Guide to the Indigenous Materials at the American Philosophical Society

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Abenaki materials, Alfred Irving Hallowell Papers

Alternate forms: Abnaki, Tete de Boule

Language(s): English | Abenaki, Western | French | Abenaki, Eastern

Date: 1914-1930

Type:Still Image | Text

Extent: 1 linear foot

Description: The Abenaki materials in the Hallowell Papers are mostly located in Series V, Research Files, in folders labled "Abenaki" and Series VI, Photographs, Subseries E "St. Francis Abenaki Album." These include linguistic, ethnographic, ethnobotanical, ceremonial knowledge, information on political organization, and historical materials. Of particular interest are a sketch of Abenaki history from 1600-1930 accompanied by detailed notes from secondary sources on 17th century Abenaki history. The linguistic materials include an analysis of how the language changed after contact with Catholic missionaries, Abenaki vocabulary related to body parts, Abenaki phonetics, and religious, medical, and kinship terminology. The ethnobotanical materials include a manuscript labled "Identity of animals and plants," and information concerning herbal medicine and its practitioners. There is a wealth of ethnographic materials that include drawings of pipes, descriptions of games, baketry and birch bark maks. There is descriptions of Abenaki music and diagrams of dances, as well as detailed descriptions of hunting techniques. Some of the genealogical materials contains lists of community members names and descriptions of marriage. Interspered throughout the folders labled "Abenaki" in the Research Files are interlinear translations of stories such as "Man who could Find Lost Objects," "Woman and Bear Lover" and numerous other stories. The materials on hunting include topics such as the use of snow shoes, preparation of moose hide,and techniques and drawings of trapping. The collections contain important information designation hunting territories and family names. Four folders contain detailed informaiton on kinship terms. Two folders on Measurements and Genealogical data contain lists of names. The folders labled "Linguistics" in Series V contain scattered information about Abenaki grammar. In Series VI, of 160 photographs taken at St. Francis, Odanak in the Centre-du-Québec region. The Abenaki people in the photographs are identified, in most cases, and also include depictions of traditional dress, buildings, clothing, baskets, and a wide variety of material culture. The correspondence, in Series I, includes letters from Theophile Panadis; Gordon Day describing his collection of stories, recordings, vocabularies, and hunting territories. Henry Lorne Masta, one of Hallowell's Abenaki consultants, writes about culture and language. Additional correspondents may contain other Abenaki-related information.

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

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Alabama materials, Mary R. Haas Papers

Alternate forms: Alibamu, Coushatta

Date: 1934-1982

Subject: Linguistics | Ethnography

Type:Text

Genre: Vocabularies | Field notes | Notebooks | Dictionaries

Extent: 0.5 linear feet

Description: Mary Haas worked for a short period to document Alabama with several speakers on in the 1930s. The field notebook is in Series 2 Subseries ‘Multiple Languages' and includes comparisons with Koasati and Choctaw. Around 585 lexical items were obtained from this fieldwork, from which lexical slip files (Series 9) are derived. Haas also utilized John R. Swanton's dictionary of Alabama, and Alabama forms part of extensive Muskogean language comparisons, mostly in Series 2. There is also brief correspondence.

Collection: Mary R. Haas Papers (Mss.Ms.Coll.94)

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Algonquin materials, Frank G. Speck Papers

Alternate forms: Ojibwa, Iroquois, Kutenai

Language(s): English | French

Date: 1912-1941 and undated

Contributor: Speck, Frank G. (Frank Gouldsmith), 1881-1950 | Bailey, Alfred Goldsworthy | Weitzner, Bella

