Pragmatics 5:2.167 -183.
International Pragmatics Association

REPRESENTING NATIVE AMERICAN ORAL NARRATIVE:
THE TEXTUAL PRACTICES OF HENRY ROWE SCHOOLCRAFTI

R i c h a r d  B a u m a n

The burgeoning philological researches of the nineteenth century established the
foundations not only for the scholarly production of languages, but also for the
production of a significant class of texts, specifically, texts gathered from oral
tradition under the aegis of the developing field of folklore. In Europe, the twin
linguistic and folkloristic labors of the Brothers Grimm exerted a formative influence
on conceptions of both language and folktales, but while the revolutionary
significance of Jakob Grimm's Deutsche Grammatik is well known to linguists, the
Grimms' textual practices figure not at all in standard histories of linguistics.
Nevertheless, the increasing centrality of narrative textuality to a number of
contemporary lines of linguistic inquiry, including discourse analysis, conversational
analysis, pragmatics, ethnopoetics, and performance-centered study of verbal art,
suggests that conceptions of narrative textuality and the metadiscursive practices
that have been employed in identifying, recording, extracting, and interpreting oral
narrative texts are worthy of linguists' attention as well. Charles Briggs has recently
offered an illuminating analysis of the Grimms' textual practices and the rhetorics
they employed in support of those practices (1993). Briggs's investigation is part of
a loint project in which he and I are engaged, centering on poetics and performance
in linguistics, linguistic anthropology, folklore, and adjacent disciplines (see Bauman
and Briggs 1990; Briggs and Bauman 1992; Briggs 1993). The present paper is
intended as a complement to Briggs's investigation of the Brothers Grimm,
examining a similarly formative moment in the Americanist tradition, namely, the
work of Henry Rowe Schoolcraft (17%-f864), whose career was roughly
contemporaneous with that of the Grimms.2

Schoolcraft is accorded by intellectual historians a status similar to that of the
Grimms as founding ancestor of folklore and anthropology. A.I. Hallowell has
observed that "Historically viewed, Schoolcraft was a pioneer in the collection of the

' An initial draft of this essay was writtcn <luring my tenure as a Fellow of the Center for
Advanccd Study in the Behavioral Sciences, Stanford, California, with the support of funds from the
Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. I am deeply grateful to the Center and the Foundation for this
support. Thanks also to Don Brcnneis, Charles Briggs, Susan Gal, Bill Hanks, Michael Silverstein,
and Kit Woolard for their helpful comments on an earlier version of the paper, delivered at the 1993
Annual Meeting of thc American Anthropological Association; I have benefited greatly from their
help.

2 Concerning Schoolcraft's life and career, see Bieder (1986), Bremer (1987), Freeman
(1959), Marsdan (197 6).

DOI: 10.1075/prag.5.2.06bau 



168 Richard Bauntan

folklore of any non-literate people anywhere in the world" (1946: 137); Rosemary
Zumwalt has called him "the first scholar of American Indian culture to collect and
analyze a large body of Indian folklore" (1978: 44); and W.K. McNeil credits him
with being "the man generally recognized as.the father of American folklore and
anthropology" (1992: 1). As with the Grimms, critics are divided or ambivalent
concerning the scholarly validity of Schoolcraft's work. Some, like Stith Thompson,
are strongly negative: "ultimately, the scientific value of his work is marred by the
manner in which he reshaped the stories to suit his own literary taste. Several of his
tales, indeed, are distorted almost beyond recognition" (1929: xv). The vocabulary
and rhetoric here are strikingly similar to some of the assessments of the Grimms
cited in Briggs's article. Others, like Zumwalt and William Clements, credit many
of Schoolcraft's pronounced methodological principles, but fault him for his lack of
adherence to those principles in practice (Zumwalt 1978:49; Clements 1990: 181).
Finally, like the Grimms, Schoolcraft's statements concerning textual practice are
framed centrally in terms of a rhetoric of authenticity and the the problematics of
intertextual relations.

Schoolcraft's first encounter with Ojibwa oral narrative occurred within weeks
of his arrival at Sault Ste. Marie in early July of 1822 as newly appointed Indian
agent for the Michigan Territory. Eager from the beginning to learn about his
charges, he was initially frustrated by having to rely on traders and interpreters who
were disappointingly ignorant concerning the fine points of the native languages and
incapable of managing his more subtle inquiries into the "secret beliefs and
superstitions" of the Indians (Schoolcraft 1851a: 106)" When he moved into the
home of John Johnston and his family, however, a week and a half after arriving at
his post, a new world was opened to him. Johnston was a highly successful and
respected Indian trader, Irish-born but of long experience on the frontier, and
married to an Ojibwa woman of high status and political influence. Their children,
bridging both cultures, were accomplished individuals, one of whom became
Schoolcraft's wife. I will deal with the Johnston family turther below, but suffice it
to say here that they provided a privileged vantage point for Schoolcraft on Ojibwa
language and culture.

Two weeks after entering the Johnston household, Schoolcraft recorded his
exciting and energizing discovery of the existence of oral narratives among the
Indians, revealed to him by his hosts:

Nothing has surprised me more in the conversations which I have had with persons
acquainted with the Indian customs and character, than to find that the Chippewas amuse
themselvs with oral tales of a mythological or allegorical character....The fact, indeed, of
such a fund of fictitious legendary matter is quite a discovery, and speaks more for the
intellect of the race than any trait I havc heard. Who would have imagined that these
wandering foresters should have possessed such a resource? (185la: 109)

The sense of importance surrounding this discovery never left Schoolcraft; he saw
it as being at the same time the basis of a major contribution to knowledge that
would enhance his scholarly reputation, a matter of interest to his patron, Governor
Cass, who encouraged his further inquiries as a basis for the formulation of a
national Indian policy, and a point of entry into Ojibwa culture more broadly
(Schoolcraft 1839: 17). Especially significantly, the existence of oral storytelling
among the Indians was for Schoolcraft the key to their essential humanity; it



Representing Natit,e American oral nanative 769

transformed his vision of who they were:

