Mi'kmaq hieroglyphs were used to record the prayers, hymns, and sacraments taught by missionaries. Today, only a few can read and write them. This is an accurate and authentic deciphering of the hieroglyphs.

Mi’kmaq Hieroglyphic Prayers is a collection of sacred readings (prayers, narratives, and liturgies) represented by hieroglyphs developed from pictographic symbols used by the Mi’kmaq Indians of Atlantic Canada before European contact, and later expanded by French missionaries. This volume contains some of the most important texts in native religious life, such as “The Passion of our Lord” and “The Sacraments,” as well as common prayers for everyday recitation. Transliterations in Mi’kmaq and translations in English accompany the hieroglyphic text.

When Columbus arrived in the Americas there were, it is believed, as many as 2,000 distinct, mutually unintelligible tongues spoken in the western hemisphere, encompassing the entire area from the Arctic Circle to Tierra del Fuego. This astonishing fact has generally escaped the attention of historians, in part because many of these indigenous languages have since become extinct. And yet the burden of overcoming America's language barriers was perhaps the one problem faced by all peoples of the New World in the early modern era: African slaves and Native Americans in the Lower Mississippi Valley; Jesuit missionaries and Huron-speaking peoples in New France; Spanish conquistadors and the Aztec rulers. All of these groups confronted America's complex linguistic environment, and all of them had to devise ways of transcending that environment - a problem that arose often with life or death implications. For the first time, historians, anthropologists, literature specialists, and linguists have come together to reflect, in the fifteen original essays presented in this volume, on the various modes of contact and communication that took place between the Europeans and the "Natives." A particularly important aspect of this fascinating collection is the way it demonstrates the interactive nature of the encounter and how Native peoples found ways to shape and adapt imported systems of spoken and written communication to their own spiritual and material needs.

This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. To ensure a quality reading experience, this work has been proofread and republished using a format that seamlessly blends the original graphical elements with text in an easy-to-read typeface. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

A collection of articles from Ancient American magazine.

The first printing of the First Nations Version: New Testament. A new translation in English, by First Nations People for First Nations People.