 Welcome to the iSchool's Native American Heritage Month symposium. My name is Dr. Anthony Chou, the proud new director of San Jose State School of Information and founder and project director of Reading Nation Waterfall, an IMLS-funded literacy grant working with Native American children and families. As a first-generation American-born son of immigrants, I'm fully committed to all things associated with equity, diversity, and inclusion. Now truly understanding and respecting and not merely tolerating our nation's unique diversity paints the authentic, profound, and beautiful tapestry that ultimately defines who we are as Americans. This symposium will be the first of many that the iSchool will sponsor as part of our commitment to EDI. I want to give special thanks to our associate director, Dr. Linda Main and the iSchool staff, Cat, Nicole, Callie, Dale, Christine, and Rafina, and my colleagues and friend, Lynette Dial, for their hard work and support in making these symposiums happen. You'll see on our agenda that we'll have a keynote address followed by two panel discussions. Also, our proceedings today will be recorded and widely distributed via our YouTube and social media channels shortly afterward. Our theme today is bridging the past and future, improving library services for the Native American community. And before I introduce our keynote speaker, I wanted to read San Jose State's land acknowledgment to the present-day Muwekma-Alodi tribe. The San Jose State University community recognizes that the present-day Muwekma-Alani tribe with an enrolled Bureau of Indian Affairs documented membership of over 550, discomprised of all of the known surviving American Indian lineages, Aboriginal to the San Francisco Bay region, who traced their ancestry through the mission Santa Clara. San Jose and Dolores, they're in the advent of the Espano European Empire into Alta, Alta, California. And who are the successors and living members of the sovereign historic previously federally recognized Verona band of Palomita County. Furthermore, the San Jose University community recognizes that the university is established within the Thamean-Alani speaking tribal ethno-historic territory, which is based upon the unratified federal treaties of 1851-1852, which includes the unceded ancestral lands of the Muwekma-Alani tribe of the San Francisco Bay area. Some of the enrolled Muwekma lineages are descended from direct ancestors from the Thamean-Alani tribal territory, whose ancestors had affiliation with Mission Santa Clara. Finally, the San Jose University community recognizes the importance of this land to the indigenous Muwekma-Alani people of this region and consistent with our principles of community and diversity, strives to be good stewards on behalf of the Muwekma-Alani tribe whose land we occupy. To reinforce the importance of equity, equal access for all people following the Platinum Rule, which the Golden Rule plus one treat others as they want to be treated. Diversity, diverse perspectives that go way beyond race and ethnicity and as validity, authenticity and vibrancy to our lived context and inclusion, showing grace to others and supporting other people and not excluding them because they are not like you or because you can. Let me share a story of a few things I've learned over the past month. First, in talking to the head of Chicago's public library system, he told me that LIS programs must do a better job of educating the future workforce on how to actually apply and implement EDI and the field. His point is that we must understand the unique needs of our patrons and not try and apply traditional LIS practices to members of the community that need non-traditional support and services. Second is a disturbing story that my nephew told me over the Thanksgiving holiday. He plays football on the East Coast and he told me that it bothers him greatly that everyone only calls him by his last name Chow. And he's being treated differently than the other players as the only Asian football player on the team. Arguably both the coaches, not arguably both the coaches and other players should do something to help put a stop to it. EDI is not just a token concept but a deep and complex called action which means supporting it, especially when it's uncomfortable to do so. We can and must do better. It is everyone's responsibility and I believe LIS professionals in particular have a role to play in continuing to surface real and significant discussions around supporting and actually implementing EDI principles in their communities. This is why I'm so grateful for the prestigious group of speakers that we have assembled for you today to help us do this hard work on behalf of the Native American community and how we can better understand and serve their community. So if that being said, let me introduce our keynote speaker Dr. Ashley Minner. Dr. Minner is a community-based visual artist from Baltimore, Maryland and a role member of the Lumbee tribe of North Carolina. She received her BFA in general fine arts in her MA and MFA in community arts from the Maryland Institute College of Art. She earned her PhD in American Studies from the University of Maryland College Park. Ashley previously worked as a professor of the practice of the practice of folklorist in the Department of American Studies at University of Maryland Baltimore County. And today she serves as the assistant curator for history and culture at the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian in Washington DC. So join me in welcoming Dr. Ashley Minner. Ashley. Thank you, Dr. Chow. Greetings, everyone. It's afternoon here. I believe it's morning where most of the audience is listening. It's my tremendous honor to have been invited to give this keynote to this group that I understand is mostly made up of librarians who are my heroes. Being a visual artist, I do like to show a lot of images as I speak. So if I could have permission to share my screen, I'll do that now. You're all set. Thank you. So because this conference theme is about bridging the past and future I've entitled my talk present in the library, which is something that American Indian people are forever stressing that we're still here we're around our heritage is living and ongoing and we're right here with you. And I'd like to begin what I have to say by saying thank you first to miss Lynette dial for the invitation to speak. And then thank you generally to librarians and archivists in the audience. Thank you for choosing this vocation. Librarians are noble heroes even in my opinion. Thank you for choosing to connect people to information. Thank you for creating safe spaces where everyone is welcome, whether those are in a brick and mortar facility or out in the community or in the air as we're connecting today. My