Amy Talanasemptewa Schirmer was a General Conference Mennonite (GCM) missionary among the Hopi people in Arizona and the Northern Cheyenne people in Montana. She was born into the Bear Clan, from which the chiefs of Oraibi came. Her parents were among the first Christians at Oraibi, AZ. Amy entered the Bible Institute of Los Angeles in 1933. While a student, she began Thursday and Sunday afternoon meetings with Indian girls (and their boy friends) working in Los Angeles. The group grew to about 30 or 40 young people by 1935 and later became a church. After her graduation in 1936, Amy returned to the Hopi reservation and married Daniel Schirmer. Together they served as missionaries in Bacavi and Hotevilla, AZ, until 1949; in Birney and Busby, MT, among the Northern Cheyenne, until 1964; and again among the Hopi in Moencopi and Bacavi until 1974. In Montana, she worked especially with Cheyenne girls, helping them feel at ease away from their own communities and helping them prepare programs and music to perform.

Bibliography

Adapted by permission of Herald Press, Scottdale, Pennsylvania, and Waterloo, Ontario, from Mennonite Encyclopedia, Vol. 5, p. 795. All rights reserved. For information on ordering the encyclopedia visit the Herald Press website.

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