Guide to the Indigenous Materials at the American Philosophical Society

Description: Materials relating to Speck's research and other professional activities. Items include Speck's notes taken during graduate work at Columbia University under Franz Boas, and utilized for his own anthropology courses at the University of Pennsylvania; Speck's miscellaneous notes comprising circa 500 bibliographic cards and reading notes sorted out by tribe and/or language, dealing with tribes and countries in which Speck did no field work [other entries of this type are to be found among the various groups of materials in the Speck collection, according to tribe]; correspondence concerning exhibits and specimens for the Chicago World's Fair and for the Exposition of Indian Tribal Arts in New York City; two letters from Boas regarding the work of the Committee on Research in Native American Languages; correspondence regarding topics such as the double-curve motif, family hunting areas, indigenous foods and cooking methods, wampum, silverwork, birch-bark technique, baskets, Speck's research and publications, the research and publications of others, obtaining indigenous material cultural specimens for Speck, purchases of indigenous material culture specimens (baskets, masks, etc.) from Speck, Speck's identification of items in the Pitt Rivers Museum at Oxford University, Speck's bibliography, and Speck's obituary; letters requesting copies of Speck's publications, or acknowledging the transmission of publications between Speck and others; copies and/or drafts of several of Speck's presentations and publications, including "Lectures on Primitive Religion," "Land Ownership Among Hunting Peoples in Primitive America and the World's Marginal Areas," "Review of Lowie's Introduction to Cultural Anthropology," and "The Double-Curve Motive in Northeastern Algonquian Art"; a bibliography of Speck's publications through 1942; rough drafts of miscellaneous papers, 1928-1948; Speck's notes on topics such as crane posture; Birket-Smith's 1946 "Plan for Circumpolar Research"; ten distribution maps for circumpolar culture traits, colored in with crayon to show distribution of traits including divination and miracle shamanism, sweat bath, turtle Atlas myth and world-tree concept, bone divination, bear veneration, curative power of mystic words and formulae, dog-ancestor myth, dog as soul leader, curvilinear patterns, and confession to cure taboo violation; and a prepublication manuscript of Hallowell's "The nature and function of property as a human institution" with additions and corrections.

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

Go to the collection

Miscellaneous materials, John Wesley Powell correspondence and diary, 1871-1907

Culture:

Haudenosaunee includes: Iroquois, Onkwehonwe

Language:English

Date:1878-1901

Contributor:Pilling, James Constantine, 1846-1895 | Powell, John Wesley, 1834-1902

Type:Text

Genre:Microfilms | Correspondence

Extent:5 items

Description: Correspondence from John Wesley Powell and James Constantine Pilling regarding various professional and research matters. Includes a letter from Powell to Frederick W. Putnam, wanting his collections to display in the Smithsonian (1878); a letter from Pilling to Henry W. Longfellow concerning the exact title of the first edition of Hiawatha for a bibliography of Indian linguistics (1879); letters from Pilling to to S. E. Howell concerning Indian studies and headquarters at Smithsonian (1879); a letter from Powell to G. Frederick Wright (1899); and a letter from Powell to Paul Carus concerning his plan for a book on Native American religions (1901). Originals of letters to Putnam, Longfellow, and Howell are in the Records of the Geological Survey, Rocky Mountain Survey, U.S. National Archives. Originals of letters to Wright and Carus are at the Bureau of American Ethnology, John Wesley Powell letters sent, 1897-1902.

Collection:John Wesley Powell correspondence and diary, 1871-1907 (Mss.Film.736.1)

Go to the collection

Mohawk materials, Ely Samuel Parker Papers

Culture:

North America materials, Moravian mission among the Indians of North America records, 1735-1900 (inclusive), [microform]

Culture:

Shawnee

Onondaga includes: Onöñda'gega'

Ojibwe includes: Ojibwa, Chippewa, Ojibway

Muscogee includes: Muskogee, Mvskoke, Muscogee Creek

Mohawk includes: Kanienʼkehá꞉ka

Nanticoke

Lenape includes: Lenni-Lenape, Delaware

Haudenosaunee includes: Iroquois, Onkwehonwe

Cherokee

Language:English | Muscogee | Delaware | Mohawk | Onondaga

Date:1735-1900

Contributor:Moravian Archives (Bethlehem, Pa.)

Type:Text

Extent:40 reels

Description: This collection contains correspondence, diaries, reports, letters, conference minutes, church registers and catalogs, and other papers documenting the work of Moravian missionaries among the Indians of North America. Includes language materials in Delaware, Creek, Mohawk, and Onondaga; and materials pertaining to the Chippewa, Cherokee, Nanticoke, and Shawnee. Materials cover New York, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Kansas, Georgia, Oklahoma, and Ontario. Originals in the Archives of the Moravian Church, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.