husband, who is also an enrolled member of the Lumbee tribe of North Carolina is probably alive today because of this branch of the Enoch Pratt Free Library here in Baltimore, that was his refuge the whole time he was growing up. And when I received my Smithsonian library card in the mail, my card that gives me access to the vine Deloria library at our institution I knew I had really arrived. So librarians thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I'm fairly new in my position at the Smithsonian I just began in September. This is how I present now professionally for that institution but I'm going to tell you a little bit more about who I am and where I come from. And what else I do that will help you understand my profound appreciation for who you are and what you do. I'm speaking to you this morning from the ancestral homelands of the Piscataway and the Susquehannock peoples. I'm sure you're all familiar with the website native land dot CA where you can go to see whose land you occupied. The process by which these folks were dispossessed of this land is historically specific. The artifact of this event is now sitting in the Maryland State Archives a kind of library. Here's a detail of the summary of the 1652 treaty whereby the Susquehannock seeded the land that would become Baltimore to the colony of Maryland. It may surprise you to know that the largest group of American Indian people in this region today is not indigenous to the region we're actually the Lumbee tribe of North Carolina, so it's kind of in the name. And we are the descendants of folks who come from as far north as the James River in Virginia. And as far south is the Great PD River in South Carolina. And prior to the establishment of the United States we coalesced in an area that is today known as Robinson County, North Carolina. And this is what it looks like there. This is the river that flows through our tribal territory you can see it's kind of dark and murky, otherwise known as drowning Creek. And what doesn't look like the river in the swamp looks a lot like this. I snapped this picture of a tobacco field some years ago. Even though today we see more soybean fields it's still a very rural agricultural place. This is actually a family photo of my mom and my grandma my two uncles when they were living in tribal territory in the early 1950s and they were farming. And many of our people found themselves dispossessed of their tribal homeland through the southern agricultural system. And many of them were sharecropping. And if you don't know what that means, many of the elders who experienced this lifestyle, talk about it as a modern day form of slavery. It's where your whole family goes to work Lynn that you don't own for very little return. And during this time, many of the young people who were members of sharecropping family just could not make it through a school year. And we'll talk about the implications of that later on. Also in this part of the world we had tri racial segregation so where we're used to seeing photos of this era in the south, where space is segregated black and white. In this part of the world we had three separate school systems black white and Indian three separate sections in the movie theater if you can imagine that. So for many reasons a tough place to live. And actually doesn't like it when I show this picture, because she says it makes it seem like they didn't have clothes and they did have clothes it was just a summer day and they were standing in the field see they had clothes, they had clothes. Nevertheless, Laura holds and it's true that many Lumby soldiers coming home from World War two passed through major cities like Baltimore and Philadelphia and Detroit. And they decided it would be way easier to make a living working in a factory in a place that wasn't segregated like home was. It started to move and Baltimore became the biggest destination for Lumby folks outside of North Carolina and is still the largest satellite community outside of North Carolina for Lumby folks. But it looks a lot different than the river and the swamp in the fields right. There's also a place that was understood then as it is today to be black and white only an American Indian people sort of had to contend with a lot of misunderstanding when they arrived. They started to have access to nicer things and all the technologies Baltimore had to offer. And they settled in such numbers in a small neighborhood on the east side of town that they started to call this place their reservation. And this is where they founded the Baltimore American Indian Center which is still open and active. And that's where I spent a lot of time growing up myself and then later working with young people through the Indian education program and an after school art program that we founded. And kind of just spending a lot of time in the neighborhood and walking around and reminding ourselves that we belong there also. I should say that in my mom's day intermarriage was not only socially frowned upon but it was illegal and if you wanted to marry someone who was not a part of your race, your tribe, you had to move away. And when Lumby people moved 400 miles north that's exactly what they did. So now these latest generations are thoroughly multi ethnic multi racial people, and we are a very diverse urban and intertribal American Indian community. And the neighborhood that our forebears established when they got here for the most part has been done away with through urban renewal and gentrification. And also folks just leaving so upward mobility if you see this this image that entire park in the middle was the very heart of what our elders used to call their reservation and almost every space that American Indian people owned or occupied in the 40s through the 70s is now either green or vacant or transformed such that it's unrecognizable. And what we've been doing in Baltimore lately is visiting our elders and talking about what they used to have there to map the community to understand our history in the city to remind ourselves that we're something. We're something much bigger than ourselves. And these folks are actually many of them folks who didn't have the opportunity to read and write through school because they came out of the sharecropping lifestyle in the south and then later taught themselves to read and write. They're doing the work of reconstructing our community. And we're going into libraries and archives currently to corroborate all the great information they're giving us about what was also in libraries and archives we're finding images of our community heroes and resources that we've had that have been documented through periodicals. So here's an image of the Indian education program from an earlier time when it was founded. And this is a federal program that exists