Guide to the Indigenous Materials at the American Philosophical Society

Description: The Pennsylvania Indians materials, John Alden Mason Papers include a document written for the Pennsylvania Historical Commission, regarding the Delaware, Susquehannock, Erie, Wenrohronon, Honniasont, and the transitory Mohegan, Seneca, Oneida, Wyandot, Ottawa, Tuscarora, Saponi, Tutelo, Nanticokes, Conoy, Shawnee, and Munsee.

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

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Pennsylvania Indian materials, Peter Collinson papers

Language:English

Date:November 14, 1741

Contributor:Breintnall, Joseph, d. 1746

Subject:Pennsylvania--History

Type:Text

Genre:Microfilms | Correspondence

Extent:1 page

Description: Letter to Peter Collinson from original in the Linnean Society of London concerning a family of Pennsylvania Indians reduced to cannibalism by starvation.

Collection:Peter Collinson papers (Mss.Film.629)

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Pennsylvania Indians materials, William Parsons material

Language:English

Date:circa 1940s

Contributor:Parsons, William, 1701-1757 | Wallace, Anthony F. C., 1923-2015

Subject:Pennsylvania--History

Type:Text

Genre:Biographies

Extent:238 pages, 5 notebooks, 5 folders, 8 spools of microfilm, 1 photograph

Description: "William Parsons, 1701-1757." An unpublished biography of a Pennsylvania soldier, surveyor, and agent for the provincial government. Based largely on the Horsfield Papers, and manuscripts at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania and Haverford College. Occasional references to Indian affairs. Research notes. Includes a translation of the Walam Olum different from Rafinesque, Squier, Drake, or Brinton.

Collection:William Parsons material (Mss.B.P252)

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Pennsylvania Indians materials, Selections from the correspondence of the Honourable James Logan

Culture:

Tuscarora includes: Ska:rù:rę'

Susquehannock includes: Conestoga

Shawnee

Seneca includes: Onöndowága

Oneida includes: Onyota'a:ka

Onondaga includes: Onöñda'gega'

Nanticoke

Haudenosaunee includes: Iroquois, Onkwehonwe

Cayuga includes: Gayogohó:no

Language:English

Date:1700-1757; ca 1815

Type:Text

Genre:Correspondence | Depositions | Instructions | Copybooks | Notes

Extent:40 items

Description: Correspondence and other materials regarding Pennsylvania Indian affairs. Topics include Pennsylvania's relations with Native peoples; hostilities between Native groups and colonists in the backcountry; diplomatic overtures and councils between Native and colonial leaders; the fur trade; land claims and disputes; legal and illegal surveying of Indian lands; the Lancaster Treaty of 1744; copper mine opened by Governor Keith; anxieties about French influence over Indians and conflict with French over fur trade; role of gifts and payments for Indians; Indian roads; Virginians' desires to expand west; Native religious beliefs and morality; Count Zinzendorf's mission; the imprisonment and escape of Thomas McKee. Other individuals mentioned include Peter Bizaillon, Letitia Penn. Caxagan, Edward Shippen.

Collection:Selections from the correspondence of the Honourable James Logan, 1699-1750 (Mss.B.L82)

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Pennsylvania Indians materials, Benjamin Franklin Papers

Culture:

Lenape includes: Lenni-Lenape, Delaware

Language:English

Date:1755-1782

Type:Text

Genre:Correspondence | Reports

Extent:22 items

Description: Correspondence and one report relating to Pennsylvania Indian affairs during the Seven Years' War and Revolutionary War eras. Topics include hostilities between Indians and colonists; murders of Indians, particularly the Frederick Stump affair and a massacre at Shamokin; traders' abuses, fears, and losses; suspicion of Proprietary regarding its relations with Indians; Quakers' efforts to make peace with native neighbors; the so-called Black Boys Rebellion in 1765; land grants as restitution to those who sustained losses during wars with Indians. Individuals mentioned include George Croghan, Aliquippy, Thomas Walpole, Mr. Dagge, Ralph Fretwell, Captain [Robert] Callender, Joseph Fox, Joseph Galloway, John Hughes, Edward Pennington, and Samuel Rhoads.

Collection:Benjamin Franklin Papers (Mss.B.F85)

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Pennsylvania Indians materials, Frank G. Speck Papers

Language:English

Date:December 1, 1921

Contributor:Thompson, B. A.

Subject:Arrowheads | Material culture | Anthropology | Archaeology | Specimens

Type:Text

Genre:Correspondence

Extent:1 page

Description: Letter to Speck sending axehead and arrowheads found in southeastern Pennsylvania.

