Years: 1888-2002
Approximately 150 linear shelf feet (in approximately 280 document cases, 27 records boxes and 6 small lidded boxes)

This collection contains documents, printed materials, papers by students and scholars, videotapes, and other material, most pertaining to federal relations of Native Americans of the Southwest.  This collection is primarily the result of Dr. Ellis' research pertaining to Native Americans and natural resources of the Southwest U.S.  Much of the material is photocopies of federal and state government records.  The collection includes a series of guides to some collections held in federal repositories and elsewhere.  The Ellis Papers are a companion to another research collection, the Myra Ellen Jenkins Collection, which contains documentation of historical aspects especially pertaining to New Mexico.

Access terms:
Indians of North America--Legal status, laws, etc.
Indians of North America--Water rights

Biographical note

Richard N. "Dick" Ellis (1939-) was Professor of Southwest Studies at Fort Lewis College, 1987-2005, and Director of the Center of Southwest Studies, 1987-1995. Prior to that he was a faculty member in the Department of History at the University of New Mexico, 1968-1987.  He received a PhD from the University of Colorado in 1967. His books include Colorado: A History in Photographs (with Duane A. Smith, 1991), General Pope and U.S. Indian Policy (1970), New Mexico Historic Documents (editor, 1975), New Mexico, Past and Present: A Historical Reader (editor, 1972), and The Western American Indian: Case Studies in Tribal History (editor, 1972). He was a prolific book reviewer

Ellis collected much of the material in this collection during his early years at the University of New Mexico, where he worked on the Duke Oral History Project, known at UNM as the American Indian Historical Research Project. Subsequently, Ellis gathered extensive research materials in the course of his own scholarly research and consulting projects, including work with Historical Research Associates, a private consulting firm. He served on the board of editors for the New Mexico Historical Review, 1975-1989, American Indian Quarterly, 1974-1980, and Journal of Arizona History, 1990-.  He served as an expert witness for various Indian tribes, the U.S. Justice Department, and the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs on subjects including Navajo water rights in the San Juan Basin and in the Little Colorado Basin, Pueblo land and water rights, San Carlos Apache water rights, and Mescalero Apache history.  He was a consultant for Geronimo and the Apache Resistance, a public television production that premiered nationally in 1988, and for the Southern Ute Tribe for its Colorado Endowment for the Humanities videotape, The Ute Legacy.

He was the recipient of numerous awards and honors for teaching, research, and service. He did archaeological field work at Mesa Verde National Park in 1960. As a Fulbright lecturer  in Denmark in 1979, museum work, cultural exchange, indigenous peoples outside US. He once competed in a rodeo,

Administrative information

About the organization of this collection:  This is what is known as an artificial collection; in other words, it has been accumulated from various disparate sources.  The records groups, series and subseries groups are numbered consecutively within broad record groups.  Box numbers start with 1; folder numbers start with 1 in each box.  The record groups and series are organized from highest hierarchical level to lowest; from most general to most specific.  Items within each series are arranged chronologically, unless noted otherwise.  The collection reached the Center in disarray; project staff had to construct the order of the collection.  Dr. Ellis would tell students in class that he was donating his materials to the Center and that it would take an archivist years to organize it.  No doubt part of this was due to the haste in which he moved from Durango; shortly before the start of an academic trimester he gave the College short notice that he would be retiring.

Acquisition information:  The Center of Southwest Studies acquired the bulk of this collection in January of 1988.   It was constituted from various gifts to the Center by Dr. Ellis, including accessions 1988:01001, 1992:10014, 2004:01007, 2005:09003, and 2005:11002.  Most of the collection was donated to the Center in 1988, with the remaining bulk donated when Dr. Ellis retired in 2005.

