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This is to certify that the

thesis entitled
Woman of the Sound the Stars Make Rushing Through
the Sky: A Literary Biography of Jane Johnston
Schoolcraft

presented by

Tammrah Stone-Gordon

has been accepted towards fulfillment
of the requirements for

M.A. . American Studies
degree 1n

 

 

 

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MSU is An Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Institution

owns-9.1

 

 

WOMANOFTHE SOUND THE STARS MAKE BUSHING THROUGH THE SKY: ALITERARY
BIOGRAPHYOFJANEJOHNSTON SCHOOLCRAFT

By

Tammrah Stone-Gordon

ATHESIS
Submitted to
Michigan State University
in partial fulfillment of the requirements
for the degree, of

MASTER OF ARTS

Department of American Studies

1993

 

Ja

ABSTRACT

WOMAN OFTHE SOUND THE STARS MAKE RUSHING THROUGH THE SKY: A UTERARY
BIOGRAPHY OF JANE JOHNSTON SCHOOLCRAFT

By

Tammrah Stone-Gordon

Jane Johnston Schoolcraft has been treated historically as the first wife of Indian
Agent and ethnologist Henry Rowe Schoolcraft, while her position as the first known
Metis woman poet and short story writer to participate in the Euro-American
publishing tradition has been completely ignored. This thesis looks at the literary and
personal lives of Jane Johnston Schoolcraft by recreating the cultural context in
which Metis women of the Old Northwest were taught Euro-American ideals of
literature and femininity in the decline of the fur trade in the first half of the
nineteenth-century. it also looks at Henry Schoolcraft's adherence to the notions of
'savagism' and his influences on her writing. The study finds that Jane Schoolcraft
embraced the nineteenth-century Euro-American 'cult of true womanhood' ideology.
This and a desire to interpret Ojibway culture favorably to Euro-Americans were her

primary motivations for producing written literature.

Copyright by '
TAMMRAH ST ONE-GORDON
1 993

 

 

 

the

his

int

I would like to thank Professor George Cornell whose insights and direction made this
thesis possible, Professor Lisa Fine for introducing me to the field of women's
history, and Betsy Stoutamire of the Johnston Family for her encouragement and

invaluable help in researching.

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TABLEOFOONTENTS

introduction ....................................................... 1

Chapter I: The Johnston Family ........................................ 6
Chapter ll: Young Jane Johnston and the New lndian Agent. ................... 26
Chapter Iii: Elmwood Days .......................................... 50
Chapter IV: The Final Years .......................................... 67
Chapter V: The Paper Trail .......................................... 89
Notes ........................................................... 93
Appendix ........................................................ 104
Bibliography ..................................................... 137

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Jane Johnston Schoolcraft lived from 1800 to 1842, mostly in Sault Ste.
Marie. Michigan. During her lifetime the indigenous people of the Old Northwest saw a
great many changes: a population decline. a change in the economy, wars between the
British and American colonial forces and the beginnings of and long and difficult
official relationship with the United States government in the formation of the Bureau
of Indian Affairs. In addition, the women of the Old Northwest saw a different set of
changes. Sylvia Van Kirk. in W, has
shown how the Native and Metis women's work and place in society became devalued
when the population went from being composed of mostly lndian to mostly Euro-
American. The pressure to conform to Christian ideals of womanhood became
increasingly powerful during this time in the Great Lakes area, as Carol Devens
argues in r- I :n- mm :m Lilli: “1:11;. rum 2“ r::,, “vi-n:
19993999,. Jane Johnston was subject to all these pressures, and in their midst (or
from their midst) she produced written poetry and short stories, making her the first
(known) female Native American poet to publish her works.

Jane Johnston Schoolcraft held another unique position in American history; she
was married to Henry Rowe Schoolcraft, lndian Agent, Superintendent of lndian Affairs,
ethnologist and geologist. Schoolcraft was a founding father of American lndian policy, a
position of honor within an expansionist-minded young nation. But for Native

Americans, the distinction meant Schoolcraft was the architect of dishonorable dealings,

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false promises and eventually removal. As an ethnologist, Schoolcraft pioneered the

movement to make the Indian an object of study, a movement intended to preserve the

'near-iost' Native American culture. Curtis M. Hinsley, in W

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sums up Schoolcraft's motivation by saying the 'White man had superseded the Red in

America, which obliged him to preserve the memory of the aborigine."1 Jane

Johnston Schoolcraft was crucial to Henry Schoolcraft's ethnological work. in m
Wm, in a creative depiction of a conversation between

characters (one in which 'tail' becomes a grotesque metaphor for the colonizing
mindset), Gerald Vizenor portrays Henry Schoolcraft as an opposite to the Euro
~American version of him as an American ethnological pioneer:

'. . . He was a giant then, and it was time to find a mixedblood wife from the
wilderness. He did just that, in the daughter of John Johnson (sic), the fur
trader from LaPointe. Johnson, who was Irish, married the daughter of
Waubojeeg, or Chief White Fisher.

'Schoolcraft gained back a few inches with his marriage, but he lost more
than a foot when he became an expert on the 'red race' and when he invented 'Algic
tribes,’ as he called us out here. This copper hunter learned all he knew about
tribal people from his mixedblood relatives, but he gives them no credit for his
discoveries.

'When Schoolcraft was the United States lndian agent at Mackinac he came
to the island for another visit. We saw him down at the dock, eight to nine feet
tall, white people all stood on stools and stilts to shake his enormous hand, as if
his hand was a healing animal from a strange place.

'When the tall man died. . . the tribe made a grave house for him about
four feet long and put it out behind the mission in the weeds, but back East, we
were told, the tall man was buried in a ten foot coffin. . . . Some tell that his
coffin is two feet longer since his death, and still growing. . . . The grave house

out here has become a bird nest, and even smaller.“2
While Schoolcraft‘s writings brought Eastern sympathy to the 'lndian problem,‘ they
also perpetuated the stereotype of the savage: child-like, innocent and unable to adapt to
'white ways.‘ As an official protecting government interests, he was intolerant of any

but the Protestant faith, and condescending to the people whose existence made him

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Jane Johnston Schoolcraft rarely questioned the policies of the government, and
tried eagerly to fulfill Euro-American expectations of middle-class womanhood. Only
later in life, disillusioned with her marriage and hopelessly addicted to opium, did she
question prescribed gender roles. What makes this even more curious is that her
mother, Oshauguscodawaqua, was a respected leader in her tribe and, even though she
eventually converted to Christianity, rarely fit Euro-American gender prescriptions.
She refused to speak English or learn how to write, depending on Jane or other relatives
to write for her in rare instances.

In this biography, l attempt to recreate the influences on Jane Johnston
Schoolcraft that formed her literary talents and personality. l rely heavily on records
of Jane's immediate society--her family members--to discuss possible influences.
This method can lead to a great deal of speculation, particularly when discussing the life
of Oshauguscodawaqua, who refused to write and therefore left few historical records.
The surviving sources, mostly letters and travel narratives, reflect a (mostly male)
expansionist perspective, which must be considered when conducting research on any
Native American woman. Fortunately, the Henry Rowe Schoolcraft Papers in the
Library of Congress contain a large collection of Jane's correspondence, journals and
poetry. These types of sources are primarily what i use to detail Jane's responses to
various familial, religious and literary influences.

This thesis is not intended to be a detailed study of Jane Johnston's literary
works. Instead, I focus on the influences that shaped her views of writing, the fact that
the writing happened and not the entire body of literary text. Before we can understand

the significance of her writing, it is crucial to understand the forces that produced it,

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for half of Jane's ancestry never felt the need for writing in the Euro-American sense of
individual expression. Because her writings are virtually unknown to the literary
profession, I include her poems whenever I can within the text. I summarize several
short stories, but if the reader chooses to peruse them undigested, I put a collection of
them in the Appendix. Also included in the text are poems by Jane's father John

Johnston. A recent biographer of Henry Rowe Schoolcraft notes that Jane was part of

Henry's 'complete train of horrors,'3 but her writings demonstrate that Jane
Johnston was instead the primary influence on Schoolcraft's literary career. The
inclusion of excerpts from their letters will show that Henry's strict adherence to
sexist and racist principles late in Jane's life proved to be no small 'horror' of their
own to Jane's creativity and sense of self.

My use of 'Jane' rather than a host of other salutations, including 'Mrs.
Schoolcraft“ and Henry Rowe's early favorite “the northern Pocahontas' stems from
a familiarity with her private writings and letters, and not, by any means, from
disrespect. Even though Oshauguscodawaqua was renamed 'Susan' at her marriage, I
use her original and full name to respect her distaste for anglicization. I sometimes
use 'Ojibway' interchangeably with 'Anishinabeg' but use the latter most often
because this is usually how this tribe's members refer to themselves, often rejecting
the ethnologist's term 'Ojibway.' l have retained original spellings, most notably the
convention of using 'fs' where 'ss' is usually used. I use 'Metis' as a racial and
cultural designation for a person, like Jane, who is of mixed ancestry. As Jacqueline
Peterson so aptly notes, the 'people who are born and grow up at the interstices of

two civilizations or nations are almost always in motion, eluding facile identification.

They are like weather vanes perpetually testing the winds.‘4 I refer to Jane and her

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siblings as 'Metis' simply because they have one lndian and one European parent.
Even though Jane would have been seen in her community as 'half-breed,' 'michif,‘I
'metis,‘ or 'mixed-blood,‘ Euro-Americans at large saw her as an lndian, and
because of this I also refer to her as 'Native American.‘

It needs to be stated (sadly enough) here that Jane Johnston Schoolcraft was not
the first Native American/Metis woman poet, but the first to partake in the written and
published tradition of the society of American letters. In the first half of the nineteenth-
century, Americans sought to distinguish their own national literature. As Arnold
Krupat notes, “Americans tended to define their peculiar national distinctiveness in

relation to a perceived opposition between the Europeans they no longer were and the

Indians they did not wish to become.'5 Jane Johnston, while greatly influenced by the
oral tradition through her mother and maternal grandfather, sought to emulate a Euro-
American tradition of written literature, conforming to popular literary conventions.
This should be stressed because, as Krupat argues, 'the canon, like all cultural
production, is never an innocent selection of the best that has been thought and said;

rather, it is the institutionalization of those particular verbal artifacts that appear best

to convey and sustain the dominant social order."6 Jane learned and absorbed what
was taught, namely the canon of the 'dominant social order,’ and her writing styles
reflect her adherence to Euro-American conventions. At the same time, she took
subject matter from the oral tradition of her mother‘s people. Jane Johnston
Schoolcraft‘s place in the American canon stems from her interpretation of an
indigenous literary tradition, an interpretation influenced by the prescriptions for

lnfians and women in the cultural hegemony of early nineteenth-century America.

 

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CHAPTER I: THE JOHNSTON FAMILY
The centuries preceding the pioneer period of the Great Lakes region were
characterized by the fur trade, a unique era in women's history. In 'Separate
Confrontations: Gender as a Factor in Indian Adaptation to European Colonization in
New France' Carol Devens maintains that while the historical narrative of colonization
focuses on the 'confrontations' between men (red and white), the majority of Indian
women's experiences have not been included in the narrative. In fact, Devens has

found that Indian men and women 'found themselves holding different expectations and

faced with different options' in the fur trade and missionization climates.1 Devens
describes the seventeenth-century Indian gender system as one that contrasted
greatly with that of Europe, in which women were devalued:
The separate rituals and attributes of the sexes suggest that male and female had
distinct spiritual identities in traditional ideology. This system recognized the
autonomy of male and female by emphasizing their different needs and concerns.
Such division was not disruptive, however, countered as it was by the

complementary nature of women's and men's social and productive activities.
Instead, the different aspects combined in a vital symmetry upon which the

perpetuation of the community depended.2
While 'interactions with Europeans through missions and trade disrupted this balance,‘
the tradition of egalitarianism that remained in the eighteenth- and nineteenth-
centuries still contrasted greatly with European systems of gender in which the value of
women's work was much lower than men's. The fur trade marriages, as Richard White

has suggested, forced Indians and Europeans to renegotiate their own notions of marriage

and family.3
As Sylvia Van Kirk and White have shown, the absence of white women on the
fur-trading frontier (both the Hudson's Bay and Northwest companies discouraged

bringing European women to the fur frontier) promoted a great deal of interaction

 

 

 

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between European men and Native women. Marriages between traders and Indians
created economic advantages for tribes and fur companies and came to be known as
marriages 'a la facon du pays' ('in the custom of the country') that combined European

and tribal marriage traditions. An lndian wife provided not only economic ties to her

tribe but also survival skills, knowledge and crucial labor such as making snowshoes.4
The marriages produced generations of Metis children who married other Metis or
European traders. Van Kirk notes that as the fur trade declined (in the early 1800s in
the Old Northwest) and Europeans settled in fur trade areas, Native and Metis women

lost status in Euro-AmericanICanadian society because their skills were viewed by

white society as less useful in the changing economy.5 Racism also fueled the new
scorn of marriages between Indian women and European men. It was in the context of
change in the Great Lakes region--from British to American power, from a fur to an
agricultural and merchant economy, in marriage patterns, social prescriptions and the
status of women-that one of the most unique families in Great Lakes history lived:
the Johnstons of Sault Ste. Marie.

Like many families of fur trade society, the Johnston family began with the union
of an Indian woman and a European man seeking the financial success the New World
promised. Even though Native parents sought European sons-in-law to create economic
ties with the tribe, it was not without a modicum of apprehension. Many times European
men, marrying 'in the custom of the country,‘ abandoned their Native wives and
children when they tired of them or decided to return to Europe. It was this practice that
held the thoughts of the respected chief Waubojeeg when he instructed the young
Irishman John Johnston to return to Montreal for one year before he would allow him to

marry his young and promising daughter Oshauguscodawaqua.

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Oshauguscodawaqua, or Woman of the Green Prairie,6 was born around 1772 into
a family of venerated Anishinabe war chiefs and civil leaders. Her grandfather
Mamongeseda, or Big Foot, distinguished himself in battles between European nations as
well as those between the Ojibway and their long-time enemies to the west, the Dakota.
One oft-repeated recollection of Mamongeseda's bravery in battle involves his half-
brother Wabasha who fought for the Dakota. The mother of these men was a Dakota
woman who lived with the Anishinabeg but returned to her tribe when hostilities
renewed between the tribes. During battle Mamongeseda stepped forward calling his

name loudly in Dakota and inquired about his brother. The fighting ceased when Wabasha

stepped forward to the extended hand of Mamongeseda.7 What follows is the first record of
Mamongeseda's son Waubojeeg who grew to become even more famous than his father.
During the battle the seven-year-old Waubojeeg sat perched on a relative's shoulders at
the entrance of his father's wigwam. When Wabasha entered before his father could

explain, Waubojeeg clubbed the Dakota over the head with a war-club, causing the man

to take the child in his arms and predict the future greatness of the young warrior.8 The
historical personages of Mamongeseda and Waubojeeg came to play a major role in the
works of Henry Rowe Schoolcraft and, and to a lesser extent, in the writings of Jane
Johnston Schoolcraft.

Waubojeeg also had a reputation as a storyteller. He not only told stories, (some
recorded by William Warren and Schoolcraft) but composed songs that concerned his

major and most famous warring activities. John Johnston based some of his poems on the

stories of Waubojeeg which were repeated by Oshaugusodawaqua.9 Undoubtedly the
young Oshauguscodawaqua was well impressed with her father's talents of creation

and imagination and later crafted her own stories to entertain family and visitors.

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Little is known about the mother of Oshauguscodawaqua, the young bride of
Waubojeeg named Young Girl of the Bear Totem. Like most Native American women,
she was given little recognition by the Euro-American men who recorded their
observations of Indians. She gave birth to six children, of whom Oshauguscodawaqua
was the youngest. Because Oshauguscodawaqua and her mother were close in age

(Henry Schoolcraft states that Young Girl of the Bear Totem was 14 at the time of her

marriageio), and women worked communally, they must have worked closely

presiding over the lodge of Waubojeeg, which was sixty feet in length and abundant

with food and visitors with whom to share it.11

Oshauguscodawaqua spent part of her youth hunting, probably taught by her
famous hunter-father. Although hunting was predominantly a male activity, there
was no taboo against women hunting, especially if economic need necessitated the
activity. She was 'accounted the surest eye and fleetest foot among the women of the

tribe.‘ As an old woman she was greatly respected and hosted anyone when they

came seeking aid, advice or medical attention.12 Oshauguscodawaqua could have
learned her counselling skills from her grandmother, who was her counsel and friend.
After John Johnston's request for the hand of Oshauguscodawaqua, her grandmother
advised her to fast for a vision to help her understand her heartfelt terror at the
prospect of marrying a white man and perhaps seek the aid of a spirit guide. As
Charles Cleland notes of the Anishinabeg culture, the practice of fasting to secure a
vision is one of the most important sources of power and 'may provide the dreamer

with special control over some realm of human experience such as curing the sick or

forecasting the future."13 Oshauguscodawaqua fasted alone for ten days while her

grandmother brought her water.

 

 

 

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Anna Jameson, an author and visitor to the Johnstons in 1837, recorded

Oshauguscodawaqua's recollections of this fast and the dream and consequences that

ensued in her W The dream has been
recounted and reinterpreted many times and has even been adapted to historical fiction in

Janet Lewis' Mansion. The misinterpretation stems from the symbol of the white
man in the dream that follows, as translated by Jane Johnston Schoolcraft and recorded
by Jameson:

Mrs. Johnson relates that, previous to her marriage. she fasted according to th
universal lndian custom, for a guardian spirit: to perform this ceremony, she
went away to the summit of an eminence, and built herself a little lodge of soda
boughs, painted herself black, and began her fast in solitude. She dreamed
continually of a white man, who approached her with a cup in his hand, saying,
'Poor thing! why are you punishing yourself? Why do you fast? Here is food
for youl' He was always accompanied by a dog, which looked up in her face as
though he knew her. Also she dreamed of being on a high hill, which was
surrounded by water, and from which she beheld many canoes full of Indians,
coming to her and paying her homage; after this, she felt as if she were carried
up into the heavens, and as she looked down upon the earth, she perceived it we
on fire,and said to herself, 'All my relations will be bumedl' But a voice
answered and said, 'No, they will not be destroyed, they will be saved:" and sl
knew it was a spirit because it was not human . She fasted for ten days. . . Whr
satisfied that she had obtained a guardian spirit in the white stranger who

haunted her dreams, she returned to her father's lodge. . . (italics mine).14
The misinterpretations of the dream probably stem from the next statement by Jameson,
that Oshauguscodawaqua's 'future husband and future greatness were so clearly
prefigured in this dream. . . ' How a non-human guardian spirit suddenly embodied
itself in the figure of John Johnston could be due to several factors. First, Jameson was
a travel writer for Europeans and Americans who were eager to justify their occupation
of North America. The figure of the white man Johnston being the redeemer of the young
Indian woman would have been very appealing to expansionist and missionary ideologies.
Second, the story was translated by Jane, who at this time had been imbued with the

bblical principles of women making men their' lords and redeemers.‘ Regardless of

 

 

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the origin of the misinterpretation, the fact remains that the young Oshauguscodawaqua
was still repulsed by the idea of marrying a white man.

When Oshauguscodawaqua married Johnston, she hid in his house and at first
cowered from her husband. After ten days she ran away seeking her mother and father.
She reports to Jameson that her father dreamed of her escape and returned to his lodge,
angered that she 'had not conducted herself, according to his advice, with proper wife-

like docility.‘ He took her back to Johnston, with whom she stayed at first out of respect

for her father and later in genuine faith to Johnston and her children.15 Jameson
remarked that it 'is to the honor of Johnston that he took no cruel advantage of their
mutual position. . . he treated her with the utmost tenderness and respect. . . and it was

touching to see how tenderly and gratefully this was to be remembered by his bride after

a lapse of thirty-six years.‘16 It is not only to the 'honor' of Johnston that he treated
his wife respectfully, it was good business sense; his best customers were her relatives.
Oshauguscodawaqua stayed with Johnston until his death, seemingly content in his home

and with the eight children to whom she gave birth, but to her death she refused to speak

the alien tongue, even though she understood it perfectly.17

What motivated a man to seek the companionship of a wife who was obviously

terrorized by the thought of him as a member of 'quite another species?"18 As
stated earlier, Indian women were crucial to the financial success of fur traders,
providing contacts and knowledge. Also, as family legend states, 'he resolved to
marry in the Indian country, as he thought it undesirable, if not dishonorable to take a

lady to those wild regions without a person with whom she could converse or

associate."19 Indeed, the trappings of 'Iadyship'--ornamental in nature— were a

liability on the fur-trading frontier, not an asset. Perhaps the idea of the 'lndian

 

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princess' played a part in his choice, as well as economics, since he would become a
kind of 'New World Royalty.‘ Whatever his reasons, he agreed to Waubojeeg to

marry her 'in the way of white men' (for life) and kept his promise, even though they

did not marry by Euro-American law until 1821.20

According to Johnston, his first extended experience with the family of
Oshauguscodawaqua occurred during his first venture in trading. He had secured some
supplies and employees to begin his profession, but once in the thinly populated area
near LaPointe all of his hired men but one stole his supplies and left him with little food.
That winter the elderly Mamongeseda approached him for food, and Johnston reminded
him of credit past due. Mamongeseda explained that he met a trader who offered him
drink and then took Mamongeseda's furs, saying he had traded them for drink. His wives
were unable to reach a store of rice because the snow was too deep to maneuver.
Johnston wrote in his 'Autobiographical Letters' that he 'accepted his excuse, and
continued to treat him all winter with great respect, as he showed me a large bugle belt,

with which, and a silver gorget, he had been presented by Sir William Johnson after the

fall of Fort Niagra to the British forces}?1 Johnston's reluctance to believe the
'excuse' offered by a man who rarely in his life had ever the need for them shows
that he probably heard and believed stereotypes of Indian men while in Eastern Canada
and the United States, for he had not been dealing with the tribes long enough to
develop his own opinions through experience. Nevertheless, Waubojeeg must have
appreciated Johnston's kindness to his father (not all Englishmen on the fur frontier
demonstrated this trait) and remembered it when Johnston asked for the hand of
Oshauglscodawaqua.

Johnston's associations with the tribe of Waubojeeg placed him in a context for

13

which he was almost totally unprepared. John Johnston was born in Antrim, Ireland
on August 25, 1762 to William Johnston and Elizabeth McNeil Johnston. His father
was a midshipman in the British navy and later held the position of Surveyor of Port
Rush. Elizabeth McNeil brought to the marriage a large estate. At seven John
Johnston enrolled in school at Coleraine and attended until the age of ten, when his
father died. With the death of Wiliam Johnston and the mismanagement of the family
business (a water works), Elizabeth Johnston could no longer afford to pay for John's
schooling at Coleraine. He was subsequently tutored by his aunt when she discovered
that after three years of schooling he could barely script his own name. She taught
him English grammar and ancient and modern history while another tutor directed
writing and arithmetic. Johnston credits his aunt and mother for his love of literature
as he describes some of the evenings of his youth:
. . . and I read with them for two or three hours, which would have been very
tiresome, but for intervals in which my mother and aunt pointed out the
beauties of particular passages, and the virtues and vices of different
characters which history presented to us, and the consequent effect on their
lives and fortunes. But the British classics and our best dramatists were to
our young and just expanding minds a source of the purest delight. This state
of innocent enjoyment and consequent happiness continued,with little
intermission, for five years, until I began to fancy myself a man,and that I
ought to break through the trammels of female influence and control.
When Johnston tried to 'break through the trammels of female influence,’ he took to
'coursing with greyhounds, shooting, fishing, etc' at the encouragement of servants.

Johnston's aunt and mother were female models of piety and learning, qualities he

later sought to cultivate in his daughter Jane. His more 'manly' pursuits, however,

he came to regard as 'debasing gratifications' and regretted them as wasted time.22
At seventeen he was sent to take charge of the family-owned water works.

As the 'corporation of Belfast now fixed their eyes on the water works as a means of

 

grea'
ehon
first 4

watt

to L0

Johns

Dunn;
love c
eight,

indentr
Johnsn
Monte
Sockny
traders,

mainly a

14

greatly increasing their wealth and influence“ and the young Johnston failed in his
efforts to renew the family lease, he turned his attentions to the world abroad. his
first choice being India. After discussing his plans with Lord McCartney, he decided

that Canada would be a better choice, and he set about securing letters of introduction

to Lord Dorchester, the Governor General of Canadai’i3 Several years went by while
Johnston fought to keep the water works and procured the means to travel to Canada.
During that time. in “the midst of all (his) folly and extravagance (he) still retained a
love of reading“ and read almost anything he could procure. At the age of twenty
-eight, after a rough voyage, he landed in New York. His brother William, having been
indentured to a man in New York some years earlier, met with him for a short time.
Johnston travelled through Albany and St. Johns where he hired a canoe to take him to
Montreal. After a winter in Montreal socializing with the upper crust of fur trade

society, the people Schoolcraft termed “the half-baronial class of north-west fur

traders,“24 he accompanied Andrew Tod in 1791 on a trading trip to Michilimackinac,
mainly as a tourist. Despite his annoyance with the rowdy habits of traders, which if
he chose to describe would be a “chronicle of scandal,“ he decided to attempt trading
at LaPointe for a winter, set up by Ted. As stated earlier, his hired men abandoned
him and he was “left in the midst of savages and Canadians.“ By hard work and sheer

luck he survived the winter, but the union formed with the family of Mamongeseda

produced one of the most unusual families in Great Lakes history}!5
After their alliance in 1792, John Johnston quickly gave his wife the Christian

name Susan. Waubojeeg died of tuberculosis in 1793, the year of the birth of

Oshauguscodawaqua's first child, Lewis Saurin.26 The family moved to Sault Ste. Marie

on the St. Mary's River between Lakes Huron and Superior, which would be their home

15

for life. Originally named Baweting (rapids) until the French sought to honor The
Virgin, it was a very small settlement of French families and an Anishinabeg summer
village site. The abundance of whitelish in the St. Mary's River provided staple for the

summer and most of the spring and fall. Technically the claim of the United States, the

British fur traders of the Northwest company controlled the fur economyftt7 The Jay
Treaty of 1794 was meant to diminish British power in the region, but it was not until
1796 when the Americans hoisted their flag over Mackinac Island that the British took
the treaty seriously. Johnston took land near the St. Mary's behind the summer camping
ground of the Indians and built a log home and some outbuildings and planted gardens.

Here the couple hosted visitors and “kept up all possible of the ceremony and state of a

noble house of Ireland,“ including a well-stocked library.28 Johnston set himself up as

an independent fur trader, relying on the labor of his Indian relatives and sending furs

to David and David in Montreal.29 The property he built up in the first decade of the
nineteenth-century would soon fall prey to the destruction of the War of 1812.

The war proved costly for Johnston. As word of war reached the Sault in July of
1812, Johnston along with 400 Indians and 200 Canadians, stormed Mackinac Island and
took the garrison for England on July 17. Two years later the Americans attempted to
take back the fort (Jane was stuck on Mackinac with her father at the time of the
attempt) but not before pillaging the Johnston property at the Sault. The Americans
knew of Johnston's allegiance to the British, and insisted he was not an independent
trader, but a Northwest Company trader, which would have made his participation in the
American fur trade illegal. His financial situation never fully recovered from this
$26,144 loss, and Johnston eventually sold his estate in Ireland. In 1817, when the

American government sought to regulate the border fur trade, Johnston considered the

T ,

 

 

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Amm
MM?
no othe
mac

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hem

literary
cohecfic

inflUan,

poetry.

16

pressures to change his citizenship status, but remained a British citizen: “The
Americans are going to pals a bill that will entirely seclude all British subjects from the
Indian Trade so that what is to come of us in future—God alone knowethul fear there is
no other alternative, but to become American Citizens.“ The last fourteen years of his
life he devoted to filing spoilation claims on both the British and American governments

to no avail. After his death, his son-in-law Henry Schoolcraft also devoted a great deal of

time to the unsuccessful project.30

The house of Johnston was known for its hospitality to strangers and its
literary and storytelling sessions. Johnston read to his children often from his
collection (which was rivalled only by the garrison library) and was an important
influence on Jane's literary development. Like Waubojeeg, Johnston crafted his own
poetry, like this work called “Woman's Tears“:

Woman's fears, are as the sunbeams,

Smiling through vernal showers.

Woman's tears are the rain descending

From the murky cloud, char'd with the tempest,

Ere the resplendent bow gives sign of safety,
And retuming peace.

