Elmer Ernest Jamieson (Mohawk)

Elmer Ernest Jamieson (1891-1972) was a Mohawk educator from Six Nations of the Grand River whose career connected community schooling, advanced university study and secondary education in Toronto. Born on 30 August 1891 at Six Nations, Ontario, he died in Toronto on 18 April 1972, aged 80. His work belongs both to the history of Indigenous academic achievement and to the history of debates over the education of Indigenous children. 1

Jamieson earned a BA at McMaster University in 1913 and an MA there in 1922, followed by a doctorate in pedagogy at the University of Toronto in 1928. The supplied academic-milestones compilation identifies him as the third Indigenous Canadian to earn a BA at a Canadian university, McMaster’s first Indigenous graduate, the first Indigenous Canadian to earn a graduate degree at a Canadian university, and the first Indigenous Canadian to earn a doctoral degree at a Canadian university. 2

Family and Six Nations origins

Elmer Ernest Jamieson was born on August 30 1891, on the Six Nations Indian Reserve in Brant County, Ontario. He grew up in a family closely associated with education at Grand River. His father, Augustus Jamieson, was a Cayuga teacher and a member of the Six Nations School Board; his mother, Emmeline Echo-Hill, was Mohawk and the daughter of Chief Jacob Hill. The family’s educational work extended across several siblings. Julia Laurine Jamieson, Mary Helen Jamieson, Nora Elsie Jamieson and Andrew Northe Augustus Jamieson became teachers, while Thomas James Jamieson pursued medicine and practised in Detroit. 3

His sister, Julia, and her teaching career provides important context for Elmer’s upbringing. She combined teaching with the preservation of Haudenosaunee history and language and challenged efforts to limit the curriculum available to Six Nations children. Historian Alison Norman places the Jamiesons within a wider community of Indigenous teachers who sought access to provincial academic subjects while maintaining their own cultural knowledge. Elmer’s later research on schooling emerged from this family and community setting, rather than from an exclusively university-based encounter with Indigenous education. 3

University education and military service

His 1913 BA preceded his First World War service. He volunteered for the Canadian Expeditionary Force, enlisted with the 114th Battalion and served overseas. The Great War Centenary Association identifies him as Private Elmer Jamieson, regimental number 739808, and records his occupation as teacher and his religious affiliation as Baptist. His obituary also remembered him as an overseas veteran of the First World War. 4

A surviving wartime letter offers a particularly revealing connection between his military experience and his home community. In a letter dated 28 January 1917, written in Mohawk to his father Augustus, Jamieson conveyed news about the dissolution of the 114th Battalion and the transfer of many of its men to the 107th Battalion. John Moses discusses the letter in his study of Six Nations troops and political change at Grand River. It documents Jamieson’s use of Mohawk in his correspondence. In fact, armycensorship of his letters led him to write home in Mohawk. When censors could not “crack his code,” he was called in to reveal its secrets. With his fellow Mohawks he set up the first Amerindian communications network, an idea adopted by the US Army in WWII. 5

Master’s research on Indigenous education

After the war, Jamieson completed his MA at McMaster in 1922. His thesis, Indian Education in Canada, examined the development and administration of Indigenous schooling. Walter Wasylow’s subsequent historical study describes its coverage of the Indian Affairs Branch, the administration of geographically dispersed communities, the characteristics of day, boarding and industrial schools, and educational appropriations from 1903 to 1921. The thesis also considered the future of Indigenous identity and culture. 6

This was an early sustained investigation of Indigenous education by an Indigenous university graduate. It joined administrative history and educational statistics to questions that affected Jamieson’s own community. The supplied compilation describes the MA as a graduate degree in Indigenous education and identifies it as the first Indigenous Canadian graduate degree awarded at a Canadian university, as well as McMaster’s first Indigenous graduate degree. Here, Indigenous education describes the subject of his research; the credential itself was a Master of Arts. 2, 6

Doctoral study and educational testing

Jamieson received his Doctor of Pedagogy, usually abbreviated D.Paed., at the University of Toronto in 1928. His doctorate followed his 1922 McMaster MA. 2, 7

His doctoral research was supervised by Peter Sandiford, a University of Toronto professor of education. A Department of Indian Affairs letter of 4 February 1926 identifies Jamieson as an MA graduate employed at a Toronto collegiate and describes his comparative investigation of Indigenous pupils. Superintendent of Indian Education Russell T. Ferrier asked the principal of Mount Elgin to assist with testing. This correspondence shows Jamieson conducting advanced research while already working as a schoolteacher. 8

