The word “Mississauga” is the name British Canadian settlers used for the Ojibwe on the north of Lake Ontario – now the most urbanized region in what is now Canada. The Ojibwe of this area in the early and mid-nineteenth century lived through a time of considerable threat to the survival of the First Nations, as they lost much of their autonomy, and almost all of their traditional territory.

Donald B. Smith’s Mississauga Portraits recreates the lives of eight Ojibwe who lived during this period – all of whom are historically important and interesting figures, and seven of whom have never before received full biographical treatment. Each portrait is based on research drawn from an extensive collection of writings and recorded speeches by southern Ontario Ojibwe themselves, along with secondary sources. These documents – uncovered over the 40 years that Smith has spent researching and writing about the Ojibwe – represent the richest source of personal First Nations writing in Canada from the mid-nineteenth century.

Mississauga Portraits is a sequel to Smith’s immensely popular Sacred Feathers, which provided a detailed biography of Mississauga chief and Methodist minister Peter Jones (1802–1856). The first chapter in Mississauga Portraits on Jones tightly links the two books, which together give readers a vivid composite picture of life in mid-nineteenth-century Aboriginal Canada.

Donald Burnet Smith is the author of ten previous volumes of poetry. His most recent book is The Killed (Wolsak & Wynn). He has been nominated for the Governor General's Award and has won numerous prizes for his writing, including The Malahat Review's Long Poem Prize. Currently he divides his time between Paris, France, and Antigonish, Nova Scotia, where he teaches at St. Francis Xavier University.

Donald B. Smith's profile page

• Winner, Donald Grant Creighton Award awarded by Ontario Historical Society
• Winner, Floyd S. Chalmers Award awarded by Champlain Society

‘Smith offers an engaging, nuanced mosaic of the larger Ojibwe story… He returns Ojibwe voices from the margins to the centre of their own story, without losing sight of the larger context.’

Journal of Early Republic vol 35:01:201

‘Smith’s coverage is rich and vivid, and demonstrates the dynamism and intellectual vigour of the wider Mississauga population.’

British Journal of Canadian Studies, vol 28:01:2015

‘Anyone with an interest in First Nations history will find this book enlightening. Smith has done a fine job of distilling material gleaned from forty years of research into primary documents recovered from various sources… As a bonus this book is well illustrated with historical photographs sprinkled throughout.’

Canada's History Magazine, June-July 2014

‘Mississauga Portraits is an important contribution and should be considered essential reading.’

Ontario History vol 106:01:2014

‘Mississauga Portraits is a rich history of Ojibwe peoples north of Lake Ontario…. Smith’s work demands that ethno historians grapple with the ambiguities of Anishinabek voices, and his biographical sketches set a high standard for scholars of indigenous pasts.’

Ethnohistory Summer 2014

‘Smith offers both academic and general readers a vivid sense of another time and its possibilities. Mississauga Portraits is a remarkable feat of scholarship by the foremost historian of the Mississaugas and an impressive testament to Indigenous agency in all of its variety.’

Canadian Historical Review vol 96:03:2015

‘Mississauga Portraits is a remarkable feat of scholarship by the foremost historian of the Mississaugas and an impressive testament to indigenous agency in all its variety.’

Canadian Historical Review vol 96:03:2015