Pauline Johnson
Encyclopedia
Emily Pauline Johnson (also known in Mohawk as Tekahionwake –pronounced: dageh-eeon-wageh, literally: 'double-life') (10 March 1861 – 7 March 1913), commonly known as E. Pauline Johnson or just Pauline Johnson, was a Canadian writer and performer popular in the late 19th century. Johnson was notable for her poems and performances that celebrated her First Nations
heritage; her father was a Mohawk
chief of mixed ancestry, and her mother an English
immigrant. One such poem is the frequently anthologized "The Song My Paddle Sings". Her poetry was published in Canada, the United States and Great Britain. Johnson was one of a generation of widely read writers who began to define a Canadian literature
. While her literary reputation declined after her death, since the later 20th century, there has been renewed interest in her life and works.
Pauline Johnson was born at Chiefswood, the family home built by her father in 1856 on the Six Nations
Indian Reserve
outside Brantford, Ontario
. She was the youngest of four children of Emily Susanna Howells Johnson (1824–1898), a native of England, and George Henry Martin Johnson
(1816–1884), a Mohawk
chief
whose mother was half European. Howells had immigrated to the United States in 1832 as a young child with her father, stepmother and siblings. Howells met Johnson while living with her older sister on the reserve, where her brother-in-law was an Anglican missionary
.
Although Emily and George Johnson's marriage had been opposed by both their families and they were concerned that their mixed-race family would not be socially accepted, they were acknowledged as a leading Canadian family . The Johnsons enjoyed a high standard of living, and their family and home were well known. Chiefswood was visited by intellectual and political guests such as the inventor Alexander Graham Bell
, painter
Homer Watson
, noted anthropologist Horatio Hale
, and Lady and Lord Dufferin, Governor General of Canada
.
Emily and George Johnson encouraged their four children to respect and learn about both the Mohawk and the English aspects of their heritage. Because the children were born to a Native father, by British law they were legally considered Mohawk and wards of the British Crown. Because their mother was not Mohawk, they were excluded from aspects of the tribe's matrilineal culture. Their paternal grandfather John Smoke Johnson
, who had been elected a Pine Tree Chief, was an authority in the lives of his grandchildren. He told them many stories in the Mohawk language
, which they comprehended but did not speak fluently. Pauline Johnson said that she inherited her talent for elocution
from her grandfather. Late in life, she expressed regret for not learning more of his Mohawk heritage.
A sickly child, Johnson did not attend Brantford's Mohawk Institute, established in 1834 as one of Canada's first residential schools
for Native children. Her education was mostly at home and informal, deriving from her mother, a series of non-Native governesses, a few years at the small school on the reserve, and self-directed reading in the family's expansive library. She became familiar with literary works by Byron
, Tennyson
, Keats
, Browning
, and Milton
. She enjoyed reading tales about Native peoples, such as Longfellow
's epic poem The Song of Hiawatha
and John Richardson
's Wacousta. At age 14, Johnson went to Brantford Central Collegiate with her brother Allen, and she graduated in 1877. A schoolmate was Sara Jeannette Duncan
, who developed her own journalist
ic and literary career.
During the 1880s, Pauline Johnson wrote and performed in amateur theatre
productions. She enjoyed the Canadian outdoors, where she traveled by canoe
. In 1883 she published her first full-length poem, "My Little Jean," in the New York
Gems of Poetry. She began to increase the pace of her writing and publishing afterward.
Shortly after George Johnson's death in 1884, the family rented out Chiefswood. Pauline Johnson moved with her widowed mother and sister to a modest home in Brantford. She worked to support them all, and found that her stage performances allowed her to make a living. Johnson supported her mother until her death in 1898.
In 1885 Charles G.D. Roberts
published Johnson's "A Cry from an Indian Wife" in The Week, Goldwin Smith
's Toronto magazine. She based it on the battle of Cut Knife Creek
during the Riel Rebellion
. Roberts and Johnson became lifelong friends. Johnson promoted her identity as a Mohawk, but spent little time with people of the culture as an adult.
In 1885, Johnson traveled to Buffalo, New York
to attend a ceremony honoring the Iroquois
leader Sagoyewatha, also known as Red Jacket
. She wrote a poem expressing admiration for him and a plea for reconciliation between British and Native peoples .
In 1886 Johnson was commissioned to write a poem to mark the unveiling in Brantford of a statue honoring Joseph Brant
, the important Mohawk leader during and after the American Revolutionary War
. Her "Ode to Brant" was read at an October 13 ceremony before "the largest crowd the little city had ever seen." It called for brotherhood between Native and white Canadians under British imperial authority . The poem sparked a long article in the Toronto Globe and increased interest in Johnson's poetry and heritage. The Brantford businessman William F. Cockshutt read the poem, as Johnson was reportedly too shy.
During the 1880s, Johnson built her reputation as a Canadian writer, regularly publishing in periodicals such as Globe
, The Week, and Saturday Night
. In the late 1880s and early 1890s, she published nearly every month, mostly in Saturday Night. Johnson was one of a group of Canadian authors contributing to a distinct national literature,. The inclusion of two of her poems in W.D. Lighthall
's anthology, Songs of the Great Dominion
(1889), signaled her recognition and Theodore Watts-Dunton
noted her for praise in his review of the book; he quoted her entire poem "In the Shadows" and called her "the most interesting poetess now living." In her early works, Johnson wrote mostly about Canadian life, landscapes, and love in a post-Romantic
mode, reflective of literary interests shared with her mother rather than her Mohawk heritage.
The Young Men's Liberal Association invited Johnson to a Canadian Authors Evening, held January 16, 1892 at the Toronto Art School Gallery. The only woman at the event, she read to an overflow crowd, along with luminaries such as Lighthall, William Wilfred Campbell
, and Duncan Campbell Scott
. "The poise and grace of this beautiful young woman standing before them captivated the audience even before she began to recite — not read, as the others had done" — her "Cry from an Indian Wife." She was the only author to be called back for an encore. "She had scored a personal triumph and saved the evening from turning into a disaster."
