Jane Willetts Ettawageshik (February 13, 1915 – May 21, 1996) was an American

anthropologist An anthropologist is a person engaged in the practice of anthropology. Anthropology is the study of aspects of humans within past and present societies. Social anthropology, cultural anthropology and philosophical anthropology study the norms and ...

who studied

Ottawa Ottawa (, ; Canadian French: ) is the capital city of Canada. It is located at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River in the southern portion of the province of Ontario. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the core ...

indigenous peoples in Northern Michigan and she was first woman Anthropologist to work in northern Michigan during the 20th century. She studied anthropology at the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...

from 1947 until 1950.

Biography

Jane Willetts Ettawageshik was born in 1915 in Milledgeville, Georgia, USA. Jane Willets Ettawageshik was raised in Pennsylvania near Philadelphia and schooled at

Barnard College Barnard College of Columbia University is a private women's liberal arts college in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded in 1889 by a group of women led by young student activist Annie Nathan Meyer, who petitioned Columbia ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

for her Bachelor of Arts degree. Jane Willetts Ettawageshik attended

, where she became interested in

cultural anthropology Cultural anthropology is a branch of anthropology focused on the study of cultural variation among humans. It is in contrast to social anthropology, which perceives cultural variation as a subset of a posited anthropological constant. The portma ...

. After completing her

B.A. Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four yea ...

degree, she continued her study of anthropology at the

, earning her

M.A. A Master of Arts ( la, Magister Artium or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA, M.A., AM, or A.M.) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. Tho ...

degree in 1950. Jane Willets Ettawageshik traveled to Michigan's Lower Peninsula in the early summer of 1946 to do field work for her anthropology master's program through the

. She conducted linguistic and anthropological field research on

ottawa Ottawa (, ; Canadian French: ) is the capital city of Canada. It is located at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River in the southern portion of the province of Ontario. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the core ...

indigenous groups in northern

Michigan Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and the ...

, from 1946 to 1948. Jane Willetts Ettawageshik recorded carious sound reel recordings during her time in

Harbor Springs, Michigan Harbor Springs is a city and resort community in Emmet County, Michigan. The population was 1,194 in the 2010 census. Harbor Springs is in a sheltered bay on the north shore of the Little Traverse Bay on Lake Michigan. The Little Traverse Lig ...

. The original recordings were copper-wire recordings and Jane Willets Ettawageshik's collection of tapes are kept in their original copper wire format by the

American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS), founded in 1743 in Philadelphia, is a scholarly organization that promotes knowledge in the sciences and humanities through research, professional meetings, publications, library resources, and communit ...

(APS) The recorded materials in the collection were presented by Jane Willets Ettawageshik in 1950 to the American Philosophical Society and the APS has held the material in their possession since 1954. Jane Willets Ettawageshik collected Ottawa songs, interviews, word lists, legends, Nanabojo stories, autobiographical stories, and information on Ottawa people's history. Some of the material is given in both Ottawa and English, some in Ottawa only during 1947 and 1948. Throughout her work, Jane Willetts Ettawageshik worked with the

Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians The Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians ( oj, Gichi-wiikwedong Odaawaag miina ojibweg) is a federally recognized Native American tribe located in northwest Michigan on the Leelanau Peninsula. Sam McClellan is the current tribal c ...

trying to preserve their culture and language. As mentioned, Jane Willets Ettawageshik worked hard to preserve the

Odawa The Odawa (also Ottawa or Odaawaa ), said to mean "traders", are an Indigenous American ethnic group who primarily inhabit land in the Eastern Woodlands region, commonly known as the northeastern United States and southeastern Canada. They ha ...

culture and wanted "readers to learn about that culture through the words of the culture-bearers themselves". Jane Willets Ettawageshik's research and recordings are "the only ethnographic research conducted on the historic Little Traverse Reservation during the mid-twentieth century". In addition to her fieldwork in Michigan, Willetts Ettawageshik married into the community of Grand Traverse, Michigan. She also taught English in the local High Schools and worked also for the local newspaper.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Willets Ettawageshik, Jane 1915 births 1996 deaths American women anthropologists American women academics 20th-century American women Odawa Anishinaabe peoples Anishinaabe culture Barnard College alumni People from Traverse City, Michigan University of Pennsylvania alumni 20th-century American anthropologists