That the lndians should possess this mental trait of indulging in lodge stories, impressed me
as a novel characteristic, which nothing I had ever heard of the race had prepared me for.
I had always heard the Indian spoken of as a revengef'ul, bloodthirsty man, who was steeled
to endurance and delighted in deeds of cruelty. To find him a man capable of feelings and
affections, with a heart open to the wants, and responsive to the ties of social life, was
amazing. But the surprise reached its acme, when I found him whiling away a part of the
tedium of his long winter evenings in relating tales and legends for the lodge circle. (185la:
196)

One of the significant implications of this sense of discovery was that Schocllcraft
felt a lack of models and precedents to guide his collection, understanding, and
rendering of these materials for dissemination to a wider audience. He was eager
to get the word out concerning his discovery, but how? What were these tales?
What was their significance? Who would be interested? In effect, Schoolcraft felt
that he had to start from scratch in gathering the narratives, understanding their
nature, meaning, and significance, identifuing and engaging a public, and making his
discovery available and comprehensible to this audience. All of these factors had a
formative effect on his textual practice.

As regards Schoolcraft's understanding of the nature of Indian narratives, he
conceived of them simultaneously and in varying degrees and combinations as
literary forms and ethnological data. Schoolcraft himself employed the term
"literary" repeatedly in his writings in referring to his narrative materials (e.g. 1839:
iii; 1851a:254,631), but it is necessary in developing this point to specify what
"literary" implied for Schoolcraft and his readers.3 First of all, "literary" meant, in
its most general sense, "to be read." Insofar as literacy and access to books were tied
to particular social strata, serving as a touchstone of bourgeois attainment, "literary"
also carried a dimension of moral meaning, as implyingpolite learning, marked by
standards of taste. decorum. and refinement that needed to be cultivated in the
process of literary production. This element will figure significantly at a later point
in my consideration of Schoolcraft's textual practice. At the same time, in the period
comprehended by Schoolcraft's career, "literary" was connected as well with a
heightening awareness of authorship, of literary works as intellectual property,
commodities oriented to a growing bookselling market. This too will receive further
attention later in the paper.

Finally, during the first half of the nineteenth century, the term "literary"
came increasingly to designate creative, imaginative, aesthetically shaped works, and
this sense of the term also marks Schoolcraft's usage. For example, he remarks on
the "poetic" quality of the Indian narratives (e.g. 182.5: 409; 1839: iii), not a matter
of verse, but of aesthetic properties, as the narratives are rendered as prose and
distinguished from "measured songs or pcetry" (1825: 427). That he conceived of
them more particularly as nanative literature is amply attested by his pervasive - if
loose - employment of such generic labels as "tale," "legend," and "story," and his

3 I a* grateful to Michael Silverstein for pointing out to me the need to elucidate the
meanings that "literary" carried in Schoolcraft's writings. My discussion draws centrally from Williams
( 1 9 8 3 : 1 8 3 - 1 8 8 ) .



170 Richartt Bauntan

references to "narration" (1839: I7)., "narrators" (1839: 17; 1851a: 216), and
"narrated" (1848: 130) in describing their provenience. In addition to their poetic
qualities, a further dimension of Schoolcraft's conception of the Indian narratives
as literature in this more marked sense of the term is revealed by his repeated
reference to their "imaginative" and "f-anciful" qualities (1825: 403,4091'1839: 15, 17:
1848: 68; 1851a: 709,678; 1853:3I4), which is to say that they were, for the most
p a r t ,  " f i c t i t i o u s "  ( 1 8 3 9 :  i i i ;  1 8 5 i a :  1 0 9 ,  1 9 6 ) ;  1 8 5 I b : 2 1 6 ; 1 8 5 3 :  3 1 3 ) .  I t  i s  t h i s  l a s t
cluster of meanings that warrants Schoolcraft's use of the compound term, "oral
literature." Schoolcraft was to my knowledge, one of the earliest scholars to employ
the designation "oral literature" in relation to these forms of verbal art; he may, in
fact, have coined the term. An early entry in his journal, dated September 27,1822,
bears the heading "Oral Literature of the Indians" (1851a: 120). Whether this
heading appeared in the original journal orwas added for publication in 1851 we
cannot know, but the term is also employed in his 1848 volume, Tlrc Indian in His
Wigwam, or Characteistics of the Red Race of Ameicn. It is worth remarking that
from the vantage point of the first sense of "literary" of-tbred above, that is, "to be
read," "oral literature" is an oxymoron; it becomes intelligible to the extent that
"literary" designates primarily poetic, imaginative, creative works. Indeed, the tension
encapsulated in the term "oral literature" highlights some of the most salient
problems Schoolcraft had to contiont in tbrmulating and implementing his textual
practices.

At the same time that Schoolcraft conceived of the Indian tales as literature,
he recognized them trom the beginning of his inquiries as privileged sources of
insight into the lndians' culture. In his first publication of Indian narratives, the
subject matter of the final chapter of his Travels in tlrc Central Portiorts of the
Missksippi Valley (1825, hereafter Travels), Schoolcraft prefaces a narrative entitled
"The Funeral Fire" with a statement that makes clear the close interrelationship
between narrative and custom (or tradition):

For several nights after the interment of a person, a fire is placed upon the grave....The
following tale is related as showing the origin of this custom. It will at once be perceived
that thcir traditions and fictions are intimately blcnded. It would be impossible to decide
whether the custom existed prior to the talc, or the tale has been invcnted to suit the
custom. We may suppose that thcir customs and imaginative tales have alternately acted
as cause and effcct. (1U25: 40.1)

The realization that Indian belief and custom were accessible through their
narratives was for Schoolcraft an exciting and significant breakthrough.o His early
attempts to obtain such ethnological infbrmation by more direct inquiry were
notably unsuccessful, a prclblem he attributed variclusly to misapprehension, evasion,
and "restlessness, suspicion, and mistrust of motive" on the part of the Indians and
the inadequacie s of his early interpreters ( 1851a: 106; 1856: xv). But when he turned

* It is worth noting here the correspon<lence between Schoolcraft's cliscovery and the
Herderian program, rooted in mid-seventcenth-century classical and biblical philolory, of looking
to folklore forms as sourc€s of insight into culture. The centrality' of this strategy to Americanist
anthropolory in the tradition established by Powell and Boas underscorcs the importance of
Schoolcraft as intellectual precursor.



Representing Native American oral nanative 17I

his attention to the narratives, the veil of secrecy was lifted. Indeed, this rhetoric of
revelation, of bringing secrets to light, pervades Schoolcraft's framing of his Indian
tales throughout his career. "Hitherto," he writes, "lndian opinion, on abstract
subjects, has been a sealed book" (1856: xv). In the tales, however, "the Indian mind
unbends itself and reveals some of its less obvious traits" (1851b: 216). The
narratives

furnish illustrations of Indian character and opinion on subjects which the ever-cautious and
suspicious minds of the people have, herctofore, concealed. They reflect him as he is. The
show us what he believes, hopes, fears, wishes, expccts, worships, lives for, dies for. They are
always true to thc Indian manners and customs, opinions and theories. They never rise
above them; they never sink below them. ...Othcr sources of information depict his exterior
habits and outer garb and deportment; but in these legends and myths, we perceive the
interior man, and are made cognizant of the secret workings of his mind, and heart, and
s o u l .  ( 1 8 5 6 :  v i i ;  s e e  a l s o  1 8 4 8 :  6 8 ;  1 8 5 1 a :  1 9 6 )

Ultimately, Schoolcraft believed that the "chief value" of the tales lies in "the insight
they give into the dark cave of the Indian mind - its beliefs, dogmas, and
opinions--its secret modes of turning over thought - its real philosophy," and he
considered that his revelation of these aspects of Indian lit-e constituted the basis for
t h e  l a s t i n g  i m p o r t a n c e  o f  h i s  w o r k  ( 1 8 5 1 a : 6 5 5 ;  s e e  a l s o  1 8 5 1 a :  5 8 5 ) .

Schoolcraft's dual conception of Ojibwa narratives as simultaneously literary
torms and ethnological data ramifies throughout his statements concerning his
textual practices. The first of these is a revealing footnote from Schoolcraft's first
major publication of Indian narratives, in the concluding chapter of his Travels
(1825: 409):

These tales have been taken from the oral relation of the Chippewas, at the Sault of St.
Mary, the ancient seat of that nation. Written down at the moment, and consequently in
haste, no opportunity for literary refinement was presented; and after the lapse of some
timc, we have not judged it expedicnt to make any material alterations in the language
adopted, while our impressions were fresh. A literal adherence to the sense of the original,
to the simplicity of the narration, and, in many instances, to the peculiar mode of expression
of the Indians, is thus preserved, while the order of the incidents is throughout strictly the
same. Our collections on this subject are extensive. We do not feel assured that the
selcctions herc given present a just specimen of their merits - particularly in relation to the
poetical machinery or invention of the Indians.

In this passage, we may observe clearly the play of meanings that shaped
Schoolcraft's understanding of the Indian tales as literary. Note, for example, the
coupling of "literary" with "refinement," suggesting that taking down the tales in
writing was not sufficient to render them fully literary, for which further refining
work was necessary. Writing down the tales makes them available for reading, but
literary refinement distances them from their original oral qualities of expression.
Even unrefined, however, they remain literary insofar as they are the products of
"the poetical machinery" and "invention" of the Indians. The passage testifies to the
difficulty Schoolcraft experienced in reconciling these various dimensions of the
tales' literariness. We are immediately struck in this passage by Schoolcraft's effort
to minimize the intertextual gap between the texts he has presented and "the oral
relation of the Chippewas." What is emphasized here is freshness, immediacy,



1 7 2 Richard Baunnn

directness, preservation, adherence to an original, while the potential distancing
effect of textual "alterations" is explicitly disclaimed.

Now, while it is clear that Schoolcraft had ample opportunity to experience
storytelling directly, it is equally clear that his narrative materials did not come to
him in as unmediated a fashion as this passage might suggest. Certainly,
Schoolcraft's own observations of Indian storytelling constitute one of the chief
bases tor the rhetoric of revelation and authenticity that marks his presentation of
the Indian tales. For example, in contrasting the public and tormal demeanor of
Indians "before a mixed assemblage of white men" with their more relaxed manner
in their own villages, "away from all public gaze," Schoolcraft writes, "Let us follow
the man to this retreat, and see what are his domestic manners, habits, and
opinions." He continues, "I have myself visited an Indian csrTlp, in the far-off area
of the NORTHWEST, in the dead of winter, under circumstances suited to allay his
suspicions," and then goes on to describe a sociable occasion of storytelling (1851b:
184; see also 1851a: 109). It is such direct experiences that allow Schoolcrafi to
discover and reveal the secrets of Indian life, including the grand discovery of their
storytelling. "It requires observation on real life," he insists, "to be able to set a true
estimate on things" (185la: 138), an early appeal to the authority of fieldwork, with
all its rigors and remoteness and claims to privileged access to the real stuff. And,
of course, the magnification of his own role in the gathering of these significant
materials was quite consistent with his lifelong concern tor his scholarly reputation
(see, e.9., 185la: 639, 655, 672,, 703).

While we do not have direct information concerning the circumstances under
which three of the four tales presented in Travels were collected, we do know the
source of one of the narratives, "Gitshee Gauzinee" (1825: 410-412). This tale,
recounting a dream-vision of an Ojibwa chief relating to burial practices, was part
of the repertoire of John Johnston, Schoolcraft's father-in-law, to whom it was
earlier told by Gitshee Gauzinee himself (McKenney 7827:370; for fuller discussion,
see Bauman 1993). While Johnston was t-luent in Ojibwa, he would undoubtedly
have recounted the narrative to Schoolcraft in English. Nevertheless, the mediation
of the story through Johnston to Schoolcraft is elided in Schoolcraft's
methodological statement, which implies that he himself recorded the tale directly
from "the oral relation of the Chippewas." I shall have more to say about
dimensions of mediation in Schoolcraft's textual practices below.

