began a Title VI nutrition program, to serve a hot noon meal to area tribal elders, over the age of 55, and their spouses. Together with the Ottawa Tribe, the Miami Tribe began a library as a satellite service to those elders in 1987, after receiving a small library grant of $7,000, from the U. S. Department of Education.
On October 1, 1989, a one-year Special Projects grant (also from the U. S. Department of Education) funded its first major expansion, which included one full time staff person. The library was moved out of the corner of the Title VI activity room to its own room, about 880 sq. ft. With no catalog or accession records; some of the original 500 books were never found. Rectifying the lack of records became the first order of business, and a nagging reminder of what happens when there is no one left to "mind the store".
That first month, there were 15 browsers, four of which registered to check out books. (They checked out nine.) From there, the program never looked back! A three-member library board was appointed. Programs that year were over topics such as health care, hobbies, and tribal heritage. The first Open House was January 31, 1990, which 100 people attended.
The first computer was purchased in 1990, with a second one being added in 1991. The program quickly grew to more than what one person could handle and so a library assistant was a very welcome addition. More emphasis was placed on historical resources, so later grants supported the purchase of microfilm and microfiche, plus readers. Videotaping of the tribal elders was begun. An art show of a Miami tribal member was sponsored. The children's section was added in 1992. Librarian's Helper Online software put the catalog online in 1993.
About this time, three things happened to set into motion a major expansion for the library. First a new Title VI nutrition center was built in 1992 funded by a HUD grant. Second, in 1994 and 1995, two archives grants from the National Archives supported the establishment of an archives and records management program. (Travel funds also allowed a consultant to travel in Oklahoma, Kansas, and Indiana, seeking primary source documents that could be copied for the archives.) Third, a later HUD grant in 1995 allowed the library to expand fourfold into the old Title VI area, adding a computer lab and an archives area.
Having an archives allowed several special collections to be donated. These include 15 Hollinger boxes from tribal lawyer, Edwin Rothschild's personal library, during the Indian Claims Commission days, 1950-1970; 3 boxes, Chief Forest Olds papers, 1963-1974; 6 boxes of the Luke Sheer papers, a historian that wrote to many tribal members in the 1940s-1960s, and 6 boxes from Chief Floyd Leonard, who has been involved in tribal administration almost continuously since 1954. A bound set of the Draper Papers, 178 volumes in all, well-known research, for those interested in the old Northwest, are also housed there.
In 1995, grants supported the establishment of the CHARLIE Library Network, which stands for Connecting Help and Resources Linking Indians Effectively, a network of the following local tribes: Eastern Shawnee, Miami, Modoc, Ottawa, Quapaw, and Seneca-Cayuga. The next year, the Peoria Tribe joined. Each tribe received computers, software, Internet access, and training. In later years, library materials were also purchased with grant funds. One librarian traveled from tribe to tribe, offering professional services, such as cataloging as requested. Collectively, these tribal librarians work together addressing library issues in the area, coordinating and sharing as resources permit. [The shared online catalog may be accessed via the Internet at www.myaamia.org Click on the Catalog hot button on the top left.] That same year, grants allowed service hours to be extended to some evenings and weekends, and the addition of two full time master degreed librarians for a total of three. Grants from Southwestern Bell to the City of Miami, included the Miami Tribe, and provided two public access Internet terminals. Artifacts from a Michigamea village were donated to the collection.
The Miami librarian wrote the two-year ANA language grant, received in 1996, which supported a linguistic expert on the Miami language meeting with speakers and tribal members interested in learning, teaching, and preserving the language. A language handbook was developed and disseminated to all tribal members over the age of 18, and the first Miami-English, English-Miami dictionary to be distributed. Language camps were held and students of the language committed to become teachers, sharing the language with others. During the same time, the library was one of 100 chosen in the state of Oklahoma to be part of the Oklahoma Library Technology Network, which provided interlibrary loan services online. A memorial from the family and friends of a tribal member, Dorma Smith, funded a large expansion of the video collection.
Because the tribes' financial resources were so limited, a wide variety of grants have been used to support the library, which was 100% funded by grants for its first 11 years. Besides those mentioned above, grants from the Institute of Museum and Library Services, and the Ottawa County Community Partnership were used. The majority of the 40 grants were small, single year; so aggressive grant writing was just one of the necessary tools for survival, with two others being partnerships and networking. As the program continued to grow and services were added, job training programs such as Green Thumb, the National Indian Council on Aging, and the Summer Youth programs administered by the Inter-Tribal Council helped with additional staff.
