Montana 1911: A Professor and His Wife Among the Blackfeet: Wilhelmina Maria Uhlenbeck-Melchior's Diary and C.C. Uhlenbeck's Original Blackfoot Texts and a New Series of Blackfoot Texts

434 Pages·2005·6.59 MB·English

by  Mary Eggermont-Molenaar

Montana 1911

Wilhelmina Maria Uhlenbeck-Melchior’s Diary
and C. C. Uhlenbeck’s Original Blackfoot Texts
and A New Series of Blackfoot Texts
M o n t a n a 1 9 1 1
A Professor and his Wife among the Blackfeet
Edited by Mary Eggermont-Molenaar
with contributions by Alice Kehoe, Inge Genee, and Klaas van Berkel
Translation from Dutch by Mary Eggermont-Molenaar
University of Nebraska–Lincoln
© 2005 Mary Eggermont-Molenaar
Published by the University of Calgary Press
2500 University Drive NW, Calgary, Alberta, Canada T2N 1N4
www.uofcpress.com
Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication
Uhlenbeck-Melchior, Wilhelmina Maria
Montana 1911 : a professor and his wife among the Blackfeet :
Wilhelmina Maria Uhlenbeck-Melchior’s diary and C. C. Uhlenbeck’s original Blackfoot
texts and a new series of Blackfoot texts / edited by Mary Eggermont-Molenaar ;
translation from Dutch by Mary Eggermont-Molenaar.
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 1-55238-114-5 (University of Calgary Press).—ISBN 0-8032-1828-1
(University of Nebraska Press)
1. Uhlenbeck-Melchior, Wilhelmina Maria—Diaries. 2. Piegan Indians—Montana.
3. Siksika Indians. 4. Uhlenbeck, C. C. (Christianus Cornelius), 1866-1951. 5.
Blackfoot language—Texts. 6. Anthropologists’ spouses—Montana—Diaries. 7.
Anthropologists—Montana—Biography. 8. Linguists—Montana—Biography. I.
Uhlenbeck, C. C. (Christianus Cornelius), 1866-1951. II. Eggermont-Molenaar, Mary,
1945- III. Title.
E99.S54U343 2005 978.6004’97352 C2005-904114-5
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted,
in any form or by any means, without the prior written consent of the publisher or a licence
from The Canadian Copyright Licensing Agency (Access Copyright). For an Access
Copyright licence, visit www.accesscopyright.ca or call toll free to 1-800-893-5777.
We acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Book
Publishing Industry Development Program (BPIDP), the Alberta Foundation for the Arts
for our publishing activities. We acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the
Arts for our publishing program. We acknowledge the support of the Alberta Lottery Fund
– Community Initiatives Program.
Printed and bound in Canada by Houghton Boston
This book is printed on 70 lb. Rolland opaque paper
Cover design, page design and typesetting by Mieka West.
Drawings by Colin McDonald
Production by Danny Miller
To Annie Tatsey and to all those who cook and who care
Contents
Preface and Acknowledgments ix
Mary Eggermont-Molenaar
Introduction to the Blackfeet in Montana 1
Alice B. Kehoe
The Uhlenbecks and the Burdens of Life: A Biographical Introduction 7
Klaas van Berkel and Mary Eggermont-Molenaar
Mrs. Uhlenbeck: An Informed Diarist? 17
Mary Eggermont-Molenaar
Part I
Mrs. Uhlenbeck’s Diary 31
Blackfoot Reservation, Thursday, June 8 – Sunday, September 17, 1911
Translated by Mary Eggermont-Molenaar
Part II
A Dutch Linguist on the Prairies: C. C. Uhlenbeck’s Work on Blackfoot 183
Inge Genee
Legendary Histories 195
Alice B. Kehoe
Collage of Blackfoot Texts Recorded by C. C. Uhlenbeck 203
Arranged by Mary Eggermont-Molenaar
References 347
Appendices
A. Patronymics and Proper Names of the Peigans, by C. C. Uhlenbeck 355
Translated by Mary Eggermont-Molenaar
B. Social Organization of the Southern Peigans 367
J.P.B. de Josselin de Jong
C. The Dances of the Peigan by J.P.B. de Josselin de Jong 375
Translated by Mary Eggermont-Molenaar
Notes 401
viii
(left and centre)Christianus Cornelius Uhlenbeck (18 October 1866 – 12 August 1951). Courtesy of KNAW.
(far right) J.P.B. de Josselin de Jong (13 March 1886 – 15 November 1964)
ix
Pr eface and Acknowledgments
Mary Eggermont-Molenaar
J
une 2002. After most of the material for this manuscript had been during his fieldwork in 1911 on the Blackfeet Reservation in Montana.1
collected and recorded, a new friend with a weird name asked me The text of her diary is reproduced here in full and is embellished by a
how this project started. In the fall of 1998, I told her, I attended sixfold introduction, footnotes, and a collage of texts recorded by her
a reception at the Museum of the Regiments in Calgary, Canada, and husband and a few others. The entry in Peter Fidler’s diary for December
met with a certain Mr. Charles Fidler, then Head of the Plains Indians 31, 1792, reads as follows:
Cultural Survival School, also in Calgary. We chatted and he asked
whether I had ever heard of his great-great-great-grandfather, Peter A place here called Naw peu ooch eta cots from whence this river Derives
Fidler, explorer and factor with the Hudson’s Bay Company. I hadn’t its name.
and asked him if I could interview him about Peter Fidler for Yumtzilob, On my inquiring concerning the origin of this spot, the Indians
Tijdschrift [Journal] over de Americas. Charles consented. gave me a surprising & ridiculous account. They said that a White man
At the end of the interview Fidler lent me one of his many great- (what they universally call Europeans) came from the South many ages
great-great-grandfather’s diaries. Reading Peter Fidler’s 1792–93 diary ago, & built this for the Indians to Play at.2
and realizing that more people would like to read it led to me to publish
an abbreviated version of it in Yumtzilob (Eggermont-Molenaar 2000). While trying to find out about this “white man,” I came across a para-
One particular entry in the Fidler diary led to the birth of the present graph in J.P.B. de Josselin de Jong’s Blackfoot Texts (1914, 113), in which
project: the publication of the diary of Wilhelmina Maria Uhlenbeck- a white man appears as well. De Josselin de Jong, accompanied by his
Melchior, the wife of Dutch professor C. C. Uhlenbeck. She kept this professor, C. C. Uhlenbeck, a Dutch linguist and, at that time, profes-
diary over a period of three months while accompanying her husband sor at the University of Leiden, collected these texts in the summer of