Biographical Note
Joe E. Pierce was a faculty member in the Anthropology Department at
Portland State College at the time these recordings were made. Pierce
earned his Ph.D. at Indiana University in 1957 and specialized in
linguistics and world languages. He died in 1994.
Bruce J. Rigsby was a graduate student at the University of Oregon and
completed his Ph.D. in 1965.
Amelia Brown was described by James Collins in
Understanding Tolowa Histories: Western Hegemonies
and Native American Responses as "herbalist, midwife, cook, and
raconteur".
Content Description
The Oregon Native American Language Sound Recordings consist of
cassette audiotape recordings of interviews conducted by Joe E. Pierce
with members of the Coquille and Siletz tribes. The recordings were made
as part of a project funded by the National Science Foundation for a
systematic study of Native American languages in Oregon. Bruce J. Rigsby
also participated in the study.
The recordings document the Tolowa and Tutuni languages, especially
word phrases, songs, and stories. The grammatical structure of the
languages is also addressed. The bulk of the recordings are interviews
with Mrs. Amelia Brown; other individuals that are included in the
recordings are Mr. and Mrs. Lopez, Mrs. Ida Bensell, Hoxy Simmons, Miller
Collins, and Mrs. Carrie Streets.
The cassette audiotapes were prepared in the late 1980s by Tom Grigsby
of the OSU Anthropology Department from original reel-to-reel recordings.
Tape logs were prepared at that time and are included with the
collection.