[SENECA HYMNAL] Gaă̲ Na̲h Sho̲h | Seneca Hymns

Wright, Asher. [SENECA HYMNAL] Gaă̲ na̲h sho̲h neh de o̲ wa̲ă̲hʹsă̲oʹnyo̲h gwah Naʹwĕnniʹyuh : honontʹgah deh hodiʹyadoʹnyo̲h. New York: American Tract Society, 1978. [11389]

Blue cloth, gilt tiles to spine, small pill-sized blotch on front cover, 5 3/4 x 4 1/4 inches. Printed statement about this edition pasted to the leaf following the title leaf. The text is clean apart from a faint tidemark at thet top of the front paste-dwon and following free end paper. 352 pages of Seneca Hymns with index, followed by selections in English, Songs of Zion. This 62-page English was assembled from a different publication. Good. Hardcover.

Spine title: Gaă̲ Na̲h Sho̲h | Seneca Hymns. A facsimile reprint of the 1936 edtion, which itself was a reprint of the 1865 edition. The hymnal was first published in 1834, and the 1865 edition was based upon the original, with a few additional hymns added to it.

Attributed to Asher Wright (1803-1875), b. Hanover, NH; d. Cattaraugus, NY. He was a member of the Society of Friends and a missionary to the Seneca Indians of New York State from 1831 to 1875. Wright was educated at Dartmouth College and Andover Theological Seminary. He was noted for his attention to the Seneca language and culture, and for teaching literacy to the Senecas in their own language. In order to do this, Wright developed a Seneca alphabet, and published A Spelling Book in the Seneca Language with English Definitions. He translated portions of the Bible, a primer, hymns, tracts, and other books, establishing a press at the Seneca mission.