K. Ross Toole Archives
Fred W. Voget Collection, 1935-1996
13 linear ft.
Processed by: Teresa Hamann (2001)
Collection Number Mss 318
K. Ross Toole Archives
Mansfield Library
The University of Montana--Missoula
Biographical Statement
Frederick William Voget, cultural anthropologist and American Indian ethnologist, was born in Salem, OR on February 12, 1913. He was one of six children of Friedrich A. Voget, who emigrated from Germany to Oregon when he was 19, and Fay Isham, whose grandparents were Oregon pioneers. Voget was educated in Portland public schools, attended Reed College, and graduated from the University of Oregon. He attended graduate school at Yale University and received a Ph.D. in Anthropology in 1947. Fred served in the 71st Division of the U. S. Infantry from 1942 to 1947 and was honorably discharged as a Master Sergeant. He married Mary Kay Mee in 1942 and they had three daughters, Antoinette, Colleen, and Jane. Mrs. Voget worked as Dr. Voget's research assistant throughout their many years together.
Dr. Voget's fieldwork and Ph.D. dissertation subjects were the Crow Indians of MT. His dissertation, The Shoshoni-Crow Sun Dance, was published in 1984 in the Civilization of the American Indians Series, University of Oklahoma Press, and is the first full-length authoritative treatment of the Crow Sun Dance. Holt Rinehart published A History of Ethnology, an earlier book, in 1975. Recent contributions to new books include the introduction to Old Man Coyote and the foreword to Yellowtail, Crow Indian Medicine Man. His most recent book, They Call Me Agnes, was a finalist for the Western Writers of America Spur Award for the best non-fiction book of 1995. They Call Me Agnes, the life story of Agnes Yellowtail Deernose, a Crow Indian woman, was written with the assistance of his wife, Mary Kay Mee.
Dr. Voget was the author of many articles, notable among them "The Osage Indians, Osage Research Report" (New York, London, 1974) and "Crow Sacred Numerology" published in the Plains Anthropologist in 1996. His articles are also published in the 1996 Encyclopedia of Cultural Anthropology sponsored by Yale University.
Dr. Voget taught at McGill University in Montreal, the University of Arkansas, the University of Toronto, and Southern Illinois University. He was a visiting professor at Northwestern University and Portland State University. In 1966 he won a Canada Council Research Grant to work with the Six Nations tribes of Eastern Canada. He was a Fulbright Scholar to Germany in 1972 and returned there in 1979 as a visiting professor at the University of Munich. After his retirement as Professor Emeritus from Southern Illinois University, Fred returned to Portland where he continued to write and lecture. He was an adjunct professor at Portland State University and was a guest lecturer at the University of Oregon and Linfield College.
Since 1939 Dr. Voget devoted his life and his research since to recording and preserving the culture and way of life of the Crow as it was and is. His contribution to the study of ethnology was intended to improve the lives of American Indians and to promote understanding and respect for the diversity of cultures in the world. He was an adopted member of the Crow Tribe and spent part of every summer with them in Montana. Fred W. Voget died on May 8, 1997.
Scope and Content
This collection represents a large portion of the academic research and writing career of Fred W. Voget from his undergraduate years in the 1930s to a few years before his death in 1997. While the bulk of his research was focused on the Crow Tribe, the collection also includes secondary source research on numerous other North American tribes and primary source research on the Iroquois, Shoshoni, and Blackfeet Indians. Research specific to the Crow Tribe includes bibliographies, annotated photocopies of papers, book chapters, and articles, interviews spanning half of century from 1939 to 1993, and photographs from 1939 to 1987.
Series Descriptions
The collection is divided into six series:
Series I: General Anthropology and Native American research, n.d., 0.7 linear ft.
This series includes notes and readings on anthropology theory and practice, bibliographies of anthropology readings, and a small amount of anthropology research notes. Additionally, the series has reading notes and bibliographies on a number of Native American tribes. The arbitrary arrangement begins with general anthropology and moves into broad Native American topics.
Series II: Crow Indian research, 1936-1995, 5 linear ft.
This series includes bibliographies, research notes on readings, annotated and clean copies of materials, newspaper articles, contact information, and interview notes. The bulk of the series is Crow Indian research, but material such as interviews with Shoshoni tribe members have been included to duplicate Voget's synthesis of this research in his book The Shoshoni-Crow Sun Dance. While the broad order of this series is arbitrary, Voget's original card file order has been maintained. Cards in "to be filed" groups were filed according to established categories and non-card notes have been inserted intoseparate folders according to those same categories or topics. Groupings of interviews have been maintained as much as possible.
Series III: Field research notebooks, 1949-1993, 1 linear ft.
This series includes Voget's handwritten field research notebooks on the Shoshoni, the Iroquois, the Blackfeet, and the Crow. Many parts of the notebooks are written in shorthand. The series is arranged in chronological order.
Series IV: Crow language research, n.d., 1 linear ft.
This series includes a small amount of language research notes from secondary sources, but the bulk of the series consists of handwritten and typed cards with a word or phrase in English and the corresponding Crow word or phrase with pronunciation markings. This series is arranged alphabetically by the English word or the significant word in a phrase.
Series V: Writings, 1935-1996, 2.3 linear ft.
This series includes some of Voget's undergraduate papers, working drafts of articles and book chapters, and copies of published articles. The drafts preceded published works and probably a planned history of the Crow Indians that was not published at the time of processing. This series is arranged in rough chronological order within the categories of term papers, drafts, and published works.
Series VI: Photos, 1939-1989, 2.5 linear ft.
This series includes Voget's photos, slides, and some negatives taken throughout his research. The bulk of the photos chronicle Crow activities such as the sun dance and arrow throw, feasts, and giveaways. A smaller number of photos are of specific individuals significant to Crow history and/or Voget's research. Another small group of photos pertain to Native American artifacts, the Shoshoni sun dance, and to Mohawk and other Six Nations groups. Most of the photos are very usable with the exception of photos 25-75 through 25-89, which are out of focus. Original photo captions and photo groupings were maintained where they existed. Otherwise, the photos in this series are arranged in rough thematic and chronological order. The slides are grouped at the end of this series.
Provenance
This collection was donated by Mary Kay Voget, October 7, 2001.
Processing
Mary Kay Voget sorted and arranged significant portions of the collection before transfer. This collection was processed at the K. Ross Toole Archives for the first time in 2001. When received, the majority of research notes were organized in card files or file folders. Where Voget had categorized materials by subject, the processor maintained those divisions and separated remaining materials into "to be filed" groups according to established categories.
Acknowledgements
The K. Ross Toole Archives thanks Dr. Greg Campbell, Chair of Anthropology at The University of Montana and Vickie Mikelsons of the UM Foundation for their assistance in the acquisition of this collection. Additionally, we thank the Friends of the Mansfield Library for their support of the collection processing.
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Last Updated: 4 June 2002.