Research Guides: Indigenous Peoples Resources: Archives

Milne Special Collections & Archives

The Milne Special Collections and Archives, like many academic repositories, has not historically represented Indigenous history in ways that reflect its continued presence on unceded Wabanaki territory; nor does it currently have the policies to ethically steward Indigenous knowledge.

While we reassess the policies relating to Indigenous materials, we offer alternative resources and institutions that illuminate the history and presence of Indigenous peoples in New England, and present institutions that align with our desired best practices around decolonization, reparation, preservation, and stewardship of Indigenous life, art, history, and culture.

Indigenous Archives & Digital Collections

Passamaquoddy People: At Home on the Ocean and Lakes
Using Mukurtu, an innovative content management platform that seeks to give differentiated access between tribal members and the public, the Passamaquoddy People Digital Collections website provides a range of collections and exhibits that enrich the public’s understanding of their cultural traditions and history. The Passamaquoddy, Mi’kmaq, Maliseets, and Penobscot form the Wabanaki (People of the Dawn), situated in what is known today as Northern Maine and Southeastern Canada.
American Indian Digital History Project
Established through the University of Kansas and the University of Nebraska, tribal partners, and other educational institutions, The American Indian Digital History Project is a cooperative founded to “recover and preserve rare Indigenous newspapers, photographs, and archival materials from across Native North America.”

Local Museums, Community Partners, and Heritage Institutions

The Abbe Museum
Founded in 1926 and based in traditional Wabanaki land (Bar Harbor, ME), the Abbe Museum is a cultural heritage institution and Smithsonian Affiliate that seeks to inspire new learning about Wabanaki art, history, and stories. Its curatorial practices reflect contemporary decolonized stewardship of Indigenous knowledge, and the museum actively works with tribal partners to ethically depict Wabanaki culture to a broad audience.
The Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe Museum
Established under the Mashpee Historical Commission and with exhibitions co-designed by the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe, this museum seeks to “highlight the rich Indigenous culture and historic significance of the town of Mashpee, on Cape Cod, known as the Land of the Wampanoag.”

Critical Interdisciplinary Approaches to Stewarding Indigenous Knowledge and Archives

Christen, K., Anderson, J. Toward slow archives. Archival Science 19, 87–116 (2019)
This article examines the structures, practices, and processes of collection, cataloging, and curation to expose where current cultural authority is placed, valued, and organized within archival workflows.
Mengesha. (2019). Deceleration as Decolonial Intervention in Lara Kramer’s NGS: Native Girl Syndrome. ASAP Journal, 4(3), 575–600.
This article draws from the discipline of performance studies to advocate for the concept of “deceleration” in the colonial accumulation of Indigenous lived experience. Mengsha situates decolonization outside of linear time and asserts the need for space to mourn, reflect, and inhabit “stillness.” This performance of deceleration manifests through the performance of Lara Kramer’s Native Girl Syndrome; and provides an illuminating path to decolonized archival praxis – especially in reference to the Canadian public’s desire to make Native boarding school records publicly available in the wake of the 2015 Truth and Reconciliation Report.
Pugh, M. & Christen, K. (2011). Opening Archives: Respectful Repatriation. The American Archivist 1 April; 74 (1): 185–210.
This case study examines one collaborative archival project aimed at digitally repatriating and reciprocally curating cultural heritage materials of the Plateau tribes in the Pacific Northwest.
The Repatriation Project
Use this database to find out where Native American remains were taken from and which institutions report still having them.