2. John Peabody Harrington: Exploring a Legacy Carmen Jany, Cal State San Bernardino cjany@csusb.edu Dorothy Ramon Learning Center January 17, 2011

3. Why talk about Harrington? Documented numerous Native American languages (many are no longer spoken) His field notes are a great source for many California indigenous languages Notes are accurate - good ear for phonetics Notes are available on microfilm & can be used for language revitalization ‘One of the most colorful personages’ in anthropology (Stirling 1963)

4. This presentation Harrington’s life Overview of his legacy (type of data) Where and how to access data Importance of his work for California indigenous languages My work on Chimariko Notes for language revitalization

5. Who was Harrington? John Peabody Harrington (1884 -1961) Linguist and ethnographer Left behind archival legacy of unique importance Born in Massachusetts, raised in Santa Barbara From early age interest in languages and indigenous peoples Graduated from Stanford University Graduated in 1905: Classical languages/anthropology Studied philology in Leipzig and Berlin Returned to US in 1906 Worked as high school teacher in Santa Ana 1906-9

6. Who was Harrington? John Peabody Harrington (1884 -1961) While working in Santa Ana Spare time: documented Diegueño, Mohave, Yuma Publications gained him supporters from the Bureau of American Ethnology (BAE) 1915 hired by BAE as Research Ethnologist Worked for nearly 40 years for the BAE Retired in 1954 1916-1921 married to Carobeth Tucker Married on field trip; carried out research together Daugher: Awona

7. Who was Harrington? Carobeth Tucker (Laird) (1895 -1983) Carobeth Laird wrote a vivid portrait of the obsessed genius Laird, Carobeth. 1975. Encounter With an Angry God: Recollections of My Life with John Peabody Harrington. Malki Museum Press, Banning, CA.

8. Who was Harrington? Source: American Anthropologist Vol 65, 1963. Source: National Anthropological Archives

9. Who was Harrington? John Peabody Harrington (1884 -1961) Gave up all social life to document languages Collected close to a million pages of notes Data on more than 125 separate languages Obsessed (16-18 hrs/day, on deathbeds, no breaks) Linguistics began moving away from massive data collection to more interpretive research Only one honorary doctorate from USC 1934 Very chaotic and secretive Sent only small portion of work to BAE

10. Who was Harrington? John Peabody Harrington (1884 -1961) Very chaotic and secretive (con’t) Paranoic that others would steal/publish materials Worked until his death (on Chumash) Died in 1961 in Santa Barbara After his death Smithsonian began cataloguing his papers Materials started to show up (until late 1960s) Organizing and microfilming 1977-1991

11. Harrington’s Legacy & Nature of Data Data collection of close to one million pages on over 125 indigenous languages Mostly interested in the collection of words & texts (little or no interest in grammar) When he became familiar with a language, he omitted translations (also often used Spanish) Notes on loose sheets with no organization or labeling (language, speaker, etc) Excellent ear for phonetics (accurate data) Many abbreviations nowhere explained (“ch.” = clearly heard; “nescit” or “n.” = don’t know)

12. Harrington’s Legacy & Nature of Data Chimariko; reel 21

13. Harrington’s Legacy & Nature of Data Sometimes only one word per page (space for later annotations); data disorganized Contents Language (words, phrases) and culture (practices) Narratives (personal, local history, ceremonies, creation stories, etc) Placenames & tribal names Botany (plant names and uses) Numerous sound recordings on wax cylinder Thousands of photographs

14. Harrington’s Legacy & Nature of Data This treasure of indigenous knowledge is useful for Indigenous communities and tribal scholars Linguists Anthropologists Biologists Geographers Historians Archaeologists

15. Where and How to Access the Data 1960s-1970s Most materials at the National Anthropological Archives (NAA) 1977-1991 Archiving, organizing, microfilming 1980s: Guides to the field notes Nine guides (Mills, Mills & Brickfield) 1992-present Conferences and workshops on materials Sound recordings digitized: online (NAA)