To be sure, Schoolcraft does suggest the intertextual gaps that are opened
by the twin processes of intersemiotic and interlingual translation, that is, the taking
down of the oral narratives in writing and their translation from Ojibwa into English,
in his references to the haste with which the texts were recorded and to his lack of
assurance that they adequately represent "the poetical machinery or invention of the
Indians." These problems are minimized, however, by the claim that "A literal
adherence to the sense of the original, to the simplicity of the narration, and, in
many instances, to the peculiar mode of expression of the Indians, is...preserved,
while the order of the incidents is throughout strictly the same." There is an
implication here, as well, of a form-content dift'erentiation, insofar as Schoolcraft's
statement suggests that "poetical machinery" fares less well in the translation process
than "the sense of the original" and "the order of the incidents," that is, the meaning
and the plot. This distinction assumed a still greater place in Schoolcraft's
subsequent discussions of his textual practices, cclrrelated with the dual nature of the



Representing Native Anrcican oral narrative Il3

narrative materials as literature and ethnological data.
The issues of intersemiotic and interlingual translation figure in a somewhat

more problematic way in Schoolcraft's next major collection of Indian narratives,
Algic Researches (1839), the work on which his reputation as a student of folklore
principally rests and for which he is best known beyond folklore and anthropology
because of its role as the central source of Indian lore fbr Henry Wadsworth
Longt"ellow in his composition of The Song of Hiawatha (1855). In an introductory
section entitled "Preliminary Observations on the Tales," the reader encounters
Schoolcraft's claim that his investigations of Ojibwa culture led him to the discovery
"that they possessed a story-telling faculty, and I wrclte down from their narration
a number of these fictitious tales" (1839: 17-18). As with the statement in Travels,
this assertion suggests a lack of mediation, a directness of recording, that is belied
by the historical record, for we know that Schoolcraft's Johnston kinsmen, including
prominently his wife Jane as well as his sister-in-law Charlotte and his
brothers-in-law George and William, collected a significant number of the narratives
included in Schoolcraft's collection and conveyed them to him already in writing and
in English.

l.ater in the volume, in a note immediately preceding the texts themselves,
Schoolcraft acknowledges these and other individuals for their assistance as
interpreters and translators of the narratives, though not for the actual recording of
the tales" The terms of the acknowledgment are significant: "These persons are well
versed in the respective tongues from which they have given translations; and being
residents of the places indicated, a reference to them for the authenticity of the
materials is thus brought within the means of all who desire it" (1839: 26). Here,
then, tor the first time, is an explicit indication of mediation in the text-making
process, but the recognition clf the intertextual gap opened by the need for
translation of the tales into English is framed in terrns designed to minimize its
distancing ef'fects. The linguistic competence of the translators and their residence
rn Indian country is a warrant both tclr the accuracy of their translations and for the
authenticity of the materials, a claim akin to the tieldworker's appeal to the
authority of direct contact with the source.

The matter is rendered more complex, however, by a pair of entries in
Schoolcrati's journal (published in 1851) concerning his textual practices in the
preparation of Algic Researclrcs for publication. These entries are worthy of
quotation at length. The first is dated Januarv 26, 1838:

Completed the revision o[ a body of Indian oral legcnds, collccted during many years with
labor. These oral tales show up the Indian in a new light. Their chief value consists in their
exhibition of aboriginal opinions. But, if published, incredulity will start up critics to call
the ir authcnticity in question. ...1f thcre be any literary labor which has cost me more than
usual pains, it is this. I have wecdcd out many vulgarisms. I have endeavored to restore the
simplicitv of the original stvlc. In this I havc not always fullv succeeded, and it has been
somctimes found neccssary, to avoid incongruity, to break a lcgend in two, or cut it short
o f f "  ( 1 8 5 1 a :  5 8 5 )

The second entry dates trom June 2I, 1839, after the publication of Algic
Researches:

...it is difficult for an editor to judge, from the mcre facc of the volumes, what an amount



174 Richard Baunutn

of auxiliary labor it has requircd to collect these legcnds fr the Indian wigwams. 1}ey had
to be gleaned and translated from time to time. ...They required pruning and dressing, like
wild vines in a gardcn. But they are, exclusivcly...wild vines, and not pumpings up of my own
fanry. The attempts to lop off excresccnces are not, perhaps, always happy. There might,
perhaps, have been a fuller adherence to the original language and expressions; but if sc'r,
what a world of verbiage must have been rctained. The Indians are prolix, and attach value
to many minutiae in the relation which not only does not help forward the denouement, but
is tedious and witless to the last degree. The gems of the legends - the essential points - the
invention and thought-work are ail preserved. Thcir chief value I have ever thought to
consist in the insight they give into the the dark cave of the Indian mind - its bcliefs,
dogmas, and opinions - its sccret modes of turning over thought - its real philosophy; and
i t  i s  f o r  t h i s  t r a i t  t h a t  I  b e l i e v e  p o s t e r i t y  w i l l  s u s t a i n  t h e  b o o k .  ( 1 8 5 1 a . 6 5 5 )

B o t h  o f  t h e s e  e n t r i e s ,  e s p e c i a l l y  t h e  f i r s t ,  r e v e a l  c l e a r l y  t h e  d e p t h  o f

Schoolcraft's concern that his narratives be recognized as authentic, that they not
be taken as "pumpings up of my own fancy." Tellingly, however, his anxiety on the
matter is acknowledged as the principal motivation for the intensity of the editorial
labors he has invested in the revision of the texts. These labors are enumerated in
some detail: The weeding out of vulgarisms, the restoration of the simplicity of the
style, the breaking of compound tales into two, the abbreviation of texts, the lopping
off of excrescences.

These operations open ever more widely the gap between tbrm and content.
While literary refinement remains a salient concern, Schocllcraft clearly and explicitly
assigns primary importance to the cultural content of the tales as he views them, the
"beliefs, dogmas, and opinions" which are given expression in the narratives - these
are what must be preserved. By the standards of Schoolcrati's literary aesthetic, the
tales are flawed, and any effort to achieve "a fuller adherence to the original
language and expressions" or to other formal features of native expression would
only detract from their literary appeal for his readers. Their chief flaw, in
Schoolcraft's view, lay in verbal excess - prolixity, excessive verbiage, proliferation
of minutiae, excrescences - that renders them "tedicus and witless to the last degree"
and offers nothing to the realization of the essential plot, the denouement.

To a degree, Schoolcraft saw the stylistic deficiencies of the Indian narratives
as inherent in their language itself. He noted his apprehension, for example, "that
the language generally has a strong tendencv to repetition and redundancy of forms,
and to clutter up, as it were, general ideas with particular meanings" (1851a: 141).
In a further indictment of Ojibwa morphology, he observed that "The Indian
certainly has a very pompous way of expressing a common thought. He sets about
it with an array of prefix and suffix, and polysyllabic strength, as if he were about
to crush a cob-house with a crowbar" (1851a: 151). (This is certainly in striking
contrast with Sapir's aesthetically appreciative suggestion that "Single Algonkin
words are like tiny imagist poems" (1921: 228)). And again, in a sweeping dismissal
of the communicative capacities of Indian languages, "One of the principal
objections to be urged against the Indian languages, considered as media of
communication, is their cumbrousness. There is certainly a great deal of verbiage
and tautology about them" (1851a: 171). Smallwonder, then, that he considered the
style of the narratives to be in need of repair by the standards of polite literary
taste.

In light of these considerations, Schoolcraft's statement that he has



Representing Natit,e Anrcrican oral nanatit'e 175

"endeavored to restore the simplicity of the original style" might appear
contradictory. It is not entirely clear what he means by the notion of "original style,"
but the sentence that follows, about breaking a Iegend in two or cutting it off, would
suggest that Schoolcraft had in n-rind a conception of tales as properly consisting of
unitary plots which were compromised by storytellers'occasional tendency in certain
contexts to chain or blend multiple narratives into a single extended narration. This
too had to be fixed for an "original" quality to be restored.

Ultimately, while there is some sense of loss attendant upon the stylistic
repairs he has carried out, an admission that they "are not, perhaps, always huppy,"
literary taste requires such intervention, and the repairs to do not detract from the
preservation of "the essential points." Indeed, they enhance their accessibility and
appeal to his readers.

Finally, in 1856, Schoolcraft published a collection of tales, derived largely
from Algic Researches, but entitl ed The Mytlt of Hiawatln, in the hope of capitalizing
on the popularity of Longfellow's Tlrc Sortg of Hiawatlrc, published in the preceding
year and inspired in significant part by Schoolcraft's publications of Indian lore. In
the Pretace to Tlte Myth o.f Hiawatlra, Schoolcraft otfered the tollowing:

Therc is but one consideration of much moment nccessary to be. premised respecting these
legencls and myths. It is this: Thcy are vcrsions of oral relations from the lips of the In<lians,
and are transcripts of the thought and invention clf the aboriginal mind. ...To make these
collections, of which thc portions now submittcd are but a part, the leisure hours of many
seasons, passed in an official capacity in the solitude of the wilderness far away from society,
have been cmploycd, with the study of thc languages, and with the vcry best interpreters.
They have bccn carefully translated, writtcn, and rervritten, to obtain their true spirit and
meaning, expunging passages, whcre it was neccssary to avoid tediousncss of narration,
triviality of circumstances, tautologies, gross incongruitics, and vulgarities; but adding no
incident and drawing no cclnclusion, which thc verbal narration did not imperatively rcquire
o r  s a n c ( i o n .  ( 1 8 5 6 :  v i i - v i i i )

In this final statement of textual practice, the intertextual gaps I have noted in
earlier passages are widened still further. Here, for example, the texts are claimed
as "versions of oral relations from the lips of the Indians," the term "version"
conveying a degree of lack of full identity with an original. Likewise, this passage
acknowledges a still greater degree of editorial intervention, in the writing and
re-writing of the texts and in the addition of incidents and conclusions, albeit ones
that are required or sanctioned by the verbal narration. Significantly, the "true spirit
and meaning" of the tales, "the thought and invention of the aboriginal mind," are
not "preserved," as before, but obtained, brought out and in part created by
Schoolcrafl's own editorial work in repairing the literary deficiencies of "tediousness
of narration, triviality of circumstances, tautolclgies, gross incongruities, and
vulgarities." Accuracy and clarity of content must be won back from literarily flawed
narration.

My emphasis thus far on Schoolcratt's negative assessment of Indian tales as
literature and his judgment that their chief value lay in their content as a key to the
native mind must not be taken to imply that he considered the beliefs, values,
opinions, or "thought-work" that he was at such pains to preserve to be of positive
worth, fbr such was decidedly not the case. Indeed, his assessmcnt of native thought
was tully as negative, notwithstanding occasional sympathetic gestures toward the



176 Richard Bauman

Indian as a feeling human being. His common evaluation of both style and thought
are clear in the following passage from Algic Researches:

The style of narration, the cast of invcntion, and the theory of thinking, are imminently
peculiar to a people who wander about in woods and plains, who encounter wild beasts,
believc in dcmons, and are subjcct to the vicissitudes <-rf the seasons. The tales refer
themselves to a people who are polytheists; not believers in onc God or Great spirit, but
of thousands of spirits; a people who live in fear, who wander in want, and who die in
misery. The machinery of spirits and necromancy, one of the most ancient and prevalent
errors of the human race, supplies the framework of these fictitious creations. l-anguage to
carry out the conceptions might seem to be wanting, but here tne narrator finds a ready
resource in the use of metaphor, the doctrine of metamorphosis, and the pcrsonification of
inanimate objects; for the latter of which, the grammar of the language has a pcculiar
adapttation. Deficiencies of the vocabulary are thus supplied, life and action are imparted
to the whole material creation, and every purpose of description is answered. The belief of
the narrators and listeners in every wild and improbably thing told, helps wonderfully, in the
o r i g i n a l ,  i n  j o i n i n g  t h e  s e q u e n c e  o f  p a r t s  t o g e t h e r .  ( 1 8 3 9 :  1 8 - 1 9 ;  s e e  a l s o  1 8 5 1 a :  1 9 6 ;  1 8 5 6 :
xix->x)

