Guide to the Indigenous Materials at the American Philosophical Society

Description: This entry concerns materials relating to Speck's general study of Native American peoples, languages, and cultures east of the Mississippi, as well as to his activities as a consulted expert in the field. Includes Speck's miscellaneous notes on the southeast; notes on "tribal remnants" in the southeast; notes on shamanism in the northeast; notes on the 1941 symposium Man in Northeastern America; offprints, drafts, and synopses of the work of others, sometimes with Speck's notes, including several that were printed in Frederick Johnson's 1946 volume based on the symposium, Man in Northeastern North America; archaeological reports on southeastern pottery, mound sites, and the Georgia coast; a student's master's thesis on mound-builders; and letters from various correspondents regarding eastern Indian baskets, museum specimens, the sale of Indian art and specimens, the ethnohistory of the southeast, Indian place names, archaeological sites in Pennsylvania and Massachusetts, scapulimancy, copies of Indian treaties from a museum in Nova Scotia, and other topics.

Collection:Frank G. Speck Papers (Mss.Ms.Coll.126)

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Haudenosaunee materials, Paul A. W. Wallace Papers

Culture:

Tuscarora includes: Ska:rù:rę'

Seneca includes: Onöndowága

Oneida includes: Onyota'a:ka

Mohawk includes: Kanienʼkehá꞉ka

Lenape includes: Lenni-Lenape, Delaware

Haudenosaunee includes: Iroquois, Onkwehonwe

Language:English

Date:1936-1967

Type:Still Image | Text

Extent:39 items

Description: Materials relating to Paul A. W. Wallace's interest in Haudenosaunee people, history, and culture. Of particular interest will be Wallace's correspondence and interviews with Haudenosaunee individuals. This includes Wallace's extensive correspondence with Ray Fadden (Tehanetorens, Aren Akweks) on subjects such as publications, the Haudenosaunee, the Akwesasne Mohawks, personal matters, etc., as well as a woodcut by John Fadden (Kahionhes) titled "The persecuted Iroquois"; Ray Fadden's "The Visions of Handsome Lake," an interpretation of Ray Fadden's wampum belt (with two drawings by John Fadden); and Ray Fadden's (Aren Akweks, Tehanetorens) "Iroquois Lesson Book-Stories for good children and bad." Interview materials include a "Six Nations Journal", containing notes on interviews with Nick Peters, Chief Joseph Montour, John Napoleon Brinton Hewitt, Isaiah Williams, Chief Hess, Chief William Loft, Alec General, and Jerry Aaron; notes, manuscripts, and interviews with William Dewaseragech Loft relating to the Haudenosaunee and to Wallace's preparation of an entry on Loft for the Dictionary of Canadian Biography; and a transcript of a talk on Haudenosaunee cosmogony and history of relations with white people attributed to the Seneca chief Cornplanter and taken from a document (circa 1822) in the Draper Collection at Princeton University. Other Native correspondents and consultants include Jesse J. Cornplanter regarding the purchase of drawings, along with five of Cornplanter's drawings: "Two Friends," "Mortise," and three untitled; Alexander J. General (Deskaheh) regarding copies of Wallace's White Roots of Peace, the identity of a Mohawk chief, the meaning of some names, and Wallace's trip for the Seventh Annual Pageant at Ohnedagowah; E. T. Montour regarding the Handsome Lake religion; Ethel Brant Montour regarding the Haudenosaunee and the Brant and Montour families; Donald Richmond regarding copying the Seth Newhouse version of Deganawidah sent to the St. Regis Mohawks; Allan Wargon regarding the film "The Longhouse People"; M. J. Jamieson regarding attendance by Wallace at the Condolence to the Dead and the Great Feast for the Dead; Arthur Einhorn (Skaroniate) regarding copies of publications, misinformation about the Iroquois, and plans for building an "Indian village"; Emily General regarding possible genealogical studies of chiefs of the Haudenosaunee, the annual pageant at Ohnedagowah, and vital