What's New

2008 SYMPOSIUM

Call for Papers and Presentations

The Sequoyah Research Center Annual Symposium will be held October 16-18 at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock's Donaghey Student Center. Hotel conference rate arrangements have been made with the Little Rock Hilton at University Avenue and I-630, (501) 664-5020 or www.hilton.com.

The organizers are asking for paper and presentation topics on subjects that are of interest in Native communities. Topics on every aspect of Native life are welcome, but this year's special theme is "The New Faces of an Ancient People; Emerging American Indian Studies Research from Indian Country." Please consult our web site at http://anpa.ualr.edu to access subjects discussed at previous symposia.

Please send topics to John Sanchez at apache@psu.edu by the end of March.

Sessions are primarily informal, so presenters are asked to speak on their topics rather than read their papers. Ample time will be provided for questions and answers during each session. Equipment will be available to presenters using laptops, projectors, or other devices.

Preserving and disseminating the written words of Native peoples

Newsletter

No. 6 January 2008

301A Ottenheimer Library, UALR, 2801 S. University Avenue, Little Rock, AR 72204-1099. 501-569-8336.

2008 SYMPOSIUM

Call for Papers and Presentations

The organizers are asking for paper and presentation topics on subjects that are of interest in Native communities. Topics on every aspect of Native life are welcome. Please consult our web site at http://anpa.ualr.edu to access subjects discussed at previous symposia.

Please send topics to John Sanchez at apache@psu.edu by the end of March.

LITTLEFIELD ON LEAVE

Daniel F. Littlefield, Jr., SRC director, will spend the spring semester of 2008 on off-campus duty assignment during which time he will work on a book on the Dawes Commission. The Commission oversaw the allotment process in Indian Territory during the latter part of the nineteenth century, paving the way for dissolution of tribal governments Choctaws, Chickasaws, Muscogees (Creek's), Cherokees, and Seminoles in 1906.

During his leave, Robert Sanderson, associate director, will serve as acting director. Any queries and correspondence concerning SRC affairs between January and June 2008 should be directed to Sanderson (resanderson@ualr.edu).

PROJECTS IN THE CENTER

With space always at a premium, the SRC gets pretty crowded most days with researchers carrying out projects using our resources. Projects vary from organizing files to high tech projects and everything in between.

An example of a technical project completed in the SRC this past fall is Roy Boney's "Incident at Rock Roe," an animated film that depicts an episode on the Muscogee (Creek) Trail of Tears in which some of the men being removed from their homeland dump their iron shackles and chains into the Arkansas River. This act of defiance is moving enough in itself, but Boney, who is Cherokee, makes it even more poignant by creating dialogue in the Muscogee language using Muscogee speakers.

The sophisticated computer-driven animation process makes the story easily accessible by generations accustomed to seeing animated films. While the dialogue is in the Muscogee language, Boney provides English subtitles.

In addition to use at historical sites on the Trail of Tears, the writer-animator-producer sees the film as being used in classroom as well. In fact, a team of education professors at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock are developing a set of teaching tools to be made available with the film.

An earlier Boney project in the SRC was "On a Spring Day," a film depicting a Cherokee family's eviction from their homes by white troops as the Removal nightmare began for that tribe. Using clay figures he sculpted himself, Boney filmed the production frame by frame in a small space in the Center. Dialogue is in the Cherokee language, with English subtitles.

Another project in the Center that uses modern technical tools also employs traditional textual editing procedures. Student interns work on the DeWitt Clinton Editorial Project, using materials from the American Native Press Archives files, namely a hundred and thirty-five pieces by the writer Duncan, who often used his Cherokee name, Too Qua-stee. Written between 1876 and 1906, the articles, stories, and poems are on a number of subjects; however, his articles on the allotment process in the late nineteenth century and on the dissolution of tribal government following, tells the story of those momentous times from the Indian perspective. The student-editors working under the direction of Professor Jim Parins, employ standard textual techniques to create an edition of these works, complete with introductory and biographical sections as well as well-researched notes. For the most part, the student-editors are interns from the Department of English. When finished this spring, the edition will appear on the SRC web site's Tribal Writers Digital Library.

Recently, volunteer Randi McCall completed archival work on the Robert J. Conley Collection. Conley, a well-know Cherokee novelist, recently donated his papers including manuscripts of and notes for the over forty novels he has written. Randi, who holds a BA in history from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, has been creating an inventory for various files, her objective being a database that will be posted on the SRC web site. Once the finding aid is published, scholars will have access to this huge collection that spans some fifty years chronicling the life and work of this important Native writer. Presently, she is working on creating inventories to other files including the Paul DeMain papers, which contain a wealth of information on Wounded Knee II and the American Indian Movement, and DeMain's News from Indian Country, a major newspaper. Other inventories soon to be completed are the collections of Mark Trahant (Shoshone-Bannock) editorial page editor for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, columnist, and writer on Indian Affairs; Patricia A. Loew, television producer, writer, and professor at the University of Wisconsin; and Arlene Hirschfelder, a long-time figure in American Indian literary studies and activism.