Type:Still Image | Text

Extent: 7 items

Description: Materials relating to both Algonquin and related Algonquian peoples, cultures, and languages. Includes Speck's notes on artifacts found near Lake Abitibi and in the Nipissing district; his Seven Islands field notes, including texts with interlinear translations, house data, names of animals, and a letter in French from Marie Louise Ambroise; abstracts of Speck's published works on the Rama-Chibcha of Nicaragua, River Desert Algonquins, Southern Ontario Indians, Maya, and others; sketches and comments on shoulder blade divination (scapulimancy), including notes on deer drives (including an undated note from A. Irving Hallowell) and the distribution of artifacts among Algonquin, Naskapi, and Mistassini peoples; two field notebooks containing (1) linguistic notes and informant and population data for Waswanipi, Abitibi, Temiskaming [Timiskaming], Nipissing, Algonquian and (2) Temiskaming ethnography, Wisiledjak (Wiskyjack) [Wisakedjak, a manitou] text (in English), Temagami ethnology and texts (in English), and one Iroquois legend; general information on birch-bark containers, including 37 photographs and 40 pages of notes relating to Algonquin, Cree, Ojibwe and Ktunaxa specimens, and a letter from Bella Weitzner; and a letter from A. G. Bailey sending Speck a copy of his book on Algonquians.

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

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American Indian materials, Eugenics Record Office Records

Alternate forms: Sioux, Papago, Pueblo, Ojibwa

Language(s): English

Date: 1870-1934

Contributor: Estabrook, Arthur H. (Arthur Howard), 1885- | Koenig, Margaret W. Rhode, 1875- | McDougle, Ivan E. (Ivan Eugene)

Type:Still Image | Text

Extent: 5 folders

Description: The Eugenics Record Office Records consist of 330.5 linear feet of materials relating to the ERO, founded in 1910 for the study of human heredity and as a repository for genetic data on human traits. The Eugenics Record Office Papers (1670-1964) contain trait schedules, newspaper clippings, manuscript essays, pedigree charts, article abstracts, reprints, magazine articles, bibliographies, photographs, hair samples, postcard pictures, card files, and some correspondence which document the projects of the Eugenics Record Office during the thirty-four years of its operation. Of particular interest might be Folder "A:9770-1-118 Indians from Oklahoma (Work Sent in by Mr. Paul Roofe)" (1926), containing 118 pages of Individual Analysis Cards containing personal and family information about students at the Haskell Institute in Lawrence, Kansas. There is also "Folder A:9770 #1. Indian Photographs, Bureau of American Ethnography" (1870-1912), containing 23 photographs of Native individuals, all men, most with both front and profile shots, and identifying information on the back. Cultures represented include Kiowa, Brule (Dakota), Apache, Delaware, Papago (Tohono O'odham), Arapaho, Wichita, Zuni, Santa Clara (Pueblo), Shawnee, Pojoaque (Pueblo), Cheyenne, and Bannock. Folder "A:9770 #3. American Indians" (1920-1934) contains material about Bolivia Indians, Chippewas (Ojibwe) in Michigan, and from Dr. Margaret W. Koenig of the Nebraska Medical Women's League regarding the family history of Permela Palmer (Chicksaw), who married a Choctaw and then a white man, and who was of particular note because of her supernumerary mammary glands and the similarly abnormal breast development of some of her daughters. Folder "A:974 x 7. Caucasian x Indian" (1920-1925) contains trait charts of mixed families, including charts of a French-Cree and Choctaw family and a French-Cree and Scotch-Cree family sent by Mrs. L. M. William of Battleford, Sask.; a three-page typed essay, "For a Universial Marriage Law," advocating the prohibition of mixed marriages, also attributed to Mrs. William; and a magazine article, intended to be humorous, titled "Indian Wives and White Husbands" by Josiah M. Ward. Folder "A:976 x 70. American Indian - Negro" (1919-1928) contains charts, anecdotal data, notes, etc. regarding the traits of mixed children of Native and African American parents, several examples of which are stamped State Normal School, Montclair, NJ; a letter from the state registrar of Virginia to the Census Bureau concerning the efforts of people trying to gain recogition as Chickahominy, Rappahannock, and other groups despite having been previously been designated as "mullatoes," fear about such people having "broken into the census as Indians," and from there "have gotten across into the white race," and hopes to clarify matters for the 1930 Censuses; and materials (interviews, family trees, forms, notes) from a study directed by A. H. Estabrook and I. E. McDougle of the Sociology Department of Sweet Briar College--with fieldwork (such as interviews) performed by Sweet Briar students--titled "The Isshys, An Indian-Negro-White Family Group Near Amherest, Virginia."

Collection: Eugenics Record Office Records (Mss.Ms.Coll.77)

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Catawba materials, James M. Crawford Papers

Language(s): English | Catawba

Date: 1941 and undated

Contributor: Crawford, James M. (James Mack), 1925-1989 | McDavid, Raven Ioor

Type:Text

Extent: 9 folders, 2 boxes

Description: Materials relating to James M. Crawford's interest in and study of the Catawba language. Items include card-sized paper slips, Catawba-English and English-Catawba, with pencilled notes in Series V. Card Files. There are also nine Catawba folders in Series IV-D. Research Notes and Notebooks--Other. One stand-alone undated folder contains mostly handwritten notes, including a comparison of Catawba to Yuchi, notes on references to Catawbas in Barton (1798), bibliographic sources on Catawba language and lingustics, and English-Catawba Vocabularies. Other indigenous languages and groups mentioned include Chickasaw, Delaware, Choctaw, Cherokee, and Tuscarora. The other eight folders each contain one of Raven Ioor McDavid's Catawba research notebooks, recorded in 1941 and given to Crawford in 1970 (see letter in McDavid correspondence in Series I. Correspondence). The notebooks in Folders 1-5 and 7 seem to be fairly straightforward linguistic material, focusing on narrative and interrogative statements and related vocabulary, verb tenses, pronouns, stems, etc. The notebook in Folder 6 is similar, but also contains notes on loose-page pages, including about 20 pages of Catawba geneaological information over multiple generations. The most prominent family names include Blue, Harris, Cantey, Brown, George, Sanders, and Ayers; other family names mentioned include Beck, Starnes, Cobb, Mush, Scott, Lee, White, Wheelock, Garci, Allen, Helam, Wiley, Gordon, Crawford, Gaudy, Blankenship, Millins, Watts, and Johnson. The notebook in Folder 8 focuses on stories--many about old women, animals, and interactions between female and animal characters--given first in English and then in Catawba with interlineal translation.

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

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Catawba materials, Mary R. Haas Papers

Culture: Catawba

Language(s): Catawba | English

Date: 1930s-1960s (bulk: 1940-1941)

Contributor: Gordon, Sally Brown | Pickens, A. L. (Andrew Lee), 1890-1969 | Haas, Mary R. (Mary Rosamond), 1910-1996 | McDavid, Raven Ioor | Chief Blue, 1872-1959

Subject: Linguistics | Ethnography | Genealogy | Material culture

Type:Text

Genre: Field notes | Notebooks | Correspondence | Vocabularies

Extent: 1.0 linear feet

Description: Haas' Catawba file was sent to her by Raven I. McDavid from fieldwork in 1940-1941. Haas subsequently made copies and sent the originals to James M. Crawford, in whose collection at the APS they now reside. These are found in Series 2 Subseries ‘Catawba', and are varied and comprehensive in content, along with an animal lexicon and a series of reprints from Andrew Pickens. McDavid also sent two boxes of handwritten Catawba slips, “culled from Speck, from Morris's notes, from mine - and possibly from Gatschet”, some of which were heavily damaged by mold and can be found in Series 9. There is also a glossary and lexicon in correspondence from McDavid, Series 1.

Collection: Mary R. Haas Papers (Mss.Ms.Coll.94)

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Central America materials, Manuscripts on Middle American Cultural Anthropology, 1590-1976

Culture:

Language(s): English | Spanish

Date: 1590-1976

Contributor: University of Chicago. Department of Anthropology

Subject: Anthropology | Ethnography | Linguistics | Social life and customs

Type:Text

Extent: 26 reels

Description: This collection includes field notes and reports, diaries of expeditions, texts, grammars, dictionaries of Indian languages, theses and research papers collected by members of the Department of Anthropology of the University of Chicago in connection with the Carnegie Institution of Washington Middle American Research Program as well as various Central American governmental agencies. A microfilm publication of the University of Chicago, 1946-1957. Table of contents. Originals at theUniversity of Chicago.