In December 1925, Jamieson had sought departmental cooperation for intelligence and achievement testing among Six Nations pupils. Alexandra Giancarlo’s account in Behind the Bricks traces the school board’s permission, the department’s approval and his repeated visits to the Mohawk Institute during 1925–1926. His research addressed day-school and residential-school pupils within a system that frequently attributed educational difficulties to the children rather than to their schooling. 9

Jamieson and Sandiford published The Mental Capacity of Southern Ontario Indians in the Journal of Educational Psychology in 1928. The paper covered pupils in the eleven Six Nations day schools, the Mohawk Institute and Mount Elgin. Its opening note specifies that Jamieson carried out the investigation under Sandiford’s direction, while Sandiford wrote the published summary. That division of responsibility matters when interpreting the article’s language and conclusions. 10

The study found that test results varied substantially with the instrument used. Median scores for the combined Indigenous sample were approximately 80 on the National Intelligence Test and 97 on the Pintner non-language test. The authors recognized difficulties arising from English-language proficiency, social circumstances and irregular attendance, and warned against drawing conclusions without considering environmental influences. Nevertheless, the paper also classified pupils by presumed racial ancestry and used the racialized assumptions characteristic of contemporary educational psychology. Its findings must therefore be understood as historically situated testing results, rather than as valid measures of inherent differences between peoples. 10, 11

Interpretation and consequences of the research

Giancarlo argues that Jamieson’s analysis was more cautious than the dominant racial theories of his time. He drew attention to the reduced classroom time available to residential-school pupils and to the disadvantages created by language and schooling conditions. She interprets this emphasis as an effort to resist simplistic conclusions about Indigenous intellectual ability, while acknowledging that surviving evidence does not establish all of his private intentions. 9

The later use of the results illustrates the limits of those cautions. Giancarlo’s journal study documents how a 1941 educational assessment invoked Jamieson’s findings to argue that many Indigenous pupils should receive a restricted curriculum. His research contributed to the documentary record of Indigenous education, but it also circulated within institutions capable of turning test scores into reasons for limiting opportunity. A balanced account must recognize both his pioneering scholarly achievement and that consequential historical setting. 11

Teaching in Toronto and family life

Jamieson’s career included employment at North Toronto Collegiate Institute. The school’s 1930 Howler yearbook places him in its teaching-staff photograph and identifies him in the caption as E. Jamieson, B.A.; D. Paed. This contemporary record shows his doctoral qualification publicly acknowledged within a Toronto secondary school. It complements the 1926 departmental letter identifying him as a collegiate teacher and establishes that teaching and research were overlapping parts of his professional life. 8, 12

He married Alva Miller, and they had two daughters, Wilma and Lois. His 1972 obituary identifies Wilma by her married name, Skinner, and Lois as Mrs. Richard Rogers. At his death, Jamieson was living on Wilson Avenue in Toronto and was survived by his wife, daughters, four grandchildren and a great-grandson. 4

The family retained ties to Six Nations while residing in Toronto. Indian Affairs correspondence concerning school grants records that Wilma E. Jamieson attended North Toronto Collegiate in 1945–1946, led her class each term and earned an average of 80.8 per cent. The same letter explains that her family lived in Toronto but returned to the reserve each summer. This record supplies a concrete example of the continuing connection between the Jamiesons’ urban educational life and their home community. 13

Death and legacy

Jamieson died at Toronto Western Hospital on 18 April 1972. His funeral was held at Ohsweken Baptist Church, followed by burial in the adjoining cemetery at Six Nations. His obituary named his surviving siblings Thomas, Andrew, Mary, Julia and Nora, and recorded that his parents, brother Esmond and sister Emily Porter had predeceased him. 4

His legacy rests on four connected contributions: early Indigenous achievement in university education, the development of the first Amerindian wartime communications network (the precursor to the Code Talkers of WW II), sustained professional teaching, and research into the schooling of Indigenous children. The BA, MA and doctorate distinctions make his academic career historically significant. His educational research remains important both as the work of an early Indigenous scholar and as evidence of the contested ways that Canadian institutions assessed and constrained Indigenous students. 2, 3, 5, 11

