gold-plated CDRs

[David Gene Lewis]

Hi Phil,
yes I too mirror many of the thoughts you have. I am contacting people
at Grand Ronde that have slowly begun letting on that they have
collections of cultural items, stories and tapes. These things are
just now beginning to surface. When I was working with Malissa
Monthorne I was able to tour your archives there at the Cultural
center. After that conference, we began planning and thinking about
what can be done within the State of Oregon to help Tribal libraries
and archives to develop further. Its not just the facilities, but the
equipment, and the training of the personnel to take care of the
archives and for the Tribes to allow access to these resources to
Tribal members. Now that Tribal Libraries in Oregon are considered
state Public libraries, we can apply for public library funds. But the
first step may be to work on getting Tribal members into Library and
archival training programs. This is for all Tribes in Oregon. Not one
tribe couldn't use some help in this regard. I have begun working with
the UO Special Collections staff to see if we can't provide a distance
education program, but I would need to support of several tribes. I
have also thought to use the SWORP field research trips as archival
field training for Tribal archivists. I don't think the technology
will not be used appropriately until we see these inprovements at the
Tribes. So I guess many opt to keep such programs in the Universities.
But this is not a final solution and I think in the future we can do
better for the Tribes.
David


David Lewis
University of Oregon
Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde