Telling Stories in a New Old Way: Jane Johnston Schoolcraft (1800-1842)
A poet that is often overlooked throughout literary history, save if you live in Michigan or Northern Ontario, is Jane Johnston Schoolcraft or Bamewawagezhikaquay (Woman of the Sound the Stars Make Rushing Through the Sky). With only one book published about her work and a few blog entries from various Michigan teachers, Jane Johnston Schoolcraft could seemingly be a footnote in literary history. But Jane Johnston Schoolcraft may have influenced the beginnings of Indigenous theatre. Many Indigenous theatre scholars agree that indigenous theatre did not truly begin until the 1970s. This argument places a largely euro-centric view of what theatre is and ignores thousands of years of storytelling tradition that exist in communities across North America. This paper looks at Anishinaabe oral traditions and the type of space created by Jane Johnston Schoolcraft when there is a dominant society different from her own she is working in comparing the way Jane Johnston Schoolcraft chose to use or leave behind styles and forms from Early Modern literature in her own works.
A traditional part of storytelling is inserting self into storytelling. This is through the act of un-gendering or non-gendering the majority of people in stories. This is well explained in visual form in the short film Woman Dress directed by Thirza Cuthand (2019). With a lack of gendered words for children in pre-contact Cree there was no need at the time to worry about whether Woman Dress was a boy or a girl, but instead could be you or me travelling the plains to tell stories and entertain. By inserting self into each story, every story becomes more real and filled with love. First Person becomes a woman for this researcher as it is me that was created through love. This style of self-inserted storytelling creates stories in which one can learn lessons or great points of spiritual history to better connect with the spiritual past.
Throughout her life on her manuscripts, she signed her name as Jane Johnston Schoolcraft and as such will be referred to as Jane Johnston Schoolcraft throughout this paper. Jane Johnston Schoolcraft lived from 1800-1842 (Parker 1) and began writing pieces of literature as early as 1815. Based upon this time period and Jane Johnston’s self identification throughout this paper, Ojibwe will be used rather than Anishinaabe. She has 50 poems in English and Ojibwe that have survived, at least 8 oral Ojibwe stories, transcriptions/translations of Ojibwe texts (including at least 10 songs), and wrote or translated 2 works of non-fiction prose (Parker 2). The reason so many of Jane Johnston Schoolcraft’s works survive is thanks in large part to her husband Henry. “Henry saved Jane Johnston Schoolcraft’s letters and manuscripts, copied out her poems, even binding them into a handmade volume…” (Parker 37) There may have been other Anishinaabe authors or poets before Jane Johnston Schoolcraft, but without a “Henry” of their own, their works have not survived, making Jane Johnston Schoolcraft the first known Indigenous fiction author to survive history.
Jane Johnston Schoolcraft grew up in a distinctly blended household with a mother, Ozhaguscodaywayquay, who identified as Ojibwe and only spoke Ojibwe in the house, and a father, John, who was Scots-Irish who maintained his British citizenship even after Sault Ste. Marie, MI became part of the United States (Parker 13). A visitor to the Johnston house stated “I was surprised at the value and extent of this gentleman’s library; a thousand well-bound and well-selected volumes, French and English, obviously in use […]” (Parker 13). The works John mentions the most as important to him: Virgil, Horace, Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, Timon of Athens, Ossian, Edward Young, and Thomas Gay (Parker 14). With a focus towards classics, along with Scottish, Irish, and English playwrights, with a particular interest in the works of Shakespeare in the house, Jane Johnston Schoolcraft also was likely impacted by these works. We can see some of the interest towards Renaissance era playwrights reflected in her writings with the use of iambic tetrameter showing up in her early poems. Ozhaguscodaywayquay carried great influence with Ojibwe leaders throughout her life being the daughter of a chief (Parker 16) and as such likely raised her daughters in line with traditions of feminine soft power as exhibited by Jane Johnston Schoolcraft ending up governing the largest household in the region even though she accounts herself as being quite sickly (Parker 17).
Between 1825-26 at least 9 poems and 5 tales were “published” in The Literary Voyager, Jane Johnston Schoolcraft’s husband Henry Schoolcraft’s literary magazine (Parker 34). None of these works were ever attributed to Jane Johnston Schoolcraft in her lifetime and were either published under Henry’s name or under a pseudonym in the publication. Unfortunately, it is unlikely that scholars will be able to discover why Jane Johnston Schoolcraft never decided to publish under her own name, particularly as it seemed that she admired other female poets and female poets were becoming quite popular in America at the time (Watts).