Processing information:  Elayne Walstedter (now, Silversmith and the Librarian at the Center of Southwest Studies) spent much of her undergraduate work-study hours beginning to inventory and process this collection at the Center on the top of Reed Library in the late 1980s, before the College had hired an archivist.  Her handwritten inventories are at the Center, and are approximately 6” thick.  Fort Lewis College archives students Gary Grey and Helen Hoskins conducted a gross arrangement and description of a portion of the Ellis collection during the Fall trimester of 1992 (as the practicum experience for Todd Ellison's SW 340 course in Archives), under the supervision of Todd Ellison (hired as Fort Lewis College's first archivist in 1991), who prepared the first draft of this inventory in 1998.  Initial html conversion of this finding aid was by Jesse Davila in September, 1998.  The major arrangement and description project for this collection (as shown in the image on the right) occurred in July and August of 2007, under the management of Western Washington University graduate archival intern Erica Olsen (standing) with the assistance of Jerrid Lee Miller (Native American Professional Archival Intern at the Center, in foreground) and Derwin Begay as a Fort Lewis College Center of Southwest Studies Native American Honors Student Archival Intern (red cap, in left background).  (Also pictured, on right in light blue shirt, is Corey Begay, Honors Library Intern.)  The arrangement and description of this large and significant collection is being continued by archival workers at the Delaney Library under the direction of Todd Ellison.  Kery Allen processed Series 1.1 and 7.1 in September, 2007, Series 8.1 and 8.2 in October, 2007, and Record Group 9 in November/December 2007.  Meredith Parsons worked on Record Group 8 in winter 2007/08.

Related collections at the Center of Southwest Studies: 

• C 011:  Richard Ellis maps collection.  Various maps of the Southwest and/or Native American topics.
• I  045:  Richard Ellis collection of microforms.  Archives and special collections materials on microfilm, including dissertations and manuscripts (9 rolls) and selected National Archives records (19 rolls). Most pertain to Native Americans and their relationships with the U.S. Government. Total of 31 rolls of microfilm.
• P 007:  Richard Ellis photographs.  Views of the Southwest taken by Dick Ellis or of him.
• Dr. Ellis donated a large number of books, cataloged for the Delaney Library shelved book collection and described in TALON.
• Periodicals that he donated have been added to the Southwest Periodicals Collection, likewise for cataloging in TALON for the Delaney Library.

Material deaccessioned from this collection:  The following types of materials, amounting to approximately 12 linear shelf feet, were pulled from this collection during processing at the Center:

• Duplicate paperwork and publications.
• Housekeeping records that lost their administrative purpose after a specified period of time (memos scheduling meetings; working notes and background materials that lacked historical research value; purchase orders for supplies; vouchers, invoices, receipts, statements, bills for routine expenses and travel documentation; etc.).
• Personal items and printed materials that are outside the collection scope of the Center.
• Records of Fort Lewis College (transferred to the College Archives for review for possible retention).
• United Pueblos Agency records (placed in its own collection M 236).

Series descriptions

Record Group 1: Repository finding aids and published bibliographies (guides and inventories, arranged alphabetically by name of institution)

Series 1.1:    U.S. National Archives and Records Administration finding aids.  Mostly, of federal records housed in the archives in Washington, D.C., and College Park, Maryland, but also some descriptions of records in regional federal archives and records centers and presidential libraries.

Series 1.2:    Arizona repositories' finding aids

Series 1.3:    California repositories' finding aids

Series 1.4:    Colorado repositories' finding aids

Series 1.5:    New Mexico repositories' finding aids

Series 1.6:    Other states' and regions' repositories' finding aids

Series 1.7:    Microform collections descriptions and finding aids.  Also includes ads for microfilm publications, and detailed descriptions of doctoral dissertations on microfilm.
 

Record Group 2: Federal records and printed materials

The bulk of this record group consists of photocopies of federal records that were obtained under the auspices of the American Indian Historical Research Project at the University of New Mexico circa 1968-1972. They are arranged by federal Record Group number, by repository, by jurisdiction or GS /General Services category, then by classification number. 

In particular, the standard mode of arrangement and access for a Bureau of Indian Affairs file, from 1907 on, is the file number, the year the records were produced, the name of the agency under which the records are filed, and the classification number.  For example: 22809 - 18 - 113 - 1 stands for:  individual file #22809 - year 1918 - Fort Lewis Indian Agency - and the BIA's standard file classification number #113.1, which the index (on file at the Delaney Library and in this collection) describes as Permits to Excavate Ruins and Archaeological Sites.

Series 2.1:   National Archives

Series 2.2:    Federal Records Centers

 Department of Agriculture

                                --Forest Service

                    Army, Department of Defense

                    Department of Commerce

                    Commission on Civil Rights

                    Comptroller General, Government Accountability Office (GAO)

                    Department of Energy

                    Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)

                    Department of Health and Human Services (was Health, Education, and Welfare)

                                --Public Health Service

                    Department of the Interior

                                --Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) 

See note above: In addition to the 1960 BIA central offices classification codes (in print at the Delaney Library and a copy in this collection), the following two web pages include at least partial explanations of the BIA subject codes that are marked on the photocopied BIA files in the Ellis Papers: http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~texlance/records/bia(dc)4.htm and http://www.lexisnexis.com/academic/guides/native_american/bia.asp

                                --Bureau of Land Management (BLM)

                                --Bureau of Mines

                                --Bureau of Reclamation

                                --Fish & Wildlife

                                --National Park Service (NPS)

                                --Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA)

                                --U.S. Geological Survey (USGS)

                    Department of Justice

                    Department of Labor

                    Legislative Records

                    Department of Transportation

                    Multi-agency records

                    Smithsonian Institution

Series 2.3:    Presidential libraries and White House

                    --Nixon White House

                    --Truman

                    --FDR
 

Record Group 3: State and local government records and printed materials

Arizona

            --City of Flagstaff Water Use and Utilization Commission records

Colorado

            --Montezuma County

            --Northern Colorado water district [check name]

Montana

New Mexico

Utah

Washington

Record Group 4: Tribal government records and printed materials
 

            Series 4.1:  Navajo/Dine

            Series 4.2:  Gallup Inter-Tribal Indian Ceremonial records (at least 2 document cases)

            Series 4.3:  Education
 

Record Group 5: American Indian Historical Research Project/Duke Oral History project

            Series 5.1:  Project administrative records

            Series 5.2:  Oral history indexes and transcripts

            Series 5.3:  Records and printed materials from other universities participating in the project|
 

Record Group 6: Contract work projects [includes correspondence, background materials, and reports]

            Series 6.1:    Pueblo, 1891-1902

            Series 6.2:    Navajo: San Juan

            Series 6.3:    Navajo: Little Colorado

            Series 6.4:    

                Aamodt

                Cuthair v. Cortez-Montezuma

                Historical Research Associates (HRA) manuscripts, research materials, and correspondence

                New Mexico State Land Office

                Sand Creek

                Southern Utes
 

Record Group 7: Richard Ellis's manuscripts, notes, correspondence, and personal papers

            Series 7.1:  Manuscripts, published writings, and notes about them.  In 5 document cases and 2 records boxes.

            Series 7.2:  Research notes (includes miscellaneous bibliographies)

            Series 7.3:  Correspondence

            Series 7.4:  Personal papers and ephemera (includes CVs, awards, and biographical items)
 

Record Group 8: Students and colleagues' unpublished papers (arranged alphabetically by surname of author)

            Series 8.1:  Ph.D. dissertations

            Series 8.2:  M.A. theses

            Series 8.3:  Other unpublished manuscripts by others
 

Record Group 9: Subject files

Anthropology

Archaeology, CRM, historic preservation

Archives, libraries, academic institutes, publishers and booksellers

Arts and culture

        --Visual art and architecture

        --Film

        --Museums and exhibitions

Environment and Natural Resources

--Agriculture

        --Conservation [includes wilderness, pollution]

        --Energy (general)

        --Forests and forestry [includes wildfires]

        --Grazing

        --Land issues

        --Livestock, grazing, and ranching

        --Mines and mineral resources

        --Nuclear issues

        --Petroleum and natural gas

        --Water

        --Wildlife [includes endangered species, hunting, fishing]

History of the West

        --Historical manuscripts. (photocopies)

        --Published articles and newspaper clippings

        --Pamphlets and ephemera

Indigenous peoples

        --Canada

        --Mexico

        --Scandinavia

                        -- -- Scandinavian materials related to the American West and Native Americans

Laws and legislation

        --Cobell v. Norton

        --Environmental laws

        --NAGPRA

Native Americans

        --Education

        --National Congress of the American Indian

        --Printed materials

Railroads

Social, economic, and political issues [includes growth, development, planning, infrastructure, population]

Travel and tourism [includes NPS visitor brochures--these are currently filed here, not under National Park Service]

Container list

Record Group 1: Repository finding aids and published bibliographies (in Boxes 1-5)