Object Details
- Local Numbers
- Accession #1976-95
- Creator
- Harrington, John Peabody, 1884-1961
- Collection Creator
- Harrington, John Peabody, 1884-1961
- Place
- California -- History
- Topic
- Yana language
- Achomawi language
- Wintu language
- Chimariko language
- Atsugewi language
- Esselen language
- Language and languages -- Documentation
- Linguistics
- Names, Ethnological
- Names, Geographical
- Toponymy
- Ethnobotany
- Ethnology
- Creator
- Harrington, John Peabody, 1884-1961
- Culture
- Indians of North America -- California
- Achomawi (Pit River)
- Chimariko
- Wintu
- Yana
- 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
- John P. Harrington's involvement in the area of north-central California began in September 1921 when he undertook five months of fieldwork on Chimariko with Sally Noble, who was then residing in Denny on New River. The emphasis of his work at that time was recording the phonetics and grammatical structure of the language. Shortly afterwards he worked with a number of Achomawi, Atsugewi, Wintu, and Yana speakers, recording brief vocabularies, extensive placename notes, and some myths. Through correspondence with Edward Sapir in the fall of 1927, Harrington learned of Billy George (alias Hayfork Bill), a Wintu and Chimariko speaker. Harrington had occasion to conduct a lengthy interview with him at Hayfork during the summer of 1928. Harrington also had the opportunity to work briefly with Ann McKay, an elderly Wintu speaker, and with Abe Bush, who had previously provided linguistic information to C. Hart Merriam and Edward Sapir. Some of Harrington's time in 1928 was also spent at Stone Lagoon reviewing with Lucy Montgomery the notes he had compiled with Sally Noble. In mid-May 1931 Harrington returned to Hayfork and Hyampom to resume his field studies with George and Bush. For a virtually uninterrupted period from then until January 1932, he worked with these consultants and with numerous other speakers of Wintu, as well as with members of the neighboring Yana and Achomawi tribes. As this was a linguistically complex region, many of those he worked with were bi-or multilingual. Harrington evidently arranged his elicitation sessions to include speakers of different languages. Harrington had multiple aims in conducting fieldwork in the region. Initially he wished to add to the already existing files of linguistic data which he had accumulated some ten years before. (See subseries "Chimariko/Hupa" and "Achomawi/Atsugewi/Wintu/Yana.") He was also interested in pursuing his botanical studies of the area, which had begun in 1928 and 1930 when his field assistant George W. Bayley had made collections of spring plants with Montgomery. The primary focus of his work, however, was the ethnogeography of the region. He was keenly interested in collecting a network of placenames throughout Shasta and Trinity counties and in determining the location of borders between the tribal territories.
- Extent
- 20 Boxes
- Date
- 1928-1932
- Archival Repository
- National Anthropological Archives
- Identifier
- NAA.1976-95, Subseries 2.12
- Type
- Archival materials
- Field notes
- Vocabulary
- Maps
- Narratives
- 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, reels 27-35. Only original documents created by Harrington, his collaborators and field assistants, or notes given to him were microfilmed.
- Genre/Form
- Field notes
- Vocabulary
- Maps
- Narratives
- Scope and Contents
- The bulk of this subseries of the Northern and Central California series consists of Harrington's research on Yana, Achomawi, Wintu, and Chimariko in 1931-1932 in Hayfork and Hyampom Valley. Materials include comparative vocabularies; notes from rehearings of secondary sources by Edward Sapir, T.T. Waterman, and Alfred Kroeber; placename data; brief texts; and ethnographic, historical, and biographical notes. There are two sections of vocabulary in the subseries. The Yana, Achomawi, and Wintu section begins with two short Yana word lists from Grapevine Tom. Much of the earlier data from Tom was incorrect—probably because he was being evasive or uncooperative. Thus, in succeeding sessions, Harrington worked with him in the presence of a second or third Yana speaker. In this later work, the abbreviation "Grt." was adopted for Tom. His earlier data was labeled "Grpt." The major portion of the section is arranged semantically. The sections on plants and animals are particularly extensive. Names of plants were elicited for the most part from specimens collected on numerous trips. There are occasional references to cultural practices and myths throughout the notes. The Wintu-Chimariko vocabulary section is arranged for the most part by terms in the Hayfork dialect of Wintu. Equivalents are provided in the McCloud dialect and, in some cases, in Chimariko. The section on plant names includes data obtained by Harrington as early as 1928. There are numerous references to botanical specimens collected for him by his field assistant George W. Bayley. The rehearings are mostly of Yana papers by Edward Sapir and T.T. Waterman as well as Roland Dixon's "The Chimariko Indians and Language." As part of a continuing effort to determine the relationship of Esselen to other California languages, Harrington also reheard Esselen vocabulary in Alfred Kroeber's "The Languages of the Coast of California South of San Francisco. His records relating to Yana, Achomawi, Wintu, and Chimariko placenames are extensive. There are two types of notes: those recorded during "armchair interviews" with informants and those made during trips with them. Usually individual names were recorded one to a page and were accompanied by data regarding the translation of the Indian name, the location, and the cultural or historical significance of the site. To elaborate upon the data gathered in these initial interviews, Harrington frequently made automobile and walking trips with his consultants, asking them to name the places they encountered. These notes were recorded in journals or logs, which contain, in addition to the above-described data, mileage from starting points, hand-drawn maps, and descriptions of neighboring topographical features. The subseries also contains textual data Harrington collected. Several texts were recorded in Wintu, including one with a translation from Jim Feder. English summaries of the Flood Myth and the story of Coyote's Daughter were obtained from Billy George and Grapevine Tom. Joe Charles contributed a Redding myth. Miscellaneous notes on storytelling and on song texts were recorded from Billy Wright, Tom, and Rosa and Joe Charles. There are also notes on the history and culture of the northern California tribes. Information was recorded throughout the summer and fall of 1931 from virtually all of his major linguistic consultants. Subjects covered in the notes include battles, baskets, games, clothing, customs, and herbal cures. Also filed here is a copy of a speech given to young men. Additional materials include biographical notes as well as notes on vocabulary, placenames, and tribenames from Sarah Kloochoo, Billy Stone, and Mr. Radcliffe.
- Restrictions
- No restrictions on access.
- Record ID
- ebl-1626971434170-1626971434873-3
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