Linguistic field recordings in Vancover, British Columbia in August and September 1989, and in New Aiyansh, British Columbia in August 1990. Nisgha language elicitations, word lists, and grammar; narratives about the Nisgha and Gitksan, and the flooding of Old Aiyansh; free translations of Psalm 23 and the Lord's Prayer into Nisgha; brief Christian hymn sung in Nisgha.

The Franz Boas Personal and Professional Papers contain a diverse assemblage of professional correspondence, family letters, and diaries, with a valuable series of essays and lectures by Boas on both professional and political topics (democracy, race, etc.). (NOTE: This collection is not to be confused with the much larger Franz Boas Papers collection (Mss.B.B61), which contains the vast majority of Boas's professional correspondence and was referred to as the "Professional Papers" in earlier decades.) During the half century leading up to the Second World War, Franz Boas helped to define academic anthropology in the United States. Trained as a geographer at the University of Heidelberg, Boas worked initially on the Inuit of Baffin Island and subsequently on the cultures of the Indians of the Northwest Pacific Coast, becoming a leading figure in American anthropology by the first decade of the twentieth century. As Professor of Anthropology at Columbia University, Boas made significant theoretical contributions to ethnology, linguistics, and physical anthropology, helping to ingrain the four fields approach in his discipline and introducing the concept of cultural relativism into wide currency. He was, as well, a committed Socialist and an ardent opponent of both racism and fascism.

This is part of the large inventory for the Franz Boas Papers (Mss B B61). For complete information concerning this collection, please view the Collection Description .