SHSND Home > Archives > Archives Holdings > Archives & Manuscripts > Indians of North America > 10494
To schedule an appointment, please contact us at 701.328.2091 or archives@nd.gov.

OCLC WorldCat Logo

SHSND Photobook - Digitized images from State Archives

Digital Horizons

2019-2021 Blue Book Cover

Federal Depository Library Program

Chronicling America

Manuscripts by Subject - Indians of North America - #10494

Title: Robert C. Hollow Papers

Dates: 1964-1973

Collection Number: 10494

Quantity: 12 feet

Abstract: Research notes, card files, lexicons, and audiotapes of research on the Dakota, Assiniboine, and Mandan languages.

Provenance: The State Historical Society of North Dakota acquired the Robert C. Hollow Collection from Dr. Robert C. Hollow’s mother, Edna Hollow in December 1986. The inventory was prepared by Douglas R. Parks and Raymond J. DeMallie in July 1996.

Copyrights: Copyrights to materials in this collection remain with the donor, publisher, author, or author's heirs.  Researcher should consult the 1976 Copyright Act, Public Law 94‑553, Title 17 U.S. Code and an archivist at this repository if clarification of copyright requirements is needed.

Access: This collection is open under the rules and regulations of the State Historical Society of North Dakota.

Citation: Researchers are requested to cite the collection title, collection name, and the State Historical Society of North Dakota in all footnote and bibliographic references.

Collection Note: Texts from Boxes 3 and 5 were digitized by Dr. John P. Boyle, Northeastern Illinois University in 2010 and can be found at www.digitalhorizonsonline.org

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH

Robert Charles Hollow, Jr. was born July 18, 1944 to Edna Healy and Robert Charles Hollow, Sr. in Oakland, California.  He attended school in Oakland and graduated from Fremont High School in 1961. He earned a B. A. and Ph.D. in Linguistics at the University of California, Berkeley. He was Associate Professor of Linguistics at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill before coming to Bismarck, ND in 1976. He was an instructor at Mary College and researcher with the North Dakota Indian Languages Program. Considered the foremost authority on the Mandan Indian language, Dr. Hollow compiled the only dictionary, as well as a grammar, of Mandan.
In 1978, Dr. Hollow joined the State Historical Society of North Dakota as Curator of Collections. He was the author of a number of scholarly papers on linguistics and prepared a collection of eight Mandan texts appearing in Earth Lodge Tales from the Upper Missouri. An avid stamp collector, he also wrote many articles on philately. Hollow died in Bismarck on May 23, 1986 at the age of 41.

BOX / FOLDER INVENTORY

Box 1:
1 File box comprising the linguistic citations of Edwin Denig (mid 19th century). Forms are on 4 x 6 inch slips.
2 File box entitled “Early Assiniboine Forms,” comprising linguistic forms of nineteenth and early twentieth century recorders. Forms are on 3 x 5 inch slips.
3 Open box lid containing Lakota linguistic forms on 4 x 6 inch slips.
4 Packet of 4 x 6 inch slips entitled “Mandan.”
5 Packet of 4 x 6 inch slips entitled “Dakota.”

Box 2:
1 File box comprising Stoney linguistic forms recorded at Morley, Alberta. Forms are on 3 x 5 inch slips.
2 File box comprising Assiniboine linguistic forms recorded on the Fort Peck Reservation, Montana. Forms are on 3 x 5 inch slips.
3 File box comprising early Assiniboine word lists. Forms are on 3 x 5 inch slips.
4 File box comprising Zoque linguistic forms. Forms are on 3 x 5 inch slips.
5 File folder entitled “Dakota.” Included are various papers, some xeroxed, on Sioux grammar.
6 File folder containing material for a book review of Lakota Dictionary by Father Eugene Buechel.
7 File folder entitled “Assiniboine sound change.”
8 Collection of papers on Dakota grammar. Papers written by students in a linguistics field methods class, University of California, Berkeley, 1965.
9 Workbook in Descriptive Linguistics by Henry Gleason.

