This subseries of the Alaska/Northwest Coast series contains Harrington's Northern Athapascan research. This section comprises a comparative vocabulary, a comparative dictionary, and other miscellaneous linguistic material, with widely scattered ethnographic information. It combines some secondary source data with original notes which were compiled for the most part during a fieldtrip Harrington made with Robert W. Young to Alberta and British Columbia from October through early December 1939. The two men had corresponded extensively regarding Navajo in 1936 to 1938 and subsequently decided to determine its provenience through the study of languages closely related in vocabulary and construction at the northernmost end of what Harrington termed' 'the chicken-wishbone of Athapascan languages." The northern Athapascan languages for which they obtained data were Sarsi (Sarcee, Sar.), Cold Lake Chipewyan (Cl., Clchip.), Beaver, Carrier (Car.), Babine (Babin), and Sekani (Sekeney, Sek., Sikny, Sik.). They also elicited a short vocabulary in Cree from bilingual speakers, obtained during Harrington's survey of neighboring Canadian languages. The amount of comparative data was increased by the addition of original notes from the earlier work on Navajo and later (1940) work on Tlingit, Eyak, and Upper Umpqua. Harrington may have made these last additions as late as August of 1941 as suggested by the reference "Wn. Aug. 41." The Tlingit notes were subsequently removed to a separate section.
John Peabody Harrington papers, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution
The preferred citation for the Harrington Papers will reference the actual location within the collection, i.e. Box 172, Alaska/Northwest Coast, Papers of John Peabody Harrington, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution.
However, as the NAA understands the need to cite phrases or vocabulary on specific pages, a citation referencing the microfilmed papers is acceptable. Please note that the page numbering of the PDF version of the Harrington microfilm does not directly correlate to the analog microfilm frame numbers. If it is necessary to cite the microfilmed papers, please refer to the specific page number of the PDF version, as in: Papers of John Peabody Harrington, Microfilm: MF 7, R34 page 42.
Sun dance (1:32) -- Love song (0:57) -- Crazy Dog song (1:41) -- Buffalo dance song (1:03) -- Man's love song (0:54) -- Hand game song (1:42) -- Prisoner's song (2:20) -- World War II song (1:36) -- Warrior death song for Sitting Bull (2:00) -- Canvas dance song (1:40) -- Funeral song (1:37) -- Suguaro song (1:58) -- Peyote song : first song cycle (1:26) -- Moonlight song (2:09) -- Eagle dance (2:59) -- Butterfly dance (1:41) -- Lullaby (0:58) -- Rain dance (1:47) -- Night chant (1:43) -- Song of happiness (1:09) -- Silversmith's song (1:09) -- Corn grinding song (0:59) -- Children's songs (1:47) -- Church song (1:03) -- Devil dance, crown dance (2:57). Wolf song (2:05) -- Potlatch song (1:38) -- Hamatsa song (1:12) -- War song for marriage (1:50) -- Rabbit dance song (2:03) -- Cree dance song (2:24) -- Fiddle dance song (1:00) -- Bear hunting song (1:44) -- Inviting-in dance song (0:47) -- His first hunt (2:06) -- Hunting for musk ox (3:33) -- Corn dance (2:08) -- Stomp dance (1:57) -- Song of welcome (1:19) -- Buffalo feast song (1:06) -- Morning song (1:12) -- Song of the unfaithful woman (0:59) -- Hoot owl song (1:09) -- Oh Mary (1:01) -- Catholic hymn (0:42) -- Calusa corn dance song (1:32) -- Song of removal (1:41) -- Fortynine dance (2:00) -- Unidentified track (1:03) -- As long as the grass shall grow (6:03).
Track Information:
101 Sun Dance / Drum,Whistle.
102 Love Song.
103 Crazy Dog Song / Jack Low Horn, Jim Low Horn, Emil, Mrs. Wings. Drum,Rattle (Musical instrument).
106 Hand Game Song / William Peaychew. Sticks (Musical instrument).
104 Buffalo Dance Song / Jack V. Anquoe, Kenneth Anquoe, Nick Webster. Drum.
105 Man's Love Song / Mark Evarts.
107 Prisoner's Song / William Burn Stick. Drum.
108 World War II Song / George Nicotine. Drum. English language.
109 Warrior Death Song for Sitting Bull / Bass drum,Bells.
207 Song of Happiness / Fort Wingate (N.M.) Indian School. Drum,Harmonica. Navajo language.
208 Silversmith's Song / Ambrose Roanhorse. Anvils. Navajo language.
209 Corn Grinding Song / Basket drum. Navajo language.
110 Canvas Dance Song / Baptiste Pichette, Eneas Conko. Drum.
111 Funeral Song.
112 Suguaro Song.
113 Peyote Song: First Song Cycle / Burton John, Roy James. Drum,Rattle (Musical instrument).
201 Moonlight Song.
202 Eagle Dance / Drum.
203 Butterfly Dance / Drum.
204 Lullaby.
205 Rain Dance.
206 Night Chant / Rattle (Musical instrument). Navajo language.
210 Children's Song: Wolf Song / Irene Chalepah Poolaw. Kiowa Apache.
303 Hamatsa Song, Cedar Bark Dance / Mungo Martin.
304 War Song for Marriage / Billy Assu.
305 Rabbit Dance Song.
306 Cree Dance Song.
307 Fiddle Dance Song / Fiddle.
308 Bear Hunting Song / Sebastian McKenzie.
309 Inviting in Dance Song / Otis Ahkivigak.
310 His First Hunt / Kemukserar, Pangatkar.
311 Hunting for Musk Ox / Kemukserar, Pangatkar. Drum.
401 Corn Dance / Thomas Lewis.
402 Stomp Dance / Huron Miller.
403 Song of Welcome / Albert Yellow Thunder, Blow Snake, Winslow White Eagle.
404 Buffalo Feast Song / Albert Yellow Thunder, Blow Snake, Winslow White Eagle.
405 Morning Song / Albert Yellow Thunder, Blow Snake, Winslow White Eagle. Rattle (Musical instrument).
406 Song of the Unfaithful Woman / Albert Yellow Thunder, Blow Snake, Winslow White Eagle. Flute.
407 Hoot Owl Song / David, Oshawenimiki Kenosha.
408 Oh Mary / Fred Lacasse.
409 Catholic Hymn / Thomas Shalifoe.
410 Calusa Corn Dance Song / Billy, Gatcayehola Stewart.
411 Song of Removal / Billie Stewart, Susie Tiger.
412 Fortynine Dance / Fred Lacasse. English language.
413 The Seneca: As Long As the Grass Shall Grow / Peter La Farge.
Local Numbers:
FW-COMM-LP-04541
Folkways.4541
Publication, Distribution, Etc. (Imprint):
New York Folkways 1973
Date/Time and Place of an Event Note:
Recorded in: Florida, Michigan, Wisconsin, Onondaga Indian Reservation (N.Y.), Chesterfield (Alaska), Barrow, Point (Alaska), Alaska, Schefferville (Québec), Québec (Province), Montana, Fort Wingate (N.M.), New Mexico, Fort Qu'appelle (Sask.), Canada, Saskatchewan, New York (N.Y.), United States, New York.