Woman's tears, are as the dew drops,
In the morning, warming to life,

The early buds of spring;
But woman's tears when meekly shed,
In resignation o'er the infant flower,
Untimely blighted; are drops so precious,
That attending angels collect them in their urns,
And at the footstool of the Savior's throne
With the bright, beauteous Babe, present them,
As a pure off'ring, worthy of Him alone-
Straight th'unfledg'd Cherub into Paternal
Arms is receiv'd and nourish'd to life
Eternal, in the warm bosom of Supemal love.

The poem was written in 1827 when Jane's young son Willy died suddenly of the

croup. It shows more than just Johnston's knowledge of popular literary conventions;

 

the
male:

patria

presu

Saunr
QiVen 1

Make

:Afi_l

17

the first stanza shows how he ascribed to the notion of female suffering as
melancholic beauty and the second relates the strong Christian devotions of the Sault

patriarch. Jane came to emulate Johnston's poetry, while she modeled her prose

presumably after the storytelling sessions led by her mother.“

From 1793 to 1816 Oshauguscodawaqua gave birth to eight children, all of
whom were known by English names but were all given names in Anishinabeg. Lewis
Saurin, was born in 1793 followed by George in 1796. Jane, born in 1800, was
given the poetic name Obahbahmwawageezhagoquay which means The Sound That Stars

Make Rushing Through the Sky. Anna Jameson, who was particularly fond of Jane,

translates the name as “The Music of the Spheres.“32 Eliza was born in 1802
followed by Charlotte in 1806, William in 1811, Anna Maria in 1814 and John
McDougall in 1816. The mothering skills of Oshauguscodawaqua were held in high
regard by all the children as adults, even though some problems developed between
her and Anna Maria as a young woman. Jane was very attached to her mother who
often saw her through bouts of sickness when Henry was away on business, and when
Jane moved to Mackinac Island she deeply missed the companionship of her mother.
Jameson, on her visit in 1837 remarked that Jane, quite ill at the time, “speaks with

fond and even longing affection [of her mother], as if the very sight of this beloved

mother would be sufficient to restore her to health and strength.“33 In a letter to
Jane, Lewis Saurin also expressed his affection toward Oshauguscodawaqua and at the
same time revealed some of the things he believed his mother valued highly:

. . . Should I succeed in getting the Gov. to sanction the grant of land which the
Indians have given me on the River St. Clair, I shall try if possible to prevail
them [his parents] to settle on it, the situation is beautiful and there is already
40 acres cleared on it, and I really think would please our Dear Mother. The
natives pass and repass throughout the year, the river abounds with fish, and the

 

John:
lMonh
rnanh
He w
Amen
on Dr
resuh

Johns

18

woods with Deer, and various other Kind of game.34

Jane's eldest brother Lewis Saurin proved to be the most scandalous of the
Johnstons to the more pious residents of Sault Ste. Marie. Lewis went to school in
Montreal In his youth and returned to the Sault in 1809. After an affair with a
married woman that produced a daughter, he joined the British navy as a midshipman.
He was injured in 1813 in the Battle of Lake Erie and was taken prisoner by the
Americans. In 1814 he took a position as lieutenant in the British Indian Department
on Drummond Island. When Lewis retumed to the Sault he continued his affair which
resulted in the birth of a second daughter, much to the disappointment of John

Johnston: “I should write to Lewis were it not for his having deceived me by his

continuing his base connection with that abandoned woman. . . “35 Lewis again left for
Canada where he worked as an interpreter for the BID. He died in Ontario in the spring
of 1825, mourned mostly by Oshauguscodawaqua, since few other family members
mention his death in their correspondence, unlike Jane in this letter to her husband: “.
. . My poor Mother weeps daily & I myself feel more sensibly the death of my Brother

since your departure but time will heal the wounds of the heart 8 I hope my Mother

will cheer up again.“36
The second Johnston child, George, became known as an interpreter and for his
part in the unsuccessful Sioux-Chippewa boundary survey meant to diminish
hostilities between the tribes. Tall and handsome, he was proud of his distinctive
heritage and disillusioned when others discounted it. George Blackburn, a George
Johnston biographer, sums up the features of George's life as follows:
. . contact with people whom he did not consider his social equals, the fur
trade, official activities with the Bureau of Indian Affairs, personal
indebtedness, and his intimate relations with the French, Indian and American

cultures. If these are added his official relations with the British government
mining explorations, Indian language translations, and me gathering of Indian

Gec

H8l

will I

Anisl

19

lore and legend, it is obvious that George Johnston was a man of many
interests.”

George, also schooled in Montreal, was present at the pillaging of Johnston property.

He was also present when Oshauguscodawaqua met the Cass Expedition of 1820, which

will be discussed later.38 George became a subagent at LaPointe where he married an
Anishinabeg woman, Louisa Raimond, who gave birth to three children. She died on
December 23, 1832, and George hired Lewis Johnston's mistress as a housekeeper
and caregiver for his children at the Sault. When funding was cut in 1829 for the
subagency, George worked as an interpreter for Henry Schoolcraft and accompanied
him on several expeditions. When a feud developed between the two, George engaged
in the fur trade and married the Baptist missionary Mary Rice of Boston, who
delivered four children to George during their marriage. In 1839 Schoolcraft
appointed George carpenter at Grand Traverse, but he soon had to fire him in response
to official charges of Schoolcraft's nepotism. After some failed copper ventures and a
reputed habit of overindulgence in whiskey, George was forced to take in boarders at
Sault Ste. Marie where he froze to death on a walk in 1861. George kept regular

correspondence with his sister Jane, and was sometimes the object of her missionary

tendencies.39

Eliza Johnston, two years younger than Jane, spent all of her life, exclusive of
some time in Sandwich, Ontario around 1819, at Sault Ste. Marie. Not much is known
about her because, like her mother, she disliked using the English language, which
alienated the visitors who would later record their observations on the Johnston family.
Said to look more like her mother than any of the other children, Eliza was particularly
close to Oshauguscodawaqua until two years before her mother's death when she suddenly

refused to speak to her. An Irish cousin visiting the Johnstons remarked of Eliza: “From

 

what I
thinkin
blowing
she dil

her pe

must h
0t illne
He’W's

of femir

20

what I have read of nuns, I think Eliza would have made a very strict one. . . l have been
thinking of doing something to provoke her temper, that she may give me a regular
blowing Up.“ Eliza never married, and became more and more eccentric as she aged until
she died in 1883. She made a lasting impression on Angle Bingham, who remembered
her peculiar appearance and kindness to children:

In winter “Miss Eliza“ wore a long blue pellise, or cloak with wing-like capes, a
square of plaited folds at the back trimmed with black velvet: a copper-colored
satin bonnet with round, high crown and broad front; a long green barege veil
tied over the front with a ribbon, always drawn to one side. . . In Summer she
wore a “blue-black“ silk gown, a bonnet with a heavily embroidered black lace
veil, drawn over her face and reaching nearly to her feet. . . she always carriec
sprig of sweet-scented green, like egaltine, or a favorite bud or blossom, whict
she twirled in one hand. . . she was kindness itself; and when left alone in the
great homestead it was a great resort for “us children“, who were fascinated with
its air of state, the wonderful stories told with her own peculiar language,
intonation and pride, and the sponge cake no one else could make so deliciously

delicate as she.40

Charlotte Johnston was more like Jane in piety and social concerns. Charlotte
must have felt close to Jane, for she often took care of her and her children in times
of illness or Henry's absence. Indeed, Charlotte buried her sister at her death in
Henry's absence. The sight of Charlotte as a young woman brought out a celebration
of femininity in the War Department's Thomas McKenney:

This interesting young lady has but little of the mother's complexion. She
possesses charms which are only now and then seen in our more populous and
polished circles. These are in the form and expression of a beautiful face,
where the best and most amiable and cheerful of tempers-- the loveliest and
most captivating ornament of the sex-- sits always with the sweetness of
spring, and from whence the graces seem never to have departed even for a
moment; and all this has imparted to it and additional interest in her own total
unconsciousness of their presence, and of her powers to please. . . My opinion
of Charlotte is that she would be a belle in Washington, were she there, as I
find she is here.

Educated at home with the exception of some time at Sandwich, Ontario with Eliza,

Charlotte developed missionary interests in her teens. Charlotte and Jane must have

Cha

Jan

mis

MCI

Sa'

Du

Ar

Ma

21

spent long hours discussing spiritual matters in the time they spent together before
Charlotte's marriage, and around 1825 Charlotte sent an essay-sermon she wrote to
Jane for her perusal. Charlotte also served as an interpreter for the Baptist
missionary Abel Bingham at the Sault. In 1833 she married the missionary William
McMurray to whom she gave five children. They lived on the Canadian side of the
Sault teaching Anglican Christianity to the Indians until 1838 when they moved to
Dundas, Ontario where McMurray became rector of the double parish of Dundee and

Ancaster. In 1857 they moved to Niagara-on-the-Lake to take the parish of St.

Marks, where Charlotte was buried in 1878.41

William Johnston spent most of his life as a fur trader. At the age of eight he
spent a year schooling in Cornwall, Canada until his father moved him to a school
southeast of Montreal for three or four years. He worked as an interpreter under Henry
Schoolcraft until his father's death in 1828 when he worked with his mother on the fur
trade under the American Fur Company. The largest body of his correspondence is a
collection of letters addressed to Jane in 1833 in whlch he detailed the day to day
activities of a fur trader at Leech Lake. When he retumed from Leech Lake he worked as
keeper of the Indian dormitory on Mackinac Island, but was fired because of charges of
illegal trading. He lost his windfall from the Treaty of 1836 in an investment
encouraged by Schoolcraft, which prompted him to sabotage the career of the Agent and
Superintendent, and eventually succeeded. He married in 1837 on Mackinac Island to

Susan Davenport and had eight children. He became interested in local politics and,

among other positions, served as Clerk of Mackinac County. He died in 1863.42
Anna Maria Johnston was adored by her sister Jane. Young, full of life and

health and feisty at times, she spent a lot of her youth with Jane, including an

b

“a

the

22

extended trip to Detroit and New York in 1824-25. McKenney wrote of her as a child
that she “certainly bids to be handsome.“ Her strong will led to a clash between
herself and her family around 1832 over her relationship with James Schoolcraft, the
handsome and rowdy younger brother of Henry. Rumored that she was his 'kept
mistrefs,“ her family sent her to Hadley, Massachusetts to school in 1832. When she
returned to the Sault, she married James Schoolcraft in 1834 and had four children,
three of whom survived. Like Eliza, Anna Maria also made a lasting impression on the
young Angie Gilbert, who admired her elegance: “When a child I used to think that if
ever I grew up and could sweep the train of my gown in the same grand fashion Mrs.
James Schoolcraft did as she walked with stately tread up the aisle of the little
mission chapel, life would be worth living.“ In 1846 James was murdered (still

unsolved to any satisfaction) and Anna Maria was alone with her children until she

married the Reverend Oliver Taylor in 1850. Anna Maria died in 1856.43

John McDougall Johnston's life shared some commonalities with those of his
brothers and male contemporaries. He was schooled for a short time away from the
Sault (Mr. Taylor's Lowville Academy in Louis County, New York) and worked for
Henry Schoolcraft in various jobs. His role as interpreter led him from the Sault on
trips to Minnesota, Wisconsin and Missouri. When George Johnston was appointed
carpenter at Grand Traverse, John was appointed the official U.S. Indian Farmer at
that same post. Both were dismissed in 1841. In 1842, John married Justine
Piquette in Sault Ste. Marie and together they raised ten children. Around 1849 John
had a mistress named Catishe, a fourteen or fifteen year old Indian girl by whom he
had two children. He basically ignored the children of this union. During his years at

the Sault he clerked at the sutler's store at Fort Brady and helped negotiate

 

gwenv
flipa)
hhnd
nxwed

and hi

whet

first.
met:
the S
dufing
theefi
Stoop
milita,

Lewg

23

government treaties with the Ojibway and Odawa of northern Michigan, and he served
as paymaster for the government until 1876. In 1862 the family moved to Rains
Island in the St. Mary's River where they raised food and smoked whitefish until they
moved to Coal Pit Hill, also near the Sault. John had a reputation as an excellent host,

and housed Eliza for a short time in her old age. John died in 1895, followed by his

wife in 1913.44

Perhaps the one person in her large family circle whose behaviors and values
most affected Jane was her husband Henry Schoolcraft, who first came to the Sault with
the Cass Expedition of 1820. Because of strained relations between the Anishinabeg at
the Sault and the American government, it is unlikely that the two became acquainted
during this visit in 1820. It is more likely that Oshauguscodawaqua’s actions at this
meeting were the most lasting impression Jane had of this year. The Cass Expedition
stopped at Sault Ste. Marie to “negotiate“ a land session for the purpose of erecting a
military garrison which would help diminish British influence on the Indians. Led by
Lewis Cass, then Governor of Michigan Territory, the party met in council with the
Indian men of importance at the Sault, offering tobacco. Opinions varied among the men
whether to accept the gifts or not. A young and somewhat eccentric chief named Sassaba
kicked away the offered tobacco and thrust his knife into the ground before the
Americans. The council quickly dispersed, and Sassaba raised the British flag before his
lodge. Cass proceeded to the lodge, took down the flag and told Sassaba that the matter of

the garrison was settled, and if the tribe tried to prevent its construction, the Americans

would “set a strong foot upon their rock and crush them.“45 Cass ordered the
expedition party to arm themselves.

George Johnston, acting as host to the party in the absence of his father who

 

 

 

wasin

The yl
out the
much
for thi
and g

Situati

lathe

Unlike» t

24

was in Ireland at the time, describes the effects of weapons being drawn:
The jingling of the ramrods in the muskets soon reached the ears of the women
and children at the village, and the affrighted began to fly to their canoes lying
on the beach, and which were shoved off; and the women and children rushing
promiscuously and screaming, in to the canoes and paddling off; the
Iamentations of the screaming women and the brawling children set the dogs
howling and the river side became aperfect scene of confusion.

The young George, seemingly unaware of the seriousness of the situation, soon found

out that not all women had left the scene when he met Oshauguscodawaqua, “appearing

much agitated, (and who) accosted me saying: 'For God's sake, George, send instantly

for the elder chiefs, for that foolish young chief Sassaba, will bring ruin to the tribe,

and get them assembled here.“ George, now impressed with the danger of the

situation, assembled the chiefs in the Johnston home and addressed them to comply

with the Americans, saying that the 'firing of one gun will bring ruin to your tribe and

to the Chippewas, so that a dog will not be left to howl in your villages.“46

The primary influence on the chiefs during that meeting, however, was
Oshauguscodawaqua, who was probably remembering the pillage done to her home by the
Americans in 1814 and possibly the dream during which she obtained her spirit guide

and saw her relations being burned. George wrote that she “came in and with authority

commanded the assembled chiefs to be quick, and suppress the follies of Sassaba. . . “47
The way in which Oshauguscodawaqua took action demonstrates some of the
characteristics of the gendered context of colonization. Faced with a Euro-American male
party who were more interested in the ornamental attributes of women, Native or Euro-
American, than their skills in diplomacy, she worked within the context of her own tribe
to affect the safety of it. It is not so surprising that a woman “commanded“ or advised the
chiefs, because women often acted in that capacity in their own tribes. Because it was

unlikely that the Cass party would honor an agreement with a woman (assuming she had

 

Ja

9!

25

no leadership role), Oshauguscodawaqua prompted George to assemble the chiefs so that
she could address them in a context in which she was respected as a leader and advisor.
She worked covertly, probably not wanting to reveal to the Cass Party that a woman held
such a crucial role in the decision-making process. Oshauguscodawaqua's actions during
the summer of 1820 gave her the reputation among Euro-American dignitaries as a
person accomodating to white leadership and settlement; indeed Schoolcraft believed as

late as 1855 that she counselled the chiefs because she was impressed with the bravery

of Lewis Cass entering the lodge of Sassaba unarmed.48 More realistically,
Oshauguscodawaqua took action in the interest of the tribe, not in the interest of the
expansionist-minded members of the Case Party.

Such was one example of the ways in which Oshauguscodawaqua presented
alternative examples of female roles to Jane, who had been schooled by her father and
aunt in the Euro-American ideals of womanhood. The year 1820 was a turning point in
Jane Johnston's life, not only because Henry Schoolcraft moved to the Sault after the
expedition, but because the garrison brought many Euro-Americans to her home,
including the “garrison ladies“ who came to wield social power in the community over
women like the strong and independent Oshauguscodawaqua. The Americans that came to
the Sault reinforced the Euro-American ideals of womanhood that had been cultivated in
Jane, which left her, as a Metis woman, the option of being a “lady“ or a “savage“ in the

eyes of the new social circle.

CHAPTER II: YOUNG JANE JOHNST ON AND THE NEW INDIAN AGBt'T
When Jane Johnston was born on January 31, 1800, the settlement of Sault
Ste. Marie was small enough that it required no streets. A few French families lived
permanently at the site, and saw over one million dollars worth of Northwest
Company furs pass through the settlement in a good year. The «men, clerks,
guides and interpreters passed through as well, but the largest portion of the

population--the indigenous population—came seasonally to the Sault to trade, fish and

make sugar from the maple tree sap.1 Even though Jane Johnston was isolated from
the centers of Euro-American culture and was taught the Anishinabeg language and
cultural values, she early on sought to please her father by emulating his reading and
absorbing his concerns for European-style education. Henry Rowe Schoolcraft
described Johnston's influence on his daughter as follows:
Her father naturally became her earliest instructor, and directed her reading and
from him she derived, that purity of language, correct pronunciation, and

propriety of taste and manners, which distinguished her. Under his direction she
perused some of the best historians, the lives of Plutrarch (sic) the spectator

and British essayists generally with the best dramatists and poets.2
Johnston paid special attention to the educations of his daughters as well as his sons,
and was anxious for them to be educated as European children in grammar, literature,
culture and be conditioned to their respective gender roles. In his early letters to

Jane he communicated his concern for the education of his children, but Jane was the

only one of the Johnston children excluded from formal schooling.3

Jane's education came at a unique time in women's history, a time preceding
cultural Victorianism when women's roles were debated in upper and middle class Euro-
American society. As the midde class grew and the women became more idle without
the need to produce goods in the home as in the pre-industrial era, their roles

according to religious literature, gift annuals, and women's magazines became more

26

 

locus
VVehe

chara«

Even t
shown

century

27

focused on making the home a genteel haven from‘the evils of public life. Barbara
Welter calls this phenomenon “The Cult of True Womanhood,“ and describes its
character and pervasiveness in the Euro-American mind as follows:
The attributes of True Womanhood, by which a woman judged herself and was
judged by her husband, her neighbors and society could be divided into four
cardinal virtuesupiety, purity, submissiveness and domesticity. Put them all

together and they spelled mother, daughter, sister, wife--woman. Without
them, no matter whether there was lame, achievement or wealth, all was

ashes. With them she was promised happiness and power.4
Even though Walter's study of True Womanhood begins in the 1820s, Nancy Cott has
shown has shown that the redefining of women's roles began in the late eighteenth-
century, with the burgeoning of the middle class:

Housekeeping and childcare continued to require married women's presence at

home, while the household diminished in population, kinds of business, and range

of contacts. In an intriguing development in language usage in the early
nineteenth century, “home“ became synonymous with “retirement“ or “retreat“

from the world at large.5
Because True Womanhood was a hegemonic ideology, women of color and lower class
women without the means to emulate gender prescriptions were at an immediate
disadvantage in Euro-American society. This ideology must have seemed especially
absurd to Native women, who took pride in the hard work they did for the tribe and would
have been useless in a hunting-trading society if they took on the ornamental trappings
of “ladyship.“ Native women were also at an disadvantage in Euro-American society
because of the way they were fixed in the national psyche as “squaws.“ Rayna Green says

this Euro-American cultural symbol of Native women depicts them as dirty, licentious,

very dark-skinned and ugly. at opposite ends of the pure and pious True Woman.6 As a
young middle class Metis woman, Jane found herself between two ideologies of women's
roles: tribal and Euro-American.

In 1809 Jane accompanied her father to England and Ireland where she spent one

 

winter
moral (1

'many

 

rememb
cannot t

Moore.

28

winter with her aunt Jane Moore, who was to be a lasting influence on her social and
moral development. Indeed, Schoolcraft notes that “Mrs. Moore of Wexford“ taught Jane

“many lessons of female etiquette, of which, she always retained the most perfect

remembrance.“7 Schoolcraft also writes that Jane Moore planned to adopt Jane, but this
cannot be confirmed by the surviving correspondence between John Johnston and Jane
Moore. Apparently Johnston decided to leave England because the young girl missed her
mother. When they returned by way of Mackinac, they met a boat sent by
Oshauguscodawaqua, who was obviously anxious to see them. Jane Moore corresponded
with Jane throughout her childhood, and often wrote on the subject of female virtue and
piety. In 1815 she wrote Jane, here showing that she subscribed to the notion of True
womanhood:

[a young girl should be the] seat of purity, gentlenefs & filial affections, those

[illegible] ornaments of the Female character, these Graces my Dear are only to

be obtained by a firm Faith, & fear of offending God & religiously observing all

the Divine and Beautiful precepts of the Holy Gospel, in which I am sure you read
a Chapter every day. . . I wish I had an opportunity of sending you Mifs Mores

strictures upon female education. . . 3
Like many nineteenth-century Euro-American women, Jane came to identify
prescribed female social roles with religious devotion, which was taught to her first
presumably by John Johnston and reinforced by the views of Jane Moore and Henry
Rowe Schoolcraft. As noted in an earlier chapter, Oshauguscodawaqua married
Johnston from a sense of filial obedience, which provided a model for Jane in her
relationship to men, particularly her father. Perhaps Oshauguscodawaqua reiterated
the view that a woman's worth was determined by her religious devotion and service
to her husband, since she did eventually adopt Presbyterianism, but by example,
Oshauguscodawaqua, and other Native American women, made lasting impressions

upon Jane by exhibiting qualities such as diplomacy (as discussed in Chapter I),

 

leader

read t
James
womer
is that
descrit

contair
dispos.
When I
their h
Johnstc

hUSban.

29

leadership and even military fortitude.

Anna Jameson's writings about Jane Johnston are particularly telling when
read to examine how the young Jane observed the roles of Indian women. After
Jameson acknowledges that Jane was the main source of her discussion on Indian
women, she relates that “I should doubt, from all I see and hear, that the Indian squaw
is that absolute slave, drudge and non-entity in the community which she has been
described [in popular stereotypes]. She is despotic in her lodge, and everything it

contains is here: even of the game her husband kills, she has the uncontrolled

disposal.“9 Jameson also relates, from her discussions with Jane, that Indian women

when married believed their ties with their families to be stronger than those with

their husbands.‘0 In another instance Jameson is even more explicit about Jane
Johnston's childhood memories, this time of a particular Indian woman who, after her
husband died in battle,
assumed his arms, ornaments, wampum, medal and went out with several war
parties, in which she distinguished herself by her exploits. Mrs. Schoolcraft,
when a girl of eleven or twelve years old, saw this woman, who was brought in
the Fort at Mackinaw (sic) and introduced to the commanding officer; and retains
a lively recollection of her appearance, and the interest and curiosity she excited

. . . She was invited to dine at the officers' mess, perhaps as a joke, but conduc
herself with so much intuitive propriety and decorum, that she was dismissed

with all honor and respect. . . Heroic women are not rare among the Indians. . .
The fact that Jane related these notions and incidents to Jameson reveals her awareness
of and interest in the varied roles of Indian women. Why she chose to align herself
almost completely with Euro-American values and lifestyles could be due to her desire to
please her father, or that Euro-Americans clearly held the majority of economic power,
but the main reason was most likely religion.

As a young woman, Jane could extract moral lessons from the most trivial of

incidents, rivalling the best of Puritans . In her late teens, Jane took fewer trips with

her I
work

Ste. I

COI'IS

dista

Jane
00ml
very
000V
religj
at (h

cont

Qtas

30

her father to Mackinac and other locations, and her main occupations were household
work, reading, writing, and gardening. By her eighteenth year, the population of Sault
Ste. Marie had grown enough to offer the temptations of dances and other social occasions,
of which her brothers partook. It is unlikely Jane participated in this society,
consisting mainly of people of French and Indian descent, because of sickness and
distaste, as she writes in this letter of July 14, 1818:

Believe me, my dear Papa, the greater my knowledge is of M51. the more

my heart is raised with gratitude to the m Giver of all good, for my

immured situation where I can contemplate and reflect on the pleasures of the
Fashionable crowd without one stifled sigh or wish to partake of their idea]

timings-‘2
Jane was often ill during childhood, as she was to be throughout her life, and in the
company of her books, and her mother and sisters, she became well-read, imaginative,
very attached to the society of her family, and unaffectedly pious, the latter being very
convenient since her health often thwarted the means to follow up on any temptation her
religion forbade. When the young and literary-minded Henry Rowe Schoolcraft arrived
at the Sault as the newly appointed American Indian Agent, Jane Johnston met him with
confidence.

Henry Rowe Schoolcraft was born in 1793 in Albany County, New York into a
glass-making family. His early schooling was sporadic, but Schoolcraft possessed an
almost insatiable curiosity, a quality that marked his adult life also, and the activities of
his youth ranged from rock-collecting to painting to editing a literary manuscript called
“The Cricket.“ As a young man he seriously studied chemistry and the glass-making
trade in general. His father arranged for him to supervise the Ontario Glass Company,
and eventually Schoolcraft was dismissed from the position for reasons unknown. After

several other unsuccessful glass-making ventures, he decided to visit the Missouri lead

 

 

 

dent:
in the

tool it

British
topog,
exped
natura
lndian
accou

he let

govern
Schoo

CrEater

popUla

31

district to seek new sources of minerals to support the glass industry. The trip resulted
in the publication of Wm. Schoolcraft used the book as a

tool to seek a mining superintendency position, but found no more than an offer to

accompany the Cass Expedition as mineralogist, which he accepted.13

The Cass Expedition, as mentioned earlier, was meant to survey the extent of
British influence on the Native Americans of the Great Lakes region. Among others, a
topographer (David Bates Douglass) and a scientist (Schoolcraft) also manned the
expedition, proving that the Secretary of War John Calhoun had intentions of surveying
natural resources on Indian land as well as seeking ways to diminish British influence on
Indians. Following the expedition, Douglass and Schoolcraft planned to publish an
account of the trip, but Schoolcraft worked furiously to publish the first account when

he returned.

 

mm was soon published and Schoolcraft now felt confident he would obtain a
government appointment concerning mines. On May 8, 1822, after Senate confirmation,
Schoolcraft was appointed to the position of Indian Agent, a loosely defined position

created to oversee and carry out government interests in the affairs of the Indian

population.14

Almost immediately after Schoolcraft's arrival at the Sault, he took up
residence at the Johnston home. John Johnston quickly developed a liking to
Schoolcraft, whom he considered a man of society and learning. Jane Johnston began
borrowing books from Schoolcraft, and their relationship began with literary
discussions. As early as October of 1822, the two began writing affectionate letters
to each other, even though they lived under the same roof. Their early letters were

often thick with literary allusions, sometimes bordering on the ridiculous, such as this

32

note, accompanying an unknown gift: “litanja, Queen of the Fairies, sends the jargon
[illegible] that would be procured within her dominion to the King of Motolo, as proof
of respect, and sincere esteem---“15 Richard Bremer suggests that the literary

character of the early romance was due to the anxiety both felt from their lack of

formal education,16 but, in the isolation of Sault Ste. Marie, Jane may have been
anxious simply to discuss her reading with some one other than a family member and
conveniently applied her literary thoughts to her romance.

Despite the pretentiousness of some of their letters, Jane often showed herself a
match for Henry's intellect, and on one occasion was openly frustrated with his
misunderstanding of a word usage. He subsequently accused her of basic flirting after
she had termed him a “dunes.“ She went to considerable trouble to prove she felt herself
above the pastime of flirting:

If you had listened, dearest Henry, to the explanation I was going to give you of

the etiology of the word I put to you, you would have seen at once, that I could not

have had the most distant idea of giving offence, & for that reason I shall
trouble your patience still farther, by enabling you to judge for yourself, by
transcribing, word for word, as I read it myself—“Dance is said by Dr. Johnson
to be a word of unknown etymology, but Stanihurst, an old author, explains it.

