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.
Indians of North America -- Great Plains Search this
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Albumen prints
Cabinet photographs
Cartes-de-visite
Photographs
Studio portraits
Date:
circa 1879-1902
Scope and Contents note:
Photographs depicting students in the Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Pennsylvania, many with handwritten notation identifying pictured individuals. Included are individual and group portraits showing Crow, Gros Ventre, Iowa, Omaha, Pawnee, Ponca, and San Felipe students. There are also some images of Carlisle School buildings, and one of a parade, made by Philadelphia photographer Charles Truscott.
Biographical/Historical note:
John N. Choate (1848-1902) was a commercial photographer in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. The United States opened its first non-reservation government-supported school there in 1879 under the supervision of Lt. Richard Henry Pratt. From the opening of the Carlisle Indian School, Choate began photographing almost every student upon arrival and during their school career, as well as school activities, staff, and visiting chiefs and families. Choate remained the primary photographer for the Carlisle Indian School until his death in 1902.
Local Call Number(s):
NAA Photo Lot 73-8, NAA MS 4778
Location of Other Archival Materials:
MS 4778, previously filed in Photo Lot 24, has been relocated and merged with Photo Lot 73-8. These photographs were also donated by Mrs. James Bradford Ritter and form part of this collection.
The National Anthropological Archives also holds the original John N. Choate Negatives (Photo Lot 81-12)
Additional Choate photographs from the Carlisle School can be found in the National Anthropological Archives in MS 4241, MS 4537, MS 4544, MS 4574, MS 4988, and Photo Lot 90-1.
See others in:
John N. Choate photographs of Carlisle School students, circa 1879-1902
The collection includes materials from cultures in the United States, Mexico, Brazil, Guatemala, Colombia, Ecuador, and Guiana: Acoma Pueblo, Apache, Arapaho, Arikara, Assiniboine, Caddo, Cahuilla, Cherokee, Cheyenne, Chibcha, Chinantec, Chippewa (Ojibwa), Choco, Chol, Chontal, Cochiti Pueblo, Crow, Cuicatec, Eskimo, Flathead, Haida, Hopi, Huastec, Huave, Iowa, Iroquois, Isleta, Karaja, Kwakiutl, Laguna Pueblo, Macusi, Mandan, Maya, Mazahua, Mazatec, Mehinaku, Menomini, Mixe, Mixtec, Navajo, Nez Perce, Osage, Otomi, Ottawa, Pawnee, Pima, Ponca, Potawatomi, Salish, San Blas, San Felipe Pueblo, Sauk & Fox, Shuar, Sioux, Taos Pueblo, Tarasco, Teotihuacan, Tepehua, Tlaxcala, Tlingit, Tonkawa, Totonac, Triqui, Tzental, Tzotzil, Ute, Wampanoag, Zapotec, Zoque, Zuni.
Arrangement note:
Collection arranged by item number.
Biographical/Historical note:
Frederick Starr was born in Auburn, New York, on September 2, 1858. He received a Ph.D. in biology in 1884 at Coe College, where he was later appointed professor of biology. Starr did postgraduate work in anthropology at Yale. In 1889 he was appointed head of Ethnology at the American Museum of Natural History, and in 1892 he was chosen by William Harper to organize the Anthropology Department at the new University of Chicago. Starr remained at the University until his retirement in 1923. Besides his field studies with various Indian tribes in the United States, Starr traveled to Mexico, Brazil, Colombia, Guatemala, Ecuador, Guiana, Japan, the Philippines, and Africa. He died in Tokyo, Japan, on August 14, 1933. Starr was the author of several books and scholarly articles.
General note:
Starr hired professional photographers Charles B. Lang and Louis Grabic to accompany him on his field trips. One lantern slide of Moses Ladd (Menomini) was taken by William H. Jackson.
Provenance:
Dr. Frederick Starr, Purchased, circa 1929
Restrictions:
Access restricted. Researchers should contact the staff of the NMAI Archives for an appointment to access the collection.
Access to NMAI Archives 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 Archives Center. Please submit a written request to nmaiarchives@si.edu.
