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  • The Sound the Stars Make Rushing Through the Sky: The Writings of Jane Johnston Schoolcraft
  • Patrick Russell LeBeau (bio)
Robert Dale Parker , ed. The Sound the Stars Make Rushing Through the Sky: The Writings of Jane Johnston Schoolcraft. Philadelphia: U of Pennsylvania P, 2007. ISBN: 978-0-8122-1969-2. 292 pp.

In this edited volume of the writings of Jane Johnston Schoolcraft, Robert Dale Parker provides us with an invaluable gift. I say "gift" not only because Parker brings to all of us a collection of writings that have been heretofore unknown to most of us but also because he makes every effort to present Schoolcraft's writings in their original forms. He includes multiple versions and variations along with detailed annotations that identify the original text or texts of each entry, comment on the use of words and phrases, and, in some cases, identify words deleted or changed. These annotations, at times, are mini-essays unto themselves. In this way, Parker leaves a deeply embedded set of tracks that even the novice hunter can follow to fruitful gain. In addition, he writes an informative and carefully crafted five-part contextual essay. At the end of the book are five appendixes; the most important are the first, "Sources and Editorial Procedures," and the fourth, "Misattributions and Potential Misattributions," which press those tracks, those imprints, even further into the pliable mud of the game trail. I do not find this often, but I found the table of contents and index very useful and complete. In these many ways, Parker has given the reader an honest and open transcription of Schoolcraft's writings while placing his own scholarly essays and comments clearly on the side, refreshingly absent of appropriation and negation of the Indian source. This is clearly shown on the front cover when you see two versions of the author's [End Page 98] name, "The Sound the Stars Make Rushing through the Sky," her Ojibwa name translated into English, and her Christian name, "Jane Johnston Schoolcraft," while "Robert Dale Parker" appears only once and with "edited by" preceding it, making clear who wrote this book.

With this in mind, when I first held the book in my hand, I jumped over Parker's introduction and sought out Schoolcraft's writings, and I immediately fell in love with her poetry. After a second reading and with help from Parker's contextual essay and annotations, I marveled at Schoolcraft's skill and expertise in Euroamerican literary forms and at how she used these forms to preserve and transmit Ojibwa cultural and personal knowledge. (To be clear, I read the whole book in this order: "Writings," "Introduction," "Writings" with the "Annotations," and finally "Appendixes.") On an emotional level, as I read Schoolcraft's writings and Parker's contextual history and his sensitive and thoughtful interpretations, a joy of creation and spiritual fulfillment emerged from the writings, and a profound sense of artistic freedom—free from the pressures of publication and careerism, a freedom to experiment with personal, familial, and cultural subject matters without scrutiny and criticism—revealed itself on the written page.

As the first-known Indian literary writer (and poet) and all those other "firsts" listed on page 2 of Parker's introduction, Schoolcraft takes command of the English language for her own purposes. Rather than looking at how Western civilization influences Indians, Schoolcraft's writings show how Indians influence Euroamericans, for Henry Wadsworth Longfellow could not have found some of his sources of inspiration without reading what Schoolcraft wrote. What becomes clear is that new literary tools were and are available to Western-educated Indian people, and many could use these tools to find a new life for story, song, and tradition. In one way of interpretation, the power of the Indian story finds a way of surviving to teach and impress readers and listeners in future contexts and places, never losing the thread and kernel of the original but nevertheless transformed by the personal and by carefully crafted literary forms. [End Page 99]

For me, because of the many familiar images and references, the power of the Indian story and the connection to land is best illustrated...

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