The term duns, from duns Scotus, so famous for his subtle scholastic questions,

he says is so trivial & common in all schools, that who surpafseth others in

caviling, sophistry or subtle philology, is forthwith nicknamed a duns or dunce. “

You see my friend, that no word perhaps has been more changed from its original
meaning than this, the derivation of it, conferred honor & applause instead of an

improper epithet-J7
Their courtship continued through 1823 by the exchange of small gifts, notes and

books, and Jane sometimes wrote short critiques (usually favorable) of the books she

borrowed from Schoolcraft.18
The trials of romance brought out a poetic voice in Jane Johnston, when in

March 1823 she wrote “The Contrast, a Splenetic Effusion.“ This poem illustrates

33

how Jane often gave voice to her personal life through art, and “The Contrast“ shows
how she viewed her romance in the light of her previous friendly relationships. Its
chief attribute is not metrical experimentation, for Jane uses almost perfectly
regular metrical verse, here in couplets, in most of her poetry. The poem's attention
to a specifically female rite of passage is its strength, in that True Womanhood
ideology uses romance, particularly marriage, as the single most defining factor in a
woman's growth. Jane recognizes that the first romance signals the end of “the
morning of (her) days“ and treats romance as anything but idyllic. Despite its
“splenetic' nature, the poem exhibits an amount of reason and maturity uncommon to
the love poems of the first-time romances of twenty-three-year-olds:
The Contrast, s Splenetlc Effuslon

With pen in hand I shall contrast,

What I have felt—what now has pastl

Slights from my friends I never knew,

Serenely sweet my hours they flew-

Or if by chance one gave me pain,

The wish to grieve me not again;

Exprefs'd in terms endearing, kind,

Infused a joy throughout my mind-

That to have caused one moment pain'd,

Seem'd more like blifs but just attain'd,

With gratitude my heart had mov'd;

In fault--by them to be reprov'd:

So mild and gentle were their words,

To me more sweet than songs of birds:

For well I knew that each behest,

Was warrn'd by love-convincing testl
Thus pafs'd the morning of my days;

My only wish to gain the praise,

Of friends deserving of my love-

By actions kind, I strove to prove,

That M, was them to please,

The source from which sprang all my easel

My efforts kindly were receiv'd--

My feelings W believed.

But oh! how soon the scene had chang'd,

Since I have in Love's mazes ranged.

34

Oft in tears I sigh and languish,
Forc'd to bear in silent anguish-
Looks strange--exprefsions often kind-
Without an intercourse of mind;
Constrain'd to bear both heat and cold-
Now shun'dunow priz'd above all gold:
In converse now, we take delight,
Oft joining in fair Fancy's flight.
Now state--with pleasure smiling;
Kindnefs mutuaI--time beguiling.

But how transient! Oh how soon,

Every blifs is tum'd to glooml19
It is unknown how Oshauguscodawaqua felt about the romance, but she did act as

Schoolcraft's host and sometimes sent him gifts of maple sugar, which were

reciprocated with gifts such as fruit.20 Jane and Henry married on October 12,
1823, and continued to live mostly at the Johnston home until the completion of the
construction of a two-story mansion to house his family and the agency, which was
finished in 1827.

Another side of the courtship and early marriage of the Schoolcrafts was the
attraction Henry felt for Jane as a Native American. Bremer notes that, along with a
large dowry promised by John Johnston, Jane's “mixed-blood ancestry“ presented “an
exotic allurement as well,“ but because of “the degree of Jane Johnston's assimilation

into white culture, however, such a consideration, if it operated at all, probmly did so at

a subconscious level.“21 But Schoolcraft's interest in Jane's lndian descent is hardly
subconscious, for he openly refers to her in his EononoLMomoim and in M
191899.! as “the northern Pocahontas“ and once states in an early letter that he was

tempted to write to Jane on a piece of birch bark, the reason for which he did not state,

but it certainly was not from the lack of writing paper.22 The romance of her ancestry
obviously allured him at a conscious level.

Rayna Green, in “The Pocahontas Perplex: the Image of Indian Women in

35

American Culture,“ explains that the actions of Pocahontas, as recounted by John Smith,
“set up one kind of model for lndian-White relations that persists-dong after most
Indians and Anglos ceased to have face-to-face relationships. Moreover, as a model for
the national understanding of Indian women, her significance is undeniable.‘ The
“Pocahontas Perplex“ describes one stereotype of Native American women: self-

sacrificing for her lover but not her tribe, noble and always having the ability to

recognize the moral superiority of European men.23 Schoolcraft, continuously
concerned with social pretensions, recounted how popular Jane was when he introduced

her to Detroit and New York society in 1824:

A large part of the interest to others and attention excited arose manifestly fro
the presence of a person of Indian descent, and of refined manners and educatio
in the person of Mrs. Schoolcraft. . . There was something like a sensation in
every circle, and often persons, whose curiosity was superior to their moral

capacity of appreciation, looked intensely to see the northern Pocahontas.24
Even though Schoolcraft berates the bad manners of these onlookers, he includes a letter
in his EoLsonaLMomojro from Samuel Conant, a person Schoolcraft respected greatly
enough to be proud of the attention Conant paid to Jane. The portion of the letter by
Conant that Schoolcraft included in Momoin demonstrates another stereotype:

When I first visited Mr. Schoolcraft, I looked about for his w. I carried

such a report to my wife that we were determined to seek her acquaintance and

were not less surprised than recompensed to find such gentleness, urbanity,

affection and intelligence, under circumstances so illy calculated, a might be

supposed to produce such amiable virtues. But all have learned to estimate

human nature more correctly, and to determine that nature herself, not less
than the culture of skillful hands, has much to do with the refinement and polish

of the mind.25
Conant, knowing full well the influences of Jane's European father, attributes her
“polished“ qualities to some innate sense of refinement that shaped herdespite the
isolation of her childhood, where she faced unfavorable circumstances in which to

develop prescribed social attributes. During the trip of 1824-25 to Detroit and New

36

York, Jane's rejection of Indian culture for European “polish“ was positively reinforced
by her husband, who showed her off as the “northern Pocahontas,“ and she was equally as
trapped by the stereotype of her “innate“ sense of “urbanity,“ a quality she worked on
her whole life. She mentions nothing about this sort of attention in her correspondence
from this trip, other than to say she was uncomfortable at times with the extreme

hospitality of the Conants, with whom she and her sister Anna Maria were staying when

Henry left on business.26
Schoolcraft in his early marriage enjoyed the attention given to his wife, for

he had a “ready-made“ Pocahontas to flaunt in society, a woman, according to Green's
“Pocahontas Perplex,“ who was thought to have sacrificed her people and culture for
the learned and morally superior Schoolcraft, even though Jane Johnston had already
adopted Euro-American culture under the tutorship of her father and her aunt Jane
Moore. Jane fully recognized that she was supposed to see Schoolcraft as her
superior, and it may have been during these early years that she penned this short
untitled poem:

-- -- -- --the full sum of me

Is the sum of something; which to term in grofs

Is an unlefson'd Girl, unschool'd, unpractis'd:

Happy in this, she is not yet so old

But she may learn; 8 happier than this,

She is not bred to be so dull but she can learn;

Happiest of all, is that her gentle spirit
Commits itself to yours to be directed

As from her lord, her governer, her king.27
Schoolcraft's motivations for promoting Jane as a “northern Pocahontas“ are not
difficult to analyze. In his WWW Schoolcraft showed that he
abhorred the “savage state“ and used Indian women as the barometer by which to

measure Indians and the degree to which they had been “civilized“:

37

The savage state is universally found to display itself in the most striking
degree in the situation, dress, personal accomplishments, and employments of
females, and these evidences maybe looked upon as unerring idexes to the
degree of civilization. . . Doomed to drudgery and hardship from infancy
«without the elegance of dressuwithout either mental resources, or personal

beautyuwhat can be said in favour of Indian women!28
In the WW it seems as if the only thing an Indian woman could do to
redeem herself to Schoolcraft was to commit suicide, for the only other extended
reference to Indian women is the story of a young woman who jumped off a cliff rather
than betray a secret vow to her lover. Schoolcraft included the story to immortalize the
woman's name in print, since “. . . such an instance of sentiment is rarely to be met with

among barbarians, and should redeem the name of this noble-minded girl from

oblivion.“29 The story appealed to Schoolcraft because of its similarity to the
Pocahontas metaphor of lndian-white relations. Since Jane demonstrated the “elegance
of dress,“ the “personal beauty,“ and the “mental resources“ prescribed by Euro-
American standards, Schoolcraft accepted, even displayed proudly, his “Pocahontas“
wife.

The years between 1823 and 1826 were that happiest of the Schoolcraft
marriage. Jane gave birth to a son on July 27, 1824 whom they named William Henry.
They worked together gathering lndian stories and compiling notes on the Anishinabeg
language. During their time in New York and Detroit, Henry oversaw the publication of

and travelled to Washington

 

and Philadelphia conducting agency business and promoting himself.30 Schoolcraft's
letters to his wife (who was ill during the trip) are filled with descriptions of the
country he saw, and Jane, always eager to learn of new things, appreciated his attention
to travel description:

I feel grateful to you for your kind solicitude about my health, 8 at the same time
that you have not lost sight of what may tend to improve me, I mean the geography

38

of the Country: for this I cannot boast of having seen with my own eyes, that
interesting portion you have pafsed, yet I can form a pretty good idea of its
richnefs, beauty 8 situation from your having so kindly described you route, 8
hope you will be pleased to find that your instruction is not quite thrown

away--31

Their letters also reflect the excitement manifested in the notion of parenthood.
Jane recorded the progress of “Sweet Willy,“ and Henry greatly regretted his absence
from the two. His new station as father provoked religious contemplation and, as
Bremer notes, changed his whole attitude toward Christianity, which he had heretofore
“regarded . . . as a history of human events interspersed with moral axioms rather than
the work of divine inspiration. The winter following his marriage he began receiving
religious instruction“ of the type that “emphasized the depraved nature of man and taught
that only Christ could renovate the human heart. . . “ Bremer also states that this
religious epiphany made Schoolcraft realize that “his pursuit after the truths of science

and language. . . had prevented him from properly contemplating and appreciating the

nature of God.“32 Henry became as thoughtful of his familial situation as his religion
after the birth of his son, a concern that reached its height during the life of William
Henry:
. . . a thousand. . . interrogations suggest themselves to me, when my thoughts
lead me, as they perpetually do, back to you, and your little parlour in Basely

Street. What an interesting chain of thoughts is connected with the idea of a
home, 8 a wife, 8 a child. What a new source of feelings, pleasure 8 anxieties

does it open to me; of all of which, I formerly knew nothing.33
Jane was equally thrilled with motherhood, reporting to the absent Henry all the details

of his growth and once stating “I. . . find, more than ever, what a blessing he is. I don't

know what I should do without him.“34
When the Schoolcrafts returned to the Sault, they faced another separation

when Henry left for ten weeks to attend to business at Prairie du Chien. Strained

39

relations between the tribes and the American government prompted Jane to warn

Henry to be “as cunning as a serpent“ but equally “as hamlets as a Dove.“35 During
the separation Jane kept Henry abreast of the local happenings, sometimes addressing

agency business and the latest plots against him by the officers of the garrison with

whom he held a perpetual feud}36 Schoolcraft reciprocated her letters with an
affection and sentiments that go unmatched in the following years of their marriage:

That delicacy of sentiment, modest deportment, equanimity of temper,
benevolence of disposition, engaging simplicity, correct taste and good
understanding which did so much to captivate the father, will certainly suggest
the best mode of directing the son. I know you will rule the one, as you have
continued torule the other, by the [illegible] force of love, more powerful than
authority of custom, or the power of law. Is not this a precious confefsion to
make twenty-two months after marriage, and will you not owe one at least a

dozen extra kifses on my retum?37

Like many events in her domestic life, the absence of Henry prompted Jane to

express her imaginations through poetry:

Say dearest friend, when you light your bark
Glides down the Mississippi dark?

Where nature's charms in rich display,

In varied hue appears so gay,

To wrap your mind and gain your eye,

As quick you sail and pals them by.

Say do thy thoughts ere turn on home?
As mine to thee incessant roam.

And when at eve, in deserts wild

Dost thou think on our lovely child?
Dost thou in stillness of night

By the planet's silvery light

Breathe a prayer-- to the Spirit above?

For thy Wife, and thy child, my love.38
This poem, sometimes called “To Henry“ reflects the dichotomy of home and travel,
which Jane contemplated a great deal during her marriage, during which Henry was

often absent and Jane left to take care of the home and the children and other family

40

members. The first stanza depicts how the explorer loses himself in new and wild
lands that “wrap your mind and gain your eye,“ but the second asks the traveller to
look homeward. Like many of her poems, “the Spirit above“ is mentioned, but in this
case is secondary, and a means to reach the domestic circle. When Jane's home life
became increasingly difficult in the late 1830s, she would return to the theme of
domesticity versus the outside world in a less romantic and sentimental way.

After Henry's return, the two renewed their earlier literary discussions, and
the next year would be Jane's most prolific year in writing. She was encouraged by
associates of Schoolcraft's, among them Thomas McKenney, who visited the
Johnstons during the Schoolcrafts' early marriage. He was impressed with a song
sung by Charlotte one evening, and asked Jane to transcribe and translate the song,
which she entitled “The O-Jib-way Maid.“ It is one of the few poems written by Jane
in the Anishinabeg language, and its original author is unknown. Jane's translation

was reprinted in McKenney's WM, presumably to add what
he thought validity to his statement “When I look upon this group of interesting
children, and reflect that their mother is a native of our wilds, I wish for the sake of

the Indians, that. . . all who might have influence to bring about a complete system for

their preservation and improvement. . . could see them too.“39 Jane's rejection of
the “wilds“ was reinforced by almost every associate of Henry Schoolcraft's, and
this must have encouraged her writing, which was seen as an ornament of

accomplishment toward civilization.

The O-Jib-way Maid
Original of the O-Jib-way Maid

Aun dush ween do win ane
Gitchy Mocomaun aince
Caw auzhaw woh do mode

41

We yea, yea haw ha 8c.

Wah yaw burn maud e
Ojibway quainee un e
We maw jaw need a
We yea, yea haw ha 8c.

Omowe maun e
We nemoshain yun
We maw jaw need a
We yea, yea haw ha 80.

Caw ween gush sha ween
Kin wainyh e we yea
O ugh maw e maw seen
We yea, yea haw ha 80.

Me gosh sha ween e yea
Ke bish quaw bum maud e
Tehe won ain e maud e
We yea, yea haw ha 8c.

Jane translated the song literally, and McKenney included this and a poetic rendition by a
“Major H. S--th“ in his fikotonoo:

Why. What's the matter with the young American? He crosses the river with
tears in his eyes. He sees the young Ojibway girl preparing to leave the place; he
sobs for his sweetheart, because she is going away, but he will not sigh long for her,
for as soon as he is out of her sight, he will forget her.

VERSICN
That stream, along whose bosom bright,
With jay I've seen your bark appear;
You cross, no longer with delight,
Nor I with joy, your. greeting hear.

And can such cause, alone, draw tears
From eyes, that always smil'd before?
Of parting-can it be the fears;

Of parting now-to meet no more?

But heavily though now you sigh:
And tho' your griefs be now sincere,
To find our dreaded parting nigh,
And bid farewell to pleasures dear-

When o'er the waters, wide and deep,
Far-thine Ojibway Maid shall be,

42
New loves will make you cease to weep,
Nor e'er again, remember me.40
Jane's translation of “The O-Jib-way Maid“ reflects themes of love and loss, and
provides a unique Insight into an aspect of the gender dynamics of colonization. She
probably learned the song from Oshauguscodawaqua, whose father at first refused to

allow Johnston to marry her because of European men's often flippant attitudes toward

relationships with Indian women.
The winter of 1826-27 was important to the literary career of Jane Johnston

Schoolcraft, for it was this year that Henry Schoolcraft provided her an outlet for her

writings in the form of the manuscript magazine IDS—WWI. later called

Muzzonjooun meaning “printed document or book.“41 The magazines were devoted

primarily to the study of Indians and were circulated around Sault Ste. Marie, Detroit

and the East Coast.42 Philip Mason, who notes that W is the first

magazine of Michigan, says that this publication “reveals Schoolcraft's dependence on the
John Johnston family of Sault Ste. Marie for their help in assembling data on the
Chippewa.“43 Its publication also reveals the interest Jane Johnston took in the literary
traditions of the Anishinabeg people, for she contributes a variety of tales told to her by
Indian relatives, most likely by Oshauguscodawaqua. Her poems also received more than

a regional distribution through the medium of the magazine for which she wrote,

transcribed and copied.

Her submissions to mm were written under the pseudonyms

of “Leelinau' and “Rosa.“ Under these names, Jane Johnston, especially in the earlier
magazines, played the part of the “good lndian,“ one who admits to the superiority of

Europeans and their religion, as in this excerpt from the first letter from 'Our

Correspondent, Leelinau“:

 

43

My father was descended from one of the most ancient and respected leaders
of the Ojibway bands--long before the white people had it In their power to
distinguish an Indian by placing a piece of silver, in the shape of a medal on his
breast. . . [He] taught me to esteem and appreciate white people. He often told
me that you had a right knowledge of everything, and that you knew the truth,
because you had things past and present written down in books. . . you white
people say that there is but one true, great, and good God: then I feel a
deep sense of regret that I do not know more of that good Spirit, and what I

ought to do to please him.“
This letter sets up the personage of “Leelinau,“ created by Jane, as the model of the
“civilized“ lndian. Jane may have meant simply to portray a positive image to
Detroiters and Eastern readers who were exposed to few positive images of Indian people
other than this noble savage stereotype, similar b the “Pocahontas Perplex.“ She was
also expressing her own views on Euro-American culture and religion, for she was
always deeply devoted to written literature and Protestant Christianity.
The first of the poems under the name 'Rosa“ was introduced to readers by calling

attention to the author's ancestry:

By an Ojibway Female Pen
To Sisters on a Walk in the Garden, After a Shower

Come sisters come! the shower's past,
The garden walks are drying fast,

The Sun's bright beams are seen again,
And nought within, can now detain.

The rain drops tremble on the leaves,

Or drip expiring, from the eaves:

But soon the cool and balmy air,

Shall dry the gems that sparkle there,
With whisp'ring breath shake ev'ry spray,
And scatter every cloud away.

Thus sistersl shall the breeze of hope,
Through sorrows clouds a vista ope;
Thus, shall affliction's surly blast,

By faith's bright calm be still'd at last;
Thus, pain and care,-the tear and sigh,
Be chased from every dewy eye;

And life's mix'd scene itself, but cease,

To show us realms of light and peace.45

 

 

44

Her poems also reflect the themes of sadness and/or sickness such as “Resignation,“
Lines Written Under Affliction“ and “Lines Written Under Severe Pain and Sickness,“
but some achieved quite the opposite effect, celebrating life, nature, and religious
spirituality, such as this one:

Lines
To a Friend Asleep

Awake my friend! the morning's fine,
Waste not in sleep the day divine,
Nature is clad in best array,

The woods, the fields, the flowers are gay;--
The sun is up and speeds his march,
O'er heaven's high aerial arch,

His golden beams with lustre fall,

On lake and river, cot and hall;-

The dews are sparkling on each spray,
The birds are chirping sweet and gay,
The violet shows its beauteous head,
Within its narrow, figured bed;-
The air is pure, the earth bedight,
With trees and flowers, life and light,
AlI--all inspires a joyful gleam,

More pleasing than a fairy dream.
Awakel the sweet refreshing scene,
Invites us forth to tread the green,
With joyful hearts, and pious lays,
To join the glorious Maker's praise,
The wond'rous works--the paschal lamb,

The holy, high and just I Am.46
Two of Jane Schoolcraft’s most interesting poems are “Otagamiad' and “Invocation to
My Maternal Grandfather On Hearing His Descent From Chippewa Ancestors
Misrepresented.“ These poems signify Jane's literary association with the oral
tradition of her Anishinabeg relatives, who passed down lessons and stories by
recounting the experiences of older generations or the deceased. Jane pays homage to
the memory of Waubojeeg in both poems, which are characterized by the respect

accorded in this, the first stanza of the long “Otagamiad':

 

45

In northern climes there Iiv‘d a chief of fame,
LaPointe his dwelling, and Ojeeg his name,
Who oft in war had rais'd the battle cry,
And brav'd the rigors of an Arctic sky;
Nor less in peace those daring talents shone,
That raised him to his simple forest throne,
Alike endow'd with skill, such heaven's reward
To wield the oaken sceptre, and to guard.
Now round his tent, the willing chieftain's wait,
The gathering council, and the stern debate-
Hunters, 8 warriors circle round the green,
Age sits sedate, 8 youth fills up the scene,
With careful hands, with flint 8 steel prepare,
The sacred fire-~the type of public care.

 

The poem goes on to depict a council-fire debate over whether to war or not with

some friends-tumed-enemies in which Waubojeeg remarks “They pierce our forests,

8 they cross our lines/No treaty binds them, 8 no stream confines.“47 The poem is
significantly different from the rest of Jane Johnston's poetry, save the other one
devoted to Waubojeeg, in that it attempts to present colonization and intra-tribal
relations as having many more complexities than represented by the first letter of

“Leelinau.“ It also draws from history rather than the personal life of the young poet,
similar to the short stories Jane wrote for W and Schoolcraft's other

publications.

The main purpose of Jane Johnston Schoolcraft's prose writing seems to be the
explanation of Anishinabeg traditions, particularly storytelling, to the popular reading
public. This cultural mediation took the form of short tales, such as “The Origin of the
Robin, An Oral Allegory“ written by “Leelinau' in W . It appears in

the January 1827 edition and is a story of an over-ambitious man who forces his son to
feet through a longer-than-normal (12 days) period of fasting, even though the son tells
his father his dreams prophesy evil. The son, on the twelfth day, paints his chest

vermilion, saying his spirit called on him to be a bird, and he flew to the top of the lodge

46

as a robin. He cheered his father, who lost the glory he was to have through his son,

with the song of the robin. Following the story, the editor (Schoolcraft) writes that

Leelinau descends from European and Indian parents, contrary to the earlier fictional

character of Leelinau, who descended from two Indian parents. Schoolcraft proceeds

to explain the moral lesson of the tale: “We should not seek for unreasonable honors,
nor take unusual means to attain them!“ Jane Schoolcraft wrote other short

stories, usually of the morally instructive nature, such as “Moowis, the Indian
Coquette, a Chippewa Legend,“ “Mishosha, or the Magician and His Daughters, a

Chippewa Tale or Legend“ (penned by Bame-wa-wa-ge-zhik-a-quay, Jane's Anishinabe

name), and “The Foresaken Brother, a Chippewa Tale!“
One particular story stands out from her others, “Origin of Miscodeed, or the

Maid of Taquimenon.“ The main character, called Miscodeed, is the only child of Ma

Mongazida, and spends most of her time “revelling amid the wild flowers of her native
valley.“ It was here she obtained her guardian spirit in the form of a small white bird,
and she also began to take on characteristics of Taquimenon Valley itself: “Sweet Valley
of the Taquimenon, thou didst bless her with the charms of thy fragrance, causing the

most profound sensations of pleasure.“ Taquimenon (T ahquamenon to modern readers)

was not the only place Jane sought to portray. When Ma Mongazida senses the presence
of evil, “(w)hispers of the sign of an enemy on the lofty shores of the Pictured Rocks had

reached his ears.“ Before the family can leave the valley, they are slain by the

Outagamies. But as Miscodeed dies, she calls to her guardian spirit to keep her from the
enemy, whereby the white bird asks the earth to swallow her. Because Miscodeed had
exclaimed earlier “Oh that it were ever spring! that I could ever live and revel in the

wild beauties of my native valley-the sweet valley of Taquimenon,“ her guardian spirit

 

 

47

insures that Miscodeed rises from the ground every spring as “a modest little white

flower, bordered with pink border.“50
The story differs from her others first because it is not didactic. Secondly,

the story draws on the fame of Jane's own great-grandfather, Mamongeseda. By
mythologizing her family member in a context of the supernatural aspects of guardian
spirits, prophetic dreams and magic, the author leaves completely the realm of
Christian morality in which she has so thoroughly immersed herself. “Leelinau“ tells
the story without comment or a moral lesson, and the product is a celebration of
nature (particularly places familiar to Jane and Oshauguscodawaqua) and the

supernatural. As we will see later, Jane Johnston Schoolcraft took a greater interest

in the meanings of dreams than Christian theology allowed.
The March 28 and April 11 editions of mm the final surviving
editions, recorded a turning point in the lives of Henry and Jane Schoolcraft. The March

28 issue opened as such:

DIED,
On the 13th inst. at 11 o'clock at night, William Henry, only child of Henry R.
Schoolcraft Esqr. AE 2 years, 8 mo. 8 14 days. “Suffer little children to come

unto me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of heaven.51
William Henry, the object of extreme adoration by his parents, died of the croup after
one day of sickness. The loss was particularly difficult because Jane had suffered the
miscarriage of a baby girl in November 1825. The death was devastating to Henry, who
admired William in mm, saying “(w)ith a face of the purest Caucassian
(sic) whiteness, eyes with the brilliancy of polished diamond, auburn hair, and features

of the sweetest amenity of regularity, he became at once an object of the deepest love and

affection.“52 This issue of the 191399;, was devoted completely to thoughts, past and

present, on William Henry, and included Henry Schoolcraft's “Lines of a Father on the

48

Death of His Son' and “Reminiscence of Domestic Scenes,“ John Johnston's “Woman's
Tears,“ the unsigned “The Dead Son“ and several poems by Sault Ste. Marie residents that
addressed the death. Jane Schoolcraft contrbuted two poem's under her own name and one
under the name “Rosa.“ The first is a sonnet:

The voice of reason bids me dry my tears,

But nature frail, still struggles with that voice;
Back to my mind that placid form appears

Lifeless,-he seemed to love and to rejoice,
As in the arms of death he meekly lay.

Oh, Cherub Babel thy mother mourns thy loss,
Tho' thou hast op'd thine eyes in endless day;

And nought, on earth, can chase away my' grief
But Faith-pleading the merits of the Cross,

And Him, whose promise gives a sure relief.53

 

The second poem written under Jane's own name attracted admiration from
Governor Lewis Case and from Charles Trowbridge, who wrote to Schoolcraft that

The lines composed by Mrs. Schoolcraft. . . struck me with such peculiar force,
as well in regard to the pathos of style as the singular felicity of exprefsion, th
I have taken the liberty to submit them for perusal to the Govemer (sic) and one
or two of our mutual friends. . . The Govemer (sic) has advised me to publish

them, and this would accord with my own wish. . .54
The poem, titled “'l'o My Ever Beloved and Lamented Son William Henry,“ celebrates the
mother-child relationship in eight stanzas, and the last three stanzas indicate that Jane
felt the death was providential:

My sonl Thy coral lips are pale,

Can I believe the heart-sick tale,

That I, thy loss must ever wail?
My Willy.

The clouds in darkness seemed to low'r

The storm has past with awful pow'r,

And nipt my tender, beauteous flow'rl
Sweet Willy.

But soon my spirit will be free,
And I my lovely son shall see,
For God, I know, did this decree.

49

My Willy.~">5
Jane became seriously ill following William's death, and began to cling even more to her

religion, seeking consolation in the explanation of divine will and turning the death into a

moral lesson, as indicated by this excerpt from a letter to George Johnston:

. . . it is a consoling thought to me that my Mix is rejoicing with
exceeding joy before the throne of his Heavenly Father. . . OI My dear Brother,
jLwo, who still remain on earth would strive with all out hearts to live, so as
to become partakers of everlasting happiness, how gladly will the blefsed

Spirit of WW]! meet 8 welcome us to Heaven, when yyo_too

shall be obliged to leave our earthly tabemacleul cannot say more.56
Both the Schoolcrafts came to view the death, as Samuel Conant suggested in a letter
of May 29, 1827, as an event in which the divine will took away their “idol“ to force
them to submit to their true god.57 Willy‘s death marked the end of the sentimental

and romantic outlook that characterized the early Schoolcraft marriage.

CHAPTER III: ELMWOOD DAYS
From 1827 to 1833 the Schoolcrafts represented the model couple according
to the prescriptive “woman's sphere“ ideology of Euro-Merican culture. As Barbara
Walter and Nancy Cott have shown, didactic literature dlchotomized the realms of
men's and women's roles into public and private spheres, relegating men to the former
and women to the latter. Henry Schoolcraft, in addition to his duties as Indian Agent

and collecting information on the Anishinabeg, became active in the Michigan

Territorial Council serving on various committees.1 Both Jane and Henry participated
in the revivalist fervor of the time, but Jane took on extra religious duties, as
popular literature instructed. Barbara Welter found that, in magazines especially, “

religion or piety was the core of woman's virtue, the source of her strength. . .

Religion belonged to woman by divine right, a gift of God and nature.“2 While Jane
immersed herself in the role of the guardian of morality as a woman, she regretted
that Schoolcraft's public duties kept him from his family.

Despite the following of popular advice, the Schoolcraft marriage grew to be
increasingly strained in the years following the death of William Henry. Jane became
pregnant the following summer, and after a trip to Green Bay she was threatened with
another miscarriage on Mackinac Island during Henry's absence. When she felt well
enough to travel home to Sault Ste. Marie, she embarked in a canoe with George and two
canoe-men who became so drunk during the trip that they missed Jane's stop on
Drummond Island. She was forced to spend the night on the water and went back to
Drummond Island in the morning, when she insisted on staying and refused to navel
further with the men:

I desired my Brother to proceed home without me, I thought that hiring a canoe 8
Indians to take me home when I should acquire sufficient strength would be lefs

50

51

expensive in the and than detaining a worthlefs Canadian Crew-this is the fact

- judge for yourself 8 I hope you will not blame me for acting so independently

8 perhaps extravagantly--
Henry, writing from Butte de Mort, expressed distress over her situation. His anxiety
was probably heightened by Jane's calls for him to retum: “. . . your absence is indeed a
constant source of the deepest inquietude 8 grief 8 though I strive to place all in the
hands of a good 8 merciful being, yet my heart often fails and human frailty gets the
ascendency—“ Henry probably regretted his remarks of the previous month when he
berated Jane for dwelling on their misfortunes, saying “if our happiness is not so

complete as youthful fancy had anticipated, it is to be imputed in a great measure to our

own imperfections.“ He wrote that Jane placed a great deal of emphasis on interpreting
dreams for guidance and that his dreams of her had been “of a gloomy nature.“3

In October of 1828 Jane gave birth to Jane Susan Schoolcraft 4 who was later
called Janee. The Schoolcrafts moved into Elmwood, the fifteen-room mansion built with
government funds to house to Indian Agency office and the Agent's family. The
extravagant house must have been the picture of hypocrisy to local impoverished Indians
who were told they were to be taken care of by the Agent. Bremer writes of Elmwood as
an aberration in the frontier town:

The house itself, a two storied mansion of about fifteen rooms, crowned the
impressive grounds that stretched down to‘ the wharf on the river. The elegance
of its interior matched the imposing character of its exterior. The entrance hall
contained several large cases of carefully arranged mineral specimens while
Indian curiosities, animal skins and stuffed birds adorned the walls. As for the
rooms, Reverend Porter wrote that the one he occupied with its wallpaper,
carpet, and furnishings, was better than almost any in his native New England
town. Dinners at Elmwood took on an equally sumptuous character. The
Presbyterian minister reported that the menu offered by the Agent on two
consecutive evenings included eight varieties of meat, half a dozen vegetables, and
eight desserts in addition to bread and butter, water, cider, beer and wine. No
doubt such gargantuan feasts helped to while away the tedium of the long winter

evenings.5

Jane presided over the operations of the house and the agency during Henry's frequent

52

trips to Detroit, and the luxury of Elmwood must have presented her with a startling
contrast to the conditions under which her mother's people lived. By the middle of the
18208, the number of fur-bearing animals in the Upper Great Lakes had greatly

decreased, which posed a threat to the tribes that depended on them for trade and

food.6 The inevitable side effect of starvation, disease, also took its heavy toll on
Indians during the time Jane and Henry Schoolcraft prospered at Elmwood, especially
in the cholera epidemic of 1831. Henry's public duties kept him somewhat detached
from the distress of the community, but Jane, while still alienated because of wealth,
took an active role in the daily workings of the community.

The “Elmwood Diary“ that Jane wrote in April and May of 1828 describes the
activities of women in Sault Ste. Marie, now a town of about 150 people. Written for
amusement in the evenings, the diary tells of gardening, the progress of Janee. town
events and reports to Henry of all his wife's daily activities. What is most interesting
about the diary is that it describes the daily lives of Indian and Metis women who
were the backbone of the fur trade community. Jane describes their lives as
consisting of daily contacts with each other and a constant exchange of goods and
services from whitefish, maple sugar, moccasins and petticoats to nursing and
sickbed companionship. Jane and her mother and sisters comprised a very active part
of this network of community service, which included teaching the Ojibway language
to a lieutenant from the garrison. Jane wrote daily that she missed her husband, and
summed up her state of mind as such:

For some time I gave myself up to a pafsion of tears and vain regrets till

Reason resumed her empire 8 Resignation calmly led me to Hope 8 a bright

prospect, tho' perceived at a distance: but Imagination was busy and every

now and [non intruded itself, with sorrow In its train, 8 which alternately
present themselves to me 8 will no doubt continue to do so until my beloved

Friend 8 Protector returns, which the Almighty grant be soon-7

53

Despite the fact that her “Protector“ was away, she found companionship in the entire

community according to her diary. Henry comments little on the diary, which Jane sent

to him in Detroit, except to thank her for the affectionate “journal domestique.“8
Toward the end of May, Jane again became very ill and feared death. The absence

of Henry in Detroit coupled with this fear of death made her regret she did not live in a

more Christian-centered community. She lamented to Henry “you are rich 8

consequently happy in the enjoyment of the society of such Friends as you have in Detroit-

Oh how much I feel the want of truly pious 8 religious Friendsl“9 Jane had continued to
express her religious sentiments through poetry, and dedicated a whole volume of poetry
to this subject matter. ' It may have been during this “Elmwood“ period of her life that
she penned this untitled poem:

To trace Thee in Thy ways, Thy works, Thy word

Be this my soluoflghtl My bucinefs LordI

To thee and the remembrance of Thy name

May all muohomoa, and plans 8 efforts aim-

May my contrivances, and plots still be

To bring poor weary travell'rs home to Thee!
May all M, and my devices tend

To lead poor wanderers to the sinners Friend10
A reading list Jane requested from Henry in Detroit in June of 1828 further illuminates
her attention to religious matters: “Baxter's saints everlasting rest-Baxter's call to

the unconverted-Hannah Adams' Letters on the Gospels-Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progrefs—

Watt's Psalms 8 Hymns.“11

Jane became more ill during the summer of 1828 following a string of family
tensions and misfortunes. John Johnston, still pursuing the recovery of his losses
from the War of 1812, had become ill and was involved in a squabble with neighbors

over the exchange of services. Jane, who was hypersensitive about community

tit

iii

 

54

perceptions, distressed over the squabble in a letter to her brother: “OhI George, my
heart has been bleeding for my beloved, revered Father, when I see so much fraud,

cunning 8 monopoly, practised against his honouLaoIo exertions to maintain his

Family, but I hope truth will prevail in the end 8 there is no doubt [it] will.“12
Oshauguscodawaqua, in turn, feared for George for an unspecified reason and
instructed Jane to write to him for her:

She begs to advise you to be very circumspect in your conduct, 8 tho' she
wishes you to be so at all times, yet more nonioulofly so now, for reasons
best known to herself, 8 hopes you will not repose too_muob_confloonoo in

persons you may suppose your Friends but are not so in reality.13
The family worries culminated in the death of John Johnston in September of 1828.

He had just returned from New York and had to be carried from the boat to his home,

sick with typhus. The loss of her father was detrimental to Jane's health.14

A year later Jane was pregnant for the fourth time and just as ill as when her
father died. When Henry left in August of 1829 for another Territorial Council session,
Jane was angered by his desertion of her, for she was now in an advanced state of
pregnancy:

Your brother James had been gone some time, 8 Mr. Hulbert 8 Maria will be of

in a day or two at farthest 8 then I shall be left all alone, without one of my

dearest Husband's Friends near me, I cannot hem feeling as tho' I had been cast off
by you and yoga in the approaching terrors of . . .

 

Henry responded by saying that he dreams of her at night to enable them to be
together, but also stressed the importance of his duties and justified his absence with

divine will: “It is the order of providence that man should be active and woman

quiescent.“ 5

During this time, Jane exhibited an extreme lack of self esteem, something that

had never surfaced before her marriage. When she sensed that death was near, she wrote

55

to Henry to “think kindly of me notwithstanding all my faultsu.“ As the birth data came

closer, she became more and more despondent:
. . . the afsurance from yourself of your continued onluojyo and ungjxiood love
for me, unworthy as I am, had indeed operated as the most precious balm to my
heart 8 my prayer now is, that I may prove deserving of its continuance, for
believe me earth contains nothing I desire half so much as your affection 8
regard, 8 since the death of my beloved, ever indulgent Father, I have naturally
looked up with more dependence on you for all, all of the happinefs I ever
expect in this world, 8 if I could only act as my heart 8 mind dictate, you
would always be satisfied with me.

On October 2, 1829, Jane delivered John Johnston Schoolcraft, the last child she

would have.16

Bremer attributes Schoolcraft's unwillingness to put his wife's problems over
his professional position to “the recent Jacksonian revolution at Washington and the
widespread belief that McKenney's days in the Department were numbered as he had
opposed Old Hickory's election.“ Because the War Department's Thomas McKenney had

written about the Johnston family in his SW Schoolcraft

became uneasy about his position.17 Another factor soon intruded itself upon his
thinking of Jane Johnston. In November of 1830, Schoolcraft, after much
contemplation, decided to make a public confession of faith under the direction of
Reverend William Ferry on Mackinac Island. His letters to Jane change dramatically
after this confession, for he no longer had much room in his letters for sentiment or
material matters, these being subsumed by biblical lessons and Christian epistles. The
autocratic power of the father, as preached by Ferry, appealed directly to Schoolcraft’s
sense of gender and family. After a Thanksgiving sermon by Ferry on Mackinac Island,
Schoolcraft wrote to Jane to express his new-found interest in the gospels:

And now before bidding you a final adieu, let me entreat you to institute an

examination into your own heart and see whether there is nothing there adverse
to Christian principles--whether there are not opinions which are improper

56

weaknefses which ought to be strengthened, 8 hopes which ought to be abandoned.
Well do I know that such must be the case, 8 that “there is no one that liveth, no
not one“ that regulates his daily domestic conduct by a strict regard to Bible
doctrine. And it is the domestic conduct of the female that is most continually
liable to errors both of judgement 8 feeling. Nothing is more clearly scriptural,
that a woman should forsake “father 8 mother“ 8 cleave to her husband, 8 that
she should look up to him with a full confidence as, next to God, her “guide,
philosopher and friend.“ Often have I jolt, often have I said that this should be
the case, but never more sincerely than at this moment.
Here Schoolcraft resorts to an earlier, Puritanical view of Men: they were more
likely than men to yeild to the temptations of evil. He also relies on the cultural notion
that only through marriage can the woman be saved from evil, by putting her husband
“next to God.“ These notions reflect more about the Puritanical teachings of Reverend
Ferry than Schoolcraft's adherence to “woman's sphere“ ideology in which the woman
is to be the more pious of the sexes and the guardian of morality. One notion not given
up as “woman's sphere“ became popular was one that required the woman devote her
entire self and source of identity to her husband. Since most Anishinabeg women took
their main source of identity from their families rather than their husbands, Henry's
entreaty for Jane to “forsake 'mother 8 father” 8 cleave to her husband“ must have
been at odds with the teachings of Oshauguscodawaqua and the rest of the Indian
community at the Sault. It is obvious here that Schoolcraft defined his worth and his
wife's by the way each adhered to Euro-American socio-religious prescriptions. In
the light of Jane's recent feelings of vulnerability from sickness and pregnancy, it
seems the above “entreaty“ would be enough to enforce Schoolcraft's new-found
doctrine on the Christian family, but he goes on in specifics, bordering on cruelty:
While I am on this topic it may be proper for me to say more, to help thus to
enable you to get past conceptions of yourself, 8 the various relations you
sustain. Brought up in a remote place, without any thing which deserves the
name of a regular education, without the salutary influence of society to form
your mind, 8 without a mother, in many things, to direct, 8 with an overkind

father, who saw everything in the fairest light, 8 made even your sisters and
brothers 8 all about you to bow to you as their superior in every mental 8

57

worldly thing, you must indeed have pofsefsed a strength of intellect above the
common man, not to have taken up some manners 8 opinions 8 feelings, as
false 8 foolish, as flattery 8 self-deceit can be. What these things are, let
your subsequent knowledge of the world decide, 8 when you have detected any
thing of this kind, implore the father of Light, that he will enable you to

expurge it from your bosom.18
Henry's dismissal of Oshauguscodawaqua as a proper mother indicates his inability to
recognize modes of learning other than formal, Euro-American schooling. In his Innis

W in 1825. Schoolcraft mentioned a
missionary school for Indian children which worked with difficulty “to conquer to apathy

and inattention of children never habituated to restraint,“19 but in the teaching of
Christianity, he remained hopeful, as “no very strong barriers appear to stand in the
way of the introduction of Christianity among the northern tribes. Their institutions,

moral and political, are so fragile, as to be ready to tumble on the application of the

slightest power.“20 In the above passage, Henry approaches his wife with these
notions of “Indian character,“ as she lacked “the salutary influence of society to form
[her] mind.“ Just as Henry had seen Jane as a “Pocahontas“ in their early marriage
and courtship, five years later, as evidenced here, he saw her as he did many Indian
people: raw material to mold into Euro-American standards.

Ironically enough, while Henry was writing to Jane about the lack of her
mother's ability to “civilize' her, Henry's own brother James had stabbed a man at a
dance while fighting over a woman. He was caught and jailed while the authorities
waited to see if the man recovered from the stab wound. Jane was equally distressed
over the conduct of her maid Harriet, who was pregnant and unmarried. The situation
was even more cfistressing to Jane because the couple spent the nights together under
her roof without her knowledge. Although Jane refers to the man as Mrs. Audrain's

“Wan,“ she concerned herself less with race and more with the unmarried state

it

til

 

58

of the couple. Henry wrote to her that the two cannot be legally married, presumably
because of race, although this seems an odd reason for Henry to use in a town where
most European men married Native American women. Much to Jane's relief, Harriet
decided to marry the man, and the Schoolcrafts took care of Harriet during her
pregnancy. Jane eventually helped deliver her baby. These events, plus James
eventually escaping from jail and seeking shelter at the Schoolcraft's house, tested

Jane's nerves and led Henry to remark to her “I fear your inability to manage this

matter“ of household direction.21
The household events of November 1830 led Jane to lament “Oh why was I born
with feelings so W to every feeling of Nature! Oh that I had been a stoic 8
my heart been as cold 8 hard as Marblel“ But responding to Henry's letter on the state
of her soul and her second-rate upbringing, she exhibits not only stoicism, she
embraces his insults enthusiastically:
I have received your two letters in one, left in Mr. Stuart's care yesterday, I can
only say “Praise the Lord O my soul 8 all that is within me praise his holy
namel“ for now I shall indeed find encouragement 8 double inducement to proceed
in “fighting the good fight of faith“ for well I know 8 have long mouthed, without
sincerely struggling, against the foes that afsail me both nithin 8 nithout, but
most particularly those of my own conjuringuand tho' you have ambadjsanlx.
yet I thank you, because I know it was intended for my good--I have indeed
imbibed “false 8 foolish feelings as much as flattery 8 self-deceit could make

me“ but alas who has notl but thot_is_nothjno_to_mo neither shall it, with tho
hlotsinuLhouon prevent me from striving to become “a new creature“ in

sincerity 8 truth--22
The religious reawakening of the Schoolcrafts was much like those experienced by
many Euro-Americans at this time. Barbara Epstein has found that in the nineteenth
-century religious conversions, man and women experienced the notion of salvation in
different ways. Women usually focused on original sin and were more emotional in

their self-debasement from the guilt inherent in the notion of depraved humanity.

tit.

 

59

Men, on the other hand, were led to a reawakening by pressure from society or family
members and “they either disregarded the question of original sin or gave it much
less weight than they did particular sins. . . Instead or seeing conversion as an

affirmation of their worthiness, they often saw it as an assurance of entrance into

heaven, relief from particular sins committed in the past. . . “23 Henry Schoolcraft
was no exception, as evidenced in this letter to Jane:
God can give only spiritual gifts. . . We say that if men do not ask for favours, it
would be unreasonable for them to expect favours. Yet we act as if it were

reasonable to expect God would give what he is not asked to give. Such is the folly
of mankind. I also believe that private prayer should be more specific 8 that God

gives W 8 does not substitute MM- He has said, in the
person of Christ, if children ask for an egg will the parents give them a scorpion
8c. This whole passage seems to imply that God will actually grant what is asked

for, always presuming the request to be reasonable?4
Bremer rightly concludes that the above philosophy demonstrates Schoolcraft's

“striking ability to reconcile his faith with his own continuing pursuit of worldly goods

and public approbation.“25 While Jane strove “to become a new creature," Henry used
the conversion to justify his current pursuits. This exchange of thoughts following
Henry Schoolcraft's public confession of faith mark a turn in the nature of the
Schoolcraft correspondence. As noted earlier, their relationship had been characterized
by literary discussions, but following this confession the Schoolcrafts wrote letters
thick with proselytism and biblical doctrine. Their renewed mutual interest brought

them closer for a short time, and on Christmas day, 1830, Henry sent Jane a pressed

blue flower to represent “the hope of heaven.“26
On that same day, Henry Schoolcraft wrote to George Johnston of the depraved
moral state of the settlement of Sault Ste. Marie: “The prevalence of a very lax state of

things in the society of St. Marys had not led me to anticipate muoh of its moral

60

attainments.“27 Schoolcraft, although he did not heartily approve of using liquor to gain
the favor of local Indians, doled out alcohol occasionally. Fort Brady's custom of giving
daily supplies of whiskey to enlisted men added to the intemperate atmosphere of the
settlement. The main moral crusader of Sault Ste. Marie since 1828 had been Abel
Bingham, a Baptist missionary who succeeded the Congregationalist Alvin Coe.
Schoolcraft's disgust with the moral state of Sault Ste. Marie and his attraction to
Reverend Ferry at Mackinac Island may have been strengthened by his 1830 feud with
Reverend Abel Bingham. .

As part of the Treaty of Fond du Lac in 1826, Congress agreed to pay $1000 a
year for the education of Indian children (until Congress deemed it unnecessary in
1855). Congress hired the Baptist Board of Foreign Missions to assign a missionary and
build a school, which was complete in the Sault in 1829. The Board assigned Abel
Bingham, whose theory of Christianity depended on the innate depravity of humanity, and

whose sermons “were heavy, dull, traditional tirades against the evil nature of

mankind.“28 Bingham and his wife Hannah were initially received with cordiality by

Schoolcraft, but after Bingham dismissed Charlotte Johnston from her interpreter

position and hired John Tanner (another man with whom Schoolcraft feuded29),
Schoolcraft initiated an ongoing argument that stirred the entire community.
Schoolcraft wrote to the Board of Foreign Missions to complain that Bingham had
enrolled Lewis Johnston's illegitimate daughter at the Mission School when Schoolcraft
thought she should not attend because of previous moral infractions. The Board informed
Bingham that he would now have to report any mission expenses to the Indian Agent and
advised him to attempt to get along with Schoolcraft. Bingham insisted Schoolcraft was

merely trying to slander him. After Schoolcraft used his influence to get some Methodist

61

chiefs to petition for a mission on Sugar Island (which would direct funds away from the

Sault), Bingham was angered enough to accuse Schoolcraft at a public hearing of

misusing his influence on the Indians to secure his own ends.30 The issue went
unresolved and for a time isolated the Schoolcrafts from a portion of the religious
community.

In 1831 the fever of revivalism swept through Sault Ste. Marie. Reverend
Bingham had formed a temperance society the year before and all that was needed to
prime the residents for religious contemplation was the threat of death. This came in the
form of a cholera epidemic during the summer. By October of 1832 Jane and Hannah
Bingham together attended the “Female prayer meeting“ and the moral state of Sault Ste.
Marie had changed enough for Jane to remark “I think on the whole, that feeling in
spiritual things has been exhibited, lately among Christians than all the past summer“
but she attributed this observation to what she felt was her own spiritual improvemer

. . . perhaps this idea may be cherished by me from a change in my own feelings

however, be that as it may I am disposed to feel that every body also is doing an

feeling better than myself in all things. I trust a more enlarged spirit of charity

is gradually taking pofsefsion of me, which, if steadfastly perused will be cause
of much hapinefs to myself 8 of joy to you no doubt, as you have been a faithfu

one to me on that subject-431
The events that brought Jane to this new hope for her character were probably her
“civilizing' efforts toward James Schoolcraft and the survival of the cholera
epidemic of 1831.

In January of 1831 Jane felt overwhelmed with domestic duties. The town
talked of the fiasco of her maid's childbirth circumstances and Janee. who was a very
spirited child, seemed to have been discovering things Jane thought improper. When
Jane wrote to Henry in Detroit, she asked for domestic help:

I wish it was in your power to bring along with you a 99.051 little Girl, who can

62

speak English, for I do not see how I can manage during the Summer (if my life is
so spared) without some afsistance in the care of the children. I feel anxious
more particularly on Jane's account, for she is now at the age when children are
apt to be biased by the habits of those they afsociate with, 8 as I cannot be with
her ali_tho_timo, the greater will be the necefsity of the person to whom she is
entrusted. . . to be one who has been brought up by pious and conscientious

parents. . .32

The young Johnston was also ill at this time, and Anna Maria moved into Elmwood to help

Jane with Janee's education and other domestic duties.33
The event that eventually gave purpose to Jane's life was her newly-found
interest in the soul of James Schoolcraft. In February, James escaped from the jail in
Mackinac and in a few days arrived at Elmwood “very much exhausted.“ Jane wrote that
“his fatigue 8c had not in the least abated his natural yimity 8 oajoty“ and she broke
into tears over his moral state when he showed up to Sunday dinner at
Oshauguscodawaqua's house, which seemed to affect him enough to be open to her
evangelism. Jane decided that she could reform him and wrote:
I thought no time was to be lost in striving W to reclaim him, 8
my promise to cooperate with you all I could for that desirable object, induced me
to write a note inviting him to come 8 spend a quiet social evening with Sister
Anna M. 8 myself. . . I was pleased that he came without hesitation. l conversed a
long time with him pointing out, in the most gentle 8 affectionate means I could,
where he had erred, 8 in what way he might have become, not only respected and
esteemed, but indomnoont, where his excefses had brought him to embarrafsment
8 disgrace. . .
Jane was delighted by his visits to Elmwood, but she then began to suspect he was more
interested in Anna Maria than in Jane's proselytising: “he comes oftener to Elmwood
than I at first expected, but I perceive there is somo_othor_att[aotion besides my sage
discourses that draws him so often to the now leaflets shades of Elmwood, and he may
fancy that either a Booo or a Lilly (sic) has taken shelter within its walls.“ Jane did
not mind the relationship forming between her sister and James, and was glad for any

opportunity for “the work of reformation.“ Jane explained her evangelical theories to

63

Henry:
My ambition is not_on|y to oiyilizo him (if I may be allowed that exprefsion,
which is not out of the way after all, as he has disposed the tom 8 mm
of Latinos: society) but my ardent wish is to Qhflotionizo him in every sense of
the word-he is alasl atmnt sceptical (sic)- but let us only do out duty as
Christians, 8 leave the rest in the hands of the Almighty.34

That Jane wished to “civilize' James as well as “Christianize' him echoes the

missionary debate over the method of converting Indian people.35 The Congregational-
Presbyterian view was that lndians must first be “civilized“ in order to be
“Christianized,“ a view Jane probably held. Her work was cut short in March of
1831, when two men from Mackinac came to Elmwood to apprehend James, and
despite Jane's need to “pluck [him] as a brand from the burning,“ she quickly sent

James across the river to Canada where he stayed until the stabbed man fully

recovered. James went back East and retumed to Sault Ste. Maria in 1832.36

Jane's missionary yearnings were played out on another person in 1831. In
January, an Indian named White-Headed Woman put her child in the care of Charlotte
Johnston. The woman, whose impoverishment forced her to place the child at the
mission after losing two other children, withdrew her daughter from Bingham's care for
an unspecified reason. Jane took the child as a domestic, meaning to return her to
Charlotte when Henry returned from Detroit. Charlotte never reclaimed the girl, and
the Schoolcrafts, who renamed her Charlotte, cared for her until her death at age fifteen

on Mackinac Island. Jane delighted in the fact that 'White-Headed Woman sent her little

daughter to me. . . to have her learn the flhthLoligjon.“37 The attention Jane

bestowed on this Indian child matched that of Jane Moore's attention to her:
adherence to Christianity and Euro-American ideals of womanhood. As Jane became

more pious in her religion, she became even more condescending to Indian people and

64

praised every “civilized“ aspect of individuals, just as she had been praised by the
social circles of New York and Detroit in the winter of 1824-25. Her interest in
evangelism probably isolated her even further from the local Anishinabeg. As Carol
Devens points out, missionary activity was received by Indians with curiosity at
first, and most of those converted had family ties with the Euro-American
community. And, as in the case of White-Headed Woman, “what excited Ojibwa
interest about Christianity, however, was not the piety of converted Indians, but

their prosperity.“ Devens writes that during the early nineteenth-century, Ojibwa

communities “considered the clergy a menace to collective and cultural integrity.“38
The Schoolcrafts spent the winter of 1831-32 together in Sault Ste. Marie
where they worked to establish a Presbyterian church. In June Henry left on the
expedition meant to discover the source of the Mississippi (he found and named Lake
ltcasa). The unique part of the expedition headed by Schoolcraft was its adherence to
Christian principles: no liquor would be taken and no one would travel on the sabbath.

The revival during the winter informed Schoolcraft’s decision to run the expedition on
these principles.39 Soon after Henry left, cholera took the lives of five people in

three days.40 Jane was resigned to the fact of death:
. . . there is a feeling of [illegible] submifsion on the will of our Heavenly
Father,which I think,l never experienced . . . before, 8 which keeps my mind

easy 8uncomplaining 8 which has kept me calm amidst the alarm 8 excitement
of all around me. Ol it is a happy, blessed thing to have so great, so glorious a

Savior, who is ahlo 8 milling to save all who put their trust in Him. . .41
She seemed, at times, to hope for death, as when she wrote to Henry “may we meet in the

blefsednefs hereafter, where there will be no longer separation, or sighing, or tears,

but joy unspeakable forever 8 ever.“42 The controversy surrounding the Expedition of

1832 must have further agitated Jane's condition, for Schoolcraft hurried through the

65

expedition, spent over his budget and left his military escort behind to fend for

themselves on reduced rations and a hand-written map.43

By the middle of October, as Schoolcraft planned tomove the Agency to Mackinac
Island because of the restructuring of the Indian Department, Jane again questioned her
own ability to run a household. Her illness, still unspecified in any of her letters, had
almost completely debilitated her and led her to believe “I am gradually sinking into
nonentity.“ She also felt an amount of guilt at not being able to fulfill her “duties as a

Christian mother“ and wished that Janee could be sent to school on Mackinac Island so she

could get the education Jane felt she could not provide. This guilt could have been
triggered by the revivalism in full swing now in Sault Ste. Marie and Jane's adherence
to “woman's sphere“ ideology which gave women the duty of educating children to be
proper and pious. In a letter to George, Jane hinted at the severity of those
converting, which fostered “a Spirit of enquiry. . . among the Soldiers of this

garrison“ but hoped the revival spirit “may not be grieved away by coldnefs of

profefsors on the soom of M344

The years spent at Elmwood reveal several things about the character and
development of Jane Johnston Schoolcraft and the social prescriptions she felt she had
to fulfill. She transferred her romantic outlook from the literature she studied and
produced in the late 1820s to religion as a means through which to obtain higher
learning. The extreme dedication she showed to Christian principles of morality could
have been her way of counteracting the stereotypes of Native American women as
immoral, as some of her letters before her death indicate. When Schoolcraft
underwent his religious epiphany, he held certain expectations to Jane-mainly that

she should rely less on her parents and more on her husband-end appealed to her

66

sense of reaching a higher power through religion rather than literature and learning.
She was enthusiastic about Schoolcraft's expectations because he encased his desires
in the language of religion. Jane became less self-depre‘cating when she felt she was
serving God through evangelism and reading theological papers and books, and it is
certainly possible she took solace from Henry's expectations in sickness and the hope
of a world beyond. In this context of the hope of an after life, she had the freedom to
express her discontent with the mundane world, and if she expressed her discontent in
religious terms, Henry did not berate her as he would if she complained of her
“duties.“

Henry Schoolcraft's attitudes toward Jane and her mother during the Elmwood
period of the Schoolcraft marriage are the same he applied to all Indians in] his public
writing, and his views were growing even dimmer. That he dismissed the mothering
skills of Oshauguscodawaqua because she was an Indian woman must have led Jane to
doubt her own mothering skills, for she had few models of motherhood other than
Indian and Metis women. Schoolcraft's dismal assessment of Jane's early education
and subsequent abilities reveals that Schoolcraft, despite his reputation as a
“Chippewa expert,“ had little faith in tribal peoples' abilities to govern and educate
themselves. In the spring of 1833, Jane Johnston Schoolcraft moved to Mackinac
Island, separating her from her mother and sisters. Despite Jane's resolve to rely
more on her God and her God-figure (Schoolcraft), the separation from

Oshauguscodawaqua eventually caused a great deal of anguish for both mother and

daughter.

