Guide to the Indigenous Materials at the American Philosophical Society

Description: These materials relate to James M. Crawford's interest in and research on the Mobilian trade language, particularly research and writing relating to his prize-winning book, The Mobilian Trade Language. The bulk of Mobilian materials in the Crawford papers are located in Series III-D. Works by Crawford—Other. These include 11 folders containing numerous typed drafts of the manuscript, with copious handwritten edits, some edits typed on cards and attached the relevant page, and page proofs. There are also 6 folders of research notes containing Crawford's notes on secondary sources from the fields of history, anthropology and linguistics; notes on primary documentary sources; typed early drafts of sections of the manuscript; linguistic notes and charts; typed and handwritten transcriptions from both primary and secondary sources; timelines; outlines; bibliographic lists; a bibliography of Mary Haas; a copy of Mary Haas' “What is Mobilian?”; and several loose-page pages of handwritten text apparently from the Bible translated into an indigenous language. A significant quantity of the research material is in French, transcribed or copied from French sources. In the same series are also two copies--one with penciled edits and one clean--of Crawford's “Mobile” essay in the "Dictionary of Indian Tribes of the Americas" [1979]. In Series IV-D. Research Notes & Notebooks—Other, there is a folder titled "Mobilian Forms Collected August 27, 1970 from Leonard Lavan by J.M. Crawford Near Elton, Louisiana" containing 8 pages of notes and Vocabularies, mostly typed. Other consultants mentioned (page 7) are Daisy Sickey at Elton, Louisiana, and Maggie Poncho (Alabama) and Phoebie Celestine (Koasati) interviewed at the Alabama-Coushatta Reservation in Texas, also in August 1970; and a folder titled “Mobilian Search—Notebook,” containing one of Crawford's field notebooks in which he kept a record of a research trip in August-September, 1976 to Louisiana, Mississippi, and Oklahoma in search of Mobilian words. Crawford took 36 pages of detailed notes regarding distances traveled; costs of hotels, camp grounds, meals, and other expenses; conversations with Native people about their own knowledge of languages and possible leads on Mobilian; addresses and phone numbers of other potential consultants; his conversations with people in Oklahoma and elsewhere about Title IV, bilingual language programs, the preparation of education materials for that purpose, grants, etc.; and other events of the trip such as his malfunctioning tape recorder (a serious problem because he needed to play the tape of Arzelie Langley speaking Mobilian) and his Volkswagen camper breaking down. He also included notes on words and linguistics he gathered, reminders to send Xeroxed copies of linguistic and ethnographic information (Swanton's Houma word list, Chitimacha materials in Freeman's APS list, Yuchi materials, etc.) back to people he'd met, sketch maps to help find the homes of potential consultants, what he spent on baskets and from whom he purchased, other ethnographic data he picked up, etc. Native individuals mentioned include Claude Medford, Ernest Sickey, Burley Celestine, Della Celestine, Jim Courteneaux, Edward Sylestine, Rosaline Langley Medford, Levi Fields, Sanville Johnson, Anderson Lewis, Clyde Jackson, Tom Dion, Annie Dion, Marie Dion/Dean, Rose Dean, Lillie Lewis, Jessie Lewis, Alvin and Freda Revere, Bill Crew, Lawrence Billiot, Alvin Cearley, Ken York, Barry Jim, and more. Native groups and languages mentioned include Houma, Natchez, Cherokee, Creek, Koasati, Choctaw, Chitimacha, Tunica, Biloxi, Yuchi, Chickasaw, Shawnee, etc. In other series, there is a file of largely positive reviews of The Mobilian Trade Language in Series II. Subject Files, and one box of card-sized paper slips, Mobilian-English and English-Mobilian, with penciled notes, in Series V. Card Files. Related materials include the folders titled “Columbus Museum” and “Reconnaissance of Southeastern Indian Languages—Notebook,” both of which also document Crawford's search for Mobilian, in Series IV-D. Research Notes & Notebooks—Other; and grant application materials that describe and give background for the project and give a narrative of his 1976 research trip (which greatly clarifies the notebook of the same trip) in “American Council of Learned Societies” in Series II. Subject Files. Finally, in Series I. Correspondence, there is a letter from Crawford to Miles Richardson submitting the manuscript for consideration for the James Mooney Award, which it went on to win (1976) and a marketing letter to the General L. Kemper Williams Prize committee from the University of Tennessee Press.

