Guide to the Indigenous Materials at the American Philosophical Society

Description: Christian Frederick Post was a Moravian missionary and observer of Native peoples and cultures; he was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 1768. This journal of Post's, who was in the company of fellow colonist John Hays and Delaware leader Teedyuscung (and also mentions Delawares Isaac Still and Moses Tattamy), relates to Post's mission as a representative of the Governor and Council of Pennsylvania to the Ohio Valley Indians and the conference held near the Ohio River in 1760. Copy in clerk's hand. Concerning message carried to Mingos (Haudenosaunee, in the Ohio Valley) and other Ohio Indians, return of colonists taken captive during the Seven Years' War, and other happenings on the journey. Includes description of conjuring ceremony. This is a microfilm of an original in possession of Mrs. Henry P. Gummere.

Collection:Journal, 1760, of the great council of the different Indian nations (Mss.Film.204)

Go to the collection

Lenape materials, Frank G. Speck Papers

Culture:

Tutelo includes: Yesan

Shawnee

Pawnee includes: Chaticks si Chaticks, Chatiks si Chatiks

Nanticoke

Mohawk includes: Kanienʼkehá꞉ka

Munsee

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)

Go to the collection

Lenape materials, Miscellaneous Manuscripts Collection

Culture:

Shawnee

Piscataway includes: Conoy

Miami includes: Myaamiaki

Nanticoke

Lenape includes: Lenni-Lenape, Delaware

Haudenosaunee includes: Iroquois, Onkwehonwe

Language:English | French | Delaware | Munsee

Date:October 3, 1738; April 1756; March 10, 1778; January 13, 1788; March 4, 1856

Type:Text

Genre:Correspondence | Minutes | Speeches | Reports

Extent:10 items

Description: Relevant materials can be found in the finding aid under the specific dates listed. Materials include information relations with the colony of Pennsylvania; Pennsylvania's Indian affairs more generally, particularly Quaker involvement, embassies to Wyoming (PA) and elsewhere, and gifts for Indians; Indian relations with the federal government of the United States; Delaware materials in the Moravian Archives at Bethlehem and elsewhere; review of Du Ponceau's Delaware Grammar in Revue Encyclopedique; Place names; Heckewelder's Account of the Indian nations; Harrison's 1803 treaty with the Delawares and other Indians at Fort Wayne; Indian settlements in Ohio, and the difficulty of Christian Indians; a Delaware spelling book with vocabularies. Other individuals mentioned include Nookamis, "Sandusky Indian," Ettwein, Zeisberger, and Paul A.W. Wallace.

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

Go to the collection

Miscellaneous materials, Violetta Delafield-Benjamin Smith Barton Collection

Culture:

Nanticoke

Lenape includes: Lenni-Lenape, Delaware

Language:English

Date:1792-1805

Contributor:Barton, Benjamin Smith, 1766-1815

Type:Text

Genre:Correspondence

Extent:10 items

Description: Correspondence relating to miscellaneous indigenous peoples and cultures. Seven letters are to John G. E. Heckewelder and three are to Thomas Pennant. Smith's letters to Heckewelder largely consist of questions about Native peoples, cultures, and languages, including a query about Indian names for a particular bird; the Indians' feelings and beliefs about the opossum; Heckewelder's opinion on the strength of body and age of Indians in comparison to whites; what Indian nations in Heckewelder's knowledge compress the heads of children and how it is done; and information on health, nursing, menstruation, etc. Smith also expounds at times, expressing his belief that some Indian nations formerly had a hieroglyphic writing system and asking Heckewelder's opinion, wondering whether Indian chiefs have more or less power now than formerly, and pursuing his inquiry into the relations of North American and Asiatic languages. He is also interested in accuracy of George Henry Loskiel's "History of the Mission of the United Brethren among the Indians in North America," which mentions the Moshkos Indians, of whom Barton had never heard before. Also mentions study of the Nanticoke. Smith's letters to Pennant revolve around the prospects for his work on antiquities and Indians and his hopes for a London edition to satisfy European market, and the possible Welsh origins of American Indians. Barton general disapproves it, but agrees that there is a case for the Welsh origin of the American Indians from physical appearance, while others had seen this as evidence for Jewish origin. He finds striking vocabulary evidence for Jews, Greeks, Scottish Highland, as well as Welsh. [Most of the letters to Heckewelder are from originals in the Gilbert Collection, College of Physicians, Philadelphia.]

Collection:Violetta Delafield-Benjamin Smith Barton Collection (Mss.B.B284d)

Go to the collection

Nanticoke materials, Frank G. Speck Papers

Culture:

Tuscarora includes: Ska:rù:rę'

Seneca includes: Onöndowága

Onondaga includes: Onöñda'gega'

Oneida includes: Onyota'a:ka

Nanticoke

Mohawk includes: Kanienʼkehá꞉ka

Lenape includes: Lenni-Lenape, Delaware

Haudenosaunee includes: Iroquois, Onkwehonwe

Cayuga includes: Gayogohó:no

Language:English | Nanticoke

Date:1914-1943

Contributor:Speck, Frank G. (Frank Gouldsmith), 1881-1950 | Boas, Franz, 1858-1942 | Mooney, James, 1861-1921

Type:Text

Genre:Correspondence | Notes

Extent:3 folders

Description: Materials relating to Speck's study of Nanticoke language, history, and culture. Includes Speck's miscellaneous Nanticoke notes, comprising a letter from Wes (?) to Speck, June 24, 1943, concerning Nanticoke J. Barton Cheyney to Speck, October 31, no year, concerning Delaware-white-Nanticoke relations; James Mooney to Speck, February 15, 1916, concerning Speck's Nanticoke article (1915); Franz Boas to Speck, March 29, 1916, on same subject. [See also Speck (1915).] Other materials include a document describing a meeting of Delaware, Nanticoke, and Canadian Iroquois in the presence of Speck and recounting injustices suffered by Native peoples in the United States and Canada [see also #1755] and Speck's notes on the Tuscarora in Canada, which include names for the Nanticokes in Cayuga, Tuscarora, Mohawk, Seneca, Onondaga, and Oneida; notes on wampum, folklore, and the Canadian Tuscarora; and some Nanticoke vocabulary.

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

Go to the collection

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

Pennsylvania Indian materials, John Alden Mason Papers

Culture:

Wenrohronon includes: Wenro

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

Tutelo includes: Yesan

Tuscarora includes: Ska:rù:rę'

Shawnee

Susquehannock includes: Conestoga

Seneca includes: Onöndowága

Saponi includes: Saponny

Piscataway includes: Conoy

Oneida includes: Onyota'a:ka

Odawa includes: Ottawa

Nanticoke

Munsee

Mohegan

Lenape includes: Lenni-Lenape, Delaware

Erie

Honniasont

Anishinaabe includes: Anishinaabeg, Anishinabe, Nishnaabe, Anishinabek

Language:English

Date:1957

Contributor:Mason, John Alden, 1885-1967

Subject:Pennsylvania--History

Type:Text

Genre:Reports

Extent:20 pages

Description: The Pennsylvania Indians materials, John Alden Mason Papers include a document written for the Pennsylvania Historical Commission, regarding the Delaware, Susquehannock, Erie, Wenrohronon, Honniasont, and the transitory Mohegan, Seneca, Oneida, Wyandot, Ottawa, Tuscarora, Saponi, Tutelo, Nanticokes, Conoy, Shawnee, and Munsee.

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