Contents: Barry, J. Nelson. St Stephen's Parish, Baker City, Oregon. February 22, 1910. 2 pages. Refers to "Wesorts" of southern Maryland. Bowers, George M. United States Commission of Fish and Fisheries, Washington, D.C. September 20, 1899. 2 pages. Concerning the identity of a "stone-piling fish" in the headwaters of the Tennessee River. Clark, Ben. Fort Reno. Oklahoma. February 5, 1906. 2 pages. Concerning the Mormon massacre of 1857, with a newsclipping of the story. Clark, Ben. Fort Reno, Oklahoma. January 16, 1907. 2 pages. Concerning the movements of certain bands of Nez Perce and Cheyenne Indians. Cleveland, R. E. Anadarko, Oklahoma. January 15, 1904. Autograph letter signed with Manuscript notes for reply signed by Mooney. 1 page. Asking value of a Martin Van Buren peace medal. Devitt, E. I. Georgetown University, Washington, D.C. January 7, 1909. 1 page. Concerning the Wesorts of Charles County, Maryland. Grinnell, George Bird. New York, New York. September 7, 1894. 2 pages. Concerning the appearance of the Gros Ventre of the prairie in the northern country. Mention is also made of the Cree names for the Cheyenne. Jackson, R. C. Smithwood, Knox County, Tennessee. August 15, 1890. 3 pages. Concerning life and murder of Cherokee half-blood, Jack Walker. Date of murder given as between 1830 amd 1835.
Jones, Dr Alexander. American Journal of Science and Arts, Volume xxvi, pages 189-190, New Haven, 1834. Concerning "American Gypsies" residing on Biloxi Bay, Louisiana. Typed extract by Mooney from above source, 2 pages. Powell, Major John. Bureau of American Ethnology, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. June 28, 1893. 3 pages. Concerning request made to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs that the Kiowa Indians be permitted to hold their Medicine Dance to enable the Bureau to study it. Scott, W. L. Fort Sill, Oklahoma. May 11, 1893. 4 pages. Concerning Kiowa tribes' concern over the delegation sent to Washington to represent the tribe. South Carolina Historical Society (Mabel L. Webber). Charleston, South Carolina. March 5, 1919. 3 pages. Concerning enclosed list of Cherokee villages and an account of the "Routes and Distances from Fort Prince to Fort Louden." ("The common route" and the "Route over the four and twenty mountains.") Tatum, Lawrie. Springfield. Iowa. April 7, 1896. 19 pages. Concerning Satanta and the story of the part he took in the raids into Texas in 1870. United States Geological Survey (David Day). Washington, D.C. October 7, 1903. 2 pages. Concerning results of analysis of clay particles submitted by James Mooney. Whatley, L. A., Superindendent of State Penitentiaries. Huntsville, Texas. March 3, 1896. 1 page. Concerning the imprisonment, parole, and suicide of Satanta, the Kiowa Chief.
Indians of North America -- Great Plains Search this
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Notebooks
Newsclippings
Date:
undated
Scope and Contents:
Concerns tipis and shields, Kiowa tales, etc. Also notes on peyote. 1 page list of contents by David F. Aberle, May 2, 1952 accompanies Manuscript. Also newsclipping of story of peyote ceremony entitled, "Eating the Mescal; the Strange Ceremony Wittnessed by an Ethnologist," signed by James Mooney. Augusta, [Ga.] Chronicle, January 24, 1892.
From David Aberle: Besides notebooks contains aggitated correspondence from Warren K. Moorehead to H. C. Phillips, and other letters on the same subject, concerning adequate presentation of a pro-peyote position at the Mohonk conference and at congressional hearings. Dates 1915. Also lists of the Committee on Indian Affairs of the 66th Congress, 1st session, r. Chippewa, printed 1919. Also a map of Southern Texas, with a series of towns, etc., and names, small towns along the Rio Grande considerably below El Paso--presumably peyote towns. Very hard, if not impossible to decipher. Also a reprint of Prentiss and Morgan's article in the Med. Record, August 22, 1896. There are three notebooks headed Department of Interior, 1 small black "ledger," 1 paper-covered account-book, and 14 pages from a bound notebook, held together by a brass stud. All are difficult to read but would be worth going over with care. I cannot be confident that any of these are completely lacking in peyote materials. The "ledger" contains accounts of the cost of a peyote meeting--gives figures for several specific meetings.
