You can locate materials in the Schoolcraft Collection of books in Indigenous Languages in a few different ways:  

• Books in the collection are listed and described in the Athenaeum’s Online Catalog. The materials are co-located by the heading Schoolcraft Collection of Books in Indigenous Languages. You can search using this phrase to limit your results to items that are formally part of the collection.
  
• Digitized versions of these books are available through our Digital Collections website. You can browse the entire collection or limit your search using the available tools.
• The books are also listed in the Henry Rowe Schoolcraft collection: a catalogue of books in Native American languages in the Library of the Boston Athenaeum (1991). Please note that this bibliography is dated in its terminology and contains some errors. It also describes works that are not part of the core Schoolcraft collection.

The Terminology section of this guide provides an overview of language and group terms found within the collection, as well as a list of names of Indigenous contributors to the creation of these materials. You can search for these terms alone or in combination with subject or genre terms to locate relevant materials in the catalog or on the digital collections pages.

Locating Similar Materials

The Schoolcraft Collection is a discrete collection of materials that were owned by Henry Rowe Schoolcraft, but they are not the only materials in Indigenous languages in the Boston Athenaeum’s collections. To find similar materials, use the terms from this guide (without the collection name) when searching the full library catalog or broader digital collections. You can also look in a useful record for other creators, genres, or subjects and click the links to discover related materials efficiently.

The following terms may be used when referring to this collection:

Indigenous:

An umbrella term used to identify any people who are native to a particular place. This term may be used to acknowledge relationships between Native peoples, indicate solidarity, or refer to global Indigeneity.

Native American: 

Term used in the United States to refer to Indigenous peoples of the United States.

First Nations: 

Term used in Canada to refer to Indigenous peoples of Canada.

Knowledges: 

Used to refer to the multiplicity of Indigenous ways of knowing among communities and across disciplines.

The following Indigenous names may be found within the Schoolcraft collection. Names denoted with a (*) are considered outdated and not the names the Native communities call themselves.

The following list contains Indigenous contributors who are connected to the materials in the Schoolcraft collection. This list came out of research by Sage Innerarity as well as the Athenaeum’s cataloging team and will be updated as others may come to light.

Hidden Contributor: Jane Johnston Schoolcraft

Bamewawagezhikaquay (Jane Johnston Schoolcraft), was a bilingual Ojibwekwe and prolific writer of literature, poetry, and history and an essential contributor to Henry Rowe Schoolcraft’s work. The daughter of Ojibwekwe Ozhaguscodaywayquay and Irish fur trader John Johnston, she was raised in Bawating (Sault Ste. Marie) on the upper peninsula of Michigan Territory. In 1823, she married Henry Rowe Schoolcraft, the newly appointed U.S. Indian Agent for the Michigan Territory. Their marriage provided Schoolcraft with access to a large network of information and Anishinaabeg, on whom he frequently relied upon for diplomatic and political service such as translation, travel guidance, and hospitality. Bamewawagezhikaquay shared Ojibwe language, culture, stories, and histories with Schoolcraft. His government, ethnographic, and collecting work would not have been possible without her.

While Bamewawagezhikaquay does not appear in the catalog records for the Schoolcraft Collection, her contributions were essential to its development. 

Throughout the nineteenth century, Indigenous people faced increasing violence and disenfranchisement by the federal government, culminating in the 1887 Dawes Act, which required Indigenous people to prove their assimilation to retain basic rights. During a time when Native people were viewed as “uncivilized,” the act of writing was a powerful way to take ownership of knowledge production by recording their languages, cultural traditions, and community narratives.

Print culture during this period played an essential role in sharing ideas, navigating shifting landscapes, and ensuring the survival of language and knowledge for generations to come.

Cherokee Hymns, Park Hill: Mission Press, 1844

This translation of Cherokee Hymns was published just five years after Cherokee removal to Oklahoma. Cherokee printer John Candy began his career in 1835 as a printing apprentice at the New Echota Mission Press, a role created specifically for a Cherokee person to gain expertise in printing at the direction of the Cherokee National Council. On the title page, Candy’s name appears alone, crediting him as the sole printer of this text. What may appear as a small detail actually marks a historic moment in Indigenous print history: Cherokee Hymns was the first instance in which a Cherokee printer received sole credit. In this way, Candy asserted his mastery of the printing press, fulfilling the National Council’s goal of fostering Cherokee printing expertise.

Contributors:

Elias Boudinot (Cherokee,  –1839), translator
John Candy (Cherokee, ca. 1806–1868), printer
Samuel Austin Worcester (non-Indigenous, 1798–1859), translator

Anpao: The Day Break, 1878

In circulation from 1878 until 1937, Anpao or The Daybreak was a Lakota language publication that featured articles from local contributors. This periodical was published by Christian missionaries, but it offered space for Lakota and Dakota audiences to read and share opinion pieces, obituaries, current events, and pressing community issues in their languages. Anpao was edited by William T. Selwyn (Yankton Lakota), who also worked as an interpreter, census taker, and agent of the U.S. military, reflecting the complex relationships between Indigenous and colonial communities that shaped these publications. 

Native people were not just contributors; they were also actively involved in shaping the quality, content, and integrity of publications like Anpao. These publications served as a space for cultural continuity and a freedom of expression that was essential to their survivance. Anpao and other Indigenous-language newspapers not only allowed communities to breathe life into their languages, but also to communicate values and ideas that could not necessarily be communicated using English.

Contributor:

William T. Selwyn (Yankton Sioux), editor

The Assembly’s Shorter Catechism, Stockbridge, Massachusetts: 1818

These catechisms were translated into the Mohican language by Hendrick Aupaumut and John Quinney, two central figures among Stockbridge Mohican people during the Revolutionary War and in early diplomatic relations with the United States. Captain Aupaumut led a Mohican company in the Revolutionary War alongside colonial forces to establish diplomatic relations between Mohicans and the colonial government. After the war, however, he returned to find that his village of Stockbridge had not been spared devastation, starvation, and displacement by white settlers. Aupaumut continued his efforts to negotiate between the U.S. and the United Indian Nations, recruiting Quinney as a trusted advisor. Both Aupaumut and Quinney recognized the essential role of education and literacy at an uncertain moment for the future of Mohican-U.S. relations.

Contributors:

John Quinney (Mohican, 1797–1855)
Captain Hendrick Aupaumut (Mohican, ca. 1757–1830), translators