General:
Commercial
Songs and dance music from many tribes including Sioux, Cree, Hopi, Zuni, Navajo, Apache, Kwakiutl-Nootka, Slavey, Iroquoian, Winnebago, Ojibwa, Seminole, and others. Compiled and edited by Michael I. Asch. Originally compiled principally from material previously released on several Folkways and Asch recordings. Program notes in English by Michael I. Asch and others, and Native American vocal texts with English translations and English vocal texts (10 p.)
Restrictions:
Restrictions on access. No duplication allowed listening and viewing for research purposes only.
Collection Rights:
Permission to publish materials from the collection must be requested from the Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections. Please visit our website to learn more about submitting a request. The Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections make no guarantees concerning copyright or other intellectual property restrictions. Other usage conditions may apply; please see the Smithsonian's Terms of Use for more information.
Indians of North America -- Northwest Coast of North America Search this
Type:
Archival materials
Field notes
Vocabulary
Date:
1940, 1942
Scope and Contents:
This subseries of the Alaska/Northwest Coast series contains Harrington's Galice / Applegate field notes. They represent his work with informant Hoxie Simmons (abbreviated Hox.) on at least two occasions. The bulk of the work was accomplished during a visit to Siletz, Oregon made in early 1940, undoubtedly at the suggestion of Melville Jacobs (listed as Jacobs in the notes). A lesser amount of data were collected on Harrington's return to the area in the spring or early summer of 1942 to work with speakers of other southwest Oregon Athapascan languages. An unidentified individual referred to as "Harrison" (possibly a Chetco speaker) was also present at some of the sessions.
The material is highly miscellaneous, consisting of a short vocabulary with scattered notes on the linguistic relationship of neighboring languages and the location of tribal boundaries. Limited biographical information is provided for Simmons and for other native speakers of Oregon languages. The vocabulary, covering mostly tribenames and natural history terms, is principally in Galice (Gal.) with some Applegate (ApI.) and a few Chasta Costa (Chast., Chasta., Costa.) equivalences. Some words were elicited from Simmons for comparison with the Upper Umpqua (U.U.) terms Harrington had just recently obtained from John Warren at Grand Ronde. At a later date Harrington annotated certain pages with comparisons from Navajo and Carrier data which he got from a Navajo speaker named Adolph Dodge Bitanny (Bit.) and from his co-worker on northern Athapascan, Robert W. Young (Y.).
John Peabody Harrington papers, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution
The preferred citation for the Harrington Papers will reference the actual location within the collection, i.e. Box 172, Alaska/Northwest Coast, Papers of John Peabody Harrington, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution.
However, as the NAA understands the need to cite phrases or vocabulary on specific pages, a citation referencing the microfilmed papers is acceptable. Please note that the page numbering of the PDF version of the Harrington microfilm does not directly correlate to the analog microfilm frame numbers. If it is necessary to cite the microfilmed papers, please refer to the specific page number of the PDF version, as in: Papers of John Peabody Harrington, Microfilm: MF 7, R34 page 42.
Indians of North America -- Southwest, New Search this
Type:
Archival materials
Field notes
Vocabulary
Manuscripts
Date:
1913-1953
Scope and Contents:
This subseries of the Southwest series contains Harrington's Zuni research, which mainly focused on the linguistic relationship between Zuni and Tano-Kiowan-Keresan-Shoshonean stock.
The earliest field data which Harrington obtained on Zuni was recorded in the form of three brief vocabularies. One, dated February 20, 1913, was elicited from George Piro. Harrington indicated that another list of Zuni terms was copied for his B.A.E. colleague Neil Judd in 1919. A third gives the Indian names of several Zuni native speakers and ethnologists. Brief intermixed vocabulary and grammar notes were taken in the field from Nachapani in June and July 1929. A few Navajo comparisons were added.
The vocabulary sections contains Zuni terms arranged semantically, most numerous in the animal and animal parts categories. Other categories include age/sex, material culture, phenomena, placenames, plants, rank, relationship terms, religion, time, and tribenames. Most of the original material was obtained in 1929 in New Mexico where he consulted primarily with Charles or Dick Nachapani.
For his comparative vocabulary, Harrington followed the same semantic arrangement he used for the vocabulary notes, interfiling and comparing Tewa, Kiowa, Hano, Taos, Acoma, and Cahuilla terms. The material stems from his original notes in these languages and contains references to his publications in Tewa ethnozoology and ethnogeography. Perry A. Keahtigh was cited as the Kiowa souce and Adan Castillo for Cahuilla terms. Juan is the only Tewa speaker mentioned by name in the notes, although other Tewa speakers undoubtedly contributed to the original notes used in the many comparisons. Also interfiled are excerpts from papers by Ruth L. Bunzel on Zuni ethnology and grammar and compilations of Nahuatl from the works of Horatio Carochi and Alonso de Molina. Other terms labeled "Gatschet revd by Hodge" may refer to B.A.E. ms. 2870 in which many of Gatschet's approximately 200 Zuni/English vocabulary slips contain annotations by Frederick W. Hodge. Harrington also tapped Matilda Coxe Stevenson's "The Zuni Indians" (1904) for further comparisons. Kymograph tracings are mainly a comparison of Zuni and Navajo lexical terms.
Harrington's Zuni grammatical material was probably assembled in Washington for correlation with his own notes on other languages and with notes from secondary sources to be compiled into a comparative grammar. Most of Harrington's original Zuni material was derived from his fieldwork with Nachapani in June and July of 1929.
Correspondence indicates that Harrington's first draft of a comparative grammar was written in 1944 and was to be titled "Zuni Discovered To Be Hokan." Many of the notes which precede it, however, were interfiled later (probably in the early 1950s) and stem from his original field notes in Zuni, Tewa, and Kiowa. Also included are a lesser number of Taos and Aztec expressions. Harrington utilized the same sources as those found in the grammatical notes, relying most heavily on Bunzel's "Zuni." Another version of the manuscript has the modified title "Zuni, Tanoan, Kiowa Comparisons: Zuni Discovered To Be Hokan."
His ethnobotany notes contains extracts from Wooton and Standley's Flora of New Mexico (1913) and Stevenson's "Ethnobotany of the Zuni Indians." The ethnographic notes are based on Stevenson's The Zuni Indians. This work is frequently referred to in the notes as "Zuni Book."
Harrington's writings consists of notes used in "Name of Zuni Salt Lake in Alarcon's 1540 Account" (1949) and in "Trail Holder" (1949) as well as drafts and notes for proposed publications. Harrington's article "The Name Zuni Comes from the Laguna Dialect of West Keresan" was apparently not accepted for publication. Most of the notes are based on the Zuni section of Hodge's "Handbook." Another unpublished article is on Zuni phrases and numbers. It is similar in approach to a draft on Aztec phrases and numbers, suggesting that he may have contemplated a series of such short articles.
