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54-476: In 1838, an archaeological excavation of Grave Creek Mound, led by Jesse and Abelard Tomlinson, uncovered the ruins of two large vaults, one situated directly below the other. The vaults contained several human skeletons and a considerable amount of jewelry and other artifacts. According to Henry Rowe Schoolcraft , a renowned geologist who visited the site in 1843, the Grave Creek Stone was discovered in

108-658: A few other locals. Although they produced only single issues, each was distributed widely to residents in Sault Ste. Marie, then to Schoolcraft's friends in Detroit, New York, and other eastern cities. Jane Johnston Schoolcraft used the pen names of "Rosa" and Leelinau as personae to write about different aspects of Indian culture. Schoolcraft was elected to the legislature of the Michigan Territory , where he served from 1828 to 1832. In 1832, he traveled again to

162-647: A lead mine outside St. Louis in the 18th century.) He also published Journal of a Tour into the Interior of Missouri and Arkansaw (1821), the first written account of a European-American exploration of the Ozark Mountains . This expedition and his resulting publications brought Schoolcraft to the attention of John C. Calhoun , the Secretary of War, who considered him "a man of industry, ambition, and insatiable curiosity." Calhoun recommended Schoolcraft to

216-694: A leading Ojibwe chief, Waubojeeg , and his wife. Both of the Johnstons were of high status; they had eight children together, and their cultured, wealthy family was well known in the area. Jane was also known as Bamewawagezhikaquay (Woman of the Sound the Stars Make Rushing Through the Sky). Her knowledge of the Ojibwe language and culture, which she shared with Schoolcraft, formed in part

270-686: A local physician who had financed the excavation through loans. Oestreicher found the source of the inscription; an 18th-century volume, "An Essay on the Alphabets of the Unknown Letters That are Found in the Most Ancient Coins and Monuments of Spain". "Everything on the stone", including "impossible sequences of characters with the same mistakes", was copied directly from the volume. Henry Rowe Schoolcraft Henry Rowe Schoolcraft (March 28, 1793 – December 10, 1864)

324-669: A member of the Board of Regents of the University of Michigan in its early years. In this position he helped establish the state university's financial organization. Schoolcraft founded and contributed to the first United States journal on public education, The Journal of Education. He also published The Souvenir of the Lakes , the first literary magazine in Michigan. Schoolcraft named many of Michigan's counties and locations within

378-494: A personal account of the discovery with his book, Narrative of an Expedition Through the Upper Mississippi River to Itasca Lake (1834). After his territory for Indian Affairs was greatly increased in 1833, Schoolcraft and his wife Jane moved to Mackinac Island , the new headquarters of his administration. In 1836, he was instrumental in settling land disputes with the Ojibwe. He worked with them to accomplish

432-531: A prominent Scotch-Irish fur trader and an Ojibwe mother, who was the high-ranking daughter of Waubojeeg , a war chief. Jane lived with her family in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan . She was bilingual and educated, having grown up in a literate household. Jane taught Schoolcraft the Ojibwe language and much about her maternal culture. They had several children together, only two of whom survived past childhood. She

486-804: A war party that had contact with Europeans on the East Coast. They had gone to Montreal to assist the French against the British in the French and Indian War (the North American front of the Seven Years' War ). During the voyage, Schoolcraft took the opportunity to explore the region, making the first accurate map of the Lake District around western Lake Superior. Following the lead of Ozawindib , an Ojibwe guide, Schoolcraft encountered

540-498: Is geography , the study of Earth's natural environment and human society, including how society and nature interacts. The Greek prefix "geo" means "earth" and the Greek suffix, "graphy", meaning "description", so a geographer is someone who studies the earth. The word "geography" is a Middle French word that is believed to have been first used in 1540. Although geographers are historically known as people who make maps , map making

594-406: Is actually the field of study of cartography , a subset of geography. Geographers do not study only the details of the natural environment or human society, but they also study the reciprocal relationship between these two. For example, they study how the natural environment contributes to human society and how human society affects the natural environment. In particular, physical geographers study

