Reverend James Owen Dorsey (1848-1895) was a missionary and Bureau of American Ethnology ethnologist who conducted extensive research on Siouan tribes and languages.The papers of James Owen Dorsey comprise mostly ethnographic and linguistic materials on various tribes of the Siouan language family as well as tribes from Siletz Reservation in Oregon. These materials include texts and letters with interlineal translations; grammar notes; dictionaries; drawings; and his manuscripts. In addition, the collection contains Dorsey's correspondence, newspaper clippings, his obituaries, and reprints.
Scope and Contents:
This collection contains James O. Dorsey's research and writings as a BAE ethnologist, as well as his earlier work as a missionary among the Ponca. The vast majority of the collection pertains to his research on Siouan-Catawban languages, including the Dakota and Dhegiha languages, Chiwere, Winnebago, Mandan, Hidatsa, Tutelo, Biloxi, and Catawba. His research on Athapascan, Kusan, Takilman, and Yakonan languages from his field work at Siletz Reservation are also present, as well as some notes on the Caddoan languages. Dorsey's research files include linguistic and ethnological field notes, reading notes, stories and myths, vocabularies, drawings, and unpublished and published manuscripts. The collection also contains Omaha, Ponca, Quapaw, and Biloxi dictionaries that he compiled and materials relating to his work editing Steven Riggs' Dakota-English Dictionary. Additional noteworthy materials in the collection are Teton texts and drawings from George Bushotter and drawings by Stephen Stubbs (Kansa), Pahaule-gagli (Kansa), and George Miller (Omaha). The collection also contains Dorsey's correspondence, newspaper clippings, obituaries, and his collection of reprints.
Arrangement:
The collection is organized into 6 series: 1) Siouan; 2) Siletz Reservation; 3) Caddoan; 4) General Correspondence; 5) Personal Papers; 6) Miscellaneous & Reprints.
Biographical Note:
Reverend James Owen Dorsey (1848-1895) was a missionary and Bureau of American Ethnology ethnologist who conducted extensive research on Siouan tribes and languages.
Dorsey was born on October 31, 1848 in Baltimore, Maryland. He exhibited a talent for languages at an early age. At age 6 he learned the Hebrew alphabet and was able to read the language at age 10. In 1867 Dorsey attended the Theological Seminary of Virginia and was ordained a deacon of the Protestant Episcopal Church in 1871. In May of that year, Dorsey traveled to the Dakota Territory to serve as a missionary among the Ponca. Plagued by ill health, Dorsey was forced to end his missionary work in August 1873. By that time, however, he had learned the Ponca language well enough to converse with members of the tribe without an interpreter.
Dorsey returned to Maryland and engaged in parish work while continuing his studies of Siouan languages. His linguistic talents and knowledge of these languages attracted the attention of Major John Wesley Powell. Powell arranged for Dorsey to work among the Omaha in Nebraska from 1878 to 1880 to collect linguistic and ethnological notes. When the Bureau of American Ethnology (BAE) was established in 1879, Powell recruited Dorsey to join the staff.
As an ethnologist for the BAE, Dorsey continued his research on Siouan tribes. His studies focused on languages but also included Siouan personal names, folklore, social organization, religion, beliefs, and customs. He conducted fieldwork among the Tutelo at Six Nations on Grand River in Upper Canada (1882); the Kansa, Osage, and Quapaw in Indian Territory (1883-1884); the Biloxi at Lecompte, Rapides Parish, Louisiana (1892); and again with the Quapaw at the Quapaw Mission (1894). He also worked with Native Americans that visited DC, including George Bushotter (Teton), Philip Longtail (Winnebago), Samuel Fremont (Omaha), and Little Standing Buffalo (Ponca). He also spent time at Siletz Reservation in 1884 to collect linguistic notes on the Athapascan, Kusan, Takilman, and Yakonan stocks.
In addition to his research, Dorsey helped found the American Folklore Society and served as the first vice-president of the association. He also served as vice-president of Section H of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
At the age of 47, Dorsey died of typhoid fever on February 4, 1895.
