Object Details
- Local Numbers
- Accession #1976-95
- Creator
- Harrington, John Peabody, 1884-1961
- Clark, Charles Upson, 1875-1960
- Names
- Ishi, d. 1916
- Paul Wilhelm, Duke of Württemberg, 1797-1860
- Collection Creator
- Harrington, John Peabody, 1884-1961
- Place
- California -- History
- Sacramento (Calif.)
- Topic
- Northern Sierra Miwok language
- Nisenan language
- Maidu language
- Language and languages -- Documentation
- Linguistics
- Ethnology
- Creator
- Harrington, John Peabody, 1884-1961
- Clark, Charles Upson, 1875-1960
- Culture
- Mewuk (Miwok)
- Nisenan Indians
- Indians of North America -- California
- See more items in
- John Peabody Harrington papers
- John Peabody Harrington papers / Series 2: Papers Relating to the Native American history, language and culture of northern and central California
- Biographical / Historical
- In early June 1939 John P. Harrington spent several days examining Prince Paul of Wurttemberg's "account of the Sacramento Valley Indians of California in 1850 and two vocabularies." Using agent Michael Harrison's home at the Sacramento Indian Agency as his headquarters, Harrington made several trips throughout the Sacramento area in search of knowledgeable native speakers. Among those he interviewed were Lizzie Enos of Clipper Gap, Jane Lewis of Auburn rancheria, George Nye of Dobbins, Albert Porter and Henry Hanson of Forest Hill, and Lilly Williams-all Nisenan-and Mike Murray, a ko.ni, who knew Northern Sierra Miwok as well as some Nisenan. Two particularly helpful sources of nonlinguistic information were Winifred Codman, a social worker in the area, and H. C. Peterson, curator in charge of the centennial celebration of the founding of Sacramento. Harrington also spoke with Mrs. Thomas Edward Holmes, Mrs. Lou Wilson, and Ben Frost.
- Extent
- 1 Boxe
- Date
- 1939
- Archival Repository
- National Anthropological Archives
- Identifier
- NAA.1976-95, Subseries 2.6
- Type
- Archival materials
- Field notes
- Vocabulary
- Genealogies
- Maps
- Collection Citation
- John Peabody Harrington papers, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution
- The preferred citation for the Harrington Papers will reference the actual location within the collection, i.e. Box 172, Alaska/Northwest Coast, Papers of John Peabody Harrington, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution. However, as the NAA understands the need to cite phrases or vocabulary on specific pages, a citation referencing the microfilmed papers is acceptable. Please note that the page numbering of the PDF version of the Harrington microfilm does not directly correlate to the analog microfilm frame numbers. If it is necessary to cite the microfilmed papers, please refer to the specific page number of the PDF version, as in: Papers of John Peabody Harrington, Microfilm: MF 7, R34 page 42.
- Rights
- Contact the repository for terms of use.
- Existence and Location of Copies
- Microfilm and digital surrogates of microfilm are available. See Volume 2, reel 5, which also contains files from other subseries. Only original documents created by Harrington, his collaborators and field assistants, or notes given to him were microfilmed.
- Genre/Form
- Field notes
- Vocabulary
- Genealogies
- Maps
- Scope and Contents
- This subseries of the Northern and Central California series contains material that supplement Harrington's research on Nisenan and Northern Sierra Miwok. A section of Harrington's field notes are based on Prince Paul of Wurttemberg's research on "Hok" (Southwestern Nisenan) dialect and "Kosume" (Northern Sierra Miwok). In 1937 Matthew W. Stirling, chief of the B. A. E., commissioned Charles Upson Clark to conduct research in Stuttgart, Germany, on Prince Paul's expedition of 1849-1851 to the Pacific Coast. A translation of a portion of Clark's journals was sent to Harrington in the field to be reheard with his various informants. The notes are organized on the basis of interviews which Harrington conducted with each informant individually or in small groups. George Nye, described as a speaker of the "Yuba County language," and Lizzie Enos provided the bulk of the data. A variety of Nisenan dialects are represented, including the Northern and Central Hill varieties. Much of the ethnographic information interspersed with the linguistic notes is concerned with Harrington's attempts to locate the Hock Indian mound described by von Wurttemberg. Also included are sketch maps, historical anecdotes, and descriptions of photographs of Sutter's Mill. Notes from secondary sources consist of handwritten excerpts made by Harrington from various published sources which he evidently found at the Sacramento Public Library. Works by Kroeber, Gudde, and Powers are among those quoted. A few random comments from informants were added to these pages, although for the most part the informants were unfamiliar with the geographical names mentioned in the sources. This subseries also contains biographical data that Harrington collected on possible informants.These include notes copied by Harrington from social worker rolls made available to him by Winifred Codman. Individuals are listed by county with some genealogical information and assessments of their capabilities in giving linguistic data. Similar information was copied from the files of the Sacramento Indian Agency. These records are followed by a few miscellaneous pages of biographical notes obtained during his interviews. There are also miscellaneous notes, which include a few comments on phonetics of Maidu and Nisenan and a brief dicussion of the well-known northern California Indian, Ishi.
- Restrictions
- No restrictions on access.
- Record ID
- ebl-1626971434170-1626971434850-1
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