Sources of Information

What are our sources of Information?

1. The James Owen Dorsey Files- Who was James Owen Dorsey?

Dorsey, born 1848, attended the Theological Seminary of Virginia and was ordained in the Episcopal Church in 1871. He then lived for over two years as a missionary with the Ponca Indians in the Dakota Territory. During this time, he learned the Siouan language of the Ponca and Omaha. After moving back to Maryland, he continued to study linguistics. From 1878 to his death in 1895 (at age 47 of typhoid fever), he worked for the Smithsonian Institution's new Bureau of American Ethnology. During this time he did more fieldwork with Siouan-speaking Tutelo in Canada, Biloxi in Louisiana, and Quapaw in Oklahoma. He spent most of his time in Washington however, compiling maps and lists from tribal leaders who came to his office. He also compiled word lists and dictionaries of the Kansa and Osage languages and became the foremost expert of his time on the languages and culture of the Central Siouan peoples.

Some of Dorsey's work has been published in the Smithsonian annual reports, but much remains unpublished but accessible to researchers at the National Anthropological Archives at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC. Dr. Rankin obtained the word lists, maps, and other documents on a research trip to Maryland. He has been working with and recording native speakers from the Kaw Nation for many decades, and has recently completed an updated dictionary with the help of Linda Cumberland and many others (see http://www.kawnation.com/WebKanza/LangResources/nglshknzdctnry2012.pdf)

2. The list of river names

Dorsey left information in many formats, ranging from published manuscripts to notes on index cards. In the case of the river names, a set of index cards copied by Dr. Bob Rankin on a research trip provided the Kanza name, a translation (for many but not all rivers/places), and some information about the location, or a guess about the "modern" name of the river. In some cases the information on the cards was complete, in other cases we pieced together information on the location of the river and translation using our own resources, and in some cases there was simply not enough information to find the river on a contemporary map. In that case, we mark it in the general location as "name unknown." There are also some words that don't appear to be Kanza in origin, so these are also left untranslated.

Dr. Rankin has typed up these index cards into a list of 178 river, tributary village and land form(hills, etc) names. Our working group has used this list combined with the "maps" (described below) to re-create the Kanza names and put them on google earth and google maps, so they become visible to the world, and not left sitting in a box in a museum archive.

3. Maps

In addition to the textual descriptions recorded by Dorsey for the rivers, streams, and other landmarks in Kansas, the National Anthropological Archives holds a couple "maps" that present the Kanza names. The word "map" may be generous. More appropriately these are hand-drawn schematics of the Kansas, Neosho, and Arkansas River systems. They appear to have been created by Dorsey or others in his office using information provided in the 1880's by Kanza informants who visited Washington D.C. From memory, they recalled places that were hunting grounds, villages, and other familiar places for the Kanza over many generations prior to their move to Oklahoma in 1873.

(Document image courtesy of National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution [4800_130_a_x03_os])

4. Other sources - Additional historical documents consulted include:

Barry, Louise (1972) The beginning of the West: Annals of the Kansas Gateway to the American West, 1540-1854. Kansas State Historical Society, Topeka.

Marshall, James O. (2006) The Kansas. In 'Kansas Archaeology" edited by Robert J. Hoard and William E. Banks, pp. 219-232. University Press of Kansas, Lawrence.

Rydjord, John (1968) Indian Place-Names: Their Origin, Evolution, and Meanings, Collected in Kansas from the Siouan, Algonquian, Shoshonean, Caddoan, Iroquoian, and other Tongues. University of Oklahoma Press, Norman.

For more information on the Smithsonian Bureau of American Ethnology, see "Savages and Scientists: the Smithsonian and the Development of American Anthropology, 1846-1910." by Curtis M. Hinsely, Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, 1981.