Box 3:
1 Seven field notebooks:
[1]  Waxpekhute #1. Nov. 1969. Mrs. St. John, Sisseton, S.D.
[2]  Waxpekhute #2. [All pages blank]
[3]  Ft. Peck -Yanktonai. Sept. 8-12, 1969. George Blount
[4]  Oglalla. Oct. 1969. Joe and Ruby Swift Bird
[5]  Sioux - Lakota. 9/29-11/10, 1964
[6]  [Lakota] 11/17/64-1/5/65
[7]  Dakota - Notebook 3; Linguistics 220 B. 2/16-4/20, 1965
Notebooks 4-7 all done at Berkeley, Cal.
2 Printed booklet entitled “Mandan Teacher’s Guide.”
3 Printed booklet entitled “Arikara Teacher’s Guide.”
4 Black three-ring binder containing Mandan texts recorded, transcribed, and translated by Robert C. Hollow. Texts are in typed interlinear format. ca. 400 pp.
5 Thirty-one five-inch reel-to-reel tape recordings, labeled as follows (item level inventory below):
12 tapes labeled “Mandan,” comprising lexical elicitations and texts, all from Hollow’s Mandan field work.
1 tape labeled “Assiniboine word list.”
1 tape labeled “Assiniboine, Mr. and Mrs. Ed Archdale, Frazer, MT, recorded Sept. 1967 by Robert C. Hollow.”
2 tapes labeled “Stoney.” These are copies of tapes recorded by Allan R. Taylor,                Dept. of Linguistics, University of Colorado, Boulder.
12 tapes labeled “John White Eagle.”
1 tape labeled “Sanborn White Eagle.”
1 tape labeled “Dakota: semivowels, texts, verbs.”
1 tape entitled “Laryngealization contrasts.”

Box 4:
1 Two black three-ring binders. Contents are grammatical notes compiled by Hollow as the basis for his sketch of Mandan grammar. The notes are arranged by grammatical morphemes together with examples.
2 Two file boxes of 4 x 6 inch Mandan-English lexical slips, arranged alphabetically by Mandan.

Box 5:
1 One black three-ring binder. Contents are Mandan texts recorded by Edward Kennard, retranscribed and retranslated by Robert C. Hollow. The texts are presented in typed interlinear format. ca. 500 pp. The original Kennard texts are in the Library of the American Philosophical Society, Philadelphia.
2 One file box of 4 x 6 inch English-Mandan lexical slips, arranged alphabetically by English.
3 One file box of 4 x 6 inch slips comprising Mandan roots, arranged alphabetically by Mandan, with derived Mandan stems based on these roots together with English translations.

Box 6:
1 One file box of 4 x 6 inch slips of Mandan-English vocabulary.
2 One file box of 4 x 6 inch slips of miscellaneous material.
3 One file box of 3 x 5 inch slips of inflected forms of Mandan words.

Box 7:
1 One box containing the original typescript of Robert Hollow’s doctoral dissertation entitled “A Mandan Dictionary” (University of California, Berkeley, 1970).
2 Fifteen bound composition notebooks. Contents are as follows:
Notebook #1, green marbled cover: Dated June to July 1966. Contains Mandan vocabulary with English translations. Contents marked “slipped.” 119 pp.
Notebook #2, green marbled cover. Contains Mandan vocabulary with Hidatsa equivalents. 6 pp.
Notebook #3, green marbled cover: Dated July 1966 through July 1967. Contains Mandan vocabulary with English translations. Contents all marked “slipped.” 118pp.
Notebook #4, green marbled cover: Dated July 1967. Contains Mandan vocabulary with English translations. Contents all marked “slipped” or “segmented.” 86 pp. + 18 unpaginated pp.
Two notebooks entitled “Journal,” green marbled cover. One dated 1967, 69 pp. Other dated 1968, 8 pp.
Untitled, undated notebook, green marbled cover. One part contains Hidatsa, Yanktonai Sioux, Yankton Sioux, and Lakota Sioux vocabulary with English translations; another section contains Mandan ethnobotanical terms. 84 plus pp.
Untitled, undated, gray cover. Contains “Possible monosyllabic morphemes in Mandan.” 83 pp.
Untitled, undated, gray cover. Contains Mandan verbal paradigms with English translations. Contents all marked “slipped.” 73 pp.
Untitled, undated, gray cover. Contains Mandan vocabulary, including verbal paradigms, with English translations, and two short texts in interlinear format. 79 pp.
Untitled, undated, gray cover. Contains one text recorded by Edward Kennard and reelicited and retranslated by Hollow. 13 pp.
Untitled, undated, blue cover. Contains transcriptions of tape recorded lexical material. Contents all marked “slipped.” 19 pp.
Notebook entitled “Mandan #5,” blue cover. Dated August 1968. Contains reelicited vocabulary originally recorded by Alfred Bowers. Contents all marked “slipped.” 157 pp.

