Pauline Johnson

Emily Pauline Johnson, known in Mohawk as Tekahionwake ("Double Wampum"), was the daughter of Mohawk hereditary chief George Henry Martin Johnson and Englishwoman Emily Howland. Johnson became a nationwide sensation in the 1890s, touring Canada, the United States, and Great Britain with theatrical poetry recitations dressed alternately in traditional Haudenosaunee attire and Victorian ballgowns.

Her enduring collections The White Wampum (1895) and Canadian Born (1903), along with classic poems such as "The Song My Paddle Sings," affirmed Indigenous dignity, cultural survival, and Canadian natural grandeur.