“To the Pine Tree”, the first of Schoolcraft’s pieces that I analyze, is a story attempting to connect with the world around her. “To the Pine Tree” is likely Jane Johnston Schoolcraft’s most famous work, with numerous readings of both the Anishinaabe and the English version available. This piece was written at an undisclosed time in Jane Johnston Schoolcraft’s life, but specifically in contemplation of the pines over the Niagara Ridge upon her return from Europe in 1810 (Parker 90). The original poem is in Anishinaabemowin/Ojibwe with an English version attached that Jane Johnston Schoolcraft also created. This English version is not a literal translation of the Ojibwe, but Margaret Noodin has supplied a translation of the original writing. The English translation written by Jane Johnston Schoolcraft has 3 stanzas following an alternate ABAB rhyme with an ending rhyming couplet to end the first two stanzas. The ABAB pattern is quite similar in patter to Shakespeare’s sonnets, differentiating the pattern only minorly with the addition of two rhyming couplets in between stanzas one and two and two and three. The major variation occurs within the third stanza with all rhyming couplets; Jane Johnston Schoolcraft’s own authorial style and voice can truly be seen in this part of the piece if one wants to differentiate her from the bard. Even though Jane Johnston Schoolcraft is not writing a sonnet in the sense that she has written eighteen lines and broken the first rule of English sonnet writing, her topic is clearly about love and follows closely to Shakespeare’s own rules regarding sonnets.
As a young poet there is also something to be said for experimentation and breaking the rules. The use of iambic tetrameter and the fact that Jane Johnston Schoolcraft is using an alternating rhyming scheme in her translation, but dropping that in the Anishinaabemowin version, creates an informality that exists more so in modern poetry rather than that of the early 1800s. This also opens a point that however isolated Jane Johnston Schoolcraft and her family may have been, there is some form of creative space existing that occurs when Indigenous people are impacted by contact. This contact often creates a new form of expression throughout the following centuries that we can often see stemming in expression from the dominant culture being appropriated back down through the minority cultures to create a new creative form.
To the Pine Tree by Jane Johnston Schoolcraft
Zhingwaak! Zhingwaak! Ingii-ikid,
Weshki waabamag zhingwaak
Dagoshinaan neyab, endanakiiyaan.
Zhingwaak, zhingwaak nos sa!
Azhigwa gidatisaanan
Gaagige wezhaawashkozid.
Mii sa naa azhigwa dagoshinaang
Bizindamig ikeyaamban
Geget sa, niminwendam
Miinwaa, waabandamaan
Gii-ayaad awiiya waabandamaan niin
Zhingwaak, zhingwaak nos sa!
Azhigwa gidatisaanan.
Gaawiin gego, gaa-waabanda’iyan
Dibishkoo, ezhi-naagwasiinoon
Zhingwaak wezhaawashkozid
Wiin eta gwanaajiwi wi
Gaagige wezhaawashkozid.
literal translation by Margaret Noodin
Pine! Pine! I said,
The one I see, the pine
I return back, to my homeland.
The pine, the pine my father!
Already you are colored
Forever you are green.
So we already have arrived
Listen to him / her in that direction
Certainly I am happy
And I see
He was there I saw it myself
The pine, the pine my father!
Already you are colored.
Nothing, you did show me
like it, the way it looks
Pine you are green
He is only that beautiful
Forever he is the green one.
Translation by Jane Johnston Schoolcraft
The pine! the pine! I eager cried,
The pine, my father! see it stand,
As first that cherished tree I spied,
Returning to my native land.
The pine! the pine! oh lovely scene!
The pine, that is forever green.
Ah beauteous tree! ah happy sight!
That greets me on my native strand
And hails me, with a friend’s delight,
To my own dear bright mother land
Oh ‘tis to me a heart-sweet scene,
The pine—the pine! that’s ever green.
