Schoolcraft’s Ojibwa Lodge Stories: Life on the Lake Superior Frontier

In addition to his published works, Henry Schoolcraft presented some of his Indian knowledge to a select public in the odd form of manuscript magazines. Although now almost unknown, except to a few bibliographers, these magazines were, in their day, widely circulated among students of Indian culture. The most informative of them was the Literary Voyager prepared weekly by Schoolcraft at Sault Ste. Marie during the winter of 1826-27.

This magazine, which Schoolcraft later gave the subtitle, Muzzeniegun, an Ojibwa word meaning a printed document or book, contained articles, poems, and announcements on all aspects of Native American life and customs. The subjects included historic Indian battles, ceremonies, superstitions, burials, fur trade, war chants and songs, totems, the effect of alcohol upon Indians, and the intertribal war between the Ojibwa and Sioux. Of particular interest are the biographical sketches of prominent Native American leaders, including Waub Ojeeg or the White Fisher, the famous war chief at LaPointe; and Shing-a-ba-wossin, head of the Ojibwa band living along the St. Marys River.

Schoolcraft presented for the first time in the Literary Voyager some of the lodge stories that he himself collected and for which he later gained national recognition.