The Native American Studies Archive announces the acquisition of the Garfield Crawford Harris Papers
"I enjoyed my life and was as happy as anybody. We lived through it all, and I am still going on.”
- Garfield Harris
WW II photograph. L to R: Garfield Harris and his brother Wilford
Garfield Crawford Harris Collection
(1914-1994)
(Updated 4/13/2016)
Biographical Note:
The following was written by Dr. Thomas Blumer after the
death of Garfield Harris.
“Catawba Indian
Autobiographer Passes”
“I was born March 14, 1914, between midnight and day.” Thus
begins the direct opening statement of Garfield Harris, who for many years had
planned to write “his story.” Actually begun in September 1993, his
autobiography preserves bits and pieces of Catawba history in a way uniquely
his own.
He was the son of Theodore and Artemis Harris, both Catawba
Indians. His father was a sharecropper and his mother, a graduate of Carlisle
Indian Industrial, kept the home and made Catawba pottery. The family totaled
11 children in all.
School began for Garfield at age seven in 1921. He was
always studious and liked the learning process, but school was difficult for
him, for early in life he faced adult chores around the house and in the cotton
fields. He received his schooling at the Catawba Indian School, founded in 1896
and closed in 1966. While hundreds of Indian children there learned to read,
write and calculate, only Garfield Harris aspired to write his
autobiography. His spotty attendance
record however, surely impressed his teachers negatively. Chores came first:
“I
only have seven grades in school. My dad was a farmer, and he didn’t believe in
kids going to school. When farming time
came, it was in March. If I was in school, I had to stay out to clear up the
field and to plant, cut sprouts and briars, corn stalks and cotton stalks to
start plowing. Next, cotton had to be hoed. When we finished, I was able to go
back to school for two weeks. We took our exams in May.”
When Garfield had time left for study, it was often late at
night. And the family often didn’t have money for kerosene to fuel the lamps.
His solution was found in pine knots. He gathered them for their steady, bright
light. Then after dinner, he would light one and study by it “until one or two
in the night.”
His formal schooling ended in 1929 at the age of 15. He went
to work on the nearby Sullivan farm for 50 cents a day in summer and 40 cents a
day in winter, working from “Sunday to Sunday.” He knew he was fortunate to
have even this meager income because the family could do much with so little.
His earnings made his 1933 marriage to Ruthie Harris possible. After two years,
they separated.
In 1936 he joined the Civilian Conservation Corps and left
the Catawba nation for the first time.
“I
remember the day we left. We met a bus in front of People’s Bank in Rock Hill
and left early in the morning for Columbia…I kind of got homesick but stayed.”
From Columbia, the group was sent to Pennsylvania where
Garfield was impressed by the “hard winter.” In the spring he was transferred
to Salina, California. His last written statement concerns the joy of seeing
the country:
“I
learned a lot about traveling and it was a wonderful experience which came in
handy in later years.”
While Garfield’s personal account ends with this brief
comment, the historical documentation picks up at this point. When WWII broke
out, Garfield joined the US Army and served in North Africa. Upon returning
home, he went to work for the Rock Hill Printing and Finishing Company (the
Bleachery). In 1950 he was elected to the Catawba Indian Nation Tribal Council
and served several terms under Chiefs Nelson Blue and Ephraim George. In 1958
he was again elected to the Council under Chief Nelson Blue whose task it was
to guide the Catawba Nation through the termination of Federal status. Chief
Blue resigned, and Garfield continued to serve under Chief Albert Sanders.
Frustrated by the way Catawba assets were being terminated, he resigned in June
1959. Some months later, he married Olga Fowler.
The last years of Garfield’s life were spent nursing his
wife and preparing his autobiography. While he did not live to complete the
story, his brief contribution to Catawba written history is important for its
deep sincerity. Perhaps this is most evident in his description of a house his
parents rented from fellow tribal member Davis Ayers:
“The
floor was fit together with rough timber, and you had cracks in the floor. You
could feed chickens through the cracks. You got plenty of wind from them. We
had to put sacks on the floor to keep the wind out…The shingles were made out
of oak. When it rained, you had to set pots around to keep your bed from
getting wet. As soon as the shingles got wet and swelled, the leaking stopped...I
enjoyed my life and was as happy as anybody. We lived through it all, and I am
still going on.”
Scope and Content Notes
The collection consists of 3.75
linear feet of material. The journals
begin in 1950 and span 45 years. They are a chronicle of daily life on the
Catawba Indian Nation and are filled with accounts of the weather and events
that Garfield found interesting. Many journals resemble scrapbooks, containing
clippings, obituaries, and other ephemeral items.
The 1983 journal contains
Garfield’s “Remembrances”, autobiographical accounts of reservation life
between the World Wars and Garfield’s military experiences. Of special note are
his California experiences. Garfield, a Native American is a guard at a
Japanese American internment camp. He
also talks about seeing the Navajo (the Navajo wind talkers) practice their
signals across the valley.
Garfield was a devoted
husband, and Olga the great love of his life. The two fell in love but
separated due to the South Carolina ban on interracial marriage. They married in
1959, when the law was abolished. A long and happy marriage ensued with Olga
predeceasing Garfield. From this point, almost all journal entries are
addressed to his “dearest, darling.”
Many journals contain
handwritten indexes created by Dr. Blumer.
The collection also
contains some of Garfield’s personal effects such as marriage certificates, an
honorable discharge from the Civilian Conservation Corps and various clippings.
Of special interest is the unique family blood type shared by his family. The
Harris variant was so rare the American Red Cross created a special category
for it, and researchers around the world requested samples for study. Further folders include a small correspondence
file, and Mormon Church materials.
Folder List of Contents of the Garfield Crawford Harris Papers
1936-1995
34 Folders:
Journals (30 folders)
1950-1953, 1956-1961, 1963-1965, 1972-1973, 1976-1989,
1992-1994
Correspondence, 1938-1995, n.d.
Personal Effects, 1932-1947, n.d.
Mormon Church Materials
22 Photographs, 6 negatives (US Army, circa 1941)
Mostly taken by Garfield in the west, of fellow soldiers.
Captioned names are Wesley Sprague, Peter Keller, Edelman, Pavelee, Edward E
Haley, B L Shirley, MM Fowler and Clara Clummer.
2 bound volumes:
Official Annual 1936, Civilian
Conversation Corps, District #2, Third Corps Area
(water damaged). Final pages contain signatures of other CCC
members, including some Catawba Indian signatures
Historical and
Pictorial Review: 183rd Field Artillery and Anti-Tank Battalion
76th Field Artillery Brigade, Ft. Francis E Warren (water damaged),
final pages contain signatures and some addresses