Biographical / Historical:
As early as 1919, John P. Harrington claimed a linguistic relationship between Zuni and a putative Tano-Kiowan-Keresan-Shoshonean stock. In 1929, at the suggestion of Edgar L. Hewett, he was authorized by the Bureau of American Ethnology to work with University of New Mexico students at a summer session in Chaco Canyon. Correspondence and reports indicate that he accumulated the bulk of his original Zuni notes at that time, later reorganizing them at various intervals in Washington, D.C., with an eye toward producing a vocabulary and grammar that would clearly demonstrate affinity among these languages. Harrington also recorded several hundred kymograph tracings. Charles and Dick Nachapani (Natcapanih) and Charlie Cly served as the primary sources of information. Harrington called one of the Nachapani brothers "the prince of all Zuni informants;" which one is uncertain.
John Peabody Harrington papers, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution
The preferred citation for the Harrington Papers will reference the actual location within the collection, i.e. Box 172, Alaska/Northwest Coast, Papers of John Peabody Harrington, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution.
However, as the NAA understands the need to cite phrases or vocabulary on specific pages, a citation referencing the microfilmed papers is acceptable. Please note that the page numbering of the PDF version of the Harrington microfilm does not directly correlate to the analog microfilm frame numbers. If it is necessary to cite the microfilmed papers, please refer to the specific page number of the PDF version, as in: Papers of John Peabody Harrington, Microfilm: MF 7, R34 page 42.
This subseries of the Southwest series contains Harrington's research on Keresan, focusing on Acoma, Laguna, and Santo Domingo dialects. The materials consist of vocabulary, notes, and drafts.
Harrington's field notes include data from an individual identified only as "L. A. Alb," copies of Acoma slips lent to Harrington by Father Jerome in 1913, and a Keresan vocabulary copied by Carobeth Harrington Laird. He also assembled a small group of miscellaneous lexical items relative to the Keresan migration story from Edward Hunt, probably recorded at Chaco Canyon in June 1929. The most substantive body of material from a linguistic point of view is a comparative vocabulary, for which the principal source was James Johnson.
Harrington extracted tribenames and placenames from a number of sources to provide bases for the various rehearings. Because of the comparative nature of the material, a number of the works dealt with languages other than the Keresan dialects. Among the principal sources consulted were Keresan Texts (1925, 1928) by Franz Boas, and Part I of Frederick W. Hodge's "Handbook of American Indians North of Mexico" (1907). For Navajo he relied on his own notes and those accumulated with the collaboration of Robert W. Young. He compared some Southern Paiute terms collected by Edward Sapir and turned again to Benjamin Whorf's additions to Elsie Clews Parsons' Hopi Journal (1936).
This material is arranged semantically and each page represents two or more rehearings recorded at different intervals. The basic Laguna and Acoma terms are compared with Santo Domingo and Zia, and with such non-Keresan languages as Hopi, Navaho, and Kiowa. There are a few words from the Hano, Queres, Luisenio, Teton, Tewa, and Zuni languages.
Among his notes and drafts is a questionnaire, based on information provided by Hunt, that he used in his work with Johnson. There are also notes without linguistic annotations which relate to Boas' Keresan publications. Included among the papers is an early draft of Harrington's published work on the origin of the name "Acoma." The sixteenth-century sources mentioned in the draft notes are taken directly from Hodge's "Handbook." Johnson, Solimon, and the Navajo speaker Sam Acquilla provided further linguistic information. A typed draft on Acoma phonetics and the meaning of the name "Queres" was evidently prepared in 1947. Another manuscript with accompanying notes and bibliography was titled ''Quirix Equals Kastica." It is undated. Neither paper was published.
Also in this subseries are some of the correspondence, phonetic notes, and word lists that Bertha P. Dutton sent Harrington. There are also handwritten condensations by Harrington (not annotated) of George H. Pradt (1902) and excerpts of miscellaneous ethnographic information from Matilda Coxe Stevenson (1894).
Biographical / Historical:
John P. Harrington's interest in Keresan is documented as early as 1909, when he worked with Mrs. L. S. Gallup on a Cochiti census (see Cochiti subseries). In 1919, and again in 1929, he sought to establish a relationship among Keresan, Kiowa, and Zuni. He was among those who lectured on Acoma at the Chaco Canyon Field School of the School of American Research in July 1929. From July to October of 1939, Harrington was detailed to assist the Office of Indian Affairs at Fort Wingate, where he may have met James Johnson, an Acoma Indian who provided a great deal of material. Between February 1944 and August 1945, Harrington and Bertha P. Dutton exchanged Laguna information in the course of their collaboration with Edgar L. Hewett on the 1945 publication entitled The Pueblo Indian World, for which Harrington wrote the two appendices. Dutton supplied Harrington with the names of several Keresan speakers who were in military service in the Washington, D.C. area. Among these speakers were Calvin Solimon, a Laguna Indian who spoke both Laguna and Acoma dialects; Joe A. Mina and Santiago Pacheco, Santo Domingo men; and Perry A. Keahtigh, who worked at The United Nations Service Center in Washington and was frequently consulted for Kiowa comparisons. Harrington's last Keresan monograph, "Haa'k'o, Original Form of the Name of Acoma," was published in 1949.
John Peabody Harrington papers, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution
The preferred citation for the Harrington Papers will reference the actual location within the collection, i.e. Box 172, Alaska/Northwest Coast, Papers of John Peabody Harrington, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution.
However, as the NAA understands the need to cite phrases or vocabulary on specific pages, a citation referencing the microfilmed papers is acceptable. Please note that the page numbering of the PDF version of the Harrington microfilm does not directly correlate to the analog microfilm frame numbers. If it is necessary to cite the microfilmed papers, please refer to the specific page number of the PDF version, as in: Papers of John Peabody Harrington, Microfilm: MF 7, R34 page 42.
Indians of North America -- Great Plains Search this
Type:
Archival materials
Field notes
Dictionaries
Manuscripts
Narratives
Place:
Devils Tower National Monument (Wyo.)
Date:
1916-1948
Scope and Contents:
This subseries of the Plains series contains Harrington's Kiowa research, primarily consisting of vocabulary, comparative vocabulary, a dictionary, linguistic notes, grammar, and texts.
Some of the vocabulary gathered between 1918 and 1920 remains in slipfile form, arranged semantically (former B.A.E. mss. 2289pt. and 2297pt.). Subjects include animals, material culture, plants, and personal categories. During 1945 and 1946, Harrington reorganized his Kiowa notes based on a continuing enlargement of the earlier semantically arranged vocabulary, adding such categories as astronomy, geography, minerals, months, placenames, rank, relationship terms, songs, and tribenames (former B.A.E. ms. 4622pt.). The etymology of some personal names and a partial draft and notes for a proposed paper on "Human Terms" form part of the vocabulary material. The geographic terms were provided by Parker McKenzie and, according to correspondence, most of the relationship terms may also be McKenzie's work. Some of the latter's letters are cut and mounted on separate sheets of paper, others were copied by Harrington, and many are identified with the symbol "<U+2642>." Miscellaneous material includes photocopies of fragments from Robert M. Lowie's "A Note on Kiowa Kinship Terms and Usages," mounted, annotated, and reheard with Keahtigh. A few tribenames elicited from Guy Quoetone (data from him are labeled "Guy Kiowa") and Kiowa Charlie in March and April of 1946 add randomly to the earlier lists.
