Online Tables of Contents & Indices to Key Journals Related to Northeast Native American Studies

Archaeology of Eastern North America
http://www.esaf-archeology.org/publicationstofc.html

Bulletin of the Massachusetts Archaeology Society
http://www.massarchaeology.org/bulletins.htm

Bulletin of the Archaeology Society of Connecticut
http://www.connarchaeology.org/html/body_tocs.html

Connecticut History
http://asch.ccsu.edu/CT_History/Table_of_contents.htm

Papers of the Algonquian Conference
http://anthropology.uwo.ca/firstnations/AlgonquianPAC/cumulativeIndexByAuthor.html

New England Quarterly
http://www.northeastern.edu/neq/issues.html

Northeast Anthropology (formerly Man in the Northeast)
http://www.albany.edu/northeast_anthropology/toc.htm

William and Mary Quarterly
http://oieahc.wm.edu/wmq/?svr=www

2010 American Indian Youth Literature Award

The 2010 American Indian Youth Literature Award winners were announced at the American Library Association Mid-Winter Conference in January 2010. Author Thomas King and illustrator Gary Clement were the recipients of the Picture Book Award for their book A Coyote Solstice Tale. The Middle School winner is Meet Christopher: An Osage Indian Boy from Oklahoma by Genevieve Simermeyer. Between the Deep Blue Sea and Me by Lurline Wailana McGregor took the Young Adult prize.

The American Indian Youth Literature Awards recognize excellence in books by and about American Indians. By identifying and honoring outstanding writing and illustrations in the field of youth literature, the American Indian Library Association encourages authors, illustrators, editors, publishers and tribal entities to create materials that “present Native Americans in the fullness of their humanity in the present and past contexts.”

Please visit the Children’s Library to read the 2010 winners!

The 2010 Award Winners

Picture Book

A Coyote Solstice Tale by Thomas King, illustrated by Gary Clement. (Groundwood Books, 2009)

The universal lesson that sharing and being together are more important than things comes from a human child and Coyote in this humorous book.


Middle School Book

Meet Christopher: An Osage Indian Boy from Oklahoma by Genevieve Simermeyer. (National Museum of the American Indian/Smithsonian Institution in association with Council Oak Books, 2008)

Meet Christopher and spend some time with him as he combines his family’s Native traditions with popular 21st century activities.



Young Adult Book

Between the Deep Blue Sea and Me by Lurline Wailana McGregor. (Kamehameha Publishing, 2008)

Torn between her career as a museum curator in California and her family in Hawai’i, Maona Kawelo must make some difficult choices.

Two Old Women Reading Circle

Director of Public Programs, Trudie Lamb Richmond led a group discussion of the book Two Old Women by Velma Wallis, January 16 2010 at the Mashantucket Pequot Research Library.

Shkook: Snake Stories in Pequot Country

The following text and images are taken from a vitrine display currently on exhibit directly outside the Research Library.

As Museum staff prepared for the summer 2009 exhibit “Pequot Lives in the Lost Century,” we began to identify key issues in Pequot history – resistance to encroachment, protection of sovereignty, military service, community ties, the urban experience, and life on the reservation. We were also on the lookout for good stories for future exhibits. As staff conducted new oral histories and reviewed older ones, a particular theme emerged. There were lots of Pequot stories about snakes. Inspired by the richness of the oral histories, the research team began to dig a little deeper. What we found was remarkable.

One of the first European accounts of Pequots (in 1626) involved a ritual offering at a snake den along the Connecticut River. During the following century, two Pequot sachems, Robin Casacinnamon I and II, both signed documents with snake “marks.” Local histories recount and exciting tale of rattlesnake extermination. In a passionate plea for the restoration of their lands, auctioned illegally in 1856, Pequots were concerned that they would “perish without bread or water in a den of red snakes [copperheads].”

