Gordon Marsh

[Lance Foster]

Hi to all those who responded to my Marsh inquiry--

I will be very careful about the Marsh-Whitman situation and will assert nothing
more until it is all cleared up. I unfortunately do not have my Marsh info
(mainly the 3 microfilm rolls) so that part will have to wait, since it is all in
storage in Montana. I will however try to see what I can learn about his life
here in Alaska.. thanks for the leads!

Lance


ROOD DAVID S wrote:

> Lance --
>         I actually had some correspondence with Marsh after he retired,
> but it's all lost now.  I am pretty sure that he did indeed retire to a
> Russian Orthodox institution somewhere in the southwest.  His Orthodox
> name was Rev. Priestmonk Innocent.  Are you sure that the sequence of
> events was from Boas' student to Orthodox priest?  Somehow I had the idea
> that he was already a Priest when he was doing his Chiwere work and
> studying with Boas.
>         Be careful, too, about the Whitman assertion.  I have always
> believed that the copy of the Whitman manuscript in the Marsh files was
> exactly that -- a copy of what Whitman wrote.  For one thing, the
> typewriter on which that is written looks quite different from the one
> Marsh used otherwise.  When I found the "missing page" from the Whitman
> ms. years ago, I intended to write a postscript to to the Voelgelin-Harris
> publication, but I never got around to it.
>         BEcause of these two notions, either or both of which may be from
> my imagination or from some "folklore" I picked up along the way, I would
> add my voice to those who encourage you to try to write the biography.  I
> will look for my correspondence, too, but probably not til after
> Christmas.
>
>         David
>
> David S. Rood
> Dept. of Linguistics
> Univ. of Colorado
> Campus Box 295
> Boulder, CO 80309-0295
> USA
> rood at colorado.edu
>
> On Mon, 26 Nov 2001, Louanna Furbee wrote:
>
> > >Hi Lance,  Seconding Bob's comments, I think you should put together
> > >what you turn up into an article or report.  I think that it was
> > >someplace in Texas where Marsh retired (maybe to a Greek Orthodox
> > >(Russian Orthodox?) home for retired clergy?  Dave Rogles tried to
> > >run him down at one time.  You might try him.  I don't hae his
> > >address, but I think Jill Davidson Greer does.  Her e-mail is JGreer
> > ><jgreer at mvip.net>.  Good luck.  Louanna
> >
> >
> >
> > >Lance,
> > >
> > >Looks like you've done more research on him than anybody else I know.  John
> > >Koontz found, I think, that he had gone to a retirement home in the SW.
> > >That's where he probably died.  Why don't YOU write up his bio?  You might
> > >even find people in Alaska who knew him there.
> > >
> > >Bob
> > >
> > >
> > >>I was wondering who out there has done research on the life of Gordon
> > >Marsh, Chiwere scholar extraordinaire. I remember seeing a short
> > >biography on him in an article in a book of biographies of either
> > >linguists, anthropologists, or scholars of American Indians. I
> > >photocopied the article, but unfortunately it as well as all of my
> > >research materials remain in storage in the lower 48 (I am in Alaska
> > >now). I also learned more about him in a series of letters with some
> > >scholars (Nancy Lurie? Mildred Mott?). I have microfilms of his work
> > >(also in storage) from the American Philosophical Society, which was
> > >done by Marsh in several seasons of fieldwork in the 1930s-- he even had
> > >a special typewriter created for it. His major professor at Columbia was
> > >Franz Boas. Unfortunately as he did his fieldwork, Boas retired, so
> > >Marsh lost his major prof. Boas had been interested in collecting
> > >everything Native American, but the new paradigm in anthropology and at
> > >Columbia was more along the lines of social theory, and Marsh could not
> > >find anyone on the faculty who was interested in what he was doing. In
> > >frustration, Marsh turned in his typewriter, his notes, etc. to the
> > >American Philosophical Society, and went to Alaska to become a Russian
> > >Orthodox monk! Years later he went to the southwest, Arizona and/or
> > >Texas. I received an email from some former parishioners who remembered
> > >attending his Masses in Texas, where he is said to have died in the
> > >1970s or 1980s.
> > >
> > >As I was doing my research, the thing that really bummed me out was
> > >finding that William Whitman published Marsh's work verbatim as his own
> > >in 1947. In any case this is the impression I get, since Whitman did not
> > >list Marsh as a coauthor, the work is verbatim from Marsh's fieldnotes,
> > >Whiteman only acknowledges Marsh in an offhand manner, he uses Marsh'
> > >orthography, and in fact the last page of Whitman's article is
> > >incomplete... with the rest of the page still to be found in Marsh! At
> > >most Whitman should be listed as the editor of that work, not the
> > >author.
> > >
> > >Anyway, I would like to know if anyone has followed Marsh's work (Dr.
> > >Furbee? Anyone?). I would like to see an article or something done to
> > >set the scholarly record straight, not to bash Whitman but to give Marsh
> > >proper recognition. I am sure all scholars know how important this is,
> > >and how if the same thing happened to you, you would like if someone
> > >eventually set the record straight for you.
> > >
> > >Lance Foster
> >
> > --
> > Prof. N. Louanna Furbee
> > Department of Anthropology
> > 107 Swallow Hall
> > University of Missouri
> > Columbia, MO  65211 USA
> > Telephones: 573/882-9408 (office)
> >          573/882-4731 (department)
> >          573/446-0932 (home)
> >          573/884-5450 (fax)
> > E-mail:  FurbeeL at missouri.edu
> >