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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Algonquian materials, Floyd G. Lounsbury Papers

Culture:

Zuni includes: A:shiwi

Yucatec includes: Yucateco

Wiyot

Yurok includes: Pueleekla’, Puliklah

Omaha includes: Umoⁿhoⁿ

Quechua

Pawnee includes: Chaticks si Chaticks, Chatiks si Chatiks

Ojibwe includes: Ojibwa, Chippewa, Ojibway

Onondaga includes: Onöñda'gega'

Mohawk includes: Kanienʼkehá꞉ka

Lenape includes: Lenni-Lenape, Delaware

Crow includes: Apsáalooke, Absaroka

Cree includes: Nēhiyaw, Cri

Algonquian

Language:English | French | Algonquian

Date:1948-1977

Subject:Linguistics | Place names | Ethnography

Type:Text

Genre:Essays | Bibliographies | Grammars | Wampum

Description: The Algonquian materials in the Lounsbury Papers include information about Indigenous place names, Delaware kinship terminology in Series II. Series III includes work on comparative linguistics, phonology, dialects. The correspondence in Series I contains letters on kinship systems from a diverse array of tribes.

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

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Cayuga materials, Frank G. Speck Papers

Culture:

Tuscarora includes: Ska:rù:rę'

Seneca includes: Onöndowága

Onondaga includes: Onöñda'gega'

Mohawk includes: Kanienʼkehá꞉ka

Nanticoke

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, Edward Shippen letters and papers

Culture:

Mohawk includes: Kanienʼkehá꞉ka

Haudenosaunee includes: Iroquois, Onkwehonwe

Cherokee

Creek

Language:English

Date:1758-1763

Contributor:Shippen, Edward, approximately 1703-1781

Subject:Warfare | Diplomacy | Fort Augusta | United States--History--French and Indian War, 1754-1763 | Pennsylvania--History

Type:Text

Genre:Correspondence

Extent:2 items

Description: Two letters to Joseph Shippen. One (1758) mentions twelve Cherokees and one Mohawk en route to Philadelphia and then to Colonel Johnson. Cites cost of keeping them. The second (1763) discusses Indian attacks; mentions Cherokees and Creeks. Note on Indian movements near Fort Augusta and a copy of letter of James Irvine to Caleb Carnault, 15 June 1763, discussing strength of Fort Augusta.

Collection:Edward Shippen letters and papers (Mss.B.Sh62)

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Collection of Iroquois folklore, 1912-1918

Culture:

Tuscarora includes: Ska:rù:rę'

Seneca includes: Onöndowága

Onondaga includes: Onöñda'gega'

Oneida includes: Onyota'a:ka

Mohawk includes: Kanienʼkehá꞉ka

Haudenosaunee includes: Iroquois, Onkwehonwe

Cayuga includes: Gayogohó:no

Language:English

Date:1912-1918

Contributor:Waugh, F. W. (Frederick Wilkerson), 1872-1924

Subject:Folklore | Ontario--History | New York (State)--History

Type:Text

Genre:Stories

Extent:Approx. 900 p.

Description: This collection was gathered by Waugh at Six Nations Reservation from Cayuga and Onondaga informants, with a scattering of Mohawk, Oneida, Seneca, and Tuscarora. Includes 157 different items of fiction, folklore, and history. With this is a description of the Collection by Martha Champion Randle, May 1953, which contains a detailed Index. - taken from APS Proceedings, vol. 97, 5, 1953, 611-633. The original notebooks from which these typescripts were made are housed at the Canadian Museum of History, which also holds a typescript likely produced at the same time as the APS typescript.

Collection:Collection of Iroquois folklore, 1912-1918 (Mss.398.2.W353)

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Cosmology of De-ka-na-wi-da's government of the Iroquois confederacy, 1885

Culture:

Mohawk includes: Kanienʼkehá꞉ka

Haudenosaunee includes: Iroquois, Onkwehonwe

Language:English | Mohawk

Date:1885

Contributor:Newhouse, Seth

Subject:Great Law of Peace | Politics and government | Rites and ceremonies | Linguistics | Ethnography

Type:Text

Genre:Stories

Extent:1 volume, 302 pages

Description: Copy of original, formerly in possession of Ray Fadden, St. Regis Mohawk Reservation, Hogansburg, New York, now in possession of Mohawk tribe. Includes story of Dekanawidah, lists of chiefs, ceremonial chants (including Condolence Council), constitution and its acceptance (pages 1-200), version of same in Mohawk with interlinear translation, names of principal families, and incomplete "aboriginal dictionary." Marginal notes by William N. Fenton. Fully described in Fenton (1949).

