{"id":15355,"date":"2013-09-19T00:01:51","date_gmt":"2013-09-19T07:01:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/barbarafalconernewhall.com\/?p=15355"},"modified":"2013-09-19T00:01:51","modified_gmt":"2013-09-19T07:01:51","slug":"the-lost-poems-of-jane-johnston-schoolcraft","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/the-lost-poems-of-jane-johnston-schoolcraft\/","title":{"rendered":"The Lost Poems of Jane Johnston Schoolcraft — A Native Michigan Voice Rediscovered"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Oval<\/a>
Jane Johnston Schoolcraft, circa 1825. Courtesy Johnston Family papers, the Bentley Historical Library, the University of Michigan<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
Jane Johnston Schoolcraft Rediscovered<\/strong><\/h5>\n

A decade or so ago, the librarians at the Illinois State Historical Library were getting ready to move their collection into the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library. In the process of cleaning up they came across some boxes of old documents, which they decided to catalogue.<\/p>\n

One of those boxes contained a cache of writings by Jane Johnston Schoolcraft, a little known Ojibwe poet born in 1800 at Sault Ste. Marie in Michigan\u2019s Upper Peninsula. The librarians did what librarians do: they entered their find on the WorldCat database.<\/p>\n

A week later and 100 miles away, Robert Dale Parker\u00a0logged on to the WorldCat database and entered the name Jane Johnston Schoolcraft.<\/p>\n

Robert Dale Parker<\/strong><\/h5>\n

A University of Illinois professor of English and American Indian Studies, Parker had been troubled by the lack of information about early Native American poetry. He\u00a0 had resolved to look into Schoolcraft\u2019s life and work.<\/p>\n

Parker had been sorely frustrated in his search: the confusing mass of papers on Jane and her husband Henry at the Library of Congress, for example, were available to him only in small batches of microfilm.<\/p>\n

But when he discovered the newly entered list of Schoolcraft\u2019s poetry and translations of Ojibwe legends and songs and he saw first-hand the originals at the Illinois library, Parker was hooked. Patiently, persistently he followed every lead he could, visiting libraries and collections with the help of a grant from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.<\/p>\n

The result is a book called The Sound the Stars Make Rushing Through the Sky<\/em>, which is an English translation of the poet\u2019s Ojibwe name, Bame-wa-wa-ge-zhik-a-quay.<\/p>\n

Jane Johnston Schoolcraft\u2019s Poems<\/h5>\n

One of my favorites among Schoolcraft\u2019s poems praises one of the first wildflowers to bloom in spring in the northern woods of Michigan. This small white and pink flower is known in Ojibwe as\u00a0the “miscodeed.” I knew it as a girl as the spring beauty.<\/p>\n

\n
To the Miscodeed<\/strong><\/span><\/h6>\n

Sweet pink of northern wood and glen,<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

E\u2019er first to greet the eyes of men<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

In early spring, — a tender flower<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Whilst still the wintry wind hath power.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

How welcome, in the sunny glade,<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Or hazel copse, thy pretty head<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Oft peeping out, whilst still the snow,<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Doth here and there, its presence show<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Soon leaf and bud quick opening spread<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Thy modest petals \u2013 white with red<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Like some sweet cherub \u2013 love\u2019s kind link,<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

With dress of white, adorned with pink.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Reprinted by permission of publisher<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This poem about the pine trees of Michigan was written upon Schoolcraft’s return from Europe.<\/p>\n

\n
<\/h6>\n
\"Pine<\/a>
Pine and oak trees still grow atop a bluff along Lake Michigan. The old growth pine trees that Schoolcraft salutes in her poem are long gone and Michigan is no longer the forested land where a squirrel could travel across the state without ever touching ground. Photo by BF Newhall<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
To the Pine Tree<\/strong><\/span><\/h6>\n

Shing wauk! Shing wauk! Nin ge ik id,<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Waish kee wau bum ug, shing wauk<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Tuh quish in aun nau aub, ain dak nuk i yaun.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Shing wauk, shing wauk No sa<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Shi e gwuh ke do dis au naun<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Kau gega way zhau wus co zid . . .<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Translation (not literal)<\/strong><\/span><\/h6>\n

The pine! the pine! I eager cried,<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The pine, my father! see it stand,<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

As first that cherished tree I spied,<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Returning to my native land.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The pine! the pine! oh lovely scene!<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The pine, that is forever green . . .<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Reprinted by permission of the publisher<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

A little poem Parker has titled “The Earrings” was found in the margin of an 1840 letter to Schoolcraft\u2019s husband, who was in Detroit. Leelinau is one of her pen names.<\/p>\n

\n
My Earrings<\/strong><\/span><\/h6>\n

My ear-rings are gone, in the Wars of Fate\u2014<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

And a pair of red-drops I would not hate. Leelinau<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Reprinted by permission of the publisher<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Jane Johnston Schoolcraft, the woman<\/strong><\/h5>\n

Born on January 31, 1800, in Sault Ste. Marie to an Ojibwe woman and an Irish-American fur trader, Jane was fluent in both English and Ojibwe. In 1823, she married a friend of the family, Henry Schoolcraft, an explorer, ethnologist and writer who eventually became Superintendent for Indian Affairs.<\/p>\n

Schoolcraft wrote poetry and translated Ojibwe stories, often in collaboration with her husband. Their translations of her poetry into English echo the formality of 19th<\/sup> century romantic poetry.<\/p>\n

Some of Parker\u2019s 21st<\/sup> century translations, however, tend to be shorter and more literal. Either way, I wish I could hear and understand Jane\u2019s Ojibwe texts first hand \u2013 and get a closer look into her long-ago, Native Michigan sensibility.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, I do have Parker\u2019s meticulous, yet accessible, investigation of the life and writings of Michigan\u2019s Woman of the Sound Stars Make Rushing Through the Sky.<\/p>\n

\"Cover<\/a>“The Sound the Stars Make Rushing Through the Sky: The Writings of Jane Johnston Schoolcraft<\/em>," Robert Dale Parker, ed, University of Pennsylvania Press, 2008, $22.50 paper.<\/p>\n

http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/2013\/09\/19\/the-lost-poems-of-jane-johnston-schoolcraft\/<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\"Pine<\/p>\n

In the process of moving their collection, the librarians at the Illinois State Historical Library came across some boxes of old documents. One of them contained a lost cache of writings by Jane Johnston Schoolcraft, a little known Ojibwe poet from Michigan. Read more.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":15368,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[70,50],"tags":[34,212,1064,215,216,88,1065,1066,1067,972],"class_list":["post-15355","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-book-openers","category-on-writing-reading","tag-dont-miss","tag-jane-johnston-schoolcraft","tag-lost-poems","tag-michigan-native-americans","tag-native-american-poetry","tag-nature","tag-ojibwe-poetry","tag-robert-dale-parker","tag-spring-beauty","tag-wildflowers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15355","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15355"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15355\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15355"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15355"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15355"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}