Tribal Archives, Libraries and Museums:
Preserving Our Language, Memory and Lifeways
National Conference II
May 24-27, 2005

The Value of Tribal Archives, Libraries and Museums: Plenary Panel

Alyce Sadongei
National Conference Project Director

Our conference begins this morning with comments from our panel members on the value of tribal archives and museums. Joining us is the Honorable Vivan Juan-Saunders, Chairwoman of the Tohono O’odham Nation. Ms. Juan- Saunders is the first woman elected to serve her tribe. The Tohono O’odham Nation has one of the largest reservations in the state. Recently the tribe has taken on a number of initiatives including a tribal college, a tribal museum and a new health facility for tribal elders. The challenges of managing and leading the Tohono O’odham Nation are significant, and it should be noted that the Nation is also trying to deal with the problem of people from Mexico crossing into this country illegally. Under her leadership, the Tohono O’odham Nation has made strides in a number of areas. I am so glad that she has taken the time to be with us today.

Dr. Schroder Cherry is the Deputy Director of the Institute of Museum and Library Services, a federal agency in Washington DC. As was mentioned earlier the Institute of Museum and Library Services provided a grant in support of this conference. Dr. Cherry oversees the museum services section of the agency. He has extensive experience in the areas of museums and public programs and we are very glad that he is here.

Rebecca Adamson, is the founder and director of the First Nations Institute. The First Nations Institute assists indigenous peoples to direct their economic futures in ways that fit their cultures. Through her work, Ms. Adamson established the first reservation based micro-enterprise in the country and the first tribal investment model. She also founded the First Peoples Worldwide in 1997 where she continues her work with indigenous communities globally. She sits on numerous boards in the corporate and nonprofit sector. We are honored to have her with us today.

Before I turn this over to the panel, I would like to provide some background information on the value of tribal libraries, archives and museums based on the work we have done over the years with our grants and also as a way to provide some reference point for our panelists.

When we put out the call requesting entries for our directory of tribal archives, libraries and museums, we received close to 200 entries-- 195 to be exact. As the entries started to come in I put a map of the United States up on the wall in my office so I could get a visual of where the responses were coming from. What started as a few colored map pins in the state of Arizona slowly began to spread to a pretty well distributed showing of the presence of tribal libraries, archives and museums in almost every state.

My map had no colorful pins in Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Iowa, Tennessee, Missouri, Arkansas, Ohio, West Virginia, Virginia, Delaware, New Jersey and New Hampshire. ( We did have an entry from Alabama that inadvertently got left out. My apologies to the Poarch Creek Band) There are tribes located in Iowa, and Virginia but we didn’t get a response from them. Undoubtedly there are urban Indian communities who may have libraries, archives and museums operating in these states but we didn’t hear from them either. I know that if we were more aggressive in soliciting responses we could have received even more entries, especially from those states where there may be many Native communities. My point is that even without aggressive solicitation our directory indicates that there are many tribal archives, libraries, museums and cultural centers out there.

There are great clusters of them in southern California, Alaska, Arizona, New Mexico and a steady line of them in the northern border states from Washington all the way to Maine. My map crosses over into the Canadian border to include representation from the provinces of British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Ontario. They are all along the Missouri River and are at southern points in Florida, Louisiana and Texas. From coast to coast tribal libraries, archives and museums are a testament to the greater presence of Native people in this country.

And what are we doing in these libraries, archives and museums? Again, based on our directory responses, tribal libraries, archives and museums are engaged in a whole variety of cultural programs and activities. The amount of work being done out there in these cultural institutions is phenomenal!

You are creating language programs, promoting Native authors, training students, increasing literacy rates, preventing drug and alcohol abuse, acting as the only source for computer access on the reservation, and tribal colleges are serving as both academic and public libraries. Tribal archives are conducting oral histories, inventorying tribal cultural resources, working to integrate tribal wide records management, safeguarding traditional place names, gently coaxing the memory of our tribal elders through historic photographs and documents, saving these memories for the future. Tribal museums are educating their communities on traditional ways of life, serving as a point of pride and destination for visitors and community members alike, managing and interpreting tribal culture from tribal perspectives, encouraging the revitalization of traditional craft, language and cultural performance.

Some of your organizations have been around for 76 years, others have just started as recently as last year. Many of you are doing this work with limited staff and budgets and still you continue to produce and to grow and many of you need more space, staff and resources.

Due to the huge amount of cultural activity, kept alive by all of your efforts, it is probably difficult to see beyond your community and to see what my map shows so clearly-- that is a strong and colorful presence of tribal cultural life. This is very important, not only to our individual communities but to the whole country and even to the rest of the world.

As you all know, technology has indeed made our contemporary societies more accessible to our global populations. With a click of the mouse, visitors from across the seas can visit your community by looking at your websites, and they can begin talking to you by sending an email, instantly. The values of the world now seem to revolve around this concept of instant messages, rapid delivery, globalization of culture that is reduced to consumerism and “having it all”.

But, I know from my experiences, and from talking with all of you, that these tribal libraries, archives and museums, our tribal libraries, archives and museums are inspired by our ancestors, they are done in memory of, and respect for the cultural values they left to our communities which in turn were given to us by our Creator. Our languages, our memories, our lifeways--:these values distinguish us from other communities and keep us strong and healthy. I once heard Wilma Mankiller give a speech in which she said that it seems that our Native communities, having survived numerous attempts at assimilation must now go back to trusting our first knowledge, our cultural knowledge. You are all helping your communities to do that. Thank you.

The panelists here represent different aspects of our tribal library, archive and museum world. We have a tribal leader, a government funding agency and an economic development organization. I have asked each of them to give us a sense of how the value of tribal archives, libraries and museums relate to them and the work they are engaged in.

After each of the panelists has had a chance to speak, we will open the floor for questions and more discussion.

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