National Anthropological Archives

Guide to the Amy Zaharlick, George L. Trager and Felicia H. Trager sound recordings and papers on the Picuris language

Summary

Collection ID:
NAA.2012-14
Creators:
Trager, Felicia Harben, 1930-
Zaharlick, Ann Marie, 1947-
Trager, George L.
Dates:
1952 - 1990
Languages:
The collection is primarily in
English
and
Picuris
(
Tiwa
).
Physical Description:
130 Sound recordings
4 Linear feet
Repository:
This collection consists of Amy Zaharlick's research and sound recordings on Picuris and other Pubeloan languages as well as the field recordings and notes given to Zaharlick by anthropologist and fellow Picuris specialist, George L. Trager.

Scope and Contents

Scope and Contents
This collection contains sound recordings and notes relating to the Picuris language research of Ann Marie (Amy) Zaharlick and her colleagues George L. and Felicia H. Trager, from 1962-1990. Most of the papers consist of Zaharlick's notes and transcripts from the Kiowa-Tanoan conferences which she organized and chaired, and handouts relating to Zaharlick's bilingual education consultant work. Small portions of the Tragers' field notes on Taos which were copied by Zaharlick, presumably for her own research, are also included. The bulk of the collection consists of 130 sound recordings of songs and stories in Picuris and other Puebloan languages made between 1963-1989. There are few earlier recordings which may be copies of material in Trager's papes at the University of California, Irvine. The titles of the tapes have been transcribed from information on the tape boxes. The content of recordings has not been verified.

Arrangement

Arrangement
This collection is arranged in 2 series: (1) Papers (1965-1990); (2) Sound Recordings (1952-1989).

Biographical / Historical

Biographical / Historical
Amy Zaharlick received her Ph.D. in linguistic anthropology from the American University in 1977. Prior to joining the staff at Ohio State University in XXX, she served as director of the Native American Teacher Education Program and as Associate Director of the Multicultural Education Program at the University of Albuquerque in New Mexico. Zaharlick was a professor in the Department of Anthropology at Ohio State University until her retirement in 2012.
George Leonard Trager was born on March 22, 1906 in Newark, New Jersey. He earned a bachelor's degree at Rutgers University and did his graduate work in Slavic and Romance Philology at Columbia University. He received his doctorate in 1932 with the dissertation The use of the Latin demonstratives (especially ille and ipse) up to 600 A.D., as the source of the Romance article. Trager's first teaching position was at Adams State College in Alamosa, Colorado, and it was from here that he begin his fieldwork on Tanoan languages. In 1936 Trager took a position at Yale, joining such influential linguists and Edward Sapir and Benjamin Whorf. From 1956 through 1967 Trager taught at the University of Buffalo (later SUNY-Buffalo). In the late 1960s he left Buffalo for Southern Methodist University and became more involved in Taonoan lanugauge field research. Trager married three times. His second and third wives, Edith Crowell Trager-Johnson and Felicia Harben Trager worked with him in American Indian lingistics and Kiowa-Tanoan Studies. Trager died in 1992.
Felicia Harben Trager graduated from Wayne State University in 1957 and received a Woodrow Wilson Fellowship. She received her M.A. in 1959 from the Department of Anthroplogy and Lingustics at the University of Buffalo where she did graduate work under George Trager. She worked in Washington D.C. as a project associate at the Washington Center for Applied Linguistics and taught English as a foreign language. in 1961 she married George Trager and returned with him to Buffalo where in 1968 she earned a Ph.D. for her dissertation Picuris Pueblo, New Mexico: An Ethnologuistic Salvage Study. In 1967 she moved with George Trager to Dallas where she was a lecturer at Southerm Methodist University's University College. She assisted her husband as a researcher and editor for three of his books, and was the co-author with him in several articles on Tanoan languages. Felicia Trager died in 1972 at the age of 42.
Sources Consulted: Golla, Victor 1993 Obituary George L. Trager (1906-1992). Newsletter of the Society for theh Study of Indigenous Languages of the Americas 2-3.
Smith, Henry Lee 1974 Obituary Felicia Harben Trager 1930-1972. American Anthropologist 76(1)78-79.

Administration

Author
Daisy Njoku
Sponsor
Digitization and preparation of these materials for online access has been funded through generous support from the Arcadia Fund.
Processing Information
This collection arrived at the National Anthropological Archives in one deposit. Original organization of papers and folder titles have been retained. Sound recordings were organized by language and then original tape number. Processed and encoded by Daisy Njoku and Amelia Raines.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Received from Ann Marie (Amy) Zaharlick in 2012. The Trager's original sound recordings were given to Zaharlick by George L. Trager in 1974.

Using the Collection

Conditions Governing Use
Contact the repository for terms of use.
Conditions Governing Access
The Zaharlick and Trager sound recordings and papers are open for research.
Preferred Citation
Amy Zaharlick, George L. Trager, and Felicia H. Trager sound recordings and papers on Picuris language, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution

Related Materials
Correspondence of George L. Trager can be found in the Esther Schiff Goldfrank papers, John P. Harrington papers, and Anthropological Society of Washington records. NAA Manuscript 4540-a-b contains some of Trager's notes and correspondence. The George L. Trager papers can be found at the University of California Irvine Library, Department of Special Collections (MS-M005).

Keywords

Keywords table of terms and types.
Keyword Terms Keyword Types
Picuris Pueblo Cultural Context Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Language and languages -- Documentation Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Sound recordings Genre Form Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Field recordings Genre Form Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Field notes Genre Form Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Indians of North America -- Southwest, New Cultural Context Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Linguistics Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Tiwa Pueblos Cultural Context Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid

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