This important and original book examines the relationship between stereotypes of Native peoples and institutional change on the missionary frontiers of nineteenth-century Canada and the United States. Using case studies of Protestant missionaries, Carol Higham demonstrates how corporate missionary societies, governments, and secular scholarly institutions encouraged and rewarded the creation and dispersion of specific Native stereotypes.

This innovative discussion alternates between differences and similarities on both sides of the Canada-U.S. border. Higham has dug deeply into the publications of the Protestant missionary societies and also the private papers and many fictional and nonfictional works the missionaries left behind to produce this volume, which will be invaluable to the reader/researcher in cross-border studies.