Billy Proctor Collection
Collection
Identifier: NALC-BPR
The Billy Proctor Collection is a digital audio collection centered on the Quapaw language, a Siouan language originally spoken in part of present day Arkansas, now spoken in Oklahoma. The collection consists of more than 70 hours of audio interviews, conversations, oral histories, songs, language classes and tribal business and general council meetings conducted in Quapaw with some English. Collectively, it is one of the largest Quapaw language collections known to exist.
Among the recordings are the voices of Quapaw elders Bill, Charles, Kugee, and Maude Supernaw; Alice Crawfish Gilmore; Jake White Crow; and Edna Wilson. Among the interviewers are Robert Whitebird, John McKibbon, Kristi Hampton Collington and linguist Robert Rankin of the University of Kansas.
The collection was first established by Billy Proctor, a member of the Quapaw Tribe and a former language department instructor for the Osage Nation in northeast Oklahoma. Mr. Proctor teaches Quapaw and has been recognized for using audio recordings in various formats to research, preserve and teach Native languages. Proctor’s use of audio recordings has been the focus of presentations he’s delivered to the Dhegiha language tribes, enabling him to demonstrate the similarities in their words and sentences.
The vocabulary, conversations, and stories in this collection were originally recorded in the late 1960s through the 1990s, and restored by the Native American Languages Department at the Sam Noble Museum in 2012.
Among the recordings are the voices of Quapaw elders Bill, Charles, Kugee, and Maude Supernaw; Alice Crawfish Gilmore; Jake White Crow; and Edna Wilson. Among the interviewers are Robert Whitebird, John McKibbon, Kristi Hampton Collington and linguist Robert Rankin of the University of Kansas.
The collection was first established by Billy Proctor, a member of the Quapaw Tribe and a former language department instructor for the Osage Nation in northeast Oklahoma. Mr. Proctor teaches Quapaw and has been recognized for using audio recordings in various formats to research, preserve and teach Native languages. Proctor’s use of audio recordings has been the focus of presentations he’s delivered to the Dhegiha language tribes, enabling him to demonstrate the similarities in their words and sentences.
The vocabulary, conversations, and stories in this collection were originally recorded in the late 1960s through the 1990s, and restored by the Native American Languages Department at the Sam Noble Museum in 2012.
Dates
- 1960 - 1999
Language of Materials
The collection materials are in Quapaw and English.
Extent
1 See container summary (1 archival CD box; digital files on 2 RAID systems.)
Overview
The Billy Proctor Collection contains audio recordings documenting the Quapaw language. It consists of songs, stories, interviews, vocabulary lessons, and prayers and features the voices of Quapaw elders and linguist Robert Rankin.
Repository Details
Part of the Native American Languages Collection Repository