The four Gospels in Shawnee
Thomas Wildcat Alford (1860-1938) originally known as Gay-nwaw-piah-si-ka also written as Ganwrpiahsikv. He was the son of Gay-tah-ki-piah-si-kah, known as Wildcat, and the great-grandson of the great Shawnee Chief Tecumseh (c1768-1813), from the Absentee Shawnee tribe.
He became a Christian, and was given the name Thomas. He translated the four Gospels into Shawnee (Saawanwatoweewe), using a phonemic orthography he had developed. He translated from the English Revised Version (RV) of the Bible for the Shawnee Tribe of Oklahoma. It was published in 1929, by Dr W.A. Galloway, Nay-nah-ko-nah-kah, Xenia, Ohio and printed by the Aldine Publishing Company of Xenia, Ohio, USA. The text included an appendix of the Shawnee alphabet and pronounciation guide.
In 1936, he gave his lifestory to Florence Drake, which was published by the University of Oklahoma Press as: Civilization As Told To Florence Drake. His account gave a detailed first-hand account of the Shawnee Indian perspective regarding the treatment of his tribe.
Digital Edition
The Gospels were digitised with the help of MissionAssist in 2024.