Collection:Moravian mission among the Indians of North America records, 1735-1900 (inclusive), [microform] (Mss.Film.1279)

Go to the collection

Ojibwe materials, Frank G. Speck Papers

Culture:

Seneca includes: Onöndowága

Ojibwe includes: Ojibwa, Chippewa, Ojibway

Naskapi includes: ᓇᔅᑲᐱ, Iyiyiw, Skoffie

Haudenosaunee includes: Iroquois, Onkwehonwe

Innu includes: Montagnais, Mountaineer

Cree includes: Nēhiyaw, Cri

Anishinaabe includes: Anishinaabeg, Anishinabe, Nishnaabe, Anishinabek

Language:English | French

Date:1927-1949

Type:Text

Genre:Notes | Correspondence | Reviews | Stories | Maps

Extent:14 folders

Description: Materials relating to Speck's study of Ojibwe language, history, and culture. Includes 15 pages of Tamagami [Temagami First Nation] myths and five texts in English; 21 pages of Matagama Ojibwe [Mattagami First Nation] notes, including a 2-page phonetic key, a letter from Speck to Samuel (i.e., James) Miller of Gogama requesting ethnographic and map data, 2 maps (one of Mattagami hunting territories), typed reading notes, and a sketch of a play for Mattagama Otcipwe [sic]; a Christmas circular letter telling the story of a Chippewa [Ojibwe] boy returning home for Dance; a copy of Speck's favorable review of Sister Bernard Coleman, "Decorative designs of the Ojibwa of northern Minnesota" [Printed, Speck (1949).]; and a brief popular account on Ojibwe hunting territories by Speck, refuting Roosevelt (1889-1896), who had denied that Indians have a sense of property, along with two pages of notes. Also includes several folders of correspondence, including correspondence with A. I. Hallowell in which Hallowell describes a field trip to the Berens River Saulteaux, Sweet Grass Cree (mentions attitude of Cree to Leonard Bloomfield), and Cold Lake Chipewyan, festivals, etc., and a letter from Speck to Hallowell with pencilled responses of Hallowell to questions asked; letters from D. H. Learmouth, a factor for Hudson's Bay Company at Waswanippi, recounting his experiences in adjudicating Matagama land inheritance and providing ethnographic data sought by Speck from Samuel (i.e., James) Miller of Gogama and data on hunting territories; letters from James E. Holden concerning unsuccessful attempts to purchase baskets at Nipigon; letters from J. Allan Burgesse regarding the Matagama Ojibwe and enclosing a drawing of a "flesher"and a list of hunting territories and biographical information on owners; a letter from Robert Solenberger concerning Tonawanda [Seneca] and Chippewa [Ojibwe] women who make baskets and giving their addresses; a letter from B. W. Thayer concerning Ojibwe beadwork found during a Minnesota field trip; a letter from Henry Woodman discussing the decline of crafts among Bear Island Indians (Temagami); a letter from Prentice Gilbert Downes about the circumboreal region, disucssing his visit to Naskapi near Davis Inlet, to Cree, and to Chippewas, along with 2 pages of notes (Speck?) in French-English, discussing changes in Indian culture; and a letter from Speck to Chief Mitchele Buckshot in Maniwaki, Quebec requesting buckskin and beadwork.

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

Go to the collection

Oneida materials, Floyd G. Lounsbury Papers

Culture:

Oneida includes: Onyota'a:ka

Potawatomi includes: Pottawotomi, Neshnabé, Bodéwadmi

Mohican includes: Mahican, Muhhekunneuw

Menominee includes: Menomini, Mamaceqtaw

Haudenosaunee includes: Iroquois, Onkwehonwe

Language:English | Oneida | Menominee | Potawatomi | Mahican

Date:1938-1996

Subject:Linguistics | Religion | Pedagogy | Music | Wisconsin--History

Type:Text | Sound recording

Description: The Oneida materials in the Lounsbury Papers include photographs in Series I. Series II contains plays and songs from the WPA Oneida Language Project and the Workers Alliance of the Oneida Indian Council. Also of interest are an Oneida dictionary by Mercy Doxtator, et al., a field notebook by Martin Joos, and Lounsbury's work on an Oneida dictionary. There are an abundance of recordings in Series VII including "Dekanawidah" as told by Demus Elm; the "opening" of the Thanksgiving address; sixteen conversations in Oneida; music. The correspondence, in Series I, includes Clifford Abbott's work, Oscar Archiquette's letter in Oneida, Harry Basehart work on Oneida language, medicine-compounding, false faces, [Oneida] hymnbooks, Leonard Bloomfield's study of alternative forms for Oneida numerals, William Fenton's studies of Oneida linguistics, Bryan Gick's the Harvey / Demus Creation / Tekanawita story in Oneida with a complete English translation, Tayokawe (Curtis John) language materials and recordings, Robert Ritzenthaler's Oneida recordings and translation of Oscar Archiquette's Oneida diary, Morris Swadesh on the Wisconsin Oneida language project, Tony Wonderly's list of Oneida personal names

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