Guide to the Indigenous Materials at the American Philosophical Society

Description: This volume contains extracts of Benjamin Smith Barton's "New Views of the Origin of the Tribes and Nations of America" (Philadelphia, 1797), with additions by Peter S. Du Ponceau. The bulk of the volume is comprised of word list of 54 words with equivalents listed in a range of 50-70 languages. While Barton listed no authority, Du Ponceau cited sources. Languages with words listed include Chitimacha, Atakapa, Cherokee, Osage, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Nottoway, Kansa, Omaha, Dakota, Pawnee, Nanticoke, Gros Ventres, Miami, Mi'kmaq, Seminole, Quapaw, Yuchi, Delaware, Ojibwe, Shawnee, Seneca, Mohawk, Onondaga, Cayuga, Oneida, Tuscarora, Natches, Wyandot, Creek, Mahican, Mohegan, and many others. The word list includes the terms for God, heaven, and sky, as well as various terms relating to kinship, parts of the body, weather, and more. The volume also includes notes on sounds of the Otomi (Othomi) observations on declension; observations about the Omaha, Kansa, Oto, Arkansas, and Missouri languages; and notes on symbol and sound. Also includes a newspaper clipping of a review (in German) of Barton's "New Views" that appeared in "Göttingische Anzeigen von gelehrten Sachen," June 17, 1799.

Collection:A comparative vocabulary of Indian languages (Mss.497.B28)

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Benjamin Smith Barton journals; notebooks

Culture:

Wyandot includes: Huron, Wendat, Wyandotte, Huron-Wyandot

Seneca includes: Onöndowága

Susquehannock includes: Conestoga

Ojibwe includes: Ojibwa, Chippewa, Ojibway

Mandan includes: Nueta

Lenape includes: Lenni-Lenape, Delaware

Cayuga includes: Gayogohó:no

Cherokee

Chickasaw

Language:Cayuga | English

Date:1785-1806

Contributor:Barton, Benjamin Smith, 1766-1815

Subject:Archaeology | Geography | Treaties | Warfare | Graves

Type:Text

Genre:Vocabularies

Extent:0.5 Linear feet, 2 boxes; 2 volumes

Description: A manuscript compiled from originals in the Historical Society of Pennsylvania by William L. McAtee. Concerns murder of John Armstrong by Indians; mentions Canestogae tribe, Cayahoga path, Cheerake, Chickasaw, Colonel Cresap; tuberculosis among Indians; Delawares; eloquence; Indian barrows, fortifications, and graves; Kash kask kunck; Mandan; Seneca, Six Nations (Haudenosaunee), and Captain White Eyes. Also Crave Creek mound; Wyandot, Indian sugar camp; war customs and war party; treaty of December 1784 at Fort McIntosh with Chippewa and Wyandots; Indian burning; Indian diseases. Teedyuscung; Penn's treaty with the Delaware (1682 and 1702); meaning of "Geneseo"; Seneca battle with Koghquangians (Caughnawaga); Chickasaw; specimen of a Cayuga vocabulary with same list as that used in Barton (1797).

Collection:Benjamin Smith Barton journals; notebooks (Mss.B.B284.1)

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Catawba materials, Selections from the correspondence of the Honourable James Logan

Culture:

Shawnee

Seneca includes: Onöndowága

Lenape includes: Lenni-Lenape, Delaware

Haudenosaunee includes: Iroquois, Onkwehonwe

Catawba includes: Iswa

Cherokee

Language:English

Date:1737-1751

Type:Text

Genre:Correspondence | Instructions

Extent:19 items

Description: Correspondence between James Logan, other royal and propriety officials, and various Native groups regarding Native affairs. Topics include Catawba relations with Cherokees, Haudenosaunee, and other Native groups; Catawba relations with various colonies; efforts to preserve peace among Britain's Native allies; fears about effect of inter-Native warfare during King George's War; and efforts to arrange a peace treaty between the Catawbas and the Haudenosaunee. Individuals mentioned include Schermerhorn and Conrad Weiser.

