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From the GKS: A Mokuk made by Bamewawagezhikaquay or Jane Susan Ann Schoolcraft

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From Joy Kruse

This mokuk (GKS 25390) was made by Bamewawagezhikaquay (Jane Johnston Schoolcraft) or Jane Susan Ann Schoolcraft in 1836-1837. It is currently housed at the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology (NA7788A-C). Photograph likely created by GRASAC research team. (Image from the GKS, for research and community use only)

Throughout her life she bridged worlds—or moved within one complex world—in culture, language, and heritage; oral and written expression; and in orientation to Earth and Sky.
Quote from Anne Holmes about Bamewawagezhikaquay (“She Could Look Into the Heavens,” 2021)

It is an unfortunate fact that within the shelves of museums it is often difficult to find objects that remain tied to the individuals who made them. This summer, I had the opportunity to work on a set of records from the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. One object stood out to me, as it was the only record I came across with a known maker. This relative is a mokuk (box or chest) made from wiigwaas (birchbark) and decorated with kaawyikewin (quillwork) in multi-color floral motifs. Drawing from generational knowledge, Anishinaabekwewag created stunning birchbark containers such as this to hold dry goods like maple sugar or wild rice. 

A museum label which accompanied the mokuk written by the donor, Miss Ernestine A. Goodman was transcribed by the GRASAC research team in 2010. It reads: “‘Mokuk’ made by Schoolcraft’s (historian) daughter who married the great chief’s daughter. The young girl presented a pair filled with maple sugar to Mrs. General Patterson when her father brought her to Phila. to enter school. 1836-1837. Beyond the Saguenay River.”

The Schoolcraft referenced here is Henry Rowe Schoolcraft who was an American ethnologist and United States Indian Agent based in Michigan. His wife, Bamewawagezhikaquay, also known as Jane Johnston Schoolcraft, was an Ojibwe-Euro-American poet and writer who is considered the first major Native American woman writer in English. She was the daughter of Ozhaguscodaywayquay, or Susan Johnston, an Ojibwe woman and political figure, and the granddaughter of Waubojeeg, an ogimaa (civil leader). Bamewawagezhikaquay and Henry had two surviving children, Jane Susan Ann Schoolcraft and John Johnston Schoolcraft, both of whom were brought from Michigan to the east coast to enter boarding school at the ages of eleven and nine.

As the label suggests, the mokuk was likely made by Bamewawagezhikaquay or her daughter Jane between 1836 and 1837. At this time, Jane would have been around nine years old, making it more likely that Bamewawagezhikaquay was the primary maker of this mokuk. The family moved from Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan to Mackinac Island and lived there as part of Henry’s appointment from 1833 to 1841, suggesting the mokuk was likely made there. The children were both at school by March of 1839 when Bamewawagezhikaquay wrote her lamenting poem “On leaving my children John and Jane at School in the Atlantic states, and preparing to return to the interior.” Although she did not want to send her children away, the decision was ultimately made by Henry who insisted it was in their best interest. Despite having an Indigenous family, much of Henry’s work was grounded in assimilationist ideals as is seen in his personal papers. In her somber stanzas, we see how the mokuk represents a time of turmoil for the family––which holds particular poignance in light of the long history of Indigenous children being forcibly displaced to boarding schools. 

The Mrs. General Patterson referenced on the label was likely Sarah Engle, wife of Robert Patterson, a major in the U.S. Civil War. Based on web resources, the donor of the mokuk, Miss Ernestine Abercrombie Goodman, is likely the great-granddaughter of the Pattersons. It is unclear what the relationship is between the Schoolcrafts and the Pattersons. Jane Susan Ann presented a pair of mokuk filled with maple syrup to Mrs. Patterson when she arrived in Philadelphia to enter boarding school. As Beavis and Peers note, mokukoon were commonly given as gifts to create or reinforce social bonds and ties to the land from which the materials came. In 1918, this mokuk was donated by Miss Goodman to the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology where it currently resides. 

Since drafting this article, I was also able to locate the second in the pair of mokukoon. This relative (GKS 26936) is an open-faced mokuk, decorated with a variety of geometric and floriate kaawyikewin designs on each of the six sides. It was given to the Penn Museum in 1941, twenty-three years after its partner, through an exchange with the Philadelphia Museum of Art. The largely faded inscription on the bottom of the mokuk reads, “Presented to Mrs. Genl. Patterson by Mrs. J.J. Schoolcraft…” confirming the link between the two.

You can view and learn more about this mokuk and others like it on the GRASAC Knowledge Sharing Platform. The information on this relative was compiled on a research visit to the Penn Museum on May 6th, 2010, by Adriana Greci-Green, Stacey Loyer, and Coralie Boeykens.

On leaving my children John and Jane at School in the Atlantic states, and preparing to return to the interior

(title given by Henry Rowe Schoolcraft)

Nyau nin de nain dum 
May kow e yaun in 
Ain dah nuk ki yaun 
Waus sa wa kom eg 
Ain dah nuk ki yaun 
 
Ne dau nis ainse e 
Ne gwis is ainse e 
Ishe nau gun ug wau 
Waus sa wa kom eg 
 
She gwau go sha ween 
Ba sho waud e we 
Nin zhe ka we yea 
Ishe ez hau jau yaun 
Ain dah nuk ke yaun 
 
Ain dah nuk ke yaun 
Nin zhe ke we yea
Ishe ke way aun e 
Nyau ne gush kain dum 
 
-By Jane Johnston Schoolcraft (1839) (Parker ed. 2007, 49)

As I am thinking 
When I find you 
My land
Far in the west 
My land 

My little daughter 
My little son
I leave them behind 
Far away land 

[emphatically] But soon
It is close however
To my home I shall return
That is the way that I am, my being 
My land 

My land
To my home I shall return
I begin to make my way home 
Ahh but I am sad

-English Translation by Dennis Jones, Heidi Stark, and James Vukelich (2005) (Parker ed. 2007, 49)

Related Items in the GKS

Aasan (Leggings) owned by Ozhaguscodaywayquay (Susan Johnston), mother of Bamewawagezhikaquay
Unknown Chippewa/Ojibwe Maker. Women’s aasan, leggings. GKS ID 58967. Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, catalogue number 25-29-10/98195.

Further Reading