Covers Stewart's research from 1975-1986, his hobby of painting portraits, and international travel, c. 1924-1986, including: revision of his research on the Potomac Creek site, begun in the 1940s and completed in the 1980s; reminiscences of Turkey Tay...
Collection Creator::
Stewart, T. D. (Thomas Dale), 1901-1997, interviewee Search this
Container:
Interviews
Type:
Archival materials
Collection Rights:
Restricted. Recording of interview 13 may not be reproduced without permission. Contact SIHistory@si.edu for permission.
Collection Citation:
Smithsonian Institution Archives, Record Unit 9521, T. D. Stewart Oral History Interviews
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.
Contents: Barry, J. Nelson. St Stephen's Parish, Baker City, Oregon. February 22, 1910. 2 pages. Refers to "Wesorts" of southern Maryland. Bowers, George M. United States Commission of Fish and Fisheries, Washington, D.C. September 20, 1899. 2 pages. Concerning the identity of a "stone-piling fish" in the headwaters of the Tennessee River. Clark, Ben. Fort Reno. Oklahoma. February 5, 1906. 2 pages. Concerning the Mormon massacre of 1857, with a newsclipping of the story. Clark, Ben. Fort Reno, Oklahoma. January 16, 1907. 2 pages. Concerning the movements of certain bands of Nez Perce and Cheyenne Indians. Cleveland, R. E. Anadarko, Oklahoma. January 15, 1904. Autograph letter signed with Manuscript notes for reply signed by Mooney. 1 page. Asking value of a Martin Van Buren peace medal. Devitt, E. I. Georgetown University, Washington, D.C. January 7, 1909. 1 page. Concerning the Wesorts of Charles County, Maryland. Grinnell, George Bird. New York, New York. September 7, 1894. 2 pages. Concerning the appearance of the Gros Ventre of the prairie in the northern country. Mention is also made of the Cree names for the Cheyenne. Jackson, R. C. Smithwood, Knox County, Tennessee. August 15, 1890. 3 pages. Concerning life and murder of Cherokee half-blood, Jack Walker. Date of murder given as between 1830 amd 1835.
Jones, Dr Alexander. American Journal of Science and Arts, Volume xxvi, pages 189-190, New Haven, 1834. Concerning "American Gypsies" residing on Biloxi Bay, Louisiana. Typed extract by Mooney from above source, 2 pages. Powell, Major John. Bureau of American Ethnology, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. June 28, 1893. 3 pages. Concerning request made to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs that the Kiowa Indians be permitted to hold their Medicine Dance to enable the Bureau to study it. Scott, W. L. Fort Sill, Oklahoma. May 11, 1893. 4 pages. Concerning Kiowa tribes' concern over the delegation sent to Washington to represent the tribe. South Carolina Historical Society (Mabel L. Webber). Charleston, South Carolina. March 5, 1919. 3 pages. Concerning enclosed list of Cherokee villages and an account of the "Routes and Distances from Fort Prince to Fort Louden." ("The common route" and the "Route over the four and twenty mountains.") Tatum, Lawrie. Springfield. Iowa. April 7, 1896. 19 pages. Concerning Satanta and the story of the part he took in the raids into Texas in 1870. United States Geological Survey (David Day). Washington, D.C. October 7, 1903. 2 pages. Concerning results of analysis of clay particles submitted by James Mooney. Whatley, L. A., Superindendent of State Penitentiaries. Huntsville, Texas. March 3, 1896. 1 page. Concerning the imprisonment, parole, and suicide of Satanta, the Kiowa Chief.
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.