Stands Before His People is a history of Enmegahbowh, an Ojibwe who learned English early and through his life engaged in relationships between the Ojibwe and white Americans. Enmegahbowh was born in about 1813 and named Enmegahbowh which interprets to He Who Stands Before His People. His English education was first accomplished by Methodist missionaries who then sent him to the Lake Superior region to aid missionaries there by being an interpreter/missionary along with two other Ojibwe. The three Ojibwe were further educated for two years in Illinois.
Assigned as a Methodist missionary to Northern Minnesota in 1839, Enmegahbowh worked with and independently under Kavenaugh from a base in Sandy Lake. He married Charlotte, an Ojibwe who was related to important chiefs. The Methodist mission ended, largely unsuccessfully in the mid-1840s. In 1852, an enthusiastic Episcopal priest, J. Lloyd Breck established with Enmegahbowh a mission at Gull Lake which prospered as a mission and school. The new Episcopal Bishop of Minnesota Henry Whipple, in 1859 quickly visited, fostered the mission, and cemented an association with Enmegahbowh. They made several trips through the Wilderness as far a Red Lake. Disruptions in the mission occurred when an extension of the Gull Lake Mission was attempted at Leech Lake and when Hole in the Day caused a disturbance which coincided with the Dakota War in 1862. Enmegahbowh, faithfully as an Episcopal Deacon, kept his congregation together.
Rt. Rev. Brian Prior 9th Bishop of the Episcopal Church in Minnesota