The comparative vocabulary section contains Tewa comparisons based on Harrington's 1927 accumulation of information from Tewa speaker Eduardo Cata (former B.A.E. ms. 4705pt.). Harrington also used Tewa terms from his "Ethnogeography of the Tewa Indians" (1916), as well as Kiowa terms from James Mooney's "Calendar History of the Kiowa Indians" (1918). In addition, there are a few brief comparisons of Kiowa with Navajo, Paiute (eight pages), and Siouan (two pages).
His dictionary files consist of a manuscript and related notes. The manuscript contains most but not all of the lexical portion of "Vocabulary of the Kiowa Language" with an addition of further entries which were apparently written at a later date.
Among his linguistic notes is a partial draft written in 1916 titled ''The Language of the Kaekua or Kiowa Indians." From 1918 to 1920 while in Anadarko and in Washington, Harrington accumulated extensive information (about 700 pages) on Kiowa vocabulary, grammar, and texts. In 1922 he began a paper on "Notes on the Kiowa Language." He later collated this material in Washington, and in 1928 published a synthesis titled "Vocabulary of the Kiowa Language." The publication encompassed grammatical information with Tewa comparisons, a glossary of lexical terms , and a Kiowa text, (former B.A.E. mss. 4705pt., 2289pt., and 2297pt.).
Documented among the grammar files is Harrington's interest in Kiowa intonation, a title he gave to an unpublished manuscript for which Perry Keahtigh provided information. Their work on this aspect of Kiowa grammar proceeded from September to November 1944, and included recording sessions at the Library of Congress.
There is another unpublished manuscript titled "Kiowa, Pueblo Language of the Plains." This is probably the manuscript that underwent many revisions and rehearings before being published in 1948 as "Popular Account of the Kiowa Indian Language." It encompassed only a minute portion of the ambitious and comprehensive grammar which Harrington had originally envisioned. Because of the diligent reworking of the information, it is rather difficult to determine in what sequence the drafts were created. In order to eliminate as much confusion as possible, all the grammatical drafts of the 1940s are placed together, followed by notes that most nearly reflect the outline of the 1948 publication. Phonetics and morphology are dealt with in detail. Included is brief information on syntax, Indian native language, Spanish and English loanwords, foreign words, slang, and polysynthetic words based on Robert W. Young's "Language: Interesting Side-views of Its Study." (April 1937).
The text section contains over twenty brief stories of Seindei, the culture hero, provided by Delos K. Lonewolf and George Hunt in 1924. Some are in Kiowa and English, some in English only. One myth was given in English by a Comanche Indian named Albert Attock. This textual material was formerly cataloged as part of B.A.E. ms. 4705. There are various versions of Lonewolf's "The Udder-angry Travelers-off" text which appeared in "Vocabulary of the Kiowa Language," "Three Kiowa Texts," and "Popular Account of the Kiowa Indian Language." Frequent rehearings with Keahtigh in November 1945 preceded the last-named publication. Additional material for "Three Kiowa Texts" contains extensive annotations by McKenzie and a few further rehearings from Keahtigh. Laura D. Pedrick translated the Lord's Prayer; a "Church Song" in Kiowa (former B.A.E. ms. 4705pt.) came from Mr. Light (not further identified). There are several texts edited by McKenzie for collaboration with Harrington. They include Enoch Smoky's "Bear Girl Story," recorded March 26,1946, and Hunting Horse's "Mad Girl Story," heard on February 24, 1946 (former B.A.E. ms. 4622pt.). On March 31, 1940, Kiowa Charlie, with the help of Guy Quoetone and Lonewolf, dictated still another Devils Tower myth.
Harrington's Kiowa files also contain other notes and information about Devils Tower in the Black Hills of Wyoming. This evolved into his 1939 publication, "Kiowa Memories of the Northland." The bulk of the Devils Tower material was originally listed as B.A.E. ms. 6070.
Biographical / Historical:
John P. Harrington's search for a relationship between Kiowa and the Tanoan languages led to a substantial accumulation of and career-long interest in Kiowa grammatical, linguistic, and textual material. His study resulted in eight publications on Kiowa, the first appearing in 1910 and the last in 1948.
Early in 1918 Harrington worked in Washington, D.C., with Delos and Ida Lonewolf, (the latter abbreviated "Mrs. L."), who were accompanied by their youngest son, Theodore. In June 1918, Harrington conducted fieldwork at the Kiowa Agency in Anadarko, Oklahoma. Interviews were held with James Waldo (W.): Enoch Smoky, head of the peyote cult among the Kiowa; Parker McKenzie (McK): Laura D. Pedrick (also referred to as "Mrs. P" and"L. Pro "); and several others. The primary focus of his work at that time was to collect linguistic data needed for comparative studies, especially with the Tanoan languages. From mid-1919 through 1920 Harrington remained at Bureau of American Ethnology headquarters, during which time he sorted and reorganized the Kiowa notes. While in Washington, D.C., in 1924, he elicited Kiowa texts from the Lonewolfs and from George Hunt, who was regarded as a superb tribal historian.
"Vocabulary of the Kiowa Language," published in 1928, unfortunately reflects only a small portion of the information he had amassed during his early work. In his notes, Harrington referred to this publication as the "Dictionary," "Dict.," or "Bulletin." He was evidently not pleased with the work. As he wrote to Parker McKenzie in later years: "It has a lot of idiosyncracies in it which are absolutely incorrect. They [the B.A.E.] forced me to publish, and so I did-to my chagrin now."
In the summer of 1939, Harrington and Parker McKenzie renewed their acquaintance during a visit which Harrington made to Anadarko. They reminisced just a few hours on that occasion. Shortly afterwards they began an exchange of letters which lasted almost into 1950. McKenzie's exposure to linguistic method in their early work together had awakened an abiding interest in the preservation of Kiowa. Thus, he was willing to impart what he had discovered in his efforts to analyze the language. This exchange allowed Harrington to collect updated material for the paper which he eventually published on January 1, 1948, titled "Popular Account of the Kiowa Indian Language."
From September 1944 to early 1947, Harrington elicited additional grammatical information and reheard his earlier notes in work sessions with Perry A. Keahtigh (also referred to as "Keah."). Keahtigh married a daughter of Enoch Smoky around 1930. Knowing that his father-in-law had worked with Harrington in 1918, Keahtigh sought out the linguist when he returned to the East Coast in the 1940s. They worked evenings and weekends while Harrington was detailed to the Office of Censorship as part of a volunteer war effort by members of the Smithsonian staff. Keahtigh provided a wealth of linguistic information during 1945 and most of 1946, his work dwindling off in 1947 as Harrington's manuscript neared completion.
Language and languages -- Documentation Search this
Genre/Form:
Field notes
Dictionaries
Manuscripts
Narratives
Collection Citation:
John Peabody Harrington papers, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution
The preferred citation for the Harrington Papers will reference the actual location within the collection, i.e. Box 172, Alaska/Northwest Coast, Papers of John Peabody Harrington, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution.
However, as the NAA understands the need to cite phrases or vocabulary on specific pages, a citation referencing the microfilmed papers is acceptable. Please note that the page numbering of the PDF version of the Harrington microfilm does not directly correlate to the analog microfilm frame numbers. If it is necessary to cite the microfilmed papers, please refer to the specific page number of the PDF version, as in: Papers of John Peabody Harrington, Microfilm: MF 7, R34 page 42.
