Emily Pauline Johnson, also known as Mohawk Tekahionwake, named after her grandfather, Tekahionwake ("double wampum"), was born in Ontario, Canada, on March 10, 1862, on the Six Nation Indian Reserve, Brant County, and died on March 7, 1913, in Vancouver, Canada. She was the daughter of George Henry Martin Johnson, a Mohawk chief fluent in several languages, and Emily Susanna Howells, a Canadian born in England. In the late 19th century, she emerged as one of the most notable artists in North America.
The Mohawk are the easternmost tribe of the Haudenosaunee, or Iroquois Confederacy. The Iroquois Confederacy or Haudenosaunee was a pre-Columbian civilization and immensely powerful tribal confederacy that existed in northeastern North America. They were known as the Iroquois League by the French or as the Five Nations by the British, and later as the Six Nations. They are an Iroquoian-speaking Indigenous people of North America, with communities in northern New York State and southeastern Canada (Ontario), primarily around Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence River.
Emily’s poetry was published in Canada, the United States, and Great Britain, and helped define Canadian literature. Her works celebrated her mixed-race heritage, combining Native American and English influences. Johnson was a gifted writer and orator who traveled extensively, enchanting audiences with her dramatic performances.
She made significant contributions to both Native American and Canadian cultures and has been honored as a Person of National Historic Significance. Her childhood home is now a National Historic Site. Although her reputation waned after her death, there was a resurgence of interest in her work beginning in the late 20th century.
Family History
Her ancestors, the Mohawk Nation, inhabited present-day New York State and were part of the Five Nations of the Iroquois League. Pauline’s great-grandfather Tekahionwake took the name Jacob Johnson and moved to Canada where he was granted land by the Crown during the American Revolution. Her father, George Henry Martin Johnson (Onwanonsyshon) (1816–1884), was a member of the Wolf clan and selected as hereditary chief of the Mohawk of the Six Nations in Canada.
He also served as an official interpreter and informal diplomat between the Mohawk and Canadian governments. His home at Chiefswood, built in 1856 on the Grand River, has been designated and preserved as a National Historic Site; it is the only First Nations mansion from the pre-Confederation era in Canada.
George was also an interpreter and cultural negotiator between the Mohawk, the British, and the Canadian government. He was a respected chief and interpreter for the Crown who brokered agreements between Native Americans and Europeans. He faced challenges in trying to stop illegal trade on the reservation, but he still built the Chiefswood mansion.
Childhood and Education
Pauline’s upbringing was marked by her mother’s emphasis on refinement and dignity, which influenced her aristocratic demeanor. George encouraged his children to value their Mohawk and English heritage. However, despite being legally considered Mohawk, the children were not recognized within the tribe’s matrilineal kinship system, which excluded them from significant aspects of Mohawk culture. Pauline’s Native American and European identities shaped Pauline as a writer and performer who sought to reconcile her cultural roots.
In fragile health, Pauline Johnson was educated primarily at home, immersing herself in literary classics such as Lord Byron, John Milton and William Shakespeare, as well as works about Native peoples such as The Song of Hiawatha. Despite racism, she and her siblings were encouraged to value their Mohawk heritage, inspired by their grandfather John Smoke Johnson, a respected storyteller.
John Smoke Johnson, or Sakayengwaraton, was a Mohawk leader in Canada. After Johnson fought for the British Crown in the War of 1812, he was honored by his tribal council as "Pine Tree Chief", a non-hereditary position. He was influential in both the Mohawk and English-speaking communities of Upper Canada.
Although she understood the Mohawk language, Emily Pauline was not fluent in it, and she later regretted this. Inspired by her grandfather's dramatic talent, she excelled in elocution and performances, using inherited artifacts, which influenced her literary and artistic output.
From 1856 to 1884, she lived in Ontario with her three siblings. She suffered from health problems as a child and, unlike other Native children, did not attend day school on the reserve. She received an Anglican education from her mother and governesses. In 1876, at the age of fourteen, he began studying at Brantford Central Collegiate and graduated in 1877.
During the 1880s, she engaged in amateur theatrical productions. In 1892, she gained notoriety when she read her poem Cry from an Indian Wife at an event at the Toronto Art School Gallery, which launched her career as a performance poet. She created a two-part act emphasizing her Native American and European heritage and toured North America with immense success.
Emily Pauline's Love Life
Emily Pauline had many suitors, receiving more than half a dozen marriage proposals from European-Canadians. Two well-known romances were with Charles R. L. Drayton in 1890 and Charles Wuerz in 1900, but she never married and had short-lived relationships. She flirted with boys in Grand River and wrote "intensely erotic" poetry. Despite her career, she was unwilling to renounce her racial heritage to please partners or family. She maintained a strong network of female friends who were essential to her life.
“Women like me more than men. None have disappointed me, and I hope I have not disappointed any of them. It is an intense pleasure to me to meet a sympathetic woman, one whom I feel will understand me and in turn let me peek into her own life—to have confidence in me, which is one of the dearest things among friends, strangers, acquaintances, or relatives.”
Writing and Poetry
Influenced by her upbringing, She began writing poetry as a teenager. Her themes were life, love, and the human condition. Her work highlighted Indigenous culture, especially that of women and children. She achieved immense success by publishing extensively in newspapers and magazines. In 1884, she published her first poem in Gems of Poetry. She then published more poems in other publications, including Toronto's The Week.
In 1895, she published her first collection of poetry, The White Wampum, followed by Canadian Born (1903) and Flint and Feather (1912). In 1911, she published Legends of Vancouver, based on stories by Squamish chief Joe Capilano. Wampum is the name given to beads made from the shells of marine mollusks, traditionally considered sacred by the Amerindian tribes of the northeastern region of the North American continent.
Lecture Tours
After her father died in 1884, when she was in her early twenties, she moved to Brantford, Ontario, with her elderly mother and sister. She faced a society with rigid gender roles and was vulnerable to poverty. Emily began writing to support herself and performing, using her performances to satirize stereotypes about Indigenous people. Using her Indigenous name, "Tekahionwake," she toured Canada, England, and the United States.
Using her Indigenous name, "Tekahionwake", she traveled throughout Canada, England, and the United States.Her work connected her Indigenous roots to Canadian audiences, emphasizing her ancestry in her performances and writings. She became popular for her recitation of patriotic poems. She would often begin her performances wearing traditional Mohawk costume and then change into Victorian dress, a strategy that propelled her success and extended her notoriety until 1909.
She later settled in Vancouver, where she wrote prose stories based on romanticized indigenous life and legends: Legends of Vancouver (1911), The Shagganappi (1913), and The Moccasin Maker (1913). Her verse was collected as Flint and Feather (1912). Her poem The Song My Paddle Sings is familiar to every Canadian schoolchild.
Pauline published 165 poems and released three collections of poetry, including Flint and Feather (1912) and The White Wampum (1895). As a journalist, she published volumes of stories such as Legends of Vancouver (1911). Her works often addressed the concerns of the Mohawk people and criticized the dehumanization of Indigenous people in Canada, although she also expressed Canadian nationalism and support for British imperialism.
Canadian Literature
Canadian literature reflects the country's dual origins and bilingualism, with works written in both English and French. Early writings were accounts of travel and exploration, with explorers such as Samuel Hearne and Alexander Mackenzie documenting their experiences with Indigenous peoples. The first Canadian novel, History of Emily Montague by Frances Brooke, was published in 1769.
The first literary flowering occurred in Halifax and Fredericton, with the Nova-Scotia Magazine as the first literary periodical, launched in 1789. From 1867, with the creation of the Dominion of Canada, literary activity increased, highlighting Confederation poets and original voices such as Isabella Valancy Crawford.
Samuel Hearne was an English explorer, fur trader, author, and naturalist. He was the first European to make an overland excursion from northern Canada to the Arctic Ocean, specifically to Coronation Gulf via the Coppermine River. Sir Alexander Mackenzie was a Scottish-Canadian explorer. Mackenzie was born in Stornoway on the Isle of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides, Scotland. In 1774 his family moved to New York and then to Montreal in 1776 because of the American Revolution.
Emily Pauline's Literary Career
In 1883, Emily Pauline published her first poem, My Little Jean, and in 1885 her poem A Cry from an Indian Wife appeared in The Week magazine, furthering her reputation. Emily promoted her Mohawk identity, although she had little direct contact with that culture. In 1886, he authored a poem for the inauguration of a statue in honor of Joseph Brant, defending brotherhood between natives and Canadians.
Joseph Brant or Thayendanegea was an Indigenous soldier and North American political leader. The young Iroquois Thayendanegea served in the Franco-English War, alongside the English under the command of the Scotsman Sir William Johnson. Thayendanegea absorbed many European influences.
Emily built her career in the 1880s, with poems in periodicals such as the Globe and Saturday Night. In 1889, two of her poems were included in the anthology Songs of the Great Dominion. The focus of her early work was on Canadian life with little emphasis on her Mohawk heritage. In 1909, after retiring from the stage, Johnson moved to Vancouver, where she continued writing.
In 1911, she published Legends of Vancouver, a collaboration with Chief Joe Capilano, the Squamish leader who inspired a century of activism. In 1906, she led a delegation of chiefs to England to meet with King Edward VII and demand justice for Indigenous peoples. After that, she traveled throughout British Columbia, speaking to other First Nations. She left a legacy of activism that lasted more than a century.
British Columbia, the westernmost province of Canada, is defined by its Pacific coast and mountain ranges. Natural areas such as Glacier National Park have hiking and biking trails, as well as camping. Whistler Blackcomb is a major ski resort that hosted the 2010 Winter Olympics. The Sea-to-Sky Highway connects Whistler to Vancouver, a city known for its film industry, on the province's border with the United States to the south.
