Spoken Creek (Muskogee) Documentation Project

FAIN: PD-230660-15

College of William and Mary (Williamsburg, VA 23186-0002)
Jack Bradford Martin (Project Director: October 2014 to present)

Documentation of Creek, an endangered Muscogean language, originally spoken in the southeastern United States, and now spoken by the Muscogee (Creek) and Seminole nations in Oklahoma, and the Seminole tribe in Florida.  The project would produce 24 hours of audiovisual recordings, transcriptions, and translations into English and would train students in language documentation methods.  The recordings and linguistic analysis would be archived at the Sam Noble Museum of Natural History at the University of Oklahoma and would be made available on the Web.

The proposed project builds on existing collaboration between the College of William and Mary and the Seminole Nation of Oklahoma to provide the first documentation of spoken Creek (or Muskogee, also spelled Muscogee, Mvskoke, and Maskoke). Video recordings will be made over three years and will consist of targeted interviews covering traditional practices, oral history, tribal history, and spontaneous conversation. Approximately 24 hours of recordings will be selected for transcription and translation. Workshops in Oklahoma will provide training for individuals interested in video production and using software to segment, transcribe, and translate video or audio recordings. Much of the transcription and translation will be done by students in Bacone College’s Master-Apprentice program paired with fluent speakers. Materials will be archived at Sam Noble Museum of Natural History. Presentation versions will be published online.

Associated Products

Heleluyvn Yvhikares ("I Will Sing Hallelujah"): A Documentation of Muscogee-Seminole Hymns and Hymn-Singing Practice Within the Seminole and Muscogee (Creek) Nations of Oklahoma (Article)
Title: Heleluyvn Yvhikares ("I Will Sing Hallelujah"): A Documentation of Muscogee-Seminole Hymns and Hymn-Singing Practice Within the Seminole and Muscogee (Creek) Nations of Oklahoma
Author: Fredrick, Sarah K.
Abstract: Studies hymn singing practices within the Muscogee (Creek) and Seminole nations. Provides musical notation for many songs.
Year: 2016
Primary URL: http://publish.wm.edu/honorstheses/917/
Access Model: open access
Format: Other
Publisher: Honors thesis, College of William and Mary

Oral history as a tool in studying language change: The Muskogee (Creek)/Seminole Project (Conference Paper/Presentation)
Title: Oral history as a tool in studying language change: The Muskogee (Creek)/Seminole Project
Author: Martin, Jack B.
Abstract: A report on the Muscogee (Creek/Seminole) documentation project and types of variation found within the interviews, especially a difference originally thought to be men's vs. women's speech.
Date: 02/14/2018

In Haas’s Footsteps: Documenting Seminole-Creek Oral History and Conversation (Conference Paper/Presentation)
Title: In Haas’s Footsteps: Documenting Seminole-Creek Oral History and Conversation
Author: Martin, Jack B.
Author: Johnson, Jennifer
Abstract: Mary R. Haas collected a large body of written texts in Muskogee (Creek) from 1936-1940. In 2016 the Seminole Nation and William & Mary began a DEL-funded project to provide video documentation of Muskogee conversations in the Seminole and Muscogee Nations of Oklahoma. Initial transcriptions and translations were done by college-age tribal members who had studied the language paired up with elders. We report on our experiences with the project and some of the results of that work.
Date: 01/06/2020
Conference Name: Society for the Study of Indigenous Languages of the Americas

Muskogee (Seminole/Creek) Documentation Project (Web Resource)
Title: Muskogee (Seminole/Creek) Documentation Project
Author: Martin, Jack B.
Abstract: A website that allows video interviews to shared with community members. The website provides links to the videos, transcriptions, and translations. A collection of songs (hymns) is also available.
Year: 2015
Primary URL: http://muskogee.pages.wm.edu/interviews/

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