The New England Indian Papers Series: The Connecticut Colony Collection, 1603-1783

FAIN: RQ-50471-10

Yale University (New Haven, CT 06510-1703)
Paul Joseph Grant-Costa (Project Director: November 2009 to November 2014)

Preparation for online publication of a scholarly critical edition of Connecticut Native American primary source materials. (36 months)

The Yale Indian Papers Project is a cooperative endeavor among Yale University, the Connecticut State Library, the Connecticut Historical Society, the Massachusetts Archives, and the National Archives (U.K.) to address the dearth of published primary source materials on Connecticut Indians. It intends to fill this informational gap by creating an open-access virtual repository containing digital images of a series of relevant Connecticut Native American documents with corresponding transcriptions and annotations to be prepared during the proposed grant period and presented as The New England Indian Papers Series: The Connecticut Colony Collection, 1603-1783.

Associated Products

Native Voices: New England Tribal Families (Exhibition)
Title: Native Voices: New England Tribal Families
Curator: Boston Childrens Museum, Boston, MA
Abstract: Native Voices: New England Tribal Families is an introduction to native communities around New England today. By visiting five different communities from northern to southern New England, visitors learn a lot about Native American traditions and how modern families balance contemporary life with preservation of important cultural identities.
Year: 2011
Primary URL: http://www.prweb.com/releases/boston/childrensmuseum/prweb9130907.htm

Moving to the Center: Editing Native American Documents (Conference Paper/Presentation)
Title: Moving to the Center: Editing Native American Documents
Author: Paul Grant-Costa
Abstract: The process of editing Native American primary source materials can present a number of dilemmas, such as giving voice to a Native frame of reference, understanding Native sensibilities towards particular documentary items, and incorporating Native ideas of history into textual annotations. These challenges, among others, are explored through the experiences of three different documentary editing projects: The John Tanner Project (Central Michigan University), The Yale Indian Papers Project (Yale University), and the Virginia Indian Heritage Program (Virginia Foundation for the Humanities).
Date: 10/17/2010

The Common Pot: Editing Native American Materials (Article)
Title: The Common Pot: Editing Native American Materials
Author: Paul Grant-Costa
Author: Tobias Glaza
Author: Michael Sletcher
Abstract: Fifty years ago, it might have been reasonable to assume that a documentary editing project involved the correspondence of a great political or historical figure or the works of a literary master published in print volumes. As surveys of the current profession, however, have shown, this is no longer the case. A cursory glance at the "Recent Editions" section of any new Documentary Editing volume reveals, for example, works on women, families, artists, African-Americans, Native Americans, and several non-canonical authors in print and in electronic form. Such an evolution has prompted some introspection within the field, as articulated succinctly by past Association for Documentary Editing president Kenneth Price, "[W]hat is it that we should be editing, how should we go about it? how should we fund it? how should we position it within the disciplines?" In 2009, a panel at the annual ADE meeting in Springfield, Illinois, addressed these questions as they related to literary text. In 2010, a similar panel convened in Philadelphia to explore the advantages and challenges of editing American Indian documents. The following article elaborates on one such paper at that roundtable in Philadelphia and discusses in more detail the philosophical and practical choices made by the editors of the Yale Indian Papers Project, a cooperative effort of a number of institutions to publish a scholarly edition of New England Indian primary source materials.
Year: 2012
Primary URL: http://www.scholarlyediting.org/2012/essays/essay.commonpot.html
Access Model: Open Source
Format: Journal
Periodical Title: Scholarly Editing
Publisher: The Association for Documentary Editing

Breaking the Myth of the Unmanaged Landscape (Article)
Title: Breaking the Myth of the Unmanaged Landscape
Author: Tobias Glaza
Author: Paul Grant-Costa
Abstract: The Eastern Pequot and other Connecticut tribes recognize that planning for the future requires an examination of the past. What was this land like 50, 100, or 500 years ago? How have traditional native land use and subsistence practices changed over time? What forces instigated these changes? Asking those questions unearths a history stretching from native communities’ first contact with Europeans to the present. That history is complicated by episodes of disease, warfare, colonialism, and land loss. But it also offers examples of native innovation, adaptation, and persistence. Along the way, a common misperception has gained a foothold in the American consciousness: that the historical Connecticut Indian landscape was an unmanaged wilderness. As this article demonstrates, this could not be farther from the truth.
Year: 2012
Primary URL: http://connecticutexplored.org/back-issues/back-issues-spring-2012/
Access Model: Subscription
Format: Magazine
Periodical Title: Connecticut Explored
Publisher: Connecticut Explores, Inc. & Connecticut Humanities

