Reporting Back from the Tribal Archives, Museums and Libraries National Conference

I recently attended the National Tribal Archives, Museums and Libraries Conference in Portland, Oregon. I was able to attend this conference thanks to a generous grant from the IMLS-sponsored conference and as the fortunate recipient of the Paul H. Mattingly Award. The conference was brimming with exciting projects by and for native communities. One of my favorite projects included the Plateau People’s Web Portal, a project based at Washington State University which enables members of the Umatilla, Coeur d’Alene and Yakama communities to interpret historic photographs and documents in an on-line archive. The site includes oral histories and cultural restrictions created by and native communities. I was also impressed by the work being done at the University of Oregon on the Theodore Stern Collection. For those of you who work with tribal communities the IMLS has an extensive granting program for projects ranging from community outreach to professional development.