Ahab Spence (Cree)

Ahab Spence (1 July 1911–5 April 2001) was an Indigenous (Cree) Anglican priest, educator, political leader, translator and advocate for the Cree language. His career extended from parish ministry in Saskatchewan to public administration, the presidency of the Manitoba Indian Brotherhood and university teaching. 1 He earned a BA in theology at the University of Saskatchewan in 1952, becoming the first Indigenous Canadian to receive a BA in theology at a Canadian university. 2 His later work helped establish Cree language teaching within Indigenous higher education. 3

Family origins and education

Spence was born at Split Lake in northern Manitoba, the son of Hector and Eliza Spence. 4 His cultural and linguistic life was deeply connected to Cree communities: in a 1970 interview, he described himself as Swampy Cree and explained that he also spoke Plains Cree. 5 These connections remained central to his work as a minister, translator and teacher.

At ten, he entered MacKay Indian Residential School at The Pas, attending from 1921 to 1928. His subsequent schooling included Elkhorn in Manitoba and Mortlach in Saskatchewan, followed by high school in Prince Albert, which he completed in 1933. 1, 4 He obtained a Licentiate in Theology from Emmanuel College in Saskatoon in 1937. 1 His 1952 university BA in theology came during an established career in ministry and represents his principal academic milestone. 2

Anglican ministry and translation

Spence served Saskatchewan parishes from 1937 to 1965, becoming a canon in 1955 and archdeacon in the Diocese of Saskatoon from 1959 to 1963. 4 W. F. Payton’s history of the Diocese of Saskatchewan places the beginning of his ordained ministry at Stanley Mission and describes his later responsibility for Indigenous missions in the Diocese of Saskatoon. Payton regarded Spence’s subsequent public service as a continuation of his concern with relationships between Indigenous people and the wider society. 6

His language work also found expression in worship. Together with Raymond B. Horsefield, he translated the Order of the Ministration of the Holy Communion from the Canadian Book of Common Prayer of 1962 into Cree. A surviving thirty-page edition, digitized by Richard Mammana in 2013, preserves this contribution. 7 The translation illustrates a practical application of his linguistic knowledge: making Anglican liturgy available in the language of Cree congregations.

Residential schooling and educational reform

Spence’s relationship with residential schooling included both childhood attendance and later administration. He was principal of the Pelican Residential School at Sioux Lookout, Ontario, from 1963 to 1965, and also served as a supplementary RCAF chaplain during those years. 1, 4 The Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s history records that he supported the contemporary policy of placing students in local public schools and proposed additional training in residential school classrooms that were no longer being used. 8

His criticisms addressed the limitations he knew as a former student. The Commission records his objection to an education in which work occupied too much of the day and classroom instruction too little. In correspondence from December 1965, he also questioned the preparation of supervisory staff and the rigid routines that left children insufficient scope for independent thought, responsibility and initiative. 8 These interventions show his efforts to improve education and care from within the institutions in which he worked.

In his interview with David Monture for The Indian News in August 1970, Spence recalled running away on his first day at school, coercion by older pupils and being forced to eat porridge that made him vomit. He also remembered kindness and opportunities he associated with the church. His view of the church’s future was that it should reduce its direct control while remaining available when Indigenous people wanted spiritual assistance. 5 His account conveys the complexity of his own experience within that system.

Public administration and political leadership

In 1965, Spence took leave from the clergy to work with Indigenous communities in a secular capacity. The Manitoba Historical Society records his employment as community liaison officer with Saskatchewan’s Department of Northern Affairs. In 1968, he became head of the cultural development division of Indian Affairs in Ottawa, remaining there until 1970. 9 His responsibilities connected cultural work with the machinery of government.

The 1970 interview reveals his concern with who should direct that work. He favoured Indigenous initiative in cultural development, supported better communication between political organizations and reserve communities, and wanted greater use of films, radio and Indigenous newspapers. Discussing his forthcoming departure from Ottawa, he explained that he wanted to work with an Indigenous organization and renew his own use of Cree. 5

He joined the Manitoba Indian Brotherhood in 1970 and held staff responsibilities before succeeding David Courchene as its second president in 1974. He served as president until 1976. 9 This move gave him a different institutional base for community service: an Indigenous political organization rather than a church or government department.

University teaching and Cree language development

Spence taught Cree and Native Studies at Brandon University from 1971 to 1973 and worked as a Cree translator for communities and governments. 1 In 1980, aged sixty-nine, he began teaching at the Saskatchewan Indian Federated College, associated with the University of Regina. He headed the Indian Languages Department from 1981 to 1985, encouraged teaching publications, became a full professor in 1984 and retired in 1998 with emeritus recognition. 4

Jean Okimāsis joined him in 1982 to develop the college’s language program. First Nations University of Canada’s account of her career places this collaboration within the growth of Cree teaching and teaching materials at the institution. 3 In the acknowledgements to Cree: Language of the Plains, Okimāsis remembers Spence as a champion of the language who invited her to teach alongside him. Her book provides direct testimony to his role in encouraging other educators and helping create the conditions for sustained language instruction. 10

The influence of that teaching continued in later scholarship. In a 2022 article in The Northern Review, Bonita Beatty recalled hearing the concept pimacihowin, the ability to make a living, discussed in her Cree linguistics classes with Spence. Her article develops the broader relationship between language, livelihood and Indigenous self-determination. 11 This recollection shows how his classroom teaching transmitted ideas as well as vocabulary and grammar.

