Literary archive of Wyandotte author Bernard N. O. Walker (Hen-Toh)
Walker, Bertrand N[icholas] O[liver] (Hen-Toh) (1870 – 1927). A substantial archive of unpublished writings, including stories, poems, and a Wyandot glossary. Approximately 315 pages, both manuscripts, typescripts, and corrected carbons, with a 1909 chronotype portrait of Walker by George B. Cornish. Materials generally in very good or better condition. Individually filed in an archival case, 0.5 linear feet.
This archive of stories, poems, and other writings, most of which are unpublished, more than doubles the known corpus of writings by B. N. O. Walker, who published his work under his Wyandotte name, Hen-Toh. Lost for over a century, these manuscripts were recently discovered among the fugitive papers of Charles Marius Barbeau (1883 – 1969), the Canadian ethnologist who relied on Walker's help for his landmark work, Huron and Wyandot Mythology (1915).
B. N. O. Walker (Oklahoma Historical Society)
Walker was a member of the Oklahoma band of the Big Turtle Clan. Born in Kansas City, Kansas, he was a descendant of William Walker (1800 – 1874), the Wyandot leader who served as the first provisional governor of Nebraska Territory, which also encompassed the present-day state of Kansas. Originally given another Wyandotte name, he adopted the name "Hen-Toh" (he leads), which was once borne by his relative, Chief John W. Greyeyes (1820 – 1881). As he later recounted:
I recall my Mother’s telling me one time that when I was but a few weeks old, Tauromee, the last full-blood Wyandot chief, who was then leaving Kansas to come down to this country, came to our house to see me. He said to her in Wyandot: “Well, he don’t look much like it, but he’s a Wyandot, and he’ll always stay with his people.” The old fellow seems to have had the gift of prophecy, truly.
In 1872, his father Isaiah Walker (1826 – 1886) moved from Kansas to Indian Territory, building a house in what is now Wyandotte, Oklahoma, that is listed in the National Register. Walker attended a Friends’ Mission School near Wyandotte that was later renamed the Seneca Indian School. From 1890 until his death in 1927, he worked in the Indian Service, first as a teacher and then after 1901 as a clerk in Kansas, Oklahoma, California, and Arizona. Between 1918 and 1923 he focused on writing and maintaining the family farm. In 1923, he took a position with the Quapaw Agency in Miami, Oklahoma, serving there until his death.
George B. Cornish, Hen-Tah, Wyandot Chief (Portrait of B. N. O. Waker, 1909).
Included in the present archive.
Walker read widely, and gathered folktales from older members of the Wyandotte, including Catherine "Kitty" Greyeyes (1822 – 1885), the wife of John W. Greyeyes. The Canadian ethnologist Charles Marius Barbeau credits Walker for facilitating his work on Huron and Wyandot Mythology (1915): "The author is much indebted to Mr. B. N. O. Walker not only for the valuable myths which he contributed ... but also for his many services in facilitating the work with other informants, by whom he is deservedly esteemed."
As Hen-Toh, Walker published two books, both issued by the Harlow Publishing Company in Oklahoma City. Tales of the Bark Lodges (1919), a collection of twelve stories, and Yon-Doo-Shah-We-Ah (Nubbins) (1924), a volume of poetry, chiefly character sketches and narratives. He also published in the Indian School Journal, Chronicles of Oklahoma, and other periodicals. Like the "Fus Fixico" pieces by Creek humorist Alexander Posey (1873 -- 1908), many of Walker's folk-tales and poems are written in what he described as "the broken dialect peculiar alone to the 'old time Indian.'" As Daniel F. Littlefield and James W. Parins have noted, "Hen-Toh's close contact with old Wyandots had provided him a familiarity with not only Wyandot history and culture but also the rhythms of their English speech." Despite his slim output Walker's work has been widely anthologized, most fully in Robert Dale Parker's collection of American Indian poetry published before 1930, Changing is not Vanishing (2010).