By the early 20th century, one Pequot family (Martha Hoxie and her husband Napoleon Langevin) set up a platform at the bottom of Lantern Hill and conducted “snake dances” with copperheads, while serving ice cream and hotdogs. Other Pequots, including Earl Roy Colebut, earned an income by collecting copperheads for the Bronx Zoo as the zoological garden was expanding its poisonous snake collection and producing anti-venom. Martha “Aunt Matt” Langevin, who lived next to the copperhead den at Mashantucket, was well known for being able to shoot and kill these snakes from a considerable distance with her gun. Away from home some Pequots were known as “copperheads,” a reference to the snakes at Mashantucket and for others it was part of their personal identity including the late Clifford “Copperhead” Cyrus Sebastian, Sr. -- Dr. Jason Mancini, Senior Researcher, MPMRC

Image credits: Top, Signatures of historic Pequot leaders, Cassassinamon I & II. Courtesy of MPMRC Archives & Special Collections. Bottom, Three men with snakes - From left: Napoleon Langevin, George Von Buehren, “Ben” Guebert at old Warren House near Warren Pond and Rattlesnake Lodge Center Groton. Photograph May 30, 1915. Attributed to Cornelius Terry. Image courtesy of MPMRC Archives & Special Collections.

New Electronic Research Tool Available

The Libraries & Archives have added a new full-text digital resource to their collection of research tools. The American Indian Experience is a collection of electronic books and journals exploring the histories and contemporary cultures of the indigenous peoples of the United States. Designed, developed, and indexed under the guidance of Loriene Roy, the first Native American President of the American Library Association, and a team of American Indian librarians and scholars, The American Indian Experience offers access to an online library, featuring more than 150 volumes of scholarship and reference content, hundreds of primary documents, and thousands of images. Material in the database may be found by way of keyword searching or via Library of Congress subject headings. This resource is available on site through the public access computer workstations in both the Research and Children's Libraries.

Archival Collection Features Material From 'Pequot Lives' Exhibit

The recently closed exhibit Pequot Lives in the Lost Century (May 16th – Sept. 12, 2009) focused on the lives of Mashantucket Pequot people during the roughly 100 year period leading to the Tribe’s rebirth in 1983. The exhibit drew upon several years worth of research performed here at the Mashantucket Pequot Museum & Research Center. Harley Erickson, a member of the Research staff, has compiled 27 notebooks of Pequot Lives research materials that include:

• Newspaper clippings and obituaries from 18th century through the present day
  Office of Indian Affairs records


• Data on Pequot communities in Providence, New York and Los Angeles
  Historic maps and aerial photos


• Images, articles leaflets, etc. representing tribal gatherings


• Notes, photos, articles, etc. pertaining to Pequots in the armed services


• and much more …

A finding aid for the collection is available in the Archives & Special Collections reading room. Some materials in this collection are restricted to Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Members.

Question and answer: Narrowing your topic

Question: I am a senior history student at ______ University. My last research paper is due this semester and I would like to do it on the Native Americans after Manifest Destiny. I was wondering if you could guide me to some information on this topic. Thank you.

Answer: Thanks for contacting us with your question. The topic you propose is a little too broad, but I can give you some suggestions to narrow it down. If by “manifest destiny” you mean 19th century U.S. expansion, then it seems you want to explore Native American history 20th century and beyond? Some suggestions: narrow it to a specific tribe or geographic area (such as Pacific Northwest, Great Plains, etc.). You could also, or in addition, focus on specific sub-topics such as

-Indian urbanization
-Indian activism and resistance movements
-Sovereignty
-Land tenure
-Native American’s involvement in the US military
-U.S. government’s American Indian policy

Try exploring our collection through the online catalog: http://www.mpmrc.com/
Do some keyword searching there and see what you come up with. Our collection has over 50,000 titles on Native American history and culture, so it is a good representation of what has been published. We do not lend or participate in interlibrary loan, but you should be able to get most of what we have through your university’s library system.

Feel free to ask if you need further assistance.

Sincerely,


Joseph Frawley
Reference / Info Tech Librarian
Mashantucket Pequot Museum & Research Center