FLAME (Future Libraries, Archives, and Museums in Excavation)

A Conversation with Ian Saxine on the Influence of Indigenous practices of property and ownership in 18th-century New England, and New Trends in History Writing Today

In this episode, hosts Laura Wilson and Ece Turnator engage in a conversation with Professor Ian Saxine about the historical shifts in property, ownership, and legal practices during the 18th century in New England. As Prof. Saxine explains, the practices and concepts of property and ownership among Indigenous communities had a substantial impact on the practices of the colonizers. These Indigenous influences gradually yielded to colonialist practices, particularly after the Dummer’s Treaty (1725-1750). The episode highlights the assertive role of Indigenous agency and its ongoing influence on reshaping the narrative of early United States history.

‘Indigenous Knowledge is Living Knowledge.’ Context and Resources for Describing Indigenous Collections. A Conversation with Lydia Curliss.

In this episode hosts Laura Wilson and Ece Turnator speak with Lydia Curliss of the Hassanamisco band of Nipmuc and PhD student at the Information School at the University of Maryland about centering Indigenous communities and forming relationships with local tribes while doing restorative work in GLAM spaces and in the academia. The episode has references to the Editorial Guide for Indigenous Entity Descriptions in Social Networks and Archival Context (SNAC), the Stolen Relations Project, the Local Contexts project and NAGPRA.

‘We Wanted the Structural and More Permanent Legacies’: The Making of the Memorandum of Understanding between the Penobscot Nation and the University of Maine.

In episode six hosts Laura Wilson and Ece Turnator analyze the 2021 interview with Darren Ranco of the Penobscot Nation and Associate Professor of Anthropology at the University of Maine about the importance of the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) signed between the Nation and the University in 2018. The MOU exemplifies a welcome break from the past that rests on an intentional history of genocide (as in the Phipps Proclamation of 1755) and various attempts at dispossession (as in the Maine Indian Rights Claims Settlement Act of 1980).

A Way to Collaborate: the Eastern Pequot Tribal Nation, Stephen Silliman and the Eastern Pequot Archaeological Field School.

In this episode hosts Justin Schell and Laura Wilson discuss a successful collaboration built between the Eastern Pequot Tribal Nation in Connecticut and a UMass Boston archaeologist, Professor Stephen Silliman.  The episode focuses on the fraught colonial history of the Eastern Pequot Tribal Nation and how a relationship was formed between an archaeologist and the tribal nation. In the episode, Silliman gives tangible examples of doing restorative archaeology and collaborative scholarly work by empowering the Eastern Pequot Tribal Nation and by involving them in the research process. Over time their collaboration ends up altering the nature of the research itself. The episode offers many tangible examples about how professional scholars and scientists could engage with Indigenous communities, and in doing so, help preserve a more complete history.

GIVE, in addition to (we've had so many years of) TAKE

In this episode Petrouchka Moise and Ece Turnator discuss the legacy of colonialism in museums and libraries with our guests Kimberly Toney (American Antiquarian Society) and Aaron Miller (Mount Holyoke College Art Museum), focusing on how libraries and museums could be read as displays of plunder as settlers appropriated land, language, culture, as well as bodies of Indigenous peoples. The episode discusses the ties between the foundation of sciences, humanities, and the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act of 1990.