Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians of North Carolina
Date:
1932-1958
Summary:
These are the papers of Washington, D.C. attorney James E. Curry, whose legal career included work both as a government attorney and in his own private practice. The bulk of the papers reflect his private practice in the area of Indian affairs.
Scope and Contents:
The material in the collection includes documents relating to many aspects of Curry's career but most of it relates to his work with Indian tribes and the National Congress of American Indians. For the most, the collection is made up of such materials as letters exchanged with government officials, Indians, and other attorneys; copies of legal documents; published government documents; notes; and clippings and other printed materials. Of particular significance is a subject file relating to Indian affairs. It includes material concerning affairs of Alaskan natives and the Aleut (Akutan, Pribilof Islands), Apache (including Fort Sill, Jicarilla, Mescalero, San Carlos White Mountain), Arapaho (Southern), Assiniboine (Fort Belknap, Fort Peck), Bannock (including Fort Hall), Blackfeet, Caddo, Catawba, Cherokee (Eastern), Cheyenne (Northern, Southern), Chickahominy, Chickasaw, Chippewa (including Lac Courte Oreilles), Choctaw, Cochiti, Cocopa, Coeur d'Alene, Colville, Comanche, Creek, Croatan, Crow, Dakota (Big Foot, Cheyenne River, Crow Creek, Devil's Lake, Flandreau, Fort Totten, Lower Brule, Mdewakanton, Oglala, Rosebud, Santee, Sisseton-Wahpeton, Standing Rock, Yankton), Delaware, Eskimo (including Gambell, Kiana), Flathead, Fox, Haida (including Kasaan), Havasupai, Hopi, Iroquois (Caughnawaga, Seneca, St. Regis), Isleta, Jemez, Kalilspel, Kansa (Kaw), Kickapoo, Kiowa, Klamath, Kutenai, Laguna, Lummi, Maricopa (Gila River, Salt River), Menominee, Missouria, Mohave (Fort Mohave), Mohave Apache (Fort McDowell), Muckleshoot, Navaho, Nez Perce, Niska, Nooksak, Omaha, Osage, Oto, Papago, Paiute (Fallon, Fort McDermitt), Moapa, Pyramid Lake, Shivwits, Walker River, Yerington), Pima (Gila River, Salt River), Potowatomi, Quinaielt, San Felipe, San Ildefonso, San Juan, Santa Ana, Santa Clara, Sandia, Sauk, Seminole (Florida, Oklahoma), Seneca, Seri, Shawnee (Eastern), Shoshoni (including Fort Hall), Sia, Spokan, Stockbridge, Taos (Pyote clan), Tesuque, Three Affiliated Tribes (Mandan, Arikara, and Hidatsa), Tillamook, Tlingit (including Angoon, Craig, Juneau, Kake, Ketchikan, Klawak, Klukwan, Taku, Wrangell), Tsimshian (Metlakatla), Umatilla, Ute (including Uintah-Ouray), Walapai, Washo, Wesort, Winnebago, Wyandot, Yakima, Yaqui, Yavapai, Yuma, and Zuni. There are also materials relating to Curry's work with the Bureau of Indian Affairs and National Congress of American Indians, and material that reflects his interest in conditions and events in given locations (often filed by state) and in organizations with interest in Indians. The material relating to Curry's work in Puerto Rico has been deposited in the Archivo General de Puerto Rico, Instituto de Cultura Puertorriquena, in San Juan.
Arrangement note:
The James E. Curry Papershave been arranged into 6 series: (1) Daily Chronological Files, 1941-1955; (2) Subject Files Regarding Indian Affairs, bulk 1935-1955; (3) Miscellaneous Files Regarding Indian Affairs, bulk 1947-1953; (4) Non-Indian Affairs, n.d.; (5) Puerto Rico Work, 1941-1947; (6) Miscellany, undated.
Biographical/Historical note:
James E. Curry was trained in law in Chicago and practiced in that city from 1930 until 1936, serving part of that time as secretary of the local branch of the American Civil Liberties Union. From 1936 to 1938, he was an attorney with the United States Department of the Interior Bureau of Indian Affairs, being largely involved with matters of credit affecting Indians. From 1938 to 1942, he continued service with the Interior Department but worked in several capacities involving the Puerto Rico Reconstruction Administration, the department's Consumers' Counsel Division, and the Puerto Rico Water Resources Authority.
In 1945, Curry returned to Washington and set up private practice, also maintaining for a time an office in Puerto Rico. In Washington, he became the attorney for the National Congress of American Indians and from that time until the 1950s his practice increasingly involved representation of American Indian tribes, mostly in claims against the federal government. In this work, for a time, he was involved in business relations with a New York Law firm that included Henry Cohen, Felix Cohen, and Jonathan Bingham.
He also often worked closely with lawyers who lived near the tribes he represented, William L. Paul, Jr., of Alaska, for example. This aspect of his practice--representing Indian tribes--was largely broken up during the early 1950s when the Commissioner of Indian Affairs began to use his powers to disapprove contracts between Curry and the tribes. In 1952 and 1953, his official relationship with the National Congress of American Indians was also ended. After this, while Curry continued until his death to act as a consultant in Indian claims with which he had earlier been involved, his career and life developed in a different direction.
Related Materials:
Additional material relating to James E. Curry can be found in the records of the National Congress of American Indians, also located at the National Museum of the American Indian Archive Center.