Collection Citation:
Identification of specific item; Date (if known); Frank C. and Clara G. Churchill collection, NMAI.AC.058, National Museum of the American Indian Archives 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); James E. Curry papers, Box and Folder Number; National Museum of the American Indian Archive Center, Smithsonian Institution.
This collection contains photographs that were commissioned by Fred Harvey Co. and shot by Carl Moon circa 1907-1914. The photographs depict American Indian communities in the southwest including A:shiwi (Zuni), Acoma Pueblo, Diné (Navajo), Hopi, Laguna Pueblo, and Taos Pueblo among many others.
Scope and Contents:
This collection contains 203 glass transparencies, 2 nitrate negatives, and 1 autochrome (plus 228 copy negatives and copy transparencies) that were commissioned by Fred Harvey Co. and shot by Carl moon circa 1905-1914. The photographs depict the southwest American Indian communities of A:shiwi (Zuni), Acoma Pueblo, Dine (Navajo), Havasupai (Coconino), Hopi Pueblo, Isleta Pueblo, K'apovi (Santa Clara Pueblo), Kewa (Santo Domingo Pueblo), Laguna Pueblo, Nambe Pueblo, Ohkay Owingeh (San Juan Pueblo), San Felipe Pueblo, San Ildefonso Pueblo, Taos Pueblo, Tesuque Pueblo, and White Mountain Apache. Some images were also shot in Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona. The photographs are a mix of portraits, posed action shots, and architecture shots. Some of the photographs appear to have been staged by the photographer. There are a few photographs in this collection that may have been shot by Moon prior to his employment with the Fred Harvey Company.
The copy negatives and transparencies were created by the Museum of the American Indian (NMAI's predecessor museum). There are sometimes multiple copy negatives and copy transparencies per glass plate transparency.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged into 17 series by culture group or location. Series 1: A:shiwi (Zuni), Series 2: Acoma Pueblo, Series 3: Diné (Navajo), Series 4: Havasupai (Coconino), Series 5: Hopi, Series 6: Isleta Pueblo, Series 7: K'apovi (Santa Clara Pueblo), Series 8: Kewa (Santa Domingo Pueblo), Series 9: Laguna Pueblo, Series 10: Nambe Pueblo, Series 11: Ohkay Owingeh (San Juan Pueblo), Series 12: San Felipe Pueblo, Series 13: San Ildefonso Pueblo, Series 14: Taos Pueblo, Series 15: Tesuque Pueblo, Series 16: White Mountain Apache, Series 17: Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona
The collection is physically arranged first by collection type (transparencies and negatives) and then in photo numeric order.
Biographical / Historical:
Born in 1878 in Wilmington, Ohio, Carl E. Moon (originally spelled Karl) took up photography after serving with the Ohio National Guard. He moved to Albuquerque, N.M. in 1903 and opened a photograph studio where he began photographing American Indians in the U.S. southwest region. After publishing and exhibiting many of his photographs nationally, he was commissioned by the Fred Harvey Company in 1907 to take photographs of American Indian communities in the southwest. The Fred Harvey Company was founded by Frederick Henry Harvey and consisted of a chain of successful gift shops, restaurants, and hotels know as Harvey Houses. Moon photographed individuals in his El Tovar Studio in the Grand Canyon, Ariz. and also traveled to communities in the region including A:shiwi (Zuni), Diné (Navajo), Hopi, and Laguna Pueblo, among many others. The Fred Harvey Company used these photographs in their postcards, brochures, and publications for the tourist industry. The Fred Harvey Company also partnered with the Sante Fe Railroad to help generate tourism to the southwest region and Moon became the official photographer for the railroad. Moon also took up drawing and painting and studied with American painter Thomas Moran. Moon stayed with the Fred Harvey Company until 1914.
After Moon left the Fred Harvey Company, he opened a studio in Pasadena, California and continued his career as a photographer and painter. During this period, Moon painted and donated 26 works depicting Southwest American Indians to the Smithsonian Institution (now in the Smithsonian American Art Museum's collection). He also sold 24 oil paintings and 293 photographic prints to Henry E. Huntington that are now part of the Huntington Library in San Marino California. With his wife Grace Purdie Moon, he also produced and illustrated children's books of collected Native American stories and legends. Moon died in San Francisco, Calif. in 1948.