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648-554: Is now Springfield . They traveled further down the White River into Arkansas , making a survey of the geography , geology , and mineralogy of the area. Schoolcraft published this study in A View of the Lead Mines of Missouri (1819). In this book, he correctly identified the potential for lead deposits in the region . Missouri eventually became the number one lead-producing state. (French colonists had earlier developed

702-557: Is now recognized for her poetry and other writings as the first Native American literary writer in the United States. Schoolcraft continued to study Native American tribes and publish works about them. In 1833, he was elected as a member of the American Philosophical Society . By 1846, Jane had died. That year, Schoolcraft was commissioned by Congress for a major study, known as Indian Tribes of

756-669: The Congressional Cemetery in Washington, DC. His papers are archived in the Library of Congress . Elected a member of the American Antiquarian Society in 1821. Numerous counties, towns, lakes, streams, roads and other geographic features are named in his honor, including: Geographer A geographer is a physical scientist, social scientist or humanist whose area of study

810-554: The Michigan Territorial Governor , Lewis Cass , for a position on an expedition led by Cass to explore the wilderness region of Lake Superior and the lands west to the upper Mississippi River. Beginning in the spring of 1820, Schoolcraft served as a geologist on the Lewis Cass expedition . Beginning in Detroit, they traveled nearly 2,000 miles (3,200 km) along Lake Huron and Lake Superior, west to

864-405: The Ojibwe language , as well as much of the lore of the tribe and its culture. Schoolcraft created The Muzzeniegun, or Literary Voyager , a family magazine which he and Jane produced in the winter of 1826–1827 and circulated among friends ("muzzeniegun" coming from Ojibwe mazina'igan meaning "book"). It contained mostly his own writings, although he did include a few pieces from his wife and

918-472: The Treaty of Washington (1836) , by which they ceded to the United States a vast territory of more than 13 million acres (53,000 km ), worth many millions of dollars . He believed that the Ojibwe would be better off learning to farm and giving up their wide hunting lands. The government agreed to pay subsidies and provide supplies while the Ojibwe made a transition to a new way of living, but its provision of

972-637: The Whig Party came to power in 1841 with the election of William Henry Harrison , Schoolcraft lost his political position as Indian agent. He and Jane moved to New York. She died the next year during a visit with a sister in Canada, while Schoolcraft was traveling in Europe. He continued to write about Native Americans. In 1846 Congress commissioned him to develop a comprehensive reference work on American Indian tribes. Schoolcraft traveled to England to request

1026-555: The Mississippi River, down the river to present-day Iowa, and then returning to Detroit after tracing the shores of Lake Michigan . The expedition was intended to establish the source of the Mississippi River. It was also intended to settle the question of the yet undetermined boundary between the United States and British Canada . The expedition traveled as far upstream as Upper Red Cedar Lake in present-day Minnesota. Since low water precluded navigating farther upstream,

1080-758: The Schoolcraft children. They became alienated from both her and their father. After Schoolcraft's hands became paralyzed in 1848 from a rheumatic condition, Mary devoted much of her attention to caring for him and helping him complete his massive study of Native Americans, which had been commissioned by Congress in 1846. In 1860, she published the novel The Black Gauntlet: A Tale of Plantation Life in South Carolina (which she said her husband had encouraged). One of many pro-slavery books published in response to Harriet Beecher Stowe 's bestselling Uncle Tom's Cabin , such defenses of slavery, published in

1134-543: The Sources of the Mississippi River (1821). In 1821, he was a member of another government expedition, which traveled through Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio. In 1832, he led a second expedition to the headwaters of the Mississippi River. Arriving a month earlier than had the 1820 expedition, he was able to take advantage of higher water to navigate to Lake Itasca . Schoolcraft met his first wife Jane Johnston soon after being assigned in 1822 to Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan , as

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1188-526: The United States . It was published in six volumes from 1851 to 1857, and illustrated by Seth Eastman , a career Army officer with extensive experience as an artist of indigenous peoples. Schoolcraft remarried in 1847, to Mary Howard , from a slaveholding family in South Carolina . In 1860 , Howard published the bestselling novel The Black Gauntlet . It was part of the Anti-Tom literature that

