This collection includes a selection of handwritten and original sheet music written by Native jazz musician Jim Pepper (Kaw/Oklahoma Muskogee [Creek]).
Scope and Contents:
The Jim Pepper sheet music collection contains a selection of music composed and arranged by native American jazz musician Jim Pepper. This includes five out of the six compositions Jim Pepper was commissioned to create by the Fund for the Borough of Brooklyn through a grant awarded by the Mary Flagler Cary Charitable Trust. These include jazz song "Reflections of Monk", orchestral arrangements "Remembrance" and "Four Winds" and dance scores "Dance #1" and "Feather Dance" all of which were written in 1990. Also included are handwritten copies two earlier compositions "Lakota Song", written in 1984, and a revised composition of "Witchi-Tai-To" from 1983. Additionally there is an undated orchestral arrangement of "Witchi-Tai-To" written by Pepper and orchestrated by Gordon Lee. Several copies of Pepper's business cards from his time touring Europe are also in this collection.
Arrangement:
The music in this collection is arranged alphabetically by song title.
Biographical note:
Jim Pepper was born in 1941 to an Oklahoma Muskogee (Creek) mother and Kaw father in Salem, Oregon. Early influences from his grandfather Ralph Pepper and his father Gilbert led Jim Pepper to learn traditional Kaw music at a young age. However, being raised in Portland exposed Pepper to the jazz of musicians like Sonny Rollins and John Coltrane leading to a fusion of jazz and traditional Native American music in Pepper's compositions. Pepper started playing saxophone at age 15 and moved to New York City in 1964 and played in the jazz rock group "Free Spirits." Pepper album, "Pepper's Pow-Wow" was produced in 1971 and included his first singing effort "Witchi-Tai-To" a peyote chant his grandfather used to sing. After spending several year in Alaska and San Francisco away from the music business, Pepper returned to New York City in 1982 and toured the United Stated and Europe with several groups including the Charlie Haden Liberation Music Orchestra, The Paul Motian Quintet and the Don Cherry Ensemble. Pepper also served at the Music Director for "Night of the First Americans" a benefit concert at the Kennedy Center that included both Native American performers and celebrity entertainers. in 1990 Pepper was the recipient of the "Mary Flagler Charitable Trust" grant. Under this grant Pepper composed 2 jazz songs, 2 scores for Symphony Orchestra and 2 scores for dance in the idiom of Native American music. Pepper died in 1992 of lymphoma in Portland Oregon. Pepper was posthumously granted the Lifetime Musical Achievement Award by First Americans in the Arts in 1999, and in 2000 he was inducted into the Native American Music Awards Hall of Fame.
Related Materials Note:
Along with the original sheet music sent to the Archive Center, the National Museum of the American Indian received several objects from the Pepper family related to Jim Pepper's music career. These objects include Pepper's saxophone and can be found in NMAI's Modern and Contemporary Arts collection with object numbers 26/6293 through 26/6302. For more information on these objects please contact NMAICollection@si.edu.
Provenance:
The Jim Pepper sheet music collection was donated to NMAI in 2007 by Jim Pepper's mother, Floy Childers Pepper, his sister, Suzie Pepper Henry, and Suzie's son James Pepper Henry.
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 broadcast 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.
Identification of specific item; Date (if known); Jim Pepper Sheet Music Collection, Box and Folder Number; National Museum of the American Indian Archive Center, Smithsonian Institution.
Northern Tsitsistas (Northern Cheyenne) Search this
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Photographic prints
Photographs
Place:
Fort Laramie (Wyo.)
Kansas
Washington (D.C.)
Date:
1866-1868
Summary:
Alexander Gardner (1821-1882) was a photographer best known for his portraits of President Abraham Lincoln, his American Civil War photographs, and his photographs of American Indian delegations. This collection contains 61 albumen prints that were shot by Gardner circa 1866-1868 and held in General William T. Sherman's personal collection. Photographs depict American Indian tribes and Peace Commissioners involved in the 1868 Fort Laramie Treaty; photographs shot along the Union Pacific Railway, Eastern Division in 1867; and photographs of American Indian delegations visiting Washington, D. C. from 1866-1868.
