Loyola Bird
English 540
Library Assignment

For the first part of this assignment, I visited the Center for Southwest Research and Special Collections with hopes to find anything and everything on Jicarilla Apaches. I had already examined a digital photo collection (on-line) which displayed various reservation and people scenes. Most photos were of our annual Go-Jii-Ya celebration and were taken at the time when horses and wagons were still in use. My Mom used to tell me stories of their journeys by horse and wagon to this feast and even the feast in Taos at the end of September. Anyway, I had already conducted some research on-line and ran across documents regarding Chester E. Faris, who worked for the Indian Service in the early 1900's. He was in charge of overseeing various southwest tribes on many different issues. At this time, several reservations had been recently established including Jicarilla.

The Faris documents are dated from 1860-1956. There were 3 folders and the first was comprised of miscellaneous documents, mostly postcards of various New Mexico landmarks (Native American). Another folder held correspondence from Faris office to the main Indian Service in DC. There were various documents to include reports, pamphlets, handwritten letters, etc. all regarding status of Indian tribes in the Southwest. I observed various comments regarding the Mescalero Apaches, Navajo, and of course I was looking for anything on the Jicarillas. I did run across a pamphlet published by the Indian Rights Association called Indian Truth. This office was established in 1882. In a June, 1935, issue, I found a short “blurb” on the Jicarilla. It began as such, “Twenty years ago the best friend of the little band of Jicarilla Apache in northern New Mexico justifiably have wondered whether as human material they were really salvagable” (Indian Truth). Where have we heard or read similar type rhetoric? The piece went on to tell of how the Jicarillas were progressing at a very slow pace. The Indian service conducted timber sales to provide funds for a sheep herding endeavor. This must have worked as I also recall family stories of sheepherding endeavors. It was a mainstay for my Mom’s family and about 5 years before my grandfather died, he still raised sheep and goats. The report ended by saying that the Apaches were not ready to take over handling of their own affairs.

In the same folder, I ran across a report submitted by the Senate Subcommittee on Indian Investigation written in 1942. John Collier, head of the Indian Service at that time, attached a letter which negates the origin of this same report. And after reading the introduction, I can see why no one wanted to claim its contents:

“Throw Indian property out from federal protection.”

“Close all Indian boarding schools.”

“Stop paying tuition for Indian children.”

“Abandon all Indian hosptials.”

“Kill Indian Arts and Crafts Board.”

“Smash up the Indian Service.”

Wow! And people wonder why there is continued hostility between natives and non-natives, myself included. It takes moments like this to remind me of what my people have witnessed and endured.

What originally caught my eye with the Faris collection was the promise of Jicarilla basket designs. This was a hand-drawn/colored (crayon) collection of Jicarilla basket and beadwork designs. Unfortunately, there were no dates or name or anything written provided.

Moving on some more...I wanted to look at anything written by Frederick Douglass. I read his slave narrative years ago and have always been captivated by his life experiences. I went to the LIBROS webpage and clicked on library guides, further clicking on African Americans in the West, which led to a dead end. I moved on to the digital collections, finding the Library of Congress collections on African American history which holds 17 collections. There are pamphlets, sheet music, slave narratives, 19c books, Southern US personal narratives and the Frederick Douglass papers.

In Douglass’ collection alone, there are over 7400 items, to include 38,000 images. All of these relate to his life as an abolitionist, escaped slave, orator, editor, and more. There is a webpage devoted to his works and the page is very handy in searching through the collection. I began by typing in the keyword “speeches” which brought up over 100 categories. These were printed speeches, campaign speeches, speeches written for others, his speeches written to schools. I examined a speech entitled the Claim of the Negro, a commencement address delivered to a completely male audience - The Gentlemen of the Philozetian Society in 1854. This speech is over 80 pages in length. Can you imagine? He spends several pages in the introduction almost apologizing for his words to this society? An appeal of sympathy to gain audience attention, perhaps. The speech is written to pronounce black/white relations and what must be done and by whom to help sever the animosities which existed. He makes several claims, while I only mention the first: The manhood of the Negro must be respected. He incorporates comments from the Richmond examiner which have fed the gross mistreatment and negligence of the African American peoples.

I also tried to read his hand-written draft of his autobiography (Chapter 20). It was not very legible and disappointing because of this.

To say the least, this assignment proved very fruitful and reminds me of the wealth of information which exists out there on so many topics. I have yet to explore more on Jicarilla, but searching through various sources provided new knowledge.