in many districts across the country. Baltimore's had its program since 1973. And this program exists to address the unique educational needs of American Indian students. And it's ongoing until today. Because our elders did not have easy access to education. Education's become a big lumpy value. Our young people are encouraged to pursue education until they can't pursue it anymore. And, you know, reading is the backbone of education. It's the way you access information. And unfortunately, also partnering with our with our elders is so very important. These same elders who struggled to get their own education have become involved in making sure that our young people receive theirs. So I'd encourage everyone to check out the reclaiming native truth report put out by the First Nations Development Institute. And let me just read you a couple of statistics that are included in this report. In 2018. It was revealed that institutions perpetuate and systematize invisibility, negative stereotypes and false narratives about American Indian people. 27 states make no mention of a single Native American in K 12 curricula and 87% of state level history standards fail to cover native peoples history in a post 1900 context. In searching Native American 95% of the first 100 Google images are from the 19th century and Native American characters only make up between zero and 0.04% of primetime TV and films. As a result, 72% of Americans say they rarely encounter or receive information about Native Americans and 78% of Americans pulled no little to nothing about Native Americans. And a significant portion believe that Native peoples must be a diminishing population, because they do not see, hear or read about Native peoples. And this affects not only the general population who sometimes believes we don't even exist but ourselves our kids do not see ourselves reflected in popular culture and they need to see themselves reflected in library collections and in library outreach and this is where you come in. I'd encourage everyone to avail themselves of the resources of the National Museum of the American Indian through the Native Knowledge 360 education initiative there are plenty of resources available for free online. If you're not aware, but I'm going to go back to this photo of one of our elders and one of our young people working together through Indian education to talk about what you might do to address. The feeling that American Indians aren't present when we are or that we might not be welcome in spaces and sometimes it's just the architecture the spaces themselves. When we don't see ourselves there and we can't imagine seeing ourselves there, we feel like we can't avail ourselves of the resources. So what can you do. Diversify your collections continue to do outreach as you're doing the little free libraries are really wonderful I know that our community is urban and many of the communities you're working with or rural. Those work in both environments. It's so important for our young people to be able to see themselves. And I thank you for your time. Thank you for inviting me to speak. With that all conclude my remarks. Thank you very much, Ashley really appreciate all of the information you provided and definitely lots of food for thought and in your remarks. So what we'll do now is go to our panel, our distinguished panel. So let me introduce all of the members of the panel that we have that we have assembled for you. And actually, before we do, are there any questions for Ashley, and I apologize, definitely want to make this a dialogue and a discussion. So if there are any questions for Ashley, feel free to use the chat. And I'm sure actually be happy to answer any questions. Thank you doctor child definitely. Okay, let me go ahead and feel free to again ask any questions but let me go and introduce our distinguished panel. Dr chow we have a few questions that just came in. Go ahead we start we have a few minutes before we start the next one so I want to ask so what is the best way to offer a little free library partnership. So, prior to looking through the website for the organization here I had no idea that little free libraries was an official thing in my experience they've always been sort of do it yourself like concerned neighbors or citizens get together and they make a library box and they they stock it with books and I think, you know, colleagues here could probably offer advice about how to reach out to the official organization but I'm a big fan of just go do it. Laura, we could definitely help you with that so reading nation waterfall is partnering with the National little free library organization and I think building on what Ashley said the, the plus one that we've added to this relationship is that a librarian is actually curating the little free library. And so, one of our premises is that all kids deserve brand new books, right so not just donated books but brand new books the very books that one would check out and really equal access to, to high quality materials so definitely reach out. And you can also read more about us on my reading nation calm, but we'd be more than happy to help help with that as well. Thank you. All right. Yeah, go ahead. Yep, next one Ashley we have one of what do you, what did you find the best way to gather with all the elders in one spot so I guess how did you gather all your elders in one spot. Well, I find that in community situations American Indian and any community, people like to gather around food, and we started this work in pre pandemic times. So, it was safe considered totally safe to just go meet up at a diner and our elders here in Baltimore actually in touch and eager to meet up for lunch. Most anytime so that's what they decided to do. And that seems to work well. We have another one for you. Ashley are there any general interest periodicals in print form that you could recommend on Native Americans that we could purchase for a library browsing collection. A couple of lists have been published recently and I'd be happy to search for the links and post those in the chat for anyone interested. There's there's a number of print publications that would be really good. And actually we can also post it on our website afterwards as well. Thank you Dr chow. And Ashley, if it's okay with you, I'll pull those slide if I could have that slide deck and I could share that as well. When we post the recording. Sure. Sure, I'll be in touch. Thank you. So I think that is it for our questions right now. So I'll give it to the mic to Dr chat. Okay, thank you afraid. So let me introduce first our moderator Naomi Bishop. So Naomi is a librarian and advocate for Native American information services. She is a health science librarian at the University of Arizona. She has a recent article in American libraries