George Copway, or Kah-ge-ga-gah-bowh, was one of the earliest Native American authors to write an autobiography and a history of his people. Though he translated his Indian name as "Firm Standing," it can also be interpreted as "Standing Firm" or "Committed." One of three children (he had an older sister and a younger brother), Copway was born in 1818 near the mouth of the Trent River in Upper Canada (today Ontario). Raised as a traditional Ojibwe (Ojibwe, rather than Ojibwa, is the spelling currently preferred by members of the tribe in Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan; it is also the official spelling adopted by the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe), Copway was increasingly drawn into the white world after his parents converted to Methodism in 1827, and in 1830 he acceded to his mother's deathbed plea that he become a Christian. He occasionally attended the Methodist Mission School at Rice Lake, Ontario, and from...