Omaha Indian Music

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Photo, Dancers and Musicians at the Library of Congress..., 1985
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Part of the American Memory project at the Library of Congress, this site features audio recordings of more than 350 songs and speeches from the Omaha Indian tribe in the 1890s and 1980s. It offers 44 wax cylinder recordings collected between 1895 and 1897, 323 speeches and songs from the 1983 Omaha Harvest Celebration Powwow, and 25 songs and speeches from the 1985 Hethu'shka Society concert at the Library of Congress.

More than 80 segments from interviews with members of the Omaha tribe conducted in 1983 and 1999 help to contextualize the music and spoken-word recordings, and more than 350 photographs from the 1983 powwow and 1985 concert illustrate Omaha Indian culture.

Each item is accompanied by brief (100–250 words) descriptions that give the names of speakers or performers, the date of the performance, and the original recording format. The 1983 powwow field notes are available in transcript and image forms (17 pages). Excerpts from Dorothy Sara Lee and Maria La Vigna, eds., Omaha Indian Music: Historical Recordings from the Fletcher/LaFlesche Collection (Washington, DC, Library of Congress, 1985) provide further context to the recordings.

The site also provides a stylized map of the Omaha Indian reservation, two selected bibliographies listing over 150 primary sources and scholarly works; and four related essays from Folklife Center News, 1981 to 1985. This site is searchable by keyword and browsable by medium and event. The Powwow audio is also available in sequence for those wishing to hear the entire performance. The site is easily navigable and ideal for those interested in Great Plains American Indian history and culture.

NativeTech: Native American Technology and Art

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Logo, Native Tech website
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This site is dedicated to the history and continuing development of Native American technology and arts. It is designed and maintained by Tara Prindle, an archeologist on the Program and Events Committee of the Nipmuc Indian Association of Connecticut. A 500-word historical essay and five to ten illustrated descriptions of techniques introduce each of the 12 sections, including beadwork, stonework and tools, pottery, poetry, and food. A section on beadwork presents seven photos of 18th-century beadwork alongside six technical drawings. For five different kinds of beadwork, from bone to glass, the site provides between ten and 100 illustrations of beads. A section on wigwams contains nine pages of writings about wigwams from the 17th century as well as a photographic guide to building your own wigwam. Special features include more than 50 links to sites about Ojibwe language, history, art, and culture and a collection of illustrated essays (400-1,500 words) about Seminole men's clothing. Links to 58 sites about contemporary issues in Native American art, such as counterfeiting, and more than 100 Native American clubs and message boards. A useful site for research in Native American cultural and material history.

National Museum of the American Indian: Beauty Surrounds Us

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Shawnee bandolier bag, c. 1830
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This exhibit features more than 65 objects from Native American cultures in North and South America. Beautifully displayed in 10 showcases, these objects address many aspects of American Indian life, such as identity, recreation, communication, dress, adornment, music, and dance. All images can be zoomed for detailed viewing and are accompanied by a brief description, information about Native cultures, and other facts. Some images are accompanied by related photographs. The "Containing Culture" case, for example, includes a Paviotso (Northern Paiute) carrying basket, c. 1900, make from willow shoots and leather and used by women to carry seed-foods or personal possessions on their backs. An accompanying undated photograph shows Kaibab Paiute women in Arizona using the baskets. Each case also includes a map locating the objects throughout the Americas, as well as an interactive activity that allows users to manipulate the objects onscreen—by placing instruments in "wind," "percussion," or "string" categories, for example.

Mission to Arizona, 1916–1940: Father Augustine Schwarz, O.F.M.

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Photo, Fr. Augustine on location with film Westerners
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This exhibition presents photographs taken by Father Augustine Schwarz (1887–1946) while he served as a Catholic missionary to American Indians in Arizona. The images, donated by the Schwartz family, depict missionary scenes and workers, church buildings, and other landmarks.

The site focuses on three American Indian groups—Pima, Papago, and Apache Indians—and serves as an accessible portal to Catholic missionary activities among those three groups. Many of the photographs are accompanied with brief descriptions and annotations by Father Schwarz. A brief biography of Father Schwarz is included.

Along with images of Whiteriver Apaches of northern Arizona taken by Father Schwarz's brother, Arnold Schwarz, the entire collection consists of 179 images.

Kate and Sue McBeth, Missionary Teachers to the Nez Perce

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Image, Hal-hal-tlos-tsot or "Lawyer," Gustav Sohon, 1855, Kate and Sue McBeth
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Presenting full-text letters and diaries, this website focuses on the lives and careers of Kate and Sue McBeth, missionaries and teachers among the Nez Perce Indians during the last quarter of the 19th century. Government documents and images pertaining to the tribe's history accompany these materials. Sue McBeth established a successful theological seminary for Nez Perce men, collected and organized a Nez Perce/English dictionary, and wrote journal articles. Kate McBeth provided literacy education for Nez Perce women, taught Euro-American domestic skills, and directed a Sabbath school and mission society.