1242-559: The conditions of American Indians; it was informally known as the Meriam Report , after the technical director of the team, Lewis Meriam .) Schoolcraft died in Washington, D.C., on December 10, 1864. After his death, Schoolcraft's second wife Mary donated over 200 books from his library, which had been published in 35 different Native American languages, to the Boston Athenæum . Schoolcraft and Mary were each buried in

1296-491: The decade before the American Civil War , became known as the anti-Tom genre. Hers became a best-seller, although not on the scale of Stowe's. Schoolcraft began his ethnological research in 1822 during his appointment as US Indian agent at Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan . He had responsibility for tribes in what is now northern Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota. From his wife Jane Johnston, Schoolcraft learned

1350-472: The expedition designated the lake as the river's headwaters and renamed it in honor of Cass . (Schoolcraft noted, however, that locals informed the expedition that it was possible to navigate by canoe farther upstream earlier in the year when water levels were higher.) Schoolcraft's account of the expedition was published as A Narrative Journal of Travels Through the Northwestern Regions...to

1404-542: The first US Indian agent in the region. Two years before, the government had built Fort Brady and wanted to establish an official presence to forestall any renewed British threat following the War of 1812 . The government tried to ensure against British agitation of the Ojibwa . Jane was the eldest daughter of John Johnston , a prominent Scots-Irish fur trader , and his wife Ozhaguscodaywayquay (Susan Johnston), daughter of

1458-711: The former Michigan Territory . He named Leelanau County, Michigan after his wife's pen name of "Leelinau". For those counties established in 1840, he made elisions – the process of joining or merging morphemes that contained abstract ideas from multiple languages – to form unique place names he considered as never previously used in North America. In names such as Alcona , Algoma , Allegan , Alpena , Arenac , Iosco , Kalkaska , Leelanau , Lenawee , Oscoda , and Tuscola , for example, Schoolcraft combined words and syllables from Native American languages with words and syllables from Latin and Arabic . Lake Itasca ,

1512-403: The four participants to only use "straight lines or combinations of straight lines". To further simulate the actual inscribing of the stone, the individuals were not allowed to improve upon their first attempt (since one cannot erase all or part of a symbol once it is inscribed). Just like the inscription on the Grave Creek Stone, these symbols were found to resemble characters found in alphabets of

1566-466: The growing influence and rise in prominence of scientific enquiry in Europe at the time of their painting in 1668–69. Subdividing geography is challenging, as the discipline is broad, interdisciplinary, ancient, and has been approached differently by different cultures. Attempts have gone back centuries, and include the "Four traditions of geography" and applied "branches." The four traditions of geography were proposed in 1964 by William D. Pattison in

1620-401: The inside of a stone arch". His testimony was supported by Colonel Wharton, who claims to have spotted the stone amongst the loose dirt and debris being wheeled out of the mound that day. Stephen Williams, author of Fantastic Archaeology , considers Catlett's story to be the most credible, explaining that "Tomlinson's description of the way the shaft and drift were dug does not accord with any of

1674-487: The late 1870s to demonstrate that the symbols were not necessarily alphabetic. He asked four people (a teacher and law student, a schoolgirl, a pharmacist, and a college professor) to create for him "twenty or more arbitrary characters not resembling any figures or alphabetical characters known to them". Since the Grave Creek Stone was inscribed using only straight lines (which is quite common, since straight lines are much easier to inscribe than those with curve), Reid instructed

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1728-605: The meticulous and knowledgeable illustrations by Eastman. Critics also noted the work's shortcomings, including a lack of index, and poor organization, which made the information almost inaccessible. Almost 100 years later, in 1954, the Bureau of American Ethnology of the Smithsonian Institution prepared and published an index to the volumes. (It was not until 1928 that the US government conducted another overall study of

1782-419: The natural environment while human geographers study human society and culture. Some geographers are practitioners of GIS ( geographic information system ) and are often employed by local, state, and federal government agencies as well as in the private sector by environmental and engineering firms. The paintings by Johannes Vermeer titled The Geographer and The Astronomer are both thought to represent

