Handwritten and typewritten stories written by George W. Roskie for publications, including Boys' Life and Western Wild Life. Stories contained within the collection relate to his life in the frontier West, his service in the Spanish-American War, his reflections on boyhood, and his prejudiced, reductive views of Indigenous peoples. The Roskie collection contains materials that reflect outdated, biased, offensive views and opinions on Indigenous peoples.
Collection is open for research.
George Roskie was born September 1, 1874, in Montello, Wisconsin to a German father (Fred Roskie) and American mother. He was married to Lina Francis Roskie and had two children, Gertrude Roskie and George Frederick Roskie. From May 16, 1898, to October 5, 1899, George served in the First South Dakota Volunteer Infantry during the Spanish American War. He attended South Dakota State University in the early 1900s. In the 1930s, George moved to Billings, MT. George Roskie worked for the Boy Scouts as a scout executive and wrote short stories for Boys' Life and other publications that highlighted frontier life. On July 22, 1955, George Roskie died in Missoula, MT. He is buried at Sunset Hills Cemetery in Bozeman, MT.
Gift of Jamie Baker Roskie, 2021 June.
Contains several draft versions of "The Ceremony of the Wolf Clan", a draft of the "Three Tall Ones" section of "The Ceremony of the Wolf Clan", and outline of the ceremony within the "The Ceremony of the Wolf Clan".
Contains the pre-print version and published version of the story, "Burned Out Hunting". "Burned Out Hunting" was published in March 1935 in Western Wild Life (Volume III, Issue 3). Other articles/stories included in this issue of Western Life were "Vacation-Big Horn Canyon of Montana" by W.w. Gail, "The Duck Question" by N.G. Ashley, "There's a Catch In It" by Blaine Thurston, "The Call of the Mild" by Gene J. Lowall, "Lassoo" by Andy Fisher, "Goofus Birds" by Joseph Baldwin Halm, "Western Dude Ranches- What's It All About?" by A.H. Croonquist, "Our National Forests-Burned Out Hunting" by Geo. W. Roskie, "Arms and Ammunition-Is Your Gun a Full Choke" by W.L. Uht, "Rifle and Pistol- Greased Lightning" by Larry Boucher, "Fishing- The Time is Now" by Dan Barringer. The publication Western Wild Life was based out of Billings, Montana and a subsidiary of Western Wild Life Company.
Contains manuscript of Tonawanda, which contains sketches of canoes labeled with the Tonawanda appellation, as well as Roskie's handwritten story of the same name.
Contains handwritten and typed short stories/essays. Some of the titles included are : "The Last of His Race", "Modern Puritans", "The Born Not a Puritan", "The Boxers Movement", "The Escape", "The Mathamatical Grain", "The National Republican Convention", "Bones: a sketch of school life", "The Fall and Rise of Bones or Spoil on the Rod and Spare the Boy: a skectch of school life", "December", "New Years", "The Night Alarm", "A Broken Bin", "A Windy Day", "Brutus", "The Mong Remedy","The American Boy", "Modern Chivalry", "Two Brides", "Dinner at the Queen's Palace", "How the Blackfeet got the Buffalo", "Heavy Breast's Story", and "Lodge-Fire Stories of the Blackfeet". Other narratives are untitled. Short Stories/essays were originally mailed to Miss Martha Hawksworth (member of the registrar at Montana State College, which was a former appelation of MSU-Bozeman.
Contents were originally mailed to Boy's Life, a monthly magazine of the Boy Scouts of America. Contains five versions of Roskie's story "The Little River that Runs North". Correspondence to Norman T. Mathiews of Boy's Life is also included.