E. Pauline Johnson was born in 1861 at the Six Nations Reserve near the town of Brantford, Ontario. She grew up at Chiefswood, a home built by her father Chief George Henry Martin Johnson for her English mother, Emily. Her Mohawk name, Tekahionwake, means double wampum. Although she did not live on the reserve and grew up in a mostly non-Aboriginal area, she maintained close ties with her community.

Johnson is generally considered to be the first Aboriginal poet in Canada. Her poetry often showed aspects of Aboriginal life and Aboriginal points of view, and she became the first Aboriginal woman to write about her heritage in ways that non-Aboriginal people could understand. When she was 31, she toured Canada giving recitals of her poetry and performing in comedy routines and plays. She also travelled to England to have her poetry published. She received the Prize for Fiction (1892) from Dominion Magazine for her work A Red Girl's Reasoning. Johnson died of cancer in 1913.

Her collection of poetry includes:

Canadian Born
The White Wampum
Flint and Feather: The Complete Poems of E. Pauline Johnson
Legends of Vancouver
The Moccasin Maker

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