Oregon Native American Language Sound Recordings, 1962-1988

Collection Overview

Title: Oregon Native American Language Sound Recordings, 1962-1988

ID: OH 012

Primary Creator: Pierce, Joe E.

Extent: 0.5 cubic feet. More info below.

Arrangement:

The materials described in this collection have been arranged into two series. An alphabetical view of the interviewees whose recordings are held in this collection is as follows:

Bensell, Ida (11 interviews, 1962-1964) Brown, Amelia (18 interviews, 1962) Collins, Miller (1 interview, September 1962) Lopez, Sam (Mr. and Mrs.) (2 interviews, 1962) Simmons, Hoxy (1 interview, September 1962) Streets, Carrie (1 interview, 1962)

Languages of Materials: English [eng]

Abstract

The Oregon Native American Language Sound Recordings were made by Joe E. Pierce during his study of Native American languages in Oregon and include interviews with members of the Coquille and Siletz tribes. The entirety of this collection has been digitized as a preservation measure - digital surrogates are available upon request.

Scope and Content Notes

The Oregon Native American Language Sound Recordings consist of cassette audiotape recordings of interviews conducted by Joe E. Pierce with members of the Coquille and Siletz tribes. The recordings were made as part of a project funded by the National Science Foundation for a systematic study of Native American languages in Oregon. Bruce J. Rigsby also participated in the study.

The recordings document the Tolowa and Tututni languages, especially word phrases, songs, and stories. The grammatical structure of the languages is also addressed. The bulk of the recordings are interviews with Mrs. Amelia Brown; other individuals that are included in the recordings are Mr. and Mrs. Lopez, Mrs. Ida Bensell, Hoxy Simmons, Miller Collins, and Mrs. Carrie Streets.

The cassette audiotapes were prepared in the late 1980s by Tom Grigsby of the OSU Anthropology Department from original reel-to-reel recordings. Tape logs were also prepared at that time and are included with the collection. This inventory is also available online.

The entirety of this collection has been digitized as a preservation measure. Preservation .wav files and access .mp3 files created by this process are available upon consultation with SCARC staff.

Biographical / Historical Notes

Joe E. Pierce was a faculty member in the Anthropology Department at Portland State College at the time these recordings were made. Pierce earned his Ph.D. at Indiana University in 1957 and specialized in linguistics and world languages. He died in 1994.

Bruce J. Rigsby was a graduate student at the University of Oregon and completed his Ph.D. in 1965.

Amelia Brown was described by James Collins in Understanding Tolowa Histories: Western Hegemonies and Native American Responses as "herbalist, midwife, cook, and raconteur".

Administrative Information

More Extent Information: 57 audiotapes; 3 boxes

Statement on Access: Collection is open for research.

Acquisition Note: These sound recordings were transferred from the Oregon State University Anthropology Department in 2001.

Related Materials: This collection is a component of the Oregon Multicultural Archives, which documents the lives and activities of African American, Asian American, Latino and Native American communities of Oregon.

Preferred Citation: Oregon Native American Language Sound Recordings (OH 012), Oregon State University Special Collections and Archives Research Center, Corvallis, Oregon.

Box and Folder Listing

Series 1: Audiocassettes, 1962-1964

This series consists of audiocassettes prepared ca. 1988 from original reel-to-reel recordings created ca. 1962-1964. The cassettes are arranged in accordance with the reel number from which they were originally extracted. Content from reel #33 is missing from this collection.

Extent: 57 items

Box-Item 1.1-1.2: Brown, Amelia, June 28, 1962 [?]: Tolowa vocabulary and phrases including: "She drinks"; "I buy a dress"; "Next year I'll be going away"; "If I was going to walk next year"; "Do they drown?" Conversation regarding bleeding; coyote stories. [OH12:01]
Box-Item 1.3-1.4: Brown, Amelia, June 14-15, 1962 [?]: Tolowa phrases including: "water"; "We walked together"; "It is day"; "Six people on each side." Conversation regarding catching salmon; the importance of sharing; the high cost of fish steaks. [OH12:02]
Box-Item 1.5-1.7: Brown, Amelia, June 17, 1962 [?]: Tolowa phrases and ethnography including: "Bump up against something"; "For that reason he fell ill; "Early in the morning"; "He always got a bone in his throat"; "Don't step on that ant"; "Wherever did you find that?" Conversation regarding number of meals eaten in a day; the Indian Shaker Church; discussion of death. [OH12:03]
Box-Item 1.8-1.10: Brown, Amelia, June 21-26, 1962 [?]: Tolowa phrases including: "Just about fell over"; "I'm taller than he is"; "I was washing a pot in the water"; "high tide"; "He speaks too fast"; "The canoe floats"; "I have to run fast to get there in time." [OH12:04]
Box-Item 1.11-1.13: Brown, Amelia, July 28-31, 1962 [?]: Tolowa adjectivals including colors. Phrases including: "house is white"; "they dug pretty deep"; "I got in the canoe"; "He was afraid to hit me back"; "He spoke to me again"; "If they keep this up, I'll go hungry all winter"; "The winter lasts a long time"; "But I bet he does." Conversation regarding food preservation; baskets for storage; attitudes toward stealing and generosity. [OH12:05]
Box-Item 1.14-1.15: Brown, Amelia, August 13, 1962 [?]: Tolowa vocabulary, ethnography and phrases including: "stick"; "It is raining"; "Those cats killed the baby rabbits"; "Leave that alone"; "My dog walks"; "Old people have a lot of wisdom." [OH12:06]
Box-Item 1.16-1.21: Brown, Amelia, August 18, 1962 [?]: Tolowa words and phrases including: "deer tallow"; "slough." Conversation regarding Sea Otter story; Indian doctoring; Lopez Creek; Coyote stories; Acorn soup; names of other Indian peoples; geographical locations. [OH12:07]
Box-Item 1.22-1.24: Brown, Amelia, August 23, 1962 [?]: Tolowa ethnography: Conversation regarding waves; fishing; boats; smoking fish; hunting deer; relationships; woodpecker scalps; trading; subsistence activities; matches; fire building; burial places; visiting names for insects; stories about death; termites; Coyote and Star Woman story; Camas Baby story. [OH12:08]
Box-Item 1.25: Brown, Amelia, ca. 1962: Tolowa ethnography: Conversation regarding "Coyote and the Willow"; "How Coyote Lost His Insides"; "Wood Devil Story." [OH12:09]
Box-Item 1.26-1.28: Brown, Amelia, ca. 1962: Tolowa vocabulary and phrases including: "He walks"; "I hit my hand on the floor"; "I've been drinking water"; "Balance a coin on edge"; "Own the knife"; "elk meat"; "swamp." Conversation regarding Mrs. Cooks; Indian Wars. [OH12:10]
Box-Item 1.29-1.31: Brown, Amelia, July 28-31, 1962 [?]: Tolowa phrases including: "A snake crawled in my bed"; "The fire is warm"; "Don't know what's the matter with that boy"; "He's a bad fisherman too"; "Come back again"; "We're all related now"; "Its stomach." Conversation regarding fishing and slipping in the mud; sweat houses. [OH12:11]
Box-Item 1.32-1.33: Brown, Amelia, ca. 1962: Tolowa vocabulary and phrases including: "hair"; "older sister"; terms for kin; terms for cooking; "sore"; "scab"; "flowers." Conversation regarding gambling. [OH12:12]
Box-Item 1.34: Brown, Amelia, ca. 1962: Tolowa phrases including: "Don't touch it"; "I like to hunt"; "I like fishing better." Conversation regarding problems with tape. [OH12:13]
Box-Item 1.35: Brown, Amelia, ca. 1962: Tolowa vocabulary and phrases including: "mouth"; "Yes, John Logan owns one house"; "Yes, he owns that big house." [OH12:14]
Box-Item 1.36: Brown, Amelia, ca. 1962: Tolowa vocabulary and phrases including: "head"; "your body"; "their shoulders are tired." [OH12:15]
Box-Item 2.1: Brown, Amelia, ca. 1962: Tolowa vocabulary and phrases including: "hip"; "I made some black paint"; "necklace." [OH12:16]
Box-Item 2.2: Brown, Amelia, ca. 1962: Tolowa vocabulary and phrases including: "My spine aches"; "The women laughed yesterday"; "I am laughing right now"; "to sleep." [OH12:17]
Box-Item 2.3: Brown, Amelia, ca. 1962: Tolowa verb paradigms including: "sit down"; "get lost." [OH12:18]
Box-Item 2.4-2.5: Lopez, Sam (Mr. and Mrs.), ca. 1962: Tolowa songs and word list including an Indian gambling song. Phrases including: "He drank some water"; "How many times did he do it?" [OH12:19]
Box-Item 2.6: Lopez, Sam (Mr. and Mrs.), July 6, 1962 [?]: Tolowa phrases including: "You saw me"; "I sneeze"; "I am walking today." [OH12:20]
Box-Item 2.7: Bensell, Ida, ca. 1962: Tututni vocabulary and phrases including: "belt"; "Do you own many small houses?"; terms for kin. [OH12:21]
Box-Item 2.8: Bensell, Ida, ca. 1962: Tututni vocabulary and phrases including: "to sing"; "Does this woman own many horses?" [OH12:22]
Box-Item 2.9: Bensell, Ida, ca. 1962: Tututni vocabulary and phrases including: "head"; "His shoulders are tired." [OH12:23
Box-Item 2.10: Bensell, Ida, ca. 1962: Tututni vocabulary and phrases including: "belly"; "kidney." [OH12:24]
Box-Item 2.11: Bensell, Ida, ca. 1962: Tututni vocabulary and phrases including: "headdress of feathers"; "Mary and Alice fought yesterday." [OH12:25]
Box-Item 2.12: Bensell, Ida, ca. 1962: Tututni vocabulary and phrases including: "Can we do it again?"; "frost"; "You and I swam yesterday." [OH12:26]
Box-Item 2.13: Bensell, Ida, ca. 1962: Tututni vocabulary and phrases including: "married man"; "alike." [OH12:27]
Box-Item 2.14: Bensell, Ida, ca. 1962: Tututni vocabulary and phrases including: "saliva"; "How many widows are sitting there?" [OH12:28]
Box-Item 2.15: Bensell, Ida, ca. 1962: Tututni vocabulary and phrases including: "island"; "hot stove" [OH12:29]
Box-Item 2.16: Bensell, Ida, ca. 1962: Tututni vocabulary and phrases including: "How many?"; "groom [married man]" [OH12:30]
Box-Item 2.17: Bensell, Ida, May 18, 1964: Tututni vocabulary and phrases including: "road"; "white" [OH12:31]
Box-Item 2.18: Streets, Carrie, ca. 1962: Tututni vocabulary and phrases including: "plate"; "John smoked" [OH12:32]
Box-Item 2.19-2.21: Simmons, Hoxy and Miller Collins, September 1962: Coquille/Siletz stories and "paradigmatic eliciting." [OH12:34]

Series 2: Sound Recordings Inventory, ca. 1988

Created ca. 1988 by the OSU Department of Anthropology, the Sound Recordings Inventory includes an accession number for each cassette tape as well as date of recording (often estimated), name of interviewer, name of interviewee, place of recording and brief content description. This inventory is available online.

Box-Folder 3.1