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Carolyn Niethammer Collection 1951-2002

MSS-200

Biographical Note

Carolyn Jane Niethammer was born in Elgion, Illinois on May 21, 1944. In 1952, her parents brought her to the Northern Arizona town of Prescott where she was raised. On weekends she traveled Arizona's backwoods with her family, exploring ghost towns, old ranches, forests, deserts, lakes, and rivers. She earned her journalism degree from the University of Arizona, worked for newspapers for several years, and then began freelancing.

For her first book, American Indian Cooking: Recipes from the Southwest (originally titled American Indian Food and Lore), she traveled throughout Arizona and New Mexico interviewing Indian women, learning about the wild plants they gathered, and watching them cook. She usually traveled in an old car, prone to breakdowns, and found that even those Native American mechanics located in backwater little villages were quite adept at getting her on the road again.

Niethammer found the lives of the Indian women she talked to so fascinating that her next book, Daughters of the Earth, explored the complex lives of Native American women beyond the kitchen. For this book she was on the road again, in another old car, visiting Apache girls' puberty ceremonies, Hopi basket dances, and Pueblo corn dances. The next book brought her back to edible wild plants, this time in modern recipes for the old foods in Tumbleweed Gourmet.

For the next 10 years, Niethammer worked in public relations and marketing communications, editing newsletters and books and writing brochures and video scripts. She traveled to Africa with her husband, journalist and journalism professor Ford Burkhart, three times, living for a year in Nigeria, two years in Cario, and a year in Uganda. Upon her return to Tucson from her last African trip, she decided to write a biography of an important Western woman. That desire culminated in I'll Go and Do More: Annie Dodge Wauneka, Navajo Leader and Activist (University of Nebraska Press, 2001).

Niethammer started her research on Annie Wauneka in the summer of 1995 with a two-month stay on the Navajo Reservation. She continued her research through 2000 with another short visit to the Navajo Nation, off-reservation interviews, and other library research.

(Sources: Carolyn Niethammer website, http://cniethammer.com/bio.htm, accessed 2006 February 1 and email message from Carolyn Niethammer to Melanie Toledo, 2006 February 5)

Scope and Content Note

The Carolyn Niethmammer Collection consists primarily of research materials collected to support I'll Go and Do More: Annie Dodge Wauneka Navajo Leader and Activist. Also included are an extensive collection of oral interviews documenting Annie D. Wauneka's life. The collection is arranged in five series.

Series I: Research contains published articles discussing Navajo topics photocopied from journals and newspapers, Navajo Tribal Council meeting minutes, House and Senate testimony, and Niethammer's correspondence and handwritten notes. Series II: Oral Interviews houses a wide range of oral histories documenting Annie Wauneka's life. Interviewees include such family, friends, and acquaintances as Peterson Zah, former President of the Navajo Nation and Advisor to the President of American Indian Affairs at Arizona State University and Albert Hale, former President of the Navajo Nation.

Series III: Annie Wauneka Biography focuses on Annie Wauneka's life and includes articles written by and about Wauneka as well as newsclippings recording her birthday celebrations, awards, and lifetime achievements. Series IV: Presidential Medal of Freedom shows Annie Wauneka's receipt of this award from the President of the United States. It was initially granted by John F. Kennedy but was presented by Lyndon B. Johnson due to Kennedy's assassination. Series V: Dodge Family houses research articles, information on the Dodge family's genealogy, and other materials discussing Annie Wauneka's legendary father and Navajo leader, Henry Chee Dodge, and other family members.

Arrangement

Restrictions

Access Restrictions

To view this collection, please contact Ask an Archivist or call (480) 965-4932 at least five days in advance. Appointments in the Wurzburger Reading Room at Hayden Library (rm. 138) on the Tempe campus are available Monday through Friday. Patrons can also arrange to view this collection at the Labriola National American Indian Data Center (rm. 305) at Fletcher Library on the West campus. Check the ASU Library Hours page for current availability.

Copyright

The Arizona Board of Regents retains copyright to this collection for and on behalf of the Arizona State University Library. Requests to publish, display, or redistribute information from this collection must be submitted via our online application.

Access Terms

Administrative Information

Preferred Citation

[Identification of item], Carolyn Niethammer Collection, MSS-200, Arizona State University Library.

Provenance

Carolyn Niethammer donated these papers to the Labriola Center in 2005 (ACC# 2005-03919). She gathered these materials at the John F. Kennedy Library, the Arizona Collection, ASU Libraries, Arizona State University, oral interviews, and personal correspondence.

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