| 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! How wide, how sweet, how fresh and free How all transporting —is the view Of rocks and skies and waters blue Uniting, as a song’s sweet strains 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 try my people ill. |
Jane Johnston Schoolcraft, “Lines Written at Castle Island, Lake Superior,” 1838.
Background
Jane Johnston Schoolcraft, also called Bamewawagezhikaquay (“Woman of the Sound the Stars Make Rushing Through the Sky”), was the daughter of an Ojibwe woman and an Irish settler. She was born in 1800 and lived most of her life in the settlement of Sault Ste. Marie on lands that are now part of the state of Michigan. Jane was part of the extended community of mixed race men and women who acted as social and cultural bridges between Indigenous communities and white settlers in the Great Lakes region. Jane married Indian Agent and ethnographer Henry Rowe Schoolcraft in 1823. As the wife of an Indian Agent, Jane saw firsthand how the U.S. government was dispossessing Indigenous communities throughout the country.
Jane was a talented writer who wrote about 50 poems in both Ojibwe and English, making her the first known Indigenous woman writer in North America. She may be the first Indigenous literary writer of any gender. Her English translations of Ojibwe oral histories and songs formed the backbone of her husband’s work. They were also the main source for Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s famous epic poem The Song of Hiawatha.
About the Document
This poem captures the conflicting emotions that Jane Johnston Schoolcraft experienced as an Indigenous American in the mid-1800s. She starts by expressing how her native lands bring her strength before calling out how Indigenous lands are being stolen by the U.S. government. The poem was originally written in Ojibwe, but that version has been lost. It is likely that Jane’s husband, Henry Rowe Schoolcraft, wrote this translation after her death.
Vocabulary
- Ojibwe: The name of the Indigenous community who inhabit lands around the Great Lakes and in Southeastern Canada. Today, there are Ojibwe communities in Canada and the United States.
- literary: Writing of books, poetry, plays, etc.
Discussion Questions
- How does Jane Johnston Schoolcraft capture her frustration with U.S. Indigenous policy in this poem?
- How does this poem make you feel about westward expansion?
- Why is poetry a valuable source of information about the past?
Suggested Activities
- Include this poem in lessons about U.S. expansion as a counterpoint to the rhetoric of Manifest Destiny.
- Read Life Story: Elizabeth Kahuga Shoeboots for one woman’s experience of Indian removal.
- For a larger lesson about how the crisis of American expansion impacted Indigenous people, combine this resource with any of the following:
- Jane Johnston Schoolcraft was a groundbreaking voice in the literary scene of her day, and her writing offers us unique insight into the consequences of American expansion. For more literary reflections on eras in American history, see:
Themes
AMERICAN CULTURE