magazine about the role of academic librarians in combating medical racism. And she was recognized this year as a distinguished alumni at the University of Washington's high school. She received her master's of library information science from the University of Washington in 2010. She also holds a bachelor's of arts and German studies in political science from the University of Arizona. And she completed a year of studies at the Frederick Alexander University. You're logging in new Nuremberg in Germany. She's also a member of the Medical Library Association and the American Indian Science and Engineering Society and the American Indian Library Association and Naomi will be our moderator. Next, the panelists so Dr Kim Sellers, Lumbie as a fully enrolled member of the Lumbie tribe. Dr Heather Kimberly Barton dial sellers makes her home with her husband Justin Sellers and son Peter Thomas Sellers and apex North Carolina she's an associate professor and program director of graduate of graduate reading education at UNC Pembroke and undergraduate courses in multicultural education diversity research, literature, literacy and reading education. She's also the partner lead for the Lumbie tribe in the reading nation waterfall project. The research interests include the segregated segregated American Indian schools, Lumbie Indians, culturally relevant teaching curriculum and reading education. The research interests are continued through examining information from multicultural classes collaboration on the Native American read in exploring the leadership project from the graduate program and research from work with her graduate candidates. This is Mr Dwayne Yazzie who's an advisory board member with the reading nation waterfall and he's never never. He's a teaching and reading specialist from and Dwayne I'm not going to be able to pronounce this very well so forgive me to who'd see. Dino be a school and again correctly when you when you when you join window rock to have the Navajo nation. He's also 2019 recipient of little free libraries Todd H bull award for outstanding achievement. And we'll include an article on Dwayne in the chat. Next is Dr Melinda Lowry, Lumbie. So Dr Melinda Maynard Lowry is a historian and documentary film producer who was a member of the Lumbie tribe of North Carolina. In July 2021 she joined Emory University as the Kahoon family professor of American history, after spending 12 years at UNC Chapel Hill and four years at Harvard University. Her second book the Lumbie Indians and American struggle was published by UNC Press in 2018. The book is a survey of Lumbie history from the 18th century to the present written for the general audience. Her first book Lumbie Indians in the Jim Crow South race identity in the making of a nation. She won several awards including best first book of 2010 and Native American indigenous studies. She holds a PhD in history from UNC Chapel Hill. And also an MA history also from Chapel Hill, and also an MA in documentary film and in video from Stanford University, and then a BA in history and literature from Harvard University. And then finally, Jody Cummins, JD. He leads the Office of Legal Counsel for the Machan Tuckett Piqua Tribal Nation. And again, I apologize if I'm mispronouncing any words of Connecticut Jody spent more than three years as Deputy Solicitor and Senior Counselor for the Indian Affairs at the Interior Department. He specializes in American Indian law and natural resources and environmental matters. Mr Cummins has a JD from Columbia Law School and his bachelor's degree from Duke University. So with that, being said, as you can tell very impressive panel. I'm going to turn it over to Naomi. Good afternoon. Good afternoon. If you're towards the East Coast. I'm Naomi Bishop. I'm from Pima. I'm the river Indian community. I'm joining you here from my homelands here in Phoenix, Arizona. And I want to welcome all of our guests today. My first question for all of you actually is, I would like to hear some brief reactions to Dr. Miner's address. I know she actually mentioned a lot about urban communities and natives that have always been here in the history. And so I'd love to hear some of your responses and I'll start off with Dr. Sellers. I would love to comment on Ashley's presentation. My mother, my late mother, her first taste of like urban life was whenever she went with her cousin, you know, seeking opportunities and Baltimore. And she'd always talk about that experience. Now my father on the other hand, whenever he came back from war to he actually went to Chicago. And that's where he received his school and so kind of similar to what Ashley was talking about. There was also a community, a smaller community there in Chicago of Lumbia Indians as well. So Ashley, I thank you for documenting that and doing the work that you have. I appreciate that. Thank you, Dr. Sellers. Anyone else have comments. Just raise your hand. Good morning and good afternoon wherever you may be. You know, I was immediately thought of her title present, you know, that we are still here. We haven't gone anywhere. We haven't been erased even though, you know, the dialogue through history has often been that, you know, we are romanticized. We're historicized. We're back in the annals of the 1700s, the 1800s. And, you know, we're reserved for that place and that space and yet we are here. The other word that jumped out was that we were dispossessed. And I think one of the big things that we've been dispossessed of is our narrative. Our narrative has been written and rewritten by others besides ourselves. And we need to reclaim that. We need to take charge of our own narrative, whether it's historical or in the modern day context. And we should encourage our young ones to do the same thing. We need to pave that way for them and so many have done that up to this point. I feel like we need, there's an impetus to do even more to really articulate that to our younger generation that this is not going away. And if we don't want to be dispossessed, we have to keep those things reclaimed constantly. Thank you Dwayne. It's so true. I'm working with our youth. Others, do you have comments? Yeah, Dr. Lowry. I unfortunately just caught the last part of the presentation, but I was, I immediately understood this value of gathering with elders. And River made a comment in the chat about how these Lumbies really do value education. It's kind of crazy. And I think we have a lot in common with other tribal communities in that we recognize that our education takes place first and foremost outside the formal school setting. And in those dialogues with elders that many of us, the vast majority of us start when we are very, very young. I mean, you know, there was never a time when I was not sitting with an aunt and uncle, a great aunt, great uncle, grandparents, you know, constantly hearing about their systems of knowledge in one way or another. And so I really appreciate, Ashley, how you bring that understanding that our children already have when they enter school, and you create a format for them to carry that through all parts of their education so they can really see it as an asset, not something that puts them behind the curve or, you know, delays their achievement in any way. Thank you. We'll go to Lynette real quick. Hi, Ashley, I did have a question about that occurred to me while you were speaking, and you talked about how the importance of gathering the, the elders together to grasp the knowledge while they're still here and preserve it. But have you ever considered bringing the young people together because the young people are losing this they don't visit and sit and listen to the aunts and uncles like Dr. Lowry just said we used to do all the time when we were younger. That's what we did on holidays and Sunday afternoons we visited and instead of turning on the television we listened to the stories that the elders were telling us and we learned a lot about our history that way. Have you ever considered bringing young people together with the elders to have the elders personally pass some of those stories and some of that history on. Yes ma'am. Thank you, Miss Lynette. I have. I actually have some great recordings of conversations between elders and young people that I hope to make available to the public soon. Through the brand new Ashley Minner collection at the University of Maryland Baltimore County which is publicly accessible and it's all the research that all of us have been doing it has my name on it but everybody can contribute and everybody has contributed. And I think those are some of the most important recordings we have. You know, a lot of them are from about 10 years ago and many of the elders who were in conversation have since passed on so how precious that we have those today. Thank you. Thank you for sharing. Okay, Dr. Cummings. You know, I think the thing that really struck me at the outset of Ashley's presentation was just her shout out to librarians and archivist for everything that they had done all the. I don't say all but a lot of the information Ashley I think you know that you have compiled and put together for this amazing project that you're working on. I was a part of that community for almost two decades, and it's so much of that history that she has been able to pull together that you know others have stored and made available and then Ashley going out and getting so much information just so valuable. Particularly for the for the community there for those young people that are there. The point she made about. About Indians who had moved from North Carolina to to Baltimore and really immersed themselves among the, the other cultures that were there. You know, it really creates the potential for you to lose a little bit of who you are and where you come from and and that's why I think this work that you're doing and folks that you've pulled from. That is so critical to just reminding reminding us that you know not just other people in Baltimore and folks from other cultures but reminding those those students that Miss Lynette was talking about of who you know who they are and where they're from just instilling a sense of pride or reinforcing that at least really struck me great job. Thank you so much Jodi you reminded me of something I wanted to say is that particular Baltimore is a weird place to be American Indian y'all. I mean it shouldn't be but it is we are unexpected here nobody expects to meet American Indian on the streets of Baltimore. So what you can do is librarians and archivists and folks working with the public is start expecting us because we're here. Like just be oh hi come on you know expect us see us because when people don't expect a population it's almost like they can't recognize the population when they show up, but we're here we're present. Thank you that's so important. I know that living and growing up in the city, which is my homelands but not being recognized here in Phoenix as much. I have a question for Dr sellers, starting out as a specialist in reading and a member of the reading nation waterfall. I am a less project. What are your thoughts around the projects initial research findings that Native American parents and caregivers recognize the importance of literacy for the future success of their children, but do not feel their tribal leadership are placing enough of a priority on this. That's a very good question. I can't speak for other tribes, but I can speak for the Lumbee tribe and my experience. I teach at the only the one and only historical American Indian College, the Lumbee have always been tied to education it's a cultural characteristic of our people. Our tribe does value education. We are a state recognized tribe that and unlike other tribes that have federal recognition in services and in funds. The majority of our funding for education, it actually comes from grants and if you know anything about grants, it's not always a steady way to support programs, especially for education. And for the funding that the Lumbee, you know recently and their endeavors have been able to secure it back in 2018 and the project is still growing strong. They secured the $3.6 million project is the project 3C connecting community college and career through stem. And if you know anything about the sort of climate of education. Unfortunately literacy is not really top on their, you know, tier of understanding that literacy learning is that important it's stem math and science or those buzzwords and there's always this push for career readiness. So usually those are the grants that are available. There's a project access and it's the same kind of grant as well that the tribe is a part of and that's 2.4 million dollars. But again, it's for getting them ready for college and career, but not really focusing on the literacy parts. So I think our involvement, thankfully with the reading nation grant, it actually helps us sort of push more on the literacy side. However, if we did have that federal funding that comes through recognition. Can you imagine having not only like resources like title one, but had that 10 times magnified coming from the tribal area to support our area. And right now I would say the only sort of programs that we have from the public schools through title one and title one really is a boon for our area. So, I may not have addressed your question but I tried to. So I can only speak for the one beat tribe, but you know, like I said education is important to us, but I could understand if you know some, if you, if they find out in the research that there's not a push and pull. Thank