Indians of North America -- Southwest, New Search this
Type:
Archival materials
Field notes
Dictionaries
Vocabulary
Manuscripts
Date:
1935-1949
Scope and Contents:
This set of files contains Harrington's Navajo research. The materials consist of vocabulary, dictionary notes, grammar, rehearings of linguistic data, ethnobotany notes, ethnographic notes, texts, drafts and notes relating to primers, published and unpublished primers, unpublished and published papers, extracts from secondary sources, and miscellaneous notes.
The vocabulary section contains terms extracted from Young and Morgan's The Navaho Language, which were reheard principally to obtain Kiowa and Hano (Arizona Tewa) equivalences. Information is occasionally included from Harrington's Apache and Tewa notes. A brief typed vocabulary contains scattered grammatical material. There is also a slipfile of terms based mainly on An Ethnological Dictionary of the Navaho Language. It contains annotations and relevant excerpts from Harrington-Young correspondence. Plant names wIth Young's annotations are based on W. L. Jepson's A Manual of Flowering Plants of California (1925) and Washington Matthews' The Navajo Names for Plants (1886). Of the twenty semantic categories, the sections on animals, animal parts, plants, and placenames are particularly substantial.
The dictionary section consists of lexical terms from the Bureau of Indian Affairs' "Navajo Phrase Book," obtained from Willard Beatty and sent by Harrington to Young for rehearings. Navajo entries with Kiowa equivalences were apparently taken from a manuscript for a dictionary by Young. Two miscellaneous groups of entries are in Navajo/English.
The material on Navajo grammar is extensive and includes notes, drafts of a manuscript, excerpts from secondary sources, correspondence between Young and Harrington, and slips. The file was for proposed publications ranging from introductory manuals to the structuring of a comprehensive Navajo grammar.
A further substantial body of grammatical material is found on large slips. These include information from Young's voluminous correspondence, not otherwise interfiled. Part of this section is a further rehearing by Young of Morice's The Carrier Language. Another group of notes records comparisons with several southern Athapascan languages, evidently based on Young's notes, vocabulary items, correspondence, and other undocumented material. Harrington also used the slipfile format to index questions which he had earlier sent to Young.
Most of the rehearings of lingustic data are of Edward Sapir's linguistic terms by Young in 1940 and 1941. Though the copied materials may be similar in content, they do not appear to be exact duplicates of the Sapir linguistic holdings at the American Philosophical Society. Young also reheard terms from Hoijer's Chiricahua and Mescalero Apache Texts late in 1940. George E. Hood commented on Hoijer's "The Southern Athapascan Languages," possibly at about the same time. There are typed excerpts from Young's May 1938 letters regarding Morice's The Carrier Language and miscellaneous linguistic information given by Hood and reheard by Richard Long. Other miscellaneous rehearings are with Alfred Sanchez (abbreviated"Alf." or "Alfredo"), Willietto Antonio, George Hood, and Robert Young (September 1939); and with Howard Gorman, Albert Sandoval, and John Charles (1939). There is also a rehearing with Henry Tsosie of terms from Gladys A. Reichard and Adolph Dodge Bittany's Agentive and Causative Elements in Navaho (1940), including some excerpts from the book. Finally, in February 1941, he reheard the vocabulary of Pedro Bautista Pino with Howard Gorman; Young did not consider these terms to be Navajo.
The files also contains Harrington's notes on Navajo names for plants, gathered from secondary sources and possibly original data from colleagues or friends. Young also annotated some of the notes.
Harrington's ethnographic files includes notes, vocabulary, and illustrations on the structure of dwelling places as well as some information on the mythic origins of the Navajo. Many of the illustrations are by Charles Keetsie Shirley. On the same subject is a set of cards in Young's hand which was sent to Harrington at Fort Wingate in August 1939. At Harrington's request, Young also translated what appears to be a lesson on hogans, possibly a section of a proposed text for instructional purposes. A group of Chaco Canyon placenames were given by Ed Henry in June 1939; several others were extracted from various secondary sources. Other ethnographic subjects briefly covered are the Hoop and Pole game, a social and economic survey questionnaire, White Hat's funeral (1939), the Lord's Prayer as recorded by Berard Haile, and notes on Sandoval's sound recordings. Malcolm Farmer supplied nonlinguistic information and there is a small set of highly miscellaneous ethnographic and historical notes.
The text section contains billingual texts that Young collected and sent to Harrington in 1936. They were written with interlinear translations and followed by a precis in English. Titles include: "Deer and Coyote," "Where the People Came Out," "A Wedding Ceremonial," and "The Woman Who Changed into a Bear." A recording session on October 31, 1949, with Dick Left, Richard Long, and Harry (not further identified) provided Navajo songs, ceremonies, and legends. Harrington's notes supply the identity of the discs and peripheral information such as the gestures accompanying the songs. Some linguistic annotations are interspersed. The discs described in the notes have not been located.
Notes, drafts, and mockups from Harrington and Young's work creating Navajo primers are also present. During the course of their work together from 1937 to 1939, Harrington and Young prepared drafts for two primers, "Little Bear Primer" and "Spotted Dog Primer," a pre-primer (probably the so called "Doda Primer"), and a playbook or cut-out book. Despite an assurance that at least both of the major works were to be printed, neither of the primers were ever published. He and Young also served as translators for a set of four primers in the "Little Herder" series, and Harrington was also credited with developing the "Harrington-La Farge phonetic system" utilized in the three-volume set entitled Little Man's Family. Harrington and Young also helped translate Ann Nolan Clark's "Who Wants To Be a Prairie Dog?"
Other materials related to Harrington's writing include notes for his "Southern Peripheral Athapaskawan Origins, Divisions, and Migrations" and preliminary drafts and notes for the Navajo portion of "Earliest Navaho and Quechua" (1944) coauthored by Robert W. Young. There are also notes and drafts for his unpublished writings, among which include "Navaho Mouthmap," "The Indian Dog Comes into His Own,"and "What Light Can Navajo Throw on Indogermanic Reconstruction?"
Among his miscellaneous notes is a comparison of Navajo with other Indian languages. There are brief notes on trips made in 1940, a list of the names of non-Indians, miscellaneous correspondence, and notes which are neither linguistic nor ethnographic.
Because of their long-term collaboration, Young's notes are inextricably intermixed with those of Harrington. Although some are labeled "Y," Young's unlabeled contributions can be identified through his handwriting and printing, and even with his style. Other hand-copied material is the work of B.A.E. assistant, Arvilla Johnson. Harrington's daughter Awona produced many of the copies in eighteen-point type.
Biographical / Historical:
Although John P. Harrington published brief articles on Navajo in 1911 and 1929, his most sustained work in this language spanned the years 1935 to 1946. Correspondence and reports indicate that during this period he was in the field from July to November 1939, and from August to mid-November 1940 at such places as Fort Wingate and Gallup, New Mexico, and Phoenix, Tuba CIty, and Window Rock, Arizona. His success in the field is due in no small part to his brilliant young collaborator, Robert W. Young, whom he first contacted in August 1936 and with whom he carried on an extensive correspondence into the mid-1940s. In fact their joint efforts in Navajo were accomplished mainly by mail.
