Archaeology 334: Indigenous Heritage Stewardship

Instructor: Dr. John Welch, Fall 2005

This guide has been designed to complement Arch 334 and to provide examples of Web sites relevant to some aspect of indigenous heritage stewardship.

If you need help, please contact Lindsay Tripp, Liaison Librarian at 778.782.7322 or ltripp@sfu.ca or Ask a librarian.

Table of Contents

1) Course documents:

• Archaeology 334 Course Syllabus

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2) Where to start:

Knowing where to start is often the most challenging part of doing any type of course work but can be broken down into easily digestible steps:

• Choose the topic/option which interests you most: Sounds simple but it's tempting to gravitate toward the assignment which looks easiest. Don't do this!
• Grab a coffee, soda, glass of water/beverage of your choice and think about your topic. Write down some issues/terms/events related to your topic that interest you. Discuss it with your instructor, your classmates or your friends.
• Identify the gaps—identify what you already know about your topic (and where to find information to flesh this out) and what you don't know about your topic. And, think about where you can find information to fill in these gaps.
• Know that help is available but don't wait until the last minute to ask for it.

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3) Research Process:

Now that you've chosen your assignment and jotted down some ideas, the hard part is out of the way. You've given yourself a destination, now you just need a map to get you there.

3.a. Books and reports

3.b. Journal, magazine, and newspaper articles

From Citation to Article: How to Find Journal Articles in the SFU Libraries explains how to find the actual article(s) after you have searched the article indexes.

3.c. Web resources

3.d. Searching for Indigenous Heritage Stewardship projects on the Web

In the above search, stewardship is our anchor term. Regardless of what kind of results appear, stewardship will always be there. This search will locate the word stewardship in combination with the phrase first nations and either native OR indigenous OR land OR agriculture. Check out the results of this search. You can usually tell within the first 20 results if you're getting what you need.

You can also limit your search to specific domains such as '.gc.ca'; the Canadian federal governmental Web sites. For more cool Web search tips, check out the cheat sheets for Google and Yahoo!

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4) Selected Web sites:

Now that you've chosen your assignment and jotted down some ideas, the hard part is out of the way. You've given yourself a destination, now you just need a map to get you there.

4.a. Language:

• Myammia Project: "Since 1995, the Miami Nation has been actively involved in language reclamation. We use the term reclamation because the last of our conversational speakers passed on in the early 1960s. Reclamation implies a reconstructive process, which for our case involves the use of written records of Miami-Illinois spanning nearly 300 years."
• NativeVillage.org: See links under language and History and Traditions
• Daghida Project:
  • University of Alberta overview
  • "Daghida: Cold Lake First Nation Works Towards Dene Language Revitalization"
    
• Kwakwakawakw First Nations centre for language culture (KCLC) - proposed
• First People's Language Resources: Directory of First Peoples' language resources
• First Peoples' Cultural Foundation: The First Peoples’ Cultural Foundation (FPCF) is a unique non-political Aboriginal directed non-profit society devoted to languages, arts and cultures. All of our work is done in conjunction with our sister organization, the First Peoples’ Heritage, Language and Culture Council (FPHLCC) to ensure fair and equal access for all funds raised and programs available. The FPHLCC has been delivering support to Aboriginal communities in British Columbia, Canada since 1992.
• Lakota Winter Counts is an online exhibit created by the Smithsonian Museum's National Anthropological Archives. The exhibit effectively uses multimedia as a way to teach users about the history of the Lakota Indian tribe and their use of "Winter Counts," a picture- based language employed to record important events over the course of many years. Lakota Indians have a long tradition of oral history, which they supplemented successfully with the use of these Winter Counts. The online exhibit is a fascinating, moving tribute to Lakota culture. The site also balances robust multimedia content with an accessible version of the Web site for people with disabilities or limited Internet bandwidth.

4.b. Place

• Alaska Native Heritage Center: Each of the five traditional sites present one permanent exhibit and two to three temporary exhibits, which will be under construction over the next three years. The permanent exhibit will serve as the gathering area for the village host to give an overview and present traditional objects used in everyday life since ancient times. Whenever possible, there will be opportunities for visitors to touch and feel. The temporary exhibits elsewhere in the area will serve to demonstrate traditional construction techniques and materials used before ‘contact.’"
• Alutiiq Museum: The Alutiiq Museum engaged in a Site Stewardship Program with the US Fish and Wildlife Service
• Aboriginal Mapping Network: The Aboriginal Mapping Network (AMN) was established in 1998 as a joint initiative of the Gitxsan and Ahousaht First Nations and Ecotrust Canada. Over the years the network has grown from its humble beginnings as a knowledge sharing forum for local First Nations technicians, leaders and decision makers to become a valuable strategic resource for practitioners of traditional knowledge mapping around the world. The AMN now has a mandate to support aboriginal and indigenous peoples facing similar issues, such as land claims, treaty negotiations and resource development, with common tools, such as traditional use studies, GIS mapping and other information systems
• www.sacredland.org/: "Activists, students, teachers and travelers can gain a deeper understanding of sacred lands in the United States and around the world by following the many paths that begin here. You'll find links to organizations, headline news summaries, maps of threatened sacred sites with detailed reports on each site, a review of laws relating to sacred places, a comprehensive bibliography, our project archives, and a menu of educational tools "
• The Fin, Fur and Feather Bureau of Investigation (FFFBI) uses humor and storytelling to help kids ages 8-13 learn about places and cultures around the world. Using multimedia stories, online radio and interactive games, FFFBI encourages kids to act as "agents" and investigate a series of mysteries that take them virtually around the world. The Web site is a production of WGBH Interactive.

4.c. Other

• First Nation Cultural Heritage in Canada: This project is the result of a collaboration between an international team of scholars in law and anthropology and First Nation partners in the provinces of Alberta and British Columbia. It has four main objectives:
  
  • to disseminate information about the existing legal regime;
  • to facilitate respect for, and understanding of, First Nations concepts of property and law;
  • to assist First Nation community partners collect and develop archival and educational resources;
  • to critically analyze domestic federal and provincial legislation to provide recommendations for reform.
• Aboriginal Connections Directory: See listings under Heritage and Culture; Organizations, Resources
• The Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) is a Federal law passed in 1990. NAGPRA provides a process for museums and Federal agencies to return certain Native American cultural items -- human remains, funerary objects, sacred objects, and objects of cultural patrimony - to lineal descendants, culturally affiliated Indian tribes, and Native Hawaiian organization
• OurMedia.org is one of the most important recent developments in the world of citizen's media. This Web site allows anyone with Internet access to produce and publish their own content, including text, images, audio and video. In the last year, thousands of Internet users have begun to produce their own audio blogs, or podcasts, as well as video blogs. For many people, though, the cost of storing this content online prevented them from becoming actively involved as content producers. OurMedia has changed all that. Now, anyone with their own content can publish it for free using OurMedia, and participate in a vibrant online community of citizen's media activists. OurMedia is a powerful tool for bridging the content divide, inviting all Internet users to become content producers in their own right.
• The International Schools CyberFair is one of the leading student Web site competitions in the world. Coordinated by the Global SchoolNet Foundation, CyberFair gives youth the opportunity to create educational content about their communities as a way of demonstrating their Web site design skills. Kids from all over the world have contributed content to the Web site, a massive database of educational Web sites, all developed by youth. The CyberFair is testimony to the ability of young people to be developers of compelling, diverse and socially relevant content.   

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5) Getting Help: