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Contributing Institution:
Library and Archives at the Autry
Title: Notes on the Caddoan Stock
Creator:
Weltfish, Gene
Creator:
Lesser, Alexander
Identifier/Call Number: MS.865
Physical Description:
0.1 Linear Feet
(1 folder)
Date (inclusive): 1931 November 3
Abstract: This is a typed copy of a manuscript by Alexander Lesser and Gene Weltfish entitled "Notes on the Caddoan Stock" regarding
language based in Pawnee, Wichita, Kitsai, and Caddo languages, along with a letter from Lesser to Frederick Webb Hodge, dated
1931 November 3.
Language of Material:
English
.
This is a typed copy of a manuscript by Alexander Lesser and Gene Weltfish entitled "Notes on the Caddoan Stock" regarding
language based in Pawnee, Wichita, Kitsai, and Caddo languages, along with a letter from Lesser to Frederick Webb Hodge, dated
1931 November 3. The article was published as "Composition of the Caddoan Linguistic Stock" in
Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collection, vol. 87, no. 6, 1932 May 14.
Notes on the Caddoan Stock, 1931, Braun Research Library Collection, Autry Museum of the American West, Los Angeles; MS.865.
Processed by Library staff before 1981. Finding aid completed by Holly Rose Larson, NHPRC Processing Archivist, 2012 December
13, made possible through grant funding from the National Historical Publications and Records Commissions (NHPRC).
Donated by Frederick Webb Hodge, 1935 June.
Copyright has not been assigned to the Autry Museum of the American West. All requests for permission to publish or quote
from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Head of Research Services and Archives. Permission for publication is
given on behalf of the Autry Museum of the American West as the custodian of the physical items and is not intended to include
or imply permission of the copyright holder, which must also be obtained by the reader.
Appointments to view materials are required. To make an appointment please visit
https://theautry.org/research-collections/library-and-archives and fill out the Researcher Application Form.
Gene Weltfish (Born Regina Weltfish) (1902 August 7 - 1980 August 2) was an American anthropologist and historian working
at Columbia University from 1928 to 1953. She studied with Franz Boas and was a specialist in the culture and history of the
Pawnee people. Her 1965 ethnography
The Lost Universe is considered the authoritative work on Pawnee culture to this day.
In 1925, Weltfish married fellow graduate student, Alexander Lesser, a Boasian anthropologist and Siouanist. They had one
daughter together and remained married for 15 years. The two did their first field work together in Oklahoma, working on Siouan
kinship systems. Initially not sure which Indigenous tribe to work with for her dissertation, Weltfish met Henry Moses of
the Pawnee tribe in New York and decided to do her work with his community. She arrived in the mostly monolingual community
with no prior knowledge of the Pawnee language, but during her studies she picked it up. She focused on the study of aesthetics
and craftsmanship, learning the art of basket-making practiced exclusively by Pawnee women.
She is also known for the 1943 pamphlet for the U.S. Army called "The Races of Mankind," which she co-wrote with Ruth Benedict,
meant to teach military personnel about the cultural differences between the peoples of the world. In the text they argued
that perceived differences between the races are cultural rather than biological. Among the data used in the text was an IQ
study that had found higher scores among some northern Black people than among some southern White people. The pamphlet was
not widely circulated within the army, and eventually it was banned as subversive. Weltfish was engaged in social activism
and attracted the attention of the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation, which suspected her to be a communist. In 1953, her
16-year appointment at Columbia was terminated, and she was unable to find an academic position for nearly a decade. In 1961
she found employment at Fairleigh Dickinson University, where she worked until 1972.
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gene_Weltfish
Alexander Lesser (1902-1982) was an American anthropologist. Working in the Boasian tradition of American Cultural Anthropology
he adopted critical stances of several ideas of his fellow Boasians, and became known as an original and critical thinker,
pioneering several ideas that later became widely accepted within anthropology.
Lesser studied at Columbia University. As an undergraduate he studied philosophy with John Dewey and did his graduate studies
in anthropology with Franz Boas. His first wife was Gene Weltfish, a fellow anthropologist and Caddoanist, with whom he had
one child. He studied the culture and history of the Pawnee people and other Plains Indians, specializing in the study of
kinship among the Siouan peoples. His 1933 work on the Ghost dance among the Pawnee was the first anthropological study of
a cultural revitalization movement.
Besides his contribution to Plains ethnography, Lesser is well known for his documentation of the Kitsai language. He held
teaching positions at Columbia University, Brooklyn College, and Brandeis University before ending his career at Hofstra University,
where he was chair of the department of anthropology and sociology from 1960 to 1965.
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Lesser
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Caddo language
Wichita language
Wichita Indians
Pawnee Indians
Caddo Indians
Pawnee language
Indians of North America -- Languages
Kitsai language
Typescripts
Hodge, Frederick Webb