Anglo-Amerindian Commercial Relations (Book Section)
Title: Anglo-Amerindian Commercial Relations
Author: Paul Grant-Costa
Author: Elizabeth Mancke
Editor: Elizabeth Mancke
Editor: John G. Reid
Editor: Huw Bowen
Abstract: This pioneering comparative study of British imperialism in the Atlantic and Indian Ocean worlds draws on the perspectives of British newcomers overseas and their native hosts, of metropolitan officials and corporate enterprises, migrants and settlers. Leading scholars examine the divergences and commonalities in the legal and economic regimes that allowed Britain to project imperium across the globe. They explore the nature of sovereignty and law, governance and regulation, diplomacy, military relations and commerce, shedding new light on the processes of expansion that influenced the making of empire. While acknowledging the distinctions and divergences in imperial endeavours in Asia and the Americas - not least in terms of the size of indigenous populations, technical and cultural differences, and approaches to indigenous polities - this book argues that these differences must be seen in the context of what Britons overseas shared, including constitutional principles, claims of sovereignty, disciplinary regimes and military attitudes.
Year: 2012
Primary URL: http://www.cambridge.org/us/knowledge/isbn/item6687769/Britain's%20Oceanic%20Empire/?site_locale=en_US
Access Model: Open Access
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Book Title: Britian's Oceanic Empire
ISBN: 110702014X

Holding on the Wind: New England Indians, Scholarly Editing, and the Electronic Archives (Conference Paper/Presentation)
Title: Holding on the Wind: New England Indians, Scholarly Editing, and the Electronic Archives
Author: Paul Grant-Costa
Author: Tobias Glaza
Author: Faith Damon Davison
Author: Kenneth Minekma
Author: Adriaan Neele
Abstract: New England Native peoples have survived for well over four hundred years, and so have documents relating to their history and culture. Official reports from authorities in London, correspondence and financial accounts from colonial and state governments throughout the region, and petitions, memorials, and letters from Indians themselves are only part of a 400-year-old documentary record that still exists in various repositories around the world. Yet, much of that record has remained unpublished and, for various reasons, difficult to access. A New England Native elder once lamented that researching her tribal history was as difficult as holding on to the wind. But in the past few years, technology and innovation has offered a solution. This panel of editors and Native professionals explores two electronic scholarly editing projects at Yale University that make primary source materials on New England Indians freely available to scholars, educators, and tribal members: the Works of Jonathan Edwards and the Yale Indian Papers Project. Presenters Minkema and Neele will examine digitized sources relating to Jonathan Edwards’ 18th century mission to the Stockbridge Indian community. Presenter Glaza will demonstrate the research features of the Yale Indian Papers Project’s web application. Presenter Grant-Costa will show how access to Indian documents has begun to change the parameters with which historians are able to conceptualize Native New England history. Presenter Davison will explain how documents have reshaped her tribe’s understanding of its own history, while Presenter Flowers will discuss how some documents played a crucial role in her tribe’s federal recognition efforts.
Date: 06/05/2012
Primary URL: www.umb.edu/.../NAISA_2012_preliminaryprogram4-23-12.pdf
Conference Name: Fourth Annual Meeting of the Native American and Indigenous Studies Association

Access and Collaboration: The Challenges of Editing Native American Documents (Conference Paper/Presentation)
Title: Access and Collaboration: The Challenges of Editing Native American Documents
Author: Tobias Glaza
Author: Paul Grant-Costa
Abstract: “Access and Collaboration: The Challenges of Editing Native American Documents.” New England Native peoples have survived for well over four hundred years, and so have documents relating to their history and culture. Much of that record has remained unpublished and difficult to access. The Yale Indian Papers Project, together with its partners, have developed the virtual archive that is the New England Indian Papers Series Database, a robust database and web interface that allows researchers greater access to these materials through facsimile images and two levels of transcription combined with scholarly commentary. Despite an overwhelmingly positive response from both the native and non-native research community, a project of this nature is not without its challenges, including logistical and technical issues, conservation and preservations concerns, and forging and maintaining relationships with Tribes and contributing institutions. The very process of editing Native American primary source materials, in itself, can present a number of dilemmas, such as giving voice to a Native frame of reference, understanding Native sensibilities towards particular documentary items, and incorporating Native ideas of history into textual annotations. These challenges, among others, are explored in this presentation by Paul Grant-Costa and Tobias Glaza.
Date: 09/25/2012
Primary URL: http://events.depaul.edu/event/the_yale_indian_papers_project
Conference Name: The Digital Humanities Series, DePaul Humanities Center, DePaul University

