Tribal Libraries, Archives, and Museums : Welcome

This guide is intended to be an introduction to Tribal Archives, Libraries, and Museums (TLAM) within the UW-Madison Information School. Use the links on the side to dive in and find information on the TLAM program, our community partners around the state, and LIS resources related to tribal instiutions.

Tribal nations are sovereign and thus retain the inherent right to govern themselves. That extends to making decisions about their historical and cultural institutions. Indigenous peoples have maintained their own practices for knowledge organization and preservation for thousands of years. Historically, western Euro-centric ideologies have violated Indigenous cultural sovereignty through theft of artifacts, delegitimization of knowledge systems, and reluctance to repatriate items such as ancestor remains and funerary objects. We respect tribal nation sovereignty, and this guide is designed to provide resources to students so they can support tribal goals.

It is important to recognize that the University of Wisconsin (as well as dozens of other colleges across the country) is a land-grant institution. This means that land for the campus as well as for an income stream came from stolen lands administered under the Morrill Act of 1862. These lands were not just in Wisconsin, but from all over, and the money gained from stealing these lands funded universities. We must acknowledge this truth.

• Teaching Indigenous Land Dispossession in Wisconsin
• University of Minnesota TRUTH Project
• High Country News article on Land-Grab Universities
• Ask Who Paid for America's Land-Grant Universities
• This land is their land