Divided into five sections, materials include more than 150 letters, a diary, a journal, five treaties, more than 70 commission and agency reports and legislative actions, excerpts from a history of the Nez Perce, and 19 biographies. Six maps and approximately 100 images, including 13 illustrations depicting the 1855 Walla Walla Treaty negotiations, are also available.

Indian Peoples of the Northern Great Plains

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Image for Indian Peoples of the Northern Great Plains
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These 685 items represent 27 current and former American Indian tribes of the Northern Great Plains and cover a period from 1870 to 1954. Most of the materials are photographs with identifying text. The collection also includes stereographs, ledger drawings, and other sketches.

Users can view three unique collections. The Barstow Ledger Drawing Collection offers 66 Crow and Gros Ventre drawings from the late 19th century. A portfolio entitled Blackfeet Indian Tipis, Design and Legend includes 26 works and an introductory essay. Another collection offers treaties with the Assiniboine, Blackfeet, and North Piegan tribes from 1874 and 1875.

Searching is available by subject, date, location, name, tribe, collection, and artist or photographer. This valuable site documents folkways, material culture, and the history of American Indians from the Northern Great Plains region.

Images of Native Americans

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Image for Images of Native Americans
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This collection of materials (more than 80 items) comes from rare books, pamphlets, journals, pulp magazines, newspapers, and original photographs. The illustrations reflect European interpretations of Native Americans, images of popular culture, literary and political observations, and artistic representations. The three main sections are "Portrayals of Native Americans," "The Nine Millionth Volume," and a timeline.

"Portrayals" is divided into four online galleries: Color Plate Books, Foreign Views, Mass Market Appeal, and Early Ethnography. The galleries incorporate the renowned works of George Catlin and Edward S. Curtis, and the lesser-known works of early 19th-century Russian artist-explorer Louis Choris. "Mass market" features 32 illustrations, including colorful images of western novel covers and portraits of southwestern Indians. "Early ethnography" contains a newspaper article about a Native American family, five photographs, and 15 illustrations of Indians at play and at war. "The Nine Millionth Volume" is devoted to James Otto Lewis's historic volume, The Aboriginal Port Folio, a series of hand-colored lithographic portraits of American Indian chiefs.

Ancient Architects of the Mississippi

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Small bowl, Mississippean, Ancient Architects of the Mississippi
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This small website uses essays and images to explain the life, art, and engineering of the Native American moundbuilders who inhabited the lower Mississippi River region from c. 8,000 BC to c. 1500 AD.

The main feature is the exhibits. Three exhibits, each centered on a short essay, focus on different aspects of the moundbuilders' life and culture. "Life Along the River" also has six captioned artist's renderings of life in the moundbuilders' cities. "The Moundbuilders" features a detailed description of Emerald Mound. And "Traders and Travelers" also has four images of the moundbuilders' art work, with explanatory text.

In addition to these three descriptive exhibits, "Delta Voices" offers 16 selected quotes about the mounds from both historical and contemporary persons. Additionally, there is a timeline and a short "context" section, with a map, that helps to locate the moundbuilders in place and history.

Search is limited to a search of all National Park Service websites. This website is a useful starting point for those interested in the history and culture of the Native American moundbuilders.

American Indians of the Pacific Northwest

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northwest indians
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These 2,300 photographs and 7,700 pages of text focus on the lives of American Indians in the Northwest Coast and Plateau regions of the Pacific Northwest. Materials illustrate housing, clothing, crafts, transportation, education, employment, and other aspects of everyday life among American Indians in this region. Most of the photographs were taken before 1920.

Texts include more than 3,800 pages from the Annual Reports of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs to the Secretary of the Interior from 1851 through 1908; 89 Pacific Northwest Quarterly articles from 1906—1998; and 23 titles in the University of Washington Publications in Anthropology series. The site also offers 14 maps and 10 lengthy essays authored by anthropologists on specific tribal groups and cross-cultural topics.

Humor's Edge

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Cartoon, The Bush Decision, Supreme Court overturns recount
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Pulitzer Prize-winning political cartoonist Ann Telnaes recently donated 81 of her cartoons to the Library of Congress. Those cartoons make up the entire collection of this site, which is searchable by keyword. Each cartoon is displayed with the size, format, medium, and publication date. The cartoons were published between 1996 and 2001, and each addresses a political or cultural issue from a domestic or international perspective. Although limited in holdings and scope, the site could be quite useful for those researching late 20th-century topics in political culture.