Schoolcraft's Ojibwa Lodge Stories: Life on the Lake Superior Frontier

by Henry Rowe Schoolcraft, Philip P. Mason (Editor)

In addition to his published works, Henry Schoolcraft presented some of his Indian knowledge to a select public in the odd form of manuscript magazines. Although now almost unknown, except to a few bibliographers, these magazines were, in their day, widely circulated among students of Indian culture. The most informative of them was the Literary Voyager prepared weekly by Schoolcraft at Sault Ste. Marie during the winter of 1826-27.

This magazine, which Schoolcraft later gave the subtitle, "Muzzeniegun," an Ojibwa word meaning a printed document or book, contained articles, poems, and announcements on all aspects of Native American life and customs. The subjects included historic Indian battles, ceremonies, superstitions, burials, fur trade, war chants and songs, totems, the effect of alcohol upon Indians, and the intertribal war between the Ojibwa and Sioux. Of particular interest are the biographical sketches of prominent Native American leaders, including Waub Ojeeg or the White Fisher, the famous war chief at LaPointe; and Shing-a-ba-wossin, head of the Ojibwa band living along the St. Marys River. Schoolcraft presented for the first time in the Literary Voyager some of the lodge stories that he himself collected and for which he later gained national recognition.

193 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 1996

About the author

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 River. He is also noted for his major six-volume study of American Indians in the 1850s.

He served as a United States Indian agent for a period beginning in 1822 in Michigan, where he married Jane Johnston, mixed-race daughter of a prominent Scotch-Irish fur trader and Ojibwa mother, herself a daughter of Ojibwa war chief Waubojeeg. She taught him the Ojibwe language and much about her maternal culture. They had several children, two of whom survived past childhood. She is now recognized as the first Native American literary writer in the United States.

In 1846 the widower Schoolcraft was commissioned by Congress for a major study, known as Indian Tribes of the United States, which was published in six volumes from 1851 to 1857. He married again in 1847, to Mary Howard, from a slaveholding family in South Carolina. In 1860 she published the bestselling The Black Gauntlet, an anti-Uncle Tom's Cabin novel.

Reviews

[E.G. · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting compilation of newsletters from Henry Schoolcraft, who was the Indian Agent at Sault Ste Marie for many years, starting around 1822. I am a member of the Sault Ste Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians, so it was interesting to read accounts of my tribe from someone who lived there in much earlier days of US history and recorded everything. Lots of legends, stories, and tales. Dreadful poetry! And as much racism as one would expect. Not to excuse the racism. It was 1822 in northern Michigan and written by the guy sent to implement US policy toward the Indians, though, so I can't say it surprised me, I suppose. He married a half-Indian woman. So seems like his racism was a paternalistic "fondness for the ignorant savage" sort of racism, not a hate-filled "the only good Indian is a dead Indian" racism. Not sure which kind is worse, come to think about it. I have ordered Schoolcraft's Memoirs, written after he left that position, I think, and will read it with great interest.