Sources Consulted
1st-16th Annual Reports of the Bureau of American Ethnology. 1881-1897.
Hewitt, J.N.B. 1895. "James Owen Dorsey" American Anthropologist A8, 180-183.
McGee, W.J. 1895. "In Memoriam." Journal of American Folklore 8(28): 79-80.
1848 -- Born on October 31 in Baltimore, Maryland.
1871 -- Ordained a deacon of the Protestant Episcopal Church.
1871-1873 -- Served as a missionary among the Ponca in Dakota Territory.
1878-1880 -- Conducted fieldwork among the Omaha in Nebraska.
1879 -- Joined the staff of the Bureau of American Ethnology.
1882 -- Conducted fieldwork among the Tutelo at Six Nations on Grand River in Upper Canada.
1883-1884 -- Conducted fieldwork among the Kansa, Osage, and Quapaw in Indian Territory.
1887 -- Worked with George Bushotter to record information regarding the language and culture of the Dakota.
1884 -- Conducted fieldwork at Siletz Reservation.
1892 -- Conducted fieldwork among the Biloxi at Lecompte, Rapides Parish, Louisiana.
1894 -- Conducted fieldwork among the Quapaw at the Quapaw Mission in Indian Territory.
1895 -- Died of typhoid fever on February 4th at the age of 47.
Restrictions:
The James O. Dorsey Papers are open for research. Access to the James O. Dorsey Papers requires an appointment
Rights:
Contact the repository for terms of use.
Topic:
Language and languages -- Documentation Search this
Manuscript 4800 James O. Dorsey papers, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution
Sponsor:
Creation of this finding aid was funded through support from the Arcadia Fund.
Digitization and preparation of additional materials for online access has been funded also by the National Science Foundation under BCS Grant No. 1561167 and the Recovering Voices initiative at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History.
This subseries of the Alaska/Northwest Coast series contains Harrington's research on Nicola and Thompson, consisting of comparative vocabulary, outline and notes for write-up, and notes from interviews regarding James A. Teit.
Vocabulary entries were not arranged by Harrington into his usual semantic categories, but were kept together by interview. Nicola terms were frequently elicited with their Thompson equivalents. Words cover animals, plants, geography, material culture, tribenames, and placenames. Also interspersed are a few phrases, notes and sketch maps from two placename trips, summaries of myths in English, and biographical data concerning the informants and others. One interview was based in part on a rehearing of Franz Boas' (1924) "Vocabulary of the Athapascan Tribe of Nicola Valley, British Columbia." At a later date (1942) comparative Athapascan data--Rogue River and Chasta Costa from Wolverton Orton (Wolv., RR, Wolve Chastac.) and Coquille from Coquille Thompson (Thomp.)--was added to these notes.
Harrington's write-up is little more than an outline for an article. It includes a section on informants and some vocabulary excerpted from the field notes. The designation "Nic. for write-up" is misleading as data for Thompson is also given throughout. Several references are made to information from published sources (Dawson 1892, Morice 1932).
During his last two days in Nicola Valley, Harrington visited Mrs. James A. Teit in order to copy Teit's manuscript "Notes on the Early History of Nicola Valley." This section contains notes on their discussions of Teit's work and local history. It also includes comments by an unidentified man Harrington met at Spence's Bridge as well as a photograph of Teit.
Biographical / Historical:
John P. Harrington's work in Merritt and Canford, British Columbia, during the summer of 1941 was part of a continuing effort to trace the origin and relationships of the Athapascan languages, which he often referred to comprehensively as "Chilcotin." In late August to early September--dates given are August 27, August 31, and September 1--he recorded data from speakers of the Lytton (L., Lyt., Upper Th.) dialect of Thompson River Salish, who also remembered a little Nicola Valley Athapascan (Nic., st. for stuwix-mux, southern Chilcotin).