One of the primary partners with the Miami Tribe through the years has been Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, which sits on Miami ancestral lands. Visits had been made back and forth by tribal members and university administration, students, and representatives for years, but the relationship was strengthened after the University selected a committee, which prepared a 120-page document in 1994, detailing ways that the two could work together. [Even before this though, Miami University donated six computers for the Tribe's computer lab. Today this very partnership is expressed in a new logo and the words "Partners in Learning."]
In 1995, the first Anthropology Field School, sponsored by the University, was held in Miami for six weeks, as students receive class credit for projects, documenting the tribal elders. Other field schools have been offered in linguistics, journalism, and archaeology as well. The University hired a Miami tribal member, Daryl Baldwin, to head the Myaamia Project for Language Revitalization and American Indian Cultural Awareness in 2001. Some coordinated projects last a limited time, such as when three journalism classes developed a language CD. Other research is ongoing, like the botany project documenting the Tribe's use of plants. Now professionals from different universities are becoming involved and presented their ongoing research projects to the Miami Tribe Business Committee and interested parties in March at a conference held at Miami University. Directly or indirectly, the library/archives is the beneficiary of all these.
Shorter visits are scheduled throughout the year during tribal events to expose the students to the Tribe for which the University was named. Another wonderful benefit is that young Miami tribal members receive a scholarship while attending there. Today those numbers have grown until in the 2003-2004 school year, there are 15 Miami tribal members attending the university.
Simply being in the right place at the right time allowed the library to host foreign librarians from the Ukraine in 1999 and from surrounding regions the next year. (The original visit had been set up with another tribal library, which had to cancel.) A visit from the president-elect of the American Indian Library Association was another program highlight in 1998. Since then, a librarian from Finland has visited.
New in 2001 was a partnership with the Library of the Integris Health System in Oklahoma City, for a consumer health grant, which provided equipment for the Miami and training for all CHARLIE librarians on medical databases, such as MedlinePlus, as well as a membership in the National Network of Libraries of Medicine. This came in handy when during the terrorism scare the physicians and staff at the Northeast Oklahoma Tribal Health Clinic next door requested research on anthrax and cholera.
Two other new programs in 2001 were the Roots and Wings "books for babies" program, and the storyteller program, where a storyteller traveled among area daycares regularly, providing stories, Miami language, and other special activities for those living in the local area. But a library survey in 2001 to all tribal members nationwide, the first in over 15 years about any topic, funded by an IMLS grant, has sparked the library to renew their commitment to positively impact the lives' of the tribal members, no matter where they live. (As a result, a new website for the library was developed in 2003, but already additional features are being planned to serve all tribal members better.)
A highlight of 2002 was when the Library/Archives was chosen as one of the 32 semifinalists for the Honoring Contributions in the Governance of American Indian Nations award. Known simply as Honoring Nations, this program is administered by Harvard University, and recognizes model programs in many areas, such as housing, medical, and education.
Through the years, wonderful training opportunities were utilized to offset lack of professional library skills by the staff. Numerous grants funded attendance to master level library school classes for the Library Director at the University of Oklahoma at their center in Tulsa, OK. Many professional organizations such as the American Indian Library Association, Oklahoma Library Association, Special Library Association, Oklahoma Museum Association, American Association for State and Local History were used to broaden the vision. Another major step forward was attendance at workshops sponsored by the Smithsonian on managing and developing archives and museums. Staff at the Oklahoma Department of Libraries, the state archives, the Oklahoma Historical Society, and the Northeast Oklahoma A & M Learning Center served as mentors, assisting in the program's success.
In order to keep the library/archives program going, the staff has always been willing to take on extra responsibilities, or "wear many hats". Even though the arrival of gaming has allowed the Tribe to be less dependent on grants as they provide needed services to their members; funding remains a challenge. There is an ever-widening gap between needs vs. available funding. Basket auctions, "friends of the Library" memberships, memorials, bake sales, inkjet cartridge recycling, solicitations from area gaming businesses and local tribes, as well as the selling of donated books through the Internet illustrate the variety of funding approaches to cover the expensive technology costs, which allow services to continue to tribal members nationwide.
Nevertheless, funding comes and goes, with programs and staff cuts the usual result. Yet we remain committed to our mission of "roots and wings", it is worth our best. But as this review makes clear, any success that we've had, was not because of staff or tribal administration alone. We have many people to thank. To each, who contributed, thank you, or as the Miami say, "neewe".
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