Photographs used to illustrate John Reed Swanton's "The Indians of the Southeastern United States" depicting American Indians of the Southeast and their dwellings, food preparation, and ceremonies.
Biographical note:
John Reed Swanton (1873-1958) was an ethnologist and ethnohistorian with the Bureau of American Ethnology (BAE) from 1900 until his retirement in 1944. Swanton spent his first few years at the BAE studying the Haida and Tlingit groups of the Pacific Northwest and Alaska, and published a number of significant articles on the language, ethnography, and folklore of Northwest Coast Indians. His focus then shifted to the American Indians of the Southeastern United States, where his interest remained for the rest of his career. In addition to conducting ethnographic fieldwork in the Southeast, Swanton studied extensively the history of the area in order to better understand its indigenous cultures and is considered a pioneer in the field of ethnohistory. During his career Swanton published numerous articles and several major works on Southeastern American Indians, including the reference work The Indians of the Southeastern United States (1946), a Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin (No. 137).
Local Numbers:
NAA Photo Lot R87-2Q
Location of Other Archival Materials:
Additional photographs published in BAE Bulletin 137 can be found in the National Anthropological Archives in Photo Lot 80-39.
Photographs made by Swanton can be found in the National Anthropological Archives in Photo Lot 76 and the BAE historical negatives.
The National Anthropological Archives hold more than 200 manuscripts created or collected by Swanton, in the Numbered Manuscripts.
Objects collected by Swanton, including potsherds from various sites in Southeastern United States can be found in the Department of Anthropology in accessions 111748, 113252, 122679, 129788, 165802, and 062577.
Contained in:
Smithsonian Institution Bureau of American Ethnology photograph collections, undated
Restrictions:
The collection is open for research.
Access to the collection requires an appointment.
Rights:
Copy prints in this collection that represent photographs not held by the National Anthropological Archives are for reference only.
Photo Lot R87-2Q, John Reed Swanton photograph collection of illustrations for "The Indians of the Southeastern United States", National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution.
Indians of North America -- Southern States Search this
Type:
Archival materials
Photographs
Scope and Contents:
Individuals in the picture marked by De Batz as follows: Chef (stg.), Reynard Sauvagesse Esclave (woman seated), Illinois, Dansseur, (next 2 no caption, Sauvagesse, Negro, Atakapas.
"During the year 1735 the French took many Illinois Indians to Lower Louisiana, probably to New Orleans, to assist in the war against the Chickasaw. From the interesting drawing made at that time it is evident that not only warriors but women and children made the long journey down the Mississippi. In the sketch the chief, on the extreme left, is shown with his right hand resting on the head of a Whooping Crane, Grus americana which may indicate that the bird had been domesicated. This would agree with a statement by Lawson, who, when referring to the Congaree of North Carolina, wrote: "they take storks and cranes before they can fly and breed them as tame and familiar as dung-hill fowls." "The Fox woman was evidently a captive taken by the Illinois in their recent war with that tribe. "The Atakapa is represented holding a calumet in his right hand and a small pipe in the left, with a quiver filled with arrows on his back, but no bow. "The sketch is probably intended to represent the bank of the Mississippi, and at the bottom appears the words 'Balbahachas. Missysipy ou fleuve St Louis." DuPratz described the Mississippi and mentioned the various names by which it was then known, and continued: 'Other Indians, especially those lower down the river, call it Balbancha; and at last the French have given it the name of St Louis.'" Bushnell, S. M. C. 80:5, 1927. Plate 4.
Published in Bulletin 137 (Swanton), Plate 62 and Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections, Volume 80, Number 5, Plate 1 (Bushnell). For detailed description, see Bushnell's description of plate.
Indians of North America -- Southern States Search this
Type:
Archival materials
Photographs
Place:
Louisiana -- Terrebonne Parish
Date:
1732-35
Scope and Contents:
"Buffalo skins, dressed so as to allow them to become soft and pliable and without removing the hair, were used by the Indians throughout the Mississippi Valley to protect them from the cold of winter. Such robes were often decorated on the inner side by designs painted in several colors. This sketch shows a robe decorated in a simple design in red and black." -- Bushnell, SMC 80:5. Bushnell also goes on to theorize that this may be an Atacapa, but does it only on the superficial basis that the man or his costume resembles the Atacapa man in Negative 2860 ZZ 6.