Scope and Contents:
This collection contains 61 albumen prints that were shot by photographer Alexander Gardner circa 1866-1868 and held in General William T. Sherman's personal collection. Among the photographs are depictions that were shot in and around Fort Laramie, Wyoming during the 1868 peace treaty negotiations between the U.S. Government and tribal leaders from several American Indian Northern Plains tribes including Lakota (Teton/Western Sioux), Apsáalooke (Crow/Absaroke), Northern Tsitsistas (Northern Cheyenne), and Northern Inunaina (Northern Arapaho); survey photographs shot in Kansas in 1867 for the Union Pacific Railway, Eastern Division (later renamed the Kansas Pacific Railway); and portraits of American Indian delegates in Washington, D.C. including Dakota (Eastern Sioux), Kaw (Kansa), Lakota (Teton/Western Sioux), and Sac and Fox (Sauk & Fox) tribes, 1866-1868. Some of the photographs in this collection, particularly those in Series 2, may have been shot by photographers working with Gardner such as Dr. William A. Bell (1841-1921), William Redish Pywell, and Lawrence Gardner (Alexander Gardner's son).
Arrangement:
This collection is intellectually arranged in three series. Series 1: Fort Laramie, Wyoming, Series 2: Kansas Pacific Railroad, Series 3: Portraits of American Indian delegates, Washington, D.C.
The photographs are physically arranged in eight boxes according to the following: size, conservation work, and series. Within each box they are arranged by photo number. The photographs in boxes 1-4 had conservation work performed by a photo conservator in 2014.
Biographical / Historical:
Alexander Gardner (1821-1882) was a photographer best known for his portraits of President Abraham Lincoln, his American Civil War photographs, and his photographs of American Indian delegations.
Gardner was born in Paisley, Scotland on October 17, 1821 to James Gardner and Jean Glenn. He worked in a number of positions including as a jeweler, journalist, and editor before entering the field of photography circa 1855.
In 1856, Gardner immigrated to the United States with his wife Margaret Sinclair Gardner, his son Lawrence Gardner, and his daughter Eliza Gardner and later that year he began working as a photographer in Mathew Brady's gallery in New York. While working for Brady, it is thought that Gardner invented the "imperial print," a large photograph printed on approximately 21 x 17 inch paper that was often enhanced with hand-coloring and ink. Wealthy politicians and businessmen were among the clients who sat for their photographic portraits in the Brady studio and paid as much as $50- $500 per imperial print (today the equivalent of about $1,000 to 10,000).
By 1858, Gardner was managing Brady's gallery at 352 Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, D.C. When the U.S. Civil War broke out in 1861, Gardner was part of Brady's photography team that documented battle aftermaths and military campsites for the Union. Gardner left the Brady studio circa late 1862 and established his own studio in Washington, D.C. where he continued photographing the war along with his brother James Gardner, and other former Brady photographers including Timothy O'Sullivan.
During the war he documented the remnants of important battle scenes including the Battle of Antietam (1862) and the Battle of Gettysburg (1863). Gardner published 100 of his Civil War images in the publication Gardner's Photographic Sketchbook of the War. The two volume work included photographs shot by additional photographers including O'Sullivan and John Reekie.
In addition to war photography, Gardner was also a portrait photographer and photographed many civilians, soldiers, and politicians in Washington, D.C. Between the years 1861-1865, Gardner photographed President Abraham Lincoln on seven different occasions, including both inaugurations, as well as studio portrait sittings. On July 7, 1865, Gardner was the only photographer allowed to photograph the execution of four conspirators in the President Lincoln assassination.
