Geographical Areas of Specialization: North America
Topical Interests: anthropological
linguistics
Profile:
My training was in anthropological linguistics at the University
of California-Berkeley. There, under the influence of Mary R. Haas, a student of Edward
Sapir, I developed a lifelong commitment to the documentation of
North American Indian languages. The ultimate goal of that work is
to contribute to the reconstruction of American Indian culture history
generally, but the focus of it is the study of the languages of the
Great Plains, particularly the Caddoan and Siouan peoples. My first
field work was in Oklahoma during the late 1960s. Then, after living
for a decade in the northern Plains region, where I helped develop
language retention programs on the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation
in North Dakota, I came to Indiana University in 1983 to help found
the American Indian Studies Research Institute, which was established
to perpetuate studies in American Indian cultures, languages, and
history.
A large part of my career has been devoted to the documentation
of two Northern Caddoan languages, both endangered and spoken now
by only a small number of elders: Pawnee (located in Oklahoma) and
Arikara (located in North Dakota). This documentary work, which has
extended over thirty years, is culminating in dictionaries, collections
of native language texts, and grammars of these languages. In addition,
in an ongoing collaboration with Raymond J. DeMallie, I am studying
the dialectal diversity of the Sioux, Assiniboine, and Stoney peoples
on numerous reservations throughout the Northern Plains. An important
part of that project is a documentary study of the Assiniboine language,
itself dialectally diverse, that will ultimately result in linguistic
reference works. An outgrowth of these documentary efforts has been
my work with language retention and maintenance programs.
In North Dakota I helped establish programs for teaching three languages,
Arikara, Mandan, and Hidatsa. Currently, together with Professor
DeMallie, I am developing a program for teaching Assiniboine on the
Fort Belknap Reservation in Montana. Another dimension of my career
is native North American philology, the study of older linguistic
records of American Indian languages, and the combination of American
Indian language research with the writing and interpretation of history.
The documentary record on American Indians is replete with native
language material that requires identification, translation, and
interpretation. It is a rich source of information on North American
history and prehistory that has only recently come to be appreciated
by scholars. Applying knowledge of American Indian languages to these
documents unlocks their potential for study of the American Indian
past. Exemplifying this effort is an edition that I recently prepared
of the journals of the Saint Louis fur trader, Jean-Baptiste Truteau,
who lived among the Arikara from 1794-96. The editorial work on these
manuscripts required a firm grounding in the Arikara language as
well as a comparative knowledge of Plains Indian ethnology and history.
Finally, a fundamental part of my study of endangered languages
and North American culture history is the recording, editing, and
translating of native language texts, both those recorded from contemporary
raconteurs and those in documentary collections of stories compiled
earlier in the century. Oral narratives are important historical
and cultural sources as well as literary documents, and they provide
an essential native voice in the study of the American Indian. To
date this work in textual translation and redaction has resulted
in an edition of Arikara narratives that I myself recorded and an
edition of narratives recorded at the turn of the century from a
Skiri Pawnee religious leader. I teach courses in general anthropological
linguistics, American Indian languages, and, specifically, a two-year
Lakota language sequence. These courses reflect my current research
projects.
Through my research there is opportunity for graduate students to
become involved in American Indian language documentation and description,
textual analysis, language revival and maintenance programs and historical
linguistic study. I am also editor of the journal Anthropological
Linguistics, which is produced on campus. With it there is opportunity
for both graduate and undergraduate students to gain experience in
academic publishing at both editorial and production levels.
| ND |
The Roaming Scout Narratives: Reminiscences
of a Skiri Pawnee Priest. 2 vols. Lincoln: University
of Nebraska Press (in preparation). |
| 1992 |
Sioux, Assiniboine, and Stoney Dialects: A Classification.
Anthropological Linguistics, vol. 34, pp. 233-55
(1992). |
| 1991 |
Traditional Narratives of the Arikara Indians:Vol.
1, The Stories of Alfred Morsette: Interlinear
Linguistic Texts;Vol. 2, The Stories of Other Narrators:
Interlinear Linguistic Texts; Vol. 3, The Stories
of Alfred Morsette: English Translations; Vol.
4, The Stories of Other Narrators: English Translations.
Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press (1991). (with
Raymond J. DeMallie) |
| 1988 |
The Importance of Language Study for the Writing
of Plains Indian History. In: New Directions in
American Indian History, Collin Calloway, editor.
Pp. 153-198. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press
(1988). |
| 1981 |
Ceremonies of the Pawnee. By James R. Murie,
edited by Douglas R. Parks. Smithsonian Contributions
to Anthropology, 27. 2 vols. Washington, D.C. (1981);
Reprinted. with new Preface, Lincoln: University
of Nebraska Press (1989). |
| 1979 |
An Introduction to the Arikara Language. Coauthored
with Janet Beltran and Ella P. Waters. Anchorage:
Title VII Materials Development Center (1979). |
| 1976 |
A Grammar of Pawnee. New York: Garland Publishing,
Inc. (1976). |
Student Building 130, 701 E. Kirkwood Avenue, Bloomington, IN 47405-7100 | Phone: (812) 855-1041 | Fax: (812) 855-4358 |
anthro@indiana.edu