Local Numbers:
NAA MS 1887
Local Note:
Re tipis and shields. I see nothing outstanding- no colored drawings, etc.- re. heraldry. MCB 3/59.
Other Title:
Eating the Mescal; the Strange Ceremony Wittnessed by an Ethnollogist
Photographs made during James Mooney's fieldwork with Apache, Arapaho, Caddo, Cherokee, Cheyenne, Comanche, Dakota/Lakota, Hopi, Kiowa, Navaho, Powhatan, and Wichita communities, as well as in Mexico. Photographs document individuals and families, gatherings, ceremonies and dances, daily activities, games, crafts, landscapes, and burials.
Please note that the contents of the collection and the language and terminology used reflect the context and culture of the time of its creation. As an historical document, its contents may be at odds with contemporary views and terminology and considered offensive today. The information within this collection does not reflect the views of the Smithsonian Institution or Anthropology Archives, but is available in its original form to facilitate research.
Biographical / Historical:
James Mooney (1861-1921) was an American ethnographer whose research focused on Native North Americans. The son of Irish Catholic immigrants, Mooney was born in Richmond, Indiana. His formal education was limited to the public schools of the city; most of his knowledge of anthropology and ethnography was self-taught, largely through his field experience working with various Native communities.
In 1885, Mooney began working for the Smithsonian Institution's Bureau of American Ethnology (BAE) under John Wesley Powell. There, he carried out ethnographic research for more than 30 years. He was a very early adopter of photography and made thouands of photographs in the course of his fieldwork.
Mooney married Ione Lee Gaut in 1897, and had six children. He died in 1921 in Washington, D.C. from heart disease.
For fuller biographies of Mooney see George Ellison's introduction to the 1992 edition of Mooney's History, Myths, and Sacred Formulas of the Cherokees, as well as The Indian Man: A Biography of James Mooney by L.G. Moses (2002).
Chronology
February 10, 1861 -- Born
1878 -- Graduated high school, then taught public school for 1 year
1879 -- Joined the staff of The Richmond Palladium
April 1885 -- Joined the Bureau of American Ethnology (BAE)
May-June 1885 -- Worked with Cherokee Chief N. J. Smith on Eastern Cherokee grammar
Summer 1886 -- Worked with Chief Smith (in D.C.)
Summer 1887 -- First trip to the Eastern Cherokee of the Great Smokey Mountains to study language, collect material culture, and document activities including the Green Corn Dance and Cherokee ball games (3.5 months)
Winter/Spring 1888 -- Studied Iroquoian and Algonquian synonymies and published articles on the Irish and the Cherokee, collected and studied Cherokee sacred formulae
1889 -- Visit to Cherokee (worked with Swimmer, worked on his maps of place names/mound sites, witnessed ball play and the Green Corn Dance, gathered plants and collected objects for the Smithsonian
December 1890 -- Visited Oklahoma Territory to complete research with Western Cherokee, witnessed the Ghost Dance at the Cheyenne/Arapaho Reservation for the first time
1891 -- "The Sacred Formulas of the Cherokee" published Visit to Cherokee in Oklahoma Territory
April 1891 -- Delegated to collect material for Chicago Exposition. Collected for the next 2 years while studying the Ghost Dance
May 1891 -- Photographed Kiowa Mescal (Peyote) Ceremony Headed west for a four month collecting trip for the Chicago exposition, commissioned model tipis and summer houses from the Kiowa
1891-1893 -- Observed/participated in three ghost dances during three seasons of fieldwork among Arapaho, Sioux, Kiowa, and Cheyenne communities
Winter 1892 -- Began intensive field study of Kiowa winter counts and Kiowa heraldry Among the Navajo and Hopi, making collections for Chicago Exposition
Fall 1893 -- Returned to Oklahoma Territory to observe and record Arapaho Sun Dance. Also studied the Hopi Kachina Dance, the Wichita Corn Dance, and possibly also the Arapaho Ghost Dance
May 1895 -- "Siouan Tribes of the East" published
1895 -- Trip to the Southwest, visited Hopi and Navajo communities
1896 -- "The Ghost Dance Religion and the Sioux Outbreak of 1890" published
January 1897 -- At Anadarko
September 28, 1897 -- Married Ione Lee Gaut
Fall 1898 -- Trip to Southwest, visited Hopi and Navajo communities
1898 -- Attended Omaha Fair, helped plan 'Congress of Indians', supervised Frank Rinehart, who photographed many of the Indian delegates to the fair Calendar History of the Kiowa Indians published
Fall 1899 -- For three weeks in the fall traveled with DeLancey Gill to William Co, VA to study and photograph Mattapony and Pamunkey communities; Gill took pictures while Mooney did census work before traveling to the Chickahominy River
1900 -- Myths of the Cherokee published
Spring 1900 -- Studied communities of the Powhatan Confederacy in VA; traveled to VA again with Gill to visit the Pamunkey and Mattapony communities for more pictures and to complete census, then traveled to area south of Portsmouth to find the rural settlement of the Nansemond.