you for sharing I know stem has been the hot topic of education for a while now and I know that for us educators pushing literacy is also part of that stem. That's a great question actually to push off to delay next. As a teacher and recipient of the free libraries taught each bull award front standing achievement please share your thoughts around educational needs of Native American children, and why you decided to create a little free library up in Navajo. First of all it's a lofty question to answer about the educational needs of Native American children because every population is unique and distinct, depending on where they may be in terms of a land base, and also thinking about how we've been treated, you know, through historical context with relation to, you know, other sovereign indigenous indigenous people that the US government. So every, every community is different but I what I will say as a teacher librarian is that, you know, quality education, not just for Native American children teachers, and I talk about teachers who are often termed highly qualified, you know they've had the professional development, you know they've also had the coursework from the undergraduate level and perhaps beyond that, but it is always about highly qualified teachers in our classrooms, you know whether it's a pre K classroom to a 12th grade classroom to those working beyond those contexts you know at the undergraduate level. It's always about teachers and how well we support them and the work that they do. What I wanted to say, in addition to that is that, you know we want to support the craft that we are working in, and that means continual constant professional development at all levels for all teachers, and I'm not just talking about things that are mandated by the state or the federal government. But we should also recognize and value those certification programs that are community based that are placed based that are inherent and localized because of language and that are localized because of culture. So if it's a certification program within your own community value that we can't just say oh we want something from the state level or from a university. These things are inherent in our communities and we need to value and revalue and place higher value on all of that. With respect to the Little Free Libraries. I think one of the things that I recognized here at home in Seho so there's the word Mr. or Dr. Chow Seho so the network is an immersion school in the winter rock unified school district where I was previously employed. I'm now working at a local Christian private school, and the thing about that, what I was seeing is that we were reducing our staffing in terms of library professionals people who actually had certification to work in a K through 12 school library. We were replacing them and putting them in classrooms and of course now with a pandemic that pattern continues to happen in many schools across the nation, where our certified library staff are being removed from library venues, placed in classroom context which, you know, is reputable also. But a lot of the people in the libraries now are assistants, instructional assistants, paraprofessionals who may not have the vast amount of knowledge and skill set to have the highest priority in terms of quality programming for any of our students and that's always a problem and that's something that we need to address. And I saw that in my school district, you know where we were losing staff, and staff were being replaced. And also we talked about limitations in terms of the school day you know you're there from about eight to maybe 230 or three or four o'clock in some cases, and yet the venue is not open after school hours. So limitations are already preset there. And our public library is in one community, often access is denied because of limits of transportation. And or there isn't even like a mobile library library on wheels so I thought you know and this kind of goes back to what Dr Minner said earlier that you know it falls back into our hands that falls back into our laps as community members as citizens. We cannot just leave this as a responsibility to our school systems or other institutions. This is our own institution it's a community institution of learning. As Dr Sellers mentioned you know it is in our laps it is in our hands. If we want our kids to succeed we have to do the work and not just wait for someone else to do it. Every library that's where it began I just thought you know there's so much that the schools can do the public libraries can do, but there's something that we can do as community members. You know we have to take this upon ourselves we have to bear part of that burden and not wait for someone else to do that. I really appreciate the community aspect to that of involving the community and I know when you launched your libraries you had students involved in the community was their business partners. Like you had a bunch of partners that you were thinking outside the box of libraries and I think that's really what we need in our communities is to have a whole community involvement. So thank you for sharing. Dr Lowry. First congratulations on becoming the California family professor of American history at Emory. As a historian author and filmmaker what are your thoughts around some of the major priorities facing the Native American community today. Thank you for having me thank you, Miss Lynette for inviting me and for putting me on an almost all Lumby panel, and whether our Navajo brothers and sisters and folks from the Southwest it's, it's feels feels good to be on an all native panel talking about Native issues. I just, I have kind of a little bit of a drop in the bucket probably to offer related to your to your question Naomi. Research has involved Lumby history and Lumby culture, though by virtue of working in higher education you run into people, students and scholars from all all over. And I see repeatedly how our issues across tribal communities are shared. So many of the most pressing contemporary issues do revolve around education specifically visibility so actually I really appreciate your insight to be prepared for us when we walk into educational or library spaces. If we seem unexpected that's not because of us it's because of you, meaning, you know, the educational system is set up to make us invisible, because it's devalued our knowledge for so long. And, and, you know, much of the, much of the systems or the assumptions on which we build education as in terms of curriculum but also degree programs and then how educational policy is created and administered. These are systems that are that assume our invisibility. And so one of the very first things to do is to begin to to discard the assumptions that either native people have all died out