Guide to the Indigenous Materials at the American Philosophical Society

Description: Materials from a wide range of indigenous cultures around the world are scattered throughout Series V of the A. Irving Hallowell Papers. Hallowell was interested in comparative ethnology on a number of topics including Bear Ceremonialism, textiles, artistic representations of Native people, basketry, kinship, pre-history, the development of language, family and marriage, nets and netting, etc. Much of this material constitutes Hallowell's reading notes on secondary sources and his research for very broad-based studies of humanity. Geographic regions represented in Series V include Australia, Africa, Pacific Islands, Polar regions California, Northwest coast, Southwest, and Southeast. The correspondence, in Series I, includes a very interesting, brief description of Franz Boas' first visit to the Kwakwaka'wakw community of Fort Rupert by the daughter of George Hunt in a folder labled Ronald Rohmer. There is also a letter from Edward Sapir detailing Nuu-chah-nulth bear hunting and face painting as well as sketches of netting needles.

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

Go to the collection

Iñupiat materials, ACLS collection

Culture:

Iñupiat includes: Инупиаты, Iñupiaq

Language:Chukchi | English | Inupiatun, North Alaskan | Yupik, Central Siberian

Date:1899; 1905; 1935

Contributor:Boas, Franz, 1858-1942 | Francis, Alfred G.

Subject:Ethnography | Kinship | Linguistics | Social life and customs | Alaska--History

Type:Still Image | Text

Genre:Drawings | Vocabularies

Extent:50 pages; 18 drawings

Description: The Iñupiat materials in the ACLS collection consist of three items in the "Eskimo" section of the finding aid. Boas' "Comparative word list of Alaskan Eskimo [Iñupiat], Siberian Eskimo [Yupik], and Chukchee" (item E1.1) includes vocabulary from Utqiagvik ("Point Barrow") and the Seward Peninsula. Alfred Francis' "Kungmit Eskimo vocabulary" (item E1.2) consists of an approximately 300-word list recorded at Kotzebue, including terms for animals, kinship, parts of the body, natural objects, and other terms. Finally, Boas' "Drawings for 'Property Marks of Alaskan Eskimo'" (item E1a.5) includes drawing from which illustrations for Boas' 1899 article on this topic were made.

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

Go to the collection

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)

Go to the collection

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)