Collection: Manuscripts on Middle American Cultural Anthropology, 1590-1976 (Mss.Film.297)

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Chehalis materials, ACLS collection

Culture: Chehalis | Puyallup

Language(s): English | Chehalis, Lower | Chehalis, Upper | Salish, Southern Puget Sound

Date: 1882, circa 1890; 1897, 1927-1936

Subject: Linguistics | Folklore | Ethnography | Washington (State)--History

Type:Text

Genre: Field notes | Grammars | Notebooks | Stories | Vocabularies

Extent: 1800+ loose pages, 15 notebooks, circa 8000 slips

Description: The Chehalis materials in the ACLS collection consist of a large volume of material spread across numerous items in the "Chehalis" section of the finding aid. Major items of significance include Boas's Upper Chehalis field notebooks, recorded in 1927 near Oakville, Washington, containing vocabulary, paradigms, and texts with interlinear translations. Additional loose notes contains numerous stories, which partially derive from the field notebooks. Also noteworthy is an extensive lexical file of over 8,000 slips derived from Boas's field work, partially arranged and analyzed. Earlier materials relating to the Lower Chehalis dialect were recorded circa 1890 by Boas at Shoalwater Bay, as well as material copied from Myron Eells' 1880s field work and later corrected by Boas. Other smaller items, such as Aginsky's comparison of Upper Chehalis and Puyallup, consist primarily of linguistic analysis and some ethnographic information. The names of Chehalis speakers and consultants who made the work possible are not fully reflected in the cataloging, as many are typically not identified by Boas.

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

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Cherokee materials, James M. Crawford Papers

Culture: Cherokee

Language(s): English | Cherokee

Date: 1972-1973

Subject: Linguistics | Anthropology | Ethnography | North Carolina--History

Type:Text

Genre: Notes | Notebooks | Field notes | Drafts

Extent: 3 folders

Description: Materials relating to James M. Crawford's interest in and study of the Cherokee language. Cherokee materials in the Crawford Papers consist of 3 folders located in Series IV-D, Research Notes & Notebooks--Other. "Cherokee--Notebook" contains a field notebook of linguistic materials dated to winter 1972-1973. Cherokee language consultants mentioned include Laura King, Mrs. Schweder, Ann Squirrel, and Gil Jackson. University of Georgia graduate students mentioned include Duane King, V. Richard Persico, and Jared Harper. "Cherokee Phonology" contains a draft, both typed and handwritten, of Duane H. King's manuscript of the same name, focusing on the Qualla dialect and based on research undertaken as part of Crawford's Southeast Indian Languages Project with support from the National Science Foundation. Qualla-speaking Cherokee consultants were Annie Jesson and Laura Hill. There are also three pages of Crawford's comments on the draft and five slips of errata. "Cherokee, NC Trip" contains 5 pages of notes relating to a trip Crawford apparently took with Duane King May 15-May 17, 1972, and includes one page of directions with a sketched map, one page of expense accounts, and three pages of linguistic notes from Annie A. Jesson.

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

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Cherokee materials, Mary R. Haas Papers

Culture: Cherokee

Language(s): Cherokee | Natchez | English

Date: 1940s, undated

Contributor: Haas, Mary R. (Mary Rosamond), 1910-1996 | Sam, Watt | Raven, Nancy

Subject: Linguistics | Place names | Ethnography

Type:Text

Genre: Correspondence | Vocabularies | Field notes | Notebooks

Extent: 0.25 linear feet

Description: Haas' Cherokee file is centered on her fieldwork in Oklahoma with Watt Sam and Nancy Raven, both Natchez speakers who also spoke Cherokee and Creek. Although Creek was the dominant intermediary language between Natchez and English for both of Haas' Natchez consultants, some Cherokee lexica and verb paradigms were recorded in the Natchez notebooks of Series 2. There is also a small amount of Cherokee material in Victor Riste's notebooks in the same Natchez subseries. Series 9 contains lexica, paradigms, phonotactics, and dialectal variation, likely mostly derived from these sources. Besides these, there are some discussions of Cherokee town names and consultants in Series 1, and a few comparisons to Iroquoian and Muskogean languages.

Collection: Mary R. Haas Papers (Mss.Ms.Coll.94)