Four versions of the story of Apaiyashihagi handwritten in Meskwaki (Fox) syllabic text by Alfred Kiyana, Shapochiwa (Mrs. Harry Lincoln), and Sakihtanohkweha (Mrs. Bill Leaf), with English translations by Truman Michelson. Sakihtanohkweha authored two versions, dated 1912 and 1913; only the 1912 version is translated. A note regarding "clans known to Harry Lincoln" can be found at the end of that translation. On the first page of Sakihtanohkweha's 1913 text Michelson notes, "This is a version of lodge-boy thrown away. The first part is nearly identical with the version written by her in the fall of 1912." On page 42-61 of the same text is a different story by Bill Leaf.
Local Numbers:
NAA MS 2671
Local Note:
Title changed from "Apaiyashihagi Legend" 4/4/2014.
Menominee linguistic notes and texts from Truman Michelson's fieldwork among the Menominee in Wisconsin in 1910. He obtained texts and Menominee names for various tribes from Judge Peroute, a priest of the Grand Medicine Society. Captain John V. Satterlee of the Indian Police at Keshena served as interpreter and also provided Michelson with linguistic information, such as vocabulary.
Truman Michelson's handwritten linguistic notes with paradigms (some extracted from the literature) for the following languages: Montagnais, Menominee, Meskwaki (Fox), Cree, Natick, Ojibwa, Passamaquoddy, and Shawnee.
Local Numbers:
NAA MS 2691
Local Note:
Title changed from "Various verbal tables of different Algonquian tribes" 4/14/2014.
Indians of North America -- Great Plains Search this
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Pages
Field notes
Vocabulary
Date:
1912 January 24
Scope and Contents:
Single page of handwritten Hidatsa linguistic notes from Truman Michelson's research on Algonquian languages at Carlisle Indian Industrial School. These brief notes, which include Hidatsa terms used by female for "my mother," "my father," and "my younger brother," were obtained from Ruth Packineau, a 14 year old student. Michelson describes the language as "Siouxan Gros Ventre" in his notes.
Local Numbers:
NAA MS 2722
Local Note:
Title changed from "Hidatsa terms used by female Ego for my mother, my father, and my younger brother January 24, 1912" 4/17/2014.
Related Materials:
See MS 2703 for his other linguistic notes that he gathered at Carlisle Indian Industrial School.
The collection consists of a volume, now disbound, of twenty-nine (29) drawings by Daniel Little Chief together with thirty-four (34) pages of typescript explanatory notes by Albert Gatschet. The volume also includes an identifying title page handwritten by Albert Gatschet and one drawing on ruled paper by an unidentified Cheyenne artist. The explanatory text was transcribed from Gatschet's notebook, also in the collection, with corrections by Gatschet. The collection also contains a drawing which was found in Gatschet's notebook which does not appear to be directly associated with the works by Daniel Little Chief. Subjects of the drawings include ceremonial items, name glyphs, painted tipis, and illustrations of Cheyenne customs.
Please note that the contents of the collection and the language and terminology used reflect the context and culture of the time of its creation. As an historical document, its contents may be at odds with contemporary views and terminology and considered offensive today. The information within this collection does not reflect the views of the Smithsonian Institution or National Anthropological Archives, but is available in its original form to facilitate research.
Biographical Note:
Daniel Little Chief, also known as Daniel Littlechief and Wuxpais, (?-1906) was a Northern Cheyenne warrior whose band of Cheyenne were sent south to the Cheyenne-Arapaho Reservation in Indian Territory after their surrender, traveling there between 1878-1879. In 1881 this band moved north to the Pine Ridge Agency in South Dakota. In 1891 Daniel Little Chief inherited the role of head chief from his father and remained in South Dakota until his death in 1906.
