The Right to Know

"Western civilization, unfortunately, does not link knowledge and morality but rather, it connects knowledge and power and makes the two equivalent." --Vine Deloria, Jr .

Vine Deloria, Jr. (March 26, 1933 – November 13, 2005)

The Federal government’s treaty responsibility for Indian Country’s:

“…need to know; to know the past, to know the traditional alternatives advocated by their ancestors, to know the specific experiences of their communities, and to know about the world that surrounds them.” Deloria Jr., Vine. (1978). The Right to Know: A Paper Prepared for the White House Preconference on Indian Library and Information Services On or Near Reservations, October 19-22, 1978. p. 1-17.

Joint Planning ... to transmit the bulk of records dealing with tribal histories to modern and adequate facilities on or near reservations.

Inventory & catalog of existing records in Federal possession

Document Repositories and Access

Development of Information Services Customized for Tribal Communities

Library & Information Science Education for Tribal Members

Turnkey Digitization Capabilities for Tribes

Regional Research Centers

Acquisition Funding for Repatriation

Indian Country’s Multi-verse of Knowing

Peoplehood

•

Land

•

Language

•

Sacred History

•

Ceremonial Cycle

Holm, Tom, J. Diane Pearson, and Ben Chavis. “Peoplehood: A Model for the Extension of Sovereignty in American Indian Studies,” Wicazo Sa Review 18:1 (2003): 7-24.

Medicines of our people

Indigenous Information Flows Flow From Flow About

Flow To Flow Within

The Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian

Photo by the Smithsonian Institution

http://www.nmai.si.edu/searchcollections/item.aspx?id=1193&hl=201

(Lawrence, KS) September 23-25, 2003

Open May 2004

American Indian Records Repository (AIRR)

• • • • • Two football field sized rooms Stacked with boxes 14 shelves high Within the Federal Records Center 100 feet underground In a 90 acre mine in Lenexa, Kansas

43 miles of records

200,000 boxes 300 million pages

$37.4 million

Cost to search AIRR for trust records of less than 100 IIM beneficiaries p. 45

Institution Born of Litigation

US Government Fiduciary Trust Dissolution of Indian Lands Dawes Act 1887

Individual Indian Monies Trust (IIM)

• • • • • • • • • Cobell Class Action 1994 Trust Fund Reform Act 1996 Cobell Litigation $176 Billion liability $7 Billion offer to settle $56 Billion December 2009 Settlement reached $3.4 Billion 14 years to settlement which must be passed by Congress Held up in Senate

AIRR Tribal/Federal Visioning Lamberth's July 2005 opinion: “…the entire record in this case tells the dreary story of Interior's degenerate tenure as Trustee-Delegate for the Indian trust -- a story shot through with bureaucratic blunders, flubs, goofs and foul-ups, and peppered with scandals, deception, dirty tricks and outright villainy -- the end of which is nowhere in sight."

In Context

American Indian Records Repository

• • Federal Security Clearance to enter Requests for information concerning holdings processed through one individual in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

• No finding aids generally available

“One Interior official once said to me,

‘When the aliens land in 2 million years, they will find cockroaches and Indian records.’”

http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2009/12/triumph-and-tragedy-in-indian-country/7807/

culturally responsive care of American Indian archival collections held in non-tribal repositories http://www2.nau.edu/libnap-p/precis.html

initiate a national discussion on professional policy & practice issues among archivists, librarians, & Native Americans.

http://www2.nau.edu/libnap-p/precis.html

Kathryn “Jody” Beaulieu

Anishinabe/Ojibwe Director, Red Lake Tribal Library Records Center and Archives

Briana Bob

Colville Confederated Tribes Archivist, Archives & Records Center

Amelia Flores

Mohave Library/Archive Director Mohave Colorado River Indian Tribes

Stewart Koyiyumptewa

Hopi Tribe Archivist, Hopi Cultural Preservation Office

Alana Garwood-Houng

Yorta Yorta Nation Senior Family History Officer Australian Institute for Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Studies

Kim Lawson

Heiltsuk Nation Librarian, Institute of Indigenous Government / Union of British Columbia Indian Chiefs

Sheree Bonaparte

Mohawk/Akwesasne Tribal Historic Preservation Officer Saint Regis Mohawk Tribe

Steve Crum

Shoshone Professor, Native American Studies University of California at Davis

David George-Shongo

Seneca Nation Archivist

Robert Leopold

Director National Anthropological Archives Smithsonian Institution

Eunice Kahn

Diné Archivist, Navajo Nation Museum

Gloria Lomahaftewa

Hopi Tribe NAGPRA Specialist Museum of Northern Arizona

James D. Nason

Comanche Emeritus Professor of Anthropology Emeritus Director of Museology Emeritus Curator of Pacific and American Ethnology, Burke Museum University of Washington

Jennifer R. Walele O’Neal

Confederated Tribes of Grande Ronde/Chinook Head Archivist, NMAI

Lotsee Patterson

Comanche Professor, School of Library Science University of Oklahoma

Karen J. Underhill

Head, Special Collections and Archives Northern Arizona University Cline Library

Richard Pearce-Moses

Director, Digital Government Information Arizona State Library, Archives, and Public Records

Alyce Sadongei

Kiowa/Tohono O’odham Assistant Curator for Native American Relations Arizona State Museum

Contributors

Building Relationships of Mutual Respect Striving for Balance in Content and Perspectives Accessibility and Use Culturally Sensitive Materials Providing Context Native American Intellectual Property Issues Copying and Repatriation of Records to Native American Communities Native American Research Protocols Reciprocal Education and Training Awareness of Native American Communities and Issues

USA Canada Protocols Australia Course Aotearoa (New Zealand)

Miigwetch Allison Boucher Krebs [email protected]