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· 93 · EditorialNote [to the current edition] As a token of sincere appreciation, I Pokagon hereby inscribe Queen of the Woods to all societies and individuals—benefactors of our race—who have so bravely stood for our rights, while poisoned arrows of bitter prejudice flew thick and fast about them, boldly declaring to all the world that the white man and the red man are brothers, and that God is the father of all. —Simon Pokagon, original 1899 dedication Simon Pokagon made it clear in his original dedication that QUEEN of the Woods is a novel of racial politics.The goal of this new edition is to represent the story and subject as they connect to contemporary culture. An introduction and essays have been added to contextualize the narrative, and minor editorial steps have been taken to make the work as readable as possible. However, the primary aim of the reprint is the same as the original: to allow Simon Pokagon to address the racism of his time, and to invite readers to consider the issue. The publisher’s preface in the first printing describes Queen of the Woods as “a real romance of Indian life.” The implication that reality is romanticized is an accurate description of Pokagon’s blend of autobiography and historic fiction. According to publisher C. H. Engle, “nearly all the persons mentioned in the narrative bear their real names, and were personally known to many yet living.”Yet Engle carefully adds,“in all cases · 94 · Editorial Note to the Current Edition where fictitious names are used, or where the names of persons spoken of are omitted from the narrative,it was purposely done by the author,out of regard for friends and relatives who now occupy the places where certain tragic events occurred.” Members of the Pokagon Band of Potawatomi still occupy these places and, despite constant and ongoing attempts at assimilation, continue to protect and preserve their sovereign identity. Reading Queen of the Woods today provides rare insight into native life in the late nineteenth century,and it also connects names and events of the past to current debates over land, language, rights, and religion. Pokagon’s original intent was “that the white man and the red man might be brought into closer sympathy with each other.”Although Engle wrote,“the author has studiously avoided,as far as consistent,all such acts of seeming cruelty as might tend to increase existing prejudice between the two races,” it could be argued from today’s perspective that many of the historical events related in the story document a systematic attempt to perpetrate cultural and linguistic genocide. Forced removal, racist policies, and dysfunctional economic and health systems are as much a part of the narrative as the love story and family tragedy. Pokagon wrote carefully and subversively, within the restrictions of his time, to claim both literal and figurative space for his people. He “bore in mind the children of this broad land, with the ardent wish that the prejudice against his race, which has been so thoroughly instilled in their young minds by stories told in the home, and taught in the schools through incorrect histories, might in the future be overcome.” Pokagon wanted readers to understand the woods, and people who lived there, along the shores of Lake Michigan, as equals. His prefatory poem offers further evidence of this sentiment: Is not the red man’s wigwam home As dear to him as costly dome? Is not his loved ones’ smile as bright As the dear ones of the man that’s white? Freedom—this selfsame freedom you adore— Bade him defend his violated shore. In defense of the “violated shore,” the aim of this edition is to make Simon Pokagon’s work accessible to modern readers. To ensure that his Editorial Note to the Current Edition· 95 · ideas are readable to the widest possible audience of Native American literature and linguistics, this contemporary critical version has been lightly edited to apply some of the standards used by speakers of Algonquian languages today. At one time the Potawatomi,Ojibwe,and Odawa people shared a single well documented language across the trade and cultural routes of the Great Lakes.The language is most commonly referred to as Anishinaabemowin today, but that term is often also interchanged with the ethnicity of the speakers.Over time dialectal differences developed as communities became smaller and were more secluded culturally and economically.The language changed as a result of colonization,relocation,and...

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