Early Work from the Seneca Mission Press
Gaa Nah Shoh Ne De O Waah Sa O Nyoh Gwah Na Wen Ni Yuh. Honont Gahdeh Hodi Yado Nyoh.
[Wright, Asher].
Do Syo Wa [Buffalo Creek Reservation]: Seneca Mission Press, 1843.
Price:
$7,500.00
About the item
136pp. 16mo. Contemporary calf, minor wear. Minor foxing. Pilling, Proof-Sheets 1347; Pilling, Iroquoian, p.176; Sabin 26277.
Item #377914
A scarce hymn book in the Seneca language (i.e. an English phonetic rendering of Seneca), printed at the Mission Press on the Buffalo Creek Reservation in western New York. The title is roughly translated to Sacred Songs for Praising God, with the subtitle noting that it was for the use of worship in church gatherings. The one hundred and eleven hymns are prefaced by a brief essay on speaking and singing the Seneca language by Asher Wright, and the index to the hymns at the end is in English. Wright, missionary to the Seneca tribe in western New York State, produced a variety of works in the Seneca language, all of which are rare.
The present volume is one of the earliest works printed on the Seneca Mission Press and one of just three known books from the press while at its original location at the Buffalo Creek Reservation. Only a single other copy appears in the auction records in the last century. Not in Ayer who only mentions a later edition; Siebert, likewise, did not have a copy.
