Jane Johnston Schoolcraft (Bamewawagezhikaquay)

Jane Johnston Schoolcraft (1800–1842), Ojibwe (Anishinaabe), was born to an Ojibwe mother and a Scotts-Irish father. She grew up speaking both Anishinaabemowin and English, and at fifteen, she began writing poetry in both languages. Schoolcraft is considered to be the first published Native woman writer. Anishinaabemowin and English versions of Schoolcraft’s poems can be read in Robert Dale Parker’s The Sound the Stars Make Rushing Through the Sky, from the University of Pennsylvania Press.

Poem in a Landscape & Poetry

•On the Doric Rock, Lake Superior

To a Friend

Dwellers at home, in indolence and ease,
How deep their debt, to those that roam the seas,
Or cross the lands, in quest of every art
That science, knowledge, pity can impart
To help mankind, or guild the lettered page
The bold discoverers of every age.

Poem in a Landscape & Poetry

•By an Ojibwa Female Pen

Invitation to sisters to a walk in the Garden, after a shower

Come, sisters come! the shower’s past,
The garden walks are drying fast,
The Sun’s bright beams are seen again,
And nought within, can now detain.

Poem in a Landscape & Poetry

•Lines Written at Castle Island, Lake Superior

Here in my native inland sea
From pain and sickness would I flee
And from its shores and island bright
Gather a store of sweet delight.
Lone island of the saltless sea!

Poem in a Landscape & Poetry

•To the Pine Tree

Zhingwaak! Zhingwaak! Ingii-ikid, 
Weshki waabamag zhingwaak 
Dagoshinaan neyab, endanakiiyaan. 
Zhingwaak, zhingwaak nos sa! 
Azhigwa gidatisaanan 
Gaagige wezhaawashkozid.

Poem in a Landscape & Poetry

•The Contrast

 With pen in hand, I shall contrast, 
The present moments with the past
And mark difference, not by grains, 
But weighed by feelings, joys and pains. 
Calm, tranquil—far from fashion’s gaze, 
Passed all my earliest, happy days 
Sweetly flew the golden hours, 
In St. Mary’s woodland bowers 
Or my father’s simple hall, 
Oped to whomsoe’er might call