Harrington collaborated or corresponded with others, among whom were Ann Nolan Clark, Oliver La Farge, Francis Elmore, Harry Hoijer, William Hill, and Richard Van Valkenburgh. He also contacted various university professors and graduate students, some of whom taught at such programs as those directed by the Summer Institute of Linguistics (Camp Wycliffe) and the University of New Mexico School of American Research.
Harrington consulted a wide array of secondary sources and reheard or compared data from them which he later combined with original notes. These include several hundred terms from then-unpublished manuscripts of Edward Sapir, and two of Harry Hoijer's publications--Chiricahua and Mescalero Apache Texts (1938) and "The Southern Athapascan Languages" (1938). He made extensive use of two works published by the Franciscan Fathers, An Ethnological Dictionary of the Navaho Language (1910) and A Vocabulary of the Navaho Language (1912). He turned to W. L. Jepson and Washington Matthews for botanical terms, and to Adrien G. Morice for Carrier comparisons. In a search for precise grammatical terminology, he consulted a score or more of grammars, dictionaries, and publications on language and linguistics in Latin, Greek, Indo-Germanic, and several Arabic languages. Most prominent are Walter A. Ripman's Latin Handbook (1930) and Alan H. Gairdner's publication on Arabic phonetics (1935).
He worked with many Navajo speakers, some of whom were well-educated. Mentioned frequently are Willietto Antonio, Chee Dodge, Howard Gorman, George E. Hood, Hoskie Naswood, Albert Sandoval (also called "Chic"), Charles Keetsie Shirley, and Sam Tilden.
Local Numbers:
Accession #1976-95
Local Note:
This subseries was broken up into two catalog records to facilitate viewing of digital surrogates. See the catalog record for John Peabody Harrington papers: Navajo (part 2) to view surrogates for the rest of Harrington's Navajo files.
John Peabody Harrington papers, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution
The preferred citation for the Harrington Papers will reference the actual location within the collection, i.e. Box 172, Alaska/Northwest Coast, Papers of John Peabody Harrington, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution.
However, as the NAA understands the need to cite phrases or vocabulary on specific pages, a citation referencing the microfilmed papers is acceptable. Please note that the page numbering of the PDF version of the Harrington microfilm does not directly correlate to the analog microfilm frame numbers. If it is necessary to cite the microfilmed papers, please refer to the specific page number of the PDF version, as in: Papers of John Peabody Harrington, Microfilm: MF 7, R34 page 42.
Indians of North America -- Southwest, New Search this
Type:
Archival materials
Field notes
Dictionaries
Vocabulary
Manuscripts
Date:
1935-1949
Scope and Contents:
This set of files contains Harrington's Navajo research. The materials consist of vocabulary, dictionary notes, grammar, rehearings of linguistic data, ethnobotany notes, ethnographic notes, texts, drafts and notes relating to primers, published and unpublished primers, unpublished and published papers, extracts from secondary sources, and miscellaneous notes.
The vocabulary section contains terms extracted from Young and Morgan's The Navaho Language, which were reheard principally to obtain Kiowa and Hano (Arizona Tewa) equivalences. Information is occasionally included from Harrington's Apache and Tewa notes. A brief typed vocabulary contains scattered grammatical material. There is also a slipfile of terms based mainly on An Ethnological Dictionary of the Navaho Language. It contains annotations and relevant excerpts from Harrington-Young correspondence. Plant names wIth Young's annotations are based on W. L. Jepson's A Manual of Flowering Plants of California (1925) and Washington Matthews' The Navajo Names for Plants (1886). Of the twenty semantic categories, the sections on animals, animal parts, plants, and placenames are particularly substantial.
The dictionary section consists of lexical terms from the Bureau of Indian Affairs' "Navajo Phrase Book," obtained from Willard Beatty and sent by Harrington to Young for rehearings. Navajo entries with Kiowa equivalences were apparently taken from a manuscript for a dictionary by Young. Two miscellaneous groups of entries are in Navajo/English.
The material on Navajo grammar is extensive and includes notes, drafts of a manuscript, excerpts from secondary sources, correspondence between Young and Harrington, and slips. The file was for proposed publications ranging from introductory manuals to the structuring of a comprehensive Navajo grammar.
A further substantial body of grammatical material is found on large slips. These include information from Young's voluminous correspondence, not otherwise interfiled. Part of this section is a further rehearing by Young of Morice's The Carrier Language. Another group of notes records comparisons with several southern Athapascan languages, evidently based on Young's notes, vocabulary items, correspondence, and other undocumented material. Harrington also used the slipfile format to index questions which he had earlier sent to Young.
Most of the rehearings of lingustic data are of Edward Sapir's linguistic terms by Young in 1940 and 1941. Though the copied materials may be similar in content, they do not appear to be exact duplicates of the Sapir linguistic holdings at the American Philosophical Society. Young also reheard terms from Hoijer's Chiricahua and Mescalero Apache Texts late in 1940. George E. Hood commented on Hoijer's "The Southern Athapascan Languages," possibly at about the same time. There are typed excerpts from Young's May 1938 letters regarding Morice's The Carrier Language and miscellaneous linguistic information given by Hood and reheard by Richard Long. Other miscellaneous rehearings are with Alfred Sanchez (abbreviated"Alf." or "Alfredo"), Willietto Antonio, George Hood, and Robert Young (September 1939); and with Howard Gorman, Albert Sandoval, and John Charles (1939). There is also a rehearing with Henry Tsosie of terms from Gladys A. Reichard and Adolph Dodge Bittany's Agentive and Causative Elements in Navaho (1940), including some excerpts from the book. Finally, in February 1941, he reheard the vocabulary of Pedro Bautista Pino with Howard Gorman; Young did not consider these terms to be Navajo.
The files also contains Harrington's notes on Navajo names for plants, gathered from secondary sources and possibly original data from colleagues or friends. Young also annotated some of the notes.
Harrington's ethnographic files includes notes, vocabulary, and illustrations on the structure of dwelling places as well as some information on the mythic origins of the Navajo. Many of the illustrations are by Charles Keetsie Shirley. On the same subject is a set of cards in Young's hand which was sent to Harrington at Fort Wingate in August 1939. At Harrington's request, Young also translated what appears to be a lesson on hogans, possibly a section of a proposed text for instructional purposes. A group of Chaco Canyon placenames were given by Ed Henry in June 1939; several others were extracted from various secondary sources. Other ethnographic subjects briefly covered are the Hoop and Pole game, a social and economic survey questionnaire, White Hat's funeral (1939), the Lord's Prayer as recorded by Berard Haile, and notes on Sandoval's sound recordings. Malcolm Farmer supplied nonlinguistic information and there is a small set of highly miscellaneous ethnographic and historical notes.
The text section contains billingual texts that Young collected and sent to Harrington in 1936. They were written with interlinear translations and followed by a precis in English. Titles include: "Deer and Coyote," "Where the People Came Out," "A Wedding Ceremonial," and "The Woman Who Changed into a Bear." A recording session on October 31, 1949, with Dick Left, Richard Long, and Harry (not further identified) provided Navajo songs, ceremonies, and legends. Harrington's notes supply the identity of the discs and peripheral information such as the gestures accompanying the songs. Some linguistic annotations are interspersed. The discs described in the notes have not been located.
Notes, drafts, and mockups from Harrington and Young's work creating Navajo primers are also present. During the course of their work together from 1937 to 1939, Harrington and Young prepared drafts for two primers, "Little Bear Primer" and "Spotted Dog Primer," a pre-primer (probably the so called "Doda Primer"), and a playbook or cut-out book. Despite an assurance that at least both of the major works were to be printed, neither of the primers were ever published. He and Young also served as translators for a set of four primers in the "Little Herder" series, and Harrington was also credited with developing the "Harrington-La Farge phonetic system" utilized in the three-volume set entitled Little Man's Family. Harrington and Young also helped translate Ann Nolan Clark's "Who Wants To Be a Prairie Dog?"
Other materials related to Harrington's writing include notes for his "Southern Peripheral Athapaskawan Origins, Divisions, and Migrations" and preliminary drafts and notes for the Navajo portion of "Earliest Navaho and Quechua" (1944) coauthored by Robert W. Young. There are also notes and drafts for his unpublished writings, among which include "Navaho Mouthmap," "The Indian Dog Comes into His Own,"and "What Light Can Navajo Throw on Indogermanic Reconstruction?"
Among his miscellaneous notes is a comparison of Navajo with other Indian languages. There are brief notes on trips made in 1940, a list of the names of non-Indians, miscellaneous correspondence, and notes which are neither linguistic nor ethnographic.
Because of their long-term collaboration, Young's notes are inextricably intermixed with those of Harrington. Although some are labeled "Y," Young's unlabeled contributions can be identified through his handwriting and printing, and even with his style. Other hand-copied material is the work of B.A.E. assistant, Arvilla Johnson. Harrington's daughter Awona produced many of the copies in eighteen-point type.
Biographical / Historical:
Although John P. Harrington published brief articles on Navajo in 1911 and 1929, his most sustained work in this language spanned the years 1935 to 1946. Correspondence and reports indicate that during this period he was in the field from July to November 1939, and from August to mid-November 1940 at such places as Fort Wingate and Gallup, New Mexico, and Phoenix, Tuba CIty, and Window Rock, Arizona. His success in the field is due in no small part to his brilliant young collaborator, Robert W. Young, whom he first contacted in August 1936 and with whom he carried on an extensive correspondence into the mid-1940s. In fact their joint efforts in Navajo were accomplished mainly by mail.
Harrington collaborated or corresponded with others, among whom were Ann Nolan Clark, Oliver La Farge, Francis Elmore, Harry Hoijer, William Hill, and Richard Van Valkenburgh. He also contacted various university professors and graduate students, some of whom taught at such programs as those directed by the Summer Institute of Linguistics (Camp Wycliffe) and the University of New Mexico School of American Research.
Harrington consulted a wide array of secondary sources and reheard or compared data from them which he later combined with original notes. These include several hundred terms from then-unpublished manuscripts of Edward Sapir, and two of Harry Hoijer's publications--Chiricahua and Mescalero Apache Texts (1938) and "The Southern Athapascan Languages" (1938). He made extensive use of two works published by the Franciscan Fathers, An Ethnological Dictionary of the Navaho Language (1910) and A Vocabulary of the Navaho Language (1912). He turned to W. L. Jepson and Washington Matthews for botanical terms, and to Adrien G. Morice for Carrier comparisons. In a search for precise grammatical terminology, he consulted a score or more of grammars, dictionaries, and publications on language and linguistics in Latin, Greek, Indo-Germanic, and several Arabic languages. Most prominent are Walter A. Ripman's Latin Handbook (1930) and Alan H. Gairdner's publication on Arabic phonetics (1935).
He worked with many Navajo speakers, some of whom were well-educated. Mentioned frequently are Willietto Antonio, Chee Dodge, Howard Gorman, George E. Hood, Hoskie Naswood, Albert Sandoval (also called "Chic"), Charles Keetsie Shirley, and Sam Tilden.
Local Numbers:
Accession #1976-95
Local Note:
This subseries was broken up into two catalog records to facilitate viewing of digital surrogates. See the catalog record for John Peabody Harrington papers: Navajo (part 1) to view surrogates for the rest of Harrington's Navajo files.
John Peabody Harrington papers, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution
The preferred citation for the Harrington Papers will reference the actual location within the collection, i.e. Box 172, Alaska/Northwest Coast, Papers of John Peabody Harrington, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution.
However, as the NAA understands the need to cite phrases or vocabulary on specific pages, a citation referencing the microfilmed papers is acceptable. Please note that the page numbering of the PDF version of the Harrington microfilm does not directly correlate to the analog microfilm frame numbers. If it is necessary to cite the microfilmed papers, please refer to the specific page number of the PDF version, as in: Papers of John Peabody Harrington, Microfilm: MF 7, R34 page 42.
Indians of North America -- Southwest, New Search this
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Pages
Date:
1893
Scope and Contents:
From Leonard Tyler - text with interlinear translation, (Muihas or the Magpie) - 3 pages (No. 5-7). From David Pendleton (Making Medicine) - words - 4 1/2 pages. (No. 13-17). From Rubin Taylor - words and sentences - 3 pages. (No. 17-20). From Indian N.E. of Agency - words, 1/2 page. (No. 21). Names of Indians at Darlington - 6 names (page No. 21). Rudolph Petter - Collection of words - 2 pages (No. 22-23). Philip Block - Notes on different Indians by tribes - 1 page (No. 24). James Mooney - tribal names for the Cheyenne by the Yankton, Kiowa, Teton, Navajo and Arapaho. - 1/2 page. (No. 51)
Stephen R. Riggs - Dakota Grammar - extracts from. Approx. 20 pages. (Contributions Vol. IX (1893) ).
Kish Hawkins - sentences - 3 pages. (No. 8-10). grammatical notes - 25 pages. (25-50). grammatical notes - 18 pages. (72-90).
James Bent - Comparative Vocabulary of the Caddo, Cheyenne, Arapaho, and Wichita - 1 page. (No. 90). Ditto - Arapaho and Cheyenne - 6 pages. (No. 91-96).
Wolf Face - Notes on Cheyenne - 3 1/4 pages. (No. 97-100). Natural Philosophy - 3 pages. (No. 101-103).
George Bent - list of personal names - 1 1/4 pages. (No.106-7).
Local Numbers:
NAA MS 61
Place:
Darlington Oklahoma Territory
Topic:
Language and languages -- Documentation Search this
This scrapbook includes articles, newspaper clippings, letters and photographs from various events and marches Grace participated in regarding the fight for returning surplus lands to Native peoples. These events and materials include--Fishing Rights March (1970) in Yelm, Washington with the McCloud family; Fort Lawton "Surplus" March (1970) in Seattle, Washington; Pit River versus P.G..E. (1970) in Big Bend, California; DQU, Deganawidah Quetzalcoatl University founding (1971) in Davis, California; and documentation as National Commitee Director for the "Return Surplus Lands to Indian People".
Separated Materials:
The cover and back of the scrapbook binder are in Box 12 since they are oversized.
