 |
University Libraries Patricia A. Etter, Curator |
|
|
University Libraries Patricia A. Etter, Curator |
In response to popular demand, and starting with the Fall semester, the Labriola
Center was open for service to students and the public between 10 a.m. and 5
p.m. daily. As a result, attendance and use of the Center's collections almost
doubled.
The Center is grateful to Noel Stowe, Chair of ASUs History Department, who
collaborated with us and assigned two Graduate Teaching Assistants, to provide
a total of 20 hours of reference for our patrons and assist with other projects.
The Center welcomes:
Vickey Kalambakal, who is in her first year of a Masters program in the History
of the American West. She left the aerospace industry after 12 years, entered
UCLA, and received her B.A. in history in 2001. She is a free-lance writer and
has published in American History Magazine, LAX Magazine and others.
Alton Carroll has a B.A. in history from the University of Texas at San Antonio and an M.A. from Purdue University. His thesis was entitled "Medicine Bags and Dog Tags: American Indian Veterans, their Traditional Ways, and their Influence on the Military." He is in the doctoral program at ASU, continuing his interest in American Indian veterans.
Visit the Labriola Website
www.asu.edu/lib/archives/labriola.htm
Library Aides, Morgan & Redhouse, Index Qua'Töqti, Hopi Newspaper
| Our students, Emilia Morgan and Michael Redhouse retrieve and shelve books, enter data on the computer, and when this newsletter is done, will apply labels and stuff some 800 envelopes. |
LAB FILM S104:208 Photo by Patricia Etter |
Even more important is the fact that they have just finished indexing the Hopi
newspaper from Oraibi, Arizona, Qua'töqti or Eagle's Cry. The paper was
published between 1973 and 1985 and Emilia and Michael have described 560 articles
from the paper. As far as we know, this paper is not indexed in any other media.
It contains a good deal of historical information on the Navajo-Hopi land dispute
and can be searched by clicking on "American Indian Index" from the
Labriola website.
In addition to the above, the students have indexed articles from Native Monthly
Reader, Pima Maricopa Echo, Winnebago Indian News, First Nation Messenger, Intertribal
News and many others.
Emilia Morgan plans to graduate with a degree in Social Work as well as American Indian Studies. She wants to be with a social service agency and work with people in the Indian Community.
Michael Redhouse is a Biology senior from Shiprock, New Mexico, and will be going to medical school. He wants to help and educate Native people in physical health, diet, and in life.
GI Joe - Navajo Code Talker Exhibit Labriola Center
The Marine Corps established the Navajo Code Talker Program in September 1942. At that time, few people outside of the reservation spoke the Navajo language, and it was expected that it would be completely unintelligible to an outsider and could successfully be used as a code to transmit secret messages (the Choctaw language had been used as a code during World War I).
The experiment was completely successful and by the end of World War II there
were some 400 active Navajo code talkers in the Pacific Campaign. They were
instrumental in almost every Marine action in the Pacific from Guadalcanal to
Okinawa in 1945. To this day, it remains the only un-broken code ever used in
the history of war.
| A number of living Code Talkers were honored at the Pueblo Grande Indian Market in Phoenix on December 8, and their pictures can be seen on the web version of the Labriola newsletter. |
Codetalkers Wilford Buck and Joe F. Price |
Codetalker Keith M. Little |
Codetalker Wilford Buck |
The Office of Institutional Advancement at ASU sponsors various tours for faculty and staff, and the ASU Community. Up to this time, we have talked about and shown some of the Labriola Center "treasures" to a group from the University Club Box Lunch, and some 20 individuals from the Scottsdale Seniors organization. In March, we will welcome a group of supporters of the Graduate College.
Peterson Zah, Counselor to President Coor on American Indian Affairs, announced that there are 1,089 American Indian students registered at ASU; 120 of them in the Honors Program, and over 200 in the graduate program. This represents a 300% increase in the past 10 years.
It's a Small, Small World: A Note from Down Under
While surfing the Internet, Sandra Thompson of Queensland, Australia, found her grandfather's name, Charles F. Shaffer, on the Labriola Center web page. The Shaffers lived and taught school in the village of Supai, ten miles below the rim of the Grand Canyon between 1930 and 1940.
The Labriola Center purchased the collection from a dealer in 1996. There are a number of scrap books, letters, postcards, and photographs by a frequent visitor, Joseph Muench. We have sent a copy of the Finding Guide to Ms. Thompson.
Duplicate Books Help Fill Native Library Shelves
The Labriola Center receives a great many gift books every year that are duplicated in both the circulating stacks and in the Center. Once or twice a year, we mail a list to Native libraries in the Four Corners area and receive an overwhelming response. During this past year, we have distributed over 200 books to some 10 needy and grateful libraries.
In response, Librarian, Leona Smith, wrote
from the AhaMakav Tribal Library in the Mohave Valley of Arizona: "Thank
you for thinking of the tribal libraries and sharing your abundance. It will
benefit many people." And Jennifer Yellow Hair at Rock Point Community
School on the Navajo Reservation, wrote, "A big thank you and an appreciation
to Labriola Center at ASU."
Fire Destroys Red Crow Community College Library
The National Agricultural Library has been involved with Tribal Colleges and
Universities for a number of years now, in an effort to enhance library and
information services to under-served populations in the united States and Canada.
It informs us that a recent fire at the Red Crow Community College on the Blood
Reserve in Alberta, Canada, destroyed about 60 percent of the Library's holdings.