statistics of Deskaheh (Hi-wyi-iss, Levi General); Bernice Minton Loft Winslow (Dawendine) regarding the Haudenosaunee, the health of her father Chief William Loft (Mohawk), publications, her poetry; Mad Bear regarding a parcel of land in Philadelphia reportedly owned by the and Robert Gabor (Sagotaoala) regarding Gabor's interest in and research on the effects of the adoption complex on the Iroquois Confederacy, his art work for Ray Fadden, circumstances under which the Delawares entered the League, etc. There is also correspondence between Wallace and other non-Native researchers including Charles E. Congdon regarding arrangements for conferences on Iroquoian studies; James T. Edward regarding a biographical sketch of Madam Montour for Notable American Women, 1607-1950; Peter Schuyler Miller regarding the Deganawidah legend; Arthur Caswell Parker regarding the Haudenosaunee and Conrad Weiser; Harvey Chalmers regarding Heckewelder's prejudice against the Haudenosaunee and its effect on Cooper, and prejudice aroused by Cooper's novels; Howard F. Comrie regarding the Iroquois Confederacy as an inspiration for the Constitution and Bill of Rights; Harry C. Durston regarding the date and place of the founding of the Five Nations Confederacy and possible influences of the Haudenosaunee on the United States Constitution; John F. Freeman regarding Ray Fadden and the Akwesasne Mohawk Counsellor Organization and mentioning Seth Newhouse, Bernice Loft, and Edward Ahenakew; Marion E. Gridley regarding The Amerindian: American Indian Review, a picture of Maria Tallchief, and role of the Delawares, Tuscaroras, and Oneidas in the American Revolution; Alfred K. Guthe regarding old photos of Iroquois costumes in the Rochester Museum of Arts and Sciences; John Serres regarding the dedication of an Iroquois monument at Scarboro, Ontario and attempts to preserve Native culture; William N. Fenton regarding the Haudenosaunee, different versions of the Deganawidah legend, meanings of Indian names, archaeological work in the area to be flooded by the Kinzua Dam, political history of the Iroquois, Seth Newhouse, publications, research, fieldwork, etc.; an essay by Fenton on published and manuscript sources relating to the history of political institutions and laws of the Haudenosaunee, particularly with regard to ethnological sources, procedural methods to reach the desired goal, and expected results (published in Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 93 (1949): pages 233-238); and William A. Ritchie regarding a meeting at the American Philosophical Society, Indian trails in the Delaware Valley, and the probable date of the founding of the Five Nations Confederacy. Finally, there are Wallace's own notes, drafts, essays, etc., including notes for and a draft of "The Iroquois-A Brief Outline of their History" and "Return of Hiawatha," on the reasons for Iroquois ascendancy.

Collection:Paul A. W. Wallace Papers (Mss.Ms.Coll.64b)

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Mohawk materials, Floyd G. Lounsbury Papers

Culture:

Tuscarora includes: Ska:rù:rę'

Shawnee

Mohawk includes: Kanienʼkehá꞉ka

Language:English | Mohawk

Date:1863; 1903; 1949-1972

Type:Text | Sound recording

Description: The Mohawk materials in the Lounsbury Papers are primarily found in the "Mohawk" section of Series II: Research Subject. This section contains materials Lounsbury recorded directly with Mohawk speakers from Kahnawake such as Minnie Diabo and Louise Diabo, who Lounsbury appears to have first met via the Mohawk community in Boerum Hill, Brooklyn. The section also contains notes by Gordon Day, Marius Barbeau, J.N.B. Hewitt, and others. There are also notes for a Mohawk dictionary collected by Gunther Michelson between 1961-1994. The recordings in Series VII include a series entitled "The Mohawks Learn Mohawk," of Lounsbury talking with students in a classroom setting. There are also recordings of Lounsbury teaching at Yale with the Mohawk speaker Minnie Diabo

Collection:Floyd G. Lounsbury Papers (Mss.Ms.Coll.95)