Emily wrote about themes of mixed identity and women's issues in works such as The De Lisle Affair and The Ballad of Yaada. She discussed the social pressures faced by mixed-race women in As It Was in the Beginning. Her posthumous collections, Shagganappi and The Moccasin Maker (1913), deal with sentimental and biographical themes. Her work was collected in Paddling Her Own Canoe (2000).
Reception of Her Work
Pauline's work was distributed in periodicals, which made it difficult to preserve. Her major volumes, The White Wampum (1895) and Canadian Born (1903), were collected in Flint and Feather (1912), one of Canada's best-selling poetry books, but erroneously subtitled "complete poems" since 1917. In 2002, Carole Gerson and Veronica Strong-Boag published Tekahionwake: Collected Poems and Selected Prose, a collection of all of Emily Pauline Johnson's known works.
Although acclaimed in her lifetime, her literary reputation declined after her death until she was rediscovered in 1961. Feminist and postcolonial critics reevaluated her work in the late 20th century, highlighting its relevance to issues of race, gender, and Native rights. In the 21st century, debates about racism in her writing have reignited discussions about her complex position between Canadian patriotism and advocacy for Native rights.
Literary Influences and Criticism
Pauline Johnson's writing and performance style reflected post-Confederation Anglo-Canadian nationalism. She was one of the first poets to write about the outdoors, with some of her poems included in the anthology Songs of the Great Dominion (1889). Her mixed-race and feminine identity influenced her work, as it emerged during a period of restrictive policies toward Indigenous peoples.
Despite her literary success, Emily faced poverty and precariousness as a single, racialized woman. In sociology, racialization or ethnicization is the process of assigning racial or ethnic identities to a relationship, social practice, or group that did not identify as such.
Some historians suggest that she commercialized her Indigenous ancestry to survive, despite her disconnect with Mohawk culture and her white audience, who held racist conceptions of Indigenous people. She used criticized tropes such as the "Indian Princess" and the "Noble Savage," although she also humanized Indigenous people and criticized stereotypes in works such as A Red Girl's Reasoning.
According to these critics, she romanticized interactions between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people, but addressed issues such as racism, poverty and violence faced by natives. She also criticized the impact of Christianity on Indigenous people, balancing a critique of religious imposition with respect for the authority of the church, which reveals her complexity as a writer.
A trope is a figure of speech or rhetoric in which a change of meaning occurs, whether internal or external. In the first case, when there is only an association of ideas, it is called periphrasis; if the association of ideas is of a comparative nature, a metaphor is produced, which is the trope par excellence.
Death
Emily Pauline died of breast cancer on March 7, 1913, in Vancouver. Her funeral was the largest in the city's history, with flags flown at half-mast and offices closed in tribute to her. The memorial service, hosted by the Women's Canadian Club, was held at the Anglican Cathedral, and attended by people from Squamish, Canada. Her ashes were buried in Stanley Park, near Siwash Rock, with the help of the Governor General. Some of the royalties from Legends of Vancouver were donated to the First World War.
Posthumous Honors
In 1922, although she wished for an unmarked grave, a monument was erected in honor of her, in Vancouver's Stanley Park. In 1945, she was designated a Person of National Historic Significance. In 1953, her childhood home, Chiefswood, was preserved as a museum. In 1961, on the centennial of her birth, a commemorative stamp was created as the first woman and Indigenous Canadian to be so honored. Between 1967 and 2004, several schools were named in her honor.
In 2010, actor Donald Sutherland read one of Emily's poems at the opening of the Winter Olympics in Vancouver. In 2014, the opera Pauline, about her life, was performed. In 2015, an adaptation of five poems by Timothy Corlis was created. In 2016, her name was a finalist for tributes on Canadian banknotes.
Legacy
In 1997, Hartmut Lutz’s research highlighted the importance of the 1960s for Canadian Indigenous literature, especially with the release of Son of Raven, Son of Deer by George Clutesi, a Tseshaht artist, actor, and writer, as well as an expert and ambassador for all Canadian First Nations culture.
The Tseshaht First Nation is an amalgamation of many tribes up and down the Alberni Inlet and in the Alberni Valley of central Vancouver Island in the Canadian province of British Columbia. They are members of the Nuu-chah-nulth Tribal Council, which includes all other Nuu-chah-nulth-aht peoples except the Pacheedaht First Nation.
A pivotal figure in Indigenous literature, Emily Pauline Johnson, continues to influence Native writers. Beth Brant noted that Emily “cleared the brush” for future generations. Her influence is visible in works by Joan Crate, Jeannette Armstrong, and Shelley Niro, and her impact echoes in contemporary artists such as Rosanna Deerchild.
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