Jane Johnston Schoolcraft (1800 – 1842) was born in Sault Ste. Marie (in what is now the state of Michigan) to a Scots-Irish father and an Ojibwe Indian mother who had a successful fur trading business. Her grandfather was the famous Ojibwe chief Waub Ojeegt. O-bah-bahm-wawa-ge-zhe-go-qua (her Indian name) is the earliest known American Indian poet. Because of her father’s love of English poetry and traditions and her mother’s love of Ojibwe life and storytelling, Jane was fully exposed to both cultures growing up and ultimately composed her stories and poems in both languages. Though she traveled with her father to his native Ireland, she spent most of her life among the Ojibwe tribe on the shores of the Great Lakes. Her marriage to Indian agent Henry Schoolcraft was a tempestuous one, with him sometimes taking credit for her writing. Longfellow’s famous Song of Hiawatha is said to have been inspired by some of Jane and Henry’s work.