Daniel Schirmer was a Mennonite missionary and minister among the Hopi people in Arizona and the Northern Cheyenne people in Montana. He was named Siwinainiwa (Young Cedar Sprout) by his relatives, who were preparing for his burial because his mother had died after childbirth. Hopi custom assumed that such a baby was an evil spirit because it had caused its mother's death. Mary Schirmer, a General Conference Mennonite (GCM) missionary in Hotevilla, adopted the baby and renamed him Daniel.

From 1934 to 1949, Daniel Schirmer served as minister of the Mennonite congregations in Bacavi and Hotevilla, AZ. He and his wife, Amy Talesnemptewa Schirmer, later were missionaries in Birney and Busby, MT, among the Northern Cheyenne. He returned to the Hopi reservation in 1964 to serve the churches in Moencopi and Bacavi until his retirment in 1974. He was ordained as a minister of the gospel in 1951.

Bibliography

Adapted by permission of Herald Press, Harrisonburg, Virginia, and Waterloo, Ontario, from Mennonite Encyclopedia, Vol. 5, p. 796. All rights reserved. For information on ordering the encyclopedia visit the Herald Press website.

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