Family life and honours

Spence and his wife, Ruth Elizabeth “Bette” Spence, née Bear, raised six children: Janet, June, Byron, William, Bruce and Barry. 4, 12 Bette’s family remembrance describes a marriage lasting sixty years and a household that moved through numerous communities as their work changed. She assisted with congregational activities, served as house mother at Pelican Lake and later supported Indigenous students and language work in her own right. 12 Their shared work made family life part of a wider history of community service.

Spence received an honorary Doctor of Laws from the University of Saskatchewan in 1964, the Centennial Medal in 1967 and membership in the Order of Canada in 1982. In 1995, he received a National Aboriginal Achievement Award in education, now commemorated in Indspire’s laureate records. 1 These honours recognized a career that continued well beyond the customary age of retirement.

Death and legacy

Spence died on 5 April 2001, aged eighty-nine. His funeral was held on 9 April at the Church of the Redeemer on Opaskwayak Cree Nation near The Pas. 4 His career linked theological training and ministry with Indigenous political representation and the development of university language education. The 1952 BA in theology remains a national academic first. 2 His lasting contribution to Cree teaching is preserved in colleagues’ acknowledgements, students’ scholarship and the language program he helped build. 3, 10, 11

References

1. Indspire. Ahab Spence: education 1995 [Internet]. [cited 2026 Oct 11]. Available from: https://indspire.ca/laureate/ahab-spence-2/
2. Indigenous Canadian Academic Milestones: A Timeline; https://indigenius-canada.wishartlab.com/pioneers/ (accessed 7 October 2026).
3. First Nations University of Canada. Dr. Jean Okimâsis receives a Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2024 Women of Distinction Awards [Internet]. Regina: First Nations University of Canada; 2024 May 30 [cited 2026 Oct 11]. Available from: https://www.fnuniv.ca/news/dr-jean-okimasis-receives-a-lifetime-achievement-award-at-the-2024-women-of-distinction-awards/
4. Dr. Ahab Spence [obituary]. Winnipeg Free Press [Internet]. 2001 Apr 7 [cited 2026 Oct 11]. Available from: https://passages.thecarillon.com/passage-details/id-60169/SPENCE_AHAB
5. Monture D. An interview with Ahab Spence. The Indian News [Internet]. 1970 Aug [cited 2026 Oct 11];13(5):4,6. Available from: https://www2.uregina.ca/education/news/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/Pages-from-Interview-with-Ahab-Spence-Indian-News-Volume-13-Issue-5-August-1970.pdf
6. Payton WF. An historical sketch of the Diocese of Saskatchewan of the Anglican Church of Canada [Internet]. Prince Albert: Anglican Diocese of Saskatchewan; 1974 [cited 2026 Oct 11]. Chapter 21. Available from: https://anglicanhistory.org/canada/sk/payton1974/21.html
7. Spence A, Horsefield RB, translators. The order of the ministration of the Holy Communion [in Cree] [Internet]. [place unknown]: [publisher unknown]; [date unknown]. Digitized with introduction by Richard Mammana; 2013 [cited 2026 Oct 11]. Available from: https://mammana.org/bcp/cree1962/
8. Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada. Canada’s residential schools: the history, part 2, 1939 to 2000. Vol. 1, part 2 [Internet]. Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press; 2015 [cited 2026 Oct 11]. p. 15,165–170,530–531. Available from: https://publications.gc.ca/collections/collection_2015/trc/IR4-9-1-2-2015-eng.pdf
9. Graham A, Goldsborough G. Memorable Manitobans: Ahab Spence 1911–2001 [Internet]. Winnipeg: Manitoba Historical Society; 2022 May 31 [cited 2026 Oct 11]. Available from: https://mhs.mb.ca/docs/people/spence_a.shtml
10. Okimāsis JL. Cree: language of the Plains = nēhiyawēwin, paskwāwi-pīkiskwēwin [Internet]. New ed. Regina: University of Regina Press; 2018 [cited 2026 Oct 11]. p. xiv,283–284. Available from: https://ctl.uregina.ca/assets/creelanguageoftheplainstextbook.pdf
11. Beatty B. Unpacking pimachesowin as a framing concept for Indigenous self-determination. Northern Review. 2022;(53):7–23. doi:10.22584/nr53.2022.001.
12. Ogg A. In memoriam: Bette Spence [Internet]. Cree Literacy Network; 2025 Mar 10 [cited 2026 Oct 11]. Includes family obituary of Ruth Elizabeth Spence. Available from: https://creeliteracy.org/2025/03/10/in-memoriam-bette-spence/