He first worked with Billy Ernest (Billy), 80-year-old chief of the Canford Indians. He also conducted separate interviews with Mrs. Louey Jonah (Mrs. J.) and her husband (Mr. J.), an unidentified "Old Lady," and Louie Charlie, who gave remembered information from Johnny Jackson, said to have been a stuwix speaker, deceased for some five years. Harrington considered his best source of information to be Billy Ernest's sister, Matilda Shackler (Mat.), with whom he reheard much of the data. His interpreter for many of the sessions was Johnny Martin (Martin, Johnny). Nonlinguistic information was obtained from James A. Teit's widow and an unidentified "half-breed at Spence's Bridge."
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.
Indians of North America -- Northwest Coast of North America Search this
Type:
Archival materials
Field notes
Manuscripts
Vocabulary
Place:
Oregon -- Languages
Washington (State) -- Languages
Date:
1939-circa 1942
Scope and Contents:
This subseries of the Alaska/Northwest Coast series consists of field notes labeled "Kwalhioqua-Tlatskanai" by Harrington, but they do not represent reliable original data for these related neighboring languages. They are, rather, attempts by speakers of other Washington and Oregon languages to recall or suggest the appropriate Athapascan forms. Materials include notes from rehearings of Boas and Goddard's "Vocabulary of an Athapascan Dialect of the State of Washington"; L.J. Frachtenberg's "Willapa" vocabulary; J. Wickersham's "Qwal-ow-its" or "Kwil-low-its" vocabulary; E.S. Curtis' article "The Willapa"; Curtis' Willapa vocabulary; and A.C. Anderson's "Klatskanai" vocabulary. There are also a few miscellaneous notes on the names, ancestry, and location of Washington and Oregon residents capable of commenting on Kwalhioqua and Tlatskanai. In addition, these files contain Harrington's rought outlines for articles and an abstract of a story regarding the origin of the Kwalhioqua and their relationship with other tribes.
Biographical / Historical:
John P. Harrington first became interested in Kwalhioqua-Tlatskanai in the fall of 1939 when he used a photostat of Boas and Goddard's (1924) "Vocabulary of an Athapascan Dialect of the State of Washington" and a hand-copy of Alexander Caulfield Anderson's (1857) "Klatskanai" vocabulary as parts of a "questionnaire" for obtaining the northern Athapascan languages of British Columbia and Alberta. He soon realized that the study of these isolated languages of the Willapa and Chehalis Rivers region would be significant in his continuing survey of Athapascan along the Pacific coast. As he expressed it later in a letter to B.A.E. chief Matthew W. Stirling: "This Kwalhioqua-Tlatskanay language is vital to connecting the Chilcos [Chilcotins] with the Hupas, is the only half-way link.."
Therefore, after his return to the United States he began a serious investigation of the extinct languages and even attempted to locate individuals who might have heard the languages spoken as children. He used a variety of Kwalhioqua and Tlatskanai vocabularies in manuscript and published form as a basis for elicitation. In January 1940 while staying in Seattle with Melville and Elizabeth Langdon Jacobs, he questioned Tlingit speaker Thomas Skeek, a native of Kake, Alaska, regarding Tlatskanai. A month later he asked Upper Umpqua (UU) speaker John Warren (J.W.) of Grand Ronde for his impressions of the two more northerly situated languages.
This aspect of Harrington's work on the Northwest Coast was continued upon his return to the area in 1942. Those from whom he hoped for the greatest results were Lizzie Johnson and Minnie Case, two Upper Chehalis speakers he worked with at Oakville, Washington. Lizzie Johnson (Liz.) was the daughter of Mary Judson who had been an informant for James Wickersham and Leo J. Frachtenberg around 1900 and June 1910 respectively. Minnie Case (Min.) was a niece of Mrs. Judson and had been married to Willie Andrew of Tahola whose father was reportedly "pure Tlatskanai." She also claimed to have spoken Kwalhioqua as a very young child, although Harrington felt the language must have been Tlatskanai due to the location of her home in Clatsop County, Oregon.
Another Washington state resident interviewed in the matter was Emma Luscier (Em.).
