GUIDE TO CATHOLIC RECORDS ABOUT NATIVE AMERICANS IN THE U.S.
Volume 2: Midwest United States
Wisconsin: WI-19

Viterbo University. Archives
900 Viterbo Drive
La Crosse, WI 54601

Phone: 608-796-3262
Email: See website

 

Catholic records about Native Americans:

Inclusive dates: 1896-1954, undated

Volume: Ca. 1 cubic foot 

Description: When reviewed by a Marquette University archivist, 1980, these records were held by the Viterbo University Museum and not organized according to a classification scheme. Consequently, the description is by record type. 

 

/1 "W.P.A. Indian Research Project"

Inclusive dates: 1935-1930s

Volume: .5 cubic foot

Description: The project was funded by a U.S. Works Progress Administration grant, 1935, and implemented by Ojibwa Indians under the direction of Sister Macaria Murphy, F.S.P.A., who taught at St. Mary's School, Odanah. Interviews and questionnaires played a prominent role in the Project. The collection is arranged by subject and was microfilmed by the Marquette University Special Collections and Archives, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 1983. Prominent subject headings include: "History of the Ojibwa Indians"; "Chippewa Indian Customs"; "Occupations and Activities"; "Clothing"; "Amusements"; "Recollections and Biographies"; "Legends"; "Military-War Records"; "Treaties and Tribal Claims"; "Folk Lore and Local History of the Bad River Reservation"; and "Chippewa Language, Leaders, and Folk Lore" 

 

/2 Correspondence

Inclusive dates: 1896, 1910, 1915, 1935, 1937, 1939, 1943-1944, 1954

Volume: 13 letters

Description: Major correspondents included Sister Macaria Murphy, F.S.P.A., and Rev. Philip Gordon (Ojibwa) 

 

/3 School publications

Inclusive dates: 1908, undated

Volume: 2 volumes:  

A. Noble Lives of a Noble Race, stories from Ojibwa oral traditions with illustrations by the students of St. Mary's School, Odanah, published in 1908: manuscript and published copy

B. Hiawatha Told Again, by the pupils of St. Mary's School, Odanah, undated

 

/4 Photographs

Inclusive dates: 1907, 1918, 1926, 1933, 1936, 1939, 1941, 1943-1944, undated

Volume: ca. 150 photos

Description: Includes a sequence of prints depicting the construction of a birchbark canoe, which Peter Whitebird used in creating his series of oil paintings.

 

/5 Paintings and Etchings by Peter Whitebird

Inclusive dated: Undated

Volume: 24 oil paintings and 23 etching

Description: Depict scenes from Ojibwa culture, including the building of a birch bark canoe.

 

Unless noted otherwise, the repository named above holds (or held) the records described and not the Marquette University Archives. However, Marquette’s holdings, e.g. Bureau of Catholic Indian Missions Records, include related records about these Native and Catholic groups and places.

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