Not all the trees of England bright,
Not Erin’s lawns of green and light
Are half so sweet to memory’s eye,
As this dear type of northern sky
Oh ‘tis to me a heart-sweet scene,
The pine—the pine! that ever green
The differences that lay between the Anishinaabemowin, Noodin’s literal translation, and Jane Johnston’s translation creates a dynamic similar to a formal choice made in Dylan Robinson’s theoretical article “Welcome Sovereignty” found in Performing Indigeneity. Robinson’s article calls for the reader to skip parts of the article depending on their identity as being indigenous or not. This is evidenced by the fact that many people within North America at the time would not be able to speak Ojibwe let alone read or write it. This same standard still applies today, creating two distinct differences in who has access to this piece of poetry. This barrier of entry is what is so interesting about the difference between audiences. The fact that Jane Johnston Schoolcraft supplies the two texts to her audience creates an ethical space, a space of open access for those who read English, Ojibwe (Anishinaabemowin), or both. The way she chooses to showcase her poem within her own manuscript showcases her bilingualism, her own “hybrid-ness” in a world that would have been pushing for white and single form.
Johnston Schoolcraft creates two simultaneous yet different spaces with her bilingualism. The two clearly different audiences in the two different languages makes it seem that Jane Johnston Schoolcraft has associated Anishinaabe as her home or family voice and English as a more formal or outward voice. This is most clearly seen in the 3rd stanza, line 13, with Jane Johnston Schoolcraft’s translation explaining that none of England’s trees can compare, contrasting Noodin’s translation which focuses on “Nothing, you did show me,” effectively creating a much more personal connection to the land itself from which she has been raised and returning to North America. This variance between the languages creates a space for which Jane Johnston Schoolcraft’s readers/listeners are able to engage with her works in an ethical way, yet in a way that she has control over as an Indigenous woman based upon the language that they are able to understand and the language that she chooses to write in.
Continuing throughout the piece, Noodin’s translation evokes “My father” often and includes an ode to the pine tree itself illuminating a clear differentiation of audience in each version. Jane Johnston Schoolcraft in contrast introduces the Northern sky in her translation and brings about the repeated theme of “ever green.” This variation between word choices creates a clearly different reader/listener experience of the poem. In Jane Johnston Schoolcraft’s English version, she is painting an image, setting a scene for those that might not be familiar with all the things that she is discussing. The repetition of the words pine, tree, my, and scene work to create a painterly image and create an ode to pine trees as a whole with only a first-person view on the emotion of how Jane Johnston Schoolcraft would have been experiencing in that moment. The other word variation that stands out starkly in Jane Johnston Schoolcraft’s translation is the switch from “homeland” to “native land” creating a calling to either American patriotism, likely through her husband Henry Schoolcraft who worked for the United States Government, or her own indigenous heritage, either of which creates a deeper sense of connection to the pine trees than the word choice of homeland does. The choice of native land within the English language piece in particular also creates even more this ethical space, calling forth a reminder that this is Johnston Schoolcraft’s native land even more so than any one else’s regardless of what the national anthem might proclaim. Her people have been here since time immemorial and will be here for time immemorial.
In contrast, Jane Johnston Schoolcraft’s Anishinaabe version uses repetition of pine (Zhingwaak), father (nos), I (in-), you (gi-), and he/her (wiin). The repetition of different words in the Anishinaabe version creates a version that not only includes the reader with words like you, but create a more personal recounting of the tale with I said, I see, I am happy, not just “my father” and “the pine” being the only important parts of the piece as seen in Johnston’s English version. This variance of the readership on who is included within the space by the author based upon the language as shown by the choice in word repetition alone makes it clear that Johnston Schoolcraft, while potentially only writing for a small audience was still creating her own ethical space of viewership.
It would be remiss to not talk about the key words of both poems though relating to the title of the piece, being the words pine tree. There is a lot of symbolism towards pine trees in multiple First Nations cultures and within early American patriotism. Jane Johnston Schoolcraft would have been conscious of this and could extract and make meaning within her writing, particularly the word choice of homeland and native land used in each version of her poem. Within the Haudenosaunee (People of the Longhouse), the pine tree is the Tree of Peace: “[…] leaders buried their weapons of hate, jealousy, and war beneath it (they buried the hatchet)” (“Hiawatha Belt”) as featured in the Hiawatha belt. As Hiawatha lived around 1450 (Wallenfeldt), his story of uniting the Confederacy likely would have been shared in community and could have been known to Johnston. Let us examine the symbolism of pine trees in other contexts.