The success of this performance began the poet's 15-year stage career, as she was signed up by Frank Yeigh, who had organized the Liberal event. He gave her the headline for her first show on February 19, 1892, where she debuted a new poem written for the event, "The Song My Paddle Sings." Johnson was perceived as quite young (although she was then 31), a beauty, and an exotic Native performer. After her first recital season, she decided to emphasize the Native aspects by assembling and wearing a feminine Native costume. She wore it during the first part of the show, when reciting her dramatic "Indian" lyrics. At intermission she changed into fashionable English dress; in the second half, she appeared as a Victorian lady to recite her "English" verse.
Johnson's decision to develop her stage persona, and the popularity it inspired, showed that the audiences she encountered in Canada, England, and the United States recognized and were entertained by Native peoples in performance. The 1890s were also the period of popularity of Buffalo Bill
Cody's Wild West Show and ethnological
aboriginal exhibits. She and her siblings inherited an artifact collection from their father, which included significant items such as wampum
belts and spiritual masks. She used some items in her stage performances, but sold most later to museums, such as the Ontario Provincial Museum, or to collectors, such as the prominent American George Gustav Heye
.
Scholars have had difficulty identifying Johnson's complete works, as much was published in periodicals. Her first volume of poetry, The White Wampum, was published in London, England in 1895. It was followed by Canadian Born in 1903. The contents of these volumes, together with additional poems, were published as the collection Flint and Feather in 1912. Reprinted many times, this book has been one of the best-selling titles of Canadian poetry
. Since the 1917 edition, Flint and Feather has been misleadingly subtitled "The Complete Poems of E. Pauline Johnson."
After retiring from the stage in August 1909, Johnson moved to Vancouver, British Columbia and continued writing. Her pieces included a series of articles for the Daily Province
, based on stories related by her friend Chief Joe Capilano
of the Squamish people of North Vancouver. In 1911, to help support Johnson, who was ill and poor, a group of friends organized the publication of these stories under the title Legends of Vancouver. They remain classics of that city's literature.
One of the stories was a Squamish legend of shape shifting: how a man was transformed into Siwash Rock
"as an indestructible monument to Clean Fatherhood." In another, Johnson told the history of Deadman's Island
, a small islet off Stanley Park
. In a poem in the collection, she named one of her favourite areas "Lost Lagoon
", as the inlet seemed to disappear when the water emptied at low tide. The body of water has since been transformed into a permanent, fresh-water lake at Stanley Park, but it is still called "Lost Lagoon".
The posthumous Shagganappi (1913) and The Moccasin Maker (1913) are collections of selected stories first published in periodicals. Johnson wrote on a variety of sentimental, didactic, and biographical topics. Veronica Strong-Boag and Carole Gerson provided a provisional chronological list of Johnson's writings in their book Paddling Her Own Canoe: The Times and Texts of E. Pauline Johnson (Tekahionwake) (2000).
Johnson died of breast cancer
in Vancouver, British Columbia on 7 March 1913. Her funeral (the largest until then in Vancouver history) was held on what would have been her 52nd birthday. Her ashes were buried near Siwash Rock in Stanley Park. In 1922 a cairn
was erected at the burial site, with an inscription reading in part, "“in memory of one who’s life and writings were an uplift and a blessing to our nation”.
Despite the acclaim she received from contemporaries, Pauline Johnson's reputation significantly declined in the decades after her death. It was not until 1961, with commemoration of the centenary of her birth, that Johnson began to be recognized as an important Canadian cultural figure. A number of biographers and literary critics have downplayed her literary contributions, as they contend that her performances contributed most to her literary reputation during her lifetime. W. J. Keith wrote: "Pauline Johnson's life was more interesting than her writing ... with ambitions as a poet, she produced little or nothing of value in the eyes of critics who emphasize style rather than content."
The author Margaret Atwood
admitted that she did not study literature by Native authors when preparing Survival: A Thematic Guide to Canadian Literature
(1972), her seminal work. At its publication, she had said she could not find Native works. She mused, "Why did I overlook Pauline Johnson? Perhaps because, being half-white, she somehow didn't rate as the real thing, even among Natives; although she is undergoing reclamation today." Atwood's comments indicated that Johnson's multicultural identity contributed to her neglect by critics.
As Atwood noted, since the late 20th century, Johnson's writings and performance career have been reevaluated by literary, feminist, and postcolonial critics. They have appreciated her importance as a New Woman
and a figure of resistance to dominant ideas about race, gender, Native Rights, and Canada. The growth in literature written by First Nations
people during the 1980s and 1990s has prompted writers and scholars to investigate Native oral and written literary history, to which Johnson made a significant contribution.
, had historically lived in what became the state of New York
, the Mohawk traditional homeland in the present-day United States. In 1758, her great-grandfather Tekahionwake was born in New York. When he was baptized, he took the name Jacob Johnson, taking his surname from Sir William Johnson, the influential British Superintendent of Indian Affairs, who acted as his godfather. The Johnson surname was subsequently passed down in the family.
After the American Revolutionary War
started, Loyalists in the Mohawk Valley came under intense pressure. The Mohawk and three other Iroquois tribes were allies of the British rather than the rebel colonists. Jacob Johnson and his family moved to Canada. After the war they settled permanently in Ontario on land given by the Crown in partial compensation for Iroquois losses of territory in New York.
His son John Smoke Johnson
had a talent for oratory
, spoke English as well as Mohawk, and demonstrated his patriotism
to the Crown during the War of 1812
. As a result, John Smoke Johnson was made a Pine Tree Chief at the request of the British government. Although John Smoke Johnson's title could not be inherited, his wife Helen Martin was descended from the Wolf Clan and a founding family of the Six Nations. Through her lineage and influence (as the Mohawk were matrilineal), their son George Johnson was named chief.
Chief George Johnson inherited his father's gift for languages and began his career as a church translator
on the Six Nations reserve. Assisting the Anglican missionary, Johnson met his sister-in-law Emily Howells. They fell in love and married. In 1853, the couple's interracial marriage
displeased both the Johnson and Howells families. (Several prominent Canadian families were descended from 18th and 19th-century marriages between British fur traders, who had capital and social standing, and daughters of First Nations chiefs, which had been considered economic and social alliances.) The birth of their first child reconciled the Johnson family to the marriage. In 1856 Johnson built Chiefswood, a wood mansion where the family lived for years.