Related Materials:
The Huntington Library in San Marino California holds a large collection of Carl Moon works, including oil paintings and photographic prints. The University of Arizona Libraries, Special Collections also holds photographs shot by Carl Moon and the Smithsonian American Art Museum holds 26 Carl Moon paintings.
Separated Materials:
Two nitrate negatives are stored at an offsite storage facility.
Provenance:
Donated to the Museum of the American Indian by the Fred Harvey Company in 1963.
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.
Indians of North America -- New Mexico Search this
Citation:
Identification of specific item; Date (if known); Fred Harvey Company collection of Carl Moon Southwest photographs, Box and Photo Number; National Museum of the American Indian Archive Center, Smithsonian Institution.
This series contains 1 glass transparency (plus 1 copy negative) shot by Carl Moon depicting buildings on the San Felipe Pueblo Reservation in New Mexico circa 1907-1914.
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:
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.
Some images restricted: Cultural Sensitivity.
Collection Citation:
Identification of specific item; Date (if known); Fred Harvey Company collection of Carl Moon Southwest photographs, Box and Photo Number; National Museum of the American Indian Archive Center, Smithsonian Institution.
This collection contains photographs documenting American Indian communities and landscape scenes in the Southwest photographed by Timothy O'Sullivan and William Bell for U.S. geographical surveys circa 1871-1874.
This collection contains 54 photographs (plus 7 copy negatives) that were shot by photographer Timothy O'Sullivan 1871, 1873, and 1874 and William Bell in 1872 for the U.S. Geographical Surveys West of the 100th Meridian, under Lieutenant George M. Wheeler, War Department, Corps of Engineers, U.S.A. The survey was commonly referred to as the "Wheeler Surveys."
The photographs depict American Indian Pueblos in the Southwest including Apache; A:shiwi (Zuni); Diné (Navajo); Hopi; Jicarilla Apache; Laguna Pueblo; Mohave; San Felipe Pueblo; Taos Pueblo; and Ute, among other communities. In addition, the collection contains landscape and scenic shot in the same region.
The bulk of the photos in this collection are one half of a stereoscope photograph that was never pasted onto a stereoscope card. The copy negatives in this collection were created by the Museum of the American Indian in the late 1960s.
Arrangement:
This collection is arranged by year and subject matter.
Biographical / Historical:
The geographical surveys west of the 100th meridian were operated under the United States Army Corps of Engineers and supervised by First Lieutenant (later Captain) George Montague Wheeler from 1869 through 1879. They were intended to document the geography in order to make accurate maps, record locations of American Indian tribes in the region, select possible sites for military installations and rail or common roads, and note resources in the area. In total, the surveys analyzed the region now covered by Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, California, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, Wyoming, Idaho, and Oregon, and the expeditions produced 164 maps, 41 publications, and a series of stereoviews. Timothy H. O'Sullivan began photographing geographical surveys in 1867-1869 when he was the official photographer for Clarence King's United States Geological Exploration of the 40th Parallel. He served as the official photographer for the Wheeler surveys in 1871, 1873, and 1874, with William Bell taking over in 1872. O'Sullivan later became the United States Geological Survey's first photographer in Washington, D.C.
[History note from the National Anthropological Archives collection record NAA.PhotoLot.167 with edits made by NMAI]
Provenance:
It is unclear when most of these photographs were obtained by the Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation.
Restrictions:
Access to NMAI Archives 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:
Permission to publish materials from the collection must be requested from National Museum of the American Indian Archives Center. Please submit a written request to nmaiphotos@si.edu. For personal or classroom use, users are invited to download, print, photocopy, and distribute the images that are available online without prior written permission, provided that the files are not modified in any way, 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. For more information please see the Smithsonian's Terms of Use and NMAI Archive Center's Digital Image request website.
Citation:
Identification of specific item; Date (if known); Collection of Timothy H. O'Sullivan photographs, image #, NMAI.AC.229, National Museum of the American Indian Archives Center, Smithsonian Institution.