Albert S. Gatschet (1832-1907) was educated in his native Switzerland (University of Bern, Ph.D., 1892) and in Germany (University of Berlin). Early in his career, he pursued antiquarian research in European museums and wrote scientific articles. Among his interests was the etymology of Swiss place names. After coming to the United States in 1869, he worked on the American Indian vocabularies collected by Oscar Loew, of the United States Geological Survey West of the 100th Meridian (Wheeler Survey). Eventually John Wesley Powell employed him as an ethnologist with the United States Geographical and Geological Survey of the Rocky Mountain Regions. He joined the staff of the Bureau of American Ethnology at its founding in 1879, and continued there until he retired in 1905. For the Powell Survey, Gatschet researched the ethnography of the Klamath in Oregon and the Modoc in Oklahoma. He also collected Native American material objects and investigated special problems for Powell's classification of the American Indian languages north of Mexico, working on languages of the Southeast, including groups forcibly settled in the southern Plains. He not only visited well-known tribes, but also searched out small groups, including the Biloxi and Tunica. He also worked with the Natchez, Tonkawa, Chitimacha, and Atakapa in the United States and Comecrudo and several other small groups in northern Mexico. Through library research, he studied the Timucua, Karankara, and the Beothuk. During the later part of his career, Gatschet was assigned comparative work on all the Algonquian languages. Although the project was never completed, he collected much about many of the languages, especially Peoria, Miami, and Shawnee. In addition, he worked with members of diverse tribes of the eastern United States.
Variant Title:
Crayon Pictures of Cheyenne Ceremonial Customs and Implements. Drawn by Wuxpais or Daniel Littlechief, son of the present headchief of the Cheyenne Indians of South Dakota, at the Pine Ridge Agency. Explained by notes obtained from the same Indian by Albert S. Gatschet.
Conservation Note:
In 1994 the volume was disbound in order to be photographed and because the binding structure was causing damage to the drawings. A full conservation report is available in the NAA files.
Related Materials:
A nearly identical set of drawings by Daniel Little Chief is located held by The Newberry Library in Chicago, see [Cheyenne Ledger Book, Crayon pictures of Cheyenne ceremonial customs and implements by Wuxpais].
Restrictions:
The collection is open for research.
Access to the collection requires an appointment.
Rights:
Contact the repository for terms of use.
Genre/Form:
Works of art
Drawings
Ledger drawings
Citation:
MS 2016 Daniel Little Chief drawings of Cheyenne ceremonial customs and implements, with explanations by Albert Gatschet, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution
Photographs made during James Mooney's fieldwork with Apache, Arapaho, Caddo, Cherokee, Cheyenne, Comanche, Dakota/Lakota, Hopi, Kiowa, Navaho, Powhatan, and Wichita communities, as well as in Mexico. Photographs document individuals and families, gatherings, ceremonies and dances, daily activities, games, crafts, landscapes, and burials.
Please note that the contents of the collection and the language and terminology used reflect the context and culture of the time of its creation. As an historical document, its contents may be at odds with contemporary views and terminology and considered offensive today. The information within this collection does not reflect the views of the Smithsonian Institution or Anthropology Archives, but is available in its original form to facilitate research.
Biographical / Historical:
James Mooney (1861-1921) was an American ethnographer whose research focused on Native North Americans. The son of Irish Catholic immigrants, Mooney was born in Richmond, Indiana. His formal education was limited to the public schools of the city; most of his knowledge of anthropology and ethnography was self-taught, largely through his field experience working with various Native communities.
In 1885, Mooney began working for the Smithsonian Institution's Bureau of American Ethnology (BAE) under John Wesley Powell. There, he carried out ethnographic research for more than 30 years. He was a very early adopter of photography and made thouands of photographs in the course of his fieldwork.
Mooney married Ione Lee Gaut in 1897, and had six children. He died in 1921 in Washington, D.C. from heart disease.
For fuller biographies of Mooney see George Ellison's introduction to the 1992 edition of Mooney's History, Myths, and Sacred Formulas of the Cherokees, as well as The Indian Man: A Biography of James Mooney by L.G. Moses (2002).
