Description
Tekahionwake: E Pauline Johnson's Writings on Native North America edited by English professors Margery Fee and Dory Nason have assembled an anthology of poems, fiction, and nonfiction about the so-called Indigenous question as it was examined in the nineteenth century and early twentieth centuries. Emily Pauline Johnson, also known as Tekahionwake, is remarkable as one of a very few early North American Indigenous poets and fiction writers. Most Indigenous writers of her time were men educated for the ministry who published religious, anthropological, autobiographical, political, and historical works, rather than poetry and fiction. More extraordinary still, Johnson became both a canonical poet and a literary celebrity, performing on stage for fifteen years across Canada, in the United States, and in London. Johnson is now seen as a central figure in the intellectual history of Canada and the US, and an important historical example of Indigenous feminism. The volume is organized by themes such as The Iroquois Confederacy and Loyalism; The Plains and the Second Riel Resistance; Dreams, Rivers, and Winds; Women and Children; Residential School; and The West Coast. The editors have included four appendices including contemporary news articles about Johnson's appearances and writings; writings about women; writings about Six Nations (Including Duncan Campbell Scott's poem, The Onondaga Madonna; Ely S. Parker / Donehogawa, Speech at the Ceremony to Re-inter Red Jacket; and Arthur C. Parker, “Certain Important Elements of the Indian Problem,” American Indian Magazine, 1915). This volume encourages Canadian students and teachers to examine the works of English/Mohawk poet in terms of identity and worldview. Recommended