Collection:Selections from the correspondence of the Honourable James Logan, 1699-1750 (Mss.B.L82)

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Cayuga materials, Frank G. Speck Papers

Culture:

Tuscarora includes: Ska:rù:rę'

Seneca includes: Onöndowága

Onondaga includes: Onöñda'gega'

Nanticoke

Mohawk includes: Kanienʼkehá꞉ka

Lenape includes: Lenni-Lenape, Delaware

Haudenosaunee includes: Iroquois, Onkwehonwe

Cayuga includes: Gayogohó:no

Language:English | Cayuga

Date:1914-1947

Contributor:Speck, Frank G. (Frank Gouldsmith), 1881-1950 | Dodge, Ernest S. (Ernest Stanley), 1913-1980

Type:Text

Genre:Correspondence | Notebooks | Notes | Vocabularies

Extent:10 folders

Description: Materials relating to Speck's study of Cayuga history, language, and culture. This includes Speck's correspondence with indigenous consultants such as Deskaheh and Alexander General (who became known as Deskaheh after the other's death in 1925) on topics such as museum specimens, games, religion, politics, land claims, stories, etc.; correspondence with other anthropologists such as Ernest Dodge about Cayuga war medicine [see also Speck and Dodge (1945)] and William N. Fenton concerning Cayuga winter rituals and suggestions for Speck's Cayuga manuscripts [see also Speck (1945b)]; and a notebook of Cayuga material containing ethnographic data and mentioning consultants John L. Buck, Mrs. John L. Buck, and Jerry Aaron as well as Deskaheh.

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

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Cherokee materials, Frank G. Speck Papers

Culture:

Yuchi includes: Euchee

Seneca includes: Onöndowága

Lenape includes: Lenni-Lenape, Delaware

Catawba includes: Iswa

Choctaw includes: Chahta

Cherokee

Creek

Language:English | Cherokee

Date:1920-1951

Type:Text | Still Image

Extent:17 folders

Description: Materials relating to Speck's study of Cherokee history and culture. This includes 24 pages of correspondence with Cherokee collaborators like Will West Long and Allen W. Long; 47 pages of field notes; notes and drafts relating to the preparation of Speck's manuscript on Cherokee music, dance, and drama; correspondence with colleagues such as George Herzog and Leonard Broom on Cherokee music, dance, and drama; correspondence with Franz Boas concerning copying of his Catawba texts and the Cherokee field work of Frans Olbrechts; correspondence with Will West Long about museum specimens; a biographical sketch of Will West Long; a postcard to Marian Godfrey regarding Cherokee Museum specimens; a letter to E. B. Norvell regarding silver trade goods and European imitations sold by the Cherokee; a bibliography of Cherokee sources, Publication 68650, listing 48 items, 1775-1922, prepared by the Department of the Interior, Office of Indian Affairs; a copy of a 1566-1567 letter (7 pages in English, with introduction by Speck) written by Juan Pardo relating early Spanish contact with the Cherokee; an account of the Cherokee and Delaware alliance given by Witapanóxwe (War Eagle and James Webber); a transcription of an 1818 letter written by Charles Hicks on the manners and customs of the Cherokees; correspondence about Cherokee basketry; correspondence regarding the accuracy of material in Robert Strange, Eoneguski, or the Cherokee Chief (1939); and 27 pages of miscellanous notes. Also includes 100+ photographs.

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

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Delaware materials, Selections from the correspondence of the Honourable James Logan

Culture:

Seneca includes: Onöndowága

Susquehannock includes: Conestoga

Shawnee

Piscataway includes: Conoy

Nanticoke

Mohawk includes: Kanienʼkehá꞉ka

Mingo

Miami includes: Myaamiaki

Lenape includes: Lenni-Lenape, Delaware

Haudenosaunee includes: Iroquois, Onkwehonwe

Cayuga includes: Gayogohó:no

Language:English

Date:1725-1759

Contributor:Delaware chiefs | Logan, James, 1674-1751 | Weiser, Conrad, 1696-1760 | Peters, Richard, 1704-1776 | Penn, John, 1700-1746

Type:Text

Genre:Correspondence | Minutes | Memoranda | Accounts | Reports

Extent:27 items

Description: Correspondence and other materials relating to Indian affairs. Topics include land claims; treaties and diplomatic conferences; Indian complaints of dispossession and mistreatment; "Minguay" (Mingo?) expense of Indian diplomacy; illness and death of Allumapis; Conrad Weiser's activities in the service of the colony; Delawares and other Indians in Ohio; hanging of Indian in New Jersey; efforts to make the Haudenosaunee "overlords" of Pennsylvania's nearer Native neighbors; the Walking Purchase; Shawnees "making trouble"; fears of Indians going over to the French. Individuals mentioned include Allumapis, Christopher Pyrlaeus, Conrad Weiser, Shickellamy, Teedyuscung, Christopher Stump, Hugh Jones, Mannakahickan, Broken Thigh, Captain Newcastle, James Logan, Governor Ogle; Nutimus.

