Guide to the Indigenous Materials at the American Philosophical Society

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Interviews concerning the paintings of the Seneca artist Ernest Smith

Culture:

Seneca includes: Onöndowága

Haudenosaunee includes: Iroquois, Onkwehonwe

Language:English | Seneca

Date:1973

Contributor:Smith, Ernest | Collamer, Jeanette | Fenton, William N., (William Nelson), 1908-2005

Type:Sound recording

Genre:Interviews | Stories

Extent:11 sound tape reels (29 hr., 41 min.)

Description: Interviews and discussions with the Seneca artist Ernest Smith on his paintings of Seneca customs, stories, ceremonies, crafts, food preparation, and other traditional ways. Smith was a Seneca from the Tonawanda Reservation in New York state. The paintings were done in the 1930s and are presently in the Rochester Museum and Science Center in Rochester, New York. The recordings were made by William N. Fenton and his student, Jeanette Collamer, in 1973 at the museum in Rochester. The paintings are referred to on the recordings by the museum's catalog numbers for the paintings. Some of the paintings do not have assigned titles. Sound quality is fair overall, with severe distortion and prominent background noise on the final tape. Some of the recordings are restricted due to potential cultural sensitivity.

Collection:Interviews concerning the paintings of the Seneca artist Ernest Smith (Mss.Rec.126)

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Iroquois past and present in the state of New York, presented by the Akwesasne Mohawk counselor organization

Culture:

Tuscarora includes: Ska:rù:rę'

Seneca includes: Onöndowága

Oneida includes: Onyota'a:ka

Onondaga includes: Onöñda'gega'

Mohawk includes: Kanienʼkehá꞉ka

Lenape includes: Lenni-Lenape, Delaware

Haudenosaunee includes: Iroquois, Onkwehonwe

Cayuga includes: Gayogohó:no

Language:English

Date:1940

Contributor:Gabor, Robert (Sagotaoala) | Fadden, Ray

Type:Still Image | Text

Genre:Posters | Drawings | Maps | Negatives

Extent:16 panels (oversized)

Description: Designer and author Ray Fadden (Aren Akweks, Tehanetorens) was a member of the Wolf Clan of the Mohawk community of Akwesasne and founder of the Six Nations Indian Museum of Onchiota, New York. As an educator, Fadden created “educational charts” to convey elements of Haudenosaunee history and culture to audiences. Early on, he enlisted the help of his son, John Fadden. Later, others were brought in to create other charts. This particular chart or poster is signed by Sagotaoala (Bob Gabor). It is comprised of four parts (photocopies of the original). Seen as a whole, the central feature of the poster is a map of Haudenosaunee territory in present-day New York State, showing the relative locations of the six nations of the Iroquois League (Haudenosaunee: Seneca, Cayuga, Onondaga, Oneida, Mohawk, and Tuscarora) and overlaid with drawings relating to Haudenosaunee history and culture. This central image is ringed with many more sketches, and around the edges the chart is bordered wtih different wampum belt designs. The sketches range from small and simple to fairly large and elaborate, and feature important people, events, places, material culture items, etc. from Haudenosaunee history and culture. This includes drawings of people like Hiawatha, Joseph Brant, Mary Jemison, etc.; material culture items like a water drum, body armor, pottery, etc.; scenes from daily life such as hunting, playing lacrosse, and a medicine man harvesting tobacco, etc.; more specific events like councils, warfare, a Dutch massacre of Delaware neighbors, and the arrival of the Tuscarora; and more recent happenings like Akwesasne Club Members on an outing and the role of Indian steel-workers in the construction of the "Rainbow Bridge" acress the Niagara River. Along with the 4-panel complete educational poster, there are 2 panels with miscellanous drawings along the edges, less polished and less specific than in the completed version, and 2 panels that together comprise a map of New York State and environs, and have the same kinds of drawings as the other two posters (albeit less polished than the 4-panel poster but more polished than in the other 2-panel item). Included in this folder are negatives of each of the 8 panels described.

