Changing Political and Cultural Realms in the Upper Great Lakes, 1826: a Case-study of the Influential “Oode” (or family) of Jane Johnston Schoolcraft

Abstract

This thesis explores the homestead and social life of the Jane Johnston Schoolcraft's family circle in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan throughout 1826. This metis family was both ordinary and exceptional. Like the French Métis in the region, they combined different cultural frameworks demonstrated through combined forms of worship and family practices. But they were exceptional because their higher social status in the community led to unique adaptations by the family in order to maintain their position in Sault Ste. Marie during an influx of white settlement. Jane mother's position as daughter of a chief, and as wife of an independent fur trader, gave her a distinct status within the community where women had more control over the market than in white society at the time. As the eldest daughter, Jane was exposed to both her mother's and father's influence growing up. She held a distinct position within the Johnston house, and her marriage to Henry helped to assure her family's position in part through Henry Schoolcraft's influence over the United States' Aboriginal policy, both locally, and at the federal level. While the family's influence has lived on through legislation, it also provided a rich array of more personal writing that helped to preserve Anishnabee tales through tribalographic writings. Among these were Jane's writing; she is the first known North American aboriginal literary writer. This thesis examines the events in Sault Ste. Marie in 1826 that Jane's immediate family circle was part of, in order to demonstrate the family's ability to adapt to changing political and cultural environments, while simultaneously trying to preserve their family's traditional life-ways.