The Iron Thunderhorse Collection
November 2009
Over the years the works of Iron Thunderhorse have been scattered about in private and public collections all over the USA, Canada and abroad. In the past several years ACQTC has been organizing the Iron Thunderhorse Collection of books, manuscripts, scholarly research papers, newspaper columns, feature articles, prose and poetry, arts and crafts. This collection is 5,000 pages in volume and has numerous pieces of art and crafts as well. It also included important letters to and from Iron Thunderhorse, emails from students, teachers, professors, historians etc. This collection focuses on the Algonquian culture in general with its history, language, lore and traditions while specializing in the Quinnipiac Long Water Land Nation and Wappinger-Mattabesec Confederacy in particular.
Over the past 35 years, Iron Thunderhorse, Grand Sachem of the Quinnipiac Thunder Clan and Culture-Bearer to the Wappinger-Mattabesec Long Water Land Confederacy has accomplished an amazing feat. He has devoted his entire adult life to preserving this vast repository of works as his gift and legacy to the next seven generations to come. The academic world and general public has benefited as well.
In the 20th century the great ethnologists of the Smithsonian Institution’s Bureau of American Ethnology has compiled research on the indigenous cultures and traditions of this land’s First Nations. The works of such ethnologists as Francis Densmore, Frank G. Speck, James Hammond Trumbull, Gordon M. Day, John Menta and others even if they were combined into a single work or collaboration would just barely compare to the monumental collection of Iron Thunderhorse. He was nominated for The American Medal of Honor for his life’s work (see this page for more details).
His work continues and as it does ACQTC Scholars had been looking for a permanent home for the collection. So, in the past nine months, Jennifer O‘Niel, Head Archivist of the National Museum of the American Indian, Smithsonian Institution has been assisting ACQTC in this task.
In September 2009’s NMAI/SI Curatorial Council meeting a final recommendation was made based on a list compiled by ACQTC and samples of the collection. The 9/30/09 E-Mail to ACQTC stated: “The ‘Iron Thunderhorse Collection’ was evaluated at the September 2009 Meeting of the Curatorial Council of the National Museum of the American Indian … The Council feels that this collection would be [best] served … near your ancestral people, such as a local historical society or … [m]useum…”
So, with this evaluation in mind — Iron Thunderhorse made the final decision as to the future of the collection. ACQTC will be selecting six (6) regional Long-Water-Land archives (Historical Societies and Universities) from Western CT and Quinnipiac University and it has chosen one other National Archives so far to begin receiving digital copies of the collection between 2010 to 2012.
One of the other national locations that ACQTC has selected to be included in the archival repositories of the collection is The University of Arkansas at Little Rock (UALR) which is home to the SEQUOYAH RESEARCH CENTER. As described on their website, the SRC’s purposes include “preserving and disseminating the written words of Native peoples, this site provides research materials documenting all aspects of life among American Indians, Alaska Natives and First Nations of Canada … The Center documents contemporary Native American communities by creating, maintaining, and providing to the public the most comprehensive collection possible of Native newspapers, periodicals, and other publications; maintaining Native manuscripts and special collections… The center serves tribal communities and the general public by developing and maintaining the means of accessing the content of these collections … ANPA stands today as one of the world’s largest repositories of native thought.”
The Sequoyah Research Center now has the first digital file in the collection on CD. This is The Best of Iron Thunderhorse and has 75 of the Branford Review columns he wrote and a selection of a number of feature articles about the Quinnipiac. This CD Collection is a collector’s edition enhanced by graphic art and beautiful full color artwork done by Iron Thunderhorse and his wife Little Owl.
Visit the SRC online at anpa.ualr.edu; or you may contact or visit them at:
Sequoyah Research Center, UALR,
500 University Plaza,
University of Arkansas at Little Rock,
2801 S. University,
Little Rock, AR 72204-1099
Phone: (501) 569-8336.
