An Afro-Indigenous History of the United States

quite a claim: that all of the land belonged to Indigenous people as a whole,
ignoring the real tribal differences that existed among them. Still, it was a
visionary move, and set the stage for an epic Indigenous resistance during
the War of 1812. In the struggle, Indigenous tribes suffered further land loss
and Tecumseh lost his life; however, he remains a celebrated figure in
Indigenous communities for standing up for justice in his attempt to create a
shared, Indigenous homeland.
BAAMEWAAWAAGIZHIGOKWE, JANE JOHNSTON
SCHOOLCRAFT
In looking back at the nineteenth century (and other eras), we as a society
romanticize Native American violent struggle against US encroachment. In
doing so, we risk minimizing other forms of protest. Nonviolent protest,
including writing, advocating through the legal realm, and other methods to
preserve and produce Indigenous futures for Indigenous nations, has
represented one way to challenge the US nation-state.
Jane Johnston Schoolcraft was an exceptional woman. Her Anishinaabe
name was Baamewaawaagizhigokwe, which means “a woman who moves,
making sound in the heavens.” 27 Though her husband, Henry Rowe
Schoolcraft, held an important role as Michigan territorial governor, she
was known for her own contributions as a writer and poet. Born in Sault
Ste. Marie, Michigan territory, in the upper peninsula, Jane Johnston had an
Anishinaabe mother and an Irish father. She grew up in a world that was
French-Canadian, Anishinaabe, and later, US occupied. She spoke
Anishinaabe, English, and French fluently. According to literary scholar
Robert Dale Parker, who was the first to publish a collection of Johnston
Schoolcraft’s poems, the Johnstons were “extraordinary for their political
and social influence in Ojibwe, British, American, and métis cultures.” 28
They were also well traveled, both across land and in and out of various
cultural milieus. In addition, Johnston traveled to England and Ireland as a
child. She knew English literature and Anishinaabe folklore, stories, and
songs, which she translated. Schoolcraft wrote about fifty poems, translated
at least ten Anishinaabe songs, transcribed about eight Anishinaabe oral
stories, and contributed other forms of writing. As perhaps the first
Indigenous literary writer and the first known Indigenous writer to write
poems in an Indigenous language, “her extensive body of writing invites