Chronology
February 10, 1861 -- Born
1878 -- Graduated high school, then taught public school for 1 year
1879 -- Joined the staff of The Richmond Palladium
April 1885 -- Joined the Bureau of American Ethnology (BAE)
May-June 1885 -- Worked with Cherokee Chief N. J. Smith on Eastern Cherokee grammar
Summer 1886 -- Worked with Chief Smith (in D.C.)
Summer 1887 -- First trip to the Eastern Cherokee of the Great Smokey Mountains to study language, collect material culture, and document activities including the Green Corn Dance and Cherokee ball games (3.5 months)
Winter/Spring 1888 -- Studied Iroquoian and Algonquian synonymies and published articles on the Irish and the Cherokee, collected and studied Cherokee sacred formulae
1889 -- Visit to Cherokee (worked with Swimmer, worked on his maps of place names/mound sites, witnessed ball play and the Green Corn Dance, gathered plants and collected objects for the Smithsonian
December 1890 -- Visited Oklahoma Territory to complete research with Western Cherokee, witnessed the Ghost Dance at the Cheyenne/Arapaho Reservation for the first time
1891 -- "The Sacred Formulas of the Cherokee" published Visit to Cherokee in Oklahoma Territory
April 1891 -- Delegated to collect material for Chicago Exposition. Collected for the next 2 years while studying the Ghost Dance
May 1891 -- Photographed Kiowa Mescal (Peyote) Ceremony Headed west for a four month collecting trip for the Chicago exposition, commissioned model tipis and summer houses from the Kiowa
1891-1893 -- Observed/participated in three ghost dances during three seasons of fieldwork among Arapaho, Sioux, Kiowa, and Cheyenne communities
Winter 1892 -- Began intensive field study of Kiowa winter counts and Kiowa heraldry Among the Navajo and Hopi, making collections for Chicago Exposition
Fall 1893 -- Returned to Oklahoma Territory to observe and record Arapaho Sun Dance. Also studied the Hopi Kachina Dance, the Wichita Corn Dance, and possibly also the Arapaho Ghost Dance
May 1895 -- "Siouan Tribes of the East" published
1895 -- Trip to the Southwest, visited Hopi and Navajo communities
1896 -- "The Ghost Dance Religion and the Sioux Outbreak of 1890" published
January 1897 -- At Anadarko
September 28, 1897 -- Married Ione Lee Gaut
Fall 1898 -- Trip to Southwest, visited Hopi and Navajo communities
1898 -- Attended Omaha Fair, helped plan 'Congress of Indians', supervised Frank Rinehart, who photographed many of the Indian delegates to the fair Calendar History of the Kiowa Indians published
Fall 1899 -- For three weeks in the fall traveled with DeLancey Gill to William Co, VA to study and photograph Mattapony and Pamunkey communities; Gill took pictures while Mooney did census work before traveling to the Chickahominy River
1900 -- Myths of the Cherokee published
Spring 1900 -- Studied communities of the Powhatan Confederacy in VA; traveled to VA again with Gill to visit the Pamunkey and Mattapony communities for more pictures and to complete census, then traveled to area south of Portsmouth to find the rural settlement of the Nansemond.
Fall 1901 -- Cooperative agreement with Field Museum and J. Owen Dorsey; Studied Kiowa for BAE, studied Cheyenne for Field Museum (focused on heraldry). This project, with Dorsey working on Arapaho, continued until 1906
1902 -- Fieldwork on heraldry with Kiowa and Apache communities all year except for two brief visits to Washington, D.C. in September and November
July 1903 -- Mooney and Dorsey study Sun Dance on Cheyenne reservation in Oklahoma Territory, brought staff photographer Charles Carpenter. Spent a week attending the Sun Dance and made the first photographs of the skull-dragging ceremony
October 1903 -- Photographed Arapaho Tomahawk Dance
Winter 1903 -- At the Cheyenne-Arapaho agency in Darlington; winter spent with Cheyenne, and finishing Kiowa tipi models for the Bureau's exhibit at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition
March 1904 -- At Mount Scott with Kiowa
June 1904 -- St. Louis Exposition opens
April 1906 -- Last visit to Cheyenne
Summers, 1911-1916 -- Visits to Cherokee
1918 -- Assisted with charting the Native American Church of Oklahoma (the Secretary of the Interior issued a ban on his research)
June 28, 1918 -- Requested by Fewkes to study peyote cult and Kiowa Heraldry (see Mooney Papers, Box 1, Letters, statement dated 1921)
December 22, 1921 -- Died
Restrictions:
The collection is open for research.