16. Guides to Harrington Collection 494 reels divided into 9 sections Part 1: Alaska/Northwest Coast, 1982, 30 reels Part 2: Northern and Central California, 1985, 101 reels Part 3: Southern California/Basin, 1986, 182 reels Part 4: Southwest, 1986, 58 reels Part 5: Plains, 1987, 17 reels Part 6: Northeast/Southeast, 1987, 18 reels Part 7: Mexico/Central & South America, 1988, 36 reels Part 8: Notes & Writings on Special Linguistic Studies, 1989, 35 reels Part 9: Correspondence & Financial Records, 1991, 17 reels

17. Where and How to Access the Data Today Data finding their way back to communities http://www.nmnh.si.edu/naa/guides.htm http://siris-archives.si.edu (search engine for Smithsonian) http://siris-archives.si.edu Various UC libraries, Santa Barbara Natural History Museum The Harrington Database Project UC Davis: NSF funded project to increase access to the linguistic & ethnographic notes Coding & creating searchable database

18. Where and How to Access the Data The Harrington Database Project (2010) http://nas.ucdavis.edu/NALC/JPH.html

19. Importance for California Languages California is home to some of the greatest and densest linguistic diversity in the world Pre-contact: about 100 languages 1994 (Hinton): only about 50 languages still spoken by elders Some languages with only one speaker Harrington’s most extensive work was on California indigenous languages Harrington worked with last fluent speakers

20. Importance for California Languages California indigenous languages

21. Importance for California Languages Southern California (local languages) Serrano 1918: Manuel Santos; Tomás Manuel; placenames Reel 101; 862 pages Cahuilla 1922: Macario Lugo; Adan Castillo Reels 107-114; about 6000 pages Luiseño/Juaneño 1919: rehearings of older documents, texts, vocabulary Reels 115-129; about 12000 pages Cupeño 1915: Martin J. Blacktooth Reel 130; 712 pages

22. Importance for California Languages

23. Source: Mills, Elaine, and Ann J. Brickfield. 1986. The Papers of John Peabody Harrington, Volume 3 (Southern California).

24. My work on Chimariko Few villages along Trinity River & New River Small tribe (250 people in 1850s) Gold mining in the area Mostly fled to live with neighboring tribes Today not recognized tribe; descendants with Hupa Source: Shirley, Silver, ‘Shastan Peoples’, Handbook of North American Indians

25. My work on Chimariko: Grammar Chimariko Grammar 3500 pages collected by Harrington in 1920s from last speakers Notes include: Narratives with translations, sentences, vocabulary items, ethnographic information Other sources: Data collected by other linguists and anthropologists (Dixon 1910, Sapir in Berman 2001) Sound recording (wax cylinder; words)

26. My work on Chimariko: Stress Sound recording Speaker: Martha Ziegler Length: 13 minutes Content: Elicitation of words; some repetitions Media: from wax cylinder to cassette tape; digitized from cassette tape Finding out how stress is reflected phonetically

27. My work on Chimariko: Stress Predictable stress = stress determined by shape of word (on penultimate root syllable) Phonetically? Length, intensity, pitch: pitch Examples áqha ‘water’ á’ah ‘deer’ áqhaqhut ‘river’

28. My work on Chimariko: Stress Higher pitch in stressed vowel ’á’ah ‘deer’

29. My work on Chimariko: Narratives Reel 21: 539 pages containing Chimariko narratives with some translations Pieced together 9 narratives (20 pages in Word)

30. My work on Chimariko: Narratives

31. Contents Personal accounts, personal stories relating to historic events (flood, tribal wars), Cultural practices (healing rituals), Stories with animals as characters (watersnake, doe, bear) => material of great cultural & historic value Challenges No interlinear or missing translations Scattered segments of same narrative Goals Make materials more accessible to tribal descendants Examine the structure and language of narratives

32. Harrington & Language Revitalization Great potential of Harrington’s notes for language revitalization Accurate data; sound recordings Comprehensive, but not easily accessible Some projects Mutsun revitalization since 1996 Rumsen revitalization Chumash

33. Harrington & Language Revitalization Source: LA Times, 1/31/2010 “John Peabody Harrington relentlessly studied Indian families for decades. Today, a 71-year-old woman who considered him a pest is grateful for his intense scholarship.” “It's due to his madness that we are who we are today," said De Soto, a 71-year-old nurse who works at a Santa Barbara rest home. "We have a language. We have an identity.” Article author: Steve Chawkins

34. Thank you!