The arrangement of material in this section forms the basis for Volume 6 of the microfilmed papers. The reel numbers of corresponding microfilm are listed where appropriate. "N/A" indicates material that was not included in the microfilm.
Scope and Contents:
This series within the John Peabody Harrington papers represents the results of Harrington's work on the native languages and cultures of the East, a region in which he worked primarily in the later part of his career as ethnologist with the Bureau of American Ethnology. The documents focus primarily on linguistic data and contain rehearings of early vocabularies as well as detailed studies of placenames.
Arrangement:
Series is arranged into 12 subseries: (1) Algonquian; (2) Shawnee/Peoria; (3) Western Abnaki/Eastern Abnaki/Passamaquoddy; (4) Massachusett; (5) Mahican/Stockbridge; (6) Northern Iroquoian; (7) Wyandot; (8) Delaware (Oklahoma and Ontario); (9) Powhatan; (10) Cherokee; (11) Creek/Seminole/Alabama/Koasati/Choctaw; (12) General and Miscellaneous Materials
Local Numbers:
Accession #1976-95
Restrictions:
No restrictions on access.
Rights:
Contact the repository for terms of use.
Topic:
Language and languages -- Documentation Search this
Indians of North America -- Southern states Search this
Genre/Form:
Vocabulary
Manuscripts
Field notes
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.
Collection includes Fox, Ojibwa, and Cheyenne linguistic data obtained from informants; Fox and Ojibwa dictionaries prepared largely from published sources; notes on Powhatan, Cree, Menominee, and comparative Algonquian; publications in and concerning Algonquian languages; correspondence; and miscellaneous personal papers.
Local Numbers:
NAA MS 4860
Local Note:
Full series of Father Geary's Algonquian linguistic manuscripts are detailed in inventory of Geary papers, Number 4860, copy in "Master" file.
Autograph document
Topic:
Language and languages -- Documentation Search this
Blair Arnold Rudes was a linguist who specialized in Native American languages. The Blair Rudes papers document his research and professional activities from 1974-2008 and primarily deal with dictionaries and other linguistic materials he created and studied, as well as the culture and history of various Native American groups around the Eastern United States and the rest of North America. His involvement in language education, federal recognition of tribes, and the use of authentic Native American dialog in film are also represented. The collection consists of research files, linguistic research and data, correspondence, papers and other writings written by Rudes and his colleagues, movie scripts and related materials, and audio/visual recordings.
Scope and Contents:
The Blair Rudes papers 1967-2008, document his research and processional activities from his time in graduate school at the University of Buffalo in the 1970s through the end of his career at the University of North Carolina, Charlotte. Materials primarily deal with linguistic and historical research on Native American languages, particularly those in eastern North America. There is also a significant amount of material related to the Golden Hill Paugussett Tribe and their petition to the federal government for recognition, and Rudes's work as a consultant on language education projects. The collection consists of research files, linguistic research and data, correspondence, papers and other writings written by Rudes and his colleagues, official documents for the Golden Hill Paugussett federal recognition case, movie scripts and related materials, and audio/visual recordings.
Arrangement:
This collection is arranged in 7 series: Series 1. Biographical, 1999-2007; Series 2. Correspondence, 1975-2007; Series 3. Linguistic Research and Data, 1969-2008, undated; Series 4. Writings, 1967-2007, undated; Series 5. Dialog Translation, 2003-2008; Series 6. Grants, Contracts, and Foundations, 1997-2007; Series 7. Golden Hill Paugussett Federal Recognition, 1994-2003.
Biographical / Historical:
Blair Arnold Rudes was a linguist specializing in Native American languages, particularly those originating in eastern North America. Aside from working in academia for many years, Rudes also used his linguistic skills as a language education expert and consultant and was involved in projects related to film dialog translation, federal recognition of Native American tribes, and education for migrant and Native American students in the United States. He was best known in the Native American community for his extensive work documenting endangered indigenous languages (such as Tuscarora) as well as reconstructing Native languages that were dormant or lost to history and assimilation (such as costal Algonquian and Catawba). At the time of his death in 2008, he was an Associate Professor of English at the University of North Carolina, Charlotte.
Rudes was born in Gloversville, NY on May 18, 1951. He attended the State University of New York at Buffalo where he studied linguistics at the undergraduate and graduate level. As a masters student in the mid-1970s, he was exposed to the Seneca language through his landlady who was also a graduate student studying the language. As Rudes learned more about Seneca, he quickly became interested in it and the rest of the Iroquoian languages, particularly Tuscarora. Before long Rudes was visiting the Tuscarora Reservation near Buffalo and learning the language from fluent speakers. He was awarded his Doctorate in linguistics in 1976. After graduating, he briefly spent time as a Fulbright scholar in Romania and as a lecturer at the University of Maryland, College Park before being hired as a consultant for Development Associates, Inc.
