Schoolcraft, HENRY ROWE

Schoolcraft, HENRY ROWE, American ethnologist, was born in New York state, March 28, 1793, studied at Union College, and in 1817-18 visited the mining region west of the Mississippi, afterwards publishing a Journal (1819; revised 1853). He also published a narrative of General Cass's exploring expedition to Lake Superior and the Upper Mississippi (1820), of which he was geologist. In 1822 he became Indian agent for the tribes about the lakes, and in 1823 he married the granddaughter of an Ojibway chief, who had been educated in Europe. From 1828 to 1832 he was an active member of the legislature of Michigan territory, and founded its Historical Society, and the Algie Society of Detroit. In 1832 he commanded an expedition which discovered the sources of the Mississippi (Narrative, 1834). While superintendent and disbursing agent for the Indians, he negotiated treaties by which the government acquired lands to the extent of 16,000,000 acres. In 1845 he collected the statistics of the Six Nations (Notes on the Iroquois, &c. 1848). In 1847 congress authorised him to gather, collate, and edit all accessible information relating to the Indians. The result is to be found in his Historical and Statistical Information respecting the History, Condition, and Prospects of the Indian Tribes of the United States (5 vols. 1851-55, published by congress at a cost of nearly $30,000 per vol., with over 300 illustrations; a sixth was added by Schoolcraft in 1857). His numerous other works include many poems, a Life of Cass, Algie Researches (1839), The Red Race of America (1847), Thirty Years with the Indian Tribes (1851), The Indian in his Wigwam, &c. He died 10th December 1864.