Leading up to the Revolutionary War, Britain began exporting vast volumes of white pines to help with their shipbuilding efforts, resulting in the Pine Tree Riot of 1772 (Maria, “The History of […]). Within three years there were three flags being flown that had a pine tree on them in relation to independence: Washington’s Cruiser Flag, Flag of New England/Battle of Bunker Hill, and Flag of New England. Prior to this there had only been one pine tree flag, which was not relating to independence, but instead was simply a colony flag of Massachusetts (Maria, “The History of […]”).
While this time period may seem so long ago, it only forty years prior to Jane Johnston Schoolcraft’s writing of “To the Pine Tree”. It is important to remember that the United States was still an extremely young country at the time and Michigan, where Jane Johnston Schoolcraft lived, had only been a territory of the United States for at most ten years when this poem was written, making patriotism a very new thing for many people to be experiencing in this region. These new beginnings of patriotism towards a United States could be what Johnston Schoolcraft is creating within her writing with every writing of the words pine trees. With the knowledge that it was written upon her return from European boarding school, the pine tree could be evoking emotions of patriotism not just as it is her home, but that it is now part of a new nation. But again, this is all dependent upon audience for Johnston Schoolcraft, as it does appear that Noodin’s translation encourages listening to what the pines have to say, similar to Anishinaabe traditions that persist today.
This distinct variation of audiences that Jane Johnston Schoolcraft creates in the same poem through translation opens the door to interrogate who the work is for. The conversation becomes who is the audience when Anishinaabe storytellers and writers are writing, and how that can be determined and how it can inform our analysis of their practices. If the audience is clearly other Indigenous people, do others even have the right to look at that writing? Within the book The White Possessive, it is clear that there is a basis of control of knowledge put into those who come from the British Empire (Moreton-Robinson 19-31). This need to possess and control everything from land to knowledge permeates society to this day continuing beyond Jane Johnston Schoolcraft’s work. Without Jane Johnston Schoolcraft having published any of her pieces under her own name in her lifetime, it makes it difficult to discern her intention in her own work other than being for herself and her own pleasure in writing.
The second piece to look at by Jane Johnston Schoolcraft was written much later, with six extant manuscripts and a final published version in Henry’s memoirs “To My Ever Beloved and Lamented Son William Henry” (Parker 136) shortened to “My Willy” hereafter. “My Willy” is likely the work that she spent the most time with, and potentially had the most pride in as a poet, the last manuscript dated nearly nine years after William’s death. The form of this piece follows Ann Taylor’s 1804 “My Mother”, but instead of a child addressing the mother it is a mother addressing the child with “My Willy” being the ending of each stanza. Line 2 of Jane Johnston Schoolcraft’s “My Willy” even directly quotes line 3 of Taylor’s “My Mother” (See Appendix A for “My Willy”). This poem is another form of creating space from Jane Johnston Schoolcraft as it is another woman’s word, this time a white woman’s words, that she is adapting to tell her own story of loss. As Johnston is always Indigenous, this is her way of claiming her identity by appropriating the styles that she encounters. She is, in a sense, indigenizing her own writing practice, or overlaying her indigeneity on the forms she uses.
“My Willy” is quite different from “To the Pine Tree,” not just because it was originally written in English and replicates a famous American poem, but also the form. With 11 stanzas following a triplet rhyming scheme before each of the endings of “__ Willy”, Jane Johnston Schoolcraft creates space to encapsulate her feelings, of which there are a lot. Her most repeated words are my, Willy, and question words, like who, where, and whither. Jane Johnston Schoolcraft is reconciling her grief with the image and memory of the lively little toddler she knew, the little body that she had to bury, the questions of why this has happened, and who she is now without her son. Johnston Schoolcraft uses vowels with oh, oo, and ah shapes within words that appear within the first three stanzas that evoke a sense of wide-open space. The clear tonal shift where the audience discovers that Willy has died is in line 19 where “that soul has flown above”. Following this tonal shift, the vowel shift happens to mostly ee sounds. From a storyteller perspective this creates a sense of urgency for someone speaking this piece aloud until they reach the end of the poem and are finally able to see “My Willy.” (Appendix A)
The last stanza is particularly powerful as it becomes clear that she does believe she shall see her son again, or why else would God take her child from her. This realization of finding herself knowing that she will die and be with her son again may be morbid, but is something that transcends the piece itself. This poem is clearly a deeply personal piece of work, addressed to a deceased child and only published posthumously. As it was placed in Henry’s own memoirs it can be speculated that this piece of work likely was a way for the two parents to grieve the loss of their child together.
These two pieces show not just a change in Jane Johnston Schoolcraft’s writing style, but also a change in Jane Johnston Schoolcraft’s perspective of self over time. Going from a girl focused upon the love of her land to a grieving mother is certainly a drastic shift, and there are poems in between that showcase some more of this shift over time, but the ability for a reader or even Jane Johnston Schoolcraft’s own family to view her identity and see how far she has come in just a few short years is something that is impressive to see on the page. Her happiness and identity towards her homeland are identified in “To the Pine Tree” and makes clear that she feels that her place in the world is in North America with her family, regardless of looking at the Anishinaabe or the English versions of the poem. My Willy seems much more like a woman searching to rediscover her place in the world after a loss and finding comfort in religion rather than the natural world around her. Maybe her family will/did help her over time, but her identity clearly has a shift towards religion over time as she goes to find a way to explain what is happening in her life.
As a whole Jane Johnston Schoolcraft’s work creates an ethical space by utilizing both existing Western poetry styles and her own Anishinaabe styles, particularly reflecting on her own stories of self. Jane Johnston Schoolcraft is utilizing soft power through her storytelling to reclaim her own place in the world as the powerful Anishinaabe woman that her mother raised her to be. These stories of self that Johnston Schoolcraft is writing, are stories that speak on both reflections of contemporary Western styles and traditional Anishinaabe stories over time. This hybridity that exists, whether through force or choice showcases, a poetic writing style that could reflect the greats of England, Ireland, France, etc. while taking up her own space within the world. While Jane Johnston Schoolcraft was not published within her own lifetime, her work carved out with a space for future Anishinaabe poets, authors, and playwrights with both tradition and with the ability to change.
Appendix A. To my ever beloved and lamented Son William Henry
Who was it, nestled 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 my arms so eager lept,
And to my bosom joyous crept?
My Willy.
Who was it, wiped my tearful eye,
And kiss’d away the coming sign,
And smiling bid me say “good boy”?
Sweet Willy.
Who was it, looed divinely fair,
Whilst lisping sweet the evening pray’r,
Guileless and free from earthly care?
My Willy.
Where is that voice attuned to love,
That bid me say “my darling dove”?
But oh! that soul has flown above,
Sweet Willy.
Whither has fled the rose’s hue?
The lilly’s whiteness blending grew,
Upon thy cheek – so fair to view.
My Willy.
Oft have I gaz’d with rapt delight,
Upon those eyes that sparkled bright,
Emitting beams of joy and light!
Sweet Willy.
Oft have I kiss’d that forehead high,
Like polished marble to the eye,
And blessing, breathed an anxious sigh.
For Willy.
My son! 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 ender, beauteous flow’r!
Sweet Willy.
Byt soon my spirit will be free,
And I, my lovely Son shall see,
For God, I know, did this decree!
My Willy.
Work Cited
Cuthand, Thirza, director. Woman Dress. ONF NFB, ONF NFB, 2019, https://www.nfb.ca/film/woman-dress/. Accessed 2022.
“Hiawatha Belt.” Onondaga Nation, 1 Feb. 2021, https://www.onondaganation.org/culture/wampum/hiawatha-belt/.
Johnston Schoolcraft, Jane, and Robert Dale Parker. The Sound the Stars Make Rushing through the Sky: The Writings of Jane Johnston Schoolcraft. University of Pennsylvania Press, 2008.
Johnston Schoolcraft, Jane. “To the Pine Tree by Jane Johnston Schoolcraft - Poems | Academy of American Poets.” Translated by Margaret Noodin, Poets.org, Academy of American Poets, https://poets.org/poem/pine-tree.
Maria. “The History of the Pine Tree Flags of the American Revolution.” Gettysburg Flag Works Blog, 11 Nov. 2019, https://www.gettysburgflag.com/blog/the-story-behind-the-pine-tree-flags-of-the-american-revolution/.
Moreton-Robinson, Aileen. “The House That Jack Built.” The White Possessive: Property, Power, and Indigenous Sovereignty, University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis, MN, 2015, pp. 19–31.
Wallenfeldt, Jeff. “The 6 Nations of the Iroquois Confederacy.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 20 July 2018, https://www.britannica.com/list/the-6-nations-of-the-iroquois-confederacy.
Watts, Emily Stipes. The Poetry of American Women from 1632 to 1945. University of Texas Press, 1978.