1836-593: The old world. Reid was "compelled to conclude that there is nothing in the form of the characters of the Grave Creek Stone which require us to decide that they are old, that they are alphabetical, or if alphabetical that they are derived from any known alphabet". At a meeting of the West Virginia Archaeological Society in October 2008, the anthropologist David Oestreicher suggested that the inscription had been forged by James W. Clemens,

1890-677: The potential significance of the artifact. The precise details of the stone's discovery are disputed. The first published account of the find, along with a woodcut of the inscription, occupied the front page of the Cincinnati Chronicle of February 2, 1839, in an article written by Thomas Townsend. Another drawing of the stone, "differing essentially in its characters", was published in The American Pioneer in May 1843, accompanied by Abelard Tomlinson's eyewitness account of

1944-545: The promised subsidies was often late and underfunded. The Ojibwe suffered as a result. In 1838 pursuant to the terms of the treaty, Schoolcraft oversaw the construction of the Indian Dormitory on Mackinac Island. The building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places . It provided temporary housing to the Ojibwe who came to Mackinac Island to receive annuities during their transition to what

1998-528: The second time as commander of the fort, and had closely studied, drawn and painted the people of the Indian cultures of the Great Plains . Schoolcraft worked for years on the history and survey of the Indian tribes of the United States. It was published in six volumes from 1851 to 1857 by J. B. Lippincott & Co. of Philadelphia . Critics praised its scholarship and valuable content by Schoolcraft, and

2052-481: The services of George Catlin to illustrate his proposed work, as the latter was widely regarded as the premier illustrator of Indian life. Schoolcraft was deeply disappointed when Catlin refused. Schoolcraft later engaged the artist Seth Eastman , a career Army officer, as illustrator. An Army captain and later brigadier general, Eastman was renowned for his paintings of Native American peoples. He had two extended assignments at Fort Snelling in present-day Minnesota ,

2106-487: The source lake of the Mississippi River , is another example of his eliding Native American and Latin morphemes. In 1843 the unique names of six counties named in 1840 after Native Michigan chiefs were erased – Kautawaubet County , Kaykakee County , Keskkauko County , Meegisee County , Mikenauk County , and Tonedagana County . But none of the 1840 counties with unique Schoolcraft elisions were changed. When

2160-463: The source material for Longfellow 's epic poem The Song of Hiawatha . Jane and Henry had four children together: The Schoolcrafts sent Jane and John to a boarding school in Detroit for part of their education. Jane at 11 could handle the transition, but John at nine had a more difficult time and missed his parents. The Schoolcrafts had a literary marriage, producing a family magazine. They included their own poetry in letters to each other through

2214-598: The statements made by any of the observers of the excavations". The same view was expressed by M.C. Reid, in his 1878 report, published in The American Antiquarian . Reid also pointed out numerous factual errors in Tomlinson's statement, concluding that "it is very certain that Mr. Tomlinson is mistaken and that he did not find the inscribed stone". The sandstone disk is about 1.875 inches (4.76 cm) wide, and 1.5 inches (3.8 cm) high. One side of

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2268-546: The stone is inscribed with 23 alphabetical / pseudo-alphabetical characters arranged in three lines with a final non-alphabetical symbol on the lower portion. There are no inscriptions on the reverse side. The stone passed through various collections, but its current location is unknown. While it was in E.H. Davis's collection in the late 1800s, he made a cast of it which he deposited to the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History . The Smithsonian now has four casts of

2322-467: The stone's discovery. He says that the stone was discovered on June 9, 1838, about two feet from the skeleton in the upper vault. It had "no engraving on it, except for on one side". In a later statement, Tomlinson asserts that "I removed it with my own hands ... from its ancient bed". A letter dated April 10, 1839, written by James Clemens, who spent two weeks at the Grave Creek site collecting data in

2376-406: The stone. The National Anthropological Association also has a wax impression of the stone made by Davis. Six facsimile drawings were also made of the stone. The inscription on the Grave Creek Stone has been the object of much controversy. Henry Rowe Schoolcraft was the first to study this aspect of the stone. He strove to determine whether or not the symbols were alphabetical by consulting experts on

