Guide to the Indigenous Materials at the American Philosophical Society

Description: Norman Leonard Jacobs was an engineer and surveyor with the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway in Canada. The collection consists of his correspondence with Bessie Frank (later Anathan), an acquaintance from Pittsburgh. Jacobs wrote of daily life in Canadian cities like Winnipeg and Edmonton, interactions with First Nations, and daily hardships encountered in the field (extreme cold, snowblindness, and lack of food), but also spoke of his work with pride and enthusiasm. In addition to the letters, Jacobs wrote twenty-eight pages of a "Diary of a Tenderfoot." Also included in the collection are two photobooks and various loose photographs, which display various aspects of camp life, details of work sites and the Canadian landscape, and First Nations peoples. Some of the photographs are extremely faded. Native peoples mentioned include Ojibwe, Blackfoot, Cree, "Surteau" (likely Saulteaux),"Bloods" (Kainai), "Stonies" (Nakoda, or "Stoney"), as well as Native people at Tete Jaune Cache who are likely Simpcw. The images include family groups; men, women, and children fishing; men (some apparently hired by Jacobs or his company to act as guides and carriers in the field) working with an infant in a cradleboard; Ojibwe graves; tepees [tipis]; "Sioux" warriors; a sweat bath; horse races; individuals like Joe KaeKwitch, Chief Handorgan, Chief Wingard, Muskowken, etc. Most of these materials have been digitized and are available through the APS's Digital Library. Also see the finding aid for more background information on Jacobs and detailed itemized lists for both Series I. Correspondence and Series II. Graphic Materials.

Collection:Anathan-Jacobs Grand Trunk Pacific Railway Collection (Mss.SMs.Coll.13)

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Cree materials, Miscellaneous Manuscripts Collection

Culture:

Cree includes: Nēhiyaw, Cri

Language:English | Cree, Swampy

Date:April 15, 1872; April 30, 1945; October 1, 1948

Contributor:Young, Egerton Ryerson, 1840-1909 | Ahenakew, Edward

Type:Text

Genre:Vocabularies | Correspondence | Essays

Extent:3 items

Description: Young's "Rossville Mission Indian vocabularies," Cree vocabulary collected at the Rossville Mission near Norway House, Manitoba. Ahenakew's "The Cree Indians' theology," discusses various Cree conceptions of Muneto; describes attempt to acquire personal Muneto; mentions sun dance for Thunderbird. Letter from Ahenakew to Paul A. W. Wallace, transmits genealogy of his family and information on Skunkskin. Hopes to write on Metawiwin societies, mentions Tar Blanket and Susukwamoos as high in Metawiwin. People at Ahenakew's reserve have been Christian for four generations; has to travel to get ethnographic information.

Collection:Miscellaneous Manuscripts Collection (Mss.Ms.Coll.200)

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Fairwind's drum

Culture:

Ojibwe includes: Ojibwa, Chippewa, Ojibway

Anishinaabe includes: Anishinaabeg, Anishinabe, Nishnaabe, Anishinabek

Language:English

Date:1993

Contributor:Matthews, Maureen Anne, 1949-

Type:Text

Genre:Transcripts | Radio programs | Stories

Extent:1 volume

Description: Transcript of show "Ideas," copyright by the Canadian Broadcast Corp. Describes the drum ceremony created by Fairwind for the Ojibwa and A. Irving Hallowell's work on Fairwind's drum.

Collection:Fairwind's drum (Mss.970.3.M43f)

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Ojibwe and Cree materials, Daythal L. Kendall Papers

Culture:

Ojibwe includes: Ojibwa, Chippewa, Ojibway

Omushkego includes: Cree, Swampy, Mushkegowuk, Omushkigowack

Naskapi includes: ᓇᔅᑲᐱ, Iyiyiw, Skoffie

Cree includes: Nēhiyaw, Cri

Anishinaabe includes: Anishinaabeg, Anishinabe, Nishnaabe, Anishinabek

Date:1970s

Subject:Linguistics | Language study and teaching | Manitoba--History | Quebec--History

Type:Text | Sound recording

Genre:Correspondence | Vocabularies | Stories

Extent:1.5 linear feet; audio

Description: After finishing his PhD, Daythal Kendall accepting a position at Brandon University, Manitoba to teach local varieties of Cree and Ojibwe, as a temporary replacement for Paul Voorhis. He therefore possessed a large number of Paul Voorhis' Cree publications (Series 5), and during this time produced a large volume of lessons to teach Canadian Aboriginal syllabics. These are in various forms in Series 3, including students' exercises. There is also correspondence relating to this period with Paul Voorhis and Katherine Merriam, as well as a separate conversation relating to American Philosophical Society materials (Series 1). Series 11 contains numerous audio recordings in several Ojibwe and Cree languages, including stories (some unidentified) and langauge exercises.

