Plains Anthropological Society (PAS) records

The Plains Anthropological Society (PAS) records contain materials that have been donated by the officers and members of the Plains Anthropological Society, which is a group that "promotes the study of the peoples and cultures of the North American Great Plains."

New materials are added to the collection on a regular basis. The structure of the finding reflects the hierarchy and organization of the Plains Anthropological Society. Materials are described at the folder level, except for a few areas that require item description. PAS records are divided into three series: Administration, Conference, and Plains Anthropologist.

The Administration series contains materials divided into three sub-series Board of Directors, Committees and Officers. The Board of Directors sub-series contain correspondence, briefing packets and meeting minutes. General Business meeting minutes from the annual conference are filed within this sub-series. Officer lists and student membership drives from 1991-1999 are also included in this series.

The Committees sub-series contain materials from PAS Committees: Archives, By-laws, Conference Handbook, Distinguished Service Award, Native American Student Award, Nominations, Resolutions, and Student Paper Award. Committee correspondence, changes to the by-laws, submissions for awards, the Plains Anthropological Conference handbook and reports are contained within this sub-series. The Officer sub-series only contain materials from the Treasurer. Treasurer materials are comprised of correspondence, financial reports, financial statements, and budgets.

The Conference series contains materials pertaining to the Plains Anthropological Society Conference that is held on a yearly basis in either October or November. This series is comprised of conference correspondence, Programs and Abstracts and newspaper clippings. The series is organized chronologically. Also included in this series are cassette recordings of papers delivered at the 1976 symposium “Anthropology on the Great Plains: The State of Art, 1976” at the 34th Plains Conference that was held in Minneapolis, Minnesota and a transcript of the 1955 conference.

The largest series in this collection is the Plains Anthropologist series. It contains all materials concerning publication of the Plains Anthropologist. The Plains Anthropologist series is divided into five sub-series: Editor, Manuscripts, Manuscript Correspondence, Printed Materials, and Artwork/Photographs. Included in the Editor sub-series are correspondence, book reviews that are organized by book title, Election of Editor materials, manuscripts of obituaries, permissions forms to reprint photographs and Editor Reports.

The Manuscripts are submissions for publication in Plains Anthropologist. The Manuscript Correspondence is correspondence and reviews concerning the submitted manuscripts. The Manuscripts and Manuscript Correspondence sub-series are organized by author and title and were submitted in the years 1989-2000. The dates in the Manuscripts and Manuscript Correspondence sub-series refer to the date of the last correspondence from the Editor relevant to the manuscript. Manuscripts not dated have no correspondence and were possibly not published.

The Manuscript Correspondence sub-series is RESTRICTED.

The Printed Materials sub-series include issues of the publications Plains Anthropological Conference Newsletter and Plains Anthropologist. The Plains Anthropological Conference Newsletter dates from 1947-1953 and contains news from the conferences. The Plains Anthropologist took over for the Plains Anthropological Conference Newsletter by 1956 and in 1961 the publication began to print scholarly manuscripts.

The Artwork/photographs sub-series is comprised of photographs and artwork published in Plains Anthropologist. This sub series is arranged by Plains Anthropologist issue number. Larger artwork has been filed in an oversized box. Within the oversize box is the Metal printing master for Plains Anthropologist Vol. 1 no. 1.