Collection:James M. Crawford Papers (Mss.Ms.Coll.66)

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Mohegan materials, Frank G. Speck Papers

Culture:

Yuchi includes: Euchee

Pequot

Mohegan

Nanticoke

Language:English | Mohegan-Pequot

Date:1897-1943

Contributor:Speck, Frank G. (Frank Gouldsmith), 1881-1950 | Butler, Eva L. | Prince, John Dyneley, 1868-1945 | Tantaquidgeon, Gladys | Ward, Christopher, 1868-1943

Type:Text | Still Image

Extent:11 folders, 30 photos

Description: Materials relating to Speck's study of Mohegan language, history, and culture. Includes Mohegan miscellaneous notes and correspondence from 1916-1943 including commentary on Fidelia Fielding's Texts, notes for 1920 Pequot trip with Nehantic and Pennacook notes, letters from the Honorable Thomas W. Bicknell to Speck concerning Indians in Rhode Island, notes on Mohegan social organization, 1 page of incomplete letter of Red Wing concerning Indian affairs, miscellaneous Stockbridge notes, George Heye to Speck regarding publication, John R. Swanton to Speck concerning his exhibition for Mohegan Stockbridge, postal card from Princess Pretty War regarding dress, Ernest E. Rogers to Speck regarding Speck's Mohegan-Pequot Diary, etc.; Pequot miscellaneous notes and correspondence from 1922-1941 including two cards with Mohegan names, 7 pages of reading notes, 1 page of animal names, a letter from Harral Ayres to the Smithsonian Institution concerning Connecticut place names, and a letter from Gertrude Bell Browne to Speck concerning seventeenth-century Pequot-Mohegan Mohegan-Pequot texts and vocabulary materials, notes and drafts relating to Speck (1928a); letters to his mother concerning his activities among Indians at Mohegan, Connecticut; copy for a news release on a Mohegan election; correspondence with Gladys Tantaquidgeon; "Mohegan Land Deeds," a pamplet containing 22 seventeenth-century deeds signed by Mohegans, taken from Connecticut archival sources; 21 cards with notes on trees and uses of their products; Prince's 1907 letter of recommendation for Speck, discussing Speck's work, as a student, on the Pequot dialect of Mohegan-Pequots, Algic, and Yuchi; and Ward's correspondence with Speck regarding the printing of extra copies of Speck's Nanticoke study by the Historical Society of Delaware. Some manuscripts written by Gladys Tantaquidgeon, not about Mohegan matters, have been identified among Speck's notes on the Delaware, Wampanoag, and Innu. There may be other manuscripts in the collection written by hand but not yet identified. In Series III (Photographs), there are about 30 Mohegan-related photographs, some possibly taken by Gladys Tantaquidgeon. In Series IV (Lantern slides), there are 9 images, some of which may be duplicate images of those among the general photos. Lastly, Series V (Maps) contains a small number of maps of Mohegan lands.

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

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Mono materials, C. F. Voegelin Papers

Culture:

Mono includes: Monache

Language:English | Mono

Date:Undated

Contributor:Voegelin, C. F. (Charles Frederick), 1906-1986

Subject:Linguistics | Anthropology | Uto-Aztecan languages | California--History

Type:Text

Genre:Notes | Drafts

Extent:8 folders

Description: Several items relating to the Mono language have been identified in the C. F. Voegelin Papers. They are all in Subcollection II. There is a Mono folder in Series II. Research Notes, Subseries IX. Uto-Aztecan, except Hopi. Mono is also one of the languages Voegelin considered in a grammatical analysis of Uto-Aztecan languages. Drafts of seven chapters of this work can be found in Series III. Works by Voegelin, Subseries III: Uto-Aztecan book. Researchers might also be interested in the general Uto-Aztecan entry for the Voegelin Papers.

Collection:C. F. Voegelin Papers (Mss.Ms.Coll.68)

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Muscogee (Creek) materials, Frank G. Speck Papers

Culture:

Yuchi includes: Euchee

Seminole includes: Yat'siminoli

Muscogee includes: Muskogee, Mvskoke, Muscogee Creek

Language:English | Muscogee | Yuchi

Date:1904-1947

Type:Text | Three-dimensional object

Extent:14 folders

Description: Materials relating to Speck's study of Creek history, language, and culture. Includes Speck's own notes and work, including "Notes on Social and Economic Conditions Among the Creek Indians of Alabama in 1941" (published as Speck 1947); an undated earlier version of that essay titled "Creek Indians Surviving in Alabama"; 115 pages of linguistic notes from Taskigitown, dated 1904-1905 and organized by categories; Creek and Yuchi songs; Creek and Yuchi Dance; 98 pages of Creek texts, including some interlineal translations, and related notes dated 1904-1905; and 35 pages of miscellaneous notes and letters on topics like dances, language, clothing, myths, handicrafts, and fieldwork. Also includes two botanical specimens--Coopti (Zamia floridana) used by Seminoles, 1941 and Ilex vomitoria Ait, used by Creeks--accompanied by letters to Speck from Richard Evans Schultes concerning Houma Botany; two letters from female students at the Haskell Institute in 1940 (Leona Giger writes of a Creek doll she is making and mentions the council house at Okmulgee, Oklahoma, while Ann Rolland offers to answer questions on Creek use of feathers); a letter from Morris Opler regarding Opler's work among the Creeks, as well as an essay by Opler about the organization, history, and social and political significance of Creek towns; a letter from Mario Gamio acknowledging the receipt of a Creek Indian pamphlet; and a letter from D'Arcy McNickle returning to Speck photographs of the Creek Indians of Atmore, Alabama to prevent them from getting lost and mentioning that his manuscript of the report is still being copied.

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

Penobscot materials, Frank G. Speck Papers

Culture:

Wolastoqiyik includes: Wəlastəkwewiyik, Malecite, Maliseet

Zuni includes: A:shiwi

Tutelo includes: Yesan

Wabanaki includes: Wabenaki, Wobanaki

Penobscot

Passamaquoddy includes: Peskotomuhkati

Navajo includes: Diné, Navaho

Mi'kmaq includes: Micmac

Mohegan

Mohican includes: Mahican, Muhhekunneuw

Lenape includes: Lenni-Lenape, Delaware

Haudenosaunee includes: Iroquois, Onkwehonwe

Abenaki includes: Abnaki

Language:English | Abenaki, Eastern

Date:1908-1947

Type:Still Image | Text

Extent:27 folders

Description: Materials relating to Speck's study of Penobscot language, history, and culture, and his preparation of his book Penobscot Man. This includes several folders of Speck's field notes, notes organized around specific topics (including data not used in Speck's published works), copies and drafts of lectures and essays, correspondence, etc. Topics include Penobscot social organization, calendar system, house furnishings, hunting morality, animal lore, religion, art, sayings, alphabet, counting and measuring, canoe-making, face-painting, texts with interlineal translations, and "Bird Lore of the Northern Indians" (a faculty public lecture at the University of Pennsylvania). Additionally, significant correspondence concerns the preparation, expenses, dissemination, and reception of his Penobscot publications. Other topics of correspondence include Ethel Gandy's monograph on Penobscot art; names of chiefs and their clans; "clown" performances outside of the southwest among the Penobscot, Iroquois [Haudenosaunee], Abenaki, and Delaware; place names; the relationship of Penobscot-Mohegan and Mahican; a comparison of Zuni-Navajo and Red Paint; Tutelo. There is a particularly large folder of Speck's miscellaneous Penobscot notes containing both a variety of notes and correspondence from Penobscot consultants as well as non-Native colleagues. These include letters from Roland E. Nelson (Needahbeh, Penobscot) concerning drum for exhibit; letters from Nelson, Franz Boas, John M. Cooper, William B. Goodwin, E. V. McCollum, and J. Dyneley Prince, all concerning Penobscot Man; Clifford P. Wilson concerning moosehair embroidery; Edward Reman concerning Norse influence on Penobscot; Carrie A. Lyford concerning moose-wool controversy and Ann Stimson's report; Ann Stimson, letter of thanks; Henry Noyes Otis concerning genealogy of Indians named Sias on Cape Cod (Speck marked this Penobscot); Princess Pretty Woman (Passamaquoddy) concerning her dress (apparently at the Penn Museum); Dorothy Ranco (Penobscot) concerning Princess Pretty Woman's dress; Roland W. Mann, concerning site of Indian occupancy according to Penobscot tradition; Ryuzo Torii, letter of introduction. Other miscellaneous items include a 5-page transcript of agreements between Indians of Nova Scotia and the English, August 15, 1749; 2 pages, transcript of agreement of July 13, 1727 (letter of transmittal, Lloyd Price to Miss MacDonald, September 24, 1936); Ann K. Stimson, Moose Wool and Climbing Powers of the American Mink; miscellaneous field notes on topics like songs, kinship, totem, medicine, and social units; and 4 pages of Penobscot words and their cultural use.

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