A Meskwaki-English and English-Meskwaki Dictionary Based on Early Twentieth-Century Writings by Native Speakers

"This dictionary has been made possible by the work of many people over many years. William Jones (1871-1909), as graduate student under Franz Boas, wrote his texts from dictation by speakers in the Tama settlement who were not named, perhaps at their request. He was assisted in editing and translating them by his father Henry Clay Jones (1844-1912). Truman Michelson (1879-1938), working for the Bureau of Ethnology of the Smithsonian Institution, collected over 27,000 pages of Meskwaki texts written by Meskwaki speakers, beginning in 1911 and continuing for a number of years. Nearly half of these pages were written by Alfred Kiyana (Keahna) (1877-1918). Other major contributors among the more than 30 writers were Charley H. Chuck (1867-1940), Sakihtanohkweha (1875-1957), Sam Peters (1887-1960), Jim Peters (1866-1917), Bill Leaf (1884-1947), and Jack Bullard (1879-1927). Michelson was assisted by Edward Davenport, Harry Lincoln, Horace Poweshiek, George Black Cloud, and others. James A. Geary compiled a slip file of words on the basis of manuscript and published sources and fieldwork. In our work in Tama we relied most extensively on the patient assistance of Adeline Wanatee (1910-1996) and Everett Kapayou (1933-2006) in pronouncing and explaining the words in the writings"--Preface (page v).