Another important project currently under way is an initiative to refine our database identifying every Native newspaper and periodical in our collections along with publication data and issues that we hold. Over the years, these serials have arrived at the SRC through subscription, exchanges with publishers and other depositories, and personal collections donated by individuals. Project workers are checking our records against the copies themselves. The resulting database, to be published on our web site, will give readers and researchers unprecedented access to these archival files, the largest collection in the world. Student interns from the Department of History are working on this project under the leadership of SRC Director Daniel Littlefield and Associate Director James W. Parins.

Work on the periodicals project is funded by a grant of $55,002 from the Arkansas Natural and Cultural Resources Council. In addition, the grant provided for archives shelving and acid-free containers for the newspapers and periodicals.

Joel Richardson has been working under the direction of Associate Director Robert Sanderson on developing a number of brochures and other materials featuring the Dr. J. W. Wiggins Collection of Native American Art. Using photographs of some of the 2000 art objects, including some 1,600 paintings, Richardson has been able to create a sense of the collection. Some of his work may be seen on the SRC web site at http://ualr.edu/sequoyahcenter/art/index.html

The SRC is home to the largest collection of materials on Indian removal outside the National Archives. To aid researchers and other interested persons, Tony Rose is indexing records, primarily from the Cherokees, Muscogee (Creeks), Choctaws, Chickasaws, and Seminoles, who were forced to abandon their lands in the Southeast and settle in Indian Territory between 1830 and 1859. Tony, a graduate student in the Department of History, has had his work funded by a grant from the Department of Arkansas Heritage and the National Park Service. A database of the finished index will be posted on the SRC web site.

Visiting scholars use the collections as well on projects of their own. In fall projects on Blacks and Indians, Will Rogers, and Indian journalists' reporting on technology were researched by scholars from the University of California-Santa Clara, the University of Texas, and the University of Nebraska-Omaha.

CHAPBOOK PUBLISHED

Doyle D. Turner's Time is a Parlor Trick and Other Poems is the third volume in the SRC's Native Writers Chapbook Series. Published in fall, Turner's book follows Comanche Stuart Hoahwah's Black Knife and Florida Seminole Elgin Jumper's Nightfall. All three are available for viewing on our web site, http://anpa.ualr.edu.

Turner, who is enrolled in the White Earth Ojibwe, Mississippi Band, writes on several themes using material from his home reservation in northern Minnesota. Presently, he is a teacher in Bemidji.

SRC's chapbook series publishes the works of new Native writers in hard copy as well in digital form in the Tribal Writers Digital Library. The series' purpose is to expose the work of new Native writers to a larger readership. Several established writers and teachers make up its editorial board, which reads and makes recommendations to the writers as well as to the editor.

Native writers interested in this venture should contact editor James W. Parins at jwparins@ualr.edu or by writing to him at the Sequoyah Research Center, Ottenheimer Library 301A, University of Arkansas at Little Rock, 2801 S. University Ave., Little Rock, AR 72204.

TWO COMPLETE PROJECTS

During 2007, both associate directors of the SRC were on off-campus duty assignments to complete research projects, with James Parins in the spring semester and Robert Sanderson in the fall. These assignments may be granted every seven years to professors to complete research and other special projects.

Parins's research topic was the development of literacy in the Cherokee Nation in the early nineteenth century, a time when Cherokees were learning to read and write in their own language as well as in English. The monumental event of that period was the invention of the Cherokee syllabary, a system by which anyone who could speak the language could learn to read and write within a matter of days. Parins plans to use this research as the underpinning of a book he is writing on Cherokee publishing and writing.

Sanderson's research topic was to complete work on American Indian smoke shops: a photo essay. Sanderson traveled to the southwestern United States, visited numerous tribal communities, interviewed Indian men and women about Indian smoke shops, and photographed smoke shops as part of an effort to chronicle an important aspect of Native American economic and cultural life. In addition, whenever time permitted, he continued to work on several service and scholarly projects. These include:

§ Editing narratives of American Indian veterans of the Vietnam War

§ Researching historical, legal, and individual accounts of Indian smoke shop activities

§ Developing course material for two Native American studies courses that he teaches

§ Visiting American Indian tribes in other parts of Indian Country as an ambassador of the SRC

You Can Help

Enclosed is my check for $___________ to support the work of the American Native Press Archives and the Sequoyah Research Center

Name: _______________________________________________

Address: _______________________________________________

_______________________________________________

Please make checks payable to “UALR Foundation,” and write “Sequoyah Research Center” on the memo line. Please mail your donation to the address below.