Notebook entitled “Notebook #1 Mandan,” blue cover. Dated July 1968. Contains two texts presented in interlinear format, referenced to Hollow’s original tape recordings. 41 pp.
Notebook #2, green marbled cover: Dated July 1968. Contains three short Mandan texts presented in interlinear format; referenced to original tape recordings. ca. 20 pp.

3 Eleven manila file folders. Labels and contents as follows:
Labeled “Mandan Grammar.” Contains xerox copies of two items: Mandan hymnal compiled at the turn of the century by Rev. Charles Hall, Congregational missionary; and an article entitled “Mandan Grammar” by Edward Kennard, published in 1939 in the International Journal of American Linguistics.
Labeled “Mandan Texts.” Contains one text, entitled “Eye Juggler,” recorded by Hollow.
Labeled “Nasalization.” Contains a partially typed, partially handwritten manuscript of an article Hollow was writing on nasalization in Mandan. Also contains copies of two articles on vowel nasalization.
Labeled “Mandan Alphabet.” No contents.
Labeled “Linguistic Papers.” Contains Mandan texts.
Labeled “Work in Progress.” Contains miscellaneous working notes on Mandan linguistics.
Labeled “Mandan Miscellanea.” Contains miscellaneous working notes.
Labeled “Remarks on Nasalization in Mandan.” Contains a paper the contents of which were apparently incorporated into the first chapter of Hollow’s dissertation.
Labeled “James Holding Eagle.” Contains copies of two handwritten English versions of Mandan stories, together with typewritten transcriptions by Hollow.
Unlabeled. Contains miscellaneous working notes on Mandan linguistics.
Unlabeled. Contains xerox copies of pages from Frances Densmore’s monograph Mandan and Hidatsa Music.
Loose, miscellaneous yellow pages with notes on Mandan linguistics, as well as

miscellaneous 3 x 5 inch yellow file slips with Mandan vocabulary.

Box 8:
Large green file box, Mandan slip file dictionary, from which his dissertation was derived.

Box 9:
1 Series of 46 file folders containing early drafts of Mandan mythological texts. Most folders contain various versions, handwritten interlinear, typed interlinear, and sometimes free translations. Narrators include Annie Eagle, Mattie Grinnell, Otter Sage, Stephen Birdsbill, and Mark Mato. The first folder contains a draft introduction written for a published version of the texts.
2 Two yellow binders containing Crow grammatical information arranged according to English words.
3 Two xerox copies of Hollow’s dissertation.

Box 10:
Two 4 x 6 inch file boxes:
[1]  Mandan complex  lexical items, with morphological analysis. Organized by English gloss and by various historical recordings of words.
[2]  Comparative lexicon: Oglala, Yanktonai and Assiniboine. Organized by English gloss.
Legal size sheets of Stoney texts (photocopies). Mr. Will Goodstoney. Morley, 1971.  Stoney/English.
                1.   Story of Sign Language.
                2.   How They Eat.
                3.   Tell Us What You Know about Treaty Number 7.
                4.   Why They Live in This Reserve.
                5.   How The First Whiteman Came.
                6.   Iktumi.
                7.   Speech.
                8.   Different Languages.
                9.   What Kind of Love They Have.
                10.  History.
                11.  Life Stories: Carl Simeon.
                12.  Band Council.
                13.  Culture.
Six field notebooks of which three are Assiniboine, two are Stoney and the remaining notebook is a mixture of Old English, Algebra, and August-September 1969 Journal to Alberta and Montana. All notebooks have been slipped.
[1]  Fort Belknap Assiniboine. Sept. 16-18, 1969.  Estelle Blackbird.
[2]  Fort Peck Assiniboine. Aug. 29, 1967. Ed Archdale, Eveline Archdale.
[3]  Fort Peck Assiniboine. Sept. 10, 1969. Mrs. Driver, Mrs. Archdale.
[4]  Stoney #1.  Aug.-Sept. 1969. Mr. Hunter.
[5]  Stoney #2. Sept. 1969. Mr. Hunter.
[6]  Old English, etc. Log of trip to Canmore, Alberta, Aug. 29-Sept. 16, 1969.
Loose 3 x 5 inch slips of an unknown African language.
Loose slips of miscellaneous material from classes at UC-Berkeley.
Loose slips of Arapahoe with comparative Algonkian material.
Loose slips with questions concerning the origins and relationships of languages taken from various books.

Box 11:
1 File folder containing class handout and notes on Dakota Phonology.
2 Taylor and Rood Lakhota language lessons 6-10.
3 File folder containing a paper for a conference.
4 Four 3 x 5 inch file boxes:
[1]  Assiniboine: orange slips, English-Assiniboine.
[2]  “Santee” [sic; actually Yankton or Yanktonai]:
                yellow slips, arranged English-Indian
                white slips, additional forms
                yellow slips, apparently the same data, organized by initial Indian phoneme
[3]  Lakota:  Lakota-English, probably from graduate field methods class on Lakota at UC-Berkeley.
[4]  Assiniboine: arranged English-Assiniboine.

Box 12:
1 Black binder containing 223 page interlinear typescript of Hollow’s Mandan Narrative texts. These are a final version of the texts that are in the 46 folders in Box 9.
2 Four 3 x 5 inch slip file boxes:
[1]  Assiniboine slips, two-thirds box.  Mint green and white slips, mixed [Fort Peck and Fort Belknap, respectively?]
[2]  Fort Peck Assiniboine, one full box.  Mint green slips.
[3]  Mandan slips, one-third box.  Yellow slips.
[4]  Yanktonai, one full box. Orange slips.

Linguistic terminology from Maximilian of Wied, Travels in North America.

Tape Inventory:
10494-00001 Mandan Texts #1 Transcribed
O.S. 21 August 1967
Texts and translations apropos James Holding Eagle Manuscript
Recorded at 3¾
10494-00002 Mandan Text #2 Transcribed
                M. Grinnell and A. Eagle
                Side 1
000 Short Test and song 3¾
Annie Eagle 3 ¾
About 010 “arrow from log”
Abt 175 English 1 7/8
325
Side 2
000 Moon’s Son Mandan 3¾
275 30 minutes
10494-00003 Mandan Text #3
A Eagle
Berry picking – 011
013 August Garden 025
026 How Mandans Lived 062
065 pax’ruke Mandan Buffalo 275
276 Mandan naming 466
000-675 Notes on Mandan Ethnology
A. Eagle 1 7/8 ips
Date 8/30/66
Recorded at 3 ¾ 
10494-00004 Mandan Text 4
Speckled Arrow AE 16 August 1967
Mandan 000-302 7½
English 304-595 3¾
10494-00005 Mandan Text 5 Transcribed
A. Eagle
Mandan 000-054
English 055-102
Holy Woman Medicine Bundle
More English 102-132
Recorded at 3¾
Dated 8/31/66
Mattie Grinnell
2 leaves (?) soup
Woman’s Medicine Song
Dance Song
War Song
Recorded at 7½
Dated September 1, 1966
A. Eagle
Mandan 000-026 How first creator found that (?) brush was strong.
English 026-050
First Creator and Rose (?)
Mandan 050-094
English 094-156
September 1966
Skunk, Bear, and First Creator
August 1967
Mandan 154-190
English 190-234
This tape is recorded at 3¾ monophonic
10494-00006 Mandan Text #6 Transcribed
000-015 – Coyote and Trees (?)
019-160 – (Unknown)  ____(Sept) 1967
160-336
290-640 – English 7½
(Unknown)
Completed Side 2
000-22
Side 2
First Man and Royal Chief
AE
First Man and Royal Chief make the land
Parachute story
This tape is recorded at 3.75, monophonic
10494-00007 Mandan Text #7 Transcribed
                AE Packs Antelope
Mandan 000-68
English 69-126
AE says this is a Hidatsa story
10494-00008 Mandan Text #8 Transcribed
                Mattie Grinnell
                Text
                Moon’s son
                19 July 1967
                000-378
                Apparently this is a recording of fragments from three different tales.
End of tape 681
10494-00009 Lexical List #1 Mandan
                Speed 3¾
                Side 1 – Elicitation of Lexical Items – Annie Eagle – July 20, 1966
                Side 2 – Elicitation of Lexical Items – Annie Eagle – July 21, 1966
10494-00010 Lexical List #2 Mandan
                Speed 3¾
                Side 1 – Elicitation of Lexical Items – Annie Eagle, July 21, 1966
                Side 2 – ditto (?) – ditto, also B.C.B
10494-00011 Lexical List #3 Mandan
                Speed 3¾
                Side 1 and 2
                Lexical Elicitation
                A. Eagle                AE
                B. C. Breast         BCB
                July 22, 1962
10494-00012 Short Cal List – Mandan
                Annie Eagle
                Short California List
                1 7/8
10494-00013 Assiniboine word list
                Assiniboine edited
                #00366
                Speed 7 ½
10494-00014 Assiniboine
Assiniboine by Mr. and Mrs. Ed Archdale
Frazer, Montana
Recorded 1 September 1967 “by me”
Stereophonic 7½
10494-00015 Stoney (Assiniboine Texts) Morley, Alberta – Copy of tapes recorded by Allan R. Taylor, Dept. of Linguistics, University of Colorado, Boulder.
August 21, 1971 – Recorded at 3.75
First section
Informant: Carl Simeon, speaker of younger dialect

  1. New Year’s Oration – Lazarus Wesley
  2. English prayer by John Snow, introduced by (all younger dialect)

Second Section:
(Copy of Harbeck tape 7, Side B 3.8)
New Year’s Service at Community Hall, Jan 1, 1968, Morley
Dillon Rider
Stoney prayer (benediction) by Lazarus Wesley
10494-00016 Stoney (Assiniboine) Texts – Copy of tapes recorded by Allan R. Taylor, Dept. of Linguistics, University of Colorado, Boulder.
Morley, Alberta – August 23, 1971
Informant: Willie Good Stoney, speaker of older dialect
Recorded at 3.75
Collected by Allan R. Taylor, Boulder, Colorado
10494-00017 Reel No. 1 John White Eagle
Track 1 – speed 7½ – John White Eagle Pt. I – date 6/30/63
Track 1 – speed 7½ – John White Eagle Pt. II – date 7/14/63
Track 2 – speed 7½ – John White Eagle – date 7/14/63
Track 2 – speed 7½ – John White Eagle – date 7/21/63
10494-00018 Reel No. 2 John White Eagle
                Track 1 – Speed 7½ – John White Eagle – 7/21/63
                Track 1 – Speed 7½ – John White Eagle – 8/3/63
                Track 2 – Speed 7½ – John White Eagle – 8/3/63
                Track 2 – Speed 7½ – John White Eagle – 8/4/63
10494-00019 Reel No. 3 John White Eagle
Track 1 – Speed 7½ – Text 1 – John White Eagle – 8/3/63
Track 1 – Speed 7½ – Text 2 – John White Eagle – 8/13/63
Track 2 – Speed 7½ – Text 3 – John White Eagle – 9/16/63
Track 2 – Speed 7½ – Text 4 – John White Eagle – 10/24/63
10494-00020 Reel No. 4 John White Eagle
Track 1 – speed 7½ – John White Eagle – date 8/4/1963
Track 1 – speed 7½
Track 2 – speed 7½
10494-00021 Reel No. 5 John White Eagle
                Track 1 – Speed 7½ – John White Eagle – 9/10
                Track 2 – Speed 7½ – John White Eagle – 9/10
                Track 2 – Speed 7½ – John White Eagle – 9/11
                Track 2 – Speed 7½ – John White Eagle – 9/12
10494-00022 Reel No. 6 John White Eagle
                Track 1 – Speed 7½ – John White Eagle – 9/13
                Track 1 – Speed 7½ – John White Eagle – 10/7
                Track 1 – Speed 7½ – John White Eagle – 10/9
                Track 2 – Speed 7½ – John White Eagle – 10/9
                Track 2 – Speed 7½ – John White Eagle – 10/10
                Track 2 – Speed 7½ – John White Eagle – 10/16
                Track 2 – Speed 7½ – John White Eagle – 10/17
10494-00023 Reel No. 7 John White Eagle
Track 1 – speed 7½ – John White Eagle – 10/18
Track 1 – speed 7½ – John White Eagle – 11/20
Track 1 – speed 7½ – John White Eagle – 12/2
Track 2 – speed 7½ – John White Eagle –
Track 2 – speed 7½ – John White Eagle – 12/6
10494-00024 Reel No. 8
                Track 1 – Speed 7½ – Howard White Thunder – 11/21/63
                Track 1 – Speed 7½ – White Thunder – Text #5 – 11/22/63
10494-00025 Reel No. 9 John White Eagle
Track 1 – Speed 7½ – John White Eagle – date 12/6
Track 1 – Speed 7½ – John White Eagle – date 12/10
Track 2 – Speed 7½ – John White Eagle – date 12/11
Track 2 – Speed 7½ – John White Eagle – date 12/12
Track 2 – Speed 7½ – John White Eagle – date 12/17
Track 2 – Speed 7½ – John White Eagle – date 12/18
10494-00026 Reel No. 10 John White Eagle
Track 1 – Speed 7½ – John White Eagle – date 12/18/63
Track 1 – Speed 7½ – John White Eagle – date 12/19
Track 1 – Speed 7½ – John White Eagle – date 1/13/64
Track 2 – Speed 7½ – John White Eagle – date 1/13
Track 2 – Speed 7½ – John White Eagle – date 1/16
10494-00027 Reel No. 11 John White Eagle
                Track 1 – Speed 7½ – John White Eagle – 1/16/64
                Track 1 – Speed 7½ – John White Eagle – 1/28
                Track 2 – Speed 7½ – John White Eagle – 1/28
                Track 2 – Speed 7½ – John White Eagle – 2/3
10494-00028 Reel No. 12 John White Eagle
Track 1 – Speed 7½ – John White Eagle – date 2/4
10494-00029 Sanborn White Eagle
Track 1 recorded 6/29/63 –Sanborn White Eagle – Recording speed 7½
Track 2 recorded 6/29/63 – Sanborn White Eagle – Recording speed 7½
10494-00030 Dakota Text
                This tape is recorded at 7½ Monophonic full
                Dakota

  1. Semivowels
  2. Text 057
  3. Verbs

10494-00031 Laryngealization Contrasts
                Recorded at 7½ Monophonic
                Laryngealization Contrasts

Address:
612 East Boulevard Ave.
Bismarck, North Dakota 58505
Get Directions

Hours:
State Museum and Store: 8 a.m. - 5 p.m. M-F; Sat. & Sun. 10 a.m. - 5 p.m.
We are closed New Year's Day, Easter, Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Eve, and Christmas Day.
State Archives: 8 a.m. - 4:30 p.m. M-F, except state holidays; 2nd Sat. of each month, 10 a.m. - 4:30 p.m. Appointments are recommended. To schedule an appointment, please contact us at 701.328.2091 or archives@nd.gov.
State Historical Society offices: 8 a.m. - 5 p.m. M-F, except state holidays.

Contact Us:
phone: 701.328.2666
email: history@nd.gov

Social Media:
See all social media accounts