In 1866, Gardner along with Antonio Zeno Shindler and Julian Vannerson were contracted to photograph portraits of American Indian delegates visiting Washington, D.C. Between the years 1866 to 1868, Gardner photographed many tribes in his studio including Iowa, Sac and Fox, Kaw (Kansa), Dakota, and Lakota. In 1868, Gardner was hired by the U.S. Government to serve as photographer for the peace talks that took place in Fort Laramie, Wyoming. During this trip, Gardner photographed the Lakota (Sioux), Apsáalooke (Crow/Absaroke), Northern Tsitsistas (Northern Cheyenne), and Northern Inunaina (Northern Arapaho) tribes. Among the government officials at Fort Laramie that Gardner photographed was General William Tecumseh Sherman (1820-1891). Sherman served as a General for the Union Army during the Civil War and later in 1869 became the Commanding General of the U.S. Army under President Ulysses Grant's administration. A member of the Peace Commission established in 1867, Sherman traveled to negotiate treaties with American Indian Plains tribes.
Upon returning to Washington, D.C., Gardner published a set of his Fort Laramie photographs in the publication, Scenes in Indian Country. Members of the Peace Commission were given photo portfolios and it is believed that the photos in this collection may have been from General Sherman's personal set. Gardner went on to become the official photographer for the Office of Indian Affairs in 1872.
In his later years, Gardner also was involved in philanthropic causes, such as helping to establish the Masonic Mutual Relief Association which aided widows and orphans of Master Masons. He also founded the Saint John's Mite Association which provided aid to the poor in Washington, D.C.
Alexander Gardner died in Washington, D.C. in 1882.
Related Materials:
Alexander Gardner photographs are housed in many archival and museum repositories. Photographs from the Scenes in Indian Country series are also held in the Newberry Library in Chicago, the Missouri Historical Society, the Minnesota Historical Society, and the St. Louis Mercantile Library in Missouri.
Provenance:
The photographs in this collection were originally owned by General William Tecumseh Sherman (1820-1891) and may have been part of a portfolio of photographs that Alexander Gardner gifted to Sherman and other Fort Laramie Treaty peace commissioners. Photographs were then donated to the Museum of the American Indian (MAI) by Sherman's son P(hilemon) Tecumseh Sherman (1867-1941) in May 1932 and by Sherman's granddaughter Eleanor Sherman Fitch (1876-1959) in March 1942.
Restrictions:
Access to NMAI Archive Center collections is by appointment only, Monday - Thursday, 9:30 am - 4:30 pm. Please contact the archives to make an appointment (phone: 301-238-1400, email: nmaiarchives@si.edu).
Rights:
Some images restricted: Cultural Sensitivity
Permission to publish or broadcast 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.
Indians of North America -- Great Plains Search this
Genre/Form:
Photographs
Citation:
Identification of specific item; Date (if known); William T. Sherman collection of Alexander Gardner photographs, P#####; National Museum of the American Indian Archive Center, Smithsonian Institution.
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.
50 Stereographs (circa 50 printed stereographs, halftone and color halftone)
1,000 Stereographs (circa, albumen and silver gelatin (some tinted))
239 Prints (circa 239 mounted and unmounted prints, albumen (including cartes de visite, imperial cards, cabinet cards, and one tinted print) and silver gelatin (some modern copies))
96 Prints (Album :, silver gelatin)
21 Postcards (silver gelatin, collotype, color halftone, and halftone)
Photographs relating to Native Americans or frontier themes, including portraits, expedition photographs, landscapes, and other images of dwellings, transportation, totem poles, ceremonies, infants and children in cradleboards, camps and towns, hunting and fishing, wild west shows, food preparation, funeral customs, the US Army and army posts, cliff dwellings, and grave mounds and excavations. The collection also includes images of prisoners at Fort Marion in 1875, Sioux Indians involved in the Great Sioux Uprising in Minnesota, the Fort Laramie Peace Commission of 1868, Sitting Bull and his followers after the Battle of the Little Bighorn, and the aftermath of the Wounded Knee Massacre in 1890.
