The collection consists of a calendar with 77 entries drawn on a piece of coarse cotton cloth with one selvedge edge and one edge machine hemmed. The entries begin near one end of the strip and move from left to right in a staggered linear sequence, stopping well short of the opposite end. Summer and winter entries alternate, with the register of summer entries drawn above the register of winter entries. A green forked pole accompanies pictures for summers when the Medicine Lodge ceremony was held. A yellow diamond outlined in blue indicates winter seasons. The calendar covers the period between 1862 and 1901. No information is known about the original production of this calendar.
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 As an historical document, its contents may be at odds with contemporary views and terminology and considered offensive today.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 National Anthropological Archives, but is available in its original form to facilitate research.
Local Numbers:
NAA MS 2002-28
Genre/Form:
Works of art
Calendars
Pictographs
Citation:
MS 2002-28 Kiowa calendar on canvas, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution
Indians of North America -- Great Plains Search this
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Volumes
Ledger drawings
Date:
bulk ca. 1903-1904
Scope and Contents:
Notes and drawings by Native artists relating to heraldry, as Mooney termed tipi and shield designs. Also some myths and linguistic data from these and other Plains tribes. The manuscript is a compilation of materials created over a period of years, assembled under the current number by the BAE archivist. Bound volumes (since disbound for lamination) were placed under this manuscript number; loose notes and drawings on the same topics were primarily assembled under manuscript number 2538.
Biographical / Historical:
James Mooney (1861-1921) was a self-taught ethnologist. He was employed by the Bureau of American Ethnology from 1885 until his death. In this capacity, he worked extensively among the Cherokee and Kiowa. Among the Kiowa his studies focused on pictorial calendars, the peyote religion, and heraldry, the term he used to refer to the designs on shields and painted tipis. In the course of his study of Kiowa and Cheyenne heraldry, he commissioned illustrations of shield and tipi designs, as well as miniature shields and tipis. For additional biographic information on James Mooney see: Christopher Winters, General Editor, International Dictionary of Anthropologists, Garland Publishing, 1991. Neil M. Judd, The Bureau of American Ethnology - A Partial History, University of Oklahoma Press, 1967. L.G. Moses, The Indian Man - A Biography of James Mooney, University of Nebraska Press, 1984.
Local Numbers:
NAA MS 2531
OPPS NEG 57,508-A---521-A
OPPS NEG 71-3046-A
OPPS NEG 71-3046
OPPS NEG 72-1801 CN-1818 CN
Local Note:
The John M. Seger Referred to in Vol VIII (and also in Mooney's peyote files) was a teacher of agricultural methods. Walter Campbell edited his autobiography, "Early Days among the Cheyenne and Arapaho Indians," Univ. of Okla. press. Genevieve Seger, his daughter, lives at Geary, Okla.; she may be a trustee of the Okla. Historical Soc. --Information from Althea Bass, here May 1959.
Mrs. J. H. Bass (Althea Bass) here May 6, 1959, thinks that the "Paul" referred to occasionally in Vols. III, IV, and V may be Paul Boynton, an interpreter who spoke both Cheyenne and Arapaho. His family still lives at El Reno. His father had something to do with the Agency. Paul Boynton is mentioned in one of the letters in Mooney corresponence for 1902-06 (Smithsonian Institution - Bureau of American Ethnology correspondence files.)
Date written on several pages by Mooney; almost certainly drawings done by same artist at same time and place as Ms. 2531, Vol. 10, identified by Mooney as "Drawn by Nakoim' eno = Bear Wings/alias Charles Murphy, Cheyenne Cantonment, Okla."
Photographs made during James Mooney's fieldwork with Apache, Arapaho, Caddo, Cherokee, Cheyenne, Comanche, Dakota/Lakota, Hopi, Kiowa, Navaho, Powhatan, and Wichita communities, as well as in Mexico. Photographs document individuals and families, gatherings, ceremonies and dances, daily activities, games, crafts, landscapes, and burials.
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.
Biographical / Historical:
James Mooney (1861-1921) was an American ethnographer whose research focused on Native North Americans. The son of Irish Catholic immigrants, Mooney was born in Richmond, Indiana. His formal education was limited to the public schools of the city; most of his knowledge of anthropology and ethnography was self-taught, largely through his field experience working with various Native communities.
In 1885, Mooney began working for the Smithsonian Institution's Bureau of American Ethnology (BAE) under John Wesley Powell. There, he carried out ethnographic research for more than 30 years. He was a very early adopter of photography and made thouands of photographs in the course of his fieldwork.
Mooney married Ione Lee Gaut in 1897, and had six children. He died in 1921 in Washington, D.C. from heart disease.
For fuller biographies of Mooney see George Ellison's introduction to the 1992 edition of Mooney's History, Myths, and Sacred Formulas of the Cherokees, as well as The Indian Man: A Biography of James Mooney by L.G. Moses (2002).
Chronology
February 10, 1861 -- Born
1878 -- Graduated high school, then taught public school for 1 year
1879 -- Joined the staff of The Richmond Palladium
April 1885 -- Joined the Bureau of American Ethnology (BAE)
May-June 1885 -- Worked with Cherokee Chief N. J. Smith on Eastern Cherokee grammar
Summer 1886 -- Worked with Chief Smith (in D.C.)
