Indians of North America -- Great Plains Search this
Type:
Archival materials
Field notes
Dictionaries
Manuscripts
Narratives
Place:
Devils Tower National Monument (Wyo.)
Date:
1916-1948
Scope and Contents:
This subseries of the Plains series contains Harrington's Kiowa research, primarily consisting of vocabulary, comparative vocabulary, a dictionary, linguistic notes, grammar, and texts.
Some of the vocabulary gathered between 1918 and 1920 remains in slipfile form, arranged semantically (former B.A.E. mss. 2289pt. and 2297pt.). Subjects include animals, material culture, plants, and personal categories. During 1945 and 1946, Harrington reorganized his Kiowa notes based on a continuing enlargement of the earlier semantically arranged vocabulary, adding such categories as astronomy, geography, minerals, months, placenames, rank, relationship terms, songs, and tribenames (former B.A.E. ms. 4622pt.). The etymology of some personal names and a partial draft and notes for a proposed paper on "Human Terms" form part of the vocabulary material. The geographic terms were provided by Parker McKenzie and, according to correspondence, most of the relationship terms may also be McKenzie's work. Some of the latter's letters are cut and mounted on separate sheets of paper, others were copied by Harrington, and many are identified with the symbol "<U+2642>." Miscellaneous material includes photocopies of fragments from Robert M. Lowie's "A Note on Kiowa Kinship Terms and Usages," mounted, annotated, and reheard with Keahtigh. A few tribenames elicited from Guy Quoetone (data from him are labeled "Guy Kiowa") and Kiowa Charlie in March and April of 1946 add randomly to the earlier lists.
The comparative vocabulary section contains Tewa comparisons based on Harrington's 1927 accumulation of information from Tewa speaker Eduardo Cata (former B.A.E. ms. 4705pt.). Harrington also used Tewa terms from his "Ethnogeography of the Tewa Indians" (1916), as well as Kiowa terms from James Mooney's "Calendar History of the Kiowa Indians" (1918). In addition, there are a few brief comparisons of Kiowa with Navajo, Paiute (eight pages), and Siouan (two pages).
His dictionary files consist of a manuscript and related notes. The manuscript contains most but not all of the lexical portion of "Vocabulary of the Kiowa Language" with an addition of further entries which were apparently written at a later date.
Among his linguistic notes is a partial draft written in 1916 titled ''The Language of the Kaekua or Kiowa Indians." From 1918 to 1920 while in Anadarko and in Washington, Harrington accumulated extensive information (about 700 pages) on Kiowa vocabulary, grammar, and texts. In 1922 he began a paper on "Notes on the Kiowa Language." He later collated this material in Washington, and in 1928 published a synthesis titled "Vocabulary of the Kiowa Language." The publication encompassed grammatical information with Tewa comparisons, a glossary of lexical terms , and a Kiowa text, (former B.A.E. mss. 4705pt., 2289pt., and 2297pt.).
Documented among the grammar files is Harrington's interest in Kiowa intonation, a title he gave to an unpublished manuscript for which Perry Keahtigh provided information. Their work on this aspect of Kiowa grammar proceeded from September to November 1944, and included recording sessions at the Library of Congress.
There is another unpublished manuscript titled "Kiowa, Pueblo Language of the Plains." This is probably the manuscript that underwent many revisions and rehearings before being published in 1948 as "Popular Account of the Kiowa Indian Language." It encompassed only a minute portion of the ambitious and comprehensive grammar which Harrington had originally envisioned. Because of the diligent reworking of the information, it is rather difficult to determine in what sequence the drafts were created. In order to eliminate as much confusion as possible, all the grammatical drafts of the 1940s are placed together, followed by notes that most nearly reflect the outline of the 1948 publication. Phonetics and morphology are dealt with in detail. Included is brief information on syntax, Indian native language, Spanish and English loanwords, foreign words, slang, and polysynthetic words based on Robert W. Young's "Language: Interesting Side-views of Its Study." (April 1937).
