Guide to the Indigenous Materials at the American Philosophical Society

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)

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Pima Bajo materials, John Alden Mason Papers

Culture:

Yaqui includes: Hiaki, Yoeme

Tepehuán includes: Tepehuanes, Tepehuano

Pima Bajo includes: Lower Pima, Mountain Pima, O'ob

Navajo includes: Diné, Navaho

Date:1953-1965

Contributor:Brugge, David M. | Mason, John Alden, 1885-1967

Type:Still Image | Text

Extent:12 items

Description: Materials relating to Pima Bajo language and culture. Most items are attributed to David M. Brugge, though some include notes or comments by John Alden Mason. Materials include 10 pages of Lower Pima [Pima Bajo] notes, part of Brugge's contribution to an article co-authored with Mason; 85 pages of notes, drafts, letters, etc. relating to the same article, including bibliographic items and a linguistic map of northwestern Mexico; a file of correspondence, draft reports on, and expenses for a 1953 Nevome [aka Lower Pima, Pima Bajo] or Lower Pima Expedition, a research trip to Sonora, Mexico (correspondents include Dale S. King, James McConnell, Edward H. Spicer, Fernando Pesqueira, David Lopez Molina, Robert J. Weitlaner, John E. Heimnick, and Robert J. Drake); 13 pages of Nevome [Pima Bajo] Vocabularies, with notes from three informants at Santa Ana rancheria near Onavas, Sonora; 2 pages of Nevome [Pima Bajo] grammatical notes, primarily a listing of locative particles and adverbs, from an unspecified source; circa 1,000 cards of Pima Bajo linguistics notes (alphabetically arranged), most with English translation and some keyed to informant, along with three letters between Brugge and Mason discussing the language and Brugge's work; 25 pages of notes on Yaqui and Northern Tepehuan recordings to be sent to Indiana University, including the contents of Southern Tepehuan recordings (in hand of John Alden Mason), two Pima Bajo texts, Spanish translations for four texts, and a phonetic key for Pima Bajo; and Brugge's "History of the Pima Bajo of the mountains" (1960) a ten-page essay discussing information from historical and archaeological sources regarding the Pima in the villages of Yecora and Maicoba, Sonora, and Yepachic and Moris, Chihuahua. Three items, all written from Gallup, New Mexico, are described as "Brugge-Annon trip to Sonora-Log, itinerary, list of photos, journal. Letter to John Alden Mason." Dated February 1956, #4670 gives identification for two photographs showing pottery and baskets and for two showing terrain near Rancho Los Tepalcates; #4671 (March 1956) gives information about baskets shown in four photos (two photos lacking); and #4672 (June 1958) concerns mistreatment of Maicoba Pimas by whites, i.e., the taking of land, cattle, church offerings, etc. A Brugge-Annon trip is also mentioned in #4668, Brugge's correspondence with Mason 1955-1960, which totals 175 pages and concerns Brugge's work on Pima Bajo and Navajo; problems arising from mistreatment of Maicoba Pimas by whites; log, itinerary, list of photographs, and journal of Brugge-Annon trip to Sonora; correspondence with the Wenner-Grenn Foundation and Paul Fejos; and an essay on distribution, religion, fiestas, social structure, economy, houses and furnishings, handicrafts, etc., of the Pima Bajo.

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

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Seminole materials, Frank G. Speck Papers

Culture:

Seminole includes: Yat'siminoli

Calusa

Language:English

Date:1931

Contributor:Speck, Frank G. (Frank Gouldsmith), 1881-1950 | Coe, Ernest F.

Type:Text

Genre:Notes | Correspondence

Extent:10 pages

Description: Materials relating to Seminole history and culture and to the creation of Everglades National Park. Items include a 1-page document concerning Glade Cross mission activities in the Everglades among the Seminoles; 2 pages of notes on Seminole silverwork; correspondence of Henry W. Haynes to Frank C. Speck (Ta-de-wim) concerning visit to the Seminoles, Calusa question, and suggesting people to see in Florida; letter from Ernest F. Coe concerning Seminoles as guides, should there be an Everglades national park; letters from Coe to Speck and to Roy Nash (Bureau of Indian Affairs), U.S. Department of Interior supporting national park in Everglades.

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

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Seneca materials, Anthony F. C. Wallace Papers

Culture:

Seneca includes: Onöndowága

Haudenosaunee includes: Iroquois, Onkwehonwe

Language:English

Date:1798-1977, bulk 1941-1977

Contributor:Wallace, Anthony F. C., 1923-2015 | Deardorff, Merle H., 1890-1971 | Cornplanter, Jesse J.

