Scope and Contents
The collection consists of writings, correspondence, research and teaching material, photographs, printed material, audiovisual material, computer disks, and other papers, documenting the literary and academic career of Gerald Robert Vizenor and relating to many of his published works on Native American literature, history, and culture.
Included are drafts, notes, legal and financial records, and ephemera for Interior Landscapes, Blue Ravens, Treaty Shirts, Native Tributes, Native Provenance, and Satie on the Seine; Vizenor's research and writings related to the murder conviction of Thomas James White Hawk; and articles he contributed to the Minneapolis Tribune. The collection also contains papers and photographs documenting Vizenor's early life and family, including images of the White Earth Reservation; several photographs of children at residential schools in Minnesota and Nebraska; photographs of Indigenous activists, artists, writers, and students; and materials related to the Constitution of the White Earth Nation, of which Vizenor was a principal author.
Dates
- 1880 - 2020
- Majority of material found within 1960-2015
Creator
Conditions Governing Access
The materials are open for research.
Boxes 44-45, 47, 63, 102, and 124 (audiovisual material): Restricted fragile material. Reference copies may be requested. Consult Access Services for further information.
Boxes 46, 80, 85, 101, and 123 (digital media): Restricted Fragile. Reference copies of electronic files may be requested. Consult Access Services for further information.
Conditions Governing Use
The Gerald Robert Vizenor Papers is the physical property of the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University. Literary rights, including copyright, belong to the authors or their legal heirs and assigns. For further information, consult the appropriate curator.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Purchased from Ken Lopez Bookseller on various funds, 2000-2019. For more information consult the appropriate curator.
Arrangement
Organized into six groupings: August 2000 Acquisition; August 2004 Acquisition; May 2008 Acquisition; October 2012 Acquisition; September 2015 Acquisition; October 2019 Acquisition.
Material within this collection has been organized by acquisition reflecting the fact that the collection has been acquired in increments over time.
Researchers should note that material within each acquisition overlaps with and/or relates to material found in other acquisitions. For instance, correspondence and writings can be found in all three groupings. In order to locate all relevant material within this collection, researchers will need to consult each acquisition described in the Collection Contents section.
Researchers should also note that similar material can be arranged differently in each acquisition, depending on how the material was organized when it was received by the library.
Extent
127.39 Linear Feet ((123 boxes) + 1 cold storage and 2 broadside)
Language of Materials
English
Catalog Record
A record for this collection is available in Orbis, the Yale University Library catalog
Persistent URL
Abstract
The collection consists of writings, correspondence, research and teaching material, photographs, printed material, audiovisual material, computer disks, and other papers, documenting the literary and academic career of Gerald Robert Vizenor and relating to many of his published works on Native American literature, history, and culture.
Gerald Robert Vizenor (1934-)
Gerald Robert Vizenor is a Native American author, poet, and teacher. His works of prose comprise both fiction and nonfiction, and include The People Named the Chippewa: Narrative Histories (1984), Bearheart: The Heirship Chronicles (1990; originally published as Darkness in Saint Louis Bearheart in 1978), The Heirs of Columbus (1991), Manifest Manners: Postindian Warriors of Survivance (1994), Blue Ravens (2014), Treaty Shirts: October 2034, A Familiar Treatise on the White Earth Nation (2016), Native Tributes (2018), Native Provenance: The Betrayal of Cultural Curiosity (2019), and Satie on the Seine: Letters to the Heirs of the Fur Trade (2020), among others. Vizenor is the founder and editor of the American Indian Literature and Critical Studies series at the University of Oklahoma Press.
Vizenor was born in 1934, and is an enrolled member of the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe, White Earth Reservation. He graduated from the University of Minnesota in 1960, and is Professor of American Studies at the University of New Mexico, and Professor Emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley.
Processing Information
Collections are processed to a variety of levels, depending on the work necessary to make them usable, their perceived research value, the availability of staff, and competing priorities. The library attempts to provide a basic level of preservation and access for all collections as they are acquired, and does more extensive processing of higher priority collections as time and resources permit.
This collection received a basic level of processing, including rehousing and in some instances minimal organization, at or around the time of receipt by the library. Further description was carried out in 2011. Various acquisitions associated with the collection have not been merged and organized as a whole. Each acquisition is described separately in the contents list below, titled according to month and year of acquisition.
As a rule, descriptive information found in the Collection Contents section is drawn in large part from information supplied with the collection and from an initial survey of the contents. Folder titles appearing in the contents list below are often based on those provided by the creator or previous custodian. Titles have not been verified against the contents of the folders in all cases. Otherwise, folder titles are supplied by staff during initial processing.
This collection includes material formerly classed as: Uncat MSS 71, Uncat MSS 701, and Uncat MSS 1029.
This finding aid may be updated periodically to account for new acquisitions to the collection and/or revisions in arrangement and description.
- American fiction -- Indian authors
- American literature -- Indian authors
- American poetry -- Indian authors
- Audiocassettes
- Audiovisual materials
- Authors -- United States -- 20th century
- Authors, American -- 20th Century -- Archives
- Born digital
- Electronic documents
- Indian literature -- United States
- Indians of North America -- Fiction
- Motion pictures (visual works)
- Native American literature
- Off-reservation boarding schools -- United States -- Pictorial works
- Ojibwa Indians -- Fiction
- Photographs
- Poets -- United States -- 20th century
- Poets, American -- 20th Century -- Archives
- Sound recordings
- Videocassettes
- Vizenor, Gerald Robert, 1934-
- White Earth Band of Chippewa Indians
- White Earth Indian Reservation (Minn.) -- Pictorial works
- White Hawk, Thomas James, 1948-
- Title
- Guide to the Gerald Robert Vizenor Papers
- Author
- by Beinecke staff, Brooke McManus
- Date
- 2007-05-16. Revised: November 2022.
- Description rules
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
- Language of description note
- Finding aid written in English.
Revision Statements
- 2023-08-07: Finding aid revised to contextualize oppressive and harmful descriptive language in the August 2000 acquisition. See the August 2000 acquisition processing note for more information.
Part of the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library Repository
Location
121 Wall Street
New Haven, CT 06511
Opening Hours
Access Information
The Beinecke Library is open to all Yale University students and faculty, and visiting researchers whose work requires use of its special collections. You will need to bring appropriate photo ID the first time you register. Beinecke is a non-circulating, closed stack library. Paging is done by library staff during business hours. You can request collection material online at least two business days in advance of your visit, using the request links in Archives at Yale. For more information, please see Planning Your Research Visit and consult the Reading Room Policies prior to visiting the library.