Peter Edmund Jones M.D. (30 October 1843 – 29 June 1909) was a Mississauga Ojibwa chief of New Credit. In Ojibwe he was called Kahkewaquonaby, named after his father in two languages.
The third child of Peter Jones and Eliza Field, Jones was born in London, Canada West. He was raised at the Muncey Mission, and later Brantford. He was educated first by his governess, and later at Brantford Grammar School. Although one quarter indigenous in heritage, he was raised in a largely Western fashion. Jones, who attended medical school initially at the Toronto School of Medicine and then at Queen's College, he obtained a medical degree from Queen's in 1866. He is the first known Status Indian to obtain such a degree in Canada.
After obtaining his medical degree, Jones moved to Hagersville, Ontario, and set up a practice in New Credit. Jones became involved in politics, both on the reserve and off. He was elected a chief of New Credit from 1874 to 1877, and 1880âÂÂ1886. He developed connections in the Conservative Party of Canada, where he argued for more Native rights and more Native control over their affairs. Unsuccessful in this, he did receive an appointment as the Indian Agent for New Credit in 1887, which he held until 1896.
Jones edited The Indian, a journal for indigenous people. The journal was published in 1885âÂÂ1886, and ran a total of 24 issues. It was the first Canadian journal for indigenous people edited by an indigenous person. The journal was distributed on Indian reserves across Ontario.
Like his father, Jones lived across the cultural gap between the whites of Canada and the indigenous people of the land. He married an English woman, Charlotte Dixon, but intended to raise any children as Ojibwe. His cousin George Henry attempted to dislodge him as the New Credit band's doctor on the grounds that he was only one-quarter First Nation, but failed. Jones practiced taxidermy, which was uncommon among First Nations, and was an avid chess player. But he also refused to relinquish his Indian status, a practice that was encouraged by the Indian Department for educated indigenous individuals.
In December 1885, Jones founded and edited a newspaper titled The Indian, a short-lived but historically significant publication intended primarily for Indigenous readers. Printed in Hagersville, Ontario, the paper ran for twenty-four issues between December 1885 and December 1886. It is widely regarded as the first newspaper in Canada edited and published by an Indigenous person specifically for an Indigenous audience. Its masthead described it as "a newspaper devoted to the interests of the Indians of Canada", reflecting Jones's aim of addressing Indigenous concerns within a wider national discussion.
The newspaper appeared at a moment of intense political tension in Canada. Only weeks before its launch, Métis leader Louis Riel had been executed following the North-West Resistance of 1885. The execution provoked widespread debate about Indigenous rights, the authority of the federal government, and the future of Indigenous governance under the Indian Act. Early issues of The Indian addressed the controversy surrounding Riel's hanging and questioned the reasoning used to justify it, situating Jones's publication within the broader political debates that followed the uprising.
Jones established the newspaper as a forum in which Indigenous perspectives could be expressed directly in print. In the opening issue he explained that "the object of this paper is to advocate the interests of the Indians of this country". He argued that Indigenous people should participate in public discussions affecting their future, writing that "the Indian should be heard in matters which concern his own welfare" and that "the time has come when the Indian must speak for himself". Through editorials, commentary, and reports on government policy, the paper discussed issues affecting First Nations communities, including the administration of Indian reserves, systems of band governance, and legislation shaping Indigenous political life.
Jones wrote with both Indigenous and non-Indigenous audiences in mind. While addressing Indigenous readers directly, he also sought to explain the concerns of First Nations communities to a wider Canadian readership. The newspaper served as a means of communication between Indigenous communities as well. As Jones wrote in one editorial, "through this paper we hope that Indians in different parts of the country may learn of each other's condition and interests". By circulating news and commentary between reserves, the paper attempted to create a network of communication linking communities that were often geographically separated and politically isolated.
Although The Indian survived for only a year, it represents an important early effort to establish an Indigenous press in Canada. By editing and publishing the newspaper himself, Jones created one of the first platforms through which Indigenous political perspectives could be communicated widely in print during a period of rapid change in Canadian Indigenous policy.
Jones died in Hagersville, Ontario, in 1909.