Tape 1 includes Tewa (not Tiwa) texts, vocabulary, speech, and song recorded by Ernest Riechert of Wycliffe Bible Translators at Nambe Pueblo, New Mexico. The remaining tapes includes vocabulary; texts; analysis of the Sandia material by an Isleta informant; household items; foods; directions; natural phenomena; buildings; fruits; time expressions; verbs; adverbs; checking George L. Trager's material; pronominal reference; greetings; animal names (including domesticated); festivals; other ethnographic information.

Primarily consists of autobiographical stories, creation stories, and medicine stories collected by Alfred W. Bowers in earlier decades. The stories are read in segments in Bowers' English translation to two native consultants, who then translate the material into both Mandan and Hidatsa, or occasionally into either Mandan or Hidatsa alone. A small number of stories are told in Mandan only. Also includes English discussions of the Mandan and Hidatsa domestic life, material culture, personal reminscences, and histories of the Crow-Flies-High Band and the Fort Buford and Fort Berthold settlements. Bowers' original table of contents also available. Recorded at Fort Berthold Indian Reservation, North Dakota, in 1969.

George Ord made important contributions as an ornithologist and writer but is also famous for his contempt of fellow ornithologist John James Audubon. Throughout his life he published numerous scientific articles and assisted in completing Alexander Wilson's life's work, American Ornithology; or, The Natural History of the Birds of the United States. Ord also left his mark as a member of the American Philosophical Society and as the president of the Academy of Natural Science of Philadelphia. The George Ord collection consists primarily of outgoing personal correspondence to Charles Waterton ranging from 1831 to 1866 that highlights Ord's professional as well as personal affairs, most notably his hostility toward Audubon. The collection is supplemented by correspondence of Ord's to and from various individuals regarding personal and business matters.