Owaneco's Pipe: A Prolegomenon to the Native Atlantic World (Conference/Institute/Seminar)
Title: Owaneco's Pipe: A Prolegomenon to the Native Atlantic World
Author: Paul Grant-Costa
Abstract: This paper speaks to what some in American Indian Studies have suggested is the Native Atlantic world, or the Atlantic world through Native eyes. It demonstrates how during the Early Modern Period, American Indians were exploring and redefining their status as “subjects of the crown” in an increasingly violent colonial world, eventually leveraging that status against the colonies’ reckless land policies. Such a perspective has resulted in some interesting questions. For example, if the Indians’ rights as subjects depended on the crown’s prerogative, what happened to those rights when the king was removed? How did the Indians understand the Restoration? How were American colonial Indian policies responding to the changes before, during, and after the English civil war? The answer to these questions reveals a fairly unexplored dynamic between government officials at Whitehall, their American colonial counterparts, and Native tribal leaders in New England. I will address the foundations of that dynamic from its beginnings at the start of the 17th century through crucial subsequent developments which survived two wars – the English civil war and the New England Native conflict commonly known as King Philip’s War (1675-76) – culminating in 1704, when the Mohegans brought their complaint against the Colony of Connecticut to Queen Anne’s Privy Council. Thus, the paper explores early American Indian policies not only at Whitehall but in colonial and tribal power centers in New England, sometimes with surprising observations.
Date Range: 10/25/2012
Location: Early Modern Britain Seminar, Center for Early Modern Studies, Oxford University
Primary URL: http://www.cems-oxford.org/current-events

Understanding Farmington’s Roots (Public Lecture or Presentation)
Title: Understanding Farmington’s Roots
Abstract: g
Author: Paul Grant-Costa
Date: 03/10/2012
Location: Farmington River Literary Arts Center, Farmington, CT

Rescuing the Native Atlantic World (Public Lecture or Presentation)
Title: Rescuing the Native Atlantic World
Abstract: When most people think of New England Indians during the American colonial period, they most likely do not imagine them as subjects of the Crown of England. Based on primary sources found on the Yale Indian Papers Project website, Dr. Paul Grant-Costa will present “Rescuing the Native Atlantic World; Indians, Colonists and the First British Empire”, which provides an alternative view of the Indian experience in New England during the colonial era -- from the perspective of the native peoples themselves.
Author: Paul Grant-Costa
Date: 01/09/2011
Location: Porter Memorial Hall, Farmington, CT
Primary URL: http://farmington.patch.com/articles/a-look-at-the-tunxis-indians

The Yale Indian Papers Project, An Overview (Public Lecture or Presentation)
Title: The Yale Indian Papers Project, An Overview
Abstract: Except for stories about the first Thanksgiving and perhaps King Philip’s War (1676), most histories of New England have ignored the long presence of Native Americans in the region as well as the extensive documentation on Indians and their communities. The Yale Indian Papers Project is a documentary editing undertaking with the mission to collect, transcribe, annotate, and electronically publish primary source materials on New England Native Americans. The collection explores nearly four centuries of Native history, law, religion, and culture, as well as issues of community, land, gender, race, identity, migration, and sovereignty.
Author: Paul Grant-Costa
Date: 03/29/2012
Location: Town & County Club, Hartford, CT

Britain and America: An Introduction to Primary Sources for Eighteenth-Century Studies (Public Lecture or Presentation)
Title: Britain and America: An Introduction to Primary Sources for Eighteenth-Century Studies
Abstract: g
Author: Susan Walker
Author: Cynthia Roman
Author: Paul Grant-Costa
Date: 01/06/2012
Location: American Studies Conference Room, Hall of Graduate Students, Yale University

Escaping History: The Story of a Fugitive Slave, the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah), and Becoming Free in Antebellum Massachusetts (Report)
Title: Escaping History: The Story of a Fugitive Slave, the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah), and Becoming Free in Antebellum Massachusetts
Author: Tatiana Schlossberg
Abstract: g
Date: 4/2/2012
Access Model: Senior Essay, History Department, Yale University (unpublished)

Yale Indian Papers Project (Web Resource)
Title: Yale Indian Papers Project
Author: Paul Grant-Costa
Abstract: A number of institutions that have significant New England Indian collections (Yale University, the Connecticut State Library, the Connecticut Historical Society, the Massachusetts Archives, and the National Archives of the United Kingdom) have organized into a cooperative endeavor called The Yale Indian Papers Project to address these problems by publishing an electronic database known as The New England Indian Papers Series. The Series represents a scholarly critical edition of New England Native American primary source materials gathered presently from the partner institutions into one robust virtual collection, where the items are digitized, transcribed, annotated, and edited to the highest academic standards and then made freely available over the Internet, using open-source software. By providing annotated transcriptions, the Project’s editors provide the Series users with useful information within a well-researched and balanced context necessary to understand the complexities of the historical record. Thus, the Series offers students, educators, researchers, Native American tribal members, and the general public, visual and intellectual access to significant historical knowledge for the purposes of teaching, scholarly analysis, and research. In doing so, the Series furthers the Project’s mission and the missions of its cooperative partner institutions to encourage new scholarship, and promote a greater understanding and appreciation of New England’s earliest culture among a broader segment of the general public.
Year: 2007
Primary URL: http://www.library.yale.edu/yipp/index.html
Primary URL Description: Project website, home page

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