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)

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Indian language collection: the Alaska native languages, 20th century

Culture:

Yup'ik includes: Yupik, Yupiit, Yup'ik, Central Alaskan, Eskimo (pej.)

Koyukon

Deg Xit'an includes: Deg Hit'an, Deg Hitan, Degexit'an, Kaiyuhkhotana, Ingalik (pej.)

Inuit includes: Inuk, Eskimo (pej.), ᐃᓄᐃᑦ

Iñupiat includes: Инупиаты, Iñupiaq

Date:1976 and undated

Contributor:Unknown

Subject:Linguistics | Alaska--History | Jesuits | Missions | Religion

Type:Text

Extent:28 reels

Description: These texts, produced in the late-nineteenth and twentieth centuries, include dictionaries, vocabularies, grammars, and religious materials (hymns and sermons, etc. primarily Christian) of the Central Alaskan Yupik, Deg Xit'an (formerly known as Ingalik or Ingalit), Iñupiaq, and Koyukon languages. From originals on deposit by the Oregon Province Archives of the Society of Jesus at the Pacific Northwest Indian Center, Spokane, Washington. Guide book included.

Collection:Indian language collection: the Alaska native languages, 20th century (Mss.Film.1364)

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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

Onondaga includes: Onöñda'gega'

Oneida includes: Onyota'a:ka

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)

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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)

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Tlaxcaltec Nahuatl materials, Jane M. Rosenthal Papers

Culture:

Nahua

Language:Nahuatl, Central | Nahuatl (macrolanguage) | English | Spanish

Date:ca.1970-2002

Type:Text | Sound recording | Still Image

Extent:6 linear feet

Description: The majority of the Jane M. Rosenthal Papers centers on Nahuatl linguistic and anthropological research. Materials therefore appear extensively in every series. Rosenthal's own fieldwork on Tlaxcaltec (Acxotla del Monte, Tlaxcala, Mexico) spanned the 1970s and 1980s, involving the production of 17 field notebooks (Series 2 Subseries 1) with accompanying tapes (Series 10, available in the Digital Library), lexical slips (Series 7), photographs (Series 8) and much correspondence, in Spanish, with members of the Atonal and de Texis families (Series 1). Jane Hill also conducted research with many of the same consultants, works by whom (including interview transcriptions) can be found mostly in Series 5. Rosenthal also engaged with preexisting primary sources at archives in Mexico and the U.S., creating transcriptions and interlinearizations of texts (Series 2 Subseries 2), and produced several articles on Nahuatl grammar, Nahua culture and interactions with missions (Series 2 Subseries 3). Further to her own work, this collection contains much gathered material by others. In addition to that of Jane and Kenneth Hill, several drafts and publications by fellow University of Chicago student Kay A. Read on Nahua/Aztec religion appear in Series 5, and publications and commentary with other Uto-Aztecanists are scattered throughout Series 1 and 5. Rosenthal was heavily involved in the meetings of the Friends of Uto-Aztecan from its inception in 1973, many handouts from which (relating to a variety of Uto-Aztecan languages) can be found in Series 6. Her student notes, many produced by Norman McQuown (Series 3), and teaching notes (Series 4) may also be of interest.

Collection:Jane M. Rosenthal Papers (Mss.Ms.Coll.129)

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Wintu materials, Harvey Pitkin Papers

Culture:

Wintu includes: Northern Wintun

Takelma includes: Rogue River

Patwin includes: Southern Wintun

Maya

Miwok

Klamath

Date:1888-1953

Type:Still Image | Text | Sound recording

Description: The Wintu materials in the Harvey Pitkin Papers are extensive. Subcollection I, Series I, contains notes, notebooks, vocabularies, slip files, texts, manuscripts and phonetic tracings by Jeremiah Curtin in the late 19th century, Roland Dixon, and A.M. Halpern. Series I-B contains Pitkin's grammar slip files and vocabularies collected by Curtin. Series I-C includes Jaime de Angulo's manuscript on the Patwin language, S.A. Barrett's transcriptions and translations of speech and song recordings, Radin's "Grammatical Sketch" and Waterman's notes on Patwin phonetics. Series II-A is rich in materials collected by A.L. Krober. In Subcollection II, Pitkin's field notes are located in Series 2, Subseries 1. Subseries 2 includes Pitkin's extensive notes on his Wintu dictionary, grammar, texts, stories, and music. The manuscript of the dictionary is located in Subseries 3. There is an unpublished 416 page manuscript of stories written in both English and Wintu, songs, and transcriptions in Subseries 4. This section also includes copies of all the extant linguistic material with works by noted linguists such as Curtin, Albert Gatschet, Radin, Halpern, Morris Swadesh, Victor Golla, and J.P. Harrington. Series 6 is comprised of card file slips with comparative analyses by Pitkin of the four languages of the Wintun family.

Collection:Harvey Pitkin Papers (Mss.Ms.Coll.78)

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Yupik materials, Phillips Fund Collection

Culture:

Yup'ik includes: Yupik, Yupiit, Yup'ik, Central Alaskan, Eskimo (pej.)

Koyukon

Deg Xit'an includes: Deg Hit'an, Deg Hitan, Degexit'an, Kaiyuhkhotana, Ingalik (pej.)

Cup'ik includes: Yupik

Language:Cup'ik, Central Alaskan | English

Date:1978-1981, 1990, 1995-1996

Contributor:Griffin, Dennis | Griffin, Eve | Jolles, Carol Zane | Woodbury, Anthony C.

Subject:Alaska--History | Archaeology | Linguistics | Religion | Social life and customs

Type:Text

Extent:911 pages

Description: The Yupik materials in the Phillips Fund collection consist of 5 items. Materials in this collection are listed alphabetically by last name of author. See materials listed under Griffin (Dennis and Eve), Jolles, and Woodbury.

Collection:Phillips Fund for Native American Research Collection (Mss.497.3.Am4)

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Zunil materials, Ruben E. Reina Papers

Culture:

Maya

K'iche' includes: Quiché

Language:English | Spanish | K'iche'

Date:1969-1979

Contributor:Quiej, Francisco | Reina, Ruben E.

Subject:Folklore | Guatemala--History | Politics and government | Religion

Type:Still Image | Text

Genre:Biographies | Censuses | Interviews | Maps | Stories

Extent:10 linear feet

Description: The materials in the Ruben Reina papers relating to the Zunil region of Guatemala are found primarily in Series V of the collection. This series consists of notes and photocopies of documents relating to the Zunil people of Guatemala. In 1969, Ruben Reina hired a local Zunil man, Francisco Quiej, to collect material--legends and stories--from the monolingual elders of Zunil. Quiej recorded the interviews, then translated the accounts from their original Quiche in to Spanish. Via a local priest, Quiej sent the transcripts to Reina. The original recordings no longer exist, but the surviving transcripts serve as an important historical record of the beliefs and experiences of a native Central American people. Included are legends, religious texts, and interviews with and biographies of community members. Additional miscellaneous materials may be found to lesser degrees in Series VI, VII, VIII, XI, and XII.

Collection:Ruben E. Reina Papers (Mss.Ms.Coll.67)