In his roles as government interpreter and hereditary Chief, George Johnson developed a reputation as a talented mediator between Native
and European interests. He was well respected in Ontario. He also made enemies because of his efforts to stop illegal trading of reserve timber. Physically attacked by Native and non-Native men involved in this traffic, Johnson suffered from health problems afterward. He died of a fever in 1884.
Emily Howells was born in England to a well-established British family who immigrated to the United States in 1832. Her father Henry Howells was a Quaker and intended to join the American abolitionist movement. Emily's mother Mary Best Howells had died when the girl was five, before the family left England. Her father married again before they immigrated. In the US, he moved his family to several American cities, where he founded schools to gain an income, before settling in Eaglewood, New Jersey
. After his second wife died (women had a high mortality in childbirth), Howells married a third time, and fathered a total of 24 children. Although he opposed slavery and encouraged his children to "pray for the blacks and to pity the poor Indians. Nevertheless, his compassion did not preclude the view that his own race was superior to others".
At the age of 21, Emily Howells moved to the Six Nations reserve in Ontario, Canada to join her older sister, who had moved there with her Anglican missionary
husband. Emily helped her care for her growing family. After falling in love with George Johnson, Howells gained a better understanding of the Native peoples and some perspective on her father's beliefs.
First Nations
First Nations is a term that collectively refers to various Aboriginal peoples in Canada who are neither Inuit nor Métis. There are currently over 630 recognised First Nations governments or bands spread across Canada, roughly half of which are in the provinces of Ontario and British Columbia. The...
heritage; her father was a Mohawk
Mohawk nation
Mohawk are the most easterly tribe of the Iroquois confederation. They call themselves Kanien'gehaga, people of the place of the flint...
chief of mixed ancestry, and her mother an English
English people
The English are a nation and ethnic group native to England, who speak English. The English identity is of early mediaeval origin, when they were known in Old English as the Anglecynn. England is now a country of the United Kingdom, and the majority of English people in England are British Citizens...
immigrant. One such poem is the frequently anthologized "The Song My Paddle Sings". Her poetry was published in Canada, the United States and Great Britain. Johnson was one of a generation of widely read writers who began to define a Canadian literature
Canadian literature
Canadian literature is literature originating from Canada. Collectively it is often called CanLit. Some criticism of Canadian literature has focused on nationalistic and regional themes, although this is only a small portion of Canadian Literary criticism...
. While her literary reputation declined after her death, since the later 20th century, there has been renewed interest in her life and works.
Early life and education
Six Nations 40, Ontario
Six Nations is the largest First Nation in Canada with a total of 23,902 band members. 11,865 are reported living in the territory. It is the only territory in North America that has the six Iroquois nations living together. These nations are the Mohawk, Cayuga, Onondaga, Oneida, Seneca and...
Indian Reserve
Indian reserve
In Canada, an Indian reserve is specified by the Indian Act as a "tract of land, the legal title to which is vested in Her Majesty, that has been set apart by Her Majesty for the use and benefit of a band." The Act also specifies that land reserved for the use and benefit of a band which is not...
outside Brantford, Ontario
Brantford, Ontario
Brantford is a city located on the Grand River in Southern Ontario, Canada. While geographically surrounded by the County of Brant, the city is politically independent...
. She was the youngest of four children of Emily Susanna Howells Johnson (1824–1898), a native of England, and George Henry Martin Johnson
George Henry Martin Johnson
George Henry Martin Johnson was a chief of the Mohawk of the Six Nations in Canada and an interpreter.-Early life:...
(1816–1884), a Mohawk
Mohawk nation
Mohawk are the most easterly tribe of the Iroquois confederation. They call themselves Kanien'gehaga, people of the place of the flint...
chief
Tribal chief
A tribal chief is the leader of a tribal society or chiefdom. Tribal societies with social stratification under a single leader emerged in the Neolithic period out of earlier tribal structures with little stratification, and they remained prevalent throughout the Iron Age.In the case of ...
whose mother was half European. Howells had immigrated to the United States in 1832 as a young child with her father, stepmother and siblings. Howells met Johnson while living with her older sister on the reserve, where her brother-in-law was an Anglican missionary
Missionary
A missionary is a member of a religious group sent into an area to do evangelism or ministries of service, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care and economic development. The word "mission" originates from 1598 when the Jesuits sent members abroad, derived from the Latin...
.
Although Emily and George Johnson's marriage had been opposed by both their families and they were concerned that their mixed-race family would not be socially accepted, they were acknowledged as a leading Canadian family . The Johnsons enjoyed a high standard of living, and their family and home were well known. Chiefswood was visited by intellectual and political guests such as the inventor Alexander Graham Bell
Alexander Graham Bell
Alexander Graham Bell was an eminent scientist, inventor, engineer and innovator who is credited with inventing the first practical telephone....
, painter
Painting
Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a surface . The application of the medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush but other objects can be used. In art, the term painting describes both the act and the result of the action. However, painting is...
Homer Watson
Homer Watson
Homer Ransford Watson was a Canadian landscape painter. He was "the man who first saw Canada as Canada, rather than as dreamy blurred pastiches of European painting," according to J. Russell Harper, a former curator of Canadian art at the National Gallery of Canada...
, noted anthropologist Horatio Hale
Horatio Hale
Horatio Emmons Hale was an American-Canadian ethnologist, philologist and businessman who studied language as a key for classifying ancient peoples and being able to trace their migrations...
, and Lady and Lord Dufferin, Governor General of Canada
Governor General of Canada
The Governor General of Canada is the federal viceregal representative of the Canadian monarch, Queen Elizabeth II...
.
Emily and George Johnson encouraged their four children to respect and learn about both the Mohawk and the English aspects of their heritage. Because the children were born to a Native father, by British law they were legally considered Mohawk and wards of the British Crown. Because their mother was not Mohawk, they were excluded from aspects of the tribe's matrilineal culture. Their paternal grandfather John Smoke Johnson
John Smoke Johnson
John Smoke Johnson or Sakayengwaraton , was a Mohawk chief and leader in Canada. Johnson fought for the British Crown in the War of 1812 and was elected by his tribal council as a "Pine Tree Chief", a non-hereditary position...