CHAPTER IV: THE FINALYEARS

During the last ten years of Jane Johnston Schoolcraft's life, the Schoolcraft
marriage deteriorated further. Jane began to express blatantly her discontent with
the domestic sphere as Henry became increasingly involved with the public sphere.
Her family also saw many changes. Oshauguscodawaqua distressed over the
separation from her daughter and grandchildren; Anna Maria and James Schoolcraft
initiated a family feud over their relationship; William Johnston made public
accusations that led to a fall-out in Schoolcraft's career; Janee and Johnston left
home for boarding schools, and Jane's hold on health became even more tenuous.
During this time of sickness and upheaval, Jane turned back to literary pursuits,
seeing her pen as her only faithful companion. More tragically, Jane became addicted
to opium derivatives, an addiction that eventually ended her life in Ancaster. Ontario
in 1842.

In making the move from Sault Ste. Marie to Mackinac, Henry was motivated
by the educational opportunities at William Ferry's mission school and considered it to
be of principal importance to the educations of young Janee and Johnston. The mission

school had 104 students in 1829, mainly Metis children, and the average Sunday

church service had 200 to 250 people in attendance.1 Ferry shared anti-Catholic
sentiments with the Schoolcrafts, and Henry thought highly of Ferry's preaching:
“The reverential tone of his praying and preachings delight me. And he wears about

him daily the dignified manner of a servant of Christ, never forgetting, for one

moment, that he is the Lord's, whose service is above all price.“2 After a nervous
breakdown in 1834, Ferry resigned. Jane told Peter Dougherty, who investigated the

mission for the Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions, that Ferry came to love

67

68

business more than religion. Dougherty also found out that Ferry sought sexual

relations with girls at the mission school and was a harsh disciplinarian with boys.3
Many parents withdrew their children from the school, as did the Schoolcrafts,
defeating the main purpose of moving the family to Mackinac Island.

When Jane first moved to the Island, her religious ideology brought her to a
low point. Despite a surprise visit from her mother that cheered her partly, she sank
into a depression based on the guilt inherent in her religious views. In June 1833,
feeling lonely and friendless, she described herself in terms of her own depravity:

OI that I had some kind, faithful friend who would deal candidly 8

affectionately with my poor soul, I tremble in the long watches of the tedious

night, when a holy 8 just God communes with my guilty conscience-guilty I

find myself, deeply so in those silent hours of midnight meditation, yes guilty

in a million ways from my youth up even untill (sic) now, of omifsion 8

comifsion (sic)--pray for me,my dearest of Earthly Friends, that I be not a

cast-away in the end. I know-I feel-I deserve nothing at the hands of my

Creator, but indignation 8 wrath, tribulation 8 anguish. . .

It was during this same summer she left the first evidence of taking laudanum, an

opium derivative, used for the treatment of a variety of sicknesses and depression.4
When Henry returned from Detroit late that summer, Jane left with her children to
visit Sault Ste. Marie. In a letter to Henry at Mackinac, Jane found it difficult to
mask the annoyance she felt for Schoolcraft's unappreciative attitude toward her,
seeing her home as a prison from which she has been freed for a short time: “I was
pleased to learn that you manage to live so well 8 contentedly in your nidowod state
8 since you have so kindly extended my Eudouoh to the 1st of October I have
consented to stay a few days longer.“ She contrasted the “formality“ of the Island
with the hospitable Sault where “all are sociable, desiring to please 8 be pleased with
all around. I have never seen so much harmony prevailing in a Fort before.“ She also

made sure Henry knew how different it was to be ill at the Sault as opposed to

ti

 

69

Mackinac, saying her health was still “wretched,“ but “I have the consolation of

having the affectionate attendance 8 sympathy of all my Family—“5

In the early months of 1834, events at the Sault shattered Jane's romantic views
of her family. In January, James Schoolcraft sought to work toward definite career
goals (something new to the free-spirited man) and asked Henry for his help in
obtaining a sutlership at Fort Brady. About a month later a report began circulating
around the town that James had not mended his former disreputable behavior, and James
wrote that Eliza Johnston openly accused him of “amongst other things. . . yyhoiojng
(sic). . . dmnhnoto (sic) 8 all manner of [oyydnoto 8 the like.“ Later, James attributed
the reports to Charlotte Johnston, who told the “ladies of the garrison“ that Anna
Maria Johnston was his 'kept mistrefs.“ Meanwhile, William McMurray, newly
married to Charlotte Johnston, wrote to Henry on behalf of Oshauguscodawaqua who
said she would disown Anna Maria if she carried on further with James, just as her

father had threatened her if she left John Johnston. She also tried to ban James from

her house.6 The feud became increasingly ugly when what James Schoolcraft came to
call the “ blow-out of tongues 8 tongs“ incident occurred:
Charlotte after abusing Maria with the venom of her tongue. . . advises her
mother to M. Seizing Maria by both arrnz (sic) she calls on her mother to
strike her, which waz(sic), accordingly done by inflicting blows over her

shoulderz (sic) with a pairs (sic) of fire tongsl Thus you have some of the
outlines of the slander and abuse brought about by our christian sister Mrs.

MacMurray(sic).7
Jane wrote to James during the entire feud, but these letters have not been located or did
not survive. James wrote to her thanking her for the letters and assuring her of his
pious behavior, but according to James, Charlotte Johnston sought to create a rift
between these two:

Charlotte haz(sic) said some things, which unlefs thoy also prove igloo, must

7O

render Jane's profefsion of friendship for me perfectly hypocritical. One
waz(sic)—that the reason she would not speak to me on leaving last fall was
because she waz(sic) “perfectly disgusted with me.“ Now this does not
correspond with the feelings of friendship Jane exprefses in her letters to

me.8

Jane, exhibiting the poise and maturity expected of an oldest sister, wrote to
Charlotte wishing to clear up the whole mess. “She reviewed the contents of all the
letters exchanged during the feud and said she had advised Anna Maria to refrain from
meeting with James alone in the future. In her address to Charlotte, she disapproved
of the “tongues 8 tongs“ incident, not so much because it involved violence, but
because Anna Maria was too old to be disciplined in this way:

«but Charlotte there is one thing I cannot [illegible] approve-8 that is your

urging Mamma to use harsh measures towards Ann, now she is of age no one

has a right to lay violent hands on her. She is no longer a minor, neither can

she or ought she to be treated as a little child 8 beside that you cannot find any

thing to countenance such harsh treatment in the gospel of our meek 8 merciful
Redeemer—but all to the contrary 8 I feel sorry, very sorry that you should

have been accefsery (sic) to such a disgraceful scene.9
This whole affair caused Jane a great deal of anguish, especially since she had
romanticized her familial relations at the Sault earlier that fall. Before she closed her
letter, she asked Charlotte to “give my love to Mamma 8 tell her I am afflicted when she
is afflicted 8 mourn when she mourns 8 never more than when she is injured or
insulted.“ In a letter to George in 1832 on Anna Maria's conduct with James, Jane wrote
of her mother that she “could readily excuse our poor Mother's conduct, she is ignorant,
but as far as the light she pofsefses, she has endeavoured to do right.“ Assumedly, she

felt the same way after the beefing of Anna Maria, for she blamed Charlotte for the
incident.10 Much to the family's chagrin, James and Anna Maria married on November

29, 1834.11

Henry Schoolcraft's relations with the Johnston family were also complicated by

71

his role in the family finances. He had employed both William and George Johnston in

various agency jobs, but this was no more than he did for James or his brother Abraham

from whose store in Detroit he purchased Agency goods at inflated prices.12 As Bremer
notes, the declining Johnston Estate forced the Johnstons to “live in a world of paper

claims,“ and Schoolcraft went to Washington to present to Congress the claims for the

bases incurred during the War of 1812. These claims were rejected.”

His trip to Washington in 1835-6 was not intended solely to settle the Johnston
spoilation claims. Lewis Cass ordered Schoolcraft to negotiate a cession treaty with
the Michigan Odawa and Ojibway for sixteen million acres. The negotiated treaty
provided permanent reservations, goods, and debt payments to traders including
“Susan“ Johnston, George and William Johnston and the Johnston Estate. The senate
ratified the treaty after altering it so that the tribes could stay on reservations for
only five years (or until needed for white settlement), but the debts to traders were
paid, usually close to the amount the traders claimed Indians owed them. Altogether,
the Johnstons received $51,105.26. As a provision of an earlier treaty, the Michigan
Superintendency of Indian Affairs was created, and Schoolcraft was appointed

Superintendent, a position for which he would live winters in Detroit and summers at

Mackinac Island.14

During the time Henry was in Washington, he wrote to Jane describing the
capital's social life, including a meeting with President Jackson. Charlotte, Janee and
Johnston all had whooping cough back at Mackinac, and caring for the children while
being sick herself caused Jane to lament “. . . such a time of incefsant trouble 8
anxiety I have never known.“ After six weeks, Janee and Johnston recovered

somewhat, but Charlotte deteriorated and soon died. Louisa, George's child from his

 

72

first marriage, stayed with Jane and helped her with household chores and nursing.

Jane also directed daily family worship sessions.15 To further Jane's anxiety,
Johnston had been enticed by the coarser servants into unnamed habits that worried

Jane. She wrote to Henry that she had trouble directing the boy:

OI my dearest; I feel how necefsary a m to bring up a Son-cam 8 mi];
prevent a mother from discharging her duty faithfully to a son--a daughter is

always by her side 8 she can control her, but a Sonualasl alasl it is not so—l
am constantly upbraiding myself for not paying more attention to our dear,

willful little Boy—but I am so much engaged in domestic concerns. . .15

He wrote back to Jane to instruct her that God would fulfill Henry's fatherly duties:
Truly now is the time when my presence would seem to be necefsary to
support you, in your ardurous (sic) duties. But go on, my love, in the

discharge of those duties, God has so ordered it that I am absent, and my
absence may continue longer than I anticipated--Trust it all to him, who

tempers the wind to the shom lamb . . .17
Although professing to understand that she should trust God to take Henry's place,
Jane was obviously annoyed when she wrote she was “grieved to find you had still to

come to New York, 8 then go back to the Seat of 8 (pride 8

 

 

voluptuousnefs) l was going to say, but I know it is from absolute necefsity 8 not

from facinations (sic) of such a life that keeps you from your humblejgmefla

The discontent Jane felt by reading of Henry's social and public life and
comparing it to her own domestic life reached a boiling point during her stay on
Mackinac Island. As early as 1831, when Henry planned the Expedition of 1832, Jane
began to question the large amount of time he spent away from his family: “And must
your attendance further the views you entertain about the expedition into Indian

Country, without you going to Washington? A man may be seen too often as well as too

seldom for his own good.“19 In 1838 Jane was openly bitter about their different

roles when he failed to write from Washington where she said he was “surrounded by

73

elegance, Leflnemem 8 luxury“ while she was Isolated. In this same letter Jane

requested “a good quantity of Laudanum.“20 Over the next two years Jane became
aware of the public and private spheres as specifically gendered dichotomies, as
'woman's sphere“ ideology became even more pervasive in Euro-American culture in
the Victorian era and thus much different than the roles of Indian women. In 1837,
when Henry started a political discussion in their letters, Jane responded that she
was “content to dwell under the dispensations of Providence“ and that she would

“leave mle subject to Men, altogether, as I think Women have a more appropriate

sphere in domestic duties.“'t-’1 Later, she began to question the values accorded to
men's and women's perceived spheres:
l have often thought that mulls, duties bring their own fame 8 reward, when
discharged faithfullyubut the unobtrusive duties of domestic life are not eyen
thought upon: with all it cares 8 troubles 8 incefsant appeals to forbearance
8 patience: not is a word spoken, in praise or encouragement to the devoted

person who sacrafices (sic) health 8 e_ee_e_ in the fulfillment of these 91!
neglected duties 8 yet human nature is the same in Men and Werner-perhaps

the latter requires more encouragement!!!2
In 1840, when Henry complained of being 'chained' to his duties, Jane reminded him
that she was 'chained at home. . . like a domestic bear, who ever 8 anon, growls out his
dissatisfaction at his circumscribed limits--walking the rounds, the circuit of his chain
will allow him to make. . . circles around the M to which he is attached. . . '
Later, as if she realized she was not supposed to complain, let alone compare her role
to that of a chained beast, Jane added an asterisk in the margin, saying that the bear's
wanderings will 'faithfully terminate in my dear Husband and children.‘ This
questioning of the different values accorded to male and female roles was not

reinforced by her husband, her religion or the Melhefie_Megezjne to which she

subscribed.”

9.

ex;

W

M

 

74

The idea to question the values accorded the prescribed gender roles probably
came from the alternative model of society surrounding her--Anishinabeg culture
-for she had remarked to Jameson in 1837 that Indian women hold a higher position
in their society than white women hold in theirs. Priscilla Buffalohead, in 'Farmers,
Warriors, Traders: A Fresh Look at Ojibway Women,“ maintains that the misleading
historical picture of Indian women as degraded drudges came from writers who
'deliberately promoted the notion that native women were exploited and mistreated to

justify policies forcing Indians to adopt the religion and life style of Euro-American

society.'24 Buffalohead shows that even though men and women were loosely
channeled into different roles, the work women did was not degraded but viewed as
crucial to the survival of the tribe. Mary Wright, in discussing the fur trade of the
Pacific Northwest, says that women's roles were only degraded by the influence of
Euro-American ideals of womanhood. She notes that before colonization, 'lndian

society was not separated into distinct spheres; rather, functions of family were

enmeshed with politics and economics.'25 Likewise, Carol Devens says of the Great

Lakes women that they were traditionally valued as half of a 'balanced yet

autonomous“ system of gender relations.“ Even though Jane Schoolcraft believed
wholeheartedly in the separation of men's and women's work, the uneven valuation of
each in Euro-American society disillusioned her.

In the spring of 1837, after the Schoolcrafts moved to Detroit, William
McMurray transcribed a letter from Oshauguscodawaqua to Jane in which she
expressed her distress over the absence of Jane and the children.
Oshauguscodawaqua told Jameson that “when her children are. absent from her, and

she looks for their return, she has a sensation, a merely physical sensation, like that

75

she experienced when she first laid them to her bosom: this yearning amounts at
times to absolute pain.‘ Her anxieties were probably heightened by George's struggle
with insanity (Anna Maria wrote he was 'entirely crazy“) and the impoverishment of
the local Indians, many of whom were 'suffering from starvation' despite the spoils
of the Treaty of 1836. The lack of food was also taking its toll on Mackinac Indians,
who missed Jane because she was always ready with a meal for anyone: “All my

Indian visiters (sic) always ask about you, for they find no one in the kitchen, with a

soothing hand to feed them."t-’7 When Anna Jameson visited the Schoolcrafts on
Mackinac Island that summer and expressed a desire to meet Oshauguscodawaqua,
Jane quickly ordered canoes to take them to her mother.

Jameson's visit in 1837 must have renewed Jane's sagging spirits, for she found
the friendship of a woman with like interests, especially the interest in literature.
Jameson later wrote that the

most delightful as well as most profitable hours I spend here are those passed in

the society of Mrs. Schoolcraft. Her genuine refinement and simplicity, and

native taste for literature, are charming; and the exceeding delicacy of her
health, and the trials to which it is exposed, interest all my womanly sympathies.

. . She is proud of her Indian origin; she takes an enthusiastic and enlightened
interest in the welfare of her people, and in their conversion to Christianity,

being herself most unaffectedly pious.28
After a night on the water plagued by mosquitoes, Jameson, Jane and her children
landed at the Sault. Writing of this journey, Jameson proved to be as sentimental as
her new friend: 'Our little boat held on its way over the placid lake and among green
tufted islands; and we its inmates, two women, differing in clime, nation,

complexion, strangers to each other but a few days ago, might have fancied ourselves

alone in a new-born world.'29

When they reached the Sault, Jane, who was “all animation and happiness,“

 

to

Sen
his Cl

stories

philoso

fill inter
lasing An

Its mole

Wen/m.

 

76

translated for her mother, and Jameson soon became attached b Oshauguscodawaqua.
The two enjoyed each other's company by exchanging stories, and the Johnstons
arranged a canoe for Jameson so she would have the experience of descending the St.

Marys. Jane, who called Jameson 'a Woman in a Thousand,‘ wrote to Henry that

Jameson “cried heartily when she parted with Me and myself.'30 Jane also
expressed an unwillingness to leave Sault Ste Marie and chastised Henry for unnamed
Agency indiscretions: 'This place requires your presence more than you are aware
of, to put down W 8 genejn abuses in the Department of which you are

head-f In Jane's mind, the distaste for meddling in the affairs of men that she was

to profess some months later did not apply to Indian Affairs.31

The visit by Jameson also renewed Jane's interest in writing. Henry
Schoolcraft also encouraged Jane to write, for he was in the process of preparing for
his collection of Indian tales called Algje_fleeeer_ehe_s in which he published Jane's
stories under his own name. In January of 1838, he wrote to Jane of his new
philosophy of a national literature:

I am of the opinion that American literature must be based on the mythology of

the Indians. That of Rome 8 Greece is exhausted, and we can never expect to rival

our English ancestry. . . all our poetic afsociations and all our ideas of poetic
justice must be directed to the Indian tribes, who once occupied the continent.

They will become to us what the Celts 8 Britons are to England. . .32
His interest was not in encouraging Indian people to compose written fiction but in
basing American fiction on the model of the mythology of Native peoples. His philosophy
was rooted in the belief that Indians were a “vanishing race.“ Nevertheless, this
statement may have encouraged Jane to direct her pen toward things other than Christian
devotion. Schoolcraft solicited stories from George Johnston and Jane that winter, and

Jane sent him what became 'Mon-Daw-Min, or The Origin of Indian Corn,“ a story

77

glorifying cultivation. Francis Shearman, Schoolcraft's nephew, criticized her story as

being too “anglicized," but Henry thanked her for the story and said Francis was too

immature to appreciate it.33 Jane soon began to sign her letters “Jane Leelinau,‘ and the
use of this name probably had less to do with the character created in mm
19189612 and more to do with the story “Leelinau, A Chippewa Tale,“ which was attributed
to Henry but probably written or told by Jane. The story deserves a full quotation here,
since Jane obviously had come to identify herself with the protagonist:

The Pukwudjininess, or fairies of Lake Superior, had one of their most
noted places of residence at the great dunes of Naigow Wudjoo. . . Here they were
frequently seen in bright moonlight evening, and the fishermen while sitting in
their canoes on the lake often saw them playing their pranks, and skipping over
the hills. There was a grove of pines in that vicinity called the manito wac, or
Spirit wood, into which they might be seen to flee, on the approach of evening,
and there is a romantic little lake on those elevated sand-hills, not far back from
the Great Lake on the shores of which their tracks could be plainly seen in the
sand. These tracks were not bigger than little children's footprints, and the
spirits were often seen in the act of vanishing behind the little pine-trees. They
love to dance in the most lonesome place, and were always full of glee and
merriment, for their little voices could be plainly heard. These little men. . . are
not deeply malicious, but rather delighted in mischief and freaks, and would
sometimes steal away a fisherrnan's paddle, or come at night and pluck the
hunter's feathers out of his cap in the lodge, or pilfer away some of his game, or
fish. On one occasion they went so far as to entice away into their sacred grove,
and carry off a chief's daughterua small but beautiful girl, who had been always
inclined to be pensive, and took her seat often in the lonesome haunts. From her
baby name Neenizu, my dear life, she was called Leelinau, but she never attained
too much size, remaining very slender, but of the most pleasing and sylph-like
features, with very bright black eyes, and little feet. Her mother often cautioned
her of the danger of visiting these lonely fairy haunts, and predicted, playfully,
that she would one day be carried off by the Pukwudjees, for they were very
frolicsome, mischievous (sic) and full of tricks.

To divert her mind from these recluse moods and tastes, she endeavored to
bring about an alliance with a neighboring forester, who, though older than
herself, had the reputation of being an excellent hunter, and active man. . . To
these suggestions Leelinau had turned rather a deaf ear. She had imbbed ideas of
a spiritual life and existence, which she fancied could only be enjoyed in the
Indian elysium, and instructed as she was by the old storytellers, she could not do
otherwise than deem the light and‘sprightly little men who had made fairy
footprints as emissaries from the Happy Land. For this happy land she sighed and
pined. ..she longedtogotoaregionwheretherewasnoweeping,nocares,andno
deaths. If her parents laughed at these notions as childish, her only resource was

78

silence, or she merely revealed here motions in her eyes. She was capable of the
deepest concealment, and locked up in her heart what she feared to utter, or
uttered to deceive. This proved her ruin.

At length, after a series of conversational interviews on the subject, she
announced her willingness to accede to the matrimonial proposals, and the day
was fixed for this purpose. She dressed herself in the finest manner possible,
putting flowers in her hair, and carrying a bunch of wild flowers, mixed with
' tassels of the pine tree in her hand. One only request she made, which was b
make a farewell visit to the sacred grove of the fairies, before she visited the
nuptial bower. This was granted, on the evening of the proposed ceremony, while
the bridegroom and his friends gathered in her father's lodge, and impatiently
waited her return. But they waited in vain. Night came but Leelinau was never
more seen, except by a fishermen on the lake shore, who conceived that he had
seen her go off with one of the tall fairies known as the fairy of Green Pines, with
green plumes nodding o'er his brows; and it is supposed that she is still roving
with him over the elysian fields.34

As her life drew to a close, Jane, like Leelinau, came to live more and more in a world of

her own fantasy. The name change to Leelinau demonstrates this as well as her own

admission: 'the world is nothing to me new, more than eye; 8 I shall strive to move in

my own little Orbit, to divine acceptance the few remaining days prescribed to me by

Omnipotence.'35 She associated her own creative impulses with escape from daily lif~

Writing is now my antidote for everything 8 my pen feels the effect of every
change in 'my Harp of a thousand strings“ whose harmony is often marred by
storm, clouds 8 rain 8 has to obey my mandate, early 8 late, whether pleased,
sad or out of humor-«it is my solecing companion unconcious tho' of its

Mistrefs's wayward disposition 8 ever varying feelings of both joy 8 sorrow. .

Now she made even material requests of Henry in verse: 'My ear-rings are gone in the

Wars of Fate I And a pair of red-drops I would not hete.“36

This is not to say Jane was inseneible to the world around her. In 1841 she

returned to her earlier habit of expressing her feelings on her'ovin life through

poetry. She mourned the Ices ef‘leve between her and her husband with “Lament.“

Therem an eye Whei‘e partial glznce

Could ne'er my numerous failings see,
There wee an ear that still untired

Could listen Mind praise of me.
There wee a heart Time only made

For me with fender feelings burn;

79

And which, whene'er, alasl I roved,

Still longed 8 pined for my return.
There wee a lip that always breathed ‘

E'en short farewells with tones of sadnefs;
There wee a voice whose eager sound

My welcome spoke with heartfelt gladnefs.
There wee a mind with vigorous powers

On mine its fostering influence threw;
And call'd my humble talents forth,

Till thence Its dearest eyes it drew.
There wee a love that oft for me

With anxious fears would overflow;
And wept and pray‘d for me 8 sought

From future ills to guard—but new
That eye is closed, and deal that ear,

That lip 8 voice are mute forever
And cold that heart of faithful love,

Which death elene from mine could sever.

And lost to me that ardent mind,

Which loved my various tasks to see;
And oh! of all the praise I gain'd,

This was the dearest far to me!

Now I, unloved, uncheer'd, alone,
Life's dreary wildernefs must tread,
Till he who loves the broken heart

In merry bjdmejejn the dead.

But, 'Father of the Fetherlefs,‘

OI thou that hear'st the orphan's cry,
And 'dwellest with the contrite heart,‘

As well as in 'thy place on high.‘
0! Lord though like a faded leaf

That's severed from its parent tree,
I struggle down life's stormy tide,

That awful tide which leads to thee!

Still, Lord! to thee the voice of praise

Shall spring triumphant from my breast
Since though I tread a weary way,

I trust that he I mourn is blefs'dl37
“Lament“ shows that Jane experimented little with form and meter, for this poem is
similar to those written in her twenties, but it does demonstrate that Jane saw her work

not so much as an art separate from her as a person but a way to explore and express her

80

feelings In an acceptable way, one which would not incur the wrath of Henry. Another
poem, written in 1839, reflects Jane's need to express her discontent with European
occupation and shows how differently she viewed colonization than she did during her
early marriage. “Lines of Mrs. Schoolcraft on Leaving Her Children at School in the East
and Returning to Her Native Country“ (Henry's title), a six-stanza poem, spoke of the
ties Jane had to the 'land of (her)mother' and likened the sorrow of Euro-Americans
allowing (and even encouraging) the devastation of the Indians they promised to protect
to the sorrow of ramming home without “her children. It is one of her most mature and
profound poems, showing that Jane, during this period of her life, was rethinking all of
her earlier notions on the superiority of white ways of education and government. Jane
must have found English inadequate to express her personal feelings on these subjects,
for she wrote the poem in Anishinabeg, and it was later translated to English verse by
Henry Schoolcraft:

Nye nin de nain dum

May kow e yaun in

Ain dah nuk ki yaun

Waus as we kom eg
Ain dah nuk ki yaun

Ne dau nis ainse e
Ne gwis is ainse e
lshe nau gun ug wan
Waus sa wa kom eg

She gwau go she ween
Be sho waud e we ‘
Nin zhe ka we yea

.. lshe ez hau jau yaun ‘
'Ain dah nuk ke yaun ' 5

Ain dah nuk ke yaun
Nin zhetke we yea
lshe ke way aun e
Nyau ne gush kain dum

81

Ahl when thought reverts to my country so dear,
My hear fills with pleasure, and throbs with a fear:
My country, my country, my own native land,

So lovely in aspect, in features so grand,

Far, far in the West. What are cities to me,

Ohl land of my mother, compared unto thee?

Fair land of the Iakesl thou are blest to my sight,

With thy beaming bright waters, and landscapes of light;
The breeze and the murmur, the dash and the roar,

That summer and autumn cast over the shore,

They spring to my thoughts, like the lullaby tongue,
That soothed me to slumber when youthful and young.

One feeling more strongly still binds me to thee,

There roved my forefathers, in liberty free--

There shook they the war lance, and sported the plume,
Ere Europe had cast o'er this country a gloom;

Nor thought they that kingdoms more happy could be,
While lords of a land so resplendent and free.

Yet it is not alone that my country is fair,

And my home and my friends are inviting me there;
While they beckon me onward, my heart is still here,
With my sweet lovely daughter, and bonny boy dear:
And oh! what's the joy tht a home can impart,
Removed from the dear ones who cling to my heart.

It is Ieaming that calls them; but tell me, can schools
Repay for my love, or give nature new rules?

They may teach them the lore of the wit and the sage,
To be grave in their youth, and be gay in their age;
But Ahl my poor heart, what are schools to thy view,
While severed from children thou lovest so true!

I return to my country, I haste on my way,
For duty commands me, and duty must sway;
Yet I leave the bright land where my little ones dwell,

With a sober regret, and a bitter farewell;
For there I must leave the deer jewels I love,

The dearest of gifts from my Master above.38
Jane's creative world served as an outlet through which to express her matured
thinking, but she also wanted at this time to retreat from the world around her into her

own mind. In the years before her death, she had an abundance of reasons for wanting to

escape.

82

Schoolcraft's popularity with other government officials declined after his
appointment of Superintendent of Indian Affairs. According to Schoolcraft's biographer
Richard Bremer, the failure of the Treaty of 1836 and Schoolcraft's support of removal
policies also left him unpopular with many tribal leaders. William Johnston, whom
Schoolcraft fired from his sub-agent position for illegal trading, teamed up with traders
who felt cheated by Schoolcraft's dismissal of their debt claims and set about to ruin
Schoolcraft's career. They charged him with favoring Protestants, nepotism and misuse
of funds. Issues of partisan politics added fuel to the flame and an official investigation
began under the direction of Indian Commissioner William Crawford. Schoolcraft was

reprimanded after the investigation, but in May of 1841 Crawford replaced him with

Robert Stuart, an old enemy of Schoolcraft's and an accuser in the investigation.39
Throughout the ordeal, Jane fully supported her husband and in 1840 assured him that
“no advances (should any be attempted) from William or his connections shall be
favoured by me 8 I shall let them elLknew that I have washed my hands of them 8 ell
Men) in Mackinac-.' The ordeal must have been especially painful to Jane when
Henry, under charges of nepotism, fired George and John M. Johnston from their

carpenter and farmer positions (along with Mary Rice, George's second wife who was

listed as an interpreter but spoke only English)!0

Coupled with the burden of Schoolcraft's carec. problems was the fact that
Janee and Johnston now spent most of their time in boarding schools, Janee in Mrs.
Guild's Seminary in Philadelphia and Johnston in Philadelphia then Brooklyn. She
wrote often about the absence of her children and was almost frantic writing to Mrs.
Patterson, presumably a teacher, in Philadelphia:

Oh dear Mrs. P__ you can hardly conceive how great a trial it was to part with
my poor children as they never were absent from me for more than a few days

83

since their birth 8 not having any others near me to lavish the over-flowings
of a Mother's foolish fond heart I have indeed been. . . a sad picture of

forlornefs. . . my greatest anxiety is about my little boy. . .41
Jane's fears were well warranted for Johnston, who could not adjust and had mishaps
such as setting his room on fire. He eventually pleased his teachers with rapid

progress and grew to like school, especially American history of which he wrote 'I

like it very well for it had so many interesting accounts of wars.“42 Janee, who
while studying French preferred 'Jeanne,‘ took well to school, and with her blond

curls enthralled everyone including her portrait painter. He was reported to have said

that if he 'wanted to paint an Angel, he would paint Janee's face-.“43 Johnston was
perceived differently because of his dark hair, eyes and complexion, especially by his
father who was becoming increasingly bitter toward Indian people because of his
adherence to the notion of “savagism.'

The nineteenth-century popular and official Euro-American attitudes toward
Native Americans were characterized by the idea of savagism. In his chapter titled
“Savagism,“ Robert Sayre sums up the basic tenets of this Euro-American invention,
which described Indians: '(1) solitary hunters, rather than farmers; (2) tradition-
bound and not susceptible to improvement; (3) childlike innocents who were corrupted

by civilization; (4) superstitious pagans who would not accept the highest offerings of

civilization like Christianity; and therefore, (5) doomed to extinction.“4 As the
government leaned more toward the policy of removing all Indians to 'lndian country”
west of the Mississippi, it used the supposed “childlike“ and 'corrupted“ characteristics
of Indians to explain its actions. As a government official, Schoolcraft became less
optimistic about 'reforming“ Indians, and adopted wholeheartedly every tenet of

savagism. so much so that Sayre names him, with Lewis Cass and President Jackson, one

84

of the “disasters to the native.'45 The notion that Indians were 'childlike innocents“
supported Henry's own career in the paternalistically structured positions of Indian
Agent and Superintendent of Indian Affairs. As noted earlier on the Schoolcraft exchange
after Henry's public confession of faith in 1830, Henry applied notions of savagism to
his family members. In his dealings with his children, who had three white and one
lndian grandparents, Henry Schoolcraft demonstrated the pervasiveness of savagism in
his own mind. Johnston posed a special problem for Schoolcraft because he looked more
Indian than either Janee or William Henry.

When Henry wrote his will in 1835 he desired that “my son receive a college
education: study divinity if converted, and that my daughter should have the advantages
of the education furnished by a female seminary.“ In 1839 he worried about his goal,
principally because of the amount of “Indian blood“ his children possessed. Showing his
racist philosophy of learning potential, he wrote to Jane on the subject from Detroit:

I am satisfied that I think more of my children, than I should, were they simply

of W. And my hopes of their succefs in life are essentially based

on that mixture of the Anglo-Saxon blood, which they derive from their

father, with the eeetem_mjnd so strongly exemplified in the Algje, race.
Without the lemee, the result is a want of foresights. . .45

This philosophy, held and expounded by the “Indian expert,“ illustrates the disadvantages
that plagued Johnston because of his father's attitudes toward his heritage and physical
appearance. It further demonstrated to Jane what little faith Henry had in her ability to
mother because she was Metis, a lack of faith devastating to Jane who imbibed of the
glorification of good mothering in the emerging Victorian era.

When Henry and Jane moved to New York the children went to day schools, but by
this time Jane's mental and emotional stability was deteriorating because of her

addiction to laudanum. She was also suffering from heart palpitations. In 1838 William

85

McMurray sent her the laudanum she requested with a promise to send her a good
quantity of opium and the directions on how to prepare it for consumption. Shortly
after, Henry sent her digitalis, a harsh drug then prescribed for “nervous complaints,“
those complaints frequently treated in women in the nineteenth-century. She had
consistently requested laudanum from Henry since 1836, and in 1839 the famous New
York physician Chandler Robbins Gilman wrote this telling report to Schoolcraft:

I have been wanting to have a talk with you on the subject of Mrs. S.'s health bl

have unfortunately mifsed you at all my late calls. I do most earnestly hope tht

she will persevere in abstaining from the use of all the deleterious matters to

which she has unfortunately accustomed herself. I have now, from the
improvements she made, the most entire 8 perfect confidence that if she will do

so, and use tonics and alkaline remedies. . . she may be restored to health. . . 47
Gilman went on to recommend a milder prescription for her ailments: lime water and
cherry bark. After Jane's death, Henry married a pro-slavery Southern woman, Mary
Howard, who like Henry subscribed to the racist notions of savagism, and also sought to
discredit Henry's first wife. In 1860 she published WW“
Elenlelien_l.jle which included a fictionalized story of a learned and respected
adventurer, ethnologist and scholar Mr. Walsingham, whose first wife was a
'Pocahontas.‘ Despite Mary Howard Schoolcraft's obvious effort to make the
Schoolcraft-figure appear innocent and heroic, her description of Mr. Walsingham's
marriage was probably based on some truth:

Mr. Walsingham idolized his Pocahontas wife with that patronage that a man

feels for a woman who is a child in character and impulse [italics mine]. . .

After he had been married ten or fifteen years, and had enjoyed all the sweets

of domestic love and harmony, he noticed that his wife's health became

alarmingly prostrated, and that she almost lived in bed. The best physicians
were employed . . . and her lndian mother never left her bedside. At last the

horrible fact was elucidated that she had for years indulged excessively in the
use of opium, until the habit had become the morbid passion of her every-day

existence. . . 43

The frequent requests in Jane's correspondence for laudanum confirm that she probably

had the problem of addiction. It is unknown if Jane stopped using laudanum, but her
sudden death from heart failure was possibly caused by her overuse of the drug, which
can induce respiratory or heart failure when overused for an extended period.

The fact that Jane sought solace in the hallucinogenic and sedative properties of
laudanum is not surprising. Laudanum was a widely used opium derivative drug in the
eighteenth- and nineteenth-centuries when it was an ingredient in many patent
medicines and home cures for everything from depression and “nervous complaints' to
insomnia and back pain. It was marketed by pharmacists, prescribed and administered

by physicians, drank (in the syrup form of laudanum) by adults and children and sold by

grocers as an everday item such as soap or sugar.‘9 The demographics of both opium
(laudanum) and morphine addiction, however, made the overuse of these drugs
anyflting but universal. David Courtwright in his analysis of physician and pharmacist
surveys of the nineteenth-century, estimates that before 1842 there were .72
addicts per 1000 people, a figure which rose to 4.59 in 1890. The majority of
addicts were middle-aged white women of the upper- and middle- classes, native born
and housewives by trade. Courtwright found that a common 'type“ for an early

nineteenth-century addict “ was the harried society lady, who downed opium and

morphine to steady her nerve and enhance her wit.“50 Another factor making upper
- and middle-class women susceptible to addiction was their access to doctors, who
often prescribed the drug for a variety of ailments then left the administration to the
patient, especially if she lived in a rural area. Courtwright maintains that the 'habit
of middle-class and upper-class females' complaining of (or of being diagnosed by male

doctors as suffering from) diseases of nervous character could only have aggravated

the problem“ of women's addiction.51 In a culture in which a woman's delicacy was a

87

virtue, the practices of many physicians boomed on 'nervous compleint' alone.
Jane's addiction could very well have begun after treatment from a doctor but
continued because she felt the need to escape and cope with the pressures put on her
by Henry and Euro-American society. Her addiction also began in the context of her
disillusionment with gender roles, which was also a characteristic of many female
addicts. Another “type' Courtwright discovered was the woman 'whose aspirations
had been blocked by a male dominated society“ or that her “repressed drives and

supressed ambitions may have manifested themselves in physical symptoms, which

were in turn alleviated with opiates.'52 An “anonymous lady of culture' had this to

say of her relationship to morphine:
I am the last woman in the world to make excuses for my act, but you don't know
what morphine means to some of us, many of us, modem women without
professions, without beliefs. Morphine makes life possible. It adds truth to a
dream. What more does religion do? Perhaps I shock you. What I mean is that
truth alone is both not enough and too much for us. Each of us must add to it his
or her dream, believe me. I have added mine; I make my life possible by taking

morphine. I have managed to prevent it from disfiguring my life, though I know
some women who botched it horribly. I am really morphine mad, I suppose, but I

have enough will left not to go beyond my daily allowance.53
While Jane never admitted her addiction, the disillusion evidenced in her 'domestic
bear“ metaphor and her frustration at the devaluation of women's work in Euro-
American society both hint that she may have taken opium because “truth alone [was] too
much“ for her, being one of the “modem women“ acculturated, but now questioning, the
“cult of true womanhood." Other than Jane's request for laudanum, the Schoolcraft
correspondence is remarkably silent on Jane's problem, showing that Henry was
ignorant of his wife's dependence, chose not to care, or quite possibly he expected this
type of 'moral“ failing in a woman having twice the amount of “Indian blood' than the

children over whom he worried incessantly that their 'admixture' of race was a fault

difficult to overcome.

Added to Jane's disillusion with prescriptions for women was Henry's dismissal
of her as a 'savage' in the years since his public confession of faith. Her whole life was
devoted to living up to the standards set for women by the Euro-American middle class:
piety, submission and unquestioning loyalty. She became hypersensitive about
cultivating these qualities in herself, and at the end of her life, her husband could only
express disdain for her lndian heritage, even though her efforts should have fulfilled his
expectations. The fact that Schoolcraft chose a bitter racist and pro-slavery advocate for
his second wife further illustrates the pressures he put on his Metis wife. Jane
illustrated here the tragedy of her efforts in a letter she wrote in 1839 to 'Mrs. Smith,“

who was a woman extolling the virtues of Christians:

luau. who heat the same feelinas. with me. 8 WW I
addrefs, not in pompous style or strain; but in the true language of the heart.
I have heard of your devotion to your dear children 8 Husband. . . my wish in
to copy your example. . . if I pofsibly can. . . to shew(sic) that neither
Language, or Nation, can pofsibly have a different set of Morals to be governed
by-but those which the Great Creator, hjmeelf, has ordained--The fulfilling of

which, is the great and of our being.46
Jane Johnston Schoolcraft had put upon herself the burden of defending “Language [and]
Nation' by conforming stringently to a system bent upon the destruction of Indians. It
was only here at the end of her life that she recognized herself as an object of Euro-
American savagism, even though she had always adhered religiously to white

prescriptions. In Euro-American society, she would remain 'a poor child of the forest

CHAPTER V: THE PAPER TRAIL
In November of 1841, Oshauguscodawaqua asked Anna Maria to draft a letter

to Jane saying “poor Mama despairs altogether of ever seeing you again and the only

comfort she expect is to hear from you often.“1 Henry left New York in April of
1842 for an extended tour of Europe, and Jane went to Dundas, Ontario to visit
Charlotte. On May 22, 1842, Jane awoke in the morning and shortly after was found
by her sister dead in a chair by the bed. When Henry returned from Europe he ordered
marked on her tombstone a description of Jane that probably would have pleased her:
Carefully educated, and of polished manners 8 conversation, she was early
fitted to adorn society; yet of retiring and modest department. Early imbued
with the principles of true piety, she patiently submitted to the illnefs, which,
for several years, marked her decline; and was inspired, through seasons of
bodily 8 mental deprefsion, with the lively hope of immortality.2
The phrase “early fitted to adorn society“ is perhaps the most profound yet ironic
description of the life of Jane Johnston Schoolcraft. Seeing daily in Anishinabeg
culture that women were not inherently and biologically predestined to be
“ornament,“ she nevertheless chose to align herself with a culture that preferred
women who were child-like and dependent in order to overcome negative stereotypes
of Indians. Had she lived longer, perhaps she would have expressed more fully her
understanding of women's roles in the cultures she represented as a Metis in the
Upper Great lakes. But having lived forty-two years in the context of social change in
the Old Northwest, she produced literature that mirrors the racial and sexual tensions
of the early nineteenth-century. The fact that her work has been 'lost,‘ attests to
the biases from which she suffered as well as the biases in the present study of

literature.

Paula Gunn Allen writes that the “purpose of traditional American Indian

90

literature is never simply pure self-expression. They'private soul on any public wall'

is a concept alien to American Indian thought. The tribes do not celebrate the

individual's ability to feel emotion, for they assume that all people are able to do so.“3
Probably Jane felt that when she recorded a traditional story, she was not the
I'owner“ of it in the Euro-American sense of authorship. She signed her stories
'Leelinau' or “Bamewawagezhikaquay' as if to let the reader know she was re
-telllng in the spirit of an oral tradition where one places as much emphasis on the
culture producing the story as the individual telling it. Henry Schoolcraft, however,
had no scruples against putting his name on a story written by “Leelinau“ or
“Bamewawagezhikaquay' because he obviously saw Jane as a child-like “savage“
unable to appreciate the glory of individual authorship. Stories that appear in The
W under Jane's pseudonyms, “The Origin of the Robin,“ “Moowis, the
Indian Coquette,“ “Mishosha,' “The Foresaken Brother,“ and “The Origin of the
Miscodeed,‘ appear later in Schoolcraft's AW, W ]'_he
II II [II' II ||i| IS! I' |° I I l l' E II II ll'l

, and Qneeje, all under the

 

assumption of Henry Schoolcraft's 'authorship.“4 If Jane would have been of
completly Euro-American ancestry instead of Metis, Schoolcraft's use of her stories
would have amounted to plagarism in the literary and historical record. Instead, her
stories have been 'colonized,‘ as well as those of the rest of the Johnston family,
particularly Osahuguscodawaqua who was probably the person who related them in
Anishinabeg.

Because Jane's position in literary history as one of the first known Metis women

to publish her work has been skewed by her husband, literary historians, publishers

91

and editors, her poems have gone unstudled as well. A wealth of devotional, 'domestic,“
didactic, elegaic, heroic and even poetry written in Anishinabeg await explicaiton when
Jane Johnston Schoolcraft is given her due place in the canon. In 1843 the
transendentalist writer, editor, and feminist Margaret Fuller recognized the importance
of Jane's work:
By the premature death of Mrs. Schoolcraft was lost a mine of poesy, to which
few had access. . . We might have known in clear outline, as we now shall not, the

growths of religion and philosophy, under the influences of this climate and
scenery, from such suggestions as nature and the teachings of the inward mind

presented.5

While the contention that Jane Johnston Schoolcraft would be the only person in a
position to be, as Jay Miller says of the Indian author Mourning Dove, a “cultural
mediator,“ her insistence on the importance of Jane's work is astute, even though
Fuller wrote that Anna Jameson would have to rewrite Jane's work to make it more
comprehensible to the Euro-American reader. But since Fuller's observation that Jane
was a writer in her own right and not just a “source“ for Henry Schoolcraft,
chroniclers of literary history have been blocked by the notion of Schoolcraft as an
“Indian expert“ who happened to be married to a “half-breed' wife.

Henry Schoolcraft's biographer Richard Bremer concludes that Schoolcraft

represent the new American “self-made man.“6 In his final chapter, he list Jane as

one of the “self-made' man's “train of horrors' as a 'semi-invalid, drug-dependent

wife,'7 and while Jane was ill and an addict, she was hardly a burden on the American
hero Schoolcraft. Instead, she was the person whose efforts were exploited to fulfill
anofl'ler's dream in a racist, patriarchal social system. She was a bright woman trained
to deny personal opinions and ambitions unless acceptable to the status quo. But on the

other hand, the same social system that hampered her creativity and denied her

 

92

authorship preserved her writing. In the Euro-American tradition of written literature
she left evidence of her art and her existence, probably saved as an afterthought to add to
the history of the famous ethonolgist. By these records we can see how one Metis woman

interpreted the cultural systems that produced her and her art.

4.

5.

Notes for lntroductlen

. Hinsley, 20.

Vizenor, 42.
Bremer, 355.
Peterson, 37.
Krupat, 145.

Krupat, 146.

Notes for Chapter I

Devens, “Separate,' 461.
lbid., 464.

White, Richard, 60-75, 323.
Van Kirk, 14-15, 33-36.

Van Kirk's chapters “Women In Between, “ 'Daughters of the Country,‘ and “My

Only Consolation' detail this phenomenon.

6. Sometimes this is translated as Woman of the Green -Meadow,-Glade,-Valley, or -
Mountain.

7. Warren, 219.

8. Warren, 248. Chapman, 248.

9. See Appendix.

10. Schoolcraft, Qneeje, 311, 314-316.
11. Chapman, 311.

12. Jameson, Volume III, 217.

13. Cleland, 88.

14. Jameson, Volume III, 311.

93

94

15. lbid., 313.
16. lbid., 314.
17. McKenney quoted in Chapman, 308.

18. Chapman, 312. Clapp. 353.

19. Killaly, Charlotte McMurray, 9. (George Johnston Papers-Clarke Historical
Library)

20. lbid., p.9 Johnston Family Association, 15.

21. Johnston, quoted in Chapman, 342. Clapp, 357.

22. The preceding paragraph is based on Johnston's 'Autobiographical Letters“ he wrote
as a favor to Jane Johnston Schoolcraft. They cover his early personal history, and the
originals are in the Schoolcraft Papers (Library of Congress). The “Letters“ are

reprinted in Chapman and the preceding paragraph and quotes are from pages 330-332
of that document.

23. Schoolcraft, Memgjre, 107.

24. Johnston, quoted in Chapman, 332-335.

25. lbid., 333-341.

26. Johnston Family Association, 8.

27. Johnston Family Association, 8. Gilbert, 323. Schenck, 41.

28. Map at Bayliss, reprinted in Chapman, 327. Johnston Family Association, 12.
Gilbert, “Tale,“ 325 (quote).

29. Johnston Family Association, 12.

30. lbid., 13. Schoolcraft, 'Notes for a Memoir of Jane Schoolcraft.“ (HRS-LC).
31. Schoolcraft, W, 159. Original in (HRS-LC).

32. Jameson, Vol. III, 242.

33. lbid., 70.

Lewis Johnston to Jane Johnston Schoolcraft, February 18, 1825 (HRS-LC).

,3:

35. John Johnston to George Johnston, January 5, 1817 (Burton).

 

95

36. Johnston Family Association, 25-26. Jane. Johnston Schoolcraft to Henry
Schoolcraft, July 4, 1825 (HRS-LC).

37. Blackbum, 108.
38. Johnston Family Association, 33-34. Blackburn, 110-111.
39. lbid., 34-35. lbid., 113-121.

40. lbid., 47. McKenney quoted in Chapman, 310. Gilbert, “Memories,' 630-31
(quote).

41. lbid., 51-54. lbid., 309-310 (quote). Charlotte Johnston essay (HRS-LC).
Gilbert, “Memories,“ 630.

42. lbid., 59—61. William Johnston Letters, Spring-Fall 1833 (HRS-LC). Bremer,
171, 196.

43. lbid., 59-61. McKenney in Chapman, 310. James Schoolcraft to Henry
Schoolcraft, February 14, 1834 (HRS-LC). (The Anna Marie-James family feud, its
effect on Jane and her reactions will be detailed later.) Gilbert, “Memories,' 629
(quote).

44. lbid., 71-73.

45. George Johnston, 609-610. Schoolcraft, Summem, 79-80. Douglass, 38-40.
46. George Johnston, 610.

47. lbid., 610.

48. Schoolcraft, 55mm, 80. McKenney quoted in Chapman,308.

Notes for Chapter II
1. Newton, 99.
2. Schoolcraft, “Memoirs of John Johnston,“ 96.
3. John Johnston to Jane Johnston, December 14, 1813 and undated 1813 (HRS-LC).
4. Welter, 152.
5. Cott, 57.
6. Green, 703.

7. Schoolcraft, “Memoirs of John Johnston,“ 96.

96

8. lbid., 96. Jane Moore to John Johnston and Jane Johnston, February 4 and 24,
1815 and January 25, 1818 (HRS-LC).

9. Jameson, 75.

10. lbid., 76.

11. lbid., 77-78.

12. Jane Johnston to John Johnston, July 14, 1818 (HRS-LC).

13. Biographical information on Henry Schoolcraft is taken primarily from Bremer's
W, the most recent and most critical biography of
Schoolcraft, the last major one having been published in 1942.

14. lbid., 29-59.

15. Jane Johnston to Henry Schoolcraft, undated 1822 (HRS-LC).

16. Bremer, 97.

17. Jane Johnson to Henry Schoolcraft, January 27, 1823 (HRS-LC).

18. A large collection of notes from the early romance of the Schoolcraft-Johnston
courthip survive in the HRS-LC collection.

19. Jane Johnston, March 1823, (HRS-LC).
20. Jane Johnston to Henry Schoolcraft, May 17, 1823 and June 20, 1823 (HRS-LC).

21 . Bremer, 97.

22. Schoolcraft. Wrecks. 208. and Wet. 144. Henry
Schoolcraft to Jane Johnston, January 9, 1823 (HRS-LC)

23. Green, 700-701.

24. Schoolcraft, EereeneLMemejre, 208.

25. lbid., 237.

26. Jane Johnston to Henry Schoolcraft, January 22, 1825 (HRS-LC).
27. Jane Johnston Schoolcraft in Poetry Section (HRS-LC).

28. Schoolcraft, Henry, W 231.

29. lbid., 330.

97

30. Bremer, 99.

31. Henry Schoolcraft to Jane Johnston Schoolcraft, January 11, 13, 15, 17 and 22
(quote), 1825 (HRS-LC).

32. Bremer, 97.

33. Henry Schoolcraft to Jane Johnston Schoolcraft, January 13, 1825, (HRS-LC).
34. Jane Johnston Schoolcraft to Henry Schoolcraft, January 16, 1825 (HRS-LC).
35. Jane Johnston Schoolcraft to Henry Schoolcraft, July 2, 1825 (HRS-LC).

36. Jane Johnston Schoolcraft to Henry Schoolcraft, July 4, 1825 (HRS-LC). Bremer,
in W, recount at length the feud between the

officers and Schoolcraft, which must have been difficult for Jane whose social
relations included interactions with the “Ladies of the garrison.“ Bremer details the
feud in Chapter 3.

37. Henry Schoolcraft to Jane Johnston Schoolcraft, July 27, 1825 (HRS-LC).

38. This poem was written by “Rose,' a pseudonym of Jane Johnston in Ihe_l.iler_e[y
Voyage; (HRS-LC) and appears first, in a slightly different form, in a letter from Jane
Johnston Schoolcraft to Henry Schoolcraft of July 4, 1825 (HRS-LC).

39. McKenney quoted in Chapman, 310-311.

40. Original is in the Johnston Family Papers Collection, Bentley Historical Library,
and Chapman, 310—311.

41. The surviving issues of W are in the HRS-LC Collection, but
Phillip Mason edited and republished them in 1962. I will refer to Mason's pagination

rather that the original manuscripts to make the citation easier to locate. The
translation here is Mason's, p., xiv.

42. Mason, xv.

43. lbid., xv.

44. Jane Johnston Schoolcraft in Mason, 6-7.
45. Jane Johnston Schoolcraft in Mason, 8.

46. Jane Johnston Schoolcraft in Mason, 71. 'Resignation' is on pages 26-27, 'Lines
Written Under Affliction' on page 85 and “Lines Under Severe Pain and Sickness' on

page 97.

47. Jane Johnston Schoolcraft in Mason, 138-139.

98

48. Jane and Henry Schoolcraft in Mason, 37-39.

49. “Moowis' in Mason, 56; “Mishosha,' 64; “The Foresaken Brother,“ 93.
50. Jane Johnston Schoolcraft in Mason, 122.

51. Henry Schoolcraft in Mason, 144.

52. lbid., 144. Jane Johnston Schoolcraft to George Johnston, January 19, 1826 (GJ
Papers-Burton).

53. Jane Johnston Schoolcraft in Mason, 153.
54. Charles Trowbridge to Henry Schoolcraft, May 11, 1827 (HRS-LC).
55. Jane Johnston Schoolcraft in Mason, 158.

56. Jane Johnston Schoolcraft to George Johnston, March 26, 1827, (GJ Papers-
Bayliss).

57. S. Conant to Henry Schoolcraft, May 29, 1827 (HRS-LC).
Notes for Chapter III
1. Bremer, 117.
2. Walter, 152.
3. Jane Johnston Schoolcraft to Henry Schoolcraft, July 11 and August 3, 1827.
Schoolcraft also refers to dreams in a August 4, 1826 letter and Jane mentions them
in her 'Elmwood Diary.’ (HRS-LC)
4. Johnston Family Association, 44.
5. Bremer, 105.
6. Cleland, 180.

7. Elmwood Diary, (HRS-LC). This diary is filed in the Bound Series of
Correspondence.

8. Henry Schoolcraft to Jane Johnston Schoolcraft, May 23, 1828 (HRS-LC).
9. Jane Johnston Schoolcraft, May 30, 1828 (HRS-LC).
10. Jane Johnston Schoolcraft, in Poetry (HRS-LC).

11. Jane Johnston Schoolcraft to Henry Schoolcraft, June 7, 1828 (HRS-LC).

 

99

12. Jane Johnston Schoolcraft to George Johnston, July 9, 1828 (GJ Papers
-Burton).

13. Jane Johnston Schoolcraft to George Johnston, August 6, 1828 (GJ Papers-
Burton). '

14. Henry Schoolcraft to Henry Kearney, September 20, 1828 (HRS-LC).

15. Bremer, 105. Jane Johnston Schoolcraft to Henry Schoolcraft, September 3,
1829 and Henry Schoolcraft to Jane Johnston Schoolcraft, September 12, 1829 (HRS
-LC).

16. Jane Johnston Schoolcraft to Henry Schoolcraft, September 13 and 25 and
October 5, 1829 (HRS-LC).

17. Bremer, 107.

18. Henry Schoolcraft to Jane Johnston Schoolcraft, November 24 and 25, 1830
(HRS-LC).

19. Schoolcraft, Henry,

20. Schoolcraft. Henry. Wise. 43.

21. Jane Johnston Schoolcraft to Henry Schoolcraft, November 19 and 27, 1830 and
December 6, 1830. Henry Schoolcraft to Jane Johnston Schoolcraft. Novemer 24 and
25, 1830 (HRS-LC).

 

22. Jane Johnston Schoolcraft to Henry Schoolcraft, November 27 and December 6,
1830 (HRS-LC).

23. Epstein, 47.

24. Schoolcraft quoted in Bremer, 114.

25. Bremer, 114.

26. Henry Schoolcraft to Jane Johnston Schoolcraft, December 25, 1830 (HRS-LC).
27. Henry Schoolcraft to George Johnston, December 25, 1830 (Clarke).

28. Cumming, 225. Biographical information on Abel Bingham is also taken from the
Cumming essay.

29. See Fierst's “Return to 'Civilization': John Tanner's Troubled Years at Sault Ste.
Marie.

30. Cumming, 216-221.

100

31. Jane Johnston Schoolcraft to Henry Schoolcraft, October 9, 1832 (HRS-LC).

32. Journal-letter of Jane Johnston Schoolcraft to Henry Schoolcraft February 2,
1831 entry (HRS-LC).

33. lbid., February 3 and 16, 1831 entries.

34. lbid., February 16, 1831 entry.

35. Berkhofer, Selxatign, 5-7.

36. lbid., March 7, 1831 entry. The quote Jane used is from Cotton Mather.
37. Jane Johnston Schoolcraft to Henry Schoolcraft, January 4, 1831 (HRS-LC).
38. Devens, 72-90.

39. Bremer, 131-143.

40. Jane Johnston Schoolcraft to Henry Schoolcraft, July 16, 1832 (HRS-LC).
41. Jane Johnston Schoolcraft to Henry Schoolcraft, July 25, 1832 (HRS-LC).
42. Jane Johnston Schoolcraft to Henry Schoolcraft, July 25, 1832 (HRS-LC).
43. Bremer, 140-143.

44. Jane Johnston Schoolcraft to Henry Schoolcraft, October 9 and 12,1832 (HRS-
LC). Jane Johnston Schoolcraft to George Johnston, April 9,1833 (GJ Papers-Burton)

Notes for Chapter IV
1. White, Janet, 344-345.
2. Henry Schoolcraft to Jane Johnston Schoolcraft, May 11, 1833 (HRS-LC).
3. Devens, 75.

