Consulting with Tribes as Part of Archive Development
In the past two decades professionals from the archives, museums, libraries and institutions involved in preservation and protection of cultural heritage of indigenous peoples have developed a rich set of resources to support proper handling of materials from the Native American communities, and to insure collaboration and consultation with the members of the tribes. Nevertheless, we feel that these experiences and resources in which the best practices of working with the tribes are documented, remain less visible to those working in Digital Humanities, especially to those of us who are not experts in Native American Studies.
With a three month time frame for this project, we decided that we could best serve the future of the project and the field in general by compiling an authoritative resource for future development of this project and those facing similar situations. While we knew that Curtis' images were in the public domain, we wanted to understand the ways in which other institutions and professionals in the U.S. handled similar projects.