Collection 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).
Collection Rights:
Permission to publish materials from the collection must be requested from National Museum of the American Indian Archive Center. Please submit a written request to nmaiphotos@si.edu. For personal or classroom use, users are invited users to download, print, photocopy, and distribute the images that are available online without prior written permission, provided that the files are not changed, the Smithsonian Institution copyright notice (where applicable) is included, and the source of the image is identified as the National Museum of the American Indian.
Collection Citation:
Identification of specific item; Date (if known); Grace F. Thorpe Collection, Box and Folder Number; National Museum of the American Indian Archive Center, Smithsonian Institution.
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); Collection Title, Box and Folder Number; National Museum of the American Indian Archive Center, Smithsonian Institution.
The Frank and Dolores Becker papers contains materials from the Indian Association of America, Inc. as well as material regarding Frank Becker's work with Navajo Soldiers in the Army Air Corps during World War II. This includes a full run of the Indian Association of America's publication Smoke Signals, personal scrapbooks as well as a collection of phonographic records.
Scope and Contents:
The bulk of the Frank and Dolores Becker papers come from their years working for the Indian Association of America between 1949 and 1968 as president (Frank) and secretary (Dolores). This includes administrative materials such as articles of incorporation and dissolution, the constitution and by-laws, member lists, as well as meeting reports and notes. There is also a full run of Smoke Signals (1949-1961), the association's bi-monthly magazine edited by Dolores Becker.
In addition to materials regarding the Indian Association of America there are two copies of Frank Becker's book, Navajo Way and background information on his work at the Presbyterian Hospitality house during WWII teaching English and reading to Navajo soldiers. There are several photos of Becker and the Navajo soldiers he taught as well as an audio cassette of the recording in the Navajo language used in the classroom. The recording features Frank Becker in English and Roger Davis in Navajo and includes several prayers as well as general army instructions and general orders for interior guard duty.
There are also two scrapbooks in the collection. One was created by Dolores which includes drawings, poems and research she conducted on Native American culture. The second is a scrapbook of newspaper articles and clippings, many of them written by Frank Becker, on the Becker's activities with the Indian Association of America and other related Native American issues. Many notices of Frank Becker's speaking engagements are included in this scrapbook. Also included is the Becker's collection of phonographic records. These nine records, 10 inch (78rm) were produced by Tom Tom records, Canyon records and one by Victor and include a variety of Native American songs.
Arrangement:
This collection is arranged in one series alphabetically. The phonographic records are listed at the end of the collection, also in alphabetical order.
Frank and Dolores Becker:
Frank Becker was born in New York City on April 24, 1907 to Frank and Thora Bregartner Becker. A Graduate from Stuyvesant High School and the New York Training School for teachers, Becker received a B.S. from NYU in 1942 and was awarded his degree the same year he was inducted into the Army Air Corps. Becker taught at P.S. 17 before and after WWII and later received a Masters of Arts Degree.
Though he started as a mechanic in the Army Air Corps in 1942, Becker was soon transferred to the 704th training group in Atlantic City, New Jersey to help organize a school for illiterate soldiers. Becker was tasked to teach reading, writing and arithmetic to a mixed group of students that included Greeks, Chinese, Navajo, Pima and Papago soldiers. The largest group of Native American soldiers Becker taught were Navajo. Because many of the Navajo soldiers could not speak English, Roger Davis, an elected leader to the Navajo Tribal Council and Presbyterian missionary, was sent to Atlantic City to act as an interpreter. Together, Becker and Davis made phonographic recordings of the Army Handbook in both English and Navajo. Davis assisted Becker for five weeks staying as a guest of the Presbyterian Hospitality House. Becker later wrote a book on his experiences working with the group of Navajo soldiers titled Navajo Way (1956). The experience also sparked a lifelong interested in the Navajo culture as well as awareness of many of the problems facing the Navajo community in regards to education and health.
Following the war, Becker visited Arizona and New Mexico with his family in in the fall on 1947. Frank had Frank met Dolores in the early 1940's through mutual friends and the two were married December 27, 1944. Dolores, born August 6, 1913, had passed the New Jersey bar in 1936 and had been practicing law in the juvenile court system. After meeting Frank she also took an active interest in Native American culture. The family visited Gallup, Window Rock and Indian Wells, where they visited with Roger Davis, making particular note of the schools they visited. On the return from this trip, Becker wrote passionately on the failing of the U.S. government to fulfill its obligations to the Navajo people, particularly in the area of education. Frank and Dolores both joined several organizations, most notably the Indian Association of America, dedicated to helping Native Americans advocating especially for WWII Veterans returning home and education. Additionally, Frank wrote many columns, letters to the editor and speeches on both his experiences teaching Navajo soldiers during the war as well current issues facing Native American communities. Dolores appeared on several TV shows in the 1950's directed towards younger audiences explaining Native American cultures.
Frank Becker died November 11, 1979 in Shokan, NY and Dolores died on March 6, 2010 leaving behind a daughter and a son.
Additional Information on Frank and Dolores Becker provided by their daughter Thora Becker.
Indian Association of America:
According to its constitution and by-laws, The Indian Association of America was originally founded in Denver, Colorado by Dr. Vincent "Red Fox" St. James and Dr. George C. Stagg in 1924. Red Fox, who claimed to be Blackfoot but whose origins are undetermined, had previously been a founder of the Tipi (Tepee) Order of America, an organization that blended ritual aspects closely related to Freemasonry with the pan-Indian movement dedicated to advocacy work for the welfare of Native Americans. The Indian Association of America mimicked this model with some of its stated objectives being; to promote better understanding between the races, to study the Indian cultures of America, to foster education for American Indians, to provide direct help in emergencies faced by American Indian communities, to protest laws detrimental to American Indians and to promote the observance of American Indian Day.
Though previously active, the Indian Association of America was officially incorporated in the state of New York in 1950 as a non-profit organization. Frank Becker took over as "Great Sachem," or President, in October of 1950 and led the organization until its dissolution in 1968. Its magazine, Smoke Signals, began publishing bi-monthly in June of 1949 with Dolores Becker serving as editor for the entirety of its run between 1949 and 1961. Frank Becker acted as a contributing editor and later as an advisory editor. The Indian Association of America formally dissolved in March of 1968.
Provenance:
Gift of Thora Becker, 2013.
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).
Due to their fragile nature, the AV materials in this collection are closed to researchers until they have been digitized.
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.
Topic:
Indians of North America -- Periodicals Search this
Identification of specific item; Date (if known); Frank and Dolores Becker papers, Box and Folder Number; National Museum of the American Indian Archive Center, Smithsonian Institution.
Collection consists of full film record and edited film based on anthropologist John Adair's 1938 work among the Navajo. The films explore Navajo life and culture through four generations of a Navajo family. Collection also contains sound recordings and press and publicity materials.
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.
Provenance:
Received from Susan Fanshel in 1987 and 2011.
Restrictions:
The collection is open for research. Please contact the archives for information on availability of access copies of audiovisual recordings. Original audiovisual material in the Human Studies Film Archives may not be played.
The Navaho language the elements of Navaho grammar with a dictionary in two parts containing basic vocabularies of Navaho and English Robert W. Young, William Morgan
