Henry Rowe Schoolcraft was an American scholar whose work centered on the Indigenous cultures of North America. His extensive studies, including a monumental six-volume work on American Indians, reveal a profound interest in their traditions and ways of life. Through his fieldwork and ethnographic observations, he contributed to the understanding of these original inhabitants, with his research often benefiting from the insights of his wife, whose familial ties to the Ojibwa people were instrumental. Schoolcraft sought to document and preserve knowledge of Indigenous societies during a period of significant transformation.
This is a pre-1923 historical reproduction that was curated for quality. Quality assurance was conducted on each of these books in an attempt to remove books with imperfections introduced by the digitization process. Though we have made best efforts - the books may have occasional errors that do not impede the reading experience. We believe this work is culturally important and have elected to bring the book back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide.
The narrative recounts an exploratory expedition led by Henry Rowe Schoolcraft to the sources of the Mississippi River in 1820. It offers detailed observations of the geography, flora, and fauna encountered during the journey, as well as insights into the Native American tribes met along the way. Schoolcraft's account emphasizes the significance of the river's origins and the cultural interactions that shaped the region, making it a valuable historical document of early American exploration.
Exploring the central Mississippi Valley in 1821, this work provides insights into the region's mineral geography, internal resources, and indigenous populations. It is part of the Sabin Americana collection, which encompasses a vast array of historical documents from the discovery of the Americas to the early 20th century. This collection offers a rich perspective on societal, political, and cultural aspects of life in the Americas, featuring diverse genres such as newspapers, maps, and literature, now accessible through high-quality digital scans.
Material presented here is drawn primarily from Henry Rowe Schoolcraft's 1839 edition of Algic Researches—a rare, yet often cited publication. However, stories from two later Schoolcraft collections, Oneota and The Myth of Hiawatha, are also included in an appendix. Thus, a representative view of the entire body of Schoolcraft's published Indian legends is available in a single volume. With a new forward by Phillip P. Mason, this book is designed to reacquaint America with one of its often-neglected geniuses. It is apparent when studying Schoolcraft's writing that he was clearly one of the first European Americans to recognize the merit and value of the Native American heritage as expressed in oral tradition. Critics have been divided in their assessment of Schoolcraft's contribution to the collection and preservation of Native American lore. The tide of interpretation has seen Schoolcraft's work achieve an initial popularity, only to be rejected by members of the 1920s intelligentsia, the same individuals who critically embraced (and seldom properly attributed) Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's adaptations of Schoolcraft's work. However, Schoolcraft received renewed attention, first in the 1950s, when Williams undertook to collect and edit the original volumes, and again today when the value and validity of the Native American oral tradition has, once again, been "discovered."
