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Jessie Louise Donaldson-Anne Banks papers, 1922-1985

Overview of the Collection

Title
Jessie Louise Donaldson-Anne Banks papers
Dates
1922-1985 (inclusive)
Quantity
5.6 linear feet
Collection Number
2186, Collection 2186 (collection)
Summary
Jessie Louise Donaldson Schultz was the wife of writer James Schultz, a teacher and worker on the Blackfeet Reservation and Wind River Reservation, and an author of books about Nativer Americans. The collection consists of recordings and rough drafts of an autobiography; research notes; drafts of published and unpublished stories; royalty papers; legal agreements; correspondence with publishers, writers, friends and colleagues; color illustrations; pencil drawings; newspaper clippings; photographs; student papers and memorabilia.
Repository
Montana State University Library, Merrill G. Burlingame Special Collections
Montana State University-Bozeman Library
Merrill G Burlingame Special Collections
P.O. Box 173320
Bozeman, MT
59717-3320
Telephone: 4069944242
Fax: 4069942851
Access Restrictions

Collection is open for research.

Languages
Collection materials are in English
Sponsor
Funding for encoding this finding aid was provided by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities
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Biographical Note

Jessica Louise Donaldson Schultz Graham was born in Minnesota on August 17, 1887. She received her BA from the University of Minnesota in 1913. From 1915-1918, she taught in rural schools in Gallatin County, Montana. From 1918 to 1929, she taught at Montana State College (now Montana State University, Bozeman) in the English Department as an Instructor, Assistant Professor and was Acting Head of the Department during 1923-1924. During her time there, she directed a pageant of the Gallatin Valley in 1919 and in 1927, the production "The Masque of the Absaroka" depicting the Crow Indian cosmogony that involved Native Americans, students and townspeople. Interested in furthering programs for women students, she helped found Cap and Gown (the precursor to Mortar Board), the Women's Athletic Association and most notably the Spurs, for which she wrote the initiation ritual. She resigned from the college in 1929 and earned her MA in Anthropology from the University of California in 1930. In 1931, she married James Willard Schultz, noted for his books about the Blackfeet Indians, with whom she co-authored the book "The Sun God's Children" (a story of the Blackfeet) and started a career as a worker at the Blackfeet Indian Reservation at Browning, Montana. There she became the Community Worker under the WPA from 1937 to 1941. She helped to establish a craft shop at St. Mary, Montana for Blackfeet that featured their native costumes, equipment and tools. These craft industries eventually became a cooperative that substantially raised the income of the Blackfeet. She fostered the careers of individual Indian artists and was instrumental in the establishment of the Plains Indian Museum in Browning. She started a lending library and did social welfare work among the members of the tribe. From 1941 to 1953, she served the same type of position with the Bureau of Indian Affairs at the Wind River Reservation in Wyoming for the Shoshone and Arapaho tribes. The cooperative movement she started was embraced by many Northern Plains Indians and still functions across many reservations of the west.

Following the death of James Willard Schultz in 1947 and Jessie's retirement in 1953, she married Harry L. Graham and moved to California where she continued to work on fictional and factual writings about Native Americans of North America. Her published works appeared in Ladies Home Journal, Woman's Home Companion, Popular Mechanics, Montana the Magazine of Western History, and various educational journals. She worked extensively on a primer series about Native Americans for young school children that was never published. She continued to visit Montana and the Blackfeet [Sisika (Blackfoot), Kainah (Blood) and Peigan] of Montana and Canada during the summer months. In 1961, she was the recipient of an Honorary Doctorate of Letters from Montana State University. In the late 1960s, she donated her collection of Indian artifacts, photographs, and James Willard Schultz papers to the Museum of the Rockies.

In the early 1970s, the Museum of the Rockies arranged for her to tape record her autobiography. Jessica wrote a rough draft from the transcriptions of these tapes and Anne Banks (Museum volunteer) edited and created an autobiography from that material which was never published. In 1974-1975, she established the James Willard Schultz Indian Heritage Award for Indian students of Montana which was administered by the Museum of the Rockies. Jessica Donaldson Schultz Graham died on June 30, 1976.

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Content Description

The collection consists of recordings and rough drafts of an autobiography; research notes; drafts of published and unpublished stories; royalty papers; legal agreements; correspondence with publishers, writers, friends and colleagues; color illustrations; pencil drawings; newspaper clippings; photographs; student papers and memorabilia.

The collection has been arranged into three series. Series 1 contains materials related to an autobiography of Jessie Donaldson created by her and edited by Anne Banks. It includes recordings and transcripts of her autobiography with her margin notes and corrections; rough drafts by Jessie; a final draft by Jessie and Anne Banks' final edited version; an extensive set of correspondence Jessica had with Anne Banks and Leslie C. Drew, Director of the Museum of the Rockies; Anne Banks' correspondence with David Andrews (editor of the Piegan Storyteller, the newsletter of the James Willard Schultz Society), Harry James and others.

