The Library of Congress >  Researchers >  Search Finding Aids  >  Ai Ogawa papers, 1820-2010
Access restrictions apply.
ContainerContents
BOX 22-38 Research File, 1820-2010
The Research File series contains Ai’s research for a memoir and historical study about her Native American, white, and African American ancestry. She described the project as a memoir that “evolved into a memoir/tribal history involving the Indian Wars, [George A.] Custer, massacres . . .” and a “meditation on race in America.” Although she utilized some of this research in her poetry, she did not live to complete the memoir/history. The majority of the files consist of Cheyenne Tribe and Arapaho Tribe allotment records, United States census records, United States Indian census schedules, and research and notes relating to the Smith family, her mother's ancestors. An item of note is a grant application (May 10, 1999) in which Ai describes her writing, including her use of dramatic monologues, her focus on character, her fascination with good and evil, and the changes in her writing over time.

Material types include correspondence, memoranda, printed email, allotment records, notes, notebooks, maps, photographs, grant applications, newspaper clippings, printed matter, digital files, and other material.
Arranged alphabetically by name of family, topic, or type of material. The file structure of the digital content maintained as received.
BOX 22 Correspondence
BOX 22 2001-2006
(6 folders)
BOX 23 2007-2010, undated
(3 folders)
BOX 23 General, 2001-2008, undated
BOX 23 Grant applications, 1999-2000, 2009, undated
BOX 23 Japanese family research, 2001-2009
(4 folders)
DF Spreadsheet of data for "Ogawa: The Y2K Ogawa Family Yearbook," 2004
Digital ID: mss86481_276_003
BOX 23 Native Americans
BOX 23 Bibliography, 1990-2009
BOX 23 Cavalry and military, 2004-2005
BOX 23 Cheyenne Tribe and Arapaho Tribe
BOX 23 Allotments
BOX 23 General, 1914-1923, 1932-1944, undated
BOX 23 No. 48, Black Woman, 1911
BOX 23 No. 114, Robert Yellow Eyes (also known as Robert White Eyes), 1914, 1921, 1935-1936
BOX 23 No. 115, Robert Bent Bird, 1904, 1915
BOX 24 No. 164, Morning Alfrey, 1917-1980
(2 folders)
BOX 24 No. 164, Albert Short Teeth and Myrtle Kelly, 1923-1968
(2 folders)
BOX 24 No. 220, Little Woman (also known as Blue), 1916-1923
BOX 24 No. 228, Standing Out Bent, 1911-1920, 1937-1955
BOX 24 No. 229, William Bent, 1911-1917, 1957-1958
BOX 24 No. 230, Charlie Bent, 1908, 1914
BOX 24 No. 231, Mary Bent, 1915, 1942-1943
BOX 24 No. 232, Daisy Bent and George Bent, 1911-1919, 1950-1962
BOX 24 No. 234, Julia Bent, 1912
BOX 24 No. 354, Broken Jar (also known as Broken Jaw), 1913-1914
BOX 24 No. 367, Julia Guerrier, 1933
BOX 24 No. 368, Edward Guerrier, 1923
BOX 24 No. 381, Smoking Slow, 1913-1914
BOX 24 No. 475, Stump Horn, 1915-1923, 1959
BOX 24 No. 477, Yellow Horse, 1911-1925
BOX 25 No. 602, Swallow family, 1892, 1913-1943, 1954-1957
(3 folders)
BOX 25 No. 640, Buffalo Thigh, 1913
BOX 25 No. 642, Kiowa Woman (Bent), 1913-1919
BOX 25 No. 672, Ponac Woman, 1892, 1912-1940
(2 folders)
BOX 25 No. 719, Big Medicine family, 1919-1985
(3 folders)
BOX 25 No. 719C, Black Bird, 1892
BOX 26 No. 720, Sitting Woman and Jeannette Big Medicine, 1907-1975
(3 folders)
BOX 26 No. 720, Joe Antelope, 1930-1974
BOX 26 No. 720B, Mary Springer Antelope, 1928-1967
BOX 26 No. 721, Big Medicine family, 1892, 1917-1986
(2 folders)
BOX 26 No. 722, Mary Springer (also known as Mary Antelope), 1892, 1916-1988
BOX 27 No. 722, Mary Springer (also known as Mary Antelope), 1892, 1916-1988
(2 folders)
BOX 27 No. 723, Mary Springer (also known as Mary Antelope), 1917, 1929-1931
BOX 27 No. 724, Pipe Woman, 1892, 1913-1922
(2 folders)
BOX 27 No. 728, Little Hawk, 1958-1960
BOX 27 No. 762, William Goodsell, 1915-1925
BOX 27 No. 844, Black Bull, 1892, 1913-1922
BOX 28 No. 3047, Robert Barnes, 1912
BOX 28 No. 3048, Ada Burns, 1913
BOX 28 No. 3061, Turtle John, 1901-1904, 1920
BOX 28 General, 1836, 1904, 1956, 1979, 1999-2008, undated
(3 folders)
BOX 28 Choctaw Tribe
BOX 28 General, 1897-1899, 1905-1906, 1995-2004, undated
BOX 28 Seal, 1994
BOX 28 Comanche Tribe census lists, undated
BOX 28 Crazy Horse, 2000, 2006, undated
BOX 28 Custer, George A., and family, 1870-1876, 1940-1957, 1971, 1997-2009
(2 folders)
BOX 29 Delano family, 1870, 1937, 2006-2007
BOX 29 Diné clans, 2002
BOX 29 Fort Griffin, Tex., and Comanche Tribe, 1880, 1900, 1930, 1999-2004
BOX 29 General, 1840, 1855-1856, 1866-1955, 1962, 1970, 1981, 1988-2005
(8 folders)
BOX 30 General, 2006-2010, undated
(7 folders)
BOX 30 Heskett family, 1902
BOX 30 Languages, 2004-2007
BOX 30 Maps, 2004-2005
BOX 31 Notebook, undated
BOX 31 Notes and related material, 1885-1940, 2000-2007, undated
(4 folders)
BOX 31 Photographs (includes photocopies), 1864-2010
BOX 32 Photographs (includes photocopies), 1864-2010
BOX 32 Pushmataha family, 2002, undated
BOX 32 Relatives, doubtful, 1870-2005
BOX 32 Research assistant projects, 2000
BOX 32 Reynolds, Albert Eugene, 1916, 1988
(2 folders)
BOX 32 Sioux Tribe families from Indian Genealogies: Kiowa Agency, O.T. 1902, 1902, 2009
BOX 32 Smith family, 1858-2006
(2 folders)
BOX 33 Smith family, 1858-2006
(5 folders)
BOX 34 Smith family, 1858-2006
(5 folders)
BOX 34 Swallow family, 1885-1940, undated
BOX 34 Thompson family, 1900-1907, 2002
(2 folders)
BOX 35 United States census records, 1820, 1840, 1850, 1860, 1870, 1880, 1900, 1910, 1920, 1930
(7 folders)
BOX 36 United States census records, 1820, 1840, 1850, 1860, 1870, 1880, 1900, 1910, 1920, 1930
(2 folders)
BOX 36 United States Indian census schedules and related documents, 1885-1940, undated
(4 folders)
BOX 37 United States Indian census schedules and related documents, 1885-1940, undated
(6 folders)
BOX 38 United States Indian census schedules and related documents, 1885-1940, undated
BOX 38 Waggoner family, 2001-2009, undated
(2 folders)
BOX 38 Wild Hog, 1875-1899, 2009
BOX 38-51 Writings File, 1971-2009
The Writings File series makes up almost one third of the collection and documents Ai’s writings in various forms, including poetry, novels, memoirs, plays and teleplays, and editorial work for magazines. Although Ai wrote first drafts in longhand, the Writings File contains only a few handwritten drafts with the bulk of the files comprised of typescripts and manuscript proofs.

