| Richard Calmit Adams Richard Adams "was a Delaware (Lenape) Indian who devoted twenty-five years of his life to being a champion of Delaware causes. He acted as their legal representative in Washington, D.C., helping to direct the tribe's fierce legal battles with the Cherokee Nation over land rights. In addition to his political activities, Adams wrote five books about Delaware legends, religion, and traditons. At a time when young Native people were pressured to abandon their traditions, Richard Adams sought to record and preserve them, and to promote their understanding in the white community." [dustjacket bio, Richard C. Adams, Legends of the Delaware Indians and Picture Writing (New York: Syracuse University Press, 1997)] Adams was the first tribal historian, and first American Indian to publish transcriptions of native music in European languages. [Source: Victoria Lindsay Levine, Writing American Indian Music: Historic Transcriptions, Notations and Arrangements 195 (Madison, Wisconsin: Published for the American Musicological Society by A-R Editions, 2002)] [online text] Whether Richard C. Adams was a lawyer is still not firmly resolved. A reading of Deborah Nichols introductory commentary to Richard C. Adams, Legends of the Delaware Indians and Picture Writing (Washington, D.C., 1905)(Syracuse, New York: Syracuse University Press, 1997)(edited and with an introduction by Deborah Nichols; with translations by Nora Thompson Dean & Lucy Parks Blalock; transcription by James Rementer) suggest that Adams in his "legal representation" of the Delaware Indians may have acted as a lawyer, but that he was not trained as a lawyer, and was not admitted to practice law. Poetry Richard C. Adams, Just a Few Thoughts (Washington, D.C.: Crane Co., 1909) Writings Richard Calmit Adams, The Ancient Religion of the Delaware Indians and Observations and Reflections ([Washington, D.C. : The Law Reporter Printing Co.], 1904) [online text] _________________, Legends of the Delaware Indians and Picture Writing (Washington, D.C.,1905)(Syracuse, New York: Syracuse University Press, 1997)(edited and with an introduction by Deborah Nichols; with translations by Nora Thompson Dean & Lucy Parks Blalock; transcription by James Rementer) [limited preview] _________________, Delaware Indians: A Brief History (Washington D.C.: Govt. print. off., 1906) [online text] (Saugerties, New York: Hope Farm Press & Bookshop, 1995) _________________, Delaware Indians (Washington: G.P.O., 1909) _________________, The Adoption of Mew-seu-qua, Tecumseh's Father, |
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