Bamewawagezhikaquayor Jane Johnston Schoolcraft
Also found under Native American Writers, Poetry, Award-Winners
Who Was She?
Bamewawagezhikaquay, or "Woman of the Sound the Stars Make Rushing Through the Sky," was born in 1800 in Sault Ste. Marie, a part of present-day Michigan, to an Ojibwe leader and a Scottish-Irish fur trader. As a child, she learned to speak in both Ojibwe and English, and read many books from her father's library. Circa 1815, after visiting England and Ireland, she began writing poetry, amounting to approximately fifty poems in both her household languages. She also translated Indian oral stories and songs to English, and is renowned for her skill in weaving the languages together. Today, she is believed to be the first Native American female writer, and one of the first Native American writers of literature. Though she never published her work during her lifetime, many of her poems were published posthumously by Robert Dale Parker in The Sound the Stars Make Rushing Through the Sky: The Writings of Jane Johnston Schoolcraft. In 2009, she was inducted into the Michigan Women's Hall of Fame.
What Did She Write About?
Poetry, Native American stories and songs
Where Can I Find Her Work?
“To tell, here nature only reigns.
Ah, nature! here forever sway
Far from the haunts of men away
For here, there are no sordid fears,
No crimes, no misery, no tears
No pride of wealth; the heart to fill,
No laws to treat my people ill.”
-Excerpted from Lines Written at Castle Island, Lake Superior