Type:Still Image | Text

Extent:52 folders

Description: The Anthony F. C. Wallace Papers are a vast collection of materials relating to Wallace's work at the intersection of anthropology, psychology, and history. Though further research might yield more results, approximately 52 folders of items directly pertaining to the Seneca have been identified. Seneca materials can be difficult to disentangle from the plethora of items relating to the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) and to Wallace's work on indigenous religions and cultural revitalization more generally. Researchers should therefore also see the Wallace Papers entries for the Haudenosaunee and Tuscarora and consult the finding aid for a detailed discussion of Wallace's career and for an itemized list of the collection's contents. Of the materials explicitly linked to the Seneca, many relate to Wallace's ongoing study of Seneca history and culture. This interest was the basis of several publications, most notably the landmark book "Death and Rebirth of the Seneca" (1970) as well as many articles on Handsome Lake, religion, and cultural revitalization. Such items can be found in Series I. Correspondence, Series II. Research Notes and Drafts, Series XI. Maps, and Series XII. Graphics. Of particular note is Wallace's lengthy correspondence (located in both Series I and II) with historian Merle H. Deardorff regarding Seneca history and culture. There is also some correspondence with Jesse Cornplanter. Other relevant correspondence files include those of the American Philosophical Society, Dwight Lewis Chamberlain, Norma Cuthbert, Vine Deloria, Bob Gabor, Charles Garrad, Randy Gorske, Barbara Graymont, N. Perry Jemison, Randy Alan John, Gertrude Kurath, Weston La Barre, Franklin O. Loveland, Charles Lucy, Nancy Lurie, Ernest Miller, Oscar Nephew, the New York State Library, Arthur Caswell Parker, Arthur Piepkorn, V. R. Potmis, Egon Renner, Mrs. Douglas Snook, Frank Speck, William Sturtevant, Shirley Vanatta, Paul A. W. Wallace, and Susan Williams. Other materials from Wallace's personal scholarship and interests include 3 folders of field notes from Cold Spring in 1951-1952; one folder of items relating to the Kinzua Dam controversy; five folders on the Oh-he-yoh-noh Newsletter of the Allegany Indian Reservation; several copies of and extracts from primary and secondary sources; copies of relevant articles and other and drafts of "Death and Rebirth of the Seneca" and other works. There are also original drawings by Jesse Cornplanter, copies of portraits of Seneca chiefs Cornplanter and Red Jacket, images of "The Chief Red Jacket" and "Squaw of Seneca and Papoose" from the New York Historical Society and a photo of Sarah Pierce of the Allegany Reserve (from Frank Speck) in Series XII. Graphics. Other materials relate to Wallace's work as a researcher and expert witness on behalf of Native American land claims, and include dockets, trial memoranda, and maps relating to "Seneca Nation of Indians and Tonawanda Band of Seneca Indians vs. the United States." These can be found in Series IX. Indian Claims.

Collection:Anthony F. C. Wallace Papers (Mss.Ms.Coll.64a)

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Seneca materials, Ely Samuel Parker Papers

Culture:

Seneca includes: Onöndowága

Haudenosaunee includes: Iroquois, Onkwehonwe

Language:English | Seneca

Date:1794-1931

Type:Still Image | Text

Extent:367 items

Description: A Sachem and Civil War adjutant to Ulysses Grant, Ely Samuel Parker was an important figure in the Seneca Indian nation during the first half of the nineteenth century. Trained as an engineer, Parker was deeply involved in the Senecas' land disputes with the Ogden Land Company and he played an important role in interpreting Seneca culture for a white audience, most notably as a consultant for Lewis Henry Morgan. Collected by Arthur C. Parker, the Ely Samuel Parker Papers include correspondence, manuscripts, and printed materials relating primarily to Seneca affairs, history, language, and culture, as well as politics, education, engineering, and the Civil War. Several letters relate to Parker's service as engineer of public buildings in Galena, Illinois, and to his Masonic activities. Among the noteworthy items in the collection are several essays on Seneca history and culture, a fragment of Parker's diary, 1847, and a significant quantity of material on the Seneca language assembled by Asher Wright. Rich in information on Seneca history, culture, and language and on Parker's varied activities in both the Indian and white worlds, the collection is a major resource for examining the land and political struggles of the Seneca nation during the 1840s and early 1850s. Comprised of a mix of personal and professional correspondence augmented by a smaller quantity of printed materials, notes, and manuscripts, the collection is richest for the period 1845-1860, with only a few letters pertaining to Parker's Civil War service, and even fewer for the post-war period.

Collection:Ely Samuel Parker Papers (Mss.497.3.P223)

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Seneca materials, Frank G. Speck Papers

Culture:

Seneca includes: Onöndowága

Haudenosaunee includes: Iroquois, Onkwehonwe

Language:English | Seneca

Date:1921-1949

Type:Still Image | Text

Extent:16 folders

Description: Materials relating to Speck's interest in Seneca language, history, and culture. Several folders contain correspondence, including one with six letters from Jesse Cornplanter to Speck and others on topics such as his religious beliefs and changes in the way of life; praising Speck; pay for Native consultants; sending Christmas greetings; and husk faces. Other correspondence includes letters from Charles E. Congdon concerning Coldspring Longhouse ceremonies, use of stick and post in dance, Tonawanda and Cattaraugus medicines, congratulating Speck on his Iroquois (1945), describing Alleghany ceremonials, and giving a sketch of the arrangement of participants; from James M. Luongo concerning Seneca and other specimens; from Clara Redeye transmitting a 1941 picture of four generations and sending dolls; from Spencer F. William, a Seneca writer seeking work; from Evangeline Clark sending thanks for reprints, which she had sent to Suffolk University; from Merle H. Deardorff concerning consultant Clayton White, Pennsylvania place names, Speck (1942), and a lengthy discussion of the practices of Handsome Lake adherents; and from Speck to Deardorff concerning an Iroquois conference at Allegany. Other folders contain William N. Fenton's Seneca ceremonial calendar from Coldspring, 131 pages of organized, detailed field notes on ceremonies; Congdon's 4-page essay comparing the religion of Handsome Lake with Judaism and Greco-Roman spirits; Clayton White's description of the one-year death feast; Clayton White's description of a False Face Dance at Coldspring Long House, taken for Deardorff; Speck's miscellaneous notes containing words and two letters from Sherman Redeye to Speck concerning corn-husk masks; Speck's notes on the Oklahoma Seneca with an outline of ceremonials and a chart, with special attention to dances and funerary practices; and Ferdinand Isserman's student paper "Mythology of Seneca Indians." Some of these materials may be restricted due to cultural sensitivity.

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

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Seneca materials, George S. Snyderman Papers

Culture:

Seneca includes: Onöndowága

Seneca-Cayuga

Haudenosaunee includes: Iroquois, Onkwehonwe

Cayuga includes: Gayogohó:no

Language:English

Date:1798; 1940-1980

Type:Still Image | Text

Genre:Notes | Reports | Photographs | Stories

Description: The Seneca materials in the Snyderman Papers include information about the Kinzua Dam in Series III (the construction of which displaced 600 Seneca from the lands along the Allegheny River). A report on the Seneca-Cayuga Tribe of Oklahoma is in Series IV. The photographs in Series V include images of Longhouses in Allegany and Cold Springs as well as images of Seneca people with whom Synderman worked including Clara and Sherman Redeye, Henry Redeye, with over one hundred black and white silver gelatin prints, postcards, and color Polaroid of the Allegany Senecas and St. Lawrence Mohawks of New York, taken by William N. Fenton, Frank Speck, and Snyderman. See also the entry in this guide for general "Haudenosaunee materials, George S. Snyderman Papers".

Collection:George S. Snyderman Papers (Mss.Ms.Coll.51)

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Tepecano materials, John Alden Mason Papers

Culture:

Tepecano

Huichol includes: Wixáritari

Cora includes: Naáyarite

Akimel O'odham includes: Pima

Language:English | Spanish | Tepecano

Date:1911-1913 and undated

Contributor:Mason, John Alden, 1885-1967

Type:Text | Still Image

Extent:7 items; photographs

Description: Materials relating to John Alden Mason's interest in and research on Tepecano language and culture. Items include 8 notebooks of field notes (1912-1913), containing a list of specimens purchased, texts, and notes on the language, ethnology, and archaeology, etc.; Mason's Preliminary Report as Fellow to the Escuela Internacional de Etnologia y Arqueologia Americanas (1912-1913), on continued investigations in linguistics, religion, ethnology, and mythology of the Tepecanos and in the archaeology of their region; Mason's Tepecano linguistic file, comprised of about 1000 cards with Tepecano words and sentences, with Spanish translations for most and English translations for some; Mason's "A Sketch of Tepecano Religion," which includes some comparison with religious beliefs of Huichols and Coras; a Tepecano Rain Festival Song, musical score with Tepecano lyrics; 6 pages of Tepecano verbal roots with English glosses; and Mason's miscellaneous notes on Tepecano regarding ethnology, linguistics, religion, Piman [Akimel O'odham] comparisons, etc., and including prayers with interlinear English translation (with note "work done for Boas").