He also interviewed a number of speakers of Oregon languages, including Clara Pearson, Wolverton Orton (Wolv.), Lucy Smith, and Coquille Thompson (Thomp.).
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.
Indians of North America -- Northwest Coast of North America Search this
Type:
Archival materials
Field notes
Vocabulary
Narratives
Place:
Siletz Indian Reservation (Or.)
Oregon
California
Date:
1942
Scope and Contents:
This subseries of the Alaska/Northwest Coast series contains materials grouped as "Southwest Oregon Athapascan" [part formerly cataloged as B.A.E. ms. 4555], collected largely from speakers of various languages of the Coquille, Umpqua, and Rogue River regions who were residing at Siletz Reservation. Also included is related work Harrington did on Athapascan at the Smith River Reservation just over the state line in northern California. The notes span the dates June to early November 1942.
In Siletz, Ada and Miller Collins, Lucy Smith, Wolverton Orton, and Coquille Thompson provided linguistic information. Nonlinguistic data was provided by Mrs. Thompson, the Reverend Warren Cornelius, Mr. and Mrs. Collson, Mr. and Mrs. Charlie Wilson at Gold Beach, and Mr. Oleman.
The Athapascan speakers interviewed at the Smith River Reservation were Norman George, Jenny Scott, Ben White, Johnny [Lopez?], and Alec Billy.
The comparative Athapascan lexical data are supplemented with references to speakers of other Oregon languages who had been interviewed earlier by Harrington. Among the Siletz residents were Hoxie Simmons, a Galice speaker; his son, Ezra; and Spencer Scott, a speaker of Siuslaw and Lower Umpqua. Those from other areas of the state that Harrington interviewed included the Coos speakers Frank Drew and Lottie Evanoff; John Albert, the last speaker of Alsea; Louie Fuller, a Tillamook; and the nonlinguistic sources John Waters and Larry Hofer.
Among the comparative vocabulary are scattered notes of ethnographic interest, such as descriptions of smoking and chewing gum in the category on plants. The notes covering tribenames and placenames are the most complex. There is also a section of animal and plant names, which contain comments by Lucy Perez, a Coast Yuki.
Other materials in the subseries include grammatical notes; abstract in English of myths; ethnographic notes on such topics as birth, marriage, death and superstitions; and observations by a number of informants on the history of the removal of the Southwest Oregon Athapascan tribes to Siletz.
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.
Indians of North America -- Northwest Coast of North America Search this
Type:
Archival materials
Field notes
Vocabulary
Date:
1940, 1942
Scope and Contents:
This subseries of the Alaska/Northwest Coast series contains Harrington's Galice / Applegate field notes. They represent his work with informant Hoxie Simmons (abbreviated Hox.) on at least two occasions. The bulk of the work was accomplished during a visit to Siletz, Oregon made in early 1940, undoubtedly at the suggestion of Melville Jacobs (listed as Jacobs in the notes). A lesser amount of data were collected on Harrington's return to the area in the spring or early summer of 1942 to work with speakers of other southwest Oregon Athapascan languages. An unidentified individual referred to as "Harrison" (possibly a Chetco speaker) was also present at some of the sessions.
The material is highly miscellaneous, consisting of a short vocabulary with scattered notes on the linguistic relationship of neighboring languages and the location of tribal boundaries. Limited biographical information is provided for Simmons and for other native speakers of Oregon languages. The vocabulary, covering mostly tribenames and natural history terms, is principally in Galice (Gal.) with some Applegate (ApI.) and a few Chasta Costa (Chast., Chasta., Costa.) equivalences. Some words were elicited from Simmons for comparison with the Upper Umpqua (U.U.) terms Harrington had just recently obtained from John Warren at Grand Ronde. At a later date Harrington annotated certain pages with comparisons from Navajo and Carrier data which he got from a Navajo speaker named Adolph Dodge Bitanny (Bit.) and from his co-worker on northern Athapascan, Robert W. Young (Y.).
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.