This included its collection of journals, magazines, newspapers, artwork, furniture,
and electronic equipment. The Native American collection of 2,000 books was
completely destroyed. The Library is asking for donations of books in all disciplines.
Unfortunately, our library distributed our books before this news reached us.
If any of our readers can help, please contact:
Arizona State University History Professor, Robert A. Trennert, reports that his book, The Phoenix Indian School: Forced Assimilation in Arizona, 1891-1935 (University of Oklahoma Press, 1988) will be translated to Japanese and available in Japan sometime in the near future. The book is also accessible as an electronic book through the World Wide Web.
We have also been told that the original volume will be added to a time capsule
at the Phoenix Indian School.
A more recent Trennert publication, White Man's Medicine: Government Doctors
and the Navajo, 1963-1955 (University of New Mexico Press, 1998) is currently
available in bookstores or from the publisher.
John F. Boette, who recently donated the Indian Tribal Series books and medallions by the Franklin Mint, has added three medals to the Labriola Center collection.
The 3" Sterling Jim Thorpe Commemorative Medal was authorized by Public Law 93-132, and struck at the Philadelphia Mint. A portrait of Jim Thorpe is engraved on the obverse within a pentagon representing the Pentathlon, within a decagon representing the Decathlon, the athletic events that he won in the 1912 Olympics. The reverse design symbolizes the truth in the statement made by King Gustav of Sweden: "You sir, are the world's greatest athlete." Thorpe was later denied the honors as he had played minor league baseball for money, which made him a professional athlete.
Proceeds of the sale were to be used to restore Jim's name to the Olympic record
book and the return of his awards to the U.S.A., create a national Jim Thorpe
organization to honor all of this nation's outstanding athletes, and to build
a national Jim Thorpe shrine. The International Olympic Committee restored his
status and his medals in 1982.
The United States minted Indian Peace Medals from the administration of President
George Washington until Congress stopped ratifying U.S. treaties with Indian
nations. These were presented as a symbol of allegiance to friendly and peaceful
chiefs and other Native American leaders.
The Mescalero Apache Tribe celebrated the centennial of the United States Presidential Executive Order setting aside its present reservation on July 8, 1973. In connection with the celebration, the tribe minted a its own peace medal for its leader, Wendell Chino, to present to President Nixon.
|
|
The obverse bears a portrait of Wendell Chino in the style
of former peace medals, while the reverse shows a Crown Dancer over two
clasped hands. The medal and accompanying rolled buckskin necklace, lies
on a suede pillow in a walnut box.
|
|
The Sovereign Nation of the Osage celebrated the hundredth anniversary of the Tribe's removal from Kansas to Indian Territory in 1972, and a medallion and history was published by the Franklin Mint.
| Three years later, the tribe issued a 3" oval peace medal with the portrait of the Principal Chief, Sylvester Tinker (Wa-Sho-Shah) on the front. The words, Peace and Friendship are on the reverse and feature the heads of 10 former tribal leaders or elders arranged around the tribal seal. The seal-an arrowhead centered with a buckskin and eagle feather fan is crossed by the symbolic pipe of peace. The silver medal comes to us in a velvet-lined box. |  |
The Labriola Center is grateful to Mr. Boette for his donations.
Augustine Schwarz Exhibit Coming Soon
| We announced that we had completed processing the photograph collection of Franciscan Father Augustine Schwarz, O.F.M. in our Fall Newsletter. Readers will recall that the good priest spent some 30 years building chapels and schools and working with the Native residents on the Tohono O'odham, Apache, and Gila River reservations. We hope to have the entire collection online within the next few months. In addition to Father Schwarz' photographs, we plan to include photographs of many of the sites as they appear today. Stay tuned! |
Lady Queen of Angels, San Miguel |
During 2001? Students and researchers find many ways to use the Labriola Center
collections and their search for information embraced numerous topics keeping
our research staff on its toes.
The ASU debating team was assigned a semester-long project on the issues of
Native gambling. Students from Construction 101 required material on the construction
of a Navajo hogan and we not only found construction plans but also a reminiscence
by an individual pointing out the problems one might face in building the structure.
Other students were assigned Hohokam Platform Mounds and we could help them
with information from the Library and also send them to the local Pueblo Grande
archaeological site, where they could view remains on site.
Sovereign rights and the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation
Act was a popular topic. This was also the year of the Code Talker, boarding
and mission schools, Native American women's literature, American Indians in
cinema and the arts, American law & s ociety, and issues in bilingualism,
education, and the environment.
In addition, the Labriola Center welcomed Dr. Susan Miller and her students
twice weekly to the Center's classroom, where she taught American Indian Languages
and Culture.
Researching Newspapers Eased by Indexing Projects
One of the most valuable sources of information is found in Native Newspapers. Until recently, however, one needed patience and determination to read hundreds of pages of crumbling newsprint or peruse numerous rolls of microfilm to find an elusive article. Help is on the way.
In addition to our own efforts at indexing, we want to tell our readers about American Native Press Archives at the University of Arkansas, Little Rock: www.anpa.ualr.edu Directors Daniel Littlefield and James Parins have indexed the Cherokee Advocate for the years 1870-1879. It features an alphabetical list of names and subjects and is accessed through the above website. They are also working on other titles, which will also appear on the website.
The American Native Press archives some 2000 Native papers in both hard copy and microform covering the period from 1828 to the present. The Archives is also the official repository for the Papers of the Native American Journalists Association and the Wordcraft Circle of Native Writers and Storytellers.
Return to Labriola Home Page
