Fonds 89-013 - Pauline Johnson collection

Emily Pauline Johnson (Tekahionwake--double wampum) was born in 1861 on the Six Nations Indian Reservation near Brantford, Canada West, to a Mohawk Chief, G.H.M. Johnson (Chief Owanonsyshon--the Man with the Big House) and Emily S. Howells. She had one sister, Evelyn Helen C. and two brothers; Henry B. and Allan W. The family belonged to the Church of England. Pauline contributed constantly to a number of periodicals such as Toronto's Saturday Night, Harper's Weekly, the New York Independent and other magazines. She was a poet who wrote about Indigenous ways of life as she knew it from her own background. (Taken from: 89-013, Box 1) She wrote about a number of Canadian themes and between 1892 and 1910 she gave a number of speaking tours across the country. She spoke at small communities where she read her poetry. Her first collection of poems was called White Wampum and it was published in 1895. She then published Canadian Born in 1903, Flint and Feather in 1912, a volume of tales called Legends of Vancouver in 1911 and a novel titled The Shagganappi in 1913. Emily Pauline Johnson died March 7, 1913 in Vancouver. (Taken from: The Canadian Encyclopedia. Edmonton: Hurtig Publishers, 1985.)