There are studio portraits of well-known Native Americans, including American Horse, Big Bow, Four Bears, Iron Bull, Ouray, Red Cloud, Red Dog, Red Shirt, Sitting Bull, Spotted Tail, Three Bears, and Two Guns White Calf. Depicted delegations include a Sauk and Fox meeting in Washington, DC, with Lewis V. Bogy and Charles E. Mix in 1867; Kiowas and Cheyennes at the White House in 1863; and Dakotas and Crows who visited President Warren G. Harding in 1921. Images of schools show Worcester Academy in Vinita, Oklahoma; Chilocco Indian School; Carlisle Indian Industrial School; Haskell Instittue, and Albuquerque Indian School.
Some photographs relate to the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia, 1876; World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago, 1893; Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St. Louis, 1903; and Centennial Exposition of the Baltimore and Ohio Railraod, 1876. Expedition photographs show the Crook expedition of 1876, the Sanderson expedition to the Custer Battlefield in 1877, the Wheeler Survey of the 1870s, Powell's surveys of the Rocky Mountain region during the 1860s and 1870s, and the Hayden Surveys.
Outstanding single views include the party of Zuni group led to the sea by Frank Hamilton Cushing; Episcopal Church Rectory and School Building, Yankton Agency; Matilda Coxe Stevenson and a companion taking a photographs of a Zuni ceremony; John Moran sketching at Acoma; Ben H. Gurnsey's studio with Indian patrons; Quapaw Mission; baptism of a group of Paiutes at Coeur d'Alene Mission; court-martial commission involved in the trial of Colonel Joseph J. Reynolds, 1877; President Harding at Sitka, Alaska; Walter Hough at Hopi in 1902; and Mrs. Jesse Walter Fewkes at Hopi in 1897.
Biographical/Historical note:
George V. Allen was an attorney in Lawrence, Kansas and an early member of the National Stereoscope Association. Between the 1950s and 1980s, Allen made an extensive collection of photographs of the American West, mostly in stereographs, but also including cartes-de-visite and other styles of mounted prints, photogravures, lantern slides, autochromes, and glass negatives.
Photo Lot 90-1, George V. Allen collection of photographs of Native Americans and the American frontier, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution
Portraits of Native Americans made by Charles Milton Bell in his Washington, DC studio. Depicted individuals include Red Cloud, Oglala; Spotted Tail, Brule; Quanah Parker, Comanche; Nawat, Arapaho; Scabby Bull, Arapaho; Wolf Robe, Cheyenne; D. W. Bushyhead, Cherokee; John Jumper, Seminole; Plenty Coups, Crow; Rushing Bear, Arikara; Gall, Hunkpapa; John Grass, Sihasapa; Lean Wolf, Hidatsa; Chief Joseph, Nez Perce; and Lone Wolf, Kiowa; as well as people associated with Pawnee Bill's Wild West Show. The collection also includes copies of some images by other photographers, including G. G. Rockwood and F. T. Cummins.
Biographical/Historical note:
Charles Milton Bell (circa 1849-1893) was the youngest member of a family of photographers that operated a studio in Washington, DC, from around 1860-1874. Bell established his own studio on Pennsylvania Avenue in 1873 and it rapidly became one of the leading photography studios in the city. Bell developed the patronage of Ferdinand Vandeveer Hayden, who sent Native American visitors to the studio to have their portraits made. Bell also made photographs of Native Americans for the Department of the Interior and the Bureau of American Ethnology.
Local Call Number(s):
NAA Photo Lot 80, NAA MS 4661
Location of Other Archival Materials:
Copy prints previously filed in MS 4661 have been relocated and merged with Photo Lot 80. These are also copy prints of Bell negatives that were acquired from Boyce and form part of this collection.
Additional C. M. Bell photographs held in National Anthropological Archives Photo Lot 4420, Photo Lot 24, Photo Lot 60, Photo Lot 81-44, Photo lot 87-2P, and Photo Lot 90-1.
Restrictions:
The collection is open for research.
Access to the collection requires an appointment.
Rights:
Contact the repository for terms of use.
Genre/Form:
Photographs
Citation:
Photo Lot 80, Charles Milton Bell photographs of Native Americans, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution
Relate to Apache, Kansa, Osage, Oto, [Winnebago ?], and Plains Indians, made at various locations, ca. 1880.
Catalog Number 4691: (1) Tribe: Apache Description: Geronimo as a prisoner of U. S. soldiers. Photographer: Not recorded Date: Copyright 1909. (2) Kansa Tipis at the Kansa Reservation, Oklahoma and a studio portrait of Chief Wash-Un-Ga (seated) Copyright 1906. (3) Kansa Full face portrait of Chief Wa-Shun-gah Copyright 1906 Negative Number 55,091. (4) Kansa Profile portrait of Chief Wa-Shun-gah Coyright 1906 Negative Number 55,091-A. (5) Osage "G. Michelle, Osage Indian Dancer" (in costume) Cpoyright by W. J. Boag Copyright 1910. (6) Osage "Osage Indian Camp, Bird Creek, Indian Ty." Copyright by Drum, Bartlesville, Indian Territory Postmarked September 1906. (7) Osage Posed portrait of Ex-Chief Bacon Rind. (8) Oto Profile portrait of Gi-Ca-Ba, Oto chief and warrior Negative Number 55,092. (9) [Winnebago ?] Indian family in front of mat-covered lodge Copyright 1909. (19)Plains "Perils of the Plains- 1852." Indians attacking white men in wagon Copyright 1909.
Local Numbers:
NAA MS 4691
Local Note:
Filed: Original prints, Apache, Kansa, Osage, Oto, [Winnebago ?], and Plains.
The Robert Rankin papers, 1886, 1914, 1956-2011, document his field work, research, and professional activities, primarily in relation to his work studying American Indian languages. Rankin was professor of linguistics at the University of Kansas from 1969 until his retirement in 2005. The collection consists of sound recordings, field notebooks, vocabulary lists and bibliographies, dictionaries, research files, slip files, word lists, correspondence, ephemera, notes, readings and reprints, writings, drafts, and teaching materials. This includes materials from Rankin's work with the last native speakers of the Quapaw and Kaw (Kansa, Kanza) languages and subsequent research, writings, and collaborations with tribes and fellow linguists.
Scope and Contents:
The Robert Rankin papers, 1886, 1914, 1956-2011, document his field work, research, and professional activities, primarily in relation to his work studying American Indian languages. The collection includes sound recordings, field notebooks, vocabulary lists and bibliographies, dictionaries, research files, slip files, word lists, correspondence, ephemera, notes, readings and reprints, writings, drafts, and teaching materials.
The 196 sound recordings include material from Rankin's work with the last native speakers of both the Quapaw and Kaw (Kansa, Kanza) languages. The collection includes extensive research on these languages along with research on other facets of the Siouan language family. Rankin's close collaboration with colleagues and tribes is well documented, especially his work with linguists John E. Koontz and W.L. Ballard, as well as his contributions to language documentation efforts including the Handbook of North American Indians, the Annotated Dictionary of Kaw (Kanza), and the Comparative Siouan Dictionary. The collection also includes sound recordings and notes from Rankin's study of the Romanian language as part of his graduate study.
Arrangement:
The Robert Rankin papers are arranged in 9 series: Series 1. Quapaw, 1972-1991, undated; Series 2. Kaw (Kansa, Kanza), circa 1970-2011, undated; Series 3. Field notebooks, 1981-1983, 1995, undated; Series 4. Subject and correspondence files, 1886, 1956-2007, undated; Series 5. Conferences and professional associations, 1974-2010; Series 6. Writings, 1975-2010, undated; Series 7. Teaching and academic files, 1973-2006, undated; Series 8. Romanian study, 1914, 1962-1972, undated; Series 9. Sound recordings, 1963-1987, undated.
