Jane Johnston Schoolcraft

In 1824, Jane gave birth to their first of 4 children, William Henry, also called Penaysee (Little Bird); in November 1825 Janes health was compromised when they had a daughter who was stillborn.

"Although he [Henry Rowe Schoolcraft] loved Jane and the children, he was ambivalent about their Indian blood and could be very much the autocratic Victorian husband."

The Ojibwe tribe, of which Jane Johnston Scoolcraft was part of, “were the largest and most powerful Great Lakes tribes; perhaps the most powerful east of the Mississippi; and quite possibly the most powerful in North America.”

"Jane Johnston Schoolcraft was the mixed-blood Ojibway wife of Henry Rowe Schoolcraft, for twenty years Indian agent at Sault Ste. Marie and major author of books on Native American history and languages. She was also the daughter of John Johnston, a white trader, and the granddaughter of noted Ojibway chief Waub Ojeeg, whose story she sets to print here. Her huband had earlier transcribed a prose biography of Waub Ojeeg, reproduced in this volume. However, while Henry Schoolcraft used the story to demonstrate the natives' coming disappearance, his wife expresses a more resisting attitude."

Watts Edward, David Rachels. The First West: Writing from the American Frontier 1776-1860. Oxford University Press: New York, 2002.

In 1822 Jane met Henry Rowwe Schoolcraft who had come to the Sault as U.S. Indian Agent for the Michigan Territory whe he was twenty-nine.

The Ojibwe and Ottawa Indians are members of a longstanding alliance also including the Potawatomi tribe. Called the Council of Three Fires, this alliance was a powerful one which clashed with the mighty Iroquois Confederacy and the Sioux, eventually getting the better of both. (Redish 1)

Redish, Laura. "Native Languages of the Americas: Chippewa." 11/16/04. http://www.native-languages.org/chippewa.htm

In November of 1825, Jane and William Henry had a still born daughter which turned out to be very threatening to Jane's health.

The Chippewa divided years into "moons," and the naming of tribe members depended upon the moon they were born in. Names frequently corresponded to natural phenomena associated with each moon.

During the early ninteenth century there was conflict between the Chippewa (Ojibwa) and the American Government regarding the construction of a fort on a tract of land near Sault Ste. Marie that the Indians had granted them in the Greenville Treaty of 1795.

Bald, F. Clever. Michigan in Four Centuries. Harper & Brothers, Publishers. New York. Copyright 1954. 147.

Jane Johnston Schoolcraft's mother, Oshauguscodawaqua (Women of the Green Prairie), was said to be the "surest eye and fleetest foot among the women of the tribe". Besides being a strong women she also was a storyteller, like her father. And it is suggested that she was,"probably one of Henry Scoolcraft's main sources for his published legends." And it is most likely where Jane Johnston Schoolcraft's interest in the Objibwe oral tradition began.

She was named after her father's oldest sister and her Ojibwa name, Obahbahmwawageezhagoquay, meant The Sound That Stars Make Rushing Through The Sky.

http://history.eup.k12.mi.us/local/river/Gallery_5/jane/body_jane.html

Jane never fully recovered from her fisrt sons death, William Henery, yet she did go on to have another son and daughter before her death in 1841.

Many Ojibwa Indians initially gathered in villages, such as Jane Johnston Schoolcraft's home town of Sault Ste. Marie, during the summer months because they were the location of major fisheries,but they would disperse during the winter months into smaller family groups to live and hunt.

Ojibwa oral tradition is important in recounting the origin of the tribe as well as its moral and ethical values. Schoolcraft learned the oral tradition from her mother and its "ideas about truth, rationality, logic, causuality, and ways of knowing the world" are often reflected and incorporated into her works.

Source:
Milwaukee Public Museum. 2004. Milwaukee Public Museum. 4 Nov. 2004 http://www.mpm.edu/wirp/ICW-14.html

The Ojibwe tribe was one of the most powerful Great Lake Tribes and some say the most powerful in North America. The true size of their population is not seen because they have so many names, like Ojibwe, Chippewa, Bungee, Mississauga, and Saulteaux. The tribe was also spread out among Canada and the United States. This is a fact that is unknown to a lot of people.

Ojibwe History. June 21, 2000. .

Matt Heger
Curtright, Section 2
11-29-04

The Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians is a modern expression of the Anishinabeg who lived in this region of the Great Lakes for more than 500 years. This Tibe was descendants of the Anishinabeg who for hundreds of years had made their homes near the rapids of the St. Mary’s River, which they called Bawating — the Gathering Place. This area would later become the City of Sault Ste. Marie. (Wright 1-2)

Wright, Nathan "Sault Tribe History." Sault Ste Marie Tribe of Chippiwa Indians. 11/30/04. http://www.saulttribe.com/history.htm

In addition to having a stillborn child she also had another die as an infant before having her two other children.

Jane learned a lot from her father while in Ireland and continued to learn from him well after, eventually sharing his love for history and poetry.

http://history.eup.k12.mi.us/local/river/jane.html

As a result of her worsening health, Jane gave birth to a stillborn child in 1825.

http://history.eup.k12.mi.us/local/river/jane.html

"The Henry Rowe Schoolcraft House was built in 1827 as both the home of Mr. Schooolcraft and his wife, Jane, the daughter of John Johnston, and as the Indian Agency headquarters. Elmwood, as the house was referred to because of the surrounding elms, was the most high style building in the area. Obed Wait built the house..." -Historic Structure Site

Source: http://www.sault-sainte-marie.mi.us/Parks/Historic_Structures.html

In the early Ojibwe culture the young ojibwe girls were educated on household and family duties, instead of general school eduaction such as reading and writing.

"Ojibwe eduaction made an abrupt transition in the 19th century from learning the old ways to the formal schooling mandated by the government and churches."

Source: Peacock, Thomas. Ojibwe Waasa Inaabidaa: We Look in All Directions. Canada: Afton Historical Society Press, 2002. 68-89.

Her marriage to Henry was not a happy one and the two separated in late 1830.

http://studentwebs.colstate.edu/morrell_angela/index.htm

As a woman of Ojibwa decent, Schoolcraft was forced to deal with the political turmoil the Ojibwas faced during the time of her writing. Even though most of her writings were recounted myths, by understanding the basic historical context of her people we can better appreciate when and how her works were published.

The tribe's main source of food and income came from hunting, trapping and using nature's resources. This caused the tribe to breakdown and travel in small families instead of keeping the large tribal community intact.

Dictionary of Indian Tribes V2. Newport Beach: American Indian Publishers, INC.

Ojibwe and Chippewa are both variations of an Algonquian word meaning "puckering". Though both names are commonly used in the United States and Canada, the Ojibwe refer to themselves as "Anishinabe" (plural: Anishinabeg), a word meaning "original people".

Source: http://www.native-languages.org/chippewa.htm

The Chippewas has been known through the history for their strenght in a large parts of the North American lands.

Mason, Philip P. "Chippewas." The Literary Voyager. Michigan State University Press: 1962. (1).

The Objibwe called themselves Anishinabag, "original men", and on account of having formerly had their principal residence at Sault Sainte Marie, at the outlet of Lake Superior, they were known to the French as Saulteurs.

Although to a certain extent a sedentary people, the Ojibwa were not agricultural, their country being too cold for profitable farming by the rude Indian method, but depended for subsistence upon fishing, hunting, and the gathering of wild rice.