Copy negatives made from negatives depicting Native Americans, dwellings, and ceremonies. There are images of Hopi people at Walpi and Oraibi pueblos and other Puebloan people, as well as portraits of Apache, Osage, Navajo, Blackfoot, Brule, Nez Perce, Rogue River, Taos, Pawnee, Oto, Caddo, Arapaho, and Delaware people and the Ute Chief Ouray. Some of the images are from the series "Dangers of the Indian Country--Frontier Exposures." Represented photographers include George Wharton James, F. H. Maude, and others.
Local Call Number(s):
NAA Photo Lot 73-26G
Location of Other Archival Materials:
Additional George Wharton James photographs can be found in National Anthropological Archives MS 4577, Photo Lot 59, Photo Lot 89-8, and Photo Lot R92-15.
Additional F. H. Maude photographs can be found in National Anthropological Archives MS 4978, Photo Lot 59, Photo Lot 89-8, Photo Lot 90-1, and Photo Lot 24.
The National Anthropological Archives also holds the Ales Hrdlicka papers and other collections relating to his work (Numbered Manuscript collections and Photo Lots).
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 73-26G, Copies of photographs of Native Americans, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution
Reverend James Owen Dorsey (1848-1895) was a missionary and Bureau of American Ethnology ethnologist who conducted extensive research on Siouan tribes and languages.The papers of James Owen Dorsey comprise mostly ethnographic and linguistic materials on various tribes of the Siouan language family as well as tribes from Siletz Reservation in Oregon. These materials include texts and letters with interlineal translations; grammar notes; dictionaries; drawings; and his manuscripts. In addition, the collection contains Dorsey's correspondence, newspaper clippings, his obituaries, and reprints.
Scope and Contents:
This collection contains James O. Dorsey's research and writings as a BAE ethnologist, as well as his earlier work as a missionary among the Ponca. The vast majority of the collection pertains to his research on Siouan-Catawban languages, including the Dakota and Dhegiha languages, Chiwere, Winnebago, Mandan, Hidatsa, Tutelo, Biloxi, and Catawba. His research on Athapascan, Kusan, Takilman, and Yakonan languages from his field work at Siletz Reservation are also present, as well as some notes on the Caddoan languages. Dorsey's research files include linguistic and ethnological field notes, reading notes, stories and myths, vocabularies, drawings, and unpublished and published manuscripts. The collection also contains Omaha, Ponca, Quapaw, and Biloxi dictionaries that he compiled and materials relating to his work editing Steven Riggs' Dakota-English Dictionary. Additional noteworthy materials in the collection are Teton texts and drawings from George Bushotter and drawings by Stephen Stubbs (Kansa), Pahaule-gagli (Kansa), and George Miller (Omaha). The collection also contains Dorsey's correspondence, newspaper clippings, obituaries, and his collection of reprints.
Arrangement:
The collection is organized into 6 series: 1) Siouan; 2) Siletz Reservation; 3) Caddoan; 4) General Correspondence; 5) Personal Papers; 6) Miscellaneous & Reprints.
Biographical Note:
Reverend James Owen Dorsey (1848-1895) was a missionary and Bureau of American Ethnology ethnologist who conducted extensive research on Siouan tribes and languages.
Dorsey was born on October 31, 1848 in Baltimore, Maryland. He exhibited a talent for languages at an early age. At age 6 he learned the Hebrew alphabet and was able to read the language at age 10. In 1867 Dorsey attended the Theological Seminary of Virginia and was ordained a deacon of the Protestant Episcopal Church in 1871. In May of that year, Dorsey traveled to the Dakota Territory to serve as a missionary among the Ponca. Plagued by ill health, Dorsey was forced to end his missionary work in August 1873. By that time, however, he had learned the Ponca language well enough to converse with members of the tribe without an interpreter.
Dorsey returned to Maryland and engaged in parish work while continuing his studies of Siouan languages. His linguistic talents and knowledge of these languages attracted the attention of Major John Wesley Powell. Powell arranged for Dorsey to work among the Omaha in Nebraska from 1878 to 1880 to collect linguistic and ethnological notes. When the Bureau of American Ethnology (BAE) was established in 1879, Powell recruited Dorsey to join the staff.
As an ethnologist for the BAE, Dorsey continued his research on Siouan tribes. His studies focused on languages but also included Siouan personal names, folklore, social organization, religion, beliefs, and customs. He conducted fieldwork among the Tutelo at Six Nations on Grand River in Upper Canada (1882); the Kansa, Osage, and Quapaw in Indian Territory (1883-1884); the Biloxi at Lecompte, Rapides Parish, Louisiana (1892); and again with the Quapaw at the Quapaw Mission (1894). He also worked with Native Americans that visited DC, including George Bushotter (Teton), Philip Longtail (Winnebago), Samuel Fremont (Omaha), and Little Standing Buffalo (Ponca). He also spent time at Siletz Reservation in 1884 to collect linguistic notes on the Athapascan, Kusan, Takilman, and Yakonan stocks.
In addition to his research, Dorsey helped found the American Folklore Society and served as the first vice-president of the association. He also served as vice-president of Section H of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
At the age of 47, Dorsey died of typhoid fever on February 4, 1895.
Sources Consulted
1st-16th Annual Reports of the Bureau of American Ethnology. 1881-1897.
Hewitt, J.N.B. 1895. "James Owen Dorsey" American Anthropologist A8, 180-183.
McGee, W.J. 1895. "In Memoriam." Journal of American Folklore 8(28): 79-80.
1848 -- Born on October 31 in Baltimore, Maryland.
1871 -- Ordained a deacon of the Protestant Episcopal Church.
1871-1873 -- Served as a missionary among the Ponca in Dakota Territory.
1878-1880 -- Conducted fieldwork among the Omaha in Nebraska.
1879 -- Joined the staff of the Bureau of American Ethnology.
1882 -- Conducted fieldwork among the Tutelo at Six Nations on Grand River in Upper Canada.
1883-1884 -- Conducted fieldwork among the Kansa, Osage, and Quapaw in Indian Territory.
1887 -- Worked with George Bushotter to record information regarding the language and culture of the Dakota.
1884 -- Conducted fieldwork at Siletz Reservation.
1892 -- Conducted fieldwork among the Biloxi at Lecompte, Rapides Parish, Louisiana.
1894 -- Conducted fieldwork among the Quapaw at the Quapaw Mission in Indian Territory.
1895 -- Died of typhoid fever on February 4th at the age of 47.
Restrictions:
The James O. Dorsey Papers are open for research. Access to the James O. Dorsey Papers requires an appointment
Manuscript 4800 James O. Dorsey papers, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution
Sponsor:
Creation of this finding aid was funded through support from the Arcadia Fund.
Digitization and preparation of additional materials for online access has been funded also by the National Science Foundation under BCS Grant No. 1561167 and the Recovering Voices initiative at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History.
MS 85 Clerk's copy of Crook's Hupa vocabulary (Bureau of American Ethnology MS. 84), Crook's Tolowa vocabulary (Bureau of American Ethnology MS. 86), and Lorenzo Hubbard's "Tutatamys" [Tututni] vocabulary of 61 terms
This manuscript is a set of comparative data containing materials in several Athabascan/Athapascan languages. The language names as they appear in the ms. with alternative spellings in parenthesis. Chipwyan (Chipewyan, Montagnais, Dene Suline, Sluacus-tinneh, Dene Soun'line), Tacully (Tâh-killy, Tâ-cully ), Klatskani [Kwalhioqua ?] (Kwalhioqua-Tlatskanai Kwalhioqua- Clatskanie, Kwalhioqua-Tlatskanie), Willopah (Willapa, Willoopah) Upper Umpqua, Tootooten, Applegate Creek, Hopah, Haynarger with notes in English.
Scope and Contents:
Consists of Comparative vocabulary, 4 double leaves; Appendix, 8 pages.
Place and date of record not on manuscript; recorded at Cathlamet, Washington Territory, February 24, 1858, according to Pilling, Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin 14.
![view MS 123 Concordance of the Athapascan languages, with an appendix digital asset: Concordance of the Athapascan languages; Chipwyan, Tacully, Klaskani, Willopah [Kwalhioqua ?], Upper Umpqua, Tootooten, Applegate Creek, Hopah, Haynarger](https://ids.si.edu/ids/deliveryService?max=170&id=https://sirismm.si.edu/siris/SelectedImages.gif "Concordance of the Athapascan languages; Chipwyan, Tacully, Klaskani, Willopah [Kwalhioqua ?], Upper Umpqua, Tootooten, Applegate Creek, Hopah, Haynarger")
![View MS 123 Concordance of the Athapascan languages, with an appendix digital asset: Concordance of the Athapascan languages; Chipwyan, Tacully, Klaskani, Willopah [Kwalhioqua ?], Upper Umpqua, Tootooten, Applegate Creek, Hopah, Haynarger](https://ids.si.edu/ids/deliveryService?max=120&id=https://sirismm.si.edu/siris/SelectedImages.gif "Concordance of the Athapascan languages; Chipwyan, Tacully, Klaskani, Willopah [Kwalhioqua ?], Upper Umpqua, Tootooten, Applegate Creek, Hopah, Haynarger")