Biographical Note:
Chronology
1939 -- Born January 17
1960 -- Graduated from Emory University with a B.A. in Romance Languages
1966-1968 -- Fulbright Fellowship in Romania researching Romanian dialects
1968 -- M.A. in Linguistics, University of Chicago
1969 -- Started at the University of Kansas as an Acting Assistant Professor of Linguistics
1972 -- Ph.D. in Linguistics, University of Chicago
1972 -- Became an Assistant Professor of Linguistics at the University of Kansas
1973 -- Language work with the Quapaw
1973-1974 -- Began work with the Kaw (Kansa, Kanza) language that continued for the rest of his life
1986 -- Became a Professor of Linguistics at the University of Kansas
2005 -- Retired from the University of Kansas
2014 -- Died on February 24
Robert Rankin was a professor of linguistics at the University of Kansas who spent the majority of his career working with American Indian languages in the Siouan language family. He began his career studying romance languages as part of his undergraduate and graduate work and completed a Fulbright Fellowship in Romania (1966-1968) examining regional linguistic differences. He began teaching at the University of Kansas in 1969 and was introducted to the Choctaw language in Summer 1972 while teaching a field methods course. He became fascinated with American Indian languages and started working with the remaining native speakers of the Quapaw tribe in early 1973. When there were no more native speakers left, he started working with the Kaw (Kansa, Kanza) language. When he began this research in 1973-1974, there were only four fluent speakers of Kaw (Kansa, Kanza) left. He continued studying the language until well after his retirement from the University of Kansas in 2005. Rankin died on February 24, 2014 in Kansas City, MO.
Sources consulted: "Robert L. Rankin obituary," Lawrence Journal-World, March 1-5, 2014 http://obituaries.ljworld.com/obituaries/ljworld/obituary.aspx?pid=169905179
Provenance:
This collection was transferred to the National Anthropological Archives by Robert Rankin's wife, Carolyn Rankin, in 2014.
Restrictions:
The Robert Rankin papers are open for research.
Use of archival audiovisual recordings with no duplicate access copy requires advance notice.
Computer disks are currently restricted due to preservation concerns.
Access to the Robert Rankin papers requires an appointment.
Rights:
Contact the repository for terms of use.
Topic:
Indians of North America -- Southern states Search this
Indians of North America -- Great Plains Search this
Language and languages -- Documentation Search this
Genre/Form:
Sound recordings
Field notes
Citation:
Robert Rankin papers, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution
Sponsor:
Funding for the processing of this collection was provided by the Wenner-Gren Foundation.
Digitization and preparation of sound recordings for online access has been funded through generous support from the Arcadia Fund.
Use of archival audiovisual recordings with no duplicate access copy requires advance notice.
Computer disks are currently restricted due to preservation concerns.
Access to the Robert Rankin papers requires an appointment.
Collection Rights:
Contact the repository for terms of use.
Collection Citation:
Robert Rankin papers, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution
Sponsor:
Funding for the processing of this collection was provided by the Wenner-Gren Foundation.
Digitization and preparation of sound recordings for online access has been funded through generous support from the Arcadia Fund.
Use of archival audiovisual recordings with no duplicate access copy requires advance notice.
Computer disks are currently restricted due to preservation concerns.
Access to the Robert Rankin papers requires an appointment.
Collection Rights:
Contact the repository for terms of use.
Collection Citation:
Robert Rankin papers, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution
Sponsor:
Funding for the processing of this collection was provided by the Wenner-Gren Foundation.
Digitization and preparation of sound recordings for online access has been funded through generous support from the Arcadia Fund.
Photographs depicting members of the Osage Minerals Council, George Tallchief, and other Osage people. Individuals pictured include Charles Tillman, Principal Chief; Ed Red Eagle, Sr., Assistant Principal Chief; Reuben DeRoin; Kenneth Bighorse; George Carter; Rosemary Wood; Camille Pangburn; Harry Red Eagle, Jr.; Joseph Trumbly; Charles Tallchief; Thomas Fugate; Cloyd Easley; Cheryl Potts; and Cecilia Tallchief Lemon.
