Between 1936 and 1940, the Works Progress Administration funded a project whose aims included “to collect, analyze, verify and compile Chippewa Indian Folk Lore.” The project was sponsored by the Great Lakes Indian Agency and was directed by Sister M. Macaria Murphy, a Franciscan sister who headed St. Mary's Indian School, Odanah, Wisconsin, on the Bad River reservation. It employed up to ten Native American research assistants who wrote essays based on their own knowledge, interviews with other Native Americans, and traditional research. The essays deal with a wide range of topics including religious beliefs and rituals, food, liquor, transportation, trade, clothing, games and dances, and more. Other aspects of the project included (1) the preparation of typed copies of rare published works concerning the Chippewa and (2) paintings and other work by Indian artist Peter Whitebird.
When Sister Macaria died, the results of the project were sent to her order's mother house at Viterbo College in La Crosse, Wisconsin, where they were listed and arranged by the Museum curator, Sister M. Valentina. In 1974 they were loaned to the State Historical Society of Wisconsin for microfilming. The originals were then returned to the college museum where they are now available to researchers.