The volume of the writing in the present collection, most of which is unpublished, significantly exceeds that of his printed corpus. Where Tales of the Bark Lodges collects twelve stories, the present archive contains over 20 additional tales, all unpublished. There are 28 poems in Yon-Doo-Shah-We-Ah (Nubbins). Here are the texts of 30 poems, several in multiple drafts, most of which are either unpublished or differ from the printed versions. There are also the typescripts of a handful of unpublished essays, and Walker's holograph notes on Wyandot history, biography, and linguistics. Six mythic tales written in collaboration with Marius Barbeau and a photographic print of Walker by George B. Cornish round out the archive.
Eminently publishable, these manuscripts will serve as the foundation for a long-overdue comprehensive reassessment of the work of this important Oklahoman author.
Selected References
- Barbeau, Charles Marius. Huron and Wyandot Mythology, with Appendix Containing Earlier Published Records. Ottawa: Geological Survey of Canada, 1915.
- Beck, Cindy K. "Introduction" to Yon-Doo-Shah-We-Ah (Nubbins), A Modern Text and Facsimile Edition, Little Rock: Native American Press Archives and Sequoyah Research Center, 2004. https://ualrexhibits.org/tribalwriters/artifacts/Hen-Toh_Yon-Doo-Shah-We-Ah.html
- Conlan, C[zarina] C. “Sketch of B. N. O. Walker,” Chronicles of Oklahoma 6/1 (March 1928) pp. 89-93.
- Garrad, Charles. Petun to Wyandot: The Ontario Petun from the sixteenth century. University of Ottawa Press, 2014.
- Hobson, Geary, “The Literature of Indian Oklahoma: A Brief History.” World Literature Today 64, no. 3 (1990),
- Littlefield, Daniel F., Jr., and James W. Parins, “Introduction” in Bertrand N. O. Walker (Hen-Toh), Tales of the Bark Lodges. Jackson: University of Mississippi Press, 1995
- Parker, Robert Dale, ed., Changing is not vanishing: a collection of early American Indian poetry, 1678-1930 (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2010),
Product tabs
SOLD
Earn 0Reward points
Recommend this product

Literary archive of Wyandotte author Bernard N. O. Walker (Hen-Toh)
Related products
Lynn Riggs, Correspondence on A World Elsewhere
Riggs, [Rolla] Lynn (1899-1954). Five letters to William Kozlenko on A World Elsewhere, 1937-1939. 5 pp., three of which are typed, and two of which a...
view details
$950
View details
$1,750
The nature diary of a Walt Whitman enthusiast and "literary light man," 1896-1897
Elliot, Charles Nathan (1873-1951). Sylvan Notes. Manuscript journal, April 19, 1896 to Oct. 10, 1897. 190 p.; ill.; 172 x 102 mm (6 ¾ x 4 in). Origin...
view details
$1,750
View details
$950
Distributing bibles in Texas and Mexico
Powell, William D[avid] (1854 – 1934) and G[eorge] J[ames] Johnson (1824 – 1902). Correspondence archive. 10 letters from Johnson to Powell, 1882 to 1...
view details
$950
View details
$7,500
John Vlahos. Archive of a screenwriter for television's Golden Age
Vlahos, John (1917-2004). A major archive of scripts, drafts and other materials by one of the leading scriptwriters of the Golden Age of television, ...
view details
$7,500
View details
$2,500
35 American composers of art songs name their favorite tune
Goodjohn (Wu), Arlouine (1918-2015). An archive of 50 letters plus related materials received from over 35 American art song composers, 1961-1965. Col...
view details
$2,500
View details
$25,000
A richly detailed diary of Gold Rush California 1850-1852
Pangborn, David Knapp (1803-1874). Manuscript journal, 1850-1852, 1862-1864. 256 pp.; about 6½ x 8½ in. Bound in original calf journal with contrastin...
