Oowikapun, Or, How the Gospel Reached the Nelson River Indians

This is a remarkable historical document from 1895, preserving an Indigenous man's spiritual journey at the dawn of the missionary era in northern Manitoba. Oowikapun, a proud hunter of the Nelson River Indians, is brought low by a ferocious wolf attack deep in the wilderness. When Christian Indian Memotas finds him and nurses him back to health, Oowikapun enters a household that shatters his assumptions. Here women are treated with a respect unknown in his traditional life, and a quiet harmony governs the family in ways that trouble his spirit. What begins as physical healing becomes something far deeper: an awakening to new possibilities for faith, community, and the treatment of those he loves. Young, himself a missionary, tells this story with evident affection for his subject while capturing a pivotal moment when Indigenous communities faced the tidal wave of colonial Christianity. The book endures as a primary voice from that encounter, offering readers today a window into one man's struggle to reconcile ancient ways with a transforming world.