The Moccasin Maker

Long before American Indian women’s literature achieved its current popularity, the writings of E. Pauline Johnson (1861-1913) pioneered the field. A mixed-blood of Mohawk-English descent, Johnson gained renown for literary recitals and theatrical performances in Canada, England, and the United States, being billed at the turn of the century as the "Mohawk Princess." Many of Johnson’s stories in The Moccasin Maker depict nineteenth-century Indian women caught between the forces of cultural continuity and the pressures of assimilation.