Oglala Oral History Project records, 1980-1997

Overview of the Collection

Creator
Meya, Wilhelm K.
Title
Oglala Oral History Project records
Dates
1980-1997 (inclusive)
Quantity
.21 cu. ft. (1 box); 5 sound cassettes (60 min. each); 2 videocassettes (VHS 120)
Collection Number
2696-107 (Accession No. 2696-107-01)
Summary
Videocassettes of Ben Marrowbone interpreting the Calico Winter Count in Lakota, sound cassettes of translation and other documents related to the project
Repository
University of Washington Libraries, Special Collections
Special Collections
University of Washington Libraries
Box 352900
Seattle, WA
98195-2900
Telephone: 2065431929
Fax: 2065431931
speccoll@uw.edu
Access Restrictions

Access restricted: For terms of access contact repository.

Languages
English

Biographical NoteReturn to Top

Wilhelm Meya was born in Vienna, Austria and grew up in Connecticut. He graduated with a degree in Lakota Studies from Oglala Lakota College, in Kyle, South Dakota in 1997 and earned a Masters in Anthropology at the University of Arizona. He is the co-founder and executive director of the Lakota Language Consortium, an organization that has faced criticism for copyrighting the Lakota language.

Historical BackgroundReturn to Top

The Calico Winter Count is the winter count of the Calico Band of the Oglala Lakota, who now reside on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota. Little is known about the Calico Winter Count itself, other than it was the winter count kept by the band. The last official keeper of the winter count was Ben Marrowbone, a member and historian of the Calico Band. He was born in 1889, lived most of his life in the village of Calico and died in 1983, at the age of 93. He was well known during his lifetime as an authority on Lakota Culture and was especially noted for being the interpreter of the Calico Winter Count, a task he inherited from the previous band historian. The winter count stops at the year 1877, the year of Crazy Horse's death, and it is not known if there was any active effort to continue the formal winter count.

In 1980, Mike Her Many Horses, a former Lakota Studies instructor from Oglala Lakota College, recognized the cultural significance of having an unbroken winter count as an example of Lakota oral history, and set about trying to preserve it. The original winter count was apparently done in an old ledger. These pictographs were redrawn onto a new volume to include Lakota and English titles and presented to Ben Marrowbone to contextualize and connect the images to stories associated with each year between 1825-1877. He was 91 years old at the time and in the home of his niece, Gloria Goggles (née Runs Close to Lodge) in Ethete, Wyoming on the Wind River Indian Reservation. Mr. Marrowbone continued to work with Mike producing other video tape sessions about other aspects of Oglala oral history before his death in 1982. These sessions were originally recorded on a ¾” video format. Sometime after 1983, copies were made to the standard VHS format, however, there is some missing data, including 1842 figures.

In 1997 Meya brought the video tapes to the attention to the tribe's recognized expert in the Lakota language, Johnson Holy Rock. Though the winter count has been expertly translated by Mr. Holy Rock, there are certain sections that need to be reworked.

Content DescriptionReturn to Top

Videocassettes of Ben Marrowbone interpreting the Calico Winter Count in Lakota; sound cassettes of Johnson Holy Rock translating the Calico Winter Count; field notes and manuscript "The Calico Winter Count 1825-1877: An Oglala Lakota History," edited by Wilhelm K Meya.

Use of the CollectionReturn to Top

Restrictions on Use

Creator's literary rights retained. Contact repository for details.

Administrative InformationReturn to Top

Detailed Description of the CollectionReturn to Top

 

Container(s) Description Dates
Box
1 Calico Winter Count, 1825 - 1848 [Tape 1]
1 VHS cassette
Video tape of Calico Winter Count; Location: Ethete, Wyoming; Interpreted by: Ben Marrowbone; Translated by: Johnson Holy Rock; Recorded by: Mike Her Many Horses; Part of: Oglala Lakota Oral History Project
January, 17, 1980
1 Calico Winter Count, 1852 - 1877 [Tape 2]
1 VHS cassette
Video tape of Calico Winter Count; Location: Ethete, Wyoming; Interpreted by: Ben Marrowbone; Translated by: Johnson Holy Rock; Recorded by: Mike Her Many Horses; Part of: Oglala Lakota Oral History Project
January, 17, 1980
1 Translation of the Calico Winter Count [Tape 1]
1 audio cassette
Side A and B: 1831-1938; Translated by: Johnson Holy Rock; Location: Pine Ridge South Dakota; Notes: Tape recorder was not running between 1825-1831, also session tends to be inaudible at the beginning due to video noise.; Recorded by: Wilhelm K. Meya; Part of: Oglala Lakota Oral History Project
July 5, 1997
1 Translation of the Calico Winter Count [Tape 2]
1 audio cassette
Side A: 1839-1844; Side B: 1844-1851; Translated by: Johnson Holy Rock; Location: Pine Ridge South Dakota; Notes: Side A and half of Side B recorded on 7/6/97 and 7/7/97; Recorded by: Wilhelm K. Meya; Part of: Oglala Lakota Oral History Project
July 6-7, 1997
1 Translation of the Calico Winter Count [Tape 3]
1 audio cassette
Side A: 1852-1854; Side B: empty; Translated by: Johnson Holy Rock; Location: Pine Ridge South Dakota; Notes: After 1854 there is a discussion of place names including the stories of how places like the Platte River, Porcupine Butte, and the Little Big Horn got their names.; Recorded by: Wilhelm K. Meya; Part of: Oglala Lakota Oral History Project
July 7, 1997
1 Translation of the Calico Winter Count [Tape 4]
1 audio cassette
Side A: 1854-1863; Side B: 1863-1872; Translated by: Johnson Holy Rock; Location: Pine Ridge South Dakota; Recorded by: Wilhelm K. Meya; Part of: Oglala Lakota Oral History Project
July 7, 1997
1 Translation of the Calico Winter Count [Tape 5]
1 audio cassette
Side A: 1873-1877; Side B: 1877; Translated by: Johnson Holy Rock; Location: Pine Ridge South Dakota ; Recorded by: Wilhelm K. Meya; Part of: Oglala Lakota Oral History Project
July 12, 1997
Box/Folder
1/1 The Calico Winter Count 1825-1877: An Oglala Lakota History
Field notes and manuscript

Names and SubjectsReturn to Top

Subject Terms

  • Personal Papers/Corporate Records (University of Washington)

Other Creators

  • Personal Names
    • Holy Rock, Johnson (creator)
    • Marrowbone, Ben (creator)
    • Meya, Wilhelm K (creator)
    Corporate Names
    • Jacobs Research Fund (creator)