Baker, Lucy Margaret

  • DICTIONARY OF CANADIAN BIOGRAPHY ARTICLE: Michael Owen, “BAKER, LUCY MARGARET,” in Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 13, University of Toronto/Université Laval, 2003–. https://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/baker_lucy_margaret_13E.html
  • DCB profile notes:
    • Teacher and lay missionary; b. 1836 in Summerstown, Upper Canada; d. unmarried 30 May 1909 in Montreal.
    • Lucy Baker is best known for her contribution to education in the Prince Albert region of what is now Saskatchewan. Born in Glengarry County, Upper Canada, she lost her mother at a young age and was raised by her aunt, a Mrs Buchanan of Dundee, Lower Canada. After schooling in Dundee and in nearby Fort Covington, N.Y., she became a teacher. 
    • Baker’s mentor was the Presbyterian minister at Lancaster, Donald Ross. When in 1878 he was named missionary to Prince Albert by the Foreign Missions Committee of the Presbyterian Church, he asked that Baker teach in the mission school. Appointed the same year, Baker set out for the west with Ross and his wife. She arrived at Prince Albert late in October 1879. Her work at the school was well received, and the Foreign Missions Committee first extended her grant and then in 1880 made it permanent.
    • Initially the student population comprised children of mixed parentage who spoke Cree. Baker and her supporters believed they composed “the class from which teachers and other workers in the Indian department should be trained.”
    • Baker’s educational service to the Sioux was essentially day schooling that had instruction in the principles of Protestant Christianity at its core. She taught the elements of the Ontario curriculum and, believing that native people needed to conform to the norms of Victorian Canada, included practical skills as well. She encountered great resistance. The Sioux manifested their opposition by their maintenance of traditional religious practices, irregular school attendance, and selectivity regarding the mission services they used. Her only innovative strategy was a threemonth visit by the Reverend L. Mazawakinyanna, a Sioux from North Dakota. This initiative apparently bore some promising results. She never shifted to incorporate the strategies of residential or industrial schools which came to prevail in native education. On her retirement the Foreign Missions Committee negotiated with the Department of Indian Affairs to have an agricultural instructor take over the school.
    • Baker contributed to education in the west through her stoic resolve that the Cree and then the Sioux of Prince Albert should receive the rudiments of a Christian schooling. Within the history of the Presbyterian Church, she was the first woman to serve as missionary and teacher among the native people of the west. By her example she helped break down the barriers that hindered women’s involvement in the development of western Canada.
  • Great Granddaughter of Proven United Empire Loyalist listed in Loyalist Directory:
  • Find a GRAVE: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/131887379/lucy-margaret-baker