Fall 1901 -- Cooperative agreement with Field Museum and J. Owen Dorsey; Studied Kiowa for BAE, studied Cheyenne for Field Museum (focused on heraldry). This project, with Dorsey working on Arapaho, continued until 1906
1902 -- Fieldwork on heraldry with Kiowa and Apache communities all year except for two brief visits to Washington, D.C. in September and November
July 1903 -- Mooney and Dorsey study Sun Dance on Cheyenne reservation in Oklahoma Territory, brought staff photographer Charles Carpenter. Spent a week attending the Sun Dance and made the first photographs of the skull-dragging ceremony
October 1903 -- Photographed Arapaho Tomahawk Dance
Winter 1903 -- At the Cheyenne-Arapaho agency in Darlington; winter spent with Cheyenne, and finishing Kiowa tipi models for the Bureau's exhibit at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition
March 1904 -- At Mount Scott with Kiowa
June 1904 -- St. Louis Exposition opens
April 1906 -- Last visit to Cheyenne
Summers, 1911-1916 -- Visits to Cherokee
1918 -- Assisted with charting the Native American Church of Oklahoma (the Secretary of the Interior issued a ban on his research)
June 28, 1918 -- Requested by Fewkes to study peyote cult and Kiowa Heraldry (see Mooney Papers, Box 1, Letters, statement dated 1921)
December 22, 1921 -- Died
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 74, James Mooney photographs, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution
The collection is made up of illustrations prepared for new printings of James Mooneyʹs "Calendar History of the Kiowa Indians," John Reed Swantonʹs "Indians of the Southeastern United States," and John C. Ewers's "The Horse in Blackfoot Indian Culture" in the Classics of Smithsonian Anthropology series. It includes images of maps, Kiowa, Blackfeet, and Native Americans of the American Southeast, and ANative American artwork and other artifacts. Images of Native people include photographs, portraits, and drawings. There are also textual publication materials, including layout and notated reprint, available with the collection.
Biographical/Historical note:
The aim of the Classics of Smithsonian Anthropology series, which is comprised of reprinted BAE publications, was to appeal to a more popular audience. The series began in 1979 with the publication of "Calendar History of the Kiowa Indians" and "Indians of the Southeastern United States." "The Horse in Blackfoot Indian Culture" was published the following year.
Local Call Number(s):
NAA Photo Lot 80-39, NAA Photo Lot 80-6
Reproduction Note:
Copy prints made by Smithsonian Institution, circa 1979.
Location of Other Archival Materials:
Photo Lot 80-6 has been relocated and merged with Photo Lot 80-39. These photographs were also made and collected for the Classics of Smithsonian Anthropology publications and form part of this collection.
Originals for some of these images, as well as additional photographs by John Swanton, can be found in the National Anthropological Archives in Photo Lot 76 and 87-2Q.
Originals for some of these images, as well as additional photographs by James Mooney, can be found in the National Anthropological Archives in Photo Lot 74 and 14 as well as NAA MS 2531.
Originals for some of these images, as well as additional photographs by John C. Ewers, can be found in the National Anthropological Archives in the papers of John Canfield Ewers.
Restrictions:
The collection is open for research.
Access to the collection requires an appointment.
Rights:
Contact the repository for terms of use.
Topic:
Indians of North America -- Southern states Search this
Genre/Form:
Illustrations
Photographs
Citation:
Photo lot 80-39, Illustrations for Classics of Smithsonian Anthropology, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution
