FROM THE ARCHIVIST OF THE UNITED STATES David S. Ferriero National Archives and Records Administration david.ferriero@nara.gov Increasing Access to Native American Records n the last few months, the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) announced two new online resources that bring greater access to federal records relating to Native Americans. In October 2020, the Indigenous Digital Archive (IDA) Treaties Explorer ( https://digitreaties.org ) made available digital copies of NARA’s series of 374 ratified Indian Treaties. And in November, we launched the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) Photographs Finding Aid ( https://www.archives.gov/research/native-americans /bia/photos ). I Photographs Finding Aid. This new digital finding aid was launched on November 19 and allows the public to explore more than 18,000 photographs through an engaging and easy-to-use online experience. From the landing page, you can choose to explore the photographs by Tribal Nation, topic, or state. Selecting “Tribal Nation” or “topic” allows you to browse alphabetical lists and select your area of interest. Selecting the category “state” brings up a map of the United States that you can use to view photographs from a specific state. Through the IDA Treaties Explorer, the public now has access To create this new type of finding aid, NARA consulted users and to the treaties themselves but also, in many cases, to additional stakeholders, who included archivists and other information historical documents. Generous support from an anonymous science professionals with experience in Native American records, donor enabled us to perform conservation work, scan and digitize members of Tribal Nations and representatives of organizations this historically and culturally important collection, and make with connections to Tribal communities, and NARA staff. these records accessible for anyone, anywhere, through our National Archives Catalog ( https://catalog.archives.gov Once the final list of topics was /search ). Dr. Anna Naruta-Moya and her team at the selected, we curated the photographs We are grateful Museum of Indian Arts and Culture in Santa Fe, New into the Native American Photographs for the help of our Tagging Mission to recruit the help Mexico, partnered with us in this endeavor. of citizen archivists in tagging the citizen archivists Because of their unique historical significance, the treaties with topics to be included to develop NARA’s photographs have long been housed in a specially protected area within in the finding aid. We are grateful for the National Archives Building in Washington, DC, and the first crowdsourced the help of our citizen archivists to original documents are not pulled for use in the Central develop NARA’s first crowdsourced finding aid. Research Room. The IDA Treaties Explorer brings these finding aid; their work made it historically and culturally important documents to the possible to organize and present these wider public. photographs by topic in 28 categories including agriculture, art and artifacts, portraits, and more. Descendants of the original peoples can examine the names and seals and read the words set down by their ancestors long ago. Teachers and students can explore the treaties and their history as part of the broader history of the United States. And tribal leaders and lawyers continue to consult the treaties and use them to assert their rights in court, such as in cases over land and water rights. These 18,000 digitized photographs are a strong beginning, and this project will continue to grow and evolve as NARA digitizes more BIA photographs. Both the IDA Treaties Explorer and the BIA Photographs Finding Aid are powerful new tools to increase access to federal govern-We also plan to continue and increase our educational outreach to Native American communities, and to raise and increase awareness ment records in the National Archives. They also align with the agency’s strategic goals to “Connect with Customers” and “Maxi-of Native American history. The Resources section of the Treaties mize NARA’s Value to the Nation.” Scanning records is a first step. Explorer includes links to curriculum units for teachers to use and To fully promote access and meet the public’s needs, we must “how-to” video workshops about what the treaties are and the facilitate new uses of our digitized holdings to allow the nation’s kinds of research you can do on the site. records to be widely available. These online resources for Native American records are two platforms that use NARA’s digitized NARA has further expanded access to records about Native holdings in new and innovative ways. Americans with its new Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) 12 ARCHIVAL OUTLOOK January/February 2021
Archival Outlook January/February 2021: Page 12
