist Observation of the Ohio Wyandot

• Published in: American Indian quarterly Vol. 16; no. 2; pp. 189 - 211
• Main Author: Walsh, Martin W.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Berkeley, Calif Native American Studies Program, University of California, Berkeley 01-04-1992; University of Nebraska Press; University of California, Native American Studies Program
• Subjects: Christian missionaries; Christianity; Clans; History; Literature; Methodism; Methodists; Methodists in the United States; Missionaries; Native American dance; Native American religion; Native Americans; Native North Americans; Politics; Priests; Religion; Religious aspects; Social conditions & trends; Social research; Society of Jesus; War; White people; United States
• ISSN: 0095-182X; 1534-1828
• DOI: 10.2307/1185429

Methodist Episcopal missionaries' writings show that some Wyandot Indians living on the Sandusky River in Ohio fought to preserve their traditional religion and culture in the early 1800s. James B. Finley's book is the most important of these writings, which describe the missionaries' efforts to convert the Wyandot to Christianity, because of his detailed ethnological observations. However, Finley and the other authors reveal the persistent influence of what they called the Indians' 'heathen party' that refused to renounce the old tribal religion and practices such as body painting.