For almost twenty years, Rudes worked on various language-related projects for Development Associates and as an independent contractor. Most of these projects studied academic programs and performance of minority, migrant, and Native American students with special language issues. Rudes was also hired as a researcher and consultant by the Golden Hill Paugussett Tribe between 1994 and 2003 to assist in their petition for federal recognition. In 1999, Rudes returned to academia and was hired as an Assistant Professor of English in the Applied Linguistics Program at U.N.C. Charlotte. That same year he published his seminal Tuscarora-English/English Tuscarora Dictionary.
Aside from his academic duties, Rudes continued to work independently as a language consultant and was hired in 2004 to reconstruct the Virginia Algonquian language for the New Line film The New World (2005). Rudes also assisted in coaching actors in speaking the language, which had been dormant since the early 18th century. In order to finish translating dialog into Virginia Algonquian on time, Rudes was reported to have shut himself into his Williamsburg hotel room for nearly a month, working feverishly until his task was completed. Rudes was also hired as a Mayan dialog coach for the Paramount Pictures film The Ruins (2008).
Throughout his career, Rudes was active in the Foundation for Endangered Languages, the Society for the Study of the Indigenous Languages of the Americas, the annual Algonquian Conference, and the American Society for Ethnohistory. He presented and published regularly about his work with Native American languages, especially Virginia and Carolina Algonquian, Catawba, Mohawk, and Tuscarora. Rudes died of a heart attack on March 16 in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Sources consulted:
Whitford, Sara. "The Algonquian Language Reborn: An Interview with Blair Rudes." Coastal Carolina Indian Center, 2011. Accessed April 12, 2016.
http://www.coastalcarolinaindians.com/the-algonquian-language-reborn-an-interview-with-blair-rudes/
Whitford, Sara. "Obituary: Blair A. Rudes, PhD – Linguistics Advisor to CCIC." Coastal Carolina Indian Center, 2011. Accessed April 12, 2016.
http://www.coastalcarolinaindians.com/obituary-blair-a-rudes-phd-linguistics-advisor-to-ccic/
Chronology
1951 -- Born on May 18 in Gloversville, New York.
1973 -- Awarded Bachelors of Art in linguistics from the University of Buffalo.
1974 -- Awarded Masters of Art in linguisitcs from the University of Buffalo.
1976 -- Awarded Ph.D in linguistics from the University of Buffalo.
1976-1978 -- Awarded Fulbright Scholarship to teach linguistics at the University of Bucharest in Romania.
1980-1981 -- Hired as a lecturer at the University of Maryland, College Park.
1981-1999 -- Worked for Development Associates, Inc. as an educational consultant.
1994-2003 -- Hired by the Golden Hill Paugussett Tribe to assist in their petition for recognition from the federal government.
1999 -- Hired as an Assistant Professor in the Applied Linguistics Program in the Department of English at the University of North Carolina, Charlotte.
2004-2005 -- Worked as a Virginia Algonquian translator and dialog coach for The New World.
2005 -- Promoted to Associate Professor at U.N.C. Charlotte.
2006 -- Recognized by the Tuscarora Nation for contributions to preserving the Tuscarora language.
2007 -- Worked as a Mayan dialog coach for The Ruins. Recognized by the South Carolina General Assembly in a resolution for work done for the South Carolina Commission for Minority Affairs.
2008 -- Awarded the University at Buffalo's Distinguished Alumni Award. Died on March 16 in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Separated Materials:
Two VHS recordings were transferred to the Human Studies Film Archive (HSFA.2016.10)
Provenance:
Materials were held at the U.N.C. Charlotte Department of English after Rudes's death until 2008, when his brother Bryan Rudes donated them to the National Anthropological Archives (accession 2009-16).
In 2015, Rudes's former graduate student Craig Kopris donated an appendix draft from his dissertation (A Grammar and Dictionary of Wyandot, 2001) that contained comments and annotations from Rudes. This file is located in sub-series 4.4: Writings by Others.
Restrictions:
The Blair Rudes papers are open for research.
Rights:
Contact the repository for terms of use.
Citation:
Blair Rudes Papers, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution.
Sponsor:
The papers of Blair Rudes were processed with the assistance of the Smithsonian Institution's Collections Care and Preservation Fund.
Dictionary of the Peoria dialect of Illinois and French attributed to the Reverend James Gravier and dated to "before or not many years after" 1700 on the basis of handwriting and orthography. The dictionary also contains later additions in at least two different handwritings. (Information from J. Hammond Trumbull in J. C. Pilling, Bibliography of the Algonquian Languages, Bureau of American Ethnology-B 13, page 211..) A few pages at the beginning and end of the manuscript are lost, and some of the remaining pages are fragmentary.
Local Numbers:
NAA MS 4871
Local Note:
xerox copy of Manuscript document
Topic:
Language and languages -- Documentation Search this
Includes slips that have lexical materials from published (and perhaps some manuscript) sources on Virginia and Carolina Algonquian with some comparative materials from other Algonquian languages (especially Cree from Leonard Bloomfield). In two boxes: Box 1 Indian-English; Box 2 English-Indian and comparative materials.
Local Numbers:
NAA MS 7187
Citation:
Manuscript 7187, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution
