THE OJIBWAY-JESUIT DEBATE AT WALPOLE-ISLAND, 1844

Walpole Island, a Canadian Indian reserve located in the St. Clair Riv er delta thirty miles northeast of Detroit, Michigan, was the setting for a significant religious debate between two Ojibwa Indian leaders a nd a Jesuit missionary on 31 July 1844. Their conflicting points of vi ew, expounded over two and a half hours before an attentive Indian aud ience, is clearly presented in a letter written six months later by th e missionary participant, Father Pierre Chazelle, to a close friend in the Jesuit order.