Native Americans create, preserve, and organize knowledge within the context of community, thereby ensuring the inclusion of Native American philosophies. Historically, mainstream cataloging and classification systems have not adequately represented this knowledge. The Mashantucket Pequot Thesaurus of American Indian Terminology was designed to incorporate an Indigenous perspective into mainstream controlled vocabularies. Using story as pedagogy, this article examines the conceptual foundations, theoretical framework, and application of the Thesaurus to a museum setting.

Knowledge Organization from an Indigenous Perspective: The Mashantucket Pequot Thesaurus of American Indian Terminology Project

................................................................................................................................... ii! Preface ..................................................................................................................................... iv! Table of

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Naming, claiming, and (re)creating : Indigenous knowledge organization at the cultural interface

Due to the lack of published information (especially in Canada) on modified classification systems and thesauri for describing and organizing Aboriginal materials, I set out to conduct a survey on this topic. The surveys were distributed at five Indigenous-related conferences and gatherings in Canada and the United States between the Fall, 2009, and the Fall, 2010, and more than 50 completed surveys were collected. Research findings included preferred changes in terminology from Library of Congress subject headings (which were seen to be outdated and inappropriate) but there was no resounding consensus on a “one-size fits all” terminology for thesauri terminology. However, this was not seen to be problematic given the diverse range of participants who took part in the survey. Respondents also commented on a survey question inquiring about the use of the “Medicine Wheel” concept as a way to organize Aboriginal-related materials, as well as other possible structures that might prove more culturally relevant for organizing these materials. There was both support for and strong opposition to the use of the Medicine Wheel for this purpose, for a variety of reasons. Participants indicated a preference for non-hierarchical and less linear structures than what current mainstream classification systems provide. There also seemed to be support for “landscape-based” structures. Although research findings were not conclusive, some valuable insights were gained from this study. The exploratory nature of this research project suggests more research (and more in-depth research) in this area is required.

https://journal.lib.uoguelph.ca/index.php/perj/article/download/1427/2090

Indigenous Knowledge Organization: A Study of Concepts, Terminology, Structure and (Mostly) Indigenous Voices

Kelly Webster, Monographs Cataloger at the 0 'Neill Library at Boston College, and Ann Doyle, Branch Librarian for Xwi7~wa Library at the University of British Columbia's First Nations House of Learning, share a conversation about some of the issues related to the cataloging and classification of American Indian materials, and give an overview of some alternative practices. KW: Have you ever noticed how American Indians are treated in Library of Congress cataloging? In both obvious and subtle ways, American Indians are treated as a remnant of the past. Although there have been some positive changes recently, such as the efforts being made to work with tribes to establish the preferred form of tribal names, there is still bias and problematic treatment of Native topics in the Library of Congress classification schedules and subject headings. The E schedules in LC classification are a dumping ground for all things Indian. Medicine, education, psychology? You won't find material on those topics in the R, L or BF schedules if it involves Native Americans, because historic practice segregated us into a historic people. We are still here, though, and people working in library services to Native peoples are finding established practice a barrier to information access and promoting use of the library. AD: We face similar issues here in Canada. Cataloging practices not only fail to provide access for Aboriginal students and others using the academic libraries, they obscure an increasingly rich interdisciplinary literature and constitute a significant barrier to use of the public libraries. Years ago, as a library school student in 1980, I did a collection analysis of three special collections of Aboriginal materials. It turned out that although the local public library was comparatively well-stocked, the Aboriginal staff at the neighborhood Native Resource Center still felt that it was a poor collection. At the time, the bricks and mortar of this barrier to the public library collection were not clear to me. In retrospect, I see that the lack of appropriate description and classification were significant blocks to access for Aboriginal people. The student paper concluded with the Guidelines

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Don't class me in antiquities! : giving voice to Native American materials

The Association for Manitoba Archives has created a database where members can deposit archival descriptions to provide a central search for users. Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH) were chosen as the controlled subject vocabulary to use in the descriptions, but changes were made to LCSH to better describe material about or by Indigenous peoples. Examples include: the word “Indian”; geographic place embedded in terms such as “Indians of North America”; changes related to Manitoba peoples specifically; and miscellaneous changes not part of a larger pattern. New terms were also added.

Library of Congress Subject Headings Related to Indigenous Peoples: a Project Changing LCSH for use in a Canadian Archival Context.

The National Indian Law Library collection of federal Indian and tribal
law resources requires the use of specialized subject headings. Ms. Martens
describes a project in which the library staff revised an internal subject
headings list to create a supplemental thesaurus to the Library of Congress
Subject Headings.

Monica Martens

Papers

Creating a Supplemental Thesaurus to LCSH for a Specialized Collection: The Experience of the National Indian Law Library