Protocols for Native American Archival Materials: Webinar Series

Protocols Webinar Series #1: Building Relationships of Mutual Respect

This is the first in a five-part webinar series covering various themes of the Protocols of Native Archives Archival Materials. This first session of the Protocols Webinar Series highlights the theme of building relationships of mutual respect. This is explored through a conversation with host Jennifer R. O’Neal (University of Oregon) and Jonathan Pringle (University of New Mexico). Pringle expands upon his recently submitted PNAAM case study highlighting his previous work at Northern Arizona University. The webinars will also produce a usable toolkit to use in implementing the Protocols in non-tribal repositories.

Protocols Webinar Series #2: Striving for Balance in Content and Perspectives

This is the second in a five-part webinar series covering various themes of the Protocols of Native Archives Archival Materials. This second session of the Protocols Webinar Series highlights the theme of striving for balance in content and perspective. This is explored through a conversation with host Jennifer R. O’Neal (University of Oregon) and Brian Carpenter (American Philosophical Society). Carpenter expands upon his recently submitted PNAAM case study highlighting the work of the American Philosophical Society to develop protocols for their Indigenous collections. The webinars will also produce a usable toolkit to for use in implementing the Protocols in non-tribal repositories.

Protocols Webinar Series #3: Providing Context through Centering Indigenous Voices

Webinar Episode #3 includes an in-depth conversation with the entire Tribesourcing Southwest Films Project team. This is a project that takes mid-20th century educational and sponsored films about Native peoples of the U.S. Southwest back into tribal communities and recording Native narrations and contextual information for film content by the Native communities they represent. This “tribesourcing” method allows for identification of local knowledge that might otherwise be lost, as well as providing rich, community-based metadata records for each film.

In the webinar the team highlights the project and discuss the following topics:
– Overview of the American Indian Film Gallery collection housed at the University of Arizona
– How the project seeks to enhance, contextualize and reinterpret valuable historic visual imagery, when the original narrations are often inaccurate and culturally uninformed
– Strategies and steps involved in building relationships with local tribal community partners in providing context
– Major lessons learned when building relationships and partnerships with Native American tribes and individuals
– The team also showcases their website built on Mukurtu and demonstrates the merging of old video and new narrations

The project team includes: Jennifer Jenkins, Principle Investigator, University of Arizona; Melissa Dollman, Project Manager, University of North Carolina PhD Student (Yankton Sioux descent); Rhiannon Sorrell (Diné), Instruction and Digital Services Librarian, Diné College; Crystal Littleben (Diné), Program Coordinator, Navajo Cultural Arts Program

Protocols Webinar Series #4: Native American Intellectual Property Rights

Webinar Episode #4 focuses on Native American Intellectual Property Rights and includes an in-depth conversation with individuals who have developed and collaborated on the Passamaquoddy People project – an initiative began in 2014 as a partnership between the Passamaquoddy Tribe, the Library of Congress American Folklife and the Local Contexts project, to digitize, curate and expand access to content from various recordings made in March 1890 by anthropologist Jesse Walter Fewekes. This initiative led to the creation of the “Passamaquoddy People” site, using the Mukurtu software, a Passamaquoddy controlled digital archive where the community hosts recordings, as well as add transcriptions and translations in their own time.

The conversation highlights the project and discusses the following issues:
– Overview and history of the Passamaquoddy People Project
– The collaboration built between the Passamaquoddy Tribe and the Library of Congress
– Specific ways the project protects and enhances Passamaquoddy intellectual property rights utilizing the Traditional Knowledge Labels through the Local Contexts Project
– Strategies, steps and lessons learned in building relationships between the tribal community partners with the larger national repository
– Highlights the use of the Local Contexts project to protect Native American copyrights and intellectual property rights
– Favorite memories and stories from the project

The team also showcases the digital archive site built on Mukurtu and demonstrates the inclusion of Passamaquoddy language, cultural narratives and traditional knowledge labels attached to specific digital heritage items on the website.

Individuals interviewed include:
– Donald Soctomah (Passamaquoddy), Tribal Historic Preservation Officer for the Passamaquoddy Nation
– Jane Anderson, Associate Professor of Anthropology and Museum, New York University
– Guha Shankar, Folklife Specialist, Library

We also honor and recognize all individuals, especially tribal elders, who have also worked on and contributed so much time and traditional knowledge to this project.

Protocols Webinar Series #5: Native American Research Protocols

Webinar Episode #5 focuses on Native American Research Protocols and includes an in-depth conversation with Stewart Koyiyuptewa (Hopi): Program Manager of the Hopi Cultural Preservation Office, Tribal Historic Preservation Officer, author, and one of the original drafters of the Protocols of Native American Archival Materials.

The conversation highlights the following major issues:
– Overview, history, and importance of developing formal Native American Research Protocols to protect traditional knowledge, culture, lifeways, and intellectual property
– Examples of how the Native American Research Protocols have been successfully implemented at the Hopi Tribe to defend against misappropriation and abuse of tribal traditional knowledge
– Lessons learned and practical examples from working with non-Native researchers in tribal communities, as well as successful examples of collaboration with collecting institutions
– Favorite memories and stories from drafting the Protocols for Native American Archival Materials