view details
$25,000
View details
$12,500
Stefan Zweig. Nine letters to Felix Wittmer, 1930-1937
Zweig, Stefan (1881 – 1942). A file of nine typed letters to the writer Felix Wittmer (1902 – 1985). 13 pp. total, with holograph corrections and sign...
view details
$12,500
View details
$3,250
Senator Albert J. Beveridge: an archive
Beveridge, Albert J. (1862 – 1927). A small archive of correspondence, manuscripts, and other materials, ca. 1870 – 1930. The papers are individuall...
view details
$3,250
View details
$0
Original Script for The Sacco-Vanzetti Story, Vanzetti’s Copy (1960)
Rose, Reginald. Sunday Showcase: The Sacco-Vanzetti Story. Typescript for the NBC drama. Third Revision, 5/9/60. 2 parts in 1 volume, 192 leaves (rect...
view details
$0
View details
$9,500
Billy Emerson Minstrel show Archive, including his original script
Redmond, William Emerson (“Billy Emerson”) (1846 -- 1902). Billy Emerson’s Joke Book, manuscript, circa 1881. 22 x 18 cm (17 x 8¾ in); 150 pages. Burn...
view details
$9,500
View details
$9,500
Maine's first federal justice instructs a Grand Jury on piracy and taxes (1793)
Sewall, David (1735 – 1825). Charge to the Grand Jury, United States District Court of Maine. Docketed June [and] September, 1793, holograph manuscrip...
view details
$9,500
View details
$300
An early letter from Kate Milner Rabb, Indiana journalist
Rabb, Kate Milner (1866 – 1937). Letter the Rockport High School Class of 1890, 22 August 1892. Two pages, typed with holograph corrections, signed in...
view details
$300
View details
$8,750
Manuscript Journal of a Transatlantic Quaker Mission, 1796-97
Farrer, William (1738-1826) A Journal of a Religious Visit to Germany & Holland by William Farrer as Companion to David Sands in Company with Will...
view details
$8,750
View details
$7,500
Richard Allen: the modest power of an pioneering African-American leader
Allen, Richard (1760-1831). Holograph document, signed. Philadelphia, 26 October 1799. 4 3/4 x 8 1/4 in. (121 x 212 mm). Scattered spotting, light to ...
view details
$7,500
View details
$0
A Comprehensive Alpine Herbarium
Caviezel, Michael. Flora des Berninagebietes. Pontresina, Switzerland: M. Caviezel, ca. 1880. 151 leaves, 37cm. Cover bright, contents sound, but spin...
view details
$0
View details
$2,500
Captured by Pirates!; or, The Case of the Elusive Copyright
[Doyle, Arthur Conan (1859-1930)]. Correspondence relating to the American copyright for The Firm of Girdlestone, 1896. Four items from the files ...
view details
$2,500
View details
$45,000
Thomas Paine. Common Sense. The first London edition (1776), completed in manuscript
Paine, Thomas (1737-1809). Common Sense; Addressed to the Inhabitants of America… A New Edition, with several Additions in the Body of the Work. To wh...
view details
$45,000
View details
$7,500
Poems by a Uranian from the American heartland, inscribed to a favorite
Bellamy, Orlando Rollin (1856 – 1911). Poems, 1892-94. Two volumes. 295 + 295 pp. Collecting a total 352 poems in holograph, with indexes, copied in t...
view details
$7,500
View details
$9,500
A memoir of the Black Hawk War and the Founding of Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin (1833)
Smith, Henry (1798 – 1847), Indian Campaign of 1832. Holograph manuscript, 1833. 18 pp. 10 x 8 inches, approximately 4500 words. Authorial corrections...
view details
$9,500
View details
The first LGBTQ business association in the USA: records of the Tavern Guild of San Francisco
$8,500
$8,500
The first LGBTQ business association in the USA: records of the Tavern Guild of San Francisco
Tavern Guild of San Francisco. Archive of membership reports, financial records, and other materials, 1964 – 1993. Approximately 500 pages in three bi...
view details
$8,500
View details