Biographical/Historical note:
Thomas E. Fugate was descended from Kansa and Potawatomi tribes and was a member of the Osage Tribe and the Osage Minerals Council.
Local Call Number(s):
NAA Photo Lot 97-44
Location of Other Archival Materials:
Additional photographs of Fugate held in National Anthropological Archives Photo Lot 93-9.
Restrictions:
The collection is open for research.
Access to the collection requires an appointment.
Rights:
Contact the repository for terms of use.
Genre/Form:
Photographs
Citation:
Photo Lot 97-44, Tom E. Fugate photographs of Osage people, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution.
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
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.
MS 933-b Biloxi vocabulary with some cognate forms in Catawba, Santee, Yankton and Teton Dakota, Hidatsa, Kansa and Tutelo In Department of the Interior schedule
Creator:
Gatschet, Albert S. (Albert Samuel), 1832-1907 Search this
Indians of North America -- Southern States Search this
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Pages
Vocabulary
Date:
October 1886 - November 1886
Scope and Contents:
173 entries in printed U. S. Geographical and Geological Survey "Comparative Vocabulary" form. Corrections of entries 92 and 93 by J. Owen Dorsey.
Local Numbers:
NAA MS 933-b
Local Note:
Autograph document signed
General:
Previously titled"Biloxi vocabulary (collected October - November, 1886) with some cognate forms in Catawba, Santee, Yankton and Teton Dakota, Hidatsa, Kansa and Tutelo."
Topic:
Language and languages -- Documentation Search this
Indians of North America -- Southwest, New Search this
Indians of North America -- California Search this
Indians of North America -- Southern States Search this
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Date:
undated
Scope and Contents:
On cards compiled from information furnished in reply to letters of inquiry. The information is secondary and lacks documentation. Terms of the following languages are thought to be included: Achomawi, Alibamu, Arikara, Athapascan, Blackfoot, Catawba, Choctaw, Copehan, Creek, Dakota, Hitchiti, Hopi, Iowa, Kansa, Klikitat, Mandan, Muskhogean, Niuskoki, Nez Perce, Omaha, Osage, Oto, Paiute, Pawnee, Piman, Ponka, Quapaw, Santee, Seminole, Shahaptian, Shoshone, Teton, Washakie, Winnebago, Ute, Yankton.
Indians of North America -- Great Plains Search this
Indians of North America -- Southern States Search this
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Pages
Date:
undated
Scope and Contents:
Marginal notes are in the handwriting of J. Owen Dorsey (in pencil and red crayon) and James Mooney (in pencil); title and title page in handwriting of A.S. Gatschet. Intended by Morgan as supplement No. 3 to "Houses and House Life of the American Aborigines," CNAE IV, 1881, but never printed.
Indians of North America -- Great Plains Search this
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Pages
Date:
March, 1878
Scope and Contents:
In two copies of John Wesley Powell's Introduction to the Study of Indian Languages 1877, with 4L, in handwriting of A. S. Gatschet laid in. Includes marginal notes and additions (mostly in red ink) by J. Owen Dorsey.
Local Numbers:
NAA MS 1383
Local Note:
autograph document
General:
Previously titled "Kansas or Kaw vocabulary."
Topic:
Language and languages -- Documentation Search this
Indians of North America -- Great Plains Search this
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Pages
Date:
February, 1878
Scope and Contents:
In Schedule of John Wesley Powell's Introduction to the Study of Indian Languages 1877. "Informant: A. W. Stubbs, Kaw interpreter." Manuscript includes corrections and annotations in crayon by J. Owen Dorsey.
Local Numbers:
NAA MS 1485
Local Note:
autograph document signed
General:
Previously titled "Kansas or Kaw vocabulary and phrases."
Topic:
Language and languages -- Documentation Search this
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Collection Rights:
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Collection Citation:
Robert Rankin papers, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution
Sponsor:
Funding for the processing of this collection was provided by the Wenner-Gren Foundation.
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