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Jane Johnston Schoolcraft, also known as Bamewawagezhikaquay (January 31, 1800 – May 22, 1842) is the one of earliest Native American literary writers. She was of
Ojibwa The Ojibwe, Ojibwa, Chippewa, or Saulteaux are an Anishinaabe people in what is currently southern Canada, the northern Midwestern United States, and Northern Plains. According to the U.S. census, in the United States Ojibwe people are one of ...
and Scots-Irish ancestry. Her Ojibwa name can also be written as ''O-bah-bahm-wawa-ge-zhe-go-qua'' (Obabaamwewe-giizhigokwe in modern spelling), meaning "Woman of the Sound hat the stars makeRushing Through the Sky." From babaam- 'place to place' or bimi- 'along', wewe- 'makes a repeated sound', giizhig 'sky', and ikwe 'woman'. She lived most of her life in
Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan Sault Ste. Marie ( ') is the only city in, and county seat of, Chippewa County, Michigan, Chippewa County in the U.S. state of Michigan. With a population of 13,337 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the second-most populated ...
.


Early life and education

Jane Johnston was born in Sault Ste. Marie in the upper peninsula of what is now the state of
Michigan Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and the ...
. Her mother, '' Ozhaguscodaywayquay'', was the daughter of ''
Waubojeeg Waubojeeg, also written Waabojiig or other variants in Ojibwe, "White Fisher" (c. 1747–1793) was a warrior and chief of the Ojibwe people. He was born into the ''Adik'' (caribou) ''doodem'' (clan), some time in the mid-18th century near ''Zhaa ...
'', a prominent
Ojibwa The Ojibwe, Ojibwa, Chippewa, or Saulteaux are an Anishinaabe people in what is currently southern Canada, the northern Midwestern United States, and Northern Plains. According to the U.S. census, in the United States Ojibwe people are one of ...
war chief and civil leader from what is now northern
Wisconsin Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...
, and his wife. Her father John Johnston (1762–1828) was a fur trader who emigrated from
Belfast, Ireland Belfast ( , ; from ga, Béal Feirste , meaning 'mouth of the sand-bank ford') is the capital and largest city of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan on the east coast. It is the 12th-largest city in the United Kingdom ...
in 1790. The Johnstons are famous historically in the Sault Ste. Marie area, where the couple were prominent leaders in both the Euro-American and the Ojibwa communities. The young Jane learned the Ojibwe language and culture from her mother and her family, and she learned about written literature from her father and his large library.


Writing

Johnston wrote poetry and traditional Ojibwa stories, and she translated Ojibwa songs into English. She mostly wrote in English, but she wrote several poems in the
Ojibwe language Ojibwe , also known as Ojibwa , Ojibway, Otchipwe,R. R. Bishop Baraga, 1878''A Theoretical and Practical Grammar of the Otchipwe Language''/ref> Ojibwemowin, or Anishinaabemowin, is an indigenous language of North America of the Algonquian lan ...
, as she lived her daily life in both Ojibwe and English. While she did not publish her work, she lived a literary life with her husband
Henry Rowe Schoolcraft Henry Rowe Schoolcraft (March 28, 1793 – December 10, 1864) was an American geographer, geologist, and ethnologist, noted for his early studies of Native American cultures, as well as for his 1832 expedition to the source of the Mississippi R ...
. They worked together closely on each of their writings. Her poetry was generally concerned with private life.Robert Dale Parker, ''Jane Johnston Schoolcraft''
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, accessed 11 Dec 2008
Jane Schoolcraft’s writings have attracted considerable interest from scholars and students, especially those concerned with Native American literature and history. She has been recognized as "the first Native American literary writer, the first known Indian woman writer, the first known Indian poet, the first known poet to write poems in a Native American language and the first known American Indian to write out traditional Indian stories." Her role in the Native American literary canon has been compared to that of
Anne Bradstreet Anne Bradstreet (née Dudley; March 8, 1612 – September 16, 1672) was the most prominent of early English poets of North America and first writer in England's North American colonies to be published. She is the first Puritan figure in Am ...
in the "broader American literary canon."


Marriage and family

In 1823 Jane married
Henry Rowe Schoolcraft Henry Rowe Schoolcraft (March 28, 1793 – December 10, 1864) was an American geographer, geologist, and ethnologist, noted for his early studies of Native American cultures, as well as for his 1832 expedition to the source of the Mississippi R ...
, a US Indian agent in the region, who became a founding figure of American
cultural anthropology Cultural anthropology is a branch of anthropology focused on the study of cultural variation among humans. It is in contrast to social anthropology, which perceives cultural variation as a subset of a posited anthropological constant. The portma ...
.Jeremy Mumford, "Mixed-Race Identity in a Nineteenth-Century Family: The Schoolcrafts of Sault Ste. Marie, 1824-27"
''Michigan Historical Review'', 22 Mar 1999, p. 1, accessed 11 Dec 2008
He was appointed U.S.
Indian Agent In United States history, an Indian agent was an individual authorized to interact with American Indian tribes on behalf of the government. Background The federal regulation of Indian affairs in the United States first included development of t ...
to the Michigan Territory in 1822 and served in the Northwest until 1841. In 1826 and 1827, Henry Schoolcraft produced a handwritten magazine called ''
The Literary Voyager The ''Literary Voyager'', also known as The ''Muzzeniegun'' (Ojibwe for ‘book’, also spelled ''Muzzinyegun'') was a manuscript magazine produced by Henry Rowe Schoolcraft between December 1826 and April 1827, for a total of 16 issues. It is r ...
'' which included some of Jane’s writings. Although he had only single issues, each was distributed widely to residents in Sault Ste. Marie, then to his friends in Detroit, New York and other eastern cities.''Schoolcraft: Literary Voyager or Muzziegun''
ed. by Philip Mason, East Lansing: Michigan State University, 1962, full text online
The Schoolcrafts' letters to each other during periods of separation often included poetry, also expressing how literature was part of their daily lives. Henry Schoolcraft won fame for his later publications about Native Americans, especially the Ojibwe people and their language (also known as Chippewa and ''Anishinaabemowin''). His work was based on information and stories he learned from Jane and the Johnston family, and the access they arranged to other Ojibwe. In 1846, he was commissioned by the
United States Congress The United States Congress is the legislature of the federal government of the United States. It is bicameral, composed of a lower body, the House of Representatives, and an upper body, the Senate. It meets in the U.S. Capitol in Washing ...
for what became a six-volume study known as ''Indian Tribes of the United States''. Henry Schoolcraft’s publications, including materials written by Jane Schoolcraft, were the main source for
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (February 27, 1807 – March 24, 1882) was an American poet and educator. His original works include "Paul Revere's Ride", ''The Song of Hiawatha'', and ''Evangeline''. He was the first American to completely transl ...
’s ''
The Song of Hiawatha ''The Song of Hiawatha'' is an 1855 epic poem in trochaic tetrameter by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow which features Native American characters. The epic relates the fictional adventures of an Ojibwe warrior named Hiawatha and the tragedy of his l ...
'' (1855). They had four children: *William Henry Schoolcraft (June 1824 - March 1827) died of
croup Croup, also known as laryngotracheobronchitis, is a type of respiratory infection that is usually caused by a virus. The infection leads to swelling inside the trachea, which interferes with normal breathing and produces the classic symptoms o ...
at nearly three."Jane Schoolcraft Johnston"
''Canku Ota'', accessed 3 April 2011
Jane Schoolcraft wrote poems expressing her grief about his loss.
, Borderland Records, accessed 11 Dec 2008
*stillborn daughter (November 1825); *Jane Susan Ann Schoolcraft (14 October 1827 - 25 November 1892,
Richmond, Virginia (Thus do we reach the stars) , image_map = , mapsize = 250 px , map_caption = Location within Virginia , pushpin_map = Virginia#USA , pushpin_label = Richmond , pushpin_m ...
), called Janee; and *John Johnston Schoolcraft (2 October 1829 – 24 April 1864), served in the Civil War but was wounded at the
Battle of Gettysburg The Battle of Gettysburg () was fought July 1–3, 1863, in and around the town of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, by Union and Confederate forces during the American Civil War. In the battle, Union Major General George Meade's Army of the Po ...
and disabled. He died at age 34 in
Elmira, New York Elmira () is a city and the county seat of Chemung County, New York, United States. It is the principal city of the Elmira, New York, metropolitan statistical area, which encompasses Chemung County. The population was 26,523 at the 2020 cens ...
. Jane and Henry Schoolcraft moved to
Mackinac Island Mackinac Island ( ; french: Île Mackinac; oj, Mishimikinaak ᒥᔑᒥᑭᓈᒃ; otw, Michilimackinac) is an island and resort area, covering in land area, in the U.S. state of Michigan. The name of the island in Odawa is Michilimackinac an ...
in 1833, after he had been given responsibility for a larger territory as Indian agent. Their home has since been demolished, but Henry Schoolcraft's office, also known as the
Indian Dormitory The Richard and Jane Manoogian Mackinac Art Museum is an art museum located in the historic Indian Dormitory building on Mackinac Island, Michigan. The museum's exhibits feature art inspired by Mackinac Island, including historic painting and ma ...
, survives. It was used to house Indians who came to the island to acquire promised annuities and supplies. The Schoolcrafts took Janee and John to a boarding schools on the East coast when they were eleven and nine, respectively, which was hard for John.Jane Johnston Schoolcraft, ''The Sound the Stars Make Rushing Through the Sky: The Writings of Jane Johnston Schoolcraft,'' ed. Robert Dale Parker
Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2007, p. 143.
Schoolcraft wrote a poem in Ojibwe that expressed her feelings of loss after their separation. (Use link below to hear poem sung in Ojibwe.) In 1841, when Henry lost his patronage position as federal Indian agent due to a change in political administrations, the Schoolcrafts moved to New York City. He worked for the state in American Indian research. Jane Schoolcraft suffered from frequent illnesses; she died in 1842 while visiting a married sister in Canada. She was buried at St. John's Anglican Church in what is now
Ancaster, Ontario Ancaster is a historic town in the city of Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, located on the Niagara Escarpment. Founded as a town in 1793, it immediately developed itself into one of the first important and influential early Kingdom of Great Britain, Bri ...
.