, who had been elected a Pine Tree Chief, was an authority in the lives of his grandchildren. He told them many stories in the Mohawk language
Mohawk language
Mohawk is an Iroquoian language spoken by around 2,000 people of the Mohawk nation in the United States and Canada . Mohawk has the largest number of speakers of the Northern Iroquoian languages; today it is the only one with greater than a thousand remaining...
, which they comprehended but did not speak fluently. Pauline Johnson said that she inherited her talent for elocution
Elocution
Elocution is the study of formal speaking in pronunciation, grammar, style, and tone.-History:In Western classical rhetoric, elocution was one of the five core disciplines of pronunciation, which was the art of delivering speeches. Orators were trained not only on proper diction, but on the proper...
from her grandfather. Late in life, she expressed regret for not learning more of his Mohawk heritage.
A sickly child, Johnson did not attend Brantford's Mohawk Institute, established in 1834 as one of Canada's first residential schools
Canadian residential school system
-History:Founded in the 19th century, the Canadian Indian residential school system was intended to assimilate the children of the Aboriginal peoples in Canada into European-Canadian society...
for Native children. Her education was mostly at home and informal, deriving from her mother, a series of non-Native governesses, a few years at the small school on the reserve, and self-directed reading in the family's expansive library. She became familiar with literary works by Byron
George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron Byron
George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron Byron, later George Gordon Noel, 6th Baron Byron, FRS , commonly known simply as Lord Byron, was a British poet and a leading figure in the Romantic movement...
, Tennyson
Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson
Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson, FRS was Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom during much of Queen Victoria's reign and remains one of the most popular poets in the English language....
, Keats
John Keats
John Keats was an English Romantic poet. Along with Lord Byron and Percy Bysshe Shelley, he was one of the key figures in the second generation of the Romantic movement, despite the fact that his work had been in publication for only four years before his death.Although his poems were not...
, Browning
Robert Browning
Robert Browning was an English poet and playwright whose mastery of dramatic verse, especially dramatic monologues, made him one of the foremost Victorian poets.-Early years:...
, and Milton
John Milton
John Milton was an English poet, polemicist, a scholarly man of letters, and a civil servant for the Commonwealth of England under Oliver Cromwell...
. She enjoyed reading tales about Native peoples, such as Longfellow
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was an American poet and educator whose works include "Paul Revere's Ride", The Song of Hiawatha, and Evangeline...
's epic poem The Song of Hiawatha
The Song of Hiawatha
The Song of Hiawatha is an 1855 epic poem, in trochaic tetrameter, by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, featuring an Indian hero and loosely based on legends and ethnography of the Ojibwe and other Native American peoples contained in Algic Researches and additional writings of Henry Rowe Schoolcraft...
and John Richardson
John Richardson (author)
John Richardson was a British Army officer and the first Canadian-born novelist to achieve international recognition....
's Wacousta. At age 14, Johnson went to Brantford Central Collegiate with her brother Allen, and she graduated in 1877. A schoolmate was Sara Jeannette Duncan
Sara Jeannette Duncan
Sara Jeannette Duncan, , was a Canadian author and journalist. She was the daughter of Charles Duncan of Brantford, Ontario. She was born in Brantford, Ontario in 1862. She was educated at the Collegiate Institute in Brantford, Ontario...
, who developed her own journalist
Journalist
A journalist collects and distributes news and other information. A journalist's work is referred to as journalism.A reporter is a type of journalist who researchs, writes, and reports on information to be presented in mass media, including print media , electronic media , and digital media A...
ic and literary career.
Literary and stage career
Theatre
Theatre is a collaborative form of fine art that uses live performers to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place. The performers may communicate this experience to the audience through combinations of gesture, speech, song, music or dance...
productions. She enjoyed the Canadian outdoors, where she traveled by canoe
Canoe
A canoe or Canadian canoe is a small narrow boat, typically human-powered, though it may also be powered by sails or small electric or gas motors. Canoes are usually pointed at both bow and stern and are normally open on top, but can be decked over A canoe (North American English) or Canadian...
. In 1883 she published her first full-length poem, "My Little Jean," in the New York
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
Gems of Poetry. She began to increase the pace of her writing and publishing afterward.
Shortly after George Johnson's death in 1884, the family rented out Chiefswood. Pauline Johnson moved with her widowed mother and sister to a modest home in Brantford. She worked to support them all, and found that her stage performances allowed her to make a living. Johnson supported her mother until her death in 1898.
In 1885 Charles G.D. Roberts
Charles G.D. Roberts
Sir Charles George Douglas Roberts, was a Canadian poet and prose writer who is known as the Father of Canadian Poetry. He was "almost the first Canadian author to obtain worldwide reputation and influence; he was also a tireless promoter and encourager of Canadian literature......
published Johnson's "A Cry from an Indian Wife" in The Week, Goldwin Smith
Goldwin Smith
Goldwin Smith was a British-Canadian historian and journalist.- Early years :He was born at Reading, Berkshire. He was educated at Eton College and Magdalen College, Oxford, and after a brilliant undergraduate career he was elected to a fellowship at University College, Oxford...
's Toronto magazine. She based it on the battle of Cut Knife Creek
Battle of Cut Knife
The Battle of Cut Knife, fought on May 2, 1885, occurred when a small force of Cree and Assiniboine warriors were attacked by a flying column of mounted police, militia, and Canadian army regulars...
during the Riel Rebellion
North-West Rebellion
The North-West Rebellion of 1885 was a brief and unsuccessful uprising by the Métis people of the District of Saskatchewan under Louis Riel against the Dominion of Canada...
. Roberts and Johnson became lifelong friends. Johnson promoted her identity as a Mohawk, but spent little time with people of the culture as an adult.
In 1885, Johnson traveled to Buffalo, New York
Buffalo, New York
Buffalo is the second most populous city in the state of New York, after New York City. Located in Western New York on the eastern shores of Lake Erie and at the head of the Niagara River across from Fort Erie, Ontario, Buffalo is the seat of Erie County and the principal city of the...
to attend a ceremony honoring the Iroquois
Iroquois
The Iroquois , also known as the Haudenosaunee or the "People of the Longhouse", are an association of several tribes of indigenous people of North America...
leader Sagoyewatha, also known as Red Jacket
Red Jacket
Red Jacket was a Native American Seneca orator and chief of the Wolf clan...
. She wrote a poem expressing admiration for him and a plea for reconciliation between British and Native peoples .
In 1886 Johnson was commissioned to write a poem to mark the unveiling in Brantford of a statue honoring Joseph Brant
Joseph Brant
Thayendanegea or Joseph Brant was a Mohawk military and political leader, based in present-day New York, who was closely associated with Great Britain during and after the American Revolution. He was perhaps the most well-known American Indian of his generation...
, the important Mohawk leader during and after the American Revolutionary War
American Revolutionary War
The American Revolutionary War , the American War of Independence, or simply the Revolutionary War, began as a war between the Kingdom of Great Britain and thirteen British colonies in North America, and ended in a global war between several European great powers.The war was the result of the...
. Her "Ode to Brant" was read at an October 13 ceremony before "the largest crowd the little city had ever seen." It called for brotherhood between Native and white Canadians under British imperial authority . The poem sparked a long article in the Toronto Globe and increased interest in Johnson's poetry and heritage. The Brantford businessman William F. Cockshutt read the poem, as Johnson was reportedly too shy.
During the 1880s, Johnson built her reputation as a Canadian writer, regularly publishing in periodicals such as Globe
The Globe and Mail
The Globe and Mail is a nationally distributed Canadian newspaper, based in Toronto and printed in six cities across the country. With a weekly readership of approximately 1 million, it is Canada's largest-circulation national newspaper and second-largest daily newspaper after the Toronto Star...
, The Week, and Saturday Night
Saturday Night (magazine)
Saturday Night was a Canadian general interest magazine. It was founded in Toronto, Ontario in 1887.The publication was first established as a weekly broadsheet newspaper about public affairs and the arts, which was later expanded into a general interest magazine. The editor, Edmund E. Sheppard,...
. In the late 1880s and early 1890s, she published nearly every month, mostly in Saturday Night. Johnson was one of a group of Canadian authors contributing to a distinct national literature,. The inclusion of two of her poems in W.D. Lighthall
William Douw Lighthall
William Douw Lighthall , K.C., LL.D., F.R.S.C. , can be and has been described as a Canadian "lawyer, historian, novelist, poet, philosopher, anthologist, and editor."...
's anthology, Songs of the Great Dominion
Songs of the Great Dominion
Songs of the Great Dominion was a pioneering anthology of Canadian poetry published in 1889. The book's full title was Songs of the Great Dominion: Voices from the Forests and Waters, the Settlements and Cities of Canada. The collection was selected and edited by William Douw Lighthall of Montreal...
(1889), signaled her recognition and Theodore Watts-Dunton
Theodore Watts-Dunton
Theodore Watts-Dunton was an English critic and poet. He is often remembered as the friend and minder of Algernon Charles Swinburne, whom he rescued from alcoholism.-Birth and education:...
noted her for praise in his review of the book; he quoted her entire poem "In the Shadows" and called her "the most interesting poetess now living." In her early works, Johnson wrote mostly about Canadian life, landscapes, and love in a post-Romantic
Romanticism
Romanticism was an artistic, literary and intellectual movement that originated in the second half of the 18th century in Europe, and gained strength in reaction to the Industrial Revolution...
mode, reflective of literary interests shared with her mother rather than her Mohawk heritage.
The Young Men's Liberal Association invited Johnson to a Canadian Authors Evening, held January 16, 1892 at the Toronto Art School Gallery. The only woman at the event, she read to an overflow crowd, along with luminaries such as Lighthall, William Wilfred Campbell
William Wilfred Campbell
William Wilfred Campbell was a Canadian poet. He is often classed as one of the country's Confederation Poets, a group that included fellow Canadians Charles G.D. Roberts, Bliss Carman, Archibald Lampman, and Duncan Campbell Scott; he was a colleague of Lampman and Scott...
, and Duncan Campbell Scott
Duncan Campbell Scott
Duncan Campbell Scott was a Canadian poet and prose writer. With Charles G.D. Roberts, Bliss Carman, and Archibald Lampman, he is classed as one of Canada's Confederation Poets....
. "The poise and grace of this beautiful young woman standing before them captivated the audience even before she began to recite — not read, as the others had done" — her "Cry from an Indian Wife." She was the only author to be called back for an encore. "She had scored a personal triumph and saved the evening from turning into a disaster."
The success of this performance began the poet's 15-year stage career, as she was signed up by Frank Yeigh, who had organized the Liberal event. He gave her the headline for her first show on February 19, 1892, where she debuted a new poem written for the event, "The Song My Paddle Sings." Johnson was perceived as quite young (although she was then 31), a beauty, and an exotic Native performer. After her first recital season, she decided to emphasize the Native aspects by assembling and wearing a feminine Native costume. She wore it during the first part of the show, when reciting her dramatic "Indian" lyrics. At intermission she changed into fashionable English dress; in the second half, she appeared as a Victorian lady to recite her "English" verse.
Johnson's decision to develop her stage persona, and the popularity it inspired, showed that the audiences she encountered in Canada, England, and the United States recognized and were entertained by Native peoples in performance. The 1890s were also the period of popularity of Buffalo Bill
Buffalo Bill
William Frederick "Buffalo Bill" Cody was a United States soldier, bison hunter and showman. He was born in the Iowa Territory , in LeClaire but lived several years in Canada before his family moved to the Kansas Territory. Buffalo Bill received the Medal of Honor in 1872 for service to the US...
Cody's Wild West Show and ethnological
Ethnology
Ethnology is the branch of anthropology that compares and analyzes the origins, distribution, technology, religion, language, and social structure of the ethnic, racial, and/or national divisions of humanity.-Scientific discipline:Compared to ethnography, the study of single groups through direct...
aboriginal exhibits. She and her siblings inherited an artifact collection from their father, which included significant items such as wampum
Wampum
Wampum are traditional, sacred shell beads of the Eastern Woodlands tribes of the indigenous people of North America. Wampum include the white shell beads fashioned from the North Atlantic channeled whelk shell; and the white and purple beads made from the quahog, or Western North Atlantic...
belts and spiritual masks. She used some items in her stage performances, but sold most later to museums, such as the Ontario Provincial Museum, or to collectors, such as the prominent American George Gustav Heye
George Gustav Heye
George Gustav Heye was a collector of Native American artifacts. His collection became the core of the National Museum of the American Indian.-Biography:...
