OMA and OSQA Blog

Confederated Tribes of Coos, Lower Umpqua & Siuslaw Indians, Coos Bay, OR

For our last site visit of the summer we traveled to Coos Bay to meet with the Confederated Tribes of Coos, Lower Umpqua & Siuslaw Indians. While there we met with the cultural director, records manager, archeologist, manager of information systems, tribal administrator, and tribal chairman to discuss the tribe’s cultural archives and records management programs. It was wonderful to have the opportunity to share our project with so many and to learn so much from all of them.

Over the next few months we will begin planning the institute curriculum and are very excited to continue our many conversations will all nine tribes’ archivists, records managers, and other interested tribal members.

Coquille Indian Tribe, North Bend, OR

For our second to last site visit of the summer we had the opportunity to travel to the coast to meet with archives and records managers of the Coquille Indian Tribe. During our meeting we learned about an exciting collaborative project between the records manager and the cultural resources department to custom design a database that will suit their existing and future document managment needs.

After the meeting we decided to take a trip to see the tribe’s beautiful Community Park / Plankhouse – here is the sign before the Plankhouse itself:

Coquille Indian Tribe Plankhouse Sign

Today is our last site visit of the summer. We will meet with the Confederated Tribes of Coos, Lower Umpqua & Siuslaw Indians, and it is just a few blocks away so stay tuned…

The sign in front of the Cow Creek Tribal Government Offices in Roseburg, OR

The beautiful Umpqua Valley was our destination this week.  There we met with tribal representatives from the Cow Creek Band of Umpqua Indians at their tribal offices in Roseburg, Oregon. This visit gave us the opportunity to connect with representatives from Cow Creek’s tribal administration and tour their records facilities.

Larry Landis and Laura Cray reading an interpretive sign in front the Cow Creek Tribal Government Offices in Roseburg, OR.

The summer is drawing to a close and we only have one more trip left.  Next week, we will hit the road one last time for a trip to Coos Bay to visit both the Confederated Tribes of Coos, Lower Umpqua & Siuslaw Indians and the Coquille Indian Tribe.

This week had us traveling to Burns, OR to visit with representatives of the Burns Paiute Tribe.  The meeting was a great success bringing together 9 members from different departments throughout the tribe to talk about their records programs and make connections.  Burns may be one of the smaller Oregon Tribes, but they still generate a lot of records.  Together we developed some great ideas for the curriculum for the summer 2012 Archives and Records Management Institute and we look forward to working with them more throughout the next year.

The Tu-Kwa-Hone Community Center on the Burns Paiute Reservation.

As August comes to a close, we are nearing the end of our summer site visits.  There are only two trips left to go. Next week will be be in Roseburg to visit with members of the Cow Creek Band of Umpqua Indians.

Sign at the Tu-Kwa-Hone Community Center on the Burns Paiute Reservation.

This week’s travels landed us in Pendleton, OR were we met with representatives of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation.  The meeting was an opportunity for us to tour the newly constructed Nixyáawii Governance Center which includes a records center facility.  This new space has allowed the tribal administration to pull most of their records together into a single location and will be immensely helpful as they continue to develop records policies and retention schedules.

During our visit, we also toured the Tamástslikt Cultural Institute.  Tamástslikt museum is a truly moving experience and beautifully done.  It is a must see if you are ever in the Pendleton area.  The collections and research manager at Tamástslikt, Malissa Minthorn Winks, brings to the table years of experience and stewardship of her community’s most valuable cultural records and we look forward to working with her and the rest of the Umatilla community as this project develops.

Entrance to the Tamástslikt Cultural Institute in Pendleton, OR

We don’t have any trips planned for the next two weeks as we prepare to travel to the SAA conference in Chicago, but will be back on the road again to Burns almost as soon as our suitcases hit the floor.  Check back later for an update about our meeting with members of the Burns Piaute Tribe on August 31st.

Our travels this week took us to Chiloquin, OR to meet with representatives from The Klamath Tribes. It was a pleasure to get the chance to meet with other people as excited as we are about records management and cultural preservation.  We are thankful that they were able to take time from their busy days (and all of the chaos of Culture Camp) to come and speak with us about their programs and goals for the future.  Their records retention schedule policy is really well put together and it is serving as a valuable tool to help organize and build their records program.  With a lot of exciting developments on the horizon for the Klamath community, we are excited to work with them on the Archives and Records Institute over the coming year.

Blanche Hescock (Records Clerk for The Klamath Tribes) and Larry Landis (OSU University Archivist) in front of the records office for The Klamath Tribes during our visit to Chiloquin on July 26.

We are taking a break from the road next week, but will return refreshed and ready to go the week after when we head to Pendleton to meet with tribal members from Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation August 9.

This week we traveled to Siletz, Oregon to meet with members of the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians about the Oregon tribes archives and records training institute. They are currently in the process of developing a records management policy as well as developing a robust digitization program for their administrative records, and it was great to see the work in progress.

While in Siletz we also had the opportunity to visit the tribal cultural center on Government Hill.  It is a beautiful location with future plans for expansion and is growing into a valuable community resource.  We look forward to working with the members of the Siletz community more over the coming year so that perhaps we can help them achieve those goals.

Siletz Tribal Administration Building

Next week we will be on the road again, this time traveling to Chiloquin, Oregon to meet with representatives from the Klamath Tribes.  Be sure to check back towards the end of next week for an update on that trip.