How did tribal libraries begin, anyway? This week in TLAM, our co-instructor Janice Rice discussed tribal libraries and their complex roles in the communities they serve.
Tribal libraries got their start from the days of native boarding schools. In the Carlisle boarding school, each dorm had its own unofficial “librarian”; someone who kept track of the books some children would receive as gifts from their parents or other sources. Soon, these small collections of books became the dorms’ libraries, where kids could read. However, the faculty at Carlisle closed off these collections or made them accessible only to the teachers.
Tribal libraries were parts of day schools and mission schools. Today, six Wisconsin reservations have/had tribal libraries, including Oneida, Lac du Flambeau, Lac Courte Oreilles, Menominee, Bad River, and Red Cliff (which our class is trying to revive). Tribal colleges like LCO’s also serve as community centers and are often the tribe’s main resource centers, apart from the schools. The Forest County Potawatomi in Crandon, WI also have a prominent tribal center that is a library, museum, and cultural center that provides books, photos, computer classes, a gift shop, and genealogy research. http://www.fcpotawatomi.com/culture-and-history
Tribal libraries receive their funding from several sources, including federal funds through IMLS (Institute for Museum and Library Services), state funds through LSTA (Library Services and Technology Act), the tribe’s own funds, corporate funding and outside grants, and if they are able to set one up, Friends of the Library groups. We discussed the possibility of the summertime travelers possibly becoming members of Friends groups.
Janice also had some ideas about the future of native librarianship. The tribal librarians of tomorrow will need to be more collaborative, especially with museums, archives, and outside tribes, in order to access funding and become stronger. They will need to become accredited, if not at UW-Madison, then perhaps via distance-learning or through programs at their own tribal colleges. The more education and experience the librarians have, the stronger these libraries will become for their community members.
-Crystal Schmidt
The history of tribal libraries in the U.S. in many ways mirrors that of what was happening in Canada at the residential and boarding schools. For those interested, see: Paper Talk: a history of libraries, print culture, and Aboriginal peoples in Canada before 1960 (Scarecrow Press, 2005).