Collection:Iroquois past and present in the state of New York, presented by the Akwesasne Mohawk counselor organization (Mss.970.3.F12i)

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Kwakwaka'wakw materials, ACLS collection

Culture:

Zulu includes: AmaZulu

Nak'waxda'xw includes: Nakoaktok, Nakwoktak, Nakwaxda'xw

Namgis includes: Nimkish, Nimpkish

Kwakwaka'wakw includes: Kwakiutl

K'ómoks includes: Comox

Gopinuxw

Gusgimukw includes: Koskimo

Gwa'sala

Heiltsuk includes: Bella Bella, Haíɫzaqv

Gwatsinuxw includes: Quatsino

Gwawa'enuxw

Dzawada'enuxw includes: Tsawataineuk

Da'naxda'xw

A'wa'etłala

Date:1893-1951

Type:Still Image | Text

Extent:Approx. 10,000 loose pages, 10 notebooks, 7000+ cards, 10+ maps

Description: The Kwakwaka'wakw materials in the ACLS collection are located predominantly in the "Kwakiutl" section of the finding aid, which contains a full listing of all materials (other relevant sections are "Northwest Coast", "Bella Bella (Heitsuk)", and item AfBnd.4 in "Non-American and non-linguistic material"). Some of the larger individual sets of materials listed within this section also have their own specific tables of contents (available upon request) detailing their often highly diverse contents. Overall, the vast majority of the material is made of of 1) manuscripts sent to Boas by George Hunt from the 1890s to the 1930s, frequently in both Kwak'wala and English, covering a very broad range of Kwakwaka'wakw history, culture, languages, customs, and traditions; and 2) field work materials recorded by Boas and Boas' own analyses of material sent by Hunt, covering a similar range of topics. Additional materials by other individuals focus especially on linguistic and ethnographic matters. Also see the guide entry "Kwakiutl materials, Franz Boas Papers" for information on the correspondence between Boas and Hunt, which gives additional context to the materials in the ACLS collection.

Collection:ACLS Collection (American Council of Learned Societies Committee on Native American Languages, American Philosophical Society) (Mss.497.3.B63c)

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Lenape materials, Frank G. Speck Papers

Culture:

Tutelo includes: Yesan

Shawnee

Pawnee includes: Chaticks si Chaticks, Chatiks si Chatiks

Mohawk includes: Kanienʼkehá꞉ka

Munsee

Nanticoke

Lenape includes: Lenni-Lenape, Delaware

Haudenosaunee includes: Iroquois, Onkwehonwe

Cayuga includes: Gayogohó:no

Abenaki includes: Abnaki

Language:English | Delaware

Date:1895-1948

Type:Still Image | Text

Extent:57 folders

Description: Materials relating to Speck's study of Lenape (or "Delaware") history, language, and culture. Speck's correspondence with Delaware collaborators in Oklahoma relating to Lenape history, ethnographic data, linguistics, museum specimens, and reservation affairs, etc., might be of particular interest; there are also several tales related by Witapanóxwe, or War Eagle, other tales and texts (some with interlineal translation) from Josiah Montour and other unknown contributors, and 11 sketches of Lenape art designs. Other correspondence touches on Speck's efforts to collect specimens (and individuals and institutions interested in acquiring them), his efforts to collect paintings and sketches of ceremonies and designs, his fieldwork and expenses, financial support from the University of Pennsylvania and Indiana Historical Society, Shawnee data on Oklahoma Delawares, the Big House Ceremony, efforts to acquire a Delaware Big House to erect in Harrisburg, Delawares-as-women, etc. There are also at least 82 pages (in three folders) of Speck's field notes of ethnographic and linguistic data, and over 50 pages (in two folders) of Speck's miscellaneous notes (including some correspondence) on topics such as Gladys Tantaquidgeon and Lenape designs, botanical specimens, linguistic materials, museum specimens, the Walam Olum, the "Six Nation Delaware reservation", the celestial bear theme, native religion, reviews of Speck's publications, etc. Other notes cover Delaware grammar and vocabulary, Delaware clans and social organization, dualism in Delaware religion, the influence of Christianity on Delaware religion, the provenance of Delaware museum specimens obtained from Delawares in Oklahoma and Canada, biographical information on Joseph Montur and Nicodemus Peters, etc. There are also various drafts, essays, lectures and other writings by Speck on topics such as Delaware religion, ceremonies, peyote rites, designs, population, remnant populations in the east, history, place names, a Delaware bibliography and a notebook of reports to the University of Pennsylvania Research Committee on fieldwork among Oklahoma Delaware, St. Francis Abenaki, Munsee and Six Nations (Haudenosaunee) Delaware, Tutelo, Cayuga, 1931-1936.

