Name/Title
Letter from Leo Frachtenberg to Harry GeorgeEntry/Object ID
Q1430.634.141CDescription
Letter from Leo Frachtenberg to Harry George providing information about the Coos tribe. a typed letter on official letterhead from the Smithsonian Institution's Bureau of American Ethnology. Vol 1 P. 141C
Dear Mr. George-
Mr. Egbert, Superintendent of the Siletz Agency, asked me to give you information concerning the Coos Indians as required of him in your letter of February 22nd. I have been very busy lately and was unable to give you that information at a sooner date.
As you probably know by this time, I have worked up the language, traditions, mythology and history of the Coos Indians using as my informants most of the people who were alive in 1909.
The seventh annual report of the Bureau of American Ethnology and Bulletin, Part 1, Handbook of American Indians, necessarily contained only partial information, because
it was gathered by persons who did not make a thorough investigation. Consequently the information at times is misleading and incorrect. The Kusan family consist of two tribes , vis., the Coos Proper (or Hanis, as they call themselves) and the lower Coquelle (or Milluk, as they call themselves). All of these survivors of these two tribes live at the present writing mostly near Acme, Lane Co., Oregon, and around Marshfield, Oregon.
As to the difference in the names of the tribes that you found, you must attribute
H. L. George -2-
these to the fact that different individuals served as informants and, in the Indian language, just as in our tongue, synonyms occur very often. You need not therefore be surprised to find Nasumi and Nacu denoting the same tribe
As to your desire of getting some specimens of Kusan material culture, such as baskets, permit me to advise you to give up trying for one of these baskets. The Coos people make baskets similar to those of the tribes whose neighbors they were. There was absolutely no originality or deviation from the general standard. Furthermore, I very much doubt if you will be able to get such a basket, as very few of the Kusan women are left. At the best you may get a basket made by a Kusan woman, but such a basket to my mind will have little value from the ethnological point if view.
If there be any other matter pertaining to Indians that you would like to take up with me, I shall be very glad to give you all the information at my disposal.
Will you, for the sake of curiosity, tell me how you happened to become interested in this subject? I am asking this question because my experience has shown me that few latmen are interested especially in the linguistic division of our North American Indians.
Very truly yours,Subject
Leo Frachtenberg
Smithsonian Institution
Bureau of American Ethnology
Washington, D.C.
Siletz, Oregon
Egbert, Knott
Coos
Kusan
Lower Coquelle
Nasumi
NacuSubject Person/Organization
Leo Joachim Frachtenberg, Harry L. George Collection