Collection:Selections from the correspondence of the Honourable James Logan, 1699-1750 (Mss.B.L82)

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Haudenosaunee materials, Frank Siebert Papers

Culture:

Seneca includes: Onöndowága

Onondaga includes: Onöñda'gega'

Mohawk includes: Kanienʼkehá꞉ka

Lenape includes: Lenni-Lenape, Delaware

Haudenosaunee includes: Iroquois, Onkwehonwe

Cayuga includes: Gayogohó:no

Cherokee

Language:English | Onondaga

Date:1881; 1895; 1909; 1932

Type:Text

Genre:Dictionaries | Grammars | Vocabularies

Extent:178 pages

Description: The Haudenosaunee materials in the Frank Siebert Papers are confined mostly to Series III, subsection C, "Texts." On interest are early historical accounts from the 17th century; accounts by Iroquois informants; and a relatively small amount of linguistic materials.

Collection:Frank Siebert Papers (Mss.Ms.Coll.97)

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Haudenosaunee materials, John Gottlieb Ernestus Heckewelder letters to Peter Stephen Du Ponceau

Culture:

Wyandot includes: Huron, Wendat, Wyandotte, Huron-Wyandot

Tuscarora includes: Ska:rù:rę'

Seneca includes: Onöndowága

Taíno includes: Arawak

Nottoway includes: Cheroenhaka

Lokono includes: Arawak

Lenape includes: Lenni-Lenape, Delaware

Haudenosaunee includes: Iroquois, Onkwehonwe

Dakota includes: Dakȟóta

Language:English

Date:October 7, 1820; June 4, 1818; September 21, 1818; August 12, 1818; July 1, 1819; July 15, 1820

Subject:History | Linguistics

Type:Text

Genre:Correspondence

Extent:6 letters

Description: Concerning vocabularies of Huron-Wyandot and Delaware. Mentions Steinhauer and Schulz, who has an Arawak dictionary. Heckewelder offers corrections to Du Ponceau's publication. Discusses Leatherlip's Huron-Wyandot identity. Claims Nottoway, Naudowessie, and Huron are the same. Recounts how Tuscarora broke from Haudenosaunee.

Collection:John Gottlieb Ernestus Heckewelder letters to Peter Stephen Du Ponceau (Mss.497.3.H35o)

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Haudenosaunee materials, Papers, 1790-1796, on Indian affairs

Culture:

Wyandot includes: Huron, Wendat, Wyandotte, Huron-Wyandot

Seneca includes: Onöndowága

Shawnee

Miami includes: Myaamiaki

Nanticoke

Lenape includes: Lenni-Lenape, Delaware

Haudenosaunee includes: Iroquois, Onkwehonwe

Language:English

Date:1790-1976

Contributor:Pickering, Timothy, 1745-1829 | Knox, Henry, 1750-1806 | Parish, Jasper, 1767-1836 | Kirkland, Samuel, 1741-1808 | Sergeant, John, 1747-1824

Type:Text

Extent:4 reels

Description: These papers include letters, reports, minutes, memoranda, and addresses to Indian chiefs, selected from the Pickering papers from the Massachusetts Historical Society and from the Essex Institute. Includes letters and documents pertaining to Pickering, Henry Knox, John Sergeant, Jasper Parrish and Samuel Kirkland; relates to New York and Western Indian affairs, principally Iroquois, but also Nanticoke, Shawano [Shawnee], Delaware, Wyandot, Miami, Seneca. Originals at the Massachusetts Historical Society (3 reels) and Essex Institute, Salem, Massachusetts (1 reel). See also Fenton (1953).

Collection:Papers, 1790-1796, on Indian affairs (Mss.Film.638 & 645)

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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)