Johnson's still tentative public identification with her Native roots was encouraged by English critic Theodore Watts-Dunton. His review of "Songs of the Great Dominion," in the prestigious London journal "The Athenaeum", drew from Lighthall's biographical notes to emphasize Johnson as "the cultivated daughter of an Indian chief, who is, on account of her descent, the most interesting English poetess now living". He quoted the entire text of "In the Shadows" in his review. The fascination of the imperial metropolis with the relatively exotic aspects of the former colony contributed substantially to Johnson's later self-dramatization to British audiences. There she downplayed her English mother in order to highlight her Mohawk father.