Seneca materials, Frank G. Speck Papers
Culture:
Seneca includes: Onöndowága
Haudenosaunee includes: Iroquois, Onkwehonwe
Date: 1921-1949
Contributor: Speck, Frank G. (Frank Gouldsmith), 1881-1950 | Congdon, Charles E. (Charles Edwin), 1877- | Deardorff, Merle H., 1890-1971 | Fenton, William N., (William Nelson), 1908-2005 | Isserman, Ferdinand M. (Ferdinand Myron), 1898-1972 | Luongo, James M. | Redeye, Clara | Clark, Evangeline | William, Spencer F. | White, Clayton | Cornplanter, Jesse J. | Redeye, Sherman
Subject: Anthropology | Ethnography | Linguistics | Social life and customs | Funeral rites and ceremonies | Dance | Rites and ceremonies | Religion | Masks | Medicine | Place names | Folklore | Oklahoma--History | Specimens
Type: Still Image | Text
Genre: Correspondence | Essays | Notes | Field notes | Charts | Photographs
Extent: 16 folders
Description: Materials relating to Speck's interest in Seneca language, history, and culture. Several folders contain correspondence, including one with six letters from Jesse Cornplanter to Speck and others on topics such as his religious beliefs and changes in the way of life; praising Speck; pay for Native consultants; sending Christmas greetings; and husk faces. Other correspondence includes letters from Charles E. Congdon concerning Coldspring Longhouse ceremonies, use of stick and post in dance, Tonawanda and Cattaraugus medicines, congratulating Speck on his Iroquois (1945), describing Alleghany ceremonials, and giving a sketch of the arrangement of participants; from James M. Luongo concerning Seneca and other specimens; from Clara Redeye transmitting a 1941 picture of four generations and sending dolls; from Spencer F. William, a Seneca writer seeking work; from Evangeline Clark sending thanks for reprints, which she had sent to Suffolk University; from Merle H. Deardorff concerning consultant Clayton White, Pennsylvania place names, Speck (1942), and a lengthy discussion of the practices of Handsome Lake adherents; and from Speck to Deardorff concerning an Iroquois conference at Allegany. Other folders contain William N. Fenton's Seneca ceremonial calendar from Coldspring, 131 pages of organized, detailed field notes on ceremonies; Congdon's 4-page essay comparing the religion of Handsome Lake with Judaism and Greco-Roman spirits; Clayton White's description of the one-year death feast; Clayton White's description of a False Face Dance at Coldspring Long House, taken for Deardorff; Speck's miscellaneous notes containing words and two letters from Sherman Redeye to Speck concerning corn-husk masks; Speck's notes on the Oklahoma Seneca with an outline of ceremonials and a chart, with special attention to dances and funerary practices; and Ferdinand Isserman's student paper "Mythology of Seneca Indians." Some of these materials may be restricted due to cultural sensitivity.
Collection: Frank G. Speck Papers Mss.Ms.Coll.126