Provenance:
The Curry papers were originally donated to the National Anthropological Archives by James E. Curry's daughter Mrs. Aileen Curry-Cloonan in December 1973. In 2007 The Curry papers were transferred from the National Anthropological Archives to the National Museum of the American Indian Archive Center along with several other records concerning American Indian law and political rights.
Restrictions:
Access to NMAI Archive Center collections is by appointment only, Monday - Friday, 9:30 am - 4:30 pm. Please contact the archives to make an appointment (phone: 301-238-1400, email: nmaiarchives@si.edu).
Rights:
Single photocopies may be made for research purposes. Permission to publish or broadbast materials from the collection must be requested from National Museum of the American Indian Archive Center. Please submit a written request to nmaiarchives@si.edu.
Genre/Form:
Notes
Letters
Clippings
Legal documents
Citation:
Identification of specific item; Date (if known); James E. Curry papers, Box and Folder Number; National Museum of the American Indian Archive Center, Smithsonian Institution.
Photographs collected by Wes Taukchiray, probably during work with American Indian groups in the 1970s and 1980s. The collection largely consists of images and narratives depicting Narragansett, Montauk, and Shinnecock Indians, most of which comes from "Rare Eastern Indian Photo Series" distributed by Red Thunder Cloud, a common correspondent of Taukchiray. It also includes one image of a member of the Clark family near Summerville, South Carolina and one image of Tuscarora or Lumbee Indians Will and Roberta Bullard Locklear in their home in the Chavis Settlement in North Carolina, made by Mark Price of the Fayetteville [North Carolina] Times and collected while Taukchiray was living with them in the 1980s. There are two photographs of Chief Hudson Crummie, possibly a Pee Dee Indian, during a visit by Taukchiray, as well as six photographs depicting Tunica Indians and artifacts and some images of Alabama and Catawba Indians.
Biographical/Historical note:
Wes Taukchiray, born Wes White in 1948, is an ethnohistorian and author of numerous publications about Indians of the American Southeast, particularly South Carolina. In 1969 he began trying to determine the origins of the Four Holes Indian Community and other American Indian groups in South Carolina; this work was continued in contract work in 1974 and 1975 for the Smithsonian Institution's Center for the Study of Man. From 1972-1982 he worked as a private researcher and genealogist based in the South Carolina Archives. He was employed by the Lumbee Regional Development Association (1976-77) before becoming the main researcher for the Indian Law Unit of the Lumbee River Legal Services (1982), where he cowrote the Lumbee tribe's petition for federal recognition. In 1988, he changed his name to Taukchiray, which means "white" in the Catawba language.
Local Call Number(s):
NAA Photo Lot R98-45, NAA Photo Lot 97-3, NAA Photo Lot 88-3, NAA Photo Lot 83-6, NAA Photo Lot 81-65, NAA Photo Lot 77-65
Reproduction Note:
Most of the copy prints and negatives made by Smithsonian Institution, 1977, 1980, 1997, 1999.
Location of Other Archival Materials:
Photo Lot 97-3, Photo Lot 88-3, Photo Lot 83-6, Photo Lot 81-65, and Photo Lot 77-65 have been relocated and merged with Photo Lot R98-45. These photographs were also collected by Wes Taukchiray and form part of this collection.
The National Anthropological Archives holds the Lumbee petition for federal acknowledgement 1987 (MS 7523).
Wes (White) Taukchiray's papers from his work for the Center for the Study of Man can be found in the National Anthropological Archives in the Records of the Center for the Study of Man.
Provenance:
Donated by Wes Taukchiray in 1977, 1980, 1982, 1988, 1996, and 1998.
Restrictions:
The collection is open for research.
Access to the collection requires an appointment.
Rights:
The copy prints in this collection have been obtained for reference purposes only. Contact the repository for terms of use and access. The images from printed sources will not be reproduced unless the researcher can establish that relevant copyrights have expired.
Indians of North America -- Southern states Search this
Genre/Form:
Photographs
Citation:
Photo lot R98-45, Wes Taukchiray photograph collection of Narragansett, Montauk, Shinnecock, and Tunica Indians, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution.
Cry of the thunderbird: the American Indian's own story edited and with an introduction and commentary by Charles Hamilton. With paintings by George Catlin and sketches by American Indian artists
Access to NMAI Archive Center collections is by appointment only, Monday - Friday, 9:30 am - 4:30 pm. Please contact the archives to make an appointment (phone: 301-238-1400, email: nmaiarchives@si.edu).
Collection Rights:
Single photocopies may be made for research purposes. Permission to publish or broadbast materials from the collection must be requested from National Museum of the American Indian Archive Center. Please submit a written request to nmaiarchives@si.edu.
Collection Citation:
Identification of specific item; Date (if known); James E. Curry papers, Box and Folder Number; National Museum of the American Indian Archive Center, Smithsonian Institution.
New Bern, ca. 10 mi S of, 3.2 mi WSW of junction of US Route 70 and Catfish Lake Road on Catfish Lake Road, Croatan National Forest, Craven, North Carolina, United States, North America
New Bern, ca. 10 mi S of, 3.2 mi WSW of junction of US Route 70 and Catfish Lake Road on Catfish Lake Road, Croatan National Forest, Craven, North Carolina, United States, North America
New Bern, ca. 10 mi S of, 3.2 mi WSW of junction of US Route 70 and Catfish Lake Road on Catfish Lake Road, Croatan National Forest, Craven, North Carolina, United States, North America
New Bern, ca. 10 mi S of, 3.2 mi WSW of junction of US Route 70 and Catfish Lake Road on Catfish Lake Road, Croatan National Forest, Craven, North Carolina, United States, North America
