William Henry Collison

This is a rather different book from the missionary account of Collison's predecessor, William Duncan [Metlakahtla and the North Pacific Mission of the Church Missionary Society, 1880]: published in 1915, it is a more anthropological narrative than religious zealot's quest to convert heathen savages by creating a religious village incorporating his personal ideas of appropriate rules.

Having said that, the subtitle here doesn't give this relatively sober account away, promising tales of "peril, adventure" amongst the 'Piratical head hunting Haidas' (no mention of "head hunting" is to be found in the text, and the title appears to have been edited for later editions, but the self-taught ethnologist Edward Curtis had filmed an early documentary on Kwakiutl life on the coast called In the Land of the Headhunters in 1914). Collison’s book also backs away from Duncan's claims of commonplace cannibalism before his arrival.

The religious conversion aspects in Collison's account are also somewhat played down, although the distasteful descriptions of the 'savage', 'heathen' aspects of the Tsimshian and Haida native peoples fit the narrative of missionaries of the period still eager to show how they had eradicated native customs such as face painting, ritual dances and celebrations to "give away property" (potlatches) to save them from a "bestial" existence.

The book also underlines the sectarian competition for souls, taking digs at their contemporaries, Catholic missionaries who were criticised for prioritising the wrong religious beliefs.In its favour, the book does contain some excellent contemporary photographs of people, villages and material products.… (plus d'informations)