Miscellaneous collection of correspondence, portions of treaties, and other papers relating to the Treaty of Fort Stanwix, and to various claims of the Iroquoian (Six Nations) Tribes. Also letter (carbon copy) dated June 25, 1935, to Hon. John Collier, Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Department of the Interior, relating to treaties dealing with the Six Nations of Iroquois, especially that of Fort Stanwix (10 pages.)
The photographs primarily document ceremonies, people, and lands of Native Americans in the Plains and Southwest, taken during Mekeel's field research from 1929 to 1936. A large portion of the collection depicts Mekeel's research during the early 1930s among the Oglala of the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. Another large portion of the collection includes personal photos depicting Mekeel's homes and children.
Biographical/Historical note:
H. Scudder Mekeel (1902-1947) was an anthropologist who studied social and psychological aspects of Native American cultures. Educated at Harvard University (BA, 1928), the University of Chicago (MA, 1929), and Yale University (PhD, 1932), he was a member of the 1929 Laboratory of Anthropology (Santa Fe) ethnological field school led by Alfred L. Kroeber. In 1929-1932, he carried out three field expeditions to the Sioux communities of South Dakota, working mainly on the Pine Ridge Reservation. He joined the Bureau of Indian Affairs as Director of Applied Anthropology under Commissioner John Collier in 1935. Two years later, he was appointed Director of the Laboratory of Anthropology at Santa Fe and continued there until 1940, when he accepted a teaching position at the University of Wisconsin.
Local Call Number(s):
NAA Photo Lot 94-21
Location of Other Archival Materials:
The National Anthropological Archives holds copies of Mekeel's Field Notes from the summers of 1930 and 1931 in the White Clay District of the Pine Ridge Reservation, South Dakota (MS 7088). Originals of these field notes and Mekeel's population notes on the White Clay District are held by the American Museum of Natural History, Division of Anthropology Archives (.M454).
The Human Studies Film Archives holds Mekeel's film footage of a Lakota Sioux Sundance from 1930 (HSFA 92.8.1).
Correspondence from Mekeel held in the National Anthropological Archives in the William Duncan Strong papers, Raoul Weston LaBarre Papers, and Bureau of American Ethnology Administrative File.
Restrictions:
Original nitrate negatives are in cold storage and require special arrangements for viewing.
Transmitting "The June 11 Report of the Senate Sub-Committee on Indian Investigation: A Statement by Commissioner John Collier of the United States Indian Service, "June 30, 1943 and mimeographed letter of Harold L. Ickes to Thomas regarding the subcommittee report, July 6, 1943.
File consists of the following: 1. Correspondence, March-November, 1960. 8 pages. 2. List of the Keetoowah materials, including description of Keetoowah flag and partial transcription of Cherokee symbols upon it. 3. Microfilm copy of Keetoowah materials, exclusive of the flag. 1 small roll (under 75 frames). 4. Black and white photograph of Keetoowah flag. 1 print, 8 x 10 in. (S. I. Neg. No. 46,549). 5. Color transparencies of Keetoowah flag. 35 mm. slides, 2 file copies, plus duplicates.
Contents of microfilm roll, Manuscript No. 4595, Part 3: (Stored separately in microfilm file). 1. Carbon copy of memorandum of John Collier, May 29, 1944, regarding the collection, and found with it. 2. Bound notebook, 9-3/4 x 7-1/2in., of 136 pages. The first 31 pages are a text in syllabary, signed in 1884, and evidently the Keetoowah Constitution. On scattered subsequent pages are lists in syllabary of what seem to be personal names with dates. (one or two short lists are in English--mostly of Tarepin family.)
3. Constitution of Keetoowah Society," in English, signed September 20, 1905. Typescript, 7 pages. 4. "First Annual Message of Hon. William C. Rogers, Principal chief of the Cherokee Nation." Printed leaflet, no date, 13 pages [1904, see BAE Neg. 1063-d Rogers was last principal chief -- Raymond Fogelson]. *Tyner, Howard Q., Manuscript, "The Keetoowah Society in Cherokee History," M.A. Thesis, Tulsa University, 1949, given translation of Keetoowah constitution, probably same version as this. --Raymond Fogelson, 7/61.
Biographical / Historical:
Deposited with the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, John Collier, by Levi B. Gritts, Vice President of the Keetoowah Society in Oklahoma, on May 29, 1944. Returned to W. W. Keeler, Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation, Bartlesville, Oklahoma, by Commissioner Glenn Emmons on November 29, 1960.
Due to the small size of this collection the papers are arranged as one series.
Biographical / Historical:
Charles Hapgood (1904-1982) was an educator and arts administrator in Provincetown, Massachusetts.
Hapgood was born to writers Hutchins Hapgood and Neith Boyce. In 1929, he received a master's degree in history from Harvard University. From the mid-1940s to 1967, he taught history at several colleges including Keystone College, Springfield College, and New England College. In the years before World War II Hapgood served as executive secretary of the Crafts Commission under President Franklin D. Roosevelt, working to establish a national crafts plan that would operate similarly to the Federal Art Project. The efforts of the Craft Commission came to a standstill, however, with the outbreak of the war.
Hapgood died in 1982 in Greenfield, Massachusetts.
Related Materials:
Also in the Archives of American Art is an interview with Miriam Hapgood DeWitt conducted 1987-1988, by Robert F. Brown, for the Archives of American Art.
Provenance:
The collection was transferred from the NCFA Library, Smithsonian Institution on June 6, 1979.
Restrictions:
This collection is open for research. Access to original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C. Research Center.
Rights:
The Archives of American Art makes its archival collections available for non-commercial, educational and personal use unless restricted by copyright and/or donor restrictions, including but not limited to access and publication restrictions. AAA makes no representations concerning such rights and restrictions and it is the user's responsibility to determine whether rights or restrictions exist and to obtain any necessary permission to access, use, reproduce and publish the collections. Please refer to the Smithsonian's Terms of Use for additional information.
Indians of North America -- Great Plains Search this
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Prints
Negatives
Contact prints
Date:
circa 1910-1935
Scope and Contents note:
Portraits of Bacon Rind, White Calf (probably Two Guns White Calf), Red Cloud Jeane, and a group portrait, probably of Oglala Indians. The collection also includes a vintage print by Harris & Ewing of Bureau of Indian Affairs Director John Collier seated with five American Indians around him. Two photocopied images of King George VI and his wife, one with Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt, probably during a visit to Washington, D.C. are also available with the collection.
Biographical/Historical note:
James Craig was a professional photographer in Washington, DC.
Local Call Number(s):
NAA Photo Lot 92-44
Location of Other Archival Materials:
Additional Harris & Ewing photographs held in National Anthropological Archives Photo Lot 8, Photo Lot 24, Photo Lot 77-80, Photo Lot 78-20, and Photo Lot 80-36.
Additional photographs of Bacon Rind held in National Anthropological Archives MS 4691, Photo Lot 90-1, and the BAE historical negatives.
Restrictions:
The collection is open for research.
Access to the collection requires an appointment.
Rights:
Contact the repository for terms of use.
Citation:
Photo Lot 92-44, James Craig photographs of Native Americans in Washington, DC, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution.
American Indian ceremonial dances; Navajo, Pueblo, Apache, Zuñi. Drawings, lithographs, and etchings by Ira Moskowitz. Text by John Collier. Introd., by John Sloan, with a pref. by Harry L. Shapiro