2430-566: The subject. His correspondence with "noted antiquarians" led him to the conclusion that inscription contains "four characters corresponding to the Ancient Greek ; four Etruscan ; five Runic ; six ancient Gallic ; seven old Erse ; ten Phoenician ; fourteen old British ; sixteen Celtiberic , with some resemblance to the Hebrew ". However, he was "inclined to regard the whole inscription as Celtiberic". M.C. Reid performed an experiment in

2484-405: The summer of 1838, appears to corroborate Tomlinson's version of events. Clemens writes that "Abelard Tomlinson, Thomas Biggs, myself, and others were present when the stone was discovered with the copper bracelets and the shell necklace". Peter Catlett, one of the workers involved in the excavation, offers a conflicting account: "I was the man who found the stone ... The engraved stone was found on

2538-558: The true headwaters of the Mississippi River, a lake that the natives called "Omushkos", meaning Elk Lake. which Schoolcraft renamed Lake Itasca , a name which he coined from the Latin words ver itas meaning 'truth' and ca put meaning 'head'. The nearby Schoolcraft River , the first major tributary of the Mississippi, was later named in his honor. United States newspapers widely covered this expedition. Schoolcraft followed up with

2592-413: The upper reaches of the Mississippi to settle continuing troubles between the Ojibwe and Dakota (Sioux) nations. He worked to talk to as many Native American leaders as possible to maintain the peace. He was also provided with a surgeon and given instructions to begin vaccinating Native Americans against smallpox . He determined that smallpox had been unknown among the Ojibwe before the return in 1750 of

2646-519: The upper vault, along with seventeen hundred beads, five hundred sea shells, five copper bracelets, and one hundred and fifty plates of mica . It was "a small flat stone, of an ovate shape, containing an inscription in unknown characters". Schoolcraft was the first to subject the stone to a critical examination. Five years after its discovery, he found it "lying unprotected among broken implements of stone, pieces of antique pottery, and other like articles", suggesting that those who found it had not recognised

2700-571: The years. Jane suffered from frequent illnesses. She died in 1842, while visiting a sister in Canada, and was buried at St. John's Anglican Church, Ancaster, Ontario . On January 12, 1847, after moving to Washington, DC, at age 53 Schoolcraft married again, to Mary Howard (died March 12, 1878). She was a southerner and slaveholder, from an elite planter family of the Beaufort district of South Carolina. Her support of slavery and opposition to mixed-race unions created strains in her relationship with

2754-520: Was a glassmaker , and Schoolcraft initially studied and worked in the same industry. At age 24, he wrote his first paper on the topic, Vitreology (1817). After working in several glassworks in New York, Vermont , and New Hampshire , the young Schoolcraft left the family business at age 25 to explore the western frontier. From November 18 to February 1819, Schoolcraft and his companion Levi Pettibone made an expedition from Potosi, Missouri , to what

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2808-656: Was an American geographer , geologist , and ethnologist , noted for his early studies of Native American cultures, as well as for his 1832 expedition to the source of the Mississippi River . He is also noted for his major six-volume study of Native Americans commissioned by Congress and published in the 1850s. He served as United States Indian agent in Michigan for a period beginning in 1822. During this period, he named several newly organized counties, often creating neologisms that he claimed were derived from indigenous languages. There he married Jane Johnston , daughter of

2862-614: Was envisioned by the US government as a more settled way of life. In 1839 Schoolcraft was appointed Superintendent of Indian Affairs in the Northern Department. He began a series of Native American studies later published as the Algic Researches (2 vols., 1839). These included his collection of Native American stories and legends, many of which his wife Jane Johnston Schoolcraft told him or translated for him from her culture. While in Michigan, Schoolcraft became

2916-546: Was written in Southern response to the bestselling Uncle Tom's Cabin by Northern abolitionist Harriet Beecher Stowe . Schoolcraft was born in 1793 in Guilderland , Albany County, New York , the son of Lawrence Schoolcraft and Margaret-Anne Barbara (née Rowe) Schoolcraft. He entered Union College at age 15 and later attended Middlebury College . He was especially interested in geology and mineralogy. His father

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