Legacy and honors

* 1962: Philip P. Mason published an edition of several issues of ''The Literary Voyager'', with annotation and introduction. He acknowledged Henry Schoolcraft's debt to the John Johnston family for helping with his research and collecting materials. Based on her own works in ''The Literary Voyager,'' Jane Schoolcraft's writings gradually began to attract interest in the 1990s, as the work of minorities was more widely studied. * 2005: "Sweet Willy, My Boy"; lyrics of the song were taken from a poem by Jane Johnston Schoolcraft mourning the death of her first son. From Dave Stanaway and Susan Askwith, CD: ''John Johnston: His Life and Times in the Fur Trade Era''. * 2007: Robert Dale Parker published ''The Sound the Stars Make Rushing Through the Sky: The Writings of Jane Johnston Schoolcraft,'' a complete edition of her extensive writings, based mostly on previously unpublished manuscripts, and including a cultural history and biography. Schoolcraft’s writings are now beginning to attract considerable interest from scholars and students of multicultural and American Indian literature and history. * 2008: Jane Johnston Schoolcraft was inducted into the
Michigan Women's Hall of Fame The Michigan Women's Hall of Fame (MWHOF) honors distinguished women, both historical and contemporary, who have been associated with the U.S. state of Michigan Michigan () is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes regi ...
.


References


Sources


Henry Rowe Schoolcraft, ed., ''Schoolcraft: The Literary Voyager or Muzzeniegun''
Philip P. Mason, ed., East Lansing: Michigan State University Press, 1962, full text online.
Robert Dale Parker, ed., ''The Sound the Stars Make Rushing Through the Sky: The Writings of Jane Johnston Schoolcraft''
Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2007.


External links


"Jane Johnston Schoolcraft"
Michigan Women's Hall of Fame. *
Musical setting of poem by Jane Johnston Schoolcraft. University of Michigan.
Borderland Records. Included is the song "Sweet Willy, My Boy", with lyrics taken from a poem written by Jane Johnston Schoolcraft. {{DEFAULTSORT:Schoolcraft, Jane Johnston Writers from Michigan Native American poets Native American women writers American women poets American women short story writers American folklorists Women folklorists American people of Scotch-Irish descent Ojibwe people 1800 births 1842 deaths Translators to English People from Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan 19th-century American poets 19th-century translators 19th-century American women writers 19th-century American short story writers Native American people from Michigan 19th-century Native American women