Summer 1887 -- First trip to the Eastern Cherokee of the Great Smokey Mountains to study language, collect material culture, and document activities including the Green Corn Dance and Cherokee ball games (3.5 months)
Winter/Spring 1888 -- Studied Iroquoian and Algonquian synonymies and published articles on the Irish and the Cherokee, collected and studied Cherokee sacred formulae
1889 -- Visit to Cherokee (worked with Swimmer, worked on his maps of place names/mound sites, witnessed ball play and the Green Corn Dance, gathered plants and collected objects for the Smithsonian
December 1890 -- Visited Oklahoma Territory to complete research with Western Cherokee, witnessed the Ghost Dance at the Cheyenne/Arapaho Reservation for the first time
1891 -- "The Sacred Formulas of the Cherokee" published Visit to Cherokee in Oklahoma Territory
April 1891 -- Delegated to collect material for Chicago Exposition. Collected for the next 2 years while studying the Ghost Dance
May 1891 -- Photographed Kiowa Mescal (Peyote) Ceremony Headed west for a four month collecting trip for the Chicago exposition, commissioned model tipis and summer houses from the Kiowa
1891-1893 -- Observed/participated in three ghost dances during three seasons of fieldwork among Arapaho, Sioux, Kiowa, and Cheyenne communities
Winter 1892 -- Began intensive field study of Kiowa winter counts and Kiowa heraldry Among the Navajo and Hopi, making collections for Chicago Exposition
Fall 1893 -- Returned to Oklahoma Territory to observe and record Arapaho Sun Dance. Also studied the Hopi Kachina Dance, the Wichita Corn Dance, and possibly also the Arapaho Ghost Dance
May 1895 -- "Siouan Tribes of the East" published
1895 -- Trip to the Southwest, visited Hopi and Navajo communities
1896 -- "The Ghost Dance Religion and the Sioux Outbreak of 1890" published
January 1897 -- At Anadarko
September 28, 1897 -- Married Ione Lee Gaut
Fall 1898 -- Trip to Southwest, visited Hopi and Navajo communities
1898 -- Attended Omaha Fair, helped plan 'Congress of Indians', supervised Frank Rinehart, who photographed many of the Indian delegates to the fair Calendar History of the Kiowa Indians published
Fall 1899 -- For three weeks in the fall traveled with DeLancey Gill to William Co, VA to study and photograph Mattapony and Pamunkey communities; Gill took pictures while Mooney did census work before traveling to the Chickahominy River
1900 -- Myths of the Cherokee published
Spring 1900 -- Studied communities of the Powhatan Confederacy in VA; traveled to VA again with Gill to visit the Pamunkey and Mattapony communities for more pictures and to complete census, then traveled to area south of Portsmouth to find the rural settlement of the Nansemond.
Fall 1901 -- Cooperative agreement with Field Museum and J. Owen Dorsey; Studied Kiowa for BAE, studied Cheyenne for Field Museum (focused on heraldry). This project, with Dorsey working on Arapaho, continued until 1906
1902 -- Fieldwork on heraldry with Kiowa and Apache communities all year except for two brief visits to Washington, D.C. in September and November
July 1903 -- Mooney and Dorsey study Sun Dance on Cheyenne reservation in Oklahoma Territory, brought staff photographer Charles Carpenter. Spent a week attending the Sun Dance and made the first photographs of the skull-dragging ceremony
October 1903 -- Photographed Arapaho Tomahawk Dance
Winter 1903 -- At the Cheyenne-Arapaho agency in Darlington; winter spent with Cheyenne, and finishing Kiowa tipi models for the Bureau's exhibit at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition
March 1904 -- At Mount Scott with Kiowa
June 1904 -- St. Louis Exposition opens
April 1906 -- Last visit to Cheyenne
Summers, 1911-1916 -- Visits to Cherokee
1918 -- Assisted with charting the Native American Church of Oklahoma (the Secretary of the Interior issued a ban on his research)
June 28, 1918 -- Requested by Fewkes to study peyote cult and Kiowa Heraldry (see Mooney Papers, Box 1, Letters, statement dated 1921)
December 22, 1921 -- Died
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 74, James Mooney photographs, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution
M.R. Harrington: Manuscripts, "Explanation of Kiowa Winter Count,"
Collection Creator:
Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation Search this
Collection Director:
Heye, George G. (George Gustav), 1874-1957 Search this
Container:
Box 239, Folder 5
Type:
Archival materials
Date:
1909
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 the 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); Museum of the American Indian/Heye Foundation Records, Box and Folder Number; National Museum of the American Indian Archive Center, Smithsonian Institution.
The collection consists of a Kiowa calendar consists on 25 sheet of heavy card stock. Each page contains two to four pictographs, arranged top to bottom and left to right. The calendar entries cover the period 1825-1921. A red diamond is used to signify winter and a green or yellow bar to signify summer. A depiction of the forked Medicine Lodge pole often accompanies the symbol for summer.
No information is known about the original production of this calendar. However, the pictures are a close match to a tracing that Wilbur S. Nye made in the 1920s of a calendar on cloth belonging to Jimmy Quitone. Although arranged in a different format, this may be considered a variant of the Quitone calendar. Nye recorded that while Quitone owned the calendar when he made the tracing, it had been produced by Johnny Anko and Hauvahte. Huvahte may be an alternate rendering of Habate, or Haba. Nye believed that the calendar was destroyed when the Quitone home burned in the 1930s.
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 National Anthropological Archives, but is available in its original form to facilitate research.
Biographical Note:
Jimmy Quitone also known as Jimmy or James Quoetone, Gui-tone and Wolf Tail (1955-1956) was one of the elders from whom Wilbur S. Nye recorded much information about Kiowa history. According to Nye, he was the father of George Hunt and Guy Quitone.
Local Numbers:
NAA MS 2002-27
Related Materials:
Wilbur S. Nye's tracing of the Quitone calendar is in the collection of the Fort Sill Museum in Oklahoma together with his notes about the version that he examined (cat. no. D68.39.4).
Restrictions:
The collection is open for research.
Access to the collection requires an appointment.
Rights:
Contact the repository for terms of use.
Genre/Form:
Works of art
Calendars
Pictographs
Citation:
MS 2002-27 Quitone Kiowa calendar, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution
