Indians of North America -- Great Plains Search this
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Pages
Vocabulary
Date:
circa 1911
Scope and Contents:
Edward Sapir's typed notes on the vocabularies of various Algonquian languages that he collected in 1911. List of languages covered: Delaware, pages 1-6; Abnaki (Pierreville), page 7-12; Malecite (Riviere du Loup, Thomas Paul), pages 13-17; Micmac, pages 18-23, Cree (Rupert's House), pages 24-25; Montagnais (Louis Clairie, Pointe Bleue), pages 26-28. There are annotations and corrections in ink in Sapir's handwriting (identified by Mary Haas, 4/58). There are also pencil additions signed by Michelson; perhaps all of the pencil additions are his.
Notepad containing Truman Michelson's Ottawa and Munsee linguistic and ethnological notes. In pencil in writing tablet as follows: pages [1-21]. Ottawa. Michigan. August 29- September, 1922. (23 pages, total; 2 pages written on backs.) pages [22-23]. Munsee. Moraviantown Reserve, Canada. September, 1922. pages [33-45]. Munsee. Six Nations Reserve, Canada. September, 1922.
Local Numbers:
NAA MS 1635
Local Note:
Pages 33-45 are written in very hard pencil and the writing is very faint. See typed transcript of ethnographic notes, but not vocabulary lists, on these pages, filed with the Manuscript in October 1971.
Topic:
Language and languages -- Documentation Search this
Ethnological and linguistic notes collected by Truman Michelson during his fieldwork among the Munsee in Kansas and the Delaware in Oklahoma in 1912. Also letters received in 1913 from Silas Longbone, one of the Delaware with whom Michelson worked closely. The majority of the notes are on the Delaware, and include Delaware stories in English. According to Ives Goddard, most of the information was provided by Elk Hair, the last great Delaware ceremonialist. Longbone served as an interpreter.
Contents of Delaware files: F.1) Letters from Silas Longbone, Dewey. Oklahoma, January 10, 1913. 5 pages; F.2) Ethnological notes. Longbone, informant. 3 pages; F.3) Legend. 8 pages; F.4) Doll Dance. 11 pages. Notes on small sheets, 2 pages; F.5 ) Delaware linguistic notes. 4 unnumbered pages. Text with interl. translation. 8 pages. Notes on small sheets, 5 pages. (17 pages total); F.6) Notes from Elk Hair. December 12 [1912] 11 pages; F.7) [Story of Delawares and White People] 10 pages; F.8) "Doctoring. Otter Skin Dance, ritualistic origin." 9 pages. Plus small sheet numbered "2". (10 pages.); F.9) Story of Wehixamokas, "the Delaware Sampson." Possibly from Longbone, with comments at end by Silas and Elkhair. 21 pages; F.10) Delaware Meeting House. Elk Hair, age 62. English text. 18 and 1 page (Also 3 pages notes on small sheets, possibly unrelated.); F.11) Miscellaneous ethnological and linguistic notes, apparently Delaware of Oklahoma. 8 pages.
Contents of Munsee files: F.12) "Munsee notes," ethnological and linguistic. Informants: Mr and Mrs Veix, Mr Caleb, Mrs Plake, Mr Eliot, Rufus Caleb, Joab Samuel, Mrs Spooner. 6 and 6 and 1 plus 3 pages. (16 pages total); F.13) [Munsee. Mrs Plake mentioned as 1 inft.] Text with interlinear English translation. 10 pages. Vocabulary and other linguistic notes, 9 unnumbered pages and pages numbered 2-8. (26 pages, total)