Seminar: Sweetgrass Grows All Around Her:

Native Women In The Arts

Vorgelegt von:

Birgit Lonnemann

Magister Romanistik

& Anglistik ­ 06.Sem.

Universität Osnabrück

Wintersemester 1998/99

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Table Of Contents

I. Introduction

3

II. Emily Pauline Johnson′s Biography

4

II. 1. Her Youth And Her Family 4

II.2. Family Tree 9

II. 3. Her Career And Her Travels 10

II. 4. Her Identity 15

III. Emily Pauline Johnson′s Literary Work

18

III.1. "A Pagan In St. Paul′s Cathedral" 18

III.2. "A Red Girl′s Reasoning" 20

IV. Conclusion

23

V. Bibliography

25

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I. Introduction

"Pauline Johnson′s physical body died in 1913, but her

spirit still communicates to us who are Native women

writers. She walked the writing path clearing the brush

for us to follow. And the road gets wider and closer each

time a Native woman picks up her pen and puts her mark

on paper."

1

Reading this quotation taken from a text by Beth Brant

made me curious. I wanted to know more about Emily Pauline

Johnson who seems to be the mother of all women writers of the

First Nations. She is like a spiritual ancestor to all of them.

Emily Pauline Johnson ­ the daughter of a Native

Canadian father and an English mother ­ used the Mohawk

name "Tekahionwake" which she took from her great-

grandfather Jacob Johnson.2 Being one of the most popular and

successful entertainers and stage performers in Canada at the

turn of the century3, Emily Pauline Johnson became known as

the "Mohawk Princess". She was not only one of the few female

writers of her time who managed to earn their living through

writing and performing, but she was also the first Native poet in

Canada who had her work published.4

But as I′m going to discuss all of these things throughout

my paper, I don′t want to talk about them too much now. I

decided to divide my paper into two main parts. On the one

hand, Emily Pauline Johnson′s biography (cf. chapter II), her

youth and her family (cf. chapter II.1.), her career and her

travels (cf. chapter II.3.), and her identity (cf. chapter II.4.). To

make it a bit easier to follow the sometimes difficult and often

1 Brant, Beth & Laronde, Sandra.

Sweetgrass Grows All Around Her

. Ontario, Canada: Native Women in the

Arts, 1996; 84.

2 Johnson, Emily Pauline.

The Moccasin Maker.

Tucson: The University of Arizona Press, 1987; 7.

3 http://www.humanities.mcmaster.ca/~pjohnson/html.

4 http://www.humanities.mcmaster.ca/~pjohnson/html.

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complex relations within her family, I drew a family tree which

can be found in chapter II.2. On the other hand, I will also talk

about Emily Pauline Johnson′s literary work (cf. chapter III),

especially about "A Pagan In St. Paul′s Cathedral" (cf. chapter

III.1.) and about "A Red Girl′s Reasoning" (cf. chapter III.2.). I

will finish my paper by giving a short conclusion to the topic

which can be found in chapter IV.

II. Emily Pauline Johnson′s Biography

II. 1. Her Youth And Her Family

Emily Pauline Johnson was born March 10, 1861 in

Canada on the Six Nations Reserve near Brantford, Ontario. By

Canadian law she was Indian for her father George Henry

Martin Johnson (1816-1884) was a Mohawk.5 Her mother was

Emily Susanna Howells (1824-1898), a non-Native woman from

Ohio, England. Pauline6 had two older brothers, Henry Beverly

(1854-1894) and Alan Wawanosh (1858-1923) and one sister,

Eliza Helen Charlotte (1856-1937) who was also called Evelyn

or Eva.7

Pauline′s ancestor Teyonhehkwea was a member of the

first council of the Iroquois Confederacy.8 The Six Nations were

originally made up of only five Indian Nations: the Mohawks,

Onondagas, Senecas, Cayugas and Oneidas. They formed the

Iroquois Confederacy. In 1712, the Tuscarora Nation joined the

Confederacy.9 After the Revolutionary War, the confederacy

5 Johnson, Emily Pauline.

The Moccasin Maker

. Tucson: The University of Arizona Press, 1987; 1.

6 Short for Emily Pauline.

7 http://www.humanities.mcmaster.ca/~pjohnson/html.

8 Johnson, Emily Pauline.

The Moccasin Maker

. Tucson: The University of Arizona Press, 1987; 1-2.

9 http://www.humanities.mcmaster.ca/~pjohnson/html.

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tribes lost much of their land because they had fought for the

British. Many of them accepted the offer of the British

government to settle on the Grand River, near Brantford,

Ontario.10 Today people from the Grand River Reserve are

called Iroquois in French and Six Nations in English.

Teyonehehkewea, a Mohawk chief, was Pauline′s

paternal great-great-grandfather. He adopted as his daughter the

Dutch captive Catherine Rollston who was also called

Wanowenreteh. She was the mother of Helen Martin Johnson

(died 1866), also known as Nellie, Pauline′s paternal

grandmother. Helen Martin′s father was George Martin, who

had the Mohawk name Onkyeateh.11

It was through Pauline′s paternal great-grandfather Jacob

Johnson or Tekahionwake (1758-1843) that the family got the

name "Johnson". His son, John "Smoke" Johnson (1792-1886)

fought against the Americans during the War of 1812. As he

was not from one of the ruling clans of the Six Nations, he had

no rights to become a chief. But in fact he became one because

the British were so impressed with his fighting abilities that they

asked the Iroquois to make him a chief. Having become one, he

was given the name "Sakayengwaraton". This meant "The Haze

That Rises From The Ground On An Autumn Morning And

Vanishes As The Day Advances".12 As the Mohawks called the

haze "smoke", it is no surprise that his nickname was "Smoke".

John "Smoke" Johnson married Helen Martin, who was

from the Mohawk Wolf clan. Pauline′s father, George Henry

Martin Johnson or Onwanonsyshon enherited his Wolf clan

10 Johnson, Emily Pauline.

The Moccasin Maker

. Tucson: The University of Arizona Press, 1987; 2.

11 Johnson, Emily Pauline.

The Moccasin Maker

. Tucson: The University of Arizona Press, 1987; 2-3.

12 http://www.humanities.mcmaster.ca/~pjohnson/html.

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membership through his mother, Helen Martin. Because of that

he had the possibility to become a chief of the Six Nations.13

George Henry Martin Johnson was not only educated in

the Mohawk tradition and language, but he also received an

English education in Anglican schools. As a result of his good

knowledge of the English language, George became the official

interpreter for the English church missions on the Six Nations

Reserve in 1840.14 His upbringing had mostly been among white

people. George even loved some aspects of non-Native culture.

An example of this can be found in the names of his children.

He admired the French emperor and general Napoleon so much

that he tried to name not only his children, but also his pets after

Napoleon′s family and friends.15

Emily Susanna Howells, Pauline Johnson′s mother, was

born in Bristol, England. She was the daughter of Henry Charles

Howells (1784-1854), a strict Quaker, and Mary Best, who died

in 1828 after having given birth to thirteen children. When Mary

Best died, Henry Charles Howells, the son of Thomas Howells

and Susannah Beasley Howells of Hay, married Harriet Joyner,

who bore six children.16 In 1869, the family moved first to

Worthington and then to Putnam, Ohio.

Pauline′s mother, Emily Susanna, left her parents at the

age of 21 to stay with her sister Eliza Beulah (819-1849) and her

brother-in-law Reverend Adam Elliot (1802-1878). They lived

in the Tuscarora parsonage on the Six Nations Reserve at Grand

River17, where Emily Susanna got to know her later husband

George Henry Martin who was 29 years old at that time. They

fell in love with each other, but did not marry until several years

13 Johnson, Emily Pauline.

The Moccasin Maker

. Tucson: The University of Arizona Press, 1987; 2-3.

14 Johnson, Emily Pauline.

The Moccasin Maker

. Tucson: The University of Arizona Press, 1987; 3.

15 http://www.humanities.mcmaster.ca/~pjohnson.html.

16 Johnson, Emily Pauline.

The Moccasin Maker

. Tucson: The University of Arizona Press, 1987; 3-4.

17 Johnson, Emily Pauline.

The Moccasin Maker

. Tucson: The University of Arizona Press, 1987; 4.

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