Series consists of a letterbook containing, primarily, out-going correspondence of Charles A. Cooke Thawennensere. Included are copies of letters, October-November 1900, relating to the publication by Cooke of Onkweonwe, a newspaper in Kanien'kéha (the Mohawk language). Some of the letters are written in Kanien'kéha. There is a gap in the pagination of the letterbook after page 48. Correspondence resumes at page 70 with a short series of letters by Cooke related to timber sales on the Wahta Mohawk Territory (formerly Gibson Reserve), October 1901. Four pages at the end of the letterbook contain totally unrelated material, being copies of three letters of Indian Agent P. J. Williams, Battleford Agency, 1896. There is no obvious explanation for the appearance of these last items in this letterbook.
Cooke, Charles Angus, 1870-1958 : Charles Angus Cooke (also known as Thawennensere) (23 March 1870-1958) was a Mohawk from Kanesatake (Oka, Lac-des-Deux-Montagnes). He studied at the Methodist school of Oka, and then worked on the family farm until his family moved to Gibson (Wahta Mohawk Territory) in the Muskoka region, Ontario in 1881. He was one of the first Indigenous persons to be hired by the federal Department of Indian Affairs. He was first appointed to the Civil Service on 1 April 1893 as a temporary clerk in the Registry Branch of the Department of Indian Affairs. From 1893 to 1926, he served as a library clerk in charge of the departmental library and archives. By the end of his career, he attained the position of Principal Clerk. He also served as a interpreter and translator. During the First World War, he actively recruited Indigenous people for the Canadian Expeditionary Force. Starting from 1904, Cooke invested substantial efforts to build an "Indian National Library" which would have included departmental documents as well as documentation from First Nations communities. Superintendant of Indian Affairs Duncan Campbell Scott never believed in the usefulness of Cooke's project, so it never materialized. Cooke also worked on a comparative Haudenosaunee languages dictionnary project. He published "Onkweonwe" the first Indigenous newspaper to be published in Canada in 1900, which was published in Kanien'kéha (Mohawk language). He also compiled a monumental record of some 6200 Haudenosaunee (Iroquoian) names with their origin, meanings and pronunciation.
Williams, P. J : Indian Agent from the Battleford Agency.