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

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Pennsylvania Indians materials, Miscellaneous Manuscripts Collection

Culture:

Susquehannock includes: Conestoga

Lenape includes: Lenni-Lenape, Delaware

Haudenosaunee includes: Iroquois, Onkwehonwe

Language:English

Date:October 22, 1730; November 8, 1755; July 20, 1758; 1759; February 4, 1764; August 9, 1766; February 9, 1769; February 10, 1769; October 23, 1784; March 2, 1787; 1951;

Type:Text

Genre:Correspondence

Extent:12 items

Description: Materials can be found in the finding aid under the specific dates listed. Mostly eighteenth-century correspondence regarding Pennsylvania Indian affairs. Topics include purchasing Indian lands; surveying Indian lands, including those acquired through the Treaty of Fort Stanwix; surveying Proprietary lands without offending Native neigbhors; settling boundaries with Native neighbors; colonists taken captive during Seven Years' War era; the Paxton Boys' rebellion, massacre at Susquehannock, and the killing of Susquehannock refugees; a 1759 list of Native groups clothed at Pittsburgh, with information about where they reside and hunt; and diplomacy (i.e., trying to secure Native allies) during Seven Years' War era. Also Witthoft's 1951 "The Pemberton Family Cemetary," containing a narrative of the excavation of cemetery at Pennsbury with burials of Pemberton family, 1683-1802 as well as a murdered Indian (before 1705) and white pauper of later date. Individuals mentioned include Scarroyady, Isaac Pemberton, Joseph Shippen, and David the Indian.

Collection:Miscellaneous Manuscripts Collection (Mss.Ms.Coll.200)

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Pennsylvania Indians materials, United States. Work Projects Administration (Pa.) Reports, 1918-1948

Culture:

Seneca includes: Onöndowága

Haudenosaunee includes: Iroquois, Onkwehonwe

Language:English

Date:1886-1948

Subject:Antiquities | Archaeology | Mounds | Pennsylvania--History

Type:Still Image | Text

Extent:25 items

Description: Materials relating to archaeological sites in Pennsylvania, many excavated through the Works Progress Administration. Includes site reports, site notes, photographs, photograph albums, maps, geological surveys, drawings, blueprints, news clippings, article and manuscript drafts, and other materials pertaining to sites throughout Pennsylvania. Sites mentioned include the 28th Street site and Wesleyville site (Erie County), the Guyasutha Mound (Allegheny County), Sugar Run sites, Phillips, Fort Hill, and Martin sites, Book Mound (Tuscarora Creek, Juniata County), Clemson's Mound (Susquehanna River, Dauphin County), Brock Village site (Muncy Creek Township), Nelson Mound, Williams Mound, the Sick site (South Towanda, Bradford County), Spartansburg Mound, McKees Rock Mound, and Crall Mound (Washington County). Drafted or completed manuscripts include Fisher's "Southwest Pennsylvania Materials," Cresson's "Archaeological survey of Somerset County, Pennsylvania," Gilmore's "Identification of faunal remains from southwestern Pennsylvania archaeological sites...and report...of animal remains," Schoff's "McFate site report on archaeological excavations," Stewart's "Skeletal remains from Fayette and Somerset counties, Pennsylvania," and Cadzow's "Archaeological explorations in western Pennsylvania," and Augustine and Butler's "Miscellaneous reports on Johnson, Miller, Jacobs, Hooks Run, Logan, Jimerson sites," a survey of northwestern Pennsylvania sites on Seneca-owned property in Warren County. Among the archaeological cultures and aspects mentioned are Adena, Hopewell (or Hopewellian), Woodlands culture, Monongahela aspect, Owasco, Point Peninsula aspect, and Algonquian.

Collection:United States. Work Projects Administration (Pa.) Reports, 1918-1948 (Mss.913.748.Un3)

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Pennsylvania Indians materials, Indian and Military Affairs of Pennsylvania, 1737-1775

Language:English

Date:1749-1769

Type:Text

Extent:19 items

Description: Various materials relating to Pennsylvania's relations with Native peoples during the Seven Years' War era. Topics include anxieties about the French, especially in Ohio; excursions against French and Indian enemies; raids by French and Indian enemies; trade with Indians and competition from Virginia traders; murders of Native individuals; attempts to treat with Native groups; land negotiations; Native complaints about land seizures; colonial officials trying to understand Native grievances to come to peace; 1759 conference in Pittsburgh; gifts for Native diplomats in Philadelphia.

Collection:Indian and Military Affairs of Pennsylvania, 1737-1775 (Mss.974.8.P19)

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Pennsylvania Indians materials, American Philosophical Society Archives

Language:English

Date:1815-1865

Contributor:Conyngham, Redmond, 1781-1846 | Porter, Thomas C. (Thomas Conrad), 1822-1901 | Horsfield, Sarah | Parkman, Francis, 1823-1893

Type:Text

Genre:Correspondence

Extent:7 items

Description: Correspondence regarding materials relating to Pennsylvania Indians. Topics include Redmond Conyngham's letters regarding Indian rock shelters near Buck Mountain, Pennsylvania (where pottery shards and a burial were found) and his donation to the APS of stone implements (stone hammers, etc.) found at an "Indian workshop" near Paradise, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. Other topics include the efforts of the heirs of Joseph Horsfield to reclaim Francis Parkman's recommendation of a Mr. Dickson "as a suitable person to copy the papers ... in the Horsefield [sic] Collection"; and Thomas C. Porter's letter acknowledging receipt of 50 copies of a communication on Indian rocks in the Susquehanna and noting that the Linnaean Society of Lancaster is making a cast of figures on rocks to present to the APS.

Collection:American Philosophical Society Archives (APS.Archives)