References

1. The Canadian Encyclopedia. Elmer Jamieson [Internet]. Toronto: Historica Canada; 2008 Feb 4 [cited 2026 Oct 6]. Available from: https://thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/elmer-jamieson
2. Indigenous Canadian Academic Milestones: A Timeline; https://indigenius-canada.wishartlab.com/pioneers/ (accessed 7 October 2026).
3. Norman A. “True to my own noble race”: Six Nations women teachers at Grand River in the early twentieth century. Ontario History. 2015;107(1):5–34. doi:10.7202/1050677ar. Available from: https://www.erudit.org/fr/revues/onhistory/2015-v107-n1-onhistory03913/1050677ar.pdf
4. Great War Centenary Association. Elmer Jamieson [Internet]. [cited 2026 Oct 6]. Includes military biographical information and transcription of obituary published 1972 Apr 19. Available from: https://www.doingourbit.ca/profile/elmer-jamieson?page=4&qt-veteran_documents=5
5. Moses J. The return of the native (veteran): Six Nations troops and political change at the Grand River Reserve, 1917–1924 [master’s thesis]. Ottawa: Carleton University; 2008. p. 77–78, 116. Available from: https://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/obj/thesescanada/vol2/002/MR40606.PDF
6. Wasylow WJ. History of Battleford Industrial School for Indians [master’s thesis]. Saskatoon: University of Saskatchewan; 1972. p. 20. Discusses Jamieson E. Indian education in Canada [MA thesis]. McMaster University; 1922. Available from: https://central.bac-lac.gc.ca/.item?app=Library&id=TC-SSU-03132008114104&oclc_number=1033141582&op=pdf
7. Find a Grave. Dr. Elmer Jamieson D.Paed (1891–1972) [Internet]. Memorial no. 185057539 [cited 2026 Oct 6]. Available from: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/185057539/elmer-jamieson
8. Ferrier RT. Letter to Rev. SR McVitty, principal, Mount Elgin Institute, 1926 Feb 4 [archival correspondence]. Library and Archives Canada. Indian Affairs, RG 10, vol. 6205, file 468-1, pt. 2. Available from: https://www.indiandayschools.org/files/RG10_468-1_PART_2.pdf
9. Giancarlo A. “New weapons”: race, Indigeneity, and intelligence testing at the Mohawk Institute, 1920–1949. In: Hill RW Sr, Norman A, Peace T, Pettit J, editors. Behind the bricks: the life and times of the Mohawk Institute, Canada’s longest-running residential school [Internet]. Calgary: University of Calgary Press; 2025. Chapter 5 [cited 2026 Oct 6]. Available from: https://ucp.manifoldapp.org/read/behind-the-bricks/section/067d4843-9358-43bc-818f-74e2b4feb605
10. Jamieson E, Sandiford P. The mental capacity of Southern Ontario Indians. Journal of Educational Psychology. 1928;19:536–551. Available from: https://static1.squarespace.com/static/669eb1c9a86e861b280b2038/t/669ec07bed55dd447bff03c6/1721679995341/VDF_02_1928%2BThe%2Bmental%2Bcapacity%2Bof%2BSouthern%2BOntario%2BIndians%2B%5Bretrieved_2023-12-18%5D-2.pdf
11. Giancarlo A. To “evaluate the mental powers of the Indian children”: race and intelligence testing in Canada’s Indian residential school system. Historical Studies in Education/Revue d’histoire de l’éducation. 2022;34(2):1–21. doi:10.32316/hse-rhe.v34i2.5021. Available from: https://historicalstudiesineducation.ca/index.php/edu_hse-rhe/article/view/5021
12. North Toronto Collegiate Institute. The Howler [yearbook]. Toronto: North Toronto Collegiate Institute; 1930. p. 140. Available from: https://ntci.on.ca/foundation/wp2014/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/1930-NTCI_Howler-compr.pdf
13. Randle EP. Correspondence concerning educational grants for Six Nations pupils [archival correspondence]. Records discussing the 1945–1946 academic year. Library and Archives Canada. Indian Affairs, RG 10, vol. 6485, file 42032-3, pt. 15. Available from: https://sas-das-presv.bac-lac.gc.ca/e3c3ccd0-4eef-43fe-93dd-f58a3bf50649/RG10_42032-3_PART_15.pdf