The White Wampum (1895) is the debut poetry collection of E.
Pauline Johnson. Originally published in London, The White Wampum
launched her career as one of Canada's most distinguished artists.
Revered as one the foremost indigenous poets of her time, Johnson
was a prolific writer whose works explored her Mohawk heritage
while shedding light on the racism and persecution faced by
indigenous peoples across North America. The White Wampum captures
Johnson's range as a poet in tune with the Romantic tradition
without erasing her dualistic sense of identity as a woman of
Mohawk and English heritage. Choosing to emphasize the former,
Johnson, who also went by Tekahionwake, her great-grandfather's
name, adopts the persona of a Mohawk wife devoted to her husband, a
powerful warrior: "I am Ojistoh, I am she, the wife / Of him whose
name breathes bravery and life / And courage to the tribe that
calls him chief. / I am Ojistoh, his white star, and he / Is land,
and lake, and sky-and soul to me." When members of the rival Huron
tribe capture Ojistoh, their plan for retribution fails to account
for her own strength and willpower. Outnumbered and unarmed, she
remains certain she will return to her husband alive. In "The
Camper," Johnson invokes the beauty and simplicity of life on the
plains, erasing for a moment all distinction between man and god,
heaven and earth: "Night neath the northern skies, lone, black, and
grim: / Nought but the starlight lies twixt heaven, and him. / Of
man no need has he, of God, no prayer; / He and his Deity are
brothers there." With a beautifully designed cover and
professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of E. Pauline
Johnson's The White Wampum is a classic of Canadian literature
reimagined for modern readers.
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