Publisher:
University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill
"The children of an influential Ojibwe-Anglo family, Jane Johnston and her brother George were already accomplished writers when the Indian agent Henry Rowe Schoolcraft arrived in Sault Ste. Marie in 1822. Charged by Michigan's territorial governor...
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"The children of an influential Ojibwe-Anglo family, Jane Johnston and her brother George were already accomplished writers when the Indian agent Henry Rowe Schoolcraft arrived in Sault Ste. Marie in 1822. Charged by Michigan's territorial governor with collecting information on Anishinaabe people, he soon married Jane, 'discovered' the family's writings, and began soliciting them for traditional Anishinaabe stories. But what began as literary play became the setting for political struggle. Jane and her family wrote with attention to the beauty of Anishinaabe narratives and to their expression of an Anishinaabe world that continued to coexist with the American republic. But Schoolcraft appropriated the stories and published them as his own writing, seeking to control their meaning and to destroy their impact in service to the 'civilizing' interests of the United States. In this dramatic story, Maureen Konkle helps recover the literary achievements of Jane Johnston Schoolcraft and her kin, revealing as never before how their lives and work shed light on nineteenth-century struggles over the future of Indigenous people in the United States"--
The Weendigos -- This vain and transitory world -- Belles lettres -- Of Mrs. Schoolcraft, you have heard -- A precious wild flower -- New creation -- Story of Ma nah boh sho -- Leech Lake -- O Mr. C! -- Treaty of Washington -- Paup-Puk-Kewiss -- Mercenary and stupid white man -- Six Indians visit to the sun and moon -- Wauchusco and the spirits -- Mukakee Mindemoea -- At the depot -- A narrative of Wabwindigo