The text section contains over twenty brief stories of Seindei, the culture hero, provided by Delos K. Lonewolf and George Hunt in 1924. Some are in Kiowa and English, some in English only. One myth was given in English by a Comanche Indian named Albert Attock. This textual material was formerly cataloged as part of B.A.E. ms. 4705. There are various versions of Lonewolf's "The Udder-angry Travelers-off" text which appeared in "Vocabulary of the Kiowa Language," "Three Kiowa Texts," and "Popular Account of the Kiowa Indian Language." Frequent rehearings with Keahtigh in November 1945 preceded the last-named publication. Additional material for "Three Kiowa Texts" contains extensive annotations by McKenzie and a few further rehearings from Keahtigh. Laura D. Pedrick translated the Lord's Prayer; a "Church Song" in Kiowa (former B.A.E. ms. 4705pt.) came from Mr. Light (not further identified). There are several texts edited by McKenzie for collaboration with Harrington. They include Enoch Smoky's "Bear Girl Story," recorded March 26,1946, and Hunting Horse's "Mad Girl Story," heard on February 24, 1946 (former B.A.E. ms. 4622pt.). On March 31, 1940, Kiowa Charlie, with the help of Guy Quoetone and Lonewolf, dictated still another Devils Tower myth.
Harrington's Kiowa files also contain other notes and information about Devils Tower in the Black Hills of Wyoming. This evolved into his 1939 publication, "Kiowa Memories of the Northland." The bulk of the Devils Tower material was originally listed as B.A.E. ms. 6070.
Biographical / Historical:
John P. Harrington's search for a relationship between Kiowa and the Tanoan languages led to a substantial accumulation of and career-long interest in Kiowa grammatical, linguistic, and textual material. His study resulted in eight publications on Kiowa, the first appearing in 1910 and the last in 1948.
Early in 1918 Harrington worked in Washington, D.C., with Delos and Ida Lonewolf, (the latter abbreviated "Mrs. L."), who were accompanied by their youngest son, Theodore. In June 1918, Harrington conducted fieldwork at the Kiowa Agency in Anadarko, Oklahoma. Interviews were held with James Waldo (W.): Enoch Smoky, head of the peyote cult among the Kiowa; Parker McKenzie (McK): Laura D. Pedrick (also referred to as "Mrs. P" and"L. Pro "); and several others. The primary focus of his work at that time was to collect linguistic data needed for comparative studies, especially with the Tanoan languages. From mid-1919 through 1920 Harrington remained at Bureau of American Ethnology headquarters, during which time he sorted and reorganized the Kiowa notes. While in Washington, D.C., in 1924, he elicited Kiowa texts from the Lonewolfs and from George Hunt, who was regarded as a superb tribal historian.
"Vocabulary of the Kiowa Language," published in 1928, unfortunately reflects only a small portion of the information he had amassed during his early work. In his notes, Harrington referred to this publication as the "Dictionary," "Dict.," or "Bulletin." He was evidently not pleased with the work. As he wrote to Parker McKenzie in later years: "It has a lot of idiosyncracies in it which are absolutely incorrect. They [the B.A.E.] forced me to publish, and so I did-to my chagrin now."
In the summer of 1939, Harrington and Parker McKenzie renewed their acquaintance during a visit which Harrington made to Anadarko. They reminisced just a few hours on that occasion. Shortly afterwards they began an exchange of letters which lasted almost into 1950. McKenzie's exposure to linguistic method in their early work together had awakened an abiding interest in the preservation of Kiowa. Thus, he was willing to impart what he had discovered in his efforts to analyze the language. This exchange allowed Harrington to collect updated material for the paper which he eventually published on January 1, 1948, titled "Popular Account of the Kiowa Indian Language."
From September 1944 to early 1947, Harrington elicited additional grammatical information and reheard his earlier notes in work sessions with Perry A. Keahtigh (also referred to as "Keah."). Keahtigh married a daughter of Enoch Smoky around 1930. Knowing that his father-in-law had worked with Harrington in 1918, Keahtigh sought out the linguist when he returned to the East Coast in the 1940s. They worked evenings and weekends while Harrington was detailed to the Office of Censorship as part of a volunteer war effort by members of the Smithsonian staff. Keahtigh provided a wealth of linguistic information during 1945 and most of 1946, his work dwindling off in 1947 as Harrington's manuscript neared completion.
Language and languages -- Documentation Search this
Genre/Form:
Field notes
Dictionaries
Manuscripts
Narratives
Collection Citation:
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.