Style, plot, and error are all of a piece. There is an important point to be made
here concerning the interrelationship between form and content. This passage
makes clear that Schoolcraft did in fact perceive certain dimensions of connection
between the two, especially in regard to the relation between personification,
agency, and the grammatical marking of animacy. In Lisa Valentine's description of
Ojibwa gender,

The two gendcrs are animate and inanimatc, classifications that are roughly logical, i.e.,
people, animals, and many plants are categorized as animate, whereas things such as
moccasins, blankets, and sticks are considercd inanimate. Thcre are many systematic
exceptions to this gcneralization, e.g., hcavenly bodies (sun, moon, stars), traditional
religious articles (tobacco, pipes, drums, etc.), close personal possessions (mitts, spoons,
snowshoes, etc.) and an odd assortment of unrelated items including among many other
items certain berrics, stones, and tircs are all reckoned as animate. (1992:27)

Animate, personified stars or berries would have struck Schoolcraft as "wild" and
"improbable," signs of "error." From Schoolcraft's vantage point, then, grammatical
form, narrative function, and cultural meaning are mutually implicated, at least to
this extent.

Schoolcraft's negative judgment of Indian thought did not extend to a belief
in innate mental inferiority (1848: 67). Rather, he held that "It was not want of
mental capacity, so much as the non-existence of moral power, and of the doctrines
of truth and virtue, that kept them back" (1848: 68). For "moral power" and "the
doctrines of truth and virtue" here, read "Christian moral power" and "the Christian
doctrines of truth and virtue," tbr Schoolcraft was a devout Christian, an energetic
champion of missionary efforts, and a strong believer in the need for the Indians to
accept Christianity in order to secure their tuture in this world and save their souls
in the next. Here, then, is the key to Schoolcraft's preoccupation with offering texts
that foreground cultural content at the expense, if necessary, of fidelity to native
style. Opening up "the dark cave of the Indian mind" is a critical prerequisite to
bringing the Indian to the light of Christian belief, an essential basis for the
formulation of a national policy toward these inevitable losers in "the contest for



Representing Native Anteican oral nanative I77

supremacy" on the North American continent. The relationship between tales and
policy is explicit: "By obtaining - what these legends give - a sight of the inner man,
we are better able to set a just estimate on his character, and to tell what means of
treatment are best suited for his reclamation" (1856: >xii). The treatment must be
humane, for the narratives establish the Indians' essential humanity, but it must be
a policy of reclamation nevertheless. The crucial point for my argument is the
mutual consistency in Schoolcraft of textual practices and political ideology. The
rntertextual gaps between the oral form of native storytelling and Schoolcraft's
published texts are intended to serve the minimization of intertextual gaps in
content, all in the greater service of cultural and political dominance.

But of course, Schoolcraft had other agendas and motivations beyond
political ideology and policy. He was protbundly concerned with the commercial
viability and success of his published work, and indeed, he made his living by writing
after his dismissal from his government position in 1841. If he was to reach an
audience - which is to say, a market - with his work, he needed to shape his writings
to appeal to publishers, booksellers, and readers. Still further, Schoolcraft was
motivated by a lifelong desire to build a scientific reputation, which demanded a
proper display of scholarly knowlege and rigor in his writings as well. We must
recall, in this connection, that the second quarter of the nineteenth century in
America was a period in which the professionalization of scholarship was in its most
nascent stages, especially in regard to philology and ethnology, and if we recall as
well the novelty of Schoolcraft's tlndings concerning American Indian oral narrative,
we can recognize the scope of his task in devising a mode of presentation for his
Indian tales. To a considerable degree, he was compelled to exploration and
experimentation in his textual practice. The concern to unveil the secrets of the
Indian mind was paramount, but the practical considerations of commercial viability
and scholarly respectability weighed strongly as well, and the achievement of a
proper balance among these forces required real effort.s

The practical eftects of this dilemma may be perceived in Schoolcraft's actual
textual practices as revealed by an examination of his texts (see the Appendix for
two contrasting renderings of the "same" tale), and here, once again, we turn to
Schoolcraft's dual conception of Indian narratives as literature and ethnological
data. Notwithstanding Schoolcraft's conviction that the native tales were literarily
flawed, they remained a species of literature with a potential appeal to a literary
audience. Moreover, they had a dual potential of their own in this regard, standing
as literature in their own right while also representing a resource for the

) In light of the dual focus of the papers in this special issue on languages and publics, it
may be appropriate to say a word concerning Schoolcraft's orientation to a public, as well as to an
audience and a market, though this is not a central concern of my paper. I take a public to be an
audience (in the general sense of receivers and consumers of communicative forms) that is held to
share some commonality of attitude and interest and that may be mobilized to collective social
action (cf. Crow 1985). In this sense, then, insofar as Schoolcraft intended his publication of Indian
tales to influence people's attitudes toward Indians in support of particular national Indian policies,
he was attempting to shape a public as well as an audience and a market.



I78 Richard Baunnn

development of a distinctively American national literature.o
As I have established, Schoolcraft considered that to render the tales

acceptable in a literary garb required editorial intervention and repair. Schoolcratt
employed a number of means and devices in order to enhance the literary quality
of his tales, some of which are suggested by his statements concerning textual
practice" For example, polite literary taste required the weeding out of vulgarisms,
sexual and scatalogical references in the tales. Likewise, the telt need to avoid
tedious prolixity and repetition manifested itself in the abridgement or elimination
of form-content parallelism in the sequencing of narrative episodes. A further means
of enhancing literary appealwas the adoption of a f-lowery and elevated register, tull
of high emotion, sentimental observations of nature, archaic pronominal usage
("thou," "thee," "ye"), and heavily sentimental rhymed poetry to index the inclusion
of songs in native narrative performance. A still turther device was the advancement
of the narrative by means of direct discourse. All of these marked the texts as
literature in regard to standards of polite taste, and were available to enhance their
appeal to a literary audience.

