Peter Jones (1802–1856) was an Ojibwa Methodist minister, translator, chief and author from Burlington Heights, Upper Canada. Jones converted to Methodism at age 21 after attending a camp-meeting with his half sister. As a bilingual and bicultural preacher, he enabled the Methodists to make significant inroads with the Mississaugas and Iroquois of Upper Canada, both by translating hymns and biblical texts in Ojibwe and Mohawk and preaching to Indians who did not understand English. Beyond his preaching to the Indians of Upper Canada, he was an excellent fundraiser for the Canadian Methodists, and toured the United States and Great Britain giving sermons and speeches. Jones drew audiences of thousands, filling many of the buildings he spoke in, but came to resent the role, believing the audiences came to see Kahkewāquonāby, the exotic Indian, not Peter Jones, the good Christian he had worked so hard to become. Jones was also a political leader. In 1825, he wrote the Indian Department; his letter was the first the department had ever received from an Indian. This brought him into contact with Superintendent of the Indian Department James Givins and influential Bishop John Strachan, with whom he arranged the funding and support of the Credit Mission.
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_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:
1794:
To protect American merchant ships from Barbary pirates, the United States Congress passed the Naval Act to establish a naval force of six frigates, which eventually became the United States Navy. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Navy
1851:
Explorer Lafayette Bunnell and other members of the Mariposa Battalion became the non-indigenous discoverers of California's Yosemite Valley . http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yosemite_Valley
1977:
Two Boeing 747 airliners collided on a foggy runway at Los Rodeos Airport on Tenerife in the Canary Islands, killing 583 people and resulting in the worst aircraft accident in aviation history. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tenerife_airport_disaster
1998:
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the drug sildenafil, better known by the trade name Viagra, for use as a treatment for erectile dysfunction, the first pill to be approved for this condition in the United States. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/sildenafil
2002:
A suicide bomber killed about 30 Israeli civilians and injured about 140 others at the Park Hotel in Netanya, triggering Operation Defensive Shield, a large-scale counter-terrorist Israeli military incursion into the West Bank, two days later. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passover_massacre
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At this point in history when all things which concern man and the structure and elements of history itself are suddenly revealed to us in a new light, it behooves us in our scientific thinking to become masters of the situation, for it is not inconceivable that sooner than we suspect, as has often been the case before in history, this vision may disappear, the opportunity may be lost, and the world will once again present a static, uniform, and inflexible countenance. --Karl Mannheim http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Karl_Mannheim