Most of the poetry files consist of manuscripts and other materials for Ai’s books, although two collections of untitled poems and individual poems in various forms (handwritten, typescripts, proofs, and published) are also present. While the majority of Ai’s writings are written in the first person, they are not autobiographical. She took on the personae of historical figures or fictional persons using strong language and vivid images to convey her narrative. In later years, however, Ai wrote two poems relating to herself and her family, “Baby Florence: AKA Ai Coming Through Fire” (from No Surrender) and “The Saga of Charlie Smith” (from Dread). Also pertaining to her family and documented in the Writings File is Ai's unpublished novel “Black Blood: A Tale of Love, Death, Race, and Sex.” The plot is based loosely on the suspicious death of her cousin, a young man accidentally shot while in the home of a young white girl in 1961. Although Ai revised the novel several times, it was never published.

Also featured in the Writings File are notebooks that include poetry, jottings of ideas for poems and projects, to do lists, and occasionally drawings. A drawing in Ai's 1992 notebook reveals her distress when the poetry editor at Houghton, Mifflin and Company described her book Greed as pornographic and not appropriate for them. The second part of the drawing displays Ai's triumph with W.W. Norton & Company welcoming the book for publication. The Writings File also includes material relating to Ai’s readings, talks, and workshops about poetry.

Material types include correspondence, poems, book drafts, novels, plays and teleplays, notebooks, reviews, notes, broadsides, short stories, blurbs, posters, royalty statements, permission requests, business cards, newspaper clippings, printed matter, and other material.
Arranged alphabetically by topic or type of material.
BOX 38 Blurbs, 1999-2002, undated
BOX 38 Caprice, 1996
BOX 38 Cimarron Review, 2000-2007
(2 folders)
Next Page »

Contents List