Quakers and Indigenous Boarding Schools (HC and SC)

Beginning in 1756, this organization has sent delegates to various Native American tribes, done advocacy work with Native Americans, and run schools. Materials include minutes, financial papers, account books, correspondence, addresses, reports, journals, scrapbooks, legal, land and legislative related papers, and maps.

The Associated Executive Committee of Friends on Indian Affairs originated in 1869 in answer to President Grant's Peace Policy, officially giving management of Native Americans in the Central Superintendency (Kansas and the "Indian Territory") to the Orthodox branch of the Society of Friends. These are primarily letters, reports and some miscellaneous manuscripts chiefly addressed to the chairman of the committee, Edward M. Wistar; articles, plans, maps and statistics related to the committee's work. Most of the material deals with the work of Friends in running mission stations in Oklahoma to the Iowa Tribe of Oklahoma (Bah Kho-je), the Modoc Nation, the Kickapoo Tribe of Oklahoma, the Otoe-Missouria Tribe of Indians, the Shawnee Tribe, the Osage Nation (Wahzhazhe) and other Native American peoples.

In 1883, Quakers Albert Keith Smiley and his brother Daniel Smiley organized the first annual conference to discuss assistance to Native Americans at their estate at Lake Mohonk in New York state. These conferences were widely attended by specialists in various fields, as well as important officials. Only later were Native Americans represented. The concern to "uplift" was also directed at Filipino, Hawaiian, African American and Puerto Rican peoples, though attention at the conferences was primarily focused on Native Americans.

Includes diaries and speeches of Nathaniel Peabody Rogers, a New Hampshire lawyer and anti-slavery advocate.

Some letters relate to opening of Native American schools

Despite Simmons's relative lack of formal education in his youth, he went on to be a school teacher on the Oneida reservation from 1796 to 1797, and at Cornplanter's village from 1798 to 1799.

A towel presented to William Allinson (1766-1841) in 1812, woven by a student at the Tunesassa boarding school for Indigenous children.

Theodore Hetzel (1906-1990) was a Quaker professor of engineering at Haverford College in Haverford, Pennsylvania, whose interests led him to involvement with Native American and Quaker issues. An avid photographer, the materials in this collection are primarily photographic, as well as correspondence and documents.

This collection contains the records of the Executive Committee of the Convention of Delegates from the Seven Yearly Meetings (Hicksite) Indian Affairs, 1869-1884. In includes correspondence and reports of Indian agents, extracts from minutes and reports, financial records, legislative documents, and printed materials published by the convention. Persons represented include William Burgess, John G. Gasmann, Albert L. Green, Samuel M. Janney, M.B. Kent, Thomas Lightfoot, William H. Macy, Dillwyn Parrish, B. Rush Roberts, Joseph Webster, Barclay White, and Howard White.

Records of the Joint Committee on Indian Affairs, and its predecessor, the Indian Committee (1837-1850) of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting (Hicksite). Also includes the letter books of John Saunders of Philadelphia, Secretary of the Joint Committee, and correspondence of Barclay White, Jesse W. Griest, Thomas Lightfoot, Samuel M. Janney, Levi K. Brown, Samuel Jeanes, and Albert Lamborn Green. Reports include information about the Senecas, the Otos and the Otoe Agency, the Santees and the Santee Agency, the Great Nemaha Agency, the Sauks, and the Fox.

Reference file - miscellaneous printed materials, including: the Indian Committee minutes; Cook School (Arizona) pamphlets, and more.

The collection contains correspondence, journals, and other papers of the Robert and Elizabeth Clendenon family who served as Quaker missionaries to the Native Americans in Tunesassa, Cattaraugus County, New York, in 1812-1816 and were early settlers of Ceres, McKean County, Pennsylvania. Of special note are the diary and correspondence of Robert Clendenon. The bulk of the correspondence was received by Lydia Clendenon Chevalier and includes two letters dictated by Jacob Johnson, a member of the Seneca tribe whom she met at Tunesassa. Other letters provide insight into the lives of her unmarried sisters who struggled to make a living as teachers. The letters mention family events, Quaker and anti-slavery concerns.

John Jackson (1809-1855), son of Halliday and Jane Jackson of Darby, Pennsylvania, married Rachel Tyson (1807?-1883), daughter of Isaac Tyson of Baltimore, Maryland, in 1832. Together they established the Sharon Female Academy in Delaware County, Pa. John Jackson was a Quaker minister and served on the Joint Committee on Indian Affairs. Collection contains correspondence and other papers, 1827-1849. Series I is made up primarily of correspondence and drafts of correspondence between Griffith M. Cooper and Joseph Warner, 1835-1838 and 1843- 1846, circulated among members of the Joint Committee on Indian Affairs. Series II includes personal letters, 1827-1838, from Rachel Tyson to friends and family.

The collection contains family correspondence of the Haines family and the diaries of Anna P. Haines (1870, 1881-93, 1895, 1896, 1916). Correspondents include their oldest son, T. Harvey Haines, particularly while he was a student at Westtown School. Also includes letters of Zebedee Haines to his wife, describing his visits to Tunesassa and to native American groups in Nova Scotia with Joseph S. Elkinton in 1903, and of his daughter, Mary Elizabeth Haines, who taught at Tunesassa from 1908-09.

part of Friends Historical Library miscellaneous photographs collection

Unprocessed recent acquisition: Includes correspondence dated: "Tunesassah," various years.

part of Samuel M. Janney papers Meeting of the First Day School Association in NYC, Lucretia Mott spoke at Meeting, conferred with Wm. and Phebe Cornell about the Industrial Boarding School at the Santee Agency, travelling in Ohio with Sunderland P. Gardiner, attended public meeting for worship during the Gurneyite Yearly Meeting at Mount Pleasant and their extreme views on original sin and vicarious sanctification, with comments on D. Updegraph, with passing the hat for the establishment of a school for colored girls. Greeted by black friends who had moved to the Mount Pleasant area. Dined at Edward Hopper's with Lucretia Mott and visit to Swarthmore. Comments after discussion of Indian affairs that it is likely that Friends will have to give up their work because "we cannot be responsible for agents unless we are allowed to select them."

This small collection contains letters and reports concerning Friends work with Native Americans in Nebraska during the era of Grant's Peace Policy.

Contains correspondence concerning the gift of Dr. John Unthank of Limerick, Ireland, of £1,000, to be divided between two concerns: first, to the Ohio, Indiana and Baltimore Yearly Meetings to be applied by them through their Indian committees toward promoting the so-called civilization and Christian instruction of Native Americans; and, secondly£250 each to Indiana and Ohio Yearly Meetings toward establishing boarding schools for the children of members. Samuel Parsons of New York Yearly Meeting (Orthodox) served as agent in distributing the funds