News from
PRINCETON UNIVERSITY
Communications and Publications, Stanhope Hall
Princeton, New Jersey 08544
Tel 609/258-3601; Fax 609/258-1301
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Mary Caffrey 609/258-5748
Date: August 8, 1997
Mudd Library Display Chronicles
Native American HistoryPRINCETON, N.J. -- Seventy-five years of Native American history are vividly chronicled in a new exhibition at Princeton University's Seeley G. Mudd Manuscript Library, located at 65 Olden St. "A Voice in the Wilderness: Selections from the Archives of the Association on American Indian Affairs" reveals the influential role this national voluntary organization has played in upholding the rights and promoting the welfare of America's first peoples. The exhibition may be viewed Monday through Friday between 8:45 a.m. and 4:15 p.m., and on Wednesday evenings until 7:30 p.m., through February 1, 1998.
The AAIA, initially known as the Eastern Association on Indian Affairs, was established by non-Indians in New York in 1922 to protect the lands of New Mexico's Pueblos. Under the direction of anthropologist and writer Oliver La Farge, who led the organization for 25 years, the AAIA expanded the scope of its activities, lending material and moral support to Native Americans throughout the United States. The group's campaigns against government efforts in the 1920s to assimilate Native Americans into the mainstream culture and, in the 1950s, to terminate traditional protections were instrumental in preserving the principles of federal trusteeship and tribal self-determination. The AAIA was headquartered in New York until 1995 when, under Indian leadership, it moved to Sisseton, South Dakota, where it continues to address a broad range of Native American issues.
The material in this exhibition represents only a tiny portion of the Archives of the AAIA, which total 175 linear feet or 432 boxes of records. These were donated to Princeton University in 1971 and have been supplemented with additional installments. Until now, however, the Archives of the AAIA have been largely inaccessible, due to their unorganized condition. With support from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the John Foster and Janet Avery Dulles Fund, an 18-month project was launched at the end of 1995 to arrange and describe these records.
Project Archivist John S. Weeren and a team of assistants carried out this challenging task, producing a comprehensive guide (known as a finding aid) to the Archives of the AAIA. This document, which is available at the Seeley G. Mudd Manuscript Library and will soon be posted on the Internet (see address below), contains 32 pages of descriptive material -- including a brief history of the AAIA -- and a 105-page inventory of the thousands of files which, together, form these archives. For ease of reference, the AAIA's records have been divided into 17 categories (known as series or subseries), reflecting the different facets of the organization's activities, the individuality of its officers, and the types of material it has created.
Researchers can expect to uncover a rich and largely untapped trove that will provide insights into both the AAIA's internal workings and external relationships, particularly those involving the hundreds of Native American communities and organizations with which it has had dealings. Whether the quality of Indian education, the integrity of Indian families, or the fate of ancestral lands has been at issue, the AAIA has made its voice heard. Indeed, the organization has been in the forefront of many crucial battles involving Native American interests, and while it has not always been victorious, it has strengthened the position of tribes across the country and raised the consciousness of society at large.
A number of these battles are documented in "A Voice in the Wilderness," including the struggle of the Pueblo of Taos to recover the tribe's sacred Blue Lake in New Mexico, the campaign of the Seneca Nation to halt construction of the Kinzua Dam on the Allegheny River in Pennsylvania, and the efforts of Alaskan Natives to preserve their far-flung land base. Visitors will learn of the poverty and isolation which have haunted many Native American communities as well as the steadfast determination with which these handicaps have been overcome. The exhibition also conveys the evolution in Native American advocacy, from a time when non-Indians defined the terms of debate to a time when Indians spoke for themselves.
While "A Voice in the Wilderness" is primarily composed of material from the Archives of the AAIA, it also features a number of beautiful Indian artifacts and an array of Native American newspapers and magazines from Princeton University's collections of Western Americana. Weeren, curator of the exhibition, hopes that visitors will emerge with a clearer sense of the Native American experience in this century, an experience which popular misconceptions have obscured.
For additional information, please call (609) 258-6345.
NOTE: The finding aid to the Archives of the AAIA can be found at:
http://infoshare1.princeton.edu:2003/libraries/firestone/rbsc/finding_aids/aaia.html