Increasing Access to American Indian Off-Reservation Boarding School Archives: Sherman Indian Museum Digital Project

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

11-2023

Volume

45

Issue

4

First Page

26

Last Page

46

DOI

https://doi.org/10.1525/tph.2023.45.4.26

Publisher

University of California Press

Editor(s)

Sarah Case

Keywords

Indigenous peoples, off-reservation boarding schools, cross-institutional collaboration, archives, digitization

Abstract

The Sherman Indian Museum’s rich collection documents the student experience, institutional culture, and community history of one of the oldest off-reservation American Indian boarding schools in the United States still in operation. Efforts to better understand the complex and layered history of these schools are regularly confronted with limited and scattered histories where significant gaps in the narrative exist. This paper details the cross-institutional collaboration to process and digitize the museum’s collection for increased accessibility, focusing on the partnership formed between an indigenous and non-indigenous institution and the steps taken to create one of the premier online digital collections documenting the boarding school experience.

Rights

The Regents of the University of California and the National Council on Public History. All rights reserved.

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