James E. Curry Land Claims Recordings Collection, 1947-1948

This collection consists of eight recordings made between 1947 and 1948 to document Tlingit aboriginal land title to Southeast Alaskan lands and waters in the Kake, Alaska region, as part of the Tlingit land claims effort which eventually culminated in 1971 with the passage of the Alaska Native Land Claims Settlement Act. These recordings were created by staff of Tlingit land claims lawyer James E. Curry, and mailed to Curry’s Washington DC office in March 1948. The recordings, originally captured on SoundScriber discs (an early and rare vinyl record format), were mailed to Curry by Rita Singer, a field agent of Curry’s who collected the testimony at Kake, Alaska. Approximately half of the recordings in this collection contain land claims testimony of Kake elders speaking about historic habitation and 14(h)1 sites. These recordings are primarily in English, though Tlingit placenames are given to document habitation. Other recordings in this collection contain a dialog between Rita Singer and Curry’s Washington DC office about ongoing activities in Southeast Alaska, mainly Alaska Native Brotherhood and Sisterhood actions towards land claims.

In 2011 these recordings were found within the Curry-Weissbrodt Papers collection at SHI, hidden within a folder. In 2012 the recordings were migrated from the original SoundScriber and are now available on CD for public use. Few recordings of the Tlingit exist prior to the late 1950s, so these recordings are important historically and for their period of creation.

Note: For those further interested in the activities of James E. Curry, see SHI’s Curry-Weissbrodt Papers Collection and Curry-Weissbrodt Photograph Collection.