Native American Culture in the Archives

Welcome!

Over the course of a semester I have been researching how Native Americans have both lost and regained their culture over many decades. I chose this topic after realizing I had studied Native Americans in school, but I had never learned where they are and what they are doing now. The total extent of my knowledge was that a portion of Native Americans continued to live on reservations while others had moved into cities. I had always learned their history from the 1600s to the 1800s, but never anything close to being considered “current.” For the most part, Native Americans have been ignored in American culture at the best, and mistreated and stripped of their identities and land at the worst. Therefore, I wished to know more about these cultures that are so often ignored or overlooked in current times.

My spark for this topic was first ignited when I was reading a National Geographic article about pawpaws. I have an interest in botany, and I started reading this article because I saw it and thought, what is a pawpaw? The article claimed that pawpaws are a fruit that were once widely consumed all over North America. Part of what contributed to their disappearance was mistreatment and forced removal of Native Americans, whom had pawpaws as an important food item in their culture. The article went on to explain that these trees still grow all over North America–they are even gaining popularity. Pawpaw festivals have been springing up in the United states over the past decade or so.

I was surprised by the claim that a fruit that was once so popular was one that I had now never even heard of. It made me sad to think about what had been lost by the land, but also everything I was not even aware of. I felt as if I owed it to someone (maybe myself) to learn what was lost. I think only by acknowledging the past can we move forward from it, learn from it, heal, and (forgive my plant metaphor) grow.

Just as important as seeing what was lost by Native Americans, I also wanted to see where they are now. Have they been able to regain any of their land? Their culture? Their languages? Their traditions?

This led me to start my research in the archives! I looked at different objects in several archives to answer these questions I started with and just ended up getting more questions. This is a very complex topic, but it is worth diving into. I learned many things throughout my research (how federal laws were used to remove Native Americans from their land, that boarding schools were created to strip native Americans of their identities, that they have been working to regain their sovereignty and culture, and how important languages are to holding identity).  Most importantly, though, throughout all my research I gained a new perspective. I saw a different viewpoint from the eyes of Native Americans–that the world is a gift.