Series 2 includes Jessie Donaldson's research and writings, papers, correspondence and memorabilia. It has extensive college anthropological research notes on Indians of North America from a variety of published sources, their characteristics and especially their religion with emphasis on the Blackfeet tribes [materials include a kinship list, traditional Blackfeet designs with color drawing by Paio-Taki "Flying Woman," a large collection of myth stories, Sun Dance charts and stories of her initiation into the Matokiks, The Women's Buffalo Society of the Blood Indians]; a preliminary typed plan and drafts for a series of primer books for children (with watercolor illustrations by Olga Ross Hannon); papers including play scripts or typescripts related to her production of "The Masque of the Absarokas," information and correspondence for the James Willard Schultz Indian Heritage Award, her Honorary Doctorate of Letters and congratulatory letters, her activities with the Spurs, three diaries of her activities in the 1950-1960s period and personal correspondence.

Series 3 is Jessie Donaldson's papers related to the publication of James Willard Schultz stories including the posthumous books: "Blackfeet and Buffalo; Memoirs of Life among the Indian," edited by Keith C. Seele, a book derived from his stories: "Bear Chief's War Shirt," edited by Wilbur L. Betts and four books edited by Eugene Lee Silliman: three books of James Willard Schultz collected stories ("Many Strange Characters: Montana Frontier Tales," "Floating on the Missouri," "Why Gone Those Times? Blackfoot Tales") and one book of collected western stories ("We Seized Our Rifles: Recollections of the Montana Frontier"). The series includes correspondence, carbon copied and copy draft manuscripts, galley proofs, work papers and memorabilia of Eugene Lee Silliman's books; typescripts and photocopies of published and unpublished stories exchanged by Silliman and Betts; photocopied stories by Harry James about James Willard Schultz; assorted correspondence with numerous publishers including Houghton Mifflin, the Faucett Company, University of Oklahoma Press, Cavalier Magazine and others; royalties statements; and publication agreements by James Willard Schultz and Jessie Donaldson including television and film rights.

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Use of the Collection

Preferred Citation

[Creator Name], [Date of Creation], [Brief Description of Object], Folder [#], Box [#], [Collection Name], [Collection #], Montana State University (MSU) Library, Bozeman, MT. In addition, the Museum of the Rockies and Anne Banks must be given written credit in any publication citing or incorporating the material in this collection.

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Administrative Information

Arrangement

Series 1: Autobiographical material, 1969-1979

Series 2: Jessie Donaldson research materials and personal papers, 1928-1976

Series 3: James Willard Schultz's published and unpublished works, 1922-1985

Acquisition Information

The bulk of the papers of Jessica Louise Donaldson Schultz Graham and Anne Banks were donated by the Museum of the Rockies in 1985 and 2000. Integrated into the collection are accessions 2288 (donated by Anne Banks in 1993), 2216 (donated by Eugene Lee Silliman), and 2278 and 2387 (donated by David C. Andrews in 1972 and 1998).

Processing Note

This collection was processed 2009 May 14

Preservation Note

Original audiotapes made by Jessica Donaldson Schultz Graham are restricted due to fragility. Researchers should use the digital copies or the transcriptions. Permission required to access the original audiotapes.

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Detailed Description of the Collection

Names and Subjects

Subject Terms

  • Blackfeet Indian Reservation (Mont.)
  • Boats and boating--Missouri River
  • Crow mythology
  • English teachers--Montana--Bozeman
  • Frontier and pioneer life--Montana
  • Historical drama-Montana-Bozeman
  • Indian students--Montana
  • Indians of North America
  • Indians of North America--Religion
  • James Willard Schultz Indian Heritage Award
  • Kainah Indians
  • Masque of the Absaroka
  • Piegan Indians
  • Siksika Indians
  • Siksika Indians--Fiction
  • Siksika Indians-Folklore
  • Siksika Indians-Religion
  • Siksika Indians-Social life and customs
  • Social life and customs
  • Sun dance
  • Women authors, American-Montana-Bozeman
  • Women college students--Montana--Bozeman--Societies, etc.
  • Women college teachers--Montana--Bozeman

Personal Names

  • Andrews, David C. (David Chisholm), 1924--Correspondence
  • Banks, Anne
  • Bear Chief (Siksika Indian)--Fiction
  • Betts, Wilbur Ward
  • Donaldson, Jessie Louise
  • Drew, Leslie C.--Correspondence
  • Hannon, Olga Ross
  • James, Harry C. (Harry Clebourne), 1896-1978--Correspondence
  • Schultz, James Willard, 1859-1947
  • Silliman, Eugene Lee
  • Silliman, Eugene Lee-We seized our rifles

Corporate Names

  • Fawcett Publications, Inc.
  • Houghton Mifflin Company
  • Montana State College--Faculty
  • Museum of the Rockies
  • SPURS National Honor Society
  • University of Oklahoma-Press

Geographical Names

  • Bozeman (Mont.)
  • Gallatin Valley (Mont.)-Drama
  • Missouri River--Description and travel
  • Montana
  • Montana--Social life and customs

Form or Genre Terms

  • Audiotapes
  • Autobiographies
  • Diaries
  • Fiction
  • Fiction
  • Galley proofs
  • Illustrations
  • Photographs
  • Photographs
  • Plays
  • Short stories

Kim Allen Scott, 2009; Anne Foster and Jodi Allison-Bunnell
2026

CC Attribution
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

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