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

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Ojibwe materials, Alfred Irving Hallowell Papers

Culture:

Ojibwe includes: Ojibwa, Chippewa, Ojibway

Anishinaabe includes: Anishinaabeg, Anishinabe, Nishnaabe, Anishinabek

Language:English | Chippewa | Ojibwa, Northwestern

Date:1932-1949

Type:Text | Cartographic | Still Image

Description: The Ojibwe materials in the A. Irving Hallowell Papers are extensive. Hallowell focused on three regions of Ojibwe territory: Berens River in north, central Canada (Pikangikum, Pauingassi, Poplar River; Little Grand Rapids First Nations) and Lac du Flambeau in Wisconsin. Hallowell was particularly interested in psychological anthropology. Both the Berens River and Lac du Flambeau materials in Series V, for example, includes ethnographic information on taboos, incest regulations, Rorschach tests, dreams, and acculturation. Hallowell's interests in traditional knowledge are represented by descriptions of the practice of the Midewiwin religion; traditional stories about Wisakedjak and Tcakabec/Chakabesh, Memegwesiug, Windigos, and Thunderbirds. Of particular interest in the Lac du Flambeau materials are hundred of pages of family biographies in Series V and photographs with the names of community members in Series VI, Subseries B. Of particular interest in the Berens River materials are maps of traditional hunting grounds, a diagram of Ojibwe cosmology, an autobiography by Hallowell's collaborator Chief William Berens, 29 folders of "Saulteaux Indians--Myths and Tales" all in Series V. There are hundreds of photographs from the region, with many community members identified, and all digitized, in Series VI, Subseries A. The correspondence, in Series I, includes Robert Ritzenhaler's description of a shaking tent ceremony by Ojibwe in Wisconsin; a detailed account of Joseph Fiddler's trial for murdering a windigo in the folder labled Royal Canadian Mounted Police; papers sent by Morton Teicher detailing incidents of windigo in Canada (50+ pages); a letter from Frances Densmore describing a shaking tent ceremony; and several letters from Chief William Berens providing information about Ojibwe people in the photographs in Series VI.

Collection:Alfred Irving Hallowell Papers (Mss.Ms.Coll.26)

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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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Papers and drawings for Cherokee Indian materials

Culture:

Cherokee

Language:English

Date:1893-1948

Contributor:Speck, Frank G. (Frank Gouldsmith), 1881-1950 | Witthoft, John | Mooney, James, 1861-1921

Type:Still Image

Genre:Sketches | Photographs | Negatives

Extent:19 pages

Description: This collection consists of 28 sketches, 8 black and white silver gelatin photographs, and 2 negatives of North Carolina Cherokee artifacts from ca. 1893-1948. Presumably collected by Frank Speck with John Witthoft during the latter's graduate field work, the images reflect the social life and customs of the Cherokee including war clubs, garments, Deer & Bear masks, rattles and dance formations. Of the dances presented are the Pigeon, Partridge, Corn, Beaver, Green Corn, and Ball game. Of note, an 1893 photograph by Mooney depicting Cherokee men and women in native attire at a ceremony before a ball game. The sketches are noted in Murphy Smith's Historical American Sketches.

Collection:Papers and drawings for Cherokee Indian materials (Mss.970.3.W78)

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Pima Bajo materials, John Alden Mason Papers

Culture:

