BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH

E. Pauline Johnson (Tekahionwake) is the youngest child of a family
of four born to the late G. H. M. Johnson (Onwanonsyshon), Head
Chief of the Six Nations Indians, and his wife, Emily S. Howells,
a lady of pure English parentage, her birth-place being Bristol,
England, but the land of her adoption was Canada.

Chief Johnson was of the renowned Mohawk tribe, and of the "Blood
Royal," being a scion of one of the fifty noble families which
composed the historical confederation founded by Hiawatha upwards of
four hundred years ago, and known at that period as the Brotherhood
of the Five Nations, but which was afterwards named the Iroquois by
the early French missionaries and explorers. These Iroquois Indians
have from the earliest times been famed for their loyalty to the
British Crown, in defence of which they fought against both French
and Colonial Revolutionists; and for which fealty they were granted
the magnificent lands bordering the Grand River in the County of
Brant, Ontario, and on which the tribes still live.

It was upon this Reserve, on her father's estate, "Chiefswood,"
that Pauline Johnson was born. And it is inevitable that the loyalty
to Britain and Britain's flag which she inherited from her Red
ancestors, as well as from her English mother, breathes through both
her prose and poetic writings.

At an extremely early age this little Indian girl evinced an intense
love of poetry; and even before she could write, composed many
little childish jingles about her pet dogs and cats. She was also