Indians of North America -- Northwest Coast of North America Search this
Type:
Archival materials
Field notes
Vocabulary
Maps
Place:
Siletz Indian Reservation (Or.)
Rogue River (Klamath County-Curry County, Or.)
Illinois River (Or.)
Oregon
Date:
1933
Scope and Contents:
This subseries of the Alaska/Northwest Coast series contains Harrington's Takelma research. His linguistic, ethnographic, and biographical notes contain information from Frances Johnson, Molly Orcutt, and, to a lesser extent, Aneti Scott. Vocabulary consists primarily of animal names, with descriptions of animals and comments on their range and habits. There are many annotations regarding pronunciation, comparisons between forms in various dialects, and several references to myths. Much of the data from Johnson was elicited for comparison with vocabulary she had provided years earlier for Edward Sapir's (1922) study of Takelma. There are smaller sections covering tribe names, material culture, and miscellaneous vocabulary. Considerable biographical information on the residents of the Siletz area and elsewhere is included.
There are also notes that reflect information recorded separately from Frances Johnson and Molly Orcutt on trips to the Rogue and Illinois Rivers area in Oregon. Harrington also obtained an appreciable amount of data from whites he interviewed. George and Evelyn Baker traveled with him and the Indian women from Siletz. White residents they met along the way include Mr. Crow, Mr. Holst, Mr. Emanuell, Miss Savage, Mr. Lyman, J. T. Tuffs, and Mr. Murphy. Harrington's preferred method of operation was to take several people on sidetrips with his linguistic informant to places with which these people were familiar. He noted car mileage from the starting point and recorded the specific location of each important place, its various names in Takelma and English, its history, and past or present significance to Indians and whites. Sketch maps were made of some areas with the assistance of a number of the informants. Much of the placename data were rechecked upon return to Siletz. Among the Takelma lands covered are places along the Rogue River, the south fork of the Umpqua River, Grants Pass, Table Rock, Jacksonville, Gold Hill, Ashland, Medford, Cow Creek, and Galice Creek. The outlying regions around the Klamath River and Coos Bay are also mentioned.
Biographical / Historical:
After recording Shasta and Konomihu in northern California during the early fall of 1933, John P. Harrington crossed the state border into Oregon to work on Takelma. He worked first with Frances Johnson (referred to as Frances, Fr., Frz., F.J., Phr.), an elderly native of a village on Jump-off-Joe Creek, who had worked with Edward Sapirt at Siletz Reservation in the summer of 1906. He began interviewing her in October and then took her on a placename trip to former Takelma territory on November 2nd through the 4th.
After his return to the Siletz area, Harrington worked with two other people. On November 5th he spoke with Aneti (Mrs. Spencer) Scott, a bedridden woman in her eighties. She gave him vocabulary in her native Applegate as well as words in Takelma which she had learned from her first husband, Evans Bill. Molly Orcutt (sometimes referred to as Orton, abbreviated as Molly, Moy., Mo.), mentioned as a speaker of the Table Rock Dialect, also gave him considerable linguistic data. On November 13th through the 19th Harrington again returned to the original tribal lands to record placenames from her. It appears that Harrington made a final check on the tribenames and placenames he had obtained with Aneti and Orcutt in Siletz before returning to California.
John Peabody Harrington papers, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution
The preferred citation for the Harrington Papers will reference the actual location within the collection, i.e. Box 172, Alaska/Northwest Coast, Papers of John Peabody Harrington, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution.
However, as the NAA understands the need to cite phrases or vocabulary on specific pages, a citation referencing the microfilmed papers is acceptable. Please note that the page numbering of the PDF version of the Harrington microfilm does not directly correlate to the analog microfilm frame numbers. If it is necessary to cite the microfilmed papers, please refer to the specific page number of the PDF version, as in: Papers of John Peabody Harrington, Microfilm: MF 7, R34 page 42.