Yaqui includes: Hiaki, Yoeme

Tepehuán includes: Tepehuanes, Tepehuano

Pima Bajo includes: Lower Pima, Mountain Pima, O'ob

Navajo includes: Diné, Navaho

Date:1953-1965

Contributor:Brugge, David M. | Mason, John Alden, 1885-1967

Type:Still Image | Text

Extent:12 items

Description: Materials relating to Pima Bajo language and culture. Most items are attributed to David M. Brugge, though some include notes or comments by John Alden Mason. Materials include 10 pages of Lower Pima [Pima Bajo] notes, part of Brugge's contribution to an article co-authored with Mason; 85 pages of notes, drafts, letters, etc. relating to the same article, including bibliographic items and a linguistic map of northwestern Mexico; a file of correspondence, draft reports on, and expenses for a 1953 Nevome [aka Lower Pima, Pima Bajo] or Lower Pima Expedition, a research trip to Sonora, Mexico (correspondents include Dale S. King, James McConnell, Edward H. Spicer, Fernando Pesqueira, David Lopez Molina, Robert J. Weitlaner, John E. Heimnick, and Robert J. Drake); 13 pages of Nevome [Pima Bajo] Vocabularies, with notes from three informants at Santa Ana rancheria near Onavas, Sonora; 2 pages of Nevome [Pima Bajo] grammatical notes, primarily a listing of locative particles and adverbs, from an unspecified source; circa 1,000 cards of Pima Bajo linguistics notes (alphabetically arranged), most with English translation and some keyed to informant, along with three letters between Brugge and Mason discussing the language and Brugge's work; 25 pages of notes on Yaqui and Northern Tepehuan recordings to be sent to Indiana University, including the contents of Southern Tepehuan recordings (in hand of John Alden Mason), two Pima Bajo texts, Spanish translations for four texts, and a phonetic key for Pima Bajo; and Brugge's "History of the Pima Bajo of the mountains" (1960) a ten-page essay discussing information from historical and archaeological sources regarding the Pima in the villages of Yecora and Maicoba, Sonora, and Yepachic and Moris, Chihuahua. Three items, all written from Gallup, New Mexico, are described as "Brugge-Annon trip to Sonora-Log, itinerary, list of photos, journal. Letter to John Alden Mason." Dated February 1956, #4670 gives identification for two photographs showing pottery and baskets and for two showing terrain near Rancho Los Tepalcates; #4671 (March 1956) gives information about baskets shown in four photos (two photos lacking); and #4672 (June 1958) concerns mistreatment of Maicoba Pimas by whites, i.e., the taking of land, cattle, church offerings, etc. A Brugge-Annon trip is also mentioned in #4668, Brugge's correspondence with Mason 1955-1960, which totals 175 pages and concerns Brugge's work on Pima Bajo and Navajo; problems arising from mistreatment of Maicoba Pimas by whites; log, itinerary, list of photographs, and journal of Brugge-Annon trip to Sonora; correspondence with the Wenner-Grenn Foundation and Paul Fejos; and an essay on distribution, religion, fiestas, social structure, economy, houses and furnishings, handicrafts, etc., of the Pima Bajo.

Collection:John Alden Mason Papers (Mss.B.M384)

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Seneca materials, William N. Fenton papers

Culture:

Seneca includes: Onöndowága

Haudenosaunee includes: Iroquois, Onkwehonwe

Language:English | Seneca

Date:Bulk 1930s-1990s

Type:Text | Still Image | Sound recording

Extent:15+ linear feet

Description: Seneca materials make up the majority of the Fenton papers and can be found throughout all sections of the collection. Series I contains correspondence with numerous people on Seneca matters. Noteworthy Seneca correspondents include Simeon Gibson, Clara Redeye, Sherman Redeye, and other individuals such as those listed above. The largest body of material is in Series V, which includes Fenton's notebooks and other documentation from field work at Allegany, Cattaraugus, Tonawanda, and Grand River, beginning in the 1930s through late in his career. This section also includes extensive card files on "Materia Medica" or ethnobotanical information, and Seneca place names. Series VI consists of over 1000 photographs, the majority of which are from Seneca communities in the 1930s-1950s. Series VII contains one audio recording of Seneca songs. Series VIII includes additional field notes and other materials derived mainly from his 1930s fieldwork. Significant portions of these materials may be restricted due to cultural sensitivity, as Fenton's materials frequently pertain to areas of sacred traditional knowledge.

Collection:William N. Fenton papers (Mss.Ms.Coll.20)

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Tunica materials, Frank G. Speck Papers

Culture:

Tunica

Penobscot

Caddo

Language:English

Date:1940

Contributor:Neitzel, Robert S. | Speck, Frank G. (Frank Gouldsmith), 1881-1950 | Siebert, Frank T. (Frank Thomas), 1912-1998

Type:Text | Still Image

Genre:Correspondence | Notes | Reports | Field notes | Sketches

Extent:4 folders, 50 photos

Description: Materials relating to Speck's interest in Tunica language, history, and culture. Letters and notes from Robert Stuart Neitzel comprise the bulk of this assemblage, and include a two-page report about Tunica tanning of deer hides, together with a one-page letter of transmission and a two-page drawing; 28 pages on Tunica dances, including the green corn ceremony, along with letters about concerning field work among the Tunica and Caddo archaeology with a sketch of the digging; and 16 pages of miscellaneous notes, sketches, and correspondence on topics such as archaeology at Marksville, Louisiana (with sketches), Tunica museum specimens, phonetic transcriptions of dance names, a sketch of a Tunica scraper and hide drying frame, traps (with a sketch), Tunica tools, etc. There is also a letter to Speck from Frank Siebert concerning the linguistic field work of Mary Haas and publication of Speck's Penobscot texts. Lastly, there are about 50 photos sent to Speck by Robert Stuart Neitzel.

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