4. Jane Johnston Schoolcraft to Henry Schoolcraft May 13 and June undated (quote)
(HRS-LC).

5. Jane Johnston Schoolcraft to Henry Schoolcraft, September 22 and 23, 1833
(HRS-LC).

6. James Schoolcraft to Henry Schoolcraft, January 1, February 9, 14 and 27, 1834
(HRS-LC). James Hulbert to Henry Schoolcraft, February 9, 1834 (HRS-LC). William
McMurray to Henry Schoolcraft, February 11, 1834 (HRS-LC).

101

7. James Schoolcraft to Henry Schoolcraft, February 14 (HRS-LC).
8. James Schoolcraft to Henry Schoolcraft, February 14 (HRS-LC).

9. Jane Johnston Schoolcraft to Charlotte Johnston McMurray, March 4, 1834 (HRS-
LC).

10. Jane Johnston Schoolcraft to Charlotte Johnston McMurray, March 4, 1834
(HRS-LC). Jane Johnston Schoolcraft to George Johnston, undated 1832 ( GJ Papers
-Burton).

11. Johnston Family Association, 66.

12. Bremer, 154.

13. Bremer, 157-159.

14. Bremer, 168—173. Bremer's Chapter 6 Part iii details Schoolcraft's involvement
in treaty negotiation as well as the specific traders' interest in the treaty.

15. Jane Johnston Schoolcraft to Henry Schoolcraft, November 24, 1835, February
15 and March 10, 1836. Henry Schoolcraft to Jane Johnston Schoolcraft, December
26, 1835 (HRS-LC).

16. Janee and Jane Johnston Schoolcraft to Henry Schoolcraft, February 16, 1836
(HRS-LC).

17. Henry Schoolcraft to Jane Johnston Schoolcraft, April 14, 1836 (HRS-LC).

18. Jane Johnston Schoolcraft to Henry Schoolcraft, May 10, 1836 (HRS-LC).

19. Jane Johnston Schoolcraft to Henry Schoolcraft, November 24, 1831 (HRS-LC).
20. Jane Johnston Schoolcraft to Henry Schoolcraft, May 10, 1836 (HRS-LC).

21. Jane Johnston Schoolcraft to Henry Schoolcraft, November 20, 1837 (HRS-LC).
22. Jane Johnston Schoolcraft to Henry Schoolcraft, January 15, 1838 (HRS-LC).

23. Jane Johnston Schoolcraft to Henry Schoolcraft, June 5,1840 (HRS- LC). The
receipt for Wine subscriptions are also in HRS-LC.

24. Buffalohead, 238.
25. Wright, 527.

26. Devens, 'Separate,“ 467.

102

27. William McMurray to Jane Johnston Schoolcraft, March 14, 1837, Anna Maria
Schoolcraft to Jane Johnston Schoolcraft, March 14, 1837, William Johnston to Jane
Johnston Schoolcraft, March 15, 1837 (HRS-LC). Jameson, Vol. III, 239.

28. Jameson, Vol. III, 69-70. Jane Johnston Schoolcraft to Henry Schoolcraft, August
5, 1837 (HRS-LC). '

29. Jameson, Vol. III, 163.

30. lbid., 183-186.

31. Jane Johnston Schoolcraft to Henry Schoolcraft, August 5, 1837 (HRS-LC).
32. Henry Schoolcraft to Jane Johnston Schoolcraft, January 26, 1838 (HRS-LC).

33. Henry Schoolcraft to George Johnston May 17, 1838 (GJ Papers-Bayliss). Henry
Schoolcraft to Jane Johnston Schoolcraft, February 7, 1838 (HRS-LC).

34- This story is taken from Schoolcraft's W
reprinted by Avery Color Studios, page 235.

35. Jane Johnston Schoolcraft to Henry Schoolcraft, June 1, 1840 (HRS-LC).

36. Jane Johnston Schoolcraft to Henry Schoolcraft, June 8, 1840 (HRS-LC).

37. Jane Johnston Schoolcraft. This poem is filed in Bound Correspondence (HRS-LC).
38. Jane Johnston Schoolcraft quoted in Schoolcraft, Henry, EereeneLMemeire, 632-
39. Bremer, 196-214.

40. lbid., 200-207. Jane Johnston Schoolcraft to Henry Schoolcraft, June 1, 1840
(HRS-LC).

41. Jane Johnston Schoolcraft to Henry Schoolcraft, May 14, 1839 (HRS-LC). Jane
Johnston Schoolcraft to Mrs. Patterson (quote), January 26, 1839 (HRS-LC).

42. Janee Schoolcraft to Jane Johnston Schoolcraft, January 28, 1839. Mr. Marsh to
Henry Schoolcraft, December 26, 1839. Johnston Schoolcraft to Jane Johnston
Schoolcraft, April 1, 1840 (HRS-LC).

43. Janee Schoolcraft to Henry Schoolcraft, March 7, 1840. Janee Schoolcraft to Jane
Johnston Schoolcraft, January 28, 1839. Anna Maria Schoolcraft to Jane Johnston
Schoolcraft (quote) July 24, 1837 (HRS-LC).

44. Sayre, 6.

45. lbid., 18.

103

46. Henry Schoolcraft will in Bound Correspondence. Henry Schoolcraft to Jane
Johnston Schoolcraft (quote), May 27, 1839 (HRS-LC).

47. William McMurray to Jane Johnston Schoolcraft, January 21, 1838. Henry
Schoolcraft to Jane Johnston Schoolcraft, January 22, 1838. CR. Gilman to Henry
Schoolcraft, April 4, 1839 (HRS-LC). George Johnston to Jane Johnston Schoolcraft,
November 18, 1839 (GJ Papers-Burton).

48. Schoolcraft, Mary Howard, 495-498.

49. Isbell, 157. Berridge, 438-439.

50. Courtwright, 36-41.

51. lbid., 49.
52. lbid., 60.
53. lbid., 60.

54. Jane Johnston Schoolcraft to Mrs. Smith, undated 1839 (HRS-LC).

Notes for Chapter 5

1. Anna Maria Schoolcraft to Jane Johnston Schoolcraft, November 15, 1841 (HRS-
LC).

2. Henry Schoolcraft in Bound Correspondence, May 22, 1842 (HRS-LC).
3. Allen, 55.

4. Philip Mason's version of W documents meticulously the
authorship of each entry in the magazine, making it a crucial companion to the archival

copies.

5. Fuller, 124.
6. Bremer, 347.

7. lbid., 355.

APPENDIX: SHORT STORIES AND POETRY
Mon-Daw-Mln

or
The Origin of Indian Corn

[from W , probably written in 1837-8]

In times past, a poor Indian was living with his wife and children in a beautiful
part of the country. He was not only poor, but inexpert in procuring food for his
family, and his children were all too young to give him assistance. Although poor, he
was a man of a kind and contented disposition. He was always thankful to the Great
Spirit for everything he received. The same disposition was inherited by his eldest
son, who had now arrived at the proper age to undertake the ceremony of the Ke-ig-
uish-im-o-win, or fast, to see what kind of spirit would be his guide and guardian
through life. Wunzh, for this was his name, had been an obedient boy from his
infancy, and was of a pensive, thoughtful, and mild disposition, so that he was beloved
by the whole family. As soon as the first indications of spring appeared, they built
him the customary little lodge at a retired spot, some distance from their own, where
he would not be disturbed during this solemn rite. In the mean time he prepared
himself, and immediately went into it, and commenced his fast. The first few days,
he amused himself, in the mornings, by walking in the woods and over the mountains,
examining the early plant and flowers, and in this way prepared himself to enjoy his
sleep, and, at the same ,time, stored his mind with pleasant ideas for his dreams.
While he rambled through the woods, he felt a strong desire to know how the plants,
herbs and berries grew, without any aid from man, and why it was that some species
were good to eat and others possessed medicinal or poisonous juices. He recalled
these thought to mind after he became .too languid to walk about, and had confined

himself strictly to the lodge; he wished he could dream of something that would prove

104

105

a benefit to his father and family, and to all others. 'Truel“ he thought, “the Great
Spirit made all things, and it is to him that we owe our lives. But could he not make it
easier for us to get our food, than by hunting animals and taking fish? I must try to
find out this in my visions.“

On the third day he became weak and faint, and kept his bed. He fancied, while
thus lying, that he saw a handsome young man coming down from the sky and
advancing towards him. He was richly and gayly dressed, having on a great many
garments of green and yellow colors, but differing in their deeper or lighter shades.
He had a plume of waving feathers on his head, and all his motions were graceful.

“I am sent to you, my friend,‘ said the celestial visitor, “by that Great Spirit
who made all things in the sky and on the earth. He has seen and knows your motives
in fasting. He sees that it is from a kind and benevolent wish to do good to your
people, and to procure a benefit for them, and that you do not seek for strength in war
or the praise of warriors. I am good.‘ He then told the young man to arise, and
prepare to wrestle with him, as it was only by this means that he could hope to
succeed in his wishes. Wunzh knew he was week from fasting, but he felt his courage
rising in his heart, and immediately got up, determined to die rather than fail. He
commenced the trial, and after a protracted effort, was almost exhausted, when the
beautiful stranger said, “My friend, it is enough for once; I will come again to try
you;' and, smiling on him, he ascended in the air in the same direction from which he
came. The next day the celestial visitor reappeared at the same hour and renewed the
trial. Wunzh felt that his strength was even less than the day before, but the courage
of his mind seemed to Increase in proporlion as his body became weaker. Seeing this,

the stranger again spoke to him in the same words he used before, adding “Tomorrow

106

will be your last trial. Be strong, my friend, for this is the only way you can
overcome me, and obtain the been you seek.“ On the third day he again appeared at
the same time and renewed the struggle. The poor youth was very faint in body, but
grew stronger in mind at every contest, and was determined to prevail or parish in
the attempt. He exerted his utmost power, and after the contest had been continued
the usual time, the stranger ceased his efforts and declared himself conquered. For
the first time he entered the lodge, and sitting down beside the youth, he began to
deliver his instructions to him, telling him in what manner he should proceed to take
advantage of his victory.

'You have won your desires of the Great Spirit,“ said the stranger. 'You have
wrestled manfully. To-morrow will be the seventh day of your fasting. Your father
will give you feed to strengthen you, and as it is the last day of trial, you will prevail.
I know this, and now tell you what you must do to benefit your family and your tribe.
To-morrow,“ he repeated, “I shall meet you and wrestle with you for the last time;
and, as soon as you have prevailed against me, you will strip off my garments and
throw me down, clean the earth of root and weeds, make it soft, and bury me in the
spot. When you have done this, leave my body in the earth, and do not disturb it, but
come occasionally too visit the place, to see whether I have come to life, and be
careful never to let the grass or weeds grow on my grave. Once a month cover me
with fresh earth. If you follow my instructions, you will accomplish your object of
doing good to your fellow-creatures by teaching them the knowledge I now teach you.“
He then shook him by the hand and disappeared.

In the morning the youth's father came with some slight refreshment, saying,

'My son, you have fasted long enough. If the Great Spirit will favor you, he will do it

107

now. It is seven days since you have tasted food, and you must not sacrifice our life.
The Master of Life does not require that.“ 'My father,“ replied the youth, “wait till
the sun goes down. I have a particular reason for extending my last to that hour.‘
'Very well,‘ said the old men, 'I shall wait till the hour arrives, and you feel inclined
to eat.“

At the usual hour of the day the sky-visitor returned, and the trial of strength
was renewed. Although the youth had not availed himself of his father's offer of food,
he felt that new strength had been given to him, and that exertion had renewed his
strength and fortified his courage. He grasped his angelic antagonist with
supernatural strength, threw him down, took from him his beautiful garment and
plume, and finding him dead, immediately buried him on the spot, taking all the
precautions he had been told of, and being very confident, at the same time, that his
friend would again come to life. He then returned to his father's lodge, and partook
sparingly of the meal that had been prepared for him. But he never for a moment
forgot the grave of his friend. He carefully visited it throughout the spring, and
weeded out the grass, and kept the ground in a soft and pliant state. Very soon he saw
the tops of the green plumes coming through the ground; and the more careful he was
to obey his instructions in keeping the ground in order, the faster they grew. He was,
however, careful to conceal the exploit from his father. Days and weeks had passed
in this way. The summer was now drawing towards a close, when one day, after a
long absence in hunting, Wunzh invited his father to follow him to the quiet and
lonesome spot of his former fast. The lodge had been removed, and the weeds kept
from growing on the circle where it stood, but in its place stood a tell and graceful

plant, with bright-colored silken hair, surmounted with nodding plumes and stately

108

leaves, and golden clusters on each side. “It is my friend,‘ shouted the lad; “it is the
friend of all mankind. It is Mondawmin.“ We need no longer rely on hunting alone; for,
as long as this gift is cherished and taken care of, the ground itelf will give us a
living.‘I He then pulled an ear. 'See, my father,“ said he, 'this is what I fasted for.
The great Spirit has listened to my voice, and sent us something new,“ and henceforth
our people will not alone depend upon the chase or upon the waters.‘
He then communicated to his father the instructions given him by the stranger.
He told him that the broad husks must be torn away, as he had pulled off the garments in
his wrestling; and having done this, directed him how the ear must be held before the
fire till the outer skin became brown, while all the milk was retained in the grain. The
whole family then united in a feast on the newly-grown ears, expressing gratitude to the
Merciful Spirit who gave it. So corn came into the world.
“The algic name for corn. The world is manifestly a trinary compound from
monedo, spirit; min, a grain or berry; and iaw, the verb substantive.

“The Zea mays, it will be recollected, is indigenous to America, and was unknown
in Europe before 1495. (HRS note)

Mlshosha,
or the Maglclan and His Daughters
A Chippewa Tale or Legend

We; January 1827, original in HRS-LC]
In an early age of the world, when there were fewer inhabitant in the earth
than there now are, there lived an Indian, who had a wife and two children, in a
remote situation. Buried in the solitude of the forest, it was not often that he saw any
one, out of the circle of his own family. Such a situation seemed favorable for his
pursuit; and his life passed on in uninterrupted happiness, till he discovered a wanton

disposition in his wife.

109

This woman secretly cherished a passion for a young man whom she
accidentally met in the woods, and she lost no opportunity of courting his approaches.
She even planned the death of her husband, who, she justly concluded, would put her
to death, should he discover her infidelity. But this design was frustrated by the
alertness of the husband, who having cause to suspect her, determined to watch
narrowly, to ascertain the truth, before he should come to a determination how to act.
He followed her silently one day, at a distance, and hid himself behind a tree. He soon
beheld a tall, handsome man approach his wife, and lead her away.

He was now convinced of her crime, and thought of killing her, the moment she
returned. In the meantime he went home, and pondered on his situation. At last he
came to the determination of leaving her forever, thinking that her own conscience
would in the and, punish her sufficiently; and relying on her maternal feelings, to take
care of the two boys, whom he determined to leave behind.

When the wife returned, she was disappointed in not finding her husband,
having concerted a plan to dispatch him. When she saw that day after day passed, and
he did not return she at last guessed the true cause of his absence. She then returned
to her paramour, leaving the two helpless boys behind, telling them that she was going
a short distance, and would return; but determined never to see them more.

The children thus abandoned, soon made away with the food that was left in the
lodge, and were compelled to quit it, in search of more. The eldest boy possessed
much interpidity, as well as great tenderness for his little brother, frequently
carrying him when he became weary, and gathering all the wild fruit he saw. Thus
they went deeper into the forest, soon losing all traces of their former habitation, till

they were completely lost in the labyrinths of the wilderness.

110

The elder boy fortunately had a knife, with which he made a bow and arrows,
and was thus enabled to kill a few birds for himself and brother. In this way they
lived some time, still pressing on, they knew not whither. At last they saw an
opening through the woods, and were shortly after delighted to find themselves on the
borders of a broad lake. Here the elder boy busied himself in picking the seed pods of
the wild rose. In the meanwhile the younger, amused himself by shooting some
arrows into the send, one of which, happened to fall into the lake. The elder brother,
not willing to lose his time in making another, waded into the water to reach it. Just
as he was about to grasp the arrow, a canoe passed by him with the rapidity of
lightning. An old man, sitting in the centre, seized the affrighted youth, and placed
him in the canoe. In vein the boy addressed him. “My grandfather“ (a term of respect
for old people) 'pray take my little brother also. Alone, I cannot go with you; he will
starve if I leave him.‘ The old magician (for such was his real character) laughed at
him. Then giving his canoe a slap, and commanding it to go, it glided through the water
with inconceivable swiftness. In a few minutes they reached the habitation of
Mishosha, standing on an island in the centre of the lake. Here he lived, with his two
daughters, the terror of all the surrounding country.

Leading the young man up to the lodge 'Here my eldest daughter,“ said he, 'I
have brought a young man who shall become your husband.‘ The youth saw surprize
depicted in the countenance of the daughter, but she made no reply, seeming thereby
to acquiesce in the commands of her father. In the evening he overheard the daughters
in conversation. “There againl'I said the elder daughter, “our father has brought
another victim, under the pretence of giving me a husband. When will his enmity to

the human race cease; or when shall we be spared witnessing such scenes of vice and

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wickedness, as we are daily compelled to behold.‘

When the old magician was asleep, the youth told the elder daughter, how he
had been carried off, and compelled to leave his helpless brother on the shore. She
told him to get up and take her father's canoe, and using the charm he had observed, it
would carry him quickly to his brother. That he could cany him food, prepare a lodge
for him, and return by morning. He did in every thing as he had been directed, and
after providing for the subsistence of his brother, told him that in a short time he
should come for him. Then returning to the enchanted island, resumed his place in the
lodge before the magician awoke. Once during the night Mishosha awoke, and not
seeing his son in law, asked his eldest daughter what had become of him. She replied
that he had merely stepped out, and would be back soon. This satisfied him. In the
morning, finding the young man in the lodge, his suspicions were completely lulled. 'I
see, my daughter, you have told me the truth.“

As soon as the sun rose, Mishosha thus addressed the young man, l'Come, my
son, I have a mind to gather gulls eggs. I am acquainted with an island where there
are great quantities; and I wish your aid in gathering them.‘ The young man, saw no
reasonable excuse, and getting into the canoe, the magician gave it a slap, and bidding
it go, in an instant they were at the island. They found the shore covered with gulls
eggs, and the island surrounded with birds of this kind. “Go, my son,‘ said the old
man, “and gather them, while I remain in the canoe.“ But the young man was no
sooner ashore than Mishosha pushed his canoe a little from the land and exclaimed:
'Listen ye gullsl you have long expected something from me. I now give you an
offering. Fly down, and devour him.‘ Then striking his canoe, left the young man to

his fate.

112

The birds immediately came in clouds aroundvtheir victim, darkening all the air
with their numbers. But the youth, seizing the first that came near him, and drawing
his knife, cut off its head, and immediately skinning the bird, hung the feathers as a
trophy on his breast. 'Thus,“ he exclaimed, “will I treat everyone of you who
approaches me. Forbear, therefore, and listen to my words. It is not for you to eat
human food. You have been given by the Great Spirit as food for man. Neither is it in
the power of that old magician to do you any good. Take me on your beaks and carry
me to his lodge, and you shall see that I am not ungrateful.“

The gulls obeyed, collecting in a cloud for him to rest upon, and quickly flew to
the lodge, where they arrived before the magician. The daughters were surprized at
his return, but Mishosha conducted as if nothing extraordinary had taken place.

On the following day he again addressed the youth. 'Come, my son,“ said he,
'I will take you to an island covered with the most beautiful pebbles, looking like
silver. I wish you to assist me in gathering some of them. They will make handsome
ornament, and are possessed of great virtues.‘ Entering the canoe, the magician
made use of his charm, and they were carried, in a few moments, to a solitary bay in
an island, where there was a smooth sandy beach. The young man went ashore as
usual. 'A little further, a little further," cried the old man, 'upon that rock you will
get some finer ones.‘ Then pushing his canoe from land, 'Come thou great king of
fishes,“ Cried he, 'you have long expected an offering from me. Come, and eat the
stranger l have put ashore on our island.“ 80 saying, he commanded his canoe to
retum, and was seen out of sight. Immediately a monstrous fish shoved his long snout
from the water, moving partially on the beach, and opening wide his jaws to receive

his Victim.

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“When“ exclaimed the young man, drawing his knife, and placing himself in the
threatening attitude, 'when did you ever taste human food. Have a care of yourself.
You were given by the Great Spirit to man, and if you, or any of your tribe, taste
human flesh, you will fall sick and die. Listen not to the words of that wicked old man,
but carry me back to his island, in retum for which, I shall present you a piece of red
cloth.“

The fish complied, raising his back out of water to allow the young man to get
on. Then taking his way through the lake, landed his charge safely at the island,
before the retum of the magician.

The daughters were still more surprized to see him thus escaped a second
time, from the arts of their father. But the old man maintained the tacitumity. He
could not, however, help saying to himself, “What manner of boy is this, who ever
escapes form my power. His spirit shall not however save him. I will entrap him
tomorrow. Hal hal hal

Next day the magician addressed the young man as follows: 'Come my son,‘
said he, “you must go with me to procure some young eagles. I wish to tame them. I
have discovered an island where they are in great abundance.“ When they had reached
the island, Mishosha led him inland until they came to the foot of a tell pine, upon
which the nest were. 'New, my son,“ said he, 'climb up this tree and bring down the
birds.‘ The young man obeyed. When he had with great difficulty get near the nest,
“New,' exclaimed the magician, addressing the tree, “stretch yourself up and be very
tall.“ The tree rose up at the command. “Listen, ye eagles continued the old man,
“you have long expected a gift from me. I now present you this boy, who has had the

presumption to molest your young. Stretch forth your claws and sieze him.‘ So

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saying he left the young man to his fate, and returned.

But the intrepid youth drawing his knife, and cutting off the head of the first
eagle that menaced him, raised his voice and exclaimed, “Thus will I deal with all who
come near me. What right have you, ye ravenous birds, who were made to feed on
beast, to eat human flesh? It is because that cowardly old canoe-man has bid you do
so? He is an old woman. He can neither do you good nor harm. See, I have already
slain one of your number. Respect my bravery, and carry me back that I may show
you how I shall treat you.‘

The eagles, pleased with his spirit, assented, and clustering thick around him
formed a seat with their backs, and flew toward the enchanted island. As they
crossed the water they passed over the magician, lying half asleep in his canoe.

The return of the young man was hailed with joy by the daughters, who now
plainly saw that he was under the guidance of a strong spirit. But the ire of the old
man was excited, although he kept his temper under subjection. He taxed his wit for
some new mode of ridding himself of the youth, who had so successfully baffled his
skill. He next invited him to go a hunting.

Taking his canoe, they proceeded to an island and built a lodge to shelter
themselves during the night. In the mean while the magician caused a deep fall of
snow, With a storm of wind and severe cold. According to custom, the young man
pulled off his moccasins and leggings and hung them before the fire to dry. After he
had gone to sleep the magician, watching his opportunity, got up, and taking one
moccasin and one legging, threw them into the fire. He then went to sleep. In the
morning, stretching himself as he arose and uttering an exclamation of surprise, “My

son,‘ said he, 'what has become of your moccasin and legging? I believe this is the

115

moon in which fire attract, and I fear they have been drawn in.“ The young man
suspected the true cause of his loss, and rightly attributed it to a design of the
magician to freeze him to death on the march. But he maintained the strictest silence,
and drawing his conaus over his head thus communed with himself: “I have full faith in
the Manito who has preserved me thus far, I do not fear that he will forsake me in this
cruel emergency. Great is his power, and l invoke it now that he may enable me to
prevail over this wicked enemy of mandkind.‘

He then drew on the remaining moccasin and legging, and taking a dead coal
from the fireplace, invoked his spirit to give it efflcancy, and blackened his foot and
leg as far as the lost garment usually reached. He then got up and anncrnced himself
ready for the march. In vain Mishosha led him through snows and over morasses,
hoping to see the lad sink at every moment. But in this he was disappointed, and for
the first time they returned home together.

Taking courage from this success, the young man now determined to try his
own power, having previously consulted with the daughters. They all agreed that the
life the old man led was detestable, and that whoever would rid the world of him,
would entitle himself to the thanks of the human race.

On the following day the young man thus addressed his hoary captor. 'My
grandfather, I have often gone with you on perilous excursions and never murmured. I
must now request that you will accompany me. I wish to visit my little brother, and
to bring him home with me.“ They accordingly went on a visit to the main land, and
found the little led in the spot where he had been left. After taking him into the canoe,
the young man again addressed the magician: “My grandfather, will you go and cut me

a few of those red willows on the bank, I wish to prepare some smoking mixture.‘

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'Certainly, my son,‘ replied the old man, 'what you wish is not very hard. Ha, ha,
hal do you think me too old to get up there?‘ No sooner was Mishosha ashore, than
the young man, placing himself in the proper position struck the canoe with his hand,
and pronouncing the charm, N'CHIMAUN POLL, the canoe immediately flew through the
water on its return to the island. It was evening when the two brothers arrived, and
carried the canoe ashore. But the elder daughter informed the young man that unless
he sat up and watched the canoe, and kept his hand upon it, such was the power of
their father, it would slip off and return to him. Panigwun watched faithfully till near
the dawn of day, when he could no longer resist the drowsiness which oppressed him,
and fell into a short doze. In the meantime the canoe slipped off and sought it master,
who soon returned in high glee. “Ha, ha, hal my son,‘ said he; “you thought to play
me a trick. It was very clever. But you see I am too old for you.‘

A short time after, the young again addressed the magician. “My grandfather,
I wish to try my skill in hunting. It is said there is plenty of game on an island not far
off, and I have to request that you will take me there in your canoe.‘ They
accordingly went to the island and spent the day in hunting. Night coming on they put
up a temporary lodge. When the magician had sunk into a profound sleep, the young
man got up, and taking one of Mishosha's leggings and moccasins from the place where
they hung, threw them into the fire, thus retaliating the artifice before played upon
himself. He had discovered that the foot and leg were the only vulnerable part on the
magician's body. Having committed these articles to the fire, he besought his Manito
that he would rise a great storm of snow, wind, and hail, an then laid himself down
beside the old man. Constemation was depicted on the countenance of the letter, when

he awoke in the morning and found his moccasin and legging missing. 'I believe, my

117

grandfather,“ said the young man, “that this is the moon in which fire attract, and I
fear your foot and leg garments have been drawn in.“ Then rising and bidding the old
man follow him, he began the morning's hunt, frequently turning to see how Mishosha
kept up. He saw him faltering at every step, and almost benumbed with cold, but
encouraged him to follow, saying, we shall soon get through and reach the shore;
although he took pains, at the same time, to lead him in round-about ways, so as to let
the frost take complete effect. At length the old man reached the brink of the island
where the woods are succeeded by a border of smooth sand. But he could go no
farther; his legs became stiff and refused motion, and he found himself fixed to the
spot. But he still kept stretching out his arms and swinging his body to and fro. Every
moment he found the numbness creeping higher. He felt his legs growing downward
like roots, the feathers of his head turned to leaves, and in a few seconds he stood a
tall and stiff sycamore, leaning toward the water.

Panigwun leaped into the canoe, and pronounced the charm, was soon
transported to the island, where he related his victory to the daughters. They
applauded the deed, agreed to put on mortal shapes, become wives to the two young
men, and for ever quit the enchanted island. And passing immediately over to the
main land, they lived lives of happiness and peace.

Origin of the Miscodeed

or the
Maid of Taquimenon

MW February 1827, original in HRS-LC]
The daughter of Me Mongazida, was the pride of her parent, and their only child.
Beauty set upon her lips, and life and animation marked all her motions. Fourteen

summers had witnessed the growth of her stature, and the unfolding of her charms,

118

and each spring, as it came around, had beheld her, in her happy simplicity, revelling
amid the wild flowers of her native valley. There was no valley so sweet as the
valley of Taquimenon. There, she listened to the earliest notes of the wild birds, who
returned from the south, to enliven the forest after the repose of winter; and there,
also, she had prepared her bower of branches, and fasted to obtain a guardian spirit,
to conduct her through life, according to the belief and customs of her people. Sweet
valley of the Taquimenon, thou didst bless her with the charms of thy fragrance,
causing the most profound sensations of pleasure. There, she first beheld that little
angel, who in the shape of a small white bird, of purest plumage, assumed to be her
guardian spirit, in cot and wood, through sun and storm, for the remainder of her
days. Happy were her slumbers in this delightful visitation, and happy her awakening,
as she hasted back, with fawn-like fieetness, to her parents lodge, with one more
charm-one more pleasing recollection-one more tie to bind her fancy and her heart to
the sweet valley of the Taquimenon. Beautiful valley of soft reposel there, she had
first learned to know the sweet face of nature, and seen the river leap 8 laugh in
foam, from the rocks, and then pursue it sylvan course through the green leafed
forest. Sweet enthusiast of nature! wild gazer of the woodsl There, too, were the
sacred graves of her forefathers, and there, she hoped, when the Great Spirit should
summon her to depart, her friends would lay her simply bark-encased body, under the
shady foliage in a spot she loved.