Sequoyah Research Center

301-A Ottenheimer Library

University of Arkansas at Little Rock

2801 South University Ave.

Little Rock, AR 72204-1099

On the Move. The SRC will soon be moving into different temporary quarters, its second move in as many years. The Center moved from its long-occupied space in Stabler Hall in 2006 because of renovations in that building.

The new quarters, now being renovated, will not only increase work and storage space for the American native Press Archives but will contain a small gallery to display selected works from the Dr. J. W. Wiggins Collection of Native American Art.

It is likely that the prospective move will be the last before the SRC occupies a building of its own, which is part of the UALR long-range master plan.

The Dr. J. W. Wiggins Collection of Native American Art Grows. The Dr. J. W. Wiggins Collection of Native American Art continues to grow, thanks to the generosity of the donor. The collection contains works produced by artists from the central part of North American from Oklahoma, through the Great Plains and Canadian Provinces, to the Arctic. The collection is limited to works produced since 1940.

The collection, which contained about 1,200 works when it was given to University and the SRC in 2004, now contains about 1,600 works. Selected pieces will be on display in the SRC’s new temporary quarters. The rest of the collection will remain in storage until the University constructs the SRC’s archives center, which will contain the Dr. J. W. Wiggins Gallery.

SRC Enters Capital Funding Campaign.

In addition to seeking funding for construction of the Sequoyah Research Center, the University of Arkansas at Little Rock has made other SRC requests a part of the capital funding campaign it kicked off in the spring. The SRC has established goals to build endowments for the annual symposium, Native graduate student fellowships, research stipends for local faculty and students, and stipends for visiting Native scholars. You can help us reach the goals by filling out the form below and returning it with your donation to us.

Please make checks payable to the Sequoyah Research Center. Your contribution is tax deductible.

SRC Newspapers and Periodicals Preservation Project. The Arkansas Natural and Cultural Resources Council has awarded $55,000 to the Sequoyah Research Center to help fund the American Indian Newspapers and Periodical Preservation and Access Project, which aims at preserving the Center's newspaper collection and publishing an online bibliography of the Center's holdings.

The grant will finance the purchase of archival boxes, document cases, newspaper sleeves, and acid-free file folders, shelving, and archives curatorial services to protect the rapidly growing collection from deteriorating and to make it accessible to researchers.

The Sequoyah Research Center houses the American Native Press Archives, the world's largest archival repository of American Indian newspapers and periodicals and is thought to hold the largest collection of information generated and published by tribal people.

Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation Fellow Graduates

Roy Boney, Jr., Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation Fellow at the SRC 2005-2007, graduated with his master’s degree in art from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock in May.

Roy Boney, Jr. Completes Trail of Tears DVD

Roy Boney, Jr., Prairie Band Potawatomi Fellow in the SRC, has just released his second Native-language animated film on DVD. Incident at Rock Roe tells the story of Muscoge (Creek) removal through Arkansas, highlighting a dramactic even that occurred at Rock Roe, Arkansas in 1836. Dialogue is spoken in the Muskogee (Creek) language with English subtitles on the screen. Incident at Rock Roe was produced with a grant from the Arkansas Humanities Council and the Department of Arkansas Heritage.

Incident at Rock Roe is Boney's second animation about theTrail of Tears. His first, On a Spring Day (2006), is a Cherokee animation that tells the story of one Cherokee family's experience.

A citizen of the Cherokee Nation, Boney graduated witha Master's Degree in Art from UALR this past May. He lives in Oklahoma, where he works for the Cherokee Nation and is co-founder of a media company, Cherokee Robot.

New Chapbook Published. Time is a Parlor Trick and Other Poems, by Ojibwe writer Doyle D. Turner, has just been published by the Native Writers Chapbook Series II of the Sequoyah Research Center at UALR.

Turner's chapbook is third in the series. Previous offerings are Comanche poet Stuart Hoahwah's Black Knife and Florida Seminole writer Elgin Jumper's Nightfall. The series's mission is to publish the works of new indigenous writers in hard copy and digital format. Each selection becomes part of the Sequoyah Research Center's Tribal Writers Digital Library, at http://anpa.ualr.edu.

The latest chapbook contains poems set for the most part on Indian lands in northern Minnesota and evokes images of former generations of Ojibwe people as well as the present.

The series editor is James W. Parins of the SRC. An editorial board of tribal writers advises the editor and includes Geary Hobson (Quapaw/Cherokee); Kimberly Blaeser (White Earth Anishinabe), Heid Erdrich (Turtle Mountain Ojibwa), and Stuart Hoahwah.