Jane Johnston Schoolcraft

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jane Johnston Schoolcraft

Jane Johnston Schoolcraft (born January 31, 1800 in Sault Ste. Marie , Michigan , † May 22, 1842 in Dundas , Ontario , Canada ) was a Native American writer. Her poems are the earliest works by a Native American author written in English, and she was the first American poet to write in her indigenous language .

In her native Ojibwe (also Anishinaabeg ), her name was Obabaamwewe-giizhigokwe ( woman with the sound of stars chasing across the sky ).

biography

Jane Johnston Schoolcraft's mother was Ozhaguscodaywayquay, daughter of Chief Waubojeeg, who was known for his eloquent stories and songs. Her father was John Johnston, an Irish fur trader . The family was very isolated, but Johnson assembled a large library and taught his eight children English and European literature, history, and theology . The mother, who did not speak English, introduced the children to the Ojibwe traditions of music and storytelling. Jane was the third oldest child and the oldest daughter. In 1809 she traveled to Ireland and England with her father and lived with her uncle and aunt in Wexford, Ireland until 1810 . The plan was to leave her there so she could get a better education, but she couldn't stand the climate and her uncle died. Therefore, father and daughter returned to North America together.

In 1822, American soldiers arrived at Jane Johnston's hometown, including Indian agent Henry Rowe Schoolcraft . He made friends with the Johnston family, studied the language and culture of the Ojibwe, and in 1823 he and Jane Johnston married. During the long winters of 1826 and 1827, Rowe Schoolcraft put together a handwritten magazine, the Literary Voyager or Muzzeniegun , which consisted of his own works, but also included stories and poems by his wife. With the support of his wife and her family, Rowe Schoolcraft became one of the first scientists to study the ethnology of the American indigenous population. In 1839 he published a comprehensive collection of recorded and translated Native American stories, the Algic Researches , to which Jane and her brother William had contributed.

The Schoolcraft couple had four children, two of whom reached adulthood. After a miscarriage in 1825, Jane Johnston Schoolcraft fell ill and suffered from severe depression, and her young son died two years later. On this occasion she wrote the poem To My Ever Beloved and Lamented Son William Henry . In 1833 the family moved to Mackinac Island , where Henry Rowe Schoolcraft ran an agency . After the husband became increasingly politically active and traveled, the couple became estranged. The children went to boarding schools and the mother suffered from the separation. Jane Johnston Schoolcraft, ailing and allegedly addicted to laudanum in the last few years of her life , died in 1842 at the age of 42 while visiting her sister in Dundas, now Canada. Her husband was in Europe at the time to find publishers for his publications. She was buried in the Saint John's Anglican Church Graveyard in Ancaster, Ontario.

Henry Rowe Schoolcraft entered into a second marriage to Mary Howard, which the book The Black Gauntlet. A Tale of Plantation Life in South Carolina in which she transfigured slavery . His children did not forgive him this marriage and broke off contact with him.

In 2008 Jane Johnston Schoolcraft was inducted into the Michigan Women's Hall of Fame .

The work

Jane Johnston Schoolcraft's role in her husband's work was long unknown, and her name was often only mentioned in connection with him. In 1993, the scientist Marjorie Cahn Brazer wrote a history of the Johnston family ( Harps upon the Willows: The Johnston Family of the Old Northwest ), but without particularly emphasizing Jane Johnston Schoolcraft as the author. Only the detailed biography and the edition of her manuscripts, which the family had collected and kept, by the literary scholar Robert Dale Parker, paid tribute to the life and work of the Indian author. He takes the view that the Algic Researches , which have hitherto been attributed exclusively to Henry Rowe Schoolcraft and are considered the source for Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's poem The Song of Hiawatha (1885), were mainly written down by Jane Johnston Schoolcraft.

Fonts

  • Character of Aboriginal Historical Tradition (1827)
  • Invocation to My Maternal Grandfather on Hearing his Descent from Chippewa Ancestors Misrepresented (1827)
  • Lines Written Under Severe Pain and Sickness (1827)
  • Moowis, The Indian Coquette: A Chippewa Legend (1827)
  • Origin of the Miscodeed or the Maid of Taquimenon (1827)
  • Otagamaid (1827)
  • Resignation (1827)
  • Say Dearest Friend, When Light Your Bark (1827)
  • Sonnet (1827)
  • The Origin of the Robin - An Oral Allegory (1827)
  • To My Ever Beloved and Lamented Son William Henry (1827)
  • To Sisters on a Walk in the Garden, After a Shower (1827)
  • Mishosha, or the Magician and His Daughters: A Chippewa Table or Legend (1827)
  • The Forsaken Brother (1827)
  • Ridge's Poems
  • Poetry 1815-1836

literature

  • Robert Dale Parker (Ed.): The Sound the Stars Make Rushing through the Sky: The Writings of Jane Johnston Schoolcraft . University of Pennsylvania Press, 2007, ISBN 978-0-8122-1969-2 .
  • Nancy Mayborn Peterson: Walking in Two Worlds: Mixed-blood Indian Women Seeking Their Path . Caxton, Caldwell, Idaho 2006, ISBN 978-0-87004-450-2 , pp. 1-24 .
  • Jillian Sayre: Jane Johnston Schoolcraft and American Indian Poetry in the Romantic Era . Gale, Rutgers University, Camden 2018.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Margaret Noori: The Complex World of Jane Johnston Schoolcraft. In: quod.lib.umich.edu. Retrieved February 10, 2020 .
  2. ^ A b c d e Robert Dale Parker: Jane Johnston Schoolcraft. In: oxfordbibliographies.com. May 19, 2017, accessed February 10, 2020 .
  3. ↑ a b Walking in Two Worlds. P. 15 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
  4. ↑ Jane Johnston Schoolcraft (1800-1842). In: de.findagrave.com. July 14, 2009, accessed February 11, 2020 .
  5. ^ A b Jane Johnston Schoolcraft - History of American Women. In: womenhistoryblog.com. July 17, 2012, accessed February 10, 2020 .
  6. ^ Nicholas E. Barron: The True Story of Who Inspired Longfellow's Hiawath. March 20, 2019, accessed February 11, 2020 .
personal data
SURNAME Schoolcraft, Jane Johnston
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Johnston, Jane (maiden name); Bamewawagezhikaqua (Indian name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Indian poet and author
DATE OF BIRTH January 31, 1800
PLACE OF BIRTH Sault Ste. Marie , Michigan
DATE OF DEATH May 22, 1842
Place of death Dundas , Ontario , Canada