This material documents the Spitzers' fieldwork with the Blackfeet Nation of Montana from 1940-1955.

Notable materials: Allen Spitzer asks the Viking Fund for a grant to allow him and his wife to undertake research among the Blackfeet on "taboo practices which surround the institution of marriage and the family within the tribe" in order to write a dissertation at Stanford University on Freud and Briffault's views on the nature of taboo (8-2-44). Spitzer's letter to social worker Kate Smith summarizes his plan of investigation of social control among the Blackfeet (7-5-45). Also here are Spitzer's first two periodic reports on his work (8-1 and 9-1-45). Eula C. Sherburne (1-11-46) and Florence Schmidt (10-5-54) writes of perceiving a liquor problem among the Blackfeet, and J. L. Sherburne says that "for the first time in history the Indians failed to erect their Medicine Lodge during the 4th of July Sun Dance Celebration. [. . .] The Sun Dance with all of its ceremony was missing" (7-17-46). Spitzer communicates his changed dissertation plans (1-21-47) and his desire to return to the Blackfeet reservaton to do further work on social problems and acculturation under the auspices of the San Francisco College for Women (12-21-48). Barbara Kiehel paints an unflattering portrait of the Blackfeet in Browning, Montana (10-7-50) and Annie Howard laments the passing of the traditional dances and language (1-22-53). At the back of the folder are Spitzer's field notes of his 1945 work among the Blackfeet as well as Xerox copies of photographs, the originals of which are part of the Allen Spitzer Photograph Collection.