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

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Tepehuan materials, John Alden Mason Papers

Culture:

Tepecano

Tohono O'odham includes: Papago

O'dam

Akimel O'odham includes: Pima

Date:1916-1967

Type:Text | Still Image

Extent:21 items; photographs

Description: Materials relating to John Alden Mason's interest in and research on Tepehuan language and culture. Northern Tepehuan is most prominently represented in this collection, though references to "Southern Tepehuan" indicate the presence of data on what are now distinguished as the Southeastern Tepehuan and Southwestern Tepehuan languages. Items focused on Northern Tepehuan include Mason's report from the Northern Tepehuan Linguistic Expedition, Baborigame, Chihuahua, Mexico (1951); his Northern Tepehuan linguistics file, containing circa 350 cards with words, phrases, and sentences with Spanish glosses and occasionally some Tepecano and Papago [Tohono O'odham] cognates; two 1936 notebooks on Northern Tepehuan linguistics with vocabulary and texts with Spanish glosses based on work with consultant Pedro Valencia; two 1951 notebooks on Northern Tepehuan linguistics with grammatical notes and texts from wire recordings; 20 pages of Northern Tepehuan texts with interlinear Spanish translation; 20 pages of texts relating to myths, official speeches, settling marital difficulties, etc. with interlinear Spanish 14 pages on Northern Tepehuan morphology concerned primarily with suffixes, taken from the files of Burton W. Bascom; 5 pages of Northern Tepehuan miscellaneous notes including verb conjugation labeled "Bascom" and a map; and two copies of "The Sacred Case" in Northern Tepehuan with English translation, attributed to Juan Dolores. There is one item focused on Southern Tepehuan, comprised of seven notebooks of Southern Tepehuan field notes containing grammatical notes, texts, and some transcriptions and translations of recordings at the American Philosophical Society (see also #3738). More general or comparative materials include Mason's "The Primitive Religions of Mexico" (1916), a paper read at the American Association for the Advancement of Science (Tepecano prayers to accompany the paper lacking); Mason's "Notes on the Linguistic and Cultural Affiliations of the Tepehuan and Tepecano," written for the Mexican Historical Congress, Zacatecas (1948); Mason's "Tepehuan of Northern Mexico" (1958), regarding observations on the culture which were made incidental to linguistic fieldwork (includes original and two copies with maps); lists of perdones Tepehuanes and notes on same; comparative lists from Southern and Northern dialects of Tepehuan, with English glosses and comments, by Burton W. Bascom and based on his work in 1943-1944 under the auspices of the Summer Institute of Linguistics; 14 pages of kinship terms in Southern Tepehuan, Northern Tepehuan, and Tepecano with English glosses; and a notebook containing a digest of Rinaldini's Tepehuane taken from the book in the Ayer Collection, Newberry Library. Correspondence includes letters from Burton W. Bascom regarding Northern Tepehuan with some mention of Tepecano, Pima [Akimel O'odham], Papago [Tohono O'odham], and Southern Tepehuan, and including a short paper by Bascom on the Northern Tepehuan possessive -ga, a Northern Tepehuan verb list for comparison with Mason's Tepecano list, and a discussion of noun plural formation with examples; Brete R. Hart regarding receipt of material on Utaztecan, work on alphabet for Southern Tepehuan, and a brief description of Fiesta for the Dead observed at Xoconoxtle, Durango, Mexico; Phil C. Weigland regarding acculturation, history, and relations with whites in San Sebastian and Azqueltan; and a report and correspondence from John Hobgood concerning events transpiring during a visit by John Hobgood and Carroll L. Riley to Santa Maria Ocotlan: their presentation of letters, request for permission to study the Tepehuan language and customs of the village, and interactions with the villagers. Hobgood mentions Agnes McClain Howard as well as Carroll L. Riley.

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

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Tuscarora materials, Floyd G. Lounsbury Papers

Culture:

Tuscarora includes: Ska:rù:rę'

Seneca includes: Onöndowága

Onondaga includes: Onöñda'gega'

Oneida includes: Onyota'a:ka

Haudenosaunee includes: Iroquois, Onkwehonwe

Cayuga includes: Gayogohó:no

Cherokee

Date:1946-1991

Subject:Linguistics | Religion | Folklore | Ethnography | New York (State)--History

Type:Text | Sound recording

Description: The Tuscarora materials in the Lounsbury Papers include a dictionary by Chief Elton Greene, J.N.B. Hewitt's Tuscarora version of the Seneca Cosmology, and Blair Rudes's notes as he was developing his Tuscarora Dictionary in Series II. The recordings in Series VII include Lounsbury's work with Tuscarora speaker and teacher Marjorie Printup, which includes work on grammar, stories with explanations, Christian phrases, pedagogy, and reminiscences, etc. Also included are a significant number of tapes Lounsbury made with Tuscarora speaker Nellie Gansworth, many unidentified.

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