.
Scholars have had difficulty identifying Johnson's complete works, as much was published in periodicals. Her first volume of poetry, The White Wampum, was published in London, England in 1895. It was followed by Canadian Born in 1903. The contents of these volumes, together with additional poems, were published as the collection Flint and Feather in 1912. Reprinted many times, this book has been one of the best-selling titles of Canadian poetry
Canadian poetry
- Beginnings:The earliest works of poetry, mainly written by visitors, described the new territories in optimistic terms, mainly targeted at a European audience...
. Since the 1917 edition, Flint and Feather has been misleadingly subtitled "The Complete Poems of E. Pauline Johnson."
Later life
The Province
The Province is a daily, tabloid format newspaper published in British Columbia by Postmedia. It has been a daily newspaper since 1898.According to a recent NADbank survey, The Provinces average weekday readership was 520,100, making it British Columbia's most read newspaper...
, based on stories related by her friend Chief Joe Capilano
Joe Capilano
Joe Capilano , was a leader of the Sḵwxwú7mesh , who called him Sa7plek . He fought for the recognition of Native rights and lifestyle.Capilano spent his youth fishing and hunting...
of the Squamish people of North Vancouver. In 1911, to help support Johnson, who was ill and poor, a group of friends organized the publication of these stories under the title Legends of Vancouver. They remain classics of that city's literature.
One of the stories was a Squamish legend of shape shifting: how a man was transformed into Siwash Rock
Siwash Rock
Siwash Rock is a famous rock outcropping in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada's Stanley Park. A legend among the Indigenous Squamish surrounds the of the rock...
"as an indestructible monument to Clean Fatherhood." In another, Johnson told the history of Deadman's Island
Deadman's Island (Vancouver)
Deadman Island is a 3.8 ha island to the south of Stanley Park in Coal Harbour in Vancouver, British Columbia. The indigenous Sḵwxwú7mesh name is "skwtsa7s", meaning simply "island." Officially designated "Deadman Island" by the Geographical Names Board of Canada in 1937. it is commonly referred to...
, a small islet off Stanley Park
Stanley Park
Stanley Park is a 404.9 hectare urban park bordering downtown Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. It was opened in 1888 by David Oppenheimer in the name of Lord Stanley of Preston, the Governor-General of Canada....
. In a poem in the collection, she named one of her favourite areas "Lost Lagoon
Lost Lagoon
Lost Lagoon is an artificial, captive 16.6-hectare body of water, west of Georgia Street, near the entrance to Stanley Park in Vancouver, Canada. Surrounding the lake is a trail, and it features a lit fountain that was erected by Robert Harold Williams to commemorate the city's golden jubilee...
", as the inlet seemed to disappear when the water emptied at low tide. The body of water has since been transformed into a permanent, fresh-water lake at Stanley Park, but it is still called "Lost Lagoon".
The posthumous Shagganappi (1913) and The Moccasin Maker (1913) are collections of selected stories first published in periodicals. Johnson wrote on a variety of sentimental, didactic, and biographical topics. Veronica Strong-Boag and Carole Gerson provided a provisional chronological list of Johnson's writings in their book Paddling Her Own Canoe: The Times and Texts of E. Pauline Johnson (Tekahionwake) (2000).
Johnson died of breast cancer
Breast cancer
Breast cancer is cancer originating from breast tissue, most commonly from the inner lining of milk ducts or the lobules that supply the ducts with milk. Cancers originating from ducts are known as ductal carcinomas; those originating from lobules are known as lobular carcinomas...
in Vancouver, British Columbia on 7 March 1913. Her funeral (the largest until then in Vancouver history) was held on what would have been her 52nd birthday. Her ashes were buried near Siwash Rock in Stanley Park. In 1922 a cairn
Cairn
Cairn is a term used mainly in the English-speaking world for a man-made pile of stones. It comes from the or . Cairns are found all over the world in uplands, on moorland, on mountaintops, near waterways and on sea cliffs, and also in barren desert and tundra areas...
was erected at the burial site, with an inscription reading in part, "“in memory of one who’s life and writings were an uplift and a blessing to our nation”.
Criticism and legacy
The author Margaret Atwood
Margaret Atwood
Margaret Eleanor Atwood, is a Canadian poet, novelist, literary critic, essayist, and environmental activist. She is among the most-honoured authors of fiction in recent history; she is a winner of the Arthur C...
admitted that she did not study literature by Native authors when preparing Survival: A Thematic Guide to Canadian Literature
Survival: A Thematic Guide to Canadian Literature
Survival: A Thematic Guide to Canadian Literature is a survey of Canadian literature by Margaret Atwood, one of the most well-known Canadian authors in the world...
(1972), her seminal work. At its publication, she had said she could not find Native works. She mused, "Why did I overlook Pauline Johnson? Perhaps because, being half-white, she somehow didn't rate as the real thing, even among Natives; although she is undergoing reclamation today." Atwood's comments indicated that Johnson's multicultural identity contributed to her neglect by critics.
As Atwood noted, since the late 20th century, Johnson's writings and performance career have been reevaluated by literary, feminist, and postcolonial critics. They have appreciated her importance as a New Woman
New Woman
The New Woman was a feminist ideal that emerged in the late 19th century. The New Woman pushed the limits set by male-dominated society, especially as modeled in the plays of Norwegian Henrik Ibsen . "The New Woman sprang fully armed from Ibsen's brain," according to a joke by Max Beerbohm...
and a figure of resistance to dominant ideas about race, gender, Native Rights, and Canada. The growth in literature written by First Nations
First Nations
First Nations is a term that collectively refers to various Aboriginal peoples in Canada who are neither Inuit nor Métis. There are currently over 630 recognised First Nations governments or bands spread across Canada, roughly half of which are in the provinces of Ontario and British Columbia. The...
people during the 1980s and 1990s has prompted writers and scholars to investigate Native oral and written literary history, to which Johnson made a significant contribution.
Recognition
- In 1922, the city of Vancouver erected a monument in Pauline Johnson's honour at her well-loved Stanley Park.
- 1945, Johnson was designated a Person of National Historic Significance.
- In 1961, on the centennial of her birth, Johnson was celebrated with a commemorative stampCommemorative stampA commemorative stamp is a postage stamp, often issued on a significant date such as an anniversary, to honor or commemorate a place, event or person. The subject of the commemorative stamp is usually spelled out in print, unlike definitive stamps which normally depict the subject along with the...
bearing her image, "rendering her the first woman (other than the Queen), the first author, and the first aboriginal Canadian to be thus honored.". - Four Canadian schools have been named in Johnson's honour: elementary schools in West Vancouver, British Columbia; Scarborough, OntarioScarborough, OntarioScarborough is a dissolved municipality within the city of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Geographically, it comprises the eastern part of Toronto. It is bordered on the south by Lake Ontario, on the west by Victoria Park Avenue, on the north by Steeles Avenue East, and on the east by the Rouge River...
; Hamilton, Ontario; and Burlington, OntarioBurlington, OntarioBurlington , is a city located in Halton Region at the western end of Lake Ontario. Burlington is part of the Greater Toronto Area, and is also included in the Hamilton Census Metropolitan Area. Physically, Burlington lies between the north shore of Lake Ontario and the Niagara Escarpment...
; and a high schoolPauline Johnson Collegiate & Vocational SchoolPauline Johnson Collegiate & Vocational School in Brantford, Ontario, Canada is a composite high school with collegiate and vocational departments. It was named in honour of the Native Canadian poetess E. Pauline Johnson, who was born nearby....
in Brantford, Ontario. - Chiefswood, Johnson's childhood home constructed in 1856 in Brantford, has been listed as a National Historic Site because of both her father's and her historical importance. Preserved as a house museum, it is the oldest Native mansion surviving from pre-Confederation times.
- An Ontario Historical Plaque was erected in front of the Chiefswood house museum by the province to commemorate E. Pauline Johnson's role in the region's heritage.
- On 11 March 2008, City Opera Vancouver announced its commission of Pauline, a chamber opera to star the dramatic mezzo Judith ForstJudith ForstJudith Doris Forst, OC, OBC is a Canadian mezzo-soprano.Born in New Westminster, British Columbia, she received a Bachelor of Music from the University of British Columbia in 1964. She is the sister-in-law of long time Vancouver radio personality Brian Forst...
. The composer is Christos HatzisChristos HatzisChristos Hatzis is a Greek Canadian composer currently a professor at the Faculty of Music, University of Toronto.-Biography:Hatzis was born in Volos, Greece and received his early music instruction at the Volos branch of the Hellenic Conservatory...
, with libretto by Margaret Atwood. The work is planned for premiere in early 2011. The first opera to be written about Pauline Johnson, it is set in Vancouver in March 1913, in the last week of her life.
- The Canadian actor Donald SutherlandDonald SutherlandDonald McNichol Sutherland, OC is a Canadian actor with a film career spanning nearly 50 years. Some of Sutherland's more notable movie roles included offbeat warriors in such war movies as The Dirty Dozen, , MASH , and Kelly's Heroes , as well as in such popular films as Klute, Invasion of the...
narrated the following quote from her poem "Autumn's Orchestra", at the opening ceremonies of the 2010 Winter Olympics2010 Winter OlympicsThe 2010 Winter Olympics, officially the XXI Olympic Winter Games or the 21st Winter Olympics, were a major international multi-sport event held from February 12–28, 2010, in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, with some events held in the suburbs of Richmond, West Vancouver and the University...
in VancouverVancouverVancouver is a coastal seaport city on the mainland of British Columbia, Canada. It is the hub of Greater Vancouver, which, with over 2.3 million residents, is the third most populous metropolitan area in the country,...
.
-
-
- Know by the thread of music woven through
- This fragile web of cadences I spin,
- That I have only caught these songs since you
- Voiced them upon your haunting violin.
-
- In 2010, composer Jeff Enns was commissioned to create a song based on Johnson's poem "At Sunset". His work was sung and recorded by the Canadian Chamber ChoirCanadian Chamber ChoirThe Canadian Chamber Choir is a Canadian national choral ensemble that provides a professional choral environment for Canadian singers, conductors and composers. The CCC has a mandate to perform new and existing Canadian choral works, apprentice choral conductors, and facilitate workshops in all...
under the artistic direction of Julia DavidsJulia DavidsJulia Davids née Olson is a founding member and Artistic Director of the Canadian Chamber Choir. She is the Music Director of the North Shore Choral Society.- Education :...
.
Family history
The Mohawk ancestors of Johnson's father, Chief George Henry Martin JohnsonGeorge Henry Martin Johnson
George Henry Martin Johnson was a chief of the Mohawk of the Six Nations in Canada and an interpreter.-Early life:...
, had historically lived in what became the state of New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
, the Mohawk traditional homeland in the present-day United States. In 1758, her great-grandfather Tekahionwake was born in New York. When he was baptized, he took the name Jacob Johnson, taking his surname from Sir William Johnson, the influential British Superintendent of Indian Affairs, who acted as his godfather. The Johnson surname was subsequently passed down in the family.
After the American Revolutionary War
American Revolutionary War
The American Revolutionary War , the American War of Independence, or simply the Revolutionary War, began as a war between the Kingdom of Great Britain and thirteen British colonies in North America, and ended in a global war between several European great powers.The war was the result of the...
started, Loyalists in the Mohawk Valley came under intense pressure. The Mohawk and three other Iroquois tribes were allies of the British rather than the rebel colonists. Jacob Johnson and his family moved to Canada. After the war they settled permanently in Ontario on land given by the Crown in partial compensation for Iroquois losses of territory in New York.
His son John Smoke Johnson
John Smoke Johnson
John Smoke Johnson or Sakayengwaraton , was a Mohawk chief and leader in Canada. Johnson fought for the British Crown in the War of 1812 and was elected by his tribal council as a "Pine Tree Chief", a non-hereditary position...
had a talent for oratory
Oratory
Oratory is a type of public speaking.Oratory may also refer to:* Oratory , a power metal band* Oratory , a place of worship* a religious order such as** Oratory of Saint Philip Neri ** Oratory of Jesus...
, spoke English as well as Mohawk, and demonstrated his patriotism
Patriotism
Patriotism is a devotion to one's country, excluding differences caused by the dependencies of the term's meaning upon context, geography and philosophy...
to the Crown during the War of 1812
War of 1812
The War of 1812 was a military conflict fought between the forces of the United States of America and those of the British Empire. The Americans declared war in 1812 for several reasons, including trade restrictions because of Britain's ongoing war with France, impressment of American merchant...
. As a result, John Smoke Johnson was made a Pine Tree Chief at the request of the British government. Although John Smoke Johnson's title could not be inherited, his wife Helen Martin was descended from the Wolf Clan and a founding family of the Six Nations. Through her lineage and influence (as the Mohawk were matrilineal), their son George Johnson was named chief.
Chief George Johnson inherited his father's gift for languages and began his career as a church translator
Translation
Translation is the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent target-language text. Whereas interpreting undoubtedly antedates writing, translation began only after the appearance of written literature; there exist partial translations of the Sumerian Epic of...
on the Six Nations reserve. Assisting the Anglican missionary, Johnson met his sister-in-law Emily Howells. They fell in love and married. In 1853, the couple's interracial marriage
Interracial marriage
Interracial marriage occurs when two people of differing racial groups marry. This is a form of exogamy and can be seen in the broader context of miscegenation .-Legality of interracial marriage:In the Western world certain jurisdictions have had regulations...
displeased both the Johnson and Howells families. (Several prominent Canadian families were descended from 18th and 19th-century marriages between British fur traders, who had capital and social standing, and daughters of First Nations chiefs, which had been considered economic and social alliances.) The birth of their first child reconciled the Johnson family to the marriage. In 1856 Johnson built Chiefswood, a wood mansion where the family lived for years.
In his roles as government interpreter and hereditary Chief, George Johnson developed a reputation as a talented mediator between Native
Aboriginal peoples in Canada
Aboriginal peoples in Canada comprise the First Nations, Inuit and Métis. The descriptors "Indian" and "Eskimo" have fallen into disuse in Canada and are commonly considered pejorative....
and European interests. He was well respected in Ontario. He also made enemies because of his efforts to stop illegal trading of reserve timber. Physically attacked by Native and non-Native men involved in this traffic, Johnson suffered from health problems afterward. He died of a fever in 1884.
Emily Howells was born in England to a well-established British family who immigrated to the United States in 1832. Her father Henry Howells was a Quaker and intended to join the American abolitionist movement. Emily's mother Mary Best Howells had died when the girl was five, before the family left England. Her father married again before they immigrated. In the US, he moved his family to several American cities, where he founded schools to gain an income, before settling in Eaglewood, New Jersey
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...
. After his second wife died (women had a high mortality in childbirth), Howells married a third time, and fathered a total of 24 children. Although he opposed slavery and encouraged his children to "pray for the blacks and to pity the poor Indians. Nevertheless, his compassion did not preclude the view that his own race was superior to others".
At the age of 21, Emily Howells moved to the Six Nations reserve in Ontario, Canada to join her older sister, who had moved there with her Anglican missionary
Missionary
A missionary is a member of a religious group sent into an area to do evangelism or ministries of service, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care and economic development. The word "mission" originates from 1598 when the Jesuits sent members abroad, derived from the Latin...
husband. Emily helped her care for her growing family. After falling in love with George Johnson, Howells gained a better understanding of the Native peoples and some perspective on her father's beliefs.
Selected publications
Poetry
- The White Wampum. Toronto: Copp Clark, 1895; London: John Lane, 1895.] (Early Canadiana Online) ISBN 0-665076-18-5
- In the Shadows. Gouverneur, NY: Adirondack, [1898?] (Early Canadiana Online) ISBN 0-665084-94-3
- Canadian Born. Toronto: Morang, 1903. ISBN 0-665731-99-X
- When George Was King and Other Poems. Brockville, ON: Brockville Times, 1908.
- Flint and Feather. Toronto: Musson Book Co., 1912.
- (Project Gutenberg) ISBN 0-919645-26-7
- Watts-Dunton, Theodore, ed. Flint and Feather: The Complete Poems of E. Pauline Johnson. Toronto: Musson Book Co., 1917.
- Van Steen, Marcus, ed. Pauline Johnson, Her Life and Work: Biography Written By and Poems Selected By Marcus Van Steen. Toronto: Hodder and Stoughton, 1965.
- Gerson, Carole and Veronica Strong-Boag, eds. Tekahionwake: Collected Poems and Selected Prose. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2002.
Collected stories by Pauline Johnson
- Legends of Vancouver. Vancouver, [privately printed], 1911. Vancouver: Vancouver Business and Professional Women's Club, 1952.
- (Project Gutenberg) ISBN 1-550820-24-9
- The Mocassin Maker. Toronto: William Briggs, 1913.
- (Project Gutenberg) ISBN 0-66-573499-9
- The Shagganappi. Toronto: William Briggs, 1913.
- (Project Gutenberg) ISBN 0-665771-95-9
Further reading
- Crate, Joan. Pale as Real Ladies: Poems for Pauline Johnson, London, ON: Brick Books, 1991. ISBN 0-919626-43-2
- Johnson (Tekahionwake), E. Pauline. E. Pauline Johnson Tekahionwake: Collected Poems and Selected Prose. Ed. Carole Gerson and Veronica Strong-Boag. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2002. ISBN 0-802036-70-8
- Keller, Betty. Pauline: A Biography of Pauline Johnson. Vancouver: Douglas & McIntyre, 1981. ISBN 0-888943-22-9.
- Mackay, Isabel E. Pauline Johnson : a reminiscence . 1913.
- McRaye, Walter. Pauline Johnson and Her Friends. Toronto: Ryerson, 1947.
- Shrive, Norman. "What Happened to Pauline?", Canadian Literature 13 (1962): 25–38.
External links
- Free Audiobook of "The Song My Paddle Sings" from Librivox
- Selected Poetry of E. Pauline Johnson - Biography and 5 poems (Brier: Good Friday, Flint and Feather, The Pilot of the Plains, Shadow River: Muskoka, The Song my Paddle Sings)
- Biography at the Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online
- Pauline Johnson Archive at McMaster University
- Chiefswood National Historic Site