Franciscan Fathers Saint MichaelsBiblio.com
AN ETHNOLOGIC DICTIONARY OF THE NAVAHO LANGUAGE
1910réf. 508418The Franciscan Fathers St. Michaels Mission Press 1910. First Edition. Hardcover. NEAR FINE. First Printing hand-numbered copy '3' from an edition limited to 200 copies signed by 'Franciscan Fathers.' 7 8-536pp. Large 8vo sewn binding in red buckram with gilt stamped spine lettering originally issued in wraps. The first Navajo dictionary and the first book printed by the St. Michaels Press at the Franciscan Navajo Indian Mission. Compiled by three Franciscan priests under the direction of Fr. Berard Haile with no formal anthropological or linguistic training apart from their Seminary training in sacred languages this dictionary was an extraordinary accomplishment that stunned its first academic readers. The story of the coming of the Franciscan Friars to Navajo lands and their ethnographic work among the Dine people is relayed in fascinating detail in 'Tales of an Endishodi the memoirs of Berard Haile edited by Fr. Murray Bodo. The three fathers were first goaded into their work by a visit from Dr. Stewart Culin an anthropologist and director of the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences. Culin was researching a comparative work on Indian games and sports and visited St. Michaels during his travels among the Zuni Hopi and Navajo tribes. He appealed to the fathers to collect material for his research leaving them his notes from his study among the Zunis. Simply by mimicing these notes Haile Anselm and Leopold began interviewing their Navajo neighbors accompanying them on hunting trips and even participating in rituals and ceremonies which were later explained by elder singers and medicine men. Culin was so impressed by the wealth of original and previously undocumented material they submitted to him that he insisted they publish it themselves and so the project of an Ethnologic Dictionary was conceived. Culin's partnership in the project continued as he brokered the purchase of a press type cutter and other print-shop accessories. Culin also facilitated advance subscriptions to purchase the dictionary at $5.00 per copy with many East Coast institutions. Finally George Connelly a long time printer for the Cincinnati Enquirer had been dealing with health problems and was seeking some refuge from the city. He heard about the project and volunteered his services setting the type and incorporating a number of Fr. Leopold's hand-drawn illustrations. The completed project earned the aprobation of many distinguished anthropologists such as Yale's Edward Saphir and Frederick Webb Hodge at UW. The work was reprinted multiple times over the following century. Although in many ways Haile and other linguists and anthropologists have built on and moved beyond this work it was continually reprinted in its original state as a witness to the fresh encounter and unique picture of Navajo life at that specific turn-of-the-century moment. 'Fathers Anselm Weber Leopold Ostermann and Berard Haile were all priests of the Franciscan Province of Cincinnati Ohio. Father Anselm the Superior of the Mission at St. Michaels Arizona from 1900 till his death in 1921 was largely responsible for adding over 1.5 million acres to the Navajo Reservation writing countless letters to Congressmen and visiting Washington to lobby for additional lands for the Dine. Father Leopold was one of the key contributors to An Ethnologic Dictionary of the Navaho Language and an important person in building rapport with the Dine; and Father Berard who lived among the Dine for over half a century and was an extraordinary linguist did much to provide a written Navajo language and to record traditional Navajo chants and rituals.' Murray L. Bodo. The Franciscan Fathers [St. Michaels Mission Press] hardcover
Arches Bookhouse · États-Unis1 925,00 $US≈ 1 719,83 €
