Indigenizing Heritage Collections in Montana: Research, Education, and Mentoring the Next Generation of Stewards

FAIN: PR-290157-23

University of Montana (Missoula, MT 59801-4494)
Kelly J. Dixon (Project Director: May 2022 to present)

A Tier II project to address challenges with determining cultural affiliation for objects with vague records. The project would use the University of Montana’s anthropological and humanities collections as a case study to develop a methodology for Indigenized collections handling.

This project builds on the past seven years of relationship-building the University of Montana’s Anthropological Collections Facility has established with tribal cultural heritage leaders to develop standards and practice for preserving and enhancing access to humanities collections. We are now poised to develop Indigenized collections handling, decision-making, and educational programs that center on a specific, yet ubiquitous problem: determining cultural affiliation for objects with unclear, contradictory, and/or incomplete collections records. The solution we propose to research here is to hire two post-doctoral fellows, a graduate research assistant (RA), and interns to develop a mentor-based, hands-on series of educational programs that emphasize outreach, ethics, and audiovisual ways of enhancing and inspiring tribal access to UM’s cultural heritage collections. These programs will culminate in a Hybrid Collections Management Training and Cultural Affiliation Symposium.