Collection:Cosmology of De-ka-na-wi-da's government of the Iroquois confederacy, 1885 (Mss.970.3.Ir6)

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Count Paolo Andreani journals, 1783?-1791

Culture:

Tuscarora includes: Ska:rù:rę'

Seneca includes: Onöndowága

Oneida includes: Onyota'a:ka

Onondaga includes: Onöñda'gega'

Mohawk includes: Kanienʼkehá꞉ka

Haudenosaunee includes: Iroquois, Onkwehonwe

Language:Italian

Date:1790

Contributor:Andreani, Paolo, 1763-1823

Type:Text

Genre:Microfilms | Diaries | Travel narratives | Transcripts | Translations

Extent:118 pages

Description: Count Paolo Andreani was an aeronaut, physicist, naturalist, and traveler. This is a translation of his travel diaries from originals owned by Count Antonio Sormani Verri, of Milan. Includes Frammenti de Diario, a fragment of a diary kept on a trip to Britain, circa 1783-1784; Viaggio da Milano a Parigi, journal of a voyage from Milan to Paris, 1784; Viaggi di un gentiluomo milanese, Giornale, typed transcriptions of the travels of a gentleman from Milan, containing notes on the Iroquois [Haudenosaunee] Indians, 1790; Giornale de Filadelfia a Quebec, journal from Philadelphia to Quebec, 1791; and, journal of a trip through New York state (including visits to Albany, the reservations of the Haudenosaunee, Saratoga, and the Shaker community at New Lebanon), 1790. Of particular importance are his comments on the Haudenosaunee, from Albany to the Haudenosaunee, pages 32-85, especially pages 45-85, which is copied in a typed transcript by Count Antonio Sormani Verri, 15 pages. Discusses the Oneida: dress, physical type, government, religion; discusses Tuscarora and Onondaga; comments on language of Mohawks. Vocabularies, sentences of Onondaga, Oneida, and Seneca.

Collection:Count Paolo Andreani journals, 1783?-1791 (Mss.Film.604)

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Delaware materials, Benjamin Franklin Papers

Culture:

Shawnee

Mohawk includes: Kanienʼkehá꞉ka

Mingo

Lenape includes: Lenni-Lenape, Delaware

Haudenosaunee includes: Iroquois, Onkwehonwe

Language:English

Date:1756-1787

Type:Text

Genre:Correspondence | Minutes

Extent:18 items

Description: Correspondence and minutes of conferences relating to Pennsylvania's relations with Delawares, Shawnees, and the Haudenosaunee. Land deeds and purchases, the Treaty of Easton, the Seven Years' War era, the conflict called Pontiac's War and the surrender of the Delawares and Shawnees, the Treaty of Fort Stanwix, the Empress of Russia and her plan for a universal dictionary, Teedyuscung and his fitness for leadership are among the topics discussed.

Collection:Benjamin Franklin Papers (Mss.B.F85)

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Delaware materials, Communications to the Historical and Literary Committee of the American Philosophical Society, 1816-1821

Culture:

Shawnee

Mohawk includes: Kanienʼkehá꞉ka

Mohican includes: Mahican, Muhhekunneuw

Nanticoke

Lenape includes: Lenni-Lenape, Delaware

Haudenosaunee includes: Iroquois, Onkwehonwe

Language:English | German | Delaware | Unami

Date:1781-1819 and undated

Type:Text

Genre:Correspondence | Vocabularies | Notes | Essays

Extent:16 items

Description: These items includes notes, letters, and essays on the history, manners, and languages of Native peoples, particularly the Lenape ("Delaware"), sent by Heckewelder to the Committee and to members of the American Philosophical Society. Contains answers to queries, historical material (such as the arrival of Europeans; relations between the Delawares and Haudenosaunee), Indian speeches, replies to letters of Peter S. Du Ponceau, references to Swedish-Lenape translations, Indian writing, translations of English into Indian languages. Mentions Delaware individuals, both named and unnamed.

Collection:Communications to the Historical and Literary Committee of the American Philosophical Society, 1816-1821 (Mss.970.1.H35c)

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

Culture:

Susquehannock includes: Conestoga

Shawnee

Seneca includes: Onöndowága

Piscataway includes: Conoy

Mingo

Miami includes: Myaamiaki

Nanticoke

Mohawk includes: Kanienʼkehá꞉ka

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)