Also includes "Tutelo Custom." 1936. Autograph document. 7 pages. Onondaga texts with partial English interlinear translations. Informants: 1917, Abram Charles; 1936, S. Gibson.
Local Numbers:
NAA MS 1479
Local Note:
autograph document
Other Title:
Tutelo Custom
Topic:
Language and languages -- Documentation Search this
Citation:
Manuscript 1479, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution
Notes on: Proscription following taking the Little Water Medicine (Onondaga text); Josha Buck's list of texts of myths relating to faces (False-faces); text (Acts XVII); Adonwa; Onondaga Bowl Game; footnotes on a text of White Dog Sacrifice (Onondaga); fragment of White Dog Sacrifice announcement (Manuscript by an Indian ?); names of months in Mohawk; note on Handsome Lake. 34 pages miscellaneous. Also text, Medicine and Tobacco, Onondaga, by S. Gibson, 1936/ 5 pages- interlinear by W. N. Fenton. Note to Genesis Story, native, 2 pages.
Photographs documenting Iroquois people made circa 1897-circa 1937 on and near the Six Nations Reserve by J.N.B. Hewitt, linguist with the Smithsonian Institution's Bureau of American Ethnology.
Scope and Contents note:
Hewitt's photos primarily depict Mohawk, Cayuga, Seneca, Onondaga, Tuscarora, Oneida, and Tutelo peoples. There are also a few images of Iroquois houses and other structures, Hewitt's mask collection, and Onondaga Chief John Buck and family, Seneca Chief John Arthur Gibson and family, Cayuga Chief James Jamieson and family, and Cayuga-Seneca Chief Simeon Gibson. Most of the photographs were taken during several trips between 1897 and 1937, on and near the Six Nations Reserve in Ontario (Oshweken, Deseronto, and Brantsford), and New York (Niagara Falls, Nedrow, and Syracuse).
Arrangement note:
For Photo Lot 155 Hewitt's original arrangement and numbering has been maintained. The order of the photographs does not follow the chronology that they were taken; for instance there are often several photographs of an individual that were clearly made in different years. The original negatives also represent a variety of film and camera types.
The arrangement and numbering for MS 4596, established at an unknown time, was maintained.
Biographical note:
J.N.B. (John Napoleon Brinton) Hewitt (December 6, 1859-October 14, 1937) was a linguist and ethnographer who specialized in Iroquoian and other Native American languages. Born on the Tuscarora Reservation near Lewiston, New York, his mother was of Tuscarora, French, Oneida, and Scottish descent. His father's heritage was English and Scottish, but he was raised in a Tuscarora family. Hewitt spoke English growing up, but when he left the reservation to attend schools in Wilson and Lockport, he learned to speak the Tuscarora language from other students. Hewitt grew up planning to become a physician, like his father. However, the course of Hewitt's interests changed when, in 1880, he was hired by Erminnie A. Smith of the Smithsonian Institution's Bureau of Ethnology (now the Bureau of American Ethnology) as an assistant ethnologist tasked with collecting myths among the Iroquoian tribes of New York. He continued this work from 1880-1884, and then was briefly employed by the Jersey City Railways Co. (1884-1885) and Adams Express Co. (1885-1886). Upon Smith's death in 1886, Hewitt returned to the BAE to continue her work, remaining employed there until his death.
Over the course of his career, Hewitt became the leading authority on the organization of the Iroquois League and the ceremonials, customs, and usages of the tribes composing it. He acquired an intimate knowledge of the languages of the League, including a speaking knowledge of Mohawk and Onondaga, and also became acquainted with several Algonquian dialects. On February 28, 1914, in recognition of his services in preserving for posterity a knowledge of the history and ethnology of the Iroquoian people of New York state, he was awarded the Cornplanter medal for Iroquois Research.
Additionally, he was a founder of the American Anthropological Association and an active member of the Anthropological Society of Washington and the American Museum of Natural History, serving as both treasurer (1912-1926) and president (1932-1934) of the latter. Hewitt also contributed over one hundred articles for the Handbook of American Indians (Bulletin 30) and published the two volume Iroquoian Cosmology (1903 and 1928).
Indians of North America -- Southern states Search this
Genre/Form:
Photographs
Citation:
Photo Lot 155, J.N.B. Hewitt photographs of Iroquois people on the Six Nations Reservation, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution.
1. Letters received from other anthropologists and the public, with a few copies of letters sent, 1886- ca. 1933. Alphabetically arranged.
2. Letters received from Indians of the Onondaga, Tonowanda, and Tuscarora Reservations, with a few copies of letters sent, ca. 1902-ca. 1935. Alphabetically arranged.
3. Letters received from Indians of the Six Nations Reservation, Grand River, Ontario, Canada, with a few copies of letters sent, 1897-1937, Alphabetically arranged.
4. Letters sent, 1902-1905. In letterpress copybook, pages 84-338. Pages 1-83 contain an Iroquois text, untranslated. Correspondents include: Melancon, Art.[?] S. J., Archivist, College Sainte-Marie, Montreau. May 8, 1930. Concerning whereabouts of Ojibwa manuscript of Fr. Ferard.
Bureau of American Ethnology 4721 Correspondents include: Adkins, O.W., Bailey, Nicodemus, Carroll, Julia C., Chew, William, Clute, Alexander H., Coolidge, Sherman Rev. (see Society of American Indians), Cornplanter, Jesse, Doxtator, George, Gansworth, Howard, Haag, Mack, Harkin, Lee F., Henricks, Walter A. Mrs, Hewitt, Alvis B., Hewitt, Caroline, Hewitt, David B., Hill, Mrs, Hill, C. D., Hill, David Russell, Howe, Chester, Honyoust, John, Johnson, Elias, Johnson, Isaac Mrs, Johnson, Matthew L., Johnson, William J., Jonathan, Jesse, Jones, W. Franklin, Kellogg, Laura C. (Mrs O. J.), Kirk, Jesse Rev., Koeppler, John L., Lincoln, George I. (see Thomas Asylum) Lyon(s), Iva B., Lyon(s), Phoebe Patterson Mrs, Lyon(s), Emmet Chief, Metoxen, Pierson L., [RE: Mountpleasant, John] Gearlow, George C., Mountpleasant, Grant, Murray, Robert Knox, Moore, M. M., Owl, W. David (Charo.), Parker, Arthur C., (see Society of American Indians), Patterson, Holland, D., Robinson, Joe T. (U. S. Senator, Arkansas), Seneca Nation, Resolution, March 21, '03, Society of American Indians, The, Parker, Arthur C., Secretary-Treasurer (Includes 2 page biographical notes by JNBH on Jean Baptiste Bottineau) Smith, Lucy M., Tarbell, Margarette (nee M. M. White), Tuscarora Tribe, Thomas Asylum, Lincoln, George I. Superindendent, White, M. M. see Tarbell; Wild Pigeon, Chief.
Correspondents at Six Nations Reservation. (Incomplete list.) Baldwin, Marie L. B., Beaver, G. W., Buck, John, Gabaoosa, George (Garden River, Ontario, Not Brantford, Grand River), Gibson, John H., Gibson, Simeon, Gridley, Marion E. (Indian Council Fire)-- See note on reverse., Hess, Jacob, Hill, Asa R., Newhouse, Seth, 1897-1911, Thomas, David, Morgan, C. E., Lt Col., Gridley, M. includes biographical notes on the following: Dr Arthur C. Parker, William B. Newell (Rolling Thunder), Dr George W. Beaver, W. David Owl, Louis Deer (Oskanonton).
"H" section includes office memos and various papers relating to Hewitt and his career with the Bureau of American Ethnology. (They are not necessarily received from persons whose names begin with H, but should be kept together because of their relevance to Hewitt's career.) Nothing here from Horatio Hale. MCB 6/6/63.
Includes sidelights on others in Bureau of American Ethnology and out- e.g. letter from Sapir concerning Radins "dismisal" and concerning Hewitt's relationship with Hodge.
Local Numbers:
NAA MS 4271
Local Note:
Researcher (Fr Aloysius Schretlen, SJ) trying to locate Ojibway Manuscript of Fr Ferard says not at Wikwemikong, Jesuit Motherhouse in Canada, as stated elsewhere. Says "I much fear the manuscript may have been lost in the disastrous fire of 1954, for I feel sure it would have been shown to me..." (correspondence 88-464, dated 3/17/88) KTB 4/5/88
Topic:
Language and languages -- Documentation Search this
