In 1885, poet Charles G. D. Roberts published Johnson's "A Cry from an Indian Wife" in "The Week", Goldwin Smith's Toronto magazine. She based it on events of the battle of Cut Knife Creek during the Riel Rebellion. Roberts and Johnson became lifelong friends. Johnson promoted her identity as a Mohawk, but as an adult spent little time with people of that culture. In 1885, Johnson travelled to Buffalo, New York, to attend a ceremony honouring the Haudenosaunee leader "Sagoyewatha," also known as Red Jacket. She wrote a poem expressing admiration for him and a plea for reconciliation between British and Native peoples.