AIC's 52nd Annual Meeting

Minnesota is home to seven Anishinaabe tribes and four Dakota tribes, each a unique sovereign nation with its own government, its own history, and its own cultural identity. Beginning in 2022, a collaborative effort between the Native American Initiatives department and the Local History Services team at the Minnesota Historical Society (MNHS) was established to undertake conservation outreach to Tribal audiences in Minnesota. The goal of outreach was to reach a general audience of Tribal members, to provide a useful service, and to increase the audience’s confidence in caring for their own valued belongings. This work was supported by a grant from the Mellon Foundation.

The Native American Initiatives (NAI) department at MNHS was created in 2016 to serve as an advocate for Native communities and Native nations at MNHS. It acts as a bridge between community needs and MNHS resources, engaging with Native communities and nations throughout the state and region, and ensuring Native voices, stories, and concerns are addressed in MNHS work. The Local History Services team at MNHS was founded in 1916, and for over a century it has supported smaller organizations across the state of Minnesota to interpret and preserve the history of their community. In 2019, Local History Services hired their first full-time conservator dedicated to supporting the capabilities of individuals and small organizations to care for their own collections.

The collaboration between NAI and Local History Services was key to successfully conducting two outreach open house events in White Earth Nation and Upper Sioux Community, and the creation of an outreach event model that will continue to be used in the future. This presentation will bring together both departments to reflect on the design and the outcomes of the conservation outreach program so far. The presentation will also discuss how to increase the accessibility of conservation information for a general audience, what to expect when working with a new community, and important considerations for designing your own conservation outreach programs for Tribal audiences.