Collection:Daythal L. Kendall Papers (Mss.Ms.Coll.148)

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Ojibwe materials, Maureen Matthews Papers

Culture:

Ojibwe includes: Ojibwa, Chippewa, Ojibway

Anishinaabe includes: Anishinaabeg, Anishinabe, Nishnaabe, Anishinabek

Language:Chippewa | English | Ojibwa, Northwestern | Ojibwa, Western | Oji-Cree (ᐊᓂᔑᓂᓂᒧᐏᐣ)

Date:1955-2011 (bulk 1992-2011)

Type:Sound recording | Still Image | Text

Extent:350+ hours; 2500+ photographs; 100+ documents

Description: Audio recordings, photographs, and born-digital manuscripts documenting Ojibwe communities and individuals primarily in Manitoba and Ontario, with a smaller number from Minnesota and Wisconsin. Subject matter includes the photographs and ethnography of A. Irving Hallowell in these communities in the 1930s, thunderbirds, memegwesiwag, Ojibwe language, religion, ceremonies, and other traditions. The main communities concerned are Berens River, Pauingassi, Little Grand Rapids, Pikangikum, Poplar Hill, and Jackhead. The majority of the audio materials are interviews recorded in the context of producing radio documentaries for CBC Radio One from the early 1990s through late 2000s. (See Series I, Subseries 12 for the broadcast version of these documentaries.) Transcripts for both the finished documentaries and some of the interviews are located in Series II. Photographs taken during Matthews' visits to indigenous communities, museums, and other locations can be found in Series III.

Collection:Maureen Matthews Papers (Mss.Ms.Coll.164)

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Ojibwe materials, Phillips Fund Collection

Culture:

Ojibwe includes: Ojibwa, Chippewa, Ojibway

Language:Chippewa | English | Ojibwa, Northwestern

Date:1948, 1967-1968, 1985, 1993-1997, 2012-2015

Type:Moving Image | Still Image | Text

Extent:1883 pages, 72 photographs, 1 film

Description: The Ojibwe materials in the Phillips Fund collection consist of several items. Materials in this collection are listed alphabetically by last name of author. See materials listed under Beckett, Gills, Hele, Jackson, Kurath, Morse, Pollak, Powers, White, Willets, and Wishart.

Collection:Phillips Fund for Native American Research Collection (Mss.497.3.Am4)

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Plains Cree materials, Maureen Matthews Papers

Culture:

Cree includes: Nēhiyaw, Cri

Language:Cree, Plains | English

Date:1994-1999, 2009

Contributor:Cuthand, Stan | Matthews, Maureen Anne, 1949- | McLeod, Neal

Type:Sound recording | Text

Genre:Conversations | Interviews | Radio programs | Stories

Extent:20+ hours

Description: Audio recordings of interviews with Cree people on topics including Cree language, history, horses, wihtigo, thunderbirds, and other topics. The bulk of the interviews are with Stan Cuthand and Neal McLeod. The majority of the audio materials are interviews recorded in the context of producing radio documentaries for CBC Radio One from the early 1990s through late 2000s. (See Series I, Subseries 12 for the broadcast version of these documentaries.) Transcripts for both the finished documentaries are located in Series II.

Collection:Maureen Matthews Papers (Mss.Ms.Coll.164)

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Siouan texts: mutual intelligibility survey

Culture:

Stoney includes: Nakoda

Oceti Sakowin includes: Očhéthi Šakówiŋ, Sioux

Lakota

Dakota includes: Dakȟóta

Assiniboine includes: Assiniboin, Nakoda, Hohe, Nakota

Language:Dakota | English | Lakota | Stoney | Assiniboine

Date:1968

Type:Sound recording

Genre:Stories | Autobiographies

Extent:1 sound tape reel (12 min.) : DIGITIZED

Description: Five short texts recorded to conducted a mutual intelligibility study of Siouan languages. The speakers of the stories are from Eagle Butte, South Dakota; Sintaluta, Saskatchewan; Fort Totten, North Dakota; Griswold, Manitoba; and Rocky Mountain House, Alberta. This recording is the basis for Harbeck's report, "A Study in Mutual Intelligibility and Linguistic Separation Among Five Siouan Languages" (37 pages) (Mss.497.3.Am4). (NOTE: This material has been digitized and can be accessed online for free by users not physically at the APS Library through a login and password. Please see our Audio Access Page for information on how to request these materials.)

Collection:Siouan texts: mutual intelligibility survey (Mss.Rec.71)