Summer 1997 Newsletter Vol. V No. 2
	University Libraries Arizona State University Box 871006 Tempe, Arizona 85287-1006 Patricia.Etter@asu.edu Patricia A. Etter, Curator

The new Labriola web site appears to be of interest to many. In addition to hundreds of visits to the site, we have received a number of e-mail inquiries for reference assistance. We plan very soon to include some photographs and several more publications but are always happy to hear from readers who might have suggestions about the site.

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Felicia Belone reads in the feather circle

This is not a typical English class, however. Nelson has designed a unique program exclusively for Native Americans. He calls it the "Rainbow Section." According to a recent article in ASU's student newspaper, State Press (March 24, 1997), Nelson not only teaches his students how to write, but how to write from the heart. Students are encouraged to "share their feelings, memories and experiences. They often conduct a feather circle, a tribal tradition in which people sit in a circle and pass a feather. The student who has the feather reads from a paper he or she has written during the week." Nelson added that "the only rule is that you must speak from the heart."

The students have published some of their work in The Heart's Vision and Words from the Feather Circle, which are available in the Labriola Center.

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Here is a treasure trove of material. The subject matter is broad and covers almost every subject including archaeology, fossil man, cultural and physical anthropology, language and writing, technology, and more. North and South America are represented as are Asia, Oceania, Africa, and Europe.

These are photographs of plates, illustrations, and photographs, many of which are contained in rare books and journals. For example, Alfred Kroeber's sketches of Arapaho artifacts recovered during the 1899 Morris Jessup Expedition are represented as published in the 1902 Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History.

In addition to the Plains Tribes, there is a wide variety of material from the various culture areas in the United States. The archaeology of Peru is represented; material from Easter Island; the tombs of Egypt; paleolithic material from Europe; and house interiors from Polynesia to name just a few.

The material is itemized in catalogs and will be available to researchers during the fall semester.

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The Fort McDowell Reservation is in Central Arizona, about 23 miles north of Phoenix. It was created by executive order on September 15, 1903 and named after General Irwin McDowell. Residents of Fort McDowell are descendants of Apache, Mohave, and Yavapai Indians who were assigned to the Military Reservation at the end of the Indian wars of the second half of the 19th century.

Renowned Yavapai physician and surgeon, Carlos Montezuma, was born near the reservation in 1867. Wassaja, as he was known then, was captured by Pima Indians when he was five years old and sold to a traveling photographer, Carlos Gentile.

Gentile encouraged education and Montezuma proved to be a bright student earning a B.S. degree from the University of Illinois and medical degree from Northwestern University.

Montezuma was a strong proponent for Native American independence from reservations and assimilation into mainstream culture. He twice declined offers to become BIA Director, and instead, argued for its dissolution. A leading spokesman for Indian rights, he founded the journal, Wassaja to address the issues. In later years, he became ill and returned to Fort McDowell Reservation, where he died on January 31, 1923.

A number of students will be researching in both the Labriola and Arizona collections. They will be studying the Carlos Montezuma Papers, which are at ASU, researching the boarding school experience, economic development, the gaming industry, Indian-white relations, and past and current history of the tribe. They will additionally conduct oral interviews of members of the community.

Students participating in the project are: Troy Lomay; Kris Radke; Michelle Little; Cliff Canky; Elton Naswood; Annabell Bowen; Ann Hendricks; and Brian Preston.

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The introduction to the website notes that the bibliography was created for the Internet Public Library by five graduate students in the University of Michigan's SI 726 class. The students researched close to 400 authors, 700 books, and 200 URls, and contacted some 100 Native American authors and members of the Native American community for input and guidance.

The information may be accessed by browsing author name, book title, or tribe. Author pages list tribe and works, and many have links to web pages that focus on the author. Each tribe also has a page with links, and each book has a page with bibliographic data. The site offers an annotated bibliography of print and web sources that will help anyone interested in learning more about Native American Authors.