Access to the collection requires an appointment.
Rights:
Contact the repository for terms of use.
Genre/Form:
Photographs
Citation:
Photo Lot 74, James Mooney photographs, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution
Pocahontas - Biographical sketch. Born in 1595, and died on board ship at Gravesend, England, in March, 1617. The daughter of Powhatan, chief of a group of Virginian tribes. Her real name was Matoaka (Matowaka), a word found also in the misspelled form of Matoka and Matoaks. The sole Algonquian root from which the name can be derived is metaw, 'to play,' 'to amuse one's self;' whence Metawake, 'she amuses herself playing with (something).'It was undoubtedly due to her innate fondness for playthings, play, and frolicsome amusement that the name was given her by her parents, as well as the expression "Pokahantes" used by her father when speaking of her. By reason of the alleged romance of her life, Pocahontas is one of the most famous of American women. She is said to have saved Captain John Smith from a cruel and ignominious death at the hands of Powhatan's people, whose prisoner he was at the time. She is also credited with enabling many other Englishmen to escape the wrath and vengeance of her tribespeople.
The truth about some of her alleged exploits can never be known; some writers have even doubted the episode with Captain Smith. After the departure of Captain Smith for England in 1609, faith was not kept with the Indians as promised, and Pocahontas, by the aid of a treacherous chief, was decoyed on board the ship of Captain Argall in the Potomac, carried to Jamestown (1612), and afterwards taken to Werawocomoco, Powhatan's chief place of residence where a sort of peace was effected and the ransom of Pocahontas was agreed upon. While among the Englishmen, however, Pocahontas had become acquainted with John Rolfe, "an honest gentleman, and of good behavior." These two fell in love, an event which turned out to the satisfaction of everybody, and in April, 1613, they were married, Pocahontas having previously been converted to Christianity and baptised under the name of "the Lady Rebecca."
This alliance was of great advantage to the colonists, for Powhatan kept peace with them until his death. In 1616 Mr and Mrs Rolfe, with her brother-in-law Uttamatomac and several other Indians, accompanied Sir Thomas Dale to England, where, owing to the previous misunderstanding of those times concerning the character and government of the American tribes, Mrs Rolfe was received as a "princess." In March 1617, while on board ship at Gravesend ready to start for America with her husband, she fell ill of smallpox, and died about the 22nd year of her life. In July 1907, a skeleton, believed to be the remains of Pocahontas, was unearthed within the site of Gravesend Parish Church. She left one son, Thomas Rolfe, who was educated by his uncle, Henry Rolfe, in England.
Local Numbers:
OPPS NEG.28223
Local Note:
Cf. negative Number 873-B of same, but negative 28223 is better.
Reproduced in D.I. Bushnell, Jr., "Villages of the Algonquian, Siouan, and Caddoan Tribes West of the Mississippi," BAE Bulletin 77, Washington, 1922, Plate 13-b, with caption (p.196): "Mortar and pestle collected among the Delware by Dr. E. Palmer and acquired by the National Museum November 11, 1868. Length of pestle 33 1/2 inches. Diameter of mortar 7 1/2 inches, height 15 inches."
Watercolor by John White, ca. 1585, on the coast of present North Caroline (at that time called "Virginia"). Copied from a photoengraving published in W.H. Holmes, "Aboriginal Pottery of the Eastern United States," 20th Annual Report, BAE, Washington, DC, 1903, Plate II. The original watercolor is in the British Museum.
Watercolor by John White, 1585, in the coastal region of present North Carolina. Negative secured by D.I. Bushnell from the original White drawing book in the British Museum. Same subject as neg. 18,729.