Home > Henry Schoolcraft

1 Life

He was born near Albany, New York. As a young man, he forsook his family's glassmakingFor eyeglasses, see spectacles The physics definition of a glass is a uniform amorphous solid material, usually produced when a suitably viscous molten material cools very rapidly, thereby not giving enough time for a regular crystal lattice to form. business and travelled down the Ohio RiverThe Ohio River is a principal tributary of the Mississippi River, 981 mi (1,579 km) long in the eastern United States. Of great significance in the history of North America dating from the time of the Native Americans, the river was a primary transportati to MissouriMissouri named after the Missouri Siouan Indian tribe meaning "canoe", is a Midwestern state of the United States with Jefferson City as its capital. The state's nickname is the State the U. Post Office abbreviation for Missouri is MO and the state public. During 18181818 is a common year starting on Thursday. Events February 12 Chile gains its independence from Spain March 11 Mary Shelley's Frankenstein is published March 22 Easter Sunday falls on its earliest possible date. The next time Easter will fall this early:- 1819Events January 17 Simon Bolivar proclaims the Republic of Colombia January 29 Sir Stamford Raffles lands on the island of Singapore February 6 Formal treaty between Sultan Hussein of Johor and the British Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles originates Singapore F he made valuable surveys of the geography, geologyGeology (from Greek γ&eta ge "the earth") and λογος logos "word", "reason")) is the science and study of the Earth, its composition, structure, physical properties, history, and the processes that shape it. Geolog, and mineralogyMineralogy is an earth science that involves the chemistry, crystal structure, and physical (including optical) properties of minerals. Studies also include the processes of mineral creation and destruction. The International Mineralogical Association is of the area which he published in 1819 in A View of the Lead Mines of Missouri.

In 1821Events February 23 The Philadelphia College of Apothecaries founds the first pharmacy college. March 25 Greece declares its independence from the Ottoman Empire, beginning the Greek War of Independence. July 10 The United States takes possession of its ne, he was a geologist on the expedition of Gen. Lewis Cass to the upper Great Lakes, during which he made topographical surveys of upper peninsula of Michigan and today's northern Minnesota. Part of the purpose of the expedition was to discover the source of the Mississippi, in part to settle the question of an undetermined boundary between the United States and British Canada (See: Northwest Angle). The expedition erroneously concluded that the Mississippi's headwaters were in Cass Lake. Schoolcraft published an account of the journey in A Narrative Journal of Travels...from Detroit through the Great Chain of American Lakes to the Sources of the Mississippi River

He began his ethnological research in 1822 during his appointment as Indian agent at Sault Ste. Marie. He wedded Jane Johnson, who was the daughter of an Irish fur trader and an Ojibwe woman named O-bah-bahm-wawa-ge-zhe-go-qua (The Woman of the Sound Which the Stars Make Rushing Through the Sky). From his wife, he learned the Ojibwe language and the lore of the tribe. Later he moved to Fort Mackinac, the new headquarters of his administration as an Indian agent after his area was greatly increased.

In 1832 he journeyed again to the upper reaches of the Mississippi in order to settle continuing troubles between the Chippewa and Sioux nations, and to talk to as many Native American leaders as he could in order to maintain the peace. He was also provided with a surgeon and given instructions to begin provision of vaccinations for smallpox among the Indians of the region. He determined that smallpox had been unknown among the Chippewa before the return in 1750 of a war-party that had gone to Montreal to assist the French against the British. See: French and Indian War.

During the voyage he took the opportunity to explore the region, making the first accurate map of the Lake District around western Lake Superior. It was also during this journey that he discovered the true headwaters of the river in Lake Itasca, the name of which he coined from the Latin phrase veritas caput, meaning "true source". The nearby Schoolcraft River, the first major tributary of the Mississippi, was later named in his honor.

From 1828 to 1832 he served in the legislature of the Michigan Territory. In 1839 he began a series of Native American studies later published in the Algic Researches. When the Whig Party came to power in 1841 with the election of William Henry Harrison, Schoolcraft lost his position as Indian agent and moved back to the East, where he continued to write about Native Americans. Much of his work was published in his Historical and Statistical Information Respecting...the Indian Tribes of the United States.

He is responsible for naming many of Michigan's counties, and giving several of those established in 1840 faux Indian names— Alcona, Allegan, Alpena, Arenac, Iosco, Kalkaska, Leelanau, Oscoda and Tuscola, for example, combine words and syllables from Native American languages with words and syllables from Latin and Arabic.