On the other hand, Schoolcraft had a corresponding set of textual means for
highlighting the ethnological "authenticity" and scholarly validity of his texts. Some
of these involved the manipulation of the same sets of elements that could be
utilized to foreground literary refinement, tempering, reducing, or eliminating them
to foreground ethnological content and expository clarity. Thus, Schoolcraft might
employ a less ornate, more expository register, reduce direct discourse, or eliminate
the poems from the texts. At the extreme, this would yield a brief, informationally
focused pr6cis of what might elsewhere be a more extended "literary" narrative. Also
related to the language of the texts, one device favored by Schoolcraft to enhance
ethnological verisimilitude was the employment of native-language words, idioms,
or phrases, frequently with an accompanying English gloss in the text or a footnote.
For still more scholarly effect, these Ojibwa forms might be further accompanied
by linguistic commentary explicating their morphology or etymology. To cite one
further device in the service of rendering cultural content accessible, Schoolcrafi
resorted trequentiy to metanarrational commentary, noting a particular action,
behavior, or other feature as customary, or explaining its function. Some such
comments might be interpolated into the texts or presented as framing matter
before or after a given narrative for all audiences, but for more scholarly tone, they
might be rendered as expository tootnotes. Being especially concerned with moral
issues, Schoolcraft used a special set of metanarrational devices to key a moral

6 Schoolcraft emphasizes this potcntial in his rlcrlication of Algic Researches to Lt. Col.

H e n r y  W h i t i n g  ( 1 8 3 9 :  v ) :

S I R
The position taken by you in favour of the literary susceptibilities of the Indian character,
and your tasteful and meritorious attempts in imbodying their manners and customs, in the
shape of poetic fiction, has directcd my thoughts to you in submitting my collection of their
oral fictions to the press.

Likewise, the dedication of The Myth of Hyawatha to Henry Wadsworth Longfellow lauds
Longfellow's work as dcmonstrating "that the thcme of the nalive lore reveals one of the true
sourccs of our literary independcnce" (1856: v). See also Dippie (1982: 16-17).



Representing Native American oral nanative 179

intepretation, including genre designations in subtitles, such as "allegory" or "fable,"
and explicit moral exegeses appended to the text.

Schoolcraft employed all of these devices in varying degrees, combinations,
and mixtures to calibrate the framing of particular texts and collections as relatively
more literary or ethnological, popular or scholarly. Thus a given tale might be
rendered in a more literary guise for publication in a literary magazine but in a
more expository register for inclusion in Algic Researches. Algic Researches, for its
part, is marked by a prolif'eration of ethnological and linguistic metacommentary;
TIrc Myth of Hiawatlta draws some of these more scholarly "ethnological" texts from
Algic Researches, but includes also an admixture of more "literary" texts previously
published in other venues. One would not want to say that Schoolcraft was fully
and rigorously systematic in his calibration of textual practice, for there is a certain
ad hoc quality about some clf his compilations, but the general patterns and
tendencies can be adduced from an examination of the published texts. Nor,
ultimately, were Schoolcraft's efforts fully successful, at least in his own estimation,
for he repeatedly expressed his dissatisfaction with the degree of recognition and
commercial success he achieved - or, by his lights, failed to achieve (see, e.g., 1851a:
585, 631, 634, 655, 672, 69J, 703).

Successful or not, however, Schoolcraft's career-long struggle to devise a
viable set of methods for the representation of Indian narratives and a productive
rhetoric for the effective framing of those methods for his readers (and for himself)
illuminates a formative moment in the history of textual representation, of
significance to the subsequent development of linguistic anthropology, folklore, and
adjacent disciplines. I have attempted to elucidate in this brief examination of
Schoolcraft's metadiscursive practices a range of factors that defined the field of
tensions that shaped his efforts. One set of relevant factors had to do with personal,
biographical circumstances, such as his position as Indian agent, his relationship with
the Johnston family, and his personal ambition. A second set related to broader
historical factors: The lack of precedents for the representation of oral narratives
in print, the related need to identify - even to create - an audience and a market for
his work, the desire to influence national Indian policy. I have given most
prominence to the tension between Schoolcraft's dual conception of the Indian tales
as literary forms and ethnological data, with special attention to contemporary
conceptions of literariness. To be sure, all of us who are engaged in the study of
oral discourse are susceptible to just the same sorts of tensions in our work, though
we may differ rn the degrees to which we are able and willing to acknowledge them
openly and confront them directly in our own practices. Unlike Schoolcraft,
however, we do not lack for precedents - again, whether we acknowledge them or
not - among which are the pioneering and vexed efforts of Schoolcraft himself.

Appendix

1. From Schoolcraft (1962 11826l: 7-8):

TRANCE

Suspended respiration, or apparent death, is not common among the Chippewa Indians. Some cases
have however happened.



180 Richard Baumun

Wauwaunishkum or Gitshee Gausince of Montreal river, after being sick a shorl. time, died,

o r  i t  t u r n c d  o u t ,  f c l l  i n t o  a  t r a n c e .  H c  w a s  a  g o o d  h u n t c r ,  &  a m o n g  o t h e r  t h i n g s  l e f t  a  g u n .  H i s
widow still flattcred hcrsclf he was not dead, & thought by fceling his hcad she felt some signs of
life. After four days had elapscd he camc to lifc, & lived many ycars aftcnvards - He rclated the
lbllowing story to his companions - That after his death he travcled on towards the pleasant country,
which is the lndian heaven, but having no gun could get nothing to eat, & he at last determinetl tcl
go track for his gun - On his way back, he met many Indians, men & women, who werc heary laden
with skins & meat, one of these men gave him a gun, a squaw gave him a small kettle, still he kept
on, dctermined to go back fur his own gun which had not bcen buricd with him. When he came tcr

the place, whcre he had died hc could scc nothing but a great firc, which spread in every direction.

He knew not what to do, but at last dctermincd to jump through it, thinking big forcsts were on the
other side. And in this cffort he awoke, & found himsclf alive. - Formerly it had been customary
to bury many articles with the dead including all his effects, clothing etc & even presents of food etc
from friends wishing them well. Aftcr this the practicc was discontinucd.

