Lancisco Hill collection, 1905-1911

Summary

Creator:

Hill, Lancisco, approximately 1882-

Abstract:

The Lancisco Hill collection consists of one full-length studio portrait of Pima Indian Lancisco Hill as well as three letters sent by Hill to a white American woman named Frances W. Anderson Gillette between April 1908 and July 1911.

Extent:

3 letters and 1 photograph

Language:

English

Authors:

Collection processed and finding aid created by Jakob Dopp, January 2020

Background

Scope and Content:

The Lancisco Hill collection consists of one full length studio portrait of Pima Indian Lancisco Hill as well as three letters sent by Hill to a white American woman named Frances W. Anderson Gillette between April 1908 and July 1911.

The studio portrait is a gelatin silver print on a near cabinet card size mount (14.5 x 10.5 cm). Hill can be seen wearing traditional Plains Native American clothing while holding a tomahawk. The clothing and tomahawk were possibly studio props supplied by the unidentified photographer. A contemporary ink inscription on the verso reads "To Mrs. Wm. H. Anderson from Lancisco Hill 12/23th/05."

The first letter (ALS, 4 pages) is dated April 24, 1908, and is addressed to "Mrs. Frances W. Anderson, #254 N. Soto Street Los Angeles, California c/o Mrs. Ward Chapman." Hill asks Anderson if she would be able to locate the C. G. Conn's store and procure three baritone springs for him while she is in Los Angeles. Hill also describes recent weather and indicates that Anderson's horses (including "Joe" and "Alice") are doing well, that he purchased a new bag of hen feed, and that a former neighbor stopped by and will soon be calling on Anderson when they visit Los Angeles.

The second letter (ALS, 3 pages) is dated May 2, 1908, and is also addressed to "Mrs. Frances W. Anderson, #254 N. Soto Street Los Angeles, California c/o Mrs. Ward Chapman." In this letter, Hill lists several chores he has recently completed at Anderson's estate, including taking a book to an unnamed woman, shoeing horses, and letting the hens out. Hill also thanks Anderson for sending him lyrics for a song and states that he thinks he can "sing it for you now at any time we get some one to play for me. I go to the Arizona School of Music now and I know I am learning it right."

The third letter (ALS, 6 pages) is dated July 24, 1911, and is addressed to "Mrs. E. G. Gillette, #414 Andover Street, Lowell, Mass." Hill discusses goings on at the Phoenix estate including recent rainy weather, the birth of a bull calf, the cats being in good health, repair work that needed to be done following a storm, and his inviting a woman named "Ms. Howsel" over for meals regularly since she is "not very busy this summer." Hill also touches on how he borrowed a total of $100 from "Ida Larson" and "Walter" to pay for a musical instrument he named "Comet," and that he would appreciate it if Frances and her husband could assist him in clearing this debt.

Biographical / Historical:

Lancisco Hill was born around 1882 on Salt River Reservation, Arizona Territory, to James Red Milky Way and an unidentified mother. A full-blooded Pima (Akimel O'odham) of the On'k band, Hill was raised in the traditional ways of his people before his father sent him to the Phoenix Indian School at the age of 12 in order to receive a Western education.

At the Phoenix Indian School, Hill excelled in athletics, academics, and musical performance. Hill was a skilled football player, played E-flat bass horn and slide trombone in the school band, and also won first prize in an oratory competition. Following his graduation from the Phoenix Indian School in 1904, Hill was hired by the President of Mutual Life Insurance Company Richard A. McCurdy (1835-1916) after the latter happened to attend Hill's graduation and was duly impressed. It also appears that Hill may converted to the Mormon faith by 1904. Hill played football in 1904 for the "Temple Forum" team in Richmond Hill, Queens, New York City, and in 1906 he was still employed by Mutual Life as an insurance agent in their New York City office. Hill and a Pima student at Chilocco Indian Agricultural School named Mary Rhodes were sent to Lowell, Massachusetts, in the fall of 1906 as outing students to live with a family there. The family Hill and Rhodes stayed with was possibly that of Frances Welton Anderson (1877-1948). Hill sent Anderson's mother a portrait of himself in December of 1905, indicating that he was in communication with the Anderson family prior to his stay in Lowell.

Hill appears to have returned to Arizona by 1908. He would go on to establish an organization called "The American Indian Orchestra Society" with his Pawnee wife Maud Blue Hawk Hill (?-1928) for Native American musicians living in the Phoenix area. During this time, Hill was also employed on the Phoenix-based estate of Frances W. Anderson while attending the Arizona School of Music. He seems to have lived on the estate with his family. In 1911, Hill was chosen as a tribal representative to be sent before Congress in Washington, D.C., and was part of the Salt River Reservation delegation that went to D.C. in 1934 for deliberations concerning the Indian Reorganization Act.

After residing in Pawnee, Oklahoma, for a period of time, Lancisco and Maud returned to Phoenix in 1916; their son, Lancisco Hill, Jr., was born the following year in 1917. In February of 1928, Lancisco and Maud were involved in a single-vehicle car accident which resulted in the latter's death. The date of Lancisco's death has not been determined.

Frances Welton Anderson Gillette was born on December 20, 1877, in Lowell, Massachusetts, to Mary Abigail (1840-1927) and William Henry Anderson (1836-1902). She married physician Edwin Johnson Gillette (1864-1943) in 1909, and the couple appear to have spent about a decade or so living in the western United States in Phoenix and Los Angeles before returning to the East Coast. They had two sons, William A. (1918-2009) and Robert V. Gillette (1920-1997). While in Los Angeles in 1908, Frances appears to have been staying at the house of a "Mrs. Ward Chapman."

Acquisition Information:

2020. M-7161 .

Arrangement:

The collection is arranged chronologically.

Rules or Conventions:

Finding aid prepared using Describing Archives: A Content Standard (DACS)

Related

Additional Descriptive Data:

Bibliography

Chilocco Indian School. The Indian School Journal 6, no. 10 (1906): 47.

England, G. A. "An Indian Boy in Business," Success Magazine 9 (1906): 178.

Native Indian Association. The Indian's Friend 24, no. 8 (1914): 8.

Parley, Pratt. The Latter-Day Saints' Millennial Star 66 (1904): 525.

Phoenix Indian School. The Native American 15, no. 15 (1914): 197.

Phoenix Indian School. The Native American 17, no. 8, 1916: 141.

Webster, F. The Insurance Press 18, no. 459 (1904): 2.

Subjects

Click on terms below to find any related finding aids on this site.

Subjects:

Brass instruments.
Estates--Arizona.
Indians of North America--Arizona.
Music--Instruction and study.
Photographs shelf.
Pima Indians.
Ranches--Arizona.
Whites--Relations with Indians.
Clothing & dress--1900-1920.
Indians of North America--Arizona. .
Indigenous peoples--United States--1900-1920.
Pima Indians.
Tomahawks--1900-1920.

Formats:

Cabinet photographs.
Gelatin silver prints.
Letters (correspondence)
Portrait photographs.

Names:

C.G. Conn, Ltd.
Gillette, Frances W., 1877-1948.

Places:

Los Angeles (Calif.)
Phoenix (Ariz.)