Fall 1997 Newsletter Vol. V No. 3
	University Libraries Arizona State University Box 871006 Tempe, Arizona 85287-1006 Patricia.Etter@asu.edu Patricia A. Etter, Curator

Students working in the Labriola Center

Students are invited to study in the Center, watch videos dealing with a variety of Native American topics, listen to language tapes, search for material on various Native American Web sites, or find information on the American Indian Multi-media Encyclopedia on CD-ROM. The Labriola Center provides research materials and assistance to students from a variety of disciplines: History; Anthropology; Justice Studies; English; Architecture; Education; Social Studies, and more.

Our hours are from 1 to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday.

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Archives Gallery Exhibits Photographs by Children

The Mask by Daniel Armenta, Town of Guadalupe

Documentary photos by children from four Arizona locations -- the White Mountain Apache Reservation, "A Kid's Place in Phoenix," the Town of Guadalupe, and the San Carlos Apache Reservation -- will be on display August 25 through February 6 in the 1907 Archives Gallery at Arizona State University. The photographs were taken by children ages eight through fourteen who participated in the Walter Cronkite School Documentary Photo Workshops for four years. The exhibition, titled "Snapshots: Children Documenting Their Neighborhoods," includes 100 photographs.

Workshop participants began with "one-use" cameras and soon graduated to 35mm cameras, according to Frank Hoy, workshop instructor. In summer 1997, they moved into the "computer future" using digital cameras and designing personal Web pages. The first workshops documented the buildings and landmarks of each neighborhood. Later, the focus shifted to family portraits. "The talent of our photographers blossomed in the 'Portrait of My Family' workshop," Hoy said. "Family members patiently allowed themselves to be photographed almost everywhere and, as a result, each photographer has a unique family documentary only he or she could produce, as well as a record for future generations." Judith Smith-ASU

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Phoenix Indian School Restoration Planned

Phoenix Indian School Memorial Hall Auditorium. LAB FILM S4 #9

The City of Phoenix Parks, Recreation, and Library Department is planning to restore three buildings from the Phoenix Indian School era: the cafeteria (1902); the music building (1922); and the Memorial Hall. Various Arizona tribes are working together on the creation of a ten-acre Native American garden. A tourism center is part of the final plan and will be responsible for organizing activities such as powwows. There will also be an office that will organize tours to Arizona reservations.

Phoenix Indian School Cafeteria. LAB FILM S4 #6

The Phoenix Indian School property, located on the north side of Indian School Road between Central Avenue and 3rd Street, will ultimately be turned into a seventy-five acre park featuring flowers, trees, a lagoon, and a number of memorials. The Phoenix Indian School was founded in 1891 with the goal of preparing Native American children for assimilation. Thousands of boys and girls attended the school over the next hundred years. In 1990, the federal government closed the school due to declining enrollment.

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Labriola Center Receives Rare Books

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Native American Health History Database Available on the Internet

The library has photocopied all of the articles on archival paper. Master copies are kept in a climate-controlled building, thus ensuring preservation in print form. Researchers are free to request copies of articles of interest for $6.00 per article up to 50 pages. The books cannot be made available but the citation should be of assistance in locating volumes elsewhere.

The database is located at: http://falstaff.unm.edu:80/na/main_na.html

It is also linked to the Labriola home page.

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Tribal Archives Workshop Given at Ak-Chin

By Richard Pearce-Moses, Heard Museum

ConservatioNews, July 1997 - On May 21-21 Ak-Chin Him-Dak Eco-Museum hosted thirty representatives from nineteen tribes at a workshop, "Planning a Tribal Archive." Participants came from twelve states, some as distant as Connecticut and Washington. The workshop was organized by Alyce Sadongie and Susan Secakuku of the National Museum of the American Indian at the Smithsonian Institution and taught by Jody Beaulieu of the Red Lake Bank of Chippewa Indians and Richard Pearce-Moses of the Heard Museum, with assistance from Carol Lopez of the Ak-Chin Tribe. The majority of participants were new to the field. For some the workshop was the first training they had in archives or records management. Often they had related experience in museums or cultural preservation programs, but had not worked extensively with records. Likewise, many of the programs they represented were relatively new.

The program touched on all aspects of archives, from field collecting and acquisition, through arrangement and description, preservation and disaster planning, and reference. Condensing such an enormous amount of information into a two-day workshop often meant that participants got little more than a "heads up" on key points, but the instructors emphasized basic concepts and techniques that would give the participants a good foundation and enable them to develop their archival programs incrementally.

Beaulieu and Lopez gave case histories of how they developed archival programs for their tribes. These case studies made real the problems, challenges, and successes the participants would be facing. Pearce-Moses covered the Euro-American traditions of archives, with Beaulieu, Lopez, and the other participants discussing where that tradition needed some modification to work effectively in a tribal archive.

Many tribal governments are just now beginning an archival program to protect and preserve their institutional records of self-government. The Euro-American records management model adapts well to these institutional records. Some tribal archivists recounted the same problems Euro-American corporate and government archivists face, including officials who take their records with them, offices that won't transfer valuable records to the archives for safe-keeping, and councils that want to scan everything into a computer for "rapid retrieval and preservation."

But Native American archives differ from Euro-American archives in a number of interesting ways. Often some of the most important records are held by another repository, such as the federal government, or are in private hands. Tribal archives, especially when starting up, emphasize collecting private papers and acquiring convenience copies of records held by other repositories. Many times a tribe's collective memory has been passed down through an oral tradition rather than written records. As a result the tribe seeks to ensure that its heritage is preserved by emphasizing oral history and language preservation programs. Similarly, many important records are three-dimensional objects rather than textual documents; historical events may be recorded in a pipe or drum, for example.

Respect for Native American religion and ceremonies raised a number of concerns. Native archivists are concerned about access to initiate or esoteric knowledge documented in their holdings. Such information should be seen only by certain tribal members, yet that information has often been misappropriated in the past. As an integral part of a cultural preservation program, Native American archivists embody tribes' desire to have more control over how their cultural traditions and identities are used by individuals outside the tribe. The participants discussed how they could work with their tribal councils to legitimately and ethically control use of culturally sensitive materials.

The participants got a break from two days of hard work when Ak-Chin hosted a traditional dinner on the first night and the Heard Museum held a reception for participants to close the workshop. The workshop was sponsored and organized by the Training Department of the National Museum of the American Indian, Smithsonian Institution. Through its programs, the Training department seeks to establish a vital link to the Native community for the purpose of on-going consultation and collaboration, which reflects the mission of the museum.

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Microfilm Publications Added to the Labriola Collection

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Handbook of North American Indians, Volume 17: Languages, Now Available in Labriola Center

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Commonly-asked Questions About Native Americans

May Native Americans Vote?
Yes, on the same basis as other citizens of their respective states. As far as tribal elections are concerned, voting rights may be restricted by tribal resolutions or ordinances.

Do Native Americans Pay Taxes?
Yes, they pay local, state, and Federal taxes the same as other citizens unless a treaty, agreement, or statute exempts them.

Are Native Americans subject to service in the Armed Forces?
Native Americans are subject to the same laws and requirements as to military service as are all other citizens.

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Labriola National American Indian Data Center
Arizona State University Libraries
Department of Archives and Manuscripts
Last updated: June 30th, 1998
Send questions or comments to archives@mainex1.asu.edu