2 .  F r o m  S c h o o l c r a f t  ( 1 8 3 9 :  1 8 0 ) :

G I T - C H E E - G A U - Z I N E E
O R

THE TRANCE

(The following story is related by the Odjibwas, as scmi-traditionary. Without attaching importance
t o  i t ,  i n  t h a t  l i g h t ,  i t  m a y  b e  r e g a r d e d  a s  i n d i c a t i n g  I n d i a n  o p i n i o n  o n  t h c  t e m p o r a r y  s u s p e n s i o n  o f
nervous action in trance , and on the (to thcm) grcat unknown void of a future state. The individual,
whose name it bears, is vouched tcl have been an actual personage living on the shores of [-ake
Supcrior, where he excrcised thc authority of a village chicf.

In former times, it is averred, the Chippewas followed the custom of interring many articles
with the dead, including, if the deccased was a male, his gun, trap, pipe, kettle, war club, clothes,
wampum, ornaments, and even a portion of food. This practice has been gradually falling into disuse
until at present, it is rare to see the lndians dcposit any articlcs o[ value with adults. What effect
tales like the following may have had, in bringing this ancient pagan custom into discredit, we will
not undertake to decide. Much of thc change of opinion which has supervened, within the last
century, may be fairly attributable to the intercoursc of the Indians with white men, and in sorne
situations, to the gradual and almost imperceptible influence of Christianity on their external
manners and customs. Still, more is probablv due to thc kecn obscn'ation of a peoplc, who have very
little property, and may naturally bc judged to have ascertained the folly of burying any valuablc
portion of it with the dcad.)

Git-Chee-Gau-Zinee, after a few days'illncss, suddenly expired in the presence of his friends, by
whom he was beloved and lamented. He had hcen an cxpert huntcr, and left, among other things,
a fine gun, which he had requested might be buricd with his body. Thcre were some who thought
his death a suspension and not an extinction of thc animal functiclns, and that he would again be
restorcd. His widow was among the numbcr, and shc carcfully watched the body for thc space of four
days. She thought that by laying her hand upon his brcast she could discovcr remaining indications
of vitality. Twcnty-four hours had clapscd, and ncarly evc'ry vestiqe of hopc had dcparted, when the
man came to life. Hc gave thc following narration to his fricnds:

"After my death, my Jeebi* traveled in the broad road of the dead toward the happy land, which is
the Indian paradise. I passed on many days without mceting with anything of an extraordinary
nature. Plains of large extent, and luxuriant herbage, began to pass before my eyes. I saw many
beautiful groves, and heard the sclngs of innumcrable birds. At length I began to suffer for the want
of food. I reached the summit oI an elevation. My eycs caught thc glimpse of the city of the dead.
But it appeared to be distant, and the intervening space, partly veiled in silvcry mists, was spangled
with glittcring lakes and streams. At this spot I came in sight of numerous herds of stately deer,
m o o s e ,  a n d  o t h e r  a n i m a l s ,  w h i c h  w a l k c d  n e a r  m y  p a t h ,  a n d  a p p e a r e d  t o  h a v e  l o s t  t h e i r  n a t u r a l



Representing Natit'e Anrcrican oral nanative 181

timidity. But having no gun I was unable to kill them. I thought of the request I had made to my
friends, to put my gun in my grave, and resolvcd to go back and seek for it.

"l found I had the frcc use of my limbs and faculties, and I had no sooner made this
resolution, than I turned back. But I now bcheld an immense number of men, women, and children,
traveling toward thc city of the dcad, every one of whom I had to face in going back. I saw, in this
throng, persons of every agc, lrom the little infant - the sweet and lovely Penaisee,** to the feeble
gray-hcadcd man, stooping with the weight of years. All whom I met, however, were heavily laden
with implements, guns, pipes, kettlcs, meats, and other articlcs. One man stopped me and
complaincd of the grcat burdens he had to carry. He offered me his gun, which I however refused,
having made up my mind to procure my own. Anothcr offered me a kettle. I saw women who were
carrying their baskct work and painted paddlcs, and little boys, with their ornamented war clubs and
bows and arrows - the prcsents of their friends.

"After encountering this throng for two days and nights, I came to the place where I had
died. But I could see nothing but a great fire, the flamcs of which rose up before men, and spread
around me. Whichcver way I turned to avoid them, the flames still barred my advance. I was in the
utmost perplexity, and knew not what to do. At length I determined to make a desperate leap,
thinking my liiends were on the other side, and in this effort, I awoke from my trance.n Here the
chief paused, and aftcr a few momcnts concluded his story with the following admonitory remarks:

"My chiefs and friends," said he, 'I will te ll you of one practice, in which our forefathers have
been wrong. Thcy have been accustomcd to deposit too many things with the dead. These
implcments arc burthcnsomc to them. It requires a longer time for them to reach the peace of
repose, and almost every one I havc conversed with, complaincd bitterly to me of the evil. It would
bc wiser to put such things only, in the grave, as thc deceased was particularly attached to, or made
a formal rcqucst to have depositcd with him. ll' he has becn successful in the chase, and has
abundance of things in his lodge, it would be bettcr that they should remain for his family, or for
division among his fricnds and relatives."

Advtcc u'htch comes in this plcasing form of story and allegory, can give offense to no one.
And it is probably the mode which the northern Indians have employed, from the earliest times, to
rebuke faults and instill instruction. The old men, upon whom the duty of giving advice uniformly
falls, may have found this thc most efficacious mcans of molding opinion and forming character.

* l j i i b a v ' s p i r i t '  ( R h o d c s  1 9 8 - 5 :  5 8 0 )  -  R . B . l .

* * T h c  t e r n t  o f  e n d e a r n r e n t  f o r  a  y o u n g  s o n .  I H . R . S : ] .  [ P r o b a b l y  b n e s h i i n h ' b i r d '  ( R h o d e s
1 e 8 5 :  4 2 5 )  -  R . B . l "

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