It was early in the Strawberry Moon. The white coat of winter was
remembered for it having lingered on many spots, which were secluded from the
sun's influence. But the flowers of the forest were now in bloom, and the birds had re

-visited the valley. There was a soft and balmy air, and life and animation seemed to

119

be newly bestowed upon the whole face of the earth. The robin and the mamaitwa
came back to sing, and the murmuring of waters, in the little glens and by-vallies,
rose, like pleasing music on the ear, and denoted the time for the opening of buds, and
the springing of flowers. Never, had the scene appeared more attractive to her eye.
'Oh.“ she exclaimed, 'that it were ever springl that I could ever live and revel in the
wild beauties of my native valley-the sweet valley of the Taquimenon.“

But while all nature rejoiced, there was a deep gloom gathering over me brows
of Me Mongazida. Whispers of the sign of an enemy on the lofty shores of the Pictured
Rocks, had reached his ears. He thought of the haughty air of the audacious tribe of
the Outagamies, who but a few moon before, invaded the country, and had been baffled
in their design. He thought of the bitter feuds of the border bands, yet pleased himself
in his own seclusion far from the war path of the enemy, where, for the space of
fifteen winters, there had not a hostile footprint been seen. While he lay on his couch,
pondering on these things, sleep ensued, and he fancied himself to be the leader of a
hostile band, who broke from the ambush, at the earliest dawn, and carried death and
desolation to a slumbering village. Shocked at the catastrophe, he awoke. The dream
alarmed him. He remembered that birds of ill omen had crossed his path, the day
before.

“Had it been my enemies, the Dacetahs,‘ said he to his wife, “I should have feared
no evil, but to dream of raising the war club against the Outagamies my own blood
kindred, and with whom we have been long in peace, bodes me sure disaster. Some
hostile foot is, even now, on the track. Some evil bird has flown over my lodge. I will no
longer abide here. Had I sons to stand by my side, most freely would I meet the fee; but,

single-handed, with no one but thee, to bury me, if I am slain, and my tender Miscodeed

120

to witness my fall, and become their prey, it were madness to abide. And this day, even
before the sun is at the zenith, will I quit the peaceful valley I love-the sweet valley of
the Taquimenon.“

In haste, they took their morning's meal, and made their preparations to leave a
scene, so loved and cherished, but loved and cherished by none, more than the gentle and
enthusiastic Miscodeed. She was indeed a precious wild flower. But while they yet sat
around their lodge-fire, the instinctive sagacity of that trusty friend of the Red Hunter,
the household dog, betokened approaching evil, at first, by restlessness and low
murmurs, and then breaking into a loud bark, as he flew out of the door. It was a daring
war party of the treacherous Mendawakantons from the Mississippi. A volley of arrows
followed, and sealing in death at the same instant, the lips of both father and mother.
'Oh, bird of my dreams,‘ cried Miscodeed, 'my beautiful white wingI-my angel of
promise! save me from the hands of my cruel enemies.“ So saying, she sunk, lifeless to
the ground.

With loud yells and rapid footteps the foe entered. Consplcuous, in front, stood
the eldest son of a warrior, who had been killed by the Chippewas in the great battle of
the falls of the river St. Croix. His brows were painted red, and his spear poised. But the
work of death was soon finished. There lay, motionless, the husband and the wife alike
beyond the influence of hope or fear, hate or harm. But no other human form appeared,
and the eye of the savage leader rolled in disappointment around, as he viewed the spot
where Miscodeed, his meditated victim, had sunk into the earth. A small and beautiful
white bird, was seen to fly from the top of the lodge. It was the guardian spirit of
Miscodeed. The knife and the tomahawk were cheated of their prey-her guardian angel

had saved her from being the slave of her enemy.

121

But the sanguinary rites of war were quickly performed; the scalps of the hunter
and his wife, were torn away, and with hurry 8 fear, the enemy was soon on his way to
his native land. When the friends of the slaughtered family, visited the silent lodge,
where welcome had so often greeted them, all they saw on the ground where the maid of
Taquimenon had fallen, was a modest little white flower, bordered with pink border

which was at once destined to be her emblem.

The Origin of the Robln
An Oral Allegory

[Ibe_l.ile[en(_¥eyege[ January 1827, original in HRS-LC]
Spiritual gifts, are sought by the Chippewas through fasting. An old man had an only
son, a fine promising lad, who had come to that age which is thought by the Chippewas
to be most proper to make the long and final fast, that is to secure through life a
guardian spirit, on whom future prosperity or adveristy is to depend, and who forms
and establishes the character of the faster to great or ignoble deeds.

This old man was ambitious that his son should surpass all others in whatever
was deemed most wise and great amongst his tribe. And to fulfill his wishes, he
thought it necessary that his son must fast a much longer time than any of those
persons known for their great power or wisdom, whose fame he envied.

He therefore directed his son to prepare with great ceremony, for the
important event. After he had been in the sweating lodge and bath several times, he
ordered him to lie down upon a clean mat, in the little lodge expressly prepared for
him, telling him at the time to bear himself like a man, and at that the expiration of

twelve days, he should receive food, and the blessing of his father.

 

122

The lad carefully observed this Injunction, laying with his face covered with
perfect composure, awaiting those happy visitations which were to seal his good or ill
fortune. His father visited him every morning regularly to encourage him to
perseverance, expatiating at full length on the renown and honor that would attend him
through life, if he accomplished the full term prescribed. To these admonitions the boy
never answered, but lay without the least sign of unwillingness till the ninth day, when
he addressed his father—'My father, my dreams are ominous of evill May I break my
fast now, and at a more propitious time, make a new fast?“ The father answered--'My
son, you know not what you ask! If you get up now, all your glory will depart. Wait
patiently a little longer. You have but three days yet to accomplish what I desire. You
know, it is for your own good.‘

The son assented, and covering himself closer, he lay till the eleventh day, when
he repeated his request to his father. The same answer was given him, by the old man,
adding, that the next day he would himself prepare his first meal, and bring it to him.
The boy remained silent, but lay like a skeleton. No one would have known he was living
but by the gentle heaving of his breast.

The next morning the father, elated at having gained his and, prepared a repast
for his son, and hastened to set it before him. On coming to the door, he was surprized to
hear his son talking to himself. He stooped to listen, and looking through a small
aperture, was more astonished when he beheld his son pained with vermillion on his
breast, and in the act of finishing his work by laying on the paint as far as his hand could
reach on his shoulders, saying at the same time:- 'My father has ruined me, as a man;
he would not listen to my request; he will now be the loser. I shall be forever happy in

the new state, for the Spirit is a just one, though not propitious to me. He has shown me

pit

123

pity, and now I must go.‘

At that moment the old man broke in, exclaiming, 'My sonl my sonl do not leave
mel“ but his son with the quickness of a bird had flown up to the top of the lodge, and
perched on the highest pole, a beautiful robin red-breast. He looked down on his father
with pity beaming in his eyes, and told him, that he should always love to be near men's
dwellings, that he should always be seen happy and contented by the constant
cheerfulness and pleasure he would display, that he would still cheer his father by his
songs, which would be some consolation to him for the loss of the glory he had expected;
and that, although no longer a man, he should ever be the harbinger of peace and joy t
the human race.

Moowls

The Indian Coquette
A Chlppewa Legend

Wee]: January 1827, original in HRS-LC]
There was a village full of Indians, and a noted balls or muh-muh dew go qua was
living there. A noted beau or muh muh daw go, ninnie was there else. He and another
young man went to court this young woman, and laid down beside her, when she
scratched the face of the handsome beau. He went home and would not rise till the
family prepared to depart, and he would not then arise. They then left him, as he felt
ashamed to be seen even by his own relations. It was winter, and the young man, his
rival, who was his cousin, tried all he could to persuade him to go with the family, for
it was now winter, but to no purpose, till the whole village had decamped and had gone
away. He then rose and gather all the bit of clothing, and ornaments of beads and
other things, that had been left. He then made a coat and leggins of the same, nicely

trimmed with the beads, and the suit was fine and complete. After making a pair of

fc

tc

124

moccasins, nicely trimmed, he also made a bow and arrows. He then collected the dirt
of the village, and filled the garment he had made, so as to appear as a man, and put
the bow and arrows in into hands, and it came to life. He then desired his dirt image
to follow him to the camp of those who had left him who thinking him dead by this
time, were surprized to see him. One of the neighbors took in the dirt-man and
entertained him. The belle saw them come and immediately fell in love with him. The
family that took him in made a large fire to warm him, as it was winter. The image
said to one of the children, 'sit between me and the fire, it is too hot,‘I and the child
did so, but all smelt the dirt. Some said, 'some one has trod on, and brought in dirt.‘
The master of the family said to the child sitting in front of the guest, I'get away from
before our guest, you keep the heat from him.‘ The boy answered saying, “he told me
to sit between him and the fire.“ In the meantime, the belle wished the stranger would
visit her. The image went to his master, and they went out to different lodges, the
image going as directed to the belle's. Towards morning, the image said to the young
woman (as he had succeeded) 'I must now go away,‘ but she said, “I will go with
you.‘ He said “it is too far.“ She answered, 'it is not so far but that I can go with
you.‘ He first went to the lodge where he was entertained, and then to his master, and
told him of all that had happened, and that he was going off with her. The young man
thought it a pity she had treated him so, and how sadly she would be punished. They
went off, she following behind. He left her a great way behind, but she continued to
follow him. When the sun rose high, she found one of his mittens and picked it up, but
to her astonishment, found it full of dirt. She, however took it and wiped it, and going
on further, she found the other mitten in the same condition. She thought, “fiel why

does he do so,’ thinking he dirtied in them. She kept finding different articles of his

 

 

It was

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and rc
sleep
iamily
their i
These
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125

dress, on the way all day, in the same condition. He kept ahead of her till towards
evening, when the snow was like water, having melted by the heat of the day. No
signs of her husband appearing, after having collected all the cloths that held him
together, she began to cry, not knowing where to go, as their track was lost, on
account of the snow's melting. She kept crying Moowis has led me astray, and she
kept singing and crying Moowis nin ge won a win ig, ne won e win ig.

The Forsaken Brother
A Chlppewa Tale

[IhLLiIfimeLQxagfit February 1827, original in HRS-LC]
It was a fine summer evening; the sun was scarcely an hour high,- it departing rays
beamed through the foliage of the tall, stately elms, that skirted the little green knoll,
on which a solitary Indian lodge stood. The deep silence that reigned in this sequested
and romantic spot, seemed to most of the inmates of that lonely hut, like the long
sleep of death, that was now evidently fast sealing the eyes of the head of this poor
family. His low breathing was answered by the sighs of his disconsolate wife and
their children. Two of the latter were almost grown up, one was yet a mere child.
These were the only human beings near the dying man. The door of the lodge was
thrown open to admit the refreshing breeze of the lake, on the banks of which it stood;
and as the cool air fanned the head of the poor man, he felt a momentary return of
strength, and raising himself a little, he thus addressed his weeping family. “I leave
you--thou, who hast been my partner in life, but you will not stay long to suffer in
this world. But ohl my children, my poor childrenl you have just commenced life, and
mark me, unkindness, and ingratitude, and every wickedness is in the scene before

you. I left my kindred and my tribe, because I found what I have just warned you of. I

126

have contented myself with the company of your mother and yourselves, for many
years, and you will find my motives for separating from the haunts of men, were
solicitude and anxiety to preserve you from the bad examples you would inevitably
have followed. But I shall die content, if you, my children promise me, to cherish
each other, and on no account to forsake your youngest brother, of him I give you both
particular charge.‘ The man became exhausted, and taking a hand of each of his eldest
children, he continued--“My daughterl never forsake your little brother. My son,
never forsake your little brother.‘ 'Never, neverl' they both exclaimed. 'Never
«never! " repeated the father and expired.

The poor man died happy, because he thought his commands would be obeyed.
The sun sank below the trees, and left a golden sky behind, which the family were
wont to admire, but no one heeded it now. The lodge that was so still an hour before,
was now filled with low and unavailing Iamentations. Time were heavily awayufive
long moons had passed and the sixth was nearly full, when the mother also died. In
her last moment she pressed the fulfilment of their promise to their departed father.
They readily renewed their promise, because they were yet free from any selfish
motive. The winter passed away, and the beauties of spring cheered the drooping
spirit of the bereft little family. The girl, being the eldest, dictated to her brother,
and seemed to feel a tender and sisterly affection for the youngest, who was rather
sickly and delicate. The other soon showed symptoms of restlessness, and addressed
the sister as follows. “My sister, are we always to live as if there were no other
human beings in the world. Must I deprive myself the pleasure of asociating with my
own kind? I shall seek the villages of men; I have determined, and you cannot prevent

me.‘ The girl replied, 'My brother, I do not say no, to what you desire. We were not

thl

br.

127

prohibited, the society of our fellow mortals, but we were told to cherish each other,
and that we should [do] nothing independent of each other-that neither pleasure nor
pain ought ever to separate us, particularly from our helpless brother. If we follow
our separate gratifications, it will surely make, us forget him whom we are alike
bound to support.‘ The young man made no answer, but taking his bow and arrows left
the lodge, and never returned.

Many moons had come and gone, after the young man's departure, and still the
girl administered to the want of her younger brother. At length, however, she began to
be weary of her solitude, and her charge. Years, which added to her strength and
capability of directing the affairs of the household, also brought with them the desire of
society, and made her solitude irksome. But in meditating a change of life, she thought
only for herself, and cruelly sought to abandon her little brother, as her elder brother
had done before.

One day after she had collected all the provisions she had set apart for
emergencies, and brought a quantity of wood to the door, she said to her brother. 'My
brother, you must not stray far from the lodge. I am going to seek our brother: I shall
soon be back.“ Then taking her bundle, she set off, in search of habitations. She soon
found them, and was so much taken up with the pleasure and amusement of society, that
all affection for her brother was obliterated. She accepted a proposal of marriage, and
after that, never more thought of the helpless relative she had abandoned.

In the meantime the elder brother had also married, and settled on the shores of
the same lake, which contained the bones of his parent, and the abode of his forsaken
brother.

As soon as the little boy had eaten all the food left by his sister, he was obliged to

ar
hi:

int

rell

128

pick berries and dig up root. Winter came on, and the poor child was exposed to all it
rigors. He was obliged to quit the lodge in search of food, without a shelter. Sometimes
he passed the night in the clefts of old trees, and ate the refuge meat of the wolves. The
latter soon became his only resource, and he became so fearless of these animals, that he
would sit close to them whilst they devoured their prey, and the animals themselves
seemed to pity his condition, and would always leave something. Thus he lived, as it
were, on the bounty of fierce wolves until spring. As soon as the lake was free from ice,
he followed his new found friends and companions to the shore. It happened his brother
was fishing in his canoe in the lake, a considerable distance out, when he thought he
heard the cry of a child, and wondered how any could exist on so bleak a part of the shore.
He listened again more attentively, and distinctly heard the cry repeated. He made for
shore as quick as possble, and as he approached land, discovered and recognized his little
brother, and heard him singing in a plaintive voice-

Neesya, neesya, sh yegwuh gushuh!

Ween ne myeengunish!

ne myeengunishl

My brother, my brother,

I am now turning into a Well!—

I am turning into a Wolf.

At the termination of his song, he howled like a Wolf, and the young man was
still more astonished when, on getting nearer shore, he perceived his poor brother
half turned into that animal. He however, leapt on shore and strove to catch him in his
arms and soothingly said- 'M brother, my brother, come to me.“ But the boy eluded
his grasp, and fled, still singing as he fled— 'I am turning into a Wolf-I am turning
into a wolf,‘ and howling in the intervals.

The elder brother, conscience struck, and feeling his brotherly affection

returning with redoubled force, exclaimed in great anguish, “My brother, my brother,

CC

It:

hi

In

129

come to me.“ But the nearer he approached the child, the more rapidly his
transformation went on, until he changed into a perfect wolf,--still singing and
howling, and naming his brother and sister alternately in his song, as he fled into the
woods, until his change was complete. At last he said. “I am a wolf,‘ and bounded out
of sight.

The young man felt the bitterness of remorse all his days, and the sister, when
she heard of the fate of the little boy whom she had so cruelly left, and whom both she
and her brother had solemnly promised to foster and protect, wept bitterly; and never

ceased to mourn until she died.

Resignation

W26]

How hard to teach the heart, opprest with grief,
Amid gay, worldy scenes, to find relief;

And the long cherish'd bliss we had in view,

To banish from the mind where first it grewl
But Faith, in time, can sweetly soothe the soul,

And Resignation hold a mild control;

The mind may then resume a proper tone,
And calmly think on hope forever flown.

Llnes Written Under Affllcatlon
W84]

Ahl who, with a sensative mind possest,
Recalls the swift years that are gone,
Without mingled emotions-~both bitter 8 blest,

At the good 8 the ill he has know.

Or, how could a beautiful landscape please,
If it showed us no feature but light?

'Tis the dark shades alone that give pleasure 8 ease,
'Tis the union of sombre and bright.

So wisely has God in his mercy ordain'd,
That the bitterest cup he has cast,

130

Is mixed witha sweetness, which still is retain'd,
To be drank and enjoyed at the last.

Thus feelings are chasten'd, 8 life is refin'd,
By pangs that misfortunes convey,

To minds that have faith, 8 to bosoms resign'd,
To bear-to forbear, and obey.

And tho' for a while, he condemns us in strife,
To languish, and suffer, and die;

Yet the sunshine of promise--of hope8 of life,
Allures us to bliss in the sky.

Otegamlad
W138]

In northern climes ther Iiv'd a chief of fame,
LaPointe his dwelling, and Ojeeg his name,
Who oft in war had rais'd the battle cry,
And brav'd the rigors of an Artic sky;
Nor less in peace those daring talent shone,
That rais'd him to his simple forest throne,
Alike endow'd with skill, such heaven's reward,
To weild the oaken sceptre, and to guard.
Now round his tent, the willing chieftain's wait,
The gathering council, and the stem debate-
Hunters, 8 warriors circle round the green,
Age sit sedate, 8 youth fills up the scene,
While careful hands, with fling 8 steel prepare,
The sacred fire- the type of public care.

Warriors and friends'- the chief of chiefs oppress'd,
With rising cares, his burning thought express'd.
'Long have our lands been hem'd around by foes,
Whose secret ire, no check or limit knows,
Whose public faith, so often pledg'd in vain,
'Twere base for freemen e'er to trust again.
Wetch'd in their tracks our trusting hunters fall,
By ambush'd arrow, or avenging ball;

Our subtil foes lie hid in every pass,

Screen'd in the thicket, shelter'd in the grass,
They pierce our forest, 8 they cross our lines,
No treaty binds theme, 8 no stream confines
And every spring that clothes the leafy plain,
We mourn our brethen, or our children slain.
Delay but swells our woes, as rivers wild,

Heap on their banks the earth they first despoil'd.
Oh chieftainsl listen to my warning voice,

(\‘III-

F LCGC

131

War-war or slavery is our only choice.

No longer sit, with head 8 arms declin'd,

The charms of ease still ing'ring in the mind;
No longer hope, that justice will be given

If ye neglect the proper means of heaven:
Fear--and fear only, makes our foemen just
Or shun the path of conquest, rage or lust,

Nor think the lands we own, our sons shall share,
If we forget the noble rites of war.

Choose firen with wisdom, nor by more delay,
Put off the great—the all important day.

Upon yourselves alone, your fate depends,

'Tis warlike act that make a nafion friends
'Tis warlike act that prop a falling throne,
And makes peace, glory, empire, all our own.
Oh friendsl think deeply on my counseluworlds
I sound no peaceful cry of sumer birdsl

No whispering dream of bliss without allay

Or idle strain of mute, inglorious joy

Let my bold voice arouse your slumb'ring hearts,
And answer warriors- with uplifted darts,
Thick crowding arrows, brisfied o'er the plain,
And joy ous warriors rais'd the battle strain.

All but Camudwa, join'd the shoufing throng,

Camudwa, fam'd for eloquence of tongue
Whose breast resol've the coming strife with pain,
And peace still hop'd, by peaceful art to gain.
'Friends' - he reply'd--'our rulers words are just,
Fear breeds respect and bridles rage or lust,
bust in our hast, by rude and sudden hate,
To prop our own, or crush our neighbors state
Valor itelf, should not disdain the skill

By pliant speech, to gain our purpos'd will.
The fee may yet, be reason'd into right.
And if we fail in speech--we still may fight.
At least, one further effort, beour care,

I will muself, the daring message beer,

I give my body, to the mission free,
And if I tell, my country, 'tis for fireel
The wife and child, shall lisp my song of fame,
And all who value peace, repeat my namel

'Tis well-Baimwawa placidly replied,
'To cast our eyes, with care to either side,
Lest in our pride, to bring a rival low,
Our own fair fields shall fall beneath fire foe.
Great is fire stake, nor should we lighfiy yield,
Our ancient league by many a betfie seal'd.

T

“\ctl

132

The deeds of ofirer days before my eyes,

In all fireir friendship, love and faifir arise,

When hand in hand with him we rov'd fire wood,
Swept fire long vale, or stem'd fire boiling flood.

In the same war path, march'd with ready blade,
And Iiv'd, and fought, and triumph'd wifir his aid.
When fire same tongue, express'd our joys and pains,
And the same blood ran freely firro' our veins?

'Not we-not we'- in rage Keewaydin spoke,
'Strong ties have sever'd, or old friendships broke,
Back on firemselves fire baseless charge must fall,
They sunder‘d name, league, language, rites and all.
They, with out firm allies, fire Gallic race,

First broke fire league, by secret art and base,
Then play'd fire warrior-called our bands a clog,
And earn'd fireir proper fifie, Fox and Dog.

Next to fire false Dacota gave fire hand,

And Ieagued in war, our own destruction plan'd.
Do any doubt fire words I now advance,

Here is my breast‘uhe yelled and took his lance.

'Rage'-interposed the sage Canowakeed,
Ne'er prompted wit, or bid fire council speed
For other aims, be here our highest and,
Such gentle aims,to rivet friend to friend.

If harsher fires, in ardent bosoms glow,

At least restrain them, till we meet fire foe,
Calm judgment here, demands fire care of all,
For if we judge amiss, ourselves shall fall.
Beside, what boasts it, firat ye here repeat,
The current tale of ancient scaifir or heat,
Love, loss, or bicker, welcome or retort,
Once giv'n in earnest, or retum'd sport

Or how, or when this hapless feud arose,
That made our firmest friends, our firmest foes.
That so it is, by causes new and old,

There are no strangers present, to be told,
Each for himself, both knows 8 feels 8 seas,
The growing evils of a hearfiess peace,

And fire sole quesfion, of this high debate,
ls-shall we longer suffer-longer wait,

Or wifir heroic will, for strife prepare,

And try fire hazard of a gen'ral warl

Invocation
to my Maternal Grandfather
On Hearing hls Descent from Chlppewa Ancestors

—J‘b

133

Mlsrepresented

W142]

Rise bravest chief! of fire mark of fire noble deer,
With eagle glance,
Resume firy lance,
And weild again firy warlike spearl
The fees of firy line,
Wifir coward design,
Have dar’d, wifir black envy, to garble fire trufir,
And stain, wifir a falsehood, thy valorous youfir.

They say, when a child, firou wert ta'en from fire Sioux,
And wifir impotent aim,
To lessen thy fame
Thy warlike lineage basely abuse,
For firey know that our band,
Treat a far distant land,
And firou noble chieftainl art nerveless and dead,
Thy bow all unstrung, and firy proud spirit fled.

Can fire sports of firy youfir, or firy deeds ever fade?
Or firose ever forget,
Who are mortal men yet,

The scenes where so bravely firou'st lifted the blade,
Who have fought by firy side,
And remember firy pride,

When rushing to battle, wifir valor and ire,

Thou saw‘st fire fell toes of firy nafion expire.

Can fire warrior forget how sublimely you rose?
Like a star in fire west,
When fire sun's sunk to rest,

That shines in bright splendor to dazzle our fees:
Thy arm and firy yell,
Once fire tale could repel

Which slander invented, and minions detail,

And still shell thy acfions refute fire false tale.

Rest firou, noblest chiefl in firy dark house of clay,
Thy deeds and thy name,
Thy child's child shall proclaim,
And make fire dark forest resound wifir fire lay;
Though firy spirit has fled,
To fire hills of fire dead,
Yet firy name shall be held in my heart's warmest care,
And cherish'd, fill valor and love be no more.

134

To My Ever Beloved and Lamented Son
William Henry

MWJW]

'Who was it nesfied on my breast,

“And on my cheek sweet kisses prest“

And in whose smile I felt so blest?
Sweet Willy.

Who hail'd my form as home I stept,
, And in fire arms so eager leapt,
And to my bosom joyous crept?

My Willy.

Who was it, wiped my tearful eye,

And kiss'd away fire coming sigh,

And smiling bid me say “good boy“?
Sweet Willy.

Who was it, looked divinely fair,
Whilst Iisping sweet fire evening prey'r
Guileless and free from earthly care?

My warry.

Where is that voice attuned to love,

That bid me say “my darling dove“?

But ohl firat soul has flown above.
Sweet Willy.

Whither has fled fire rose's hue?

The lily's whiteness blending grew,

Upon firy cheek--so fair to view.
My Willy.

Oft have I gazed wifir rapt delight,

Upon firose eyes firat sparkled bright,

Emitting beams of joy and Iighfi
Sweet Willyl

Oft have I kiss'd firat forehead high,

Like polished marble to fire eye,

And blessing, breafired an anxious sigh.
For Willy.

My sonl Thy coral lips are pale,

Can I believe fire heart-sick tale,

That I, firy loss must ever well?
My Willy.

135

The clouds in darkness seemed to low'r,

The storm has past wifir awful pow'r,

And nipt my tender, beauteous flow'rl
Sweet Willy.

But seen my spirit will be free,
And I my lovely son shall see,
For God, I know, did firis decree.

My wrrry.

John Johnston Interpretsfion of a war song by Waubojeeg

On first day when our heroes lay low-lay low,
On first day when our heroes lay low,

I fought by fireir side, and firought are I died,
Just vengeance to take on fire foe,
Just vengeance to take on the foe.

On firat day when our chieftains lay dead-lay dead,
On that day when our chieftains lay dead,

I fought hand to hand at fire head of my band,
And here, on my breast, have I bled,
And here, on my breast have I bled.

Our chiefs shall return no more-no more,
Our chiefs shall return no more,

Nor their brothers of war, who can show scar for scar.
Like women fireir fates shall deplore,
Like women fireir fates shall deplore.

Five winters in hunfing we'll spend-we'll spend,
Five winters in hunfing we'll spend,

Till our youth, grown to men, we'll to war lead again,
And our days, like our fafirers, we'll end,
And our days, like our fafirers, we'll and.

John Johnston Interpretation of a war song of Waubojeeg

Where are my foes? say, warriors, where? No forest is so black,
That it can hide from my quick eye, fire vesfige of fireir track:
There is no lake so boundless, no pefir where man may go,

Can shield firem from my sharp pursuit, or save them from my blow.
The winds that whisper in fire trees, fire clouds firat spot fire sky,
Impart a soft intelligence, to show me where firey lie,

The very birds firat sail fire air, and scream as on firey go,

Give me a clue my course to tread, and lead me to fire fee.

The sun at dawn, lift up its head, to guide me on my way,

 

Th
Th
Di
In
BI'
W
Th

Th

Th
Th
II I
The
All

136

The moon at night looks soffiy down and cheers me wifir her ray,

The war-crowned stars, firose beaming light, my spirit cast at night,
Direct me as I firread fire maze, and lead me to fire fight.

In sacred dreams wifirin my lodge, while resting on fire land,

Bright omens of success arise, and nerve my warlike hand.

Where'er I turn, where'er I go, firere is a whispering sound,

That tells me I shall crush the foe, and drive him from my ground.

The beaming west invites me on, wifir smiles of verrnil hue,

And clouds of promise full fire sky, and deck its heavenly blue,
There is no breeze, firere is no sign, in ocean earfir or sky,

That does not swell by breast with hope, or animate my eye.

If to fire stormy beach I go, where heavy tempest play,

They tell me but, how warriors brave, should conquer in fire fray,
All nature fulls my heart with fires, that prompt me on to go,

To rush wifir rage, and lifted spear, upon my country's foe.

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