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We start by telling our patron that the individual must meet membership requirements laid down by the tribe or through adoption by the tribal governing body according to rules established by the tribe. The amount of Indian blood needed varies with the tribe. It ranges from a trace to as much as one-half.

The Labriola Center has a number of books to assist in this endeavor. In many cases, it can provide copies of forms required by various tribes. It can also supply mailing addresses and phone numbers.

Very often, individuals are simply interested in researching American Indian ancestry without regard to tribal enrollment. As a general rule, these persons doing a genealogical search will begin their research the same way others do. The National Archives and Records Administration recommends: 1) Gathering as much information as possible from relatives; 2) obtaining birth, marriage, and death certificates from appropriate state or county vital records offices; and 3) begin census research with the 1920 census and work backwards (Taken from The Record, Vol.3 May 1997).

The Labriola Center can supply copies of The Record article which lists and discusses the kinds of material that might be found in the National Archives to assist genealogists. In addition, the following books from the Labriola Center collections will be helpful:

How to Enroll in an Indian Tribe, by Heather Morningstar (Denver, CO: Arrowstar), 1993

Native American Genealogical Source Book, edited by Paula K. Byers (New York: Gale), 1995.

A Student's Guide to Native American Genealogy, by E. Barrie Kavasch (Phoenix, AZ: Oryx Press), 1996.

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The bibliography can be accessed on the Labriola website. In addition to listing a number of monographs dealing with the topic, Davis included a variety of online indexes to help the researcher locate journals and periodicals such as Ethnic Newswatch and Uncover. He also included a helpful list of encyclopedias, bibliographies, and directories, listed some indexes to government publications, and finally, reported on a number of internet connections to websites dealing with gaming. The bibliography is available in hard copy from the Center or can be downloaded to disc.

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Menominee Language Manual: Resource Materials and Training Exercises, by Irene Mack et.al. Wisconsin Native American Languages Project, University of Wisconsin, 1981.

Potawatomi Language Manual: Resource Materials and Training Exercises, by Mabel Deverney, Mary Daniels, and Billy Daniels. Wisconsin Native American Languages Project, University of Wisconsin, 1981.

Native Language Communities: A Descriptive Study of Two Community Efforts to Preserve their Native Languages, Christine P. Sims, principal Researcher. The Linguistic Institute for Native Americans, Inc., 1996.

Notes on the Pima Indian Language, by Antoine Willenbrink, O.F.M. Franciscan Fathers of California, 1935.

A Grammar of Akwesasne Mohawk, by Nancy Bonvillain. Ottawa: National Museum of Man, 1973.

Dictionary of Mesa Grande Diegueño, by Ted Couro and Christina Hutcheson. Banning, California: Malki Museum Press, 1973.

Tuscarora Roots, Stems, and Particles: Towards a Dictionary of Tuscarora, by Blair A. Rudes. Winnipeg, Canada: Algonquian and Iroquoian Linguistics, 1987.

Western Shoshoni Grammar, by Beverly Carum and Jon Dailey. Boise State University, 1993.

North Slope Iñupiaq Grammar, by Edna Ahgeak MacLean. Fairbanks: University of Alaska, 1993

Central Yupik: A Course in Spoken Eskimo, by Edward A. Tennant and Robert J. Rebert. Albuquerque, New Mexico: Educational Research Associates, 1977.

Doo Goojee Yeenaa-Dei: Tlingit Language Workshop Reader, edited by Nora Marks Florendo. Sitka, Alaska: Tlingit Language Workshop, 1972.

An Introduction to the Luiseño Language, by Villiana Hyde. Banning, California: Malki Museum Press, 1971.

The Diegueño Indians: Phonetic elements of the Diegueño Language, by A. L. Kroeber and J. P. Harrington. Ramona, California: Acoma Books, 1975.

Laughter the Navajo Way: Humorous Stories of the People, collected and annotated by Alan Wilson and tape recorded by native speakers, 1970.

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Labriola National American Indian Data Center
Arizona State University Libraries
Department of Archives and Manuscripts
Last updated: June 30th, 1998
Send questions or comments to archives@mainex1.asu.edu