or that we're extinct but the 21st century version of that is to say that we have been so profoundly victimized by our history that we are no longer able to cope with contemporary society, and that is simply not true. It's, and the, you know, one of the, the, so one of the assumptions to begin to I think read redo is or rebuild is the idea that we are products of deficit, which we as native people are not products of any kind of deficit thinking that ancestors assumed abundance and they created situations for us to thrive. Because they had to believe in, in a future, and they had to they were investing in their children, not because that was all that was left but because that that's all that we have you know that is in fact the most important resource that we have. So being able to think about native communities, or native people is coming from communities that yes have been damaged and victimized in certain profound ways, but that we have managed to not only survive but thrive I think that there's a kind of crucial distinction that needs to be made in educational settings of all types between native people as remnants of tribal communities that once were numerous or that once were powerful, and really thinking thinking about native people as among the most innovative adapters in our society that can provide direction and policy solutions for nearly any challenge that we are facing and I'd say actually I'm just qualifying it by saying nearly but actually every challenge that we face a native community somewhere in your region has dealt with it before. And so that's what continues to inspire me around studying history is not so much that we don't repeat the mistakes of our ancestors like we are just humans we are always going to repeat the mistakes of our ancestors. But what history teaches us is that it wasn't always like this my dog is back there. Anyway, I'm going to take him to the vet later this afternoon but but but we are, we're not only, you know, of course we're doomed to repeat our ancestors mistakes every every human being is fundamentally in that situation. What history teaches us is that it wasn't always like it is now. And if it wasn't always like it is now what do we take from how our communities have functioned in the past to shape our present and our future so I think what confronts native people today. In addition to many of the structural ways that US society is failing all of us. There are structural problems with visibility and representation that can only. It seems to me only be really rectified when we begin to take a different paradigm towards the solution. So rather than assume for example that there are not enough native people to be in a pipeline for your degree program or where are the native applicants who might be applying for the jobs that you're that you're now hiring for. You know, the, the idea that there's not enough of us is one step away from the idea that we are not enough, which is simply not accurate. And so that type of deficit thinking has got to change native people have to change that type of deficit thinking but non natives have to be true accomplices. In that work, the other part of my life that I would say if I if I could speak to myself 15 years ago and make something a larger priority in my own education. It would be to further my training as an artist. You know, and it would be to think about the toolkit that literacy as a as a toolkit not a goal. If there were, if I could become more artistically literate. I think I would be a more effective collaborator within my community but also with people who are who don't share my cultural background. And one of the things that I, I observe and, and thinking about partnerships with different kinds of tribal colleges or colleges situated within tribal communities like UNC Pembroke and elsewhere. Is is that the the public school emphasis on career readiness is in fact much more goal oriented than process oriented and I believe what I'm seeing among my native students but also my non native students, because the same kind of challenges are facing everyone in some is that there is an emphasis on what we learn rather than how we learn, and the multiplicity of ways to learn has been de emphasized in the quest to achieve certain metrics, you know, and everyone else on this call knows a lot more about that than I do so I can stop there but, you know, being able to become artistically literate or literate in a way that is is different than something that can be easily measured on a test is something that I wish I would have, you know, really begun investing in in my own education. And it's something that I see as students are getting ready for college. I want them to come into my classrooms as freshmen sophomores, you know, because I teach, I teach mostly underclassmen. I want them to come into my classroom being prepared, or ready to think experimentally and be be ready to think in a, in a way that design solutions not just offers correct answers to pre arranged questions. So as even in history, which you know we think of history as kind of the is as teaching a bunch of it is teaching a bunch of stories it's also an exercise and interpretation and creativity. So as even in the study of history you have to be ready to adapt and create new paradigms out of the varieties of evidence that are laid before you so I see I see the artists in our society doing that the most effectively the most with the fewest resources on time and under budget. Always. That's being an artist. So, if I could think with with other educators, especially other native educators. I would want to be asking what are we doing to educate our kids to be artists. Thank you. Really appreciate that. Working in a medical school and seeing that students just learn the answers and not about people or art or the environment is is really interesting and eye opening because I never saw this side of the world where it's just so one sided, it's not balanced at all. We see that in our healthcare systems and with COVID. And as our communities deal with these different challenges and issues created outside of our communities, we're really having to show them, you know, it takes a lot of, you know, involvement and creativity and art and medicine, like that is in the environment and not necessarily in your own head. I appreciate that. And this is a good question for Mr. Cummings. So what are your major takeaways from your work around American Indian law and natural resources in the environment at the US Department of Interior. Oh boy. So, you know, I really look at these issues, you know, through the lens of relationships between governments and, you know, in my career, you know, two decades of primarily, you know, serving tribal governments either directly as their legal counsel or through working for the United States and I guess, you know, what I think a lot about, you know, when I think about the approach of federal officials towards tribal nations, it really is about a respect for tribal sovereignty or respect for self determination and, you know, something that Melinda really resonated with me, just this concept of us being enough, you know, I think this, you know, when I work in the Obama administration and I think you'll hear this repeated with the current administration as well, you know, that that tribes do the best when, you know, we empower them to make the decisions to make their own decisions, right? You know, and so you think about the trust relationship between the federal government and tribal nations and respecting self determination when they're where there are resources that are made available to tribes to empower them, letting them take those resources and do with them what they think is best or, you know, tribal nations looking inward and saying, let's look at what we have and how, you know, how do we empower ourselves to take what we have and do what's best. And that's really, I think the key to success for tribal nations, tribal communities and, you know, initiatives, you know, like we're talking about here today. And I think, you know, that that's really what is the basis I think for successful tribal federal relations and I think what's been more impressed upon me, you know, having come to work for in house for a tribal nation I'm speaking to you from the lands of the Mashantucket Pequot people in southeast Connecticut, you know, where I live now, but you know, the relationships that we have with neighboring governments here, not only the state but also the local governments as well and it I mean, frankly, it's a struggle. Right. And it has been for a really long time, and it continues to be and, you know, nobody knows this community, the way the people in the community know itself and, you know, trying to, you know, prioritize needs to state legislatures and the governor of Connecticut or to the neighboring jurisdictions around us is always, you know, such a challenge so being able to look inward and draw on what we have to, you know, meet our needs as an initial matter and then educate as we're we're reaching out and advocating for ourselves is super critical. So that that's what really impresses upon me when you know when I think about the kinds of issues that we're we're talking about here today. Thank you. I think that really shows what the work is that needs to be done is these leaders understanding that there are community members that have live in their own community that are native that could be represented better within their governments and within their communities having leadership roles and having opportunities to, you know, have an influence and a say on what is needed. So our last question I just want to follow up with all of you is what does Native American Heritage Month mean to you and how can non Native Americans best celebrated and honor it. Duane can start. Sure, so one of the things that what it means to me is that it validates again, our presence, it validates who we are in historical ways but it also validates who we are right now and who we who we will continue to be as change happens in our lives. One of the things that we've done with the little free libraries for Native American Heritage Month is we've placed books by and or about Native Americans and our little free libraries. I'm really lucky that we have a page of a patron and a friend who donates money and behind the scenes, and she says you know what you have this budget. Go purchase what you need, and we'll get those items to you and then we distribute those in our little free library network of like five or six little libraries. And that's one way that we can help others, you know ourselves and others in our community to be vocal about, you know the different lessons that we are learning from our livelihoods, whether it's related to math or science or, you know, whatever it is, or just to have a simple conversation about language and a word, maybe a phrase, you know these are things that we can do again in house, you know, without having to wait for someone to do it without waiting for the funds to be, you know, given. It's something that we can do on our own, and that's one of the easiest, easiest ways that we're able to accomplish this. Thank you. I appreciate that. And I think that's so true of all of our libraries that we can just do that. That's our job to buy books and so let's buy books and support native authors and illustrators. Dr. Sellers that I will say as an educator, and one who prepares educators, I'm going to be a little bit more critical or talking about American history month. I'll always get from teachers. Oh, can you come speak. Can you know anybody, what kind of activities can we do. And it's sort of like it they want Pinterest stuff. They want cutesy things that has nothing to do with telling the real truth. And what disturbs me even more is because Oh, and can you tell us something about Thanksgiving. Oh my goodness. So I would say if we're looking at the bare minimum to kind of impact the educational system, I would say the American Indian Heritage Month is great. In that fact that at least sometime during you know the school year there is some focus, but the concern I have is just not enough. If we start here, we need to talk about, you know, by virtue of us being here. They need to be thankful they're on Indian land. If not for us, where would they be. And I always infuse through the courses that I teach to my teachers, and I tell them I said I don't care if you don't have any American Indian students in your class. I want to dispel any sort of myth stereotypes that you have, because I don't want you to go out perpetuate any micro aggressions on American Indian people because of what you've seen on TV, or because you're always basically recycling the same messages that they have been taught. And I always hear from my teachers, well, well, what if I what does it matter, make sure that you include the contributions of everyone because you want to make sure that we're still seeing we're still here. I said you are in the American Indian institution that only state supported institution for American Indians. I mean you need to leave this institution having that knowledge. So, I would say I always come from that state of I want to give them the best that they can because I don't want any of my students to leave going and perpetuating the same things that I was taught. I remember being a child in the school system, and nothing was ever addressed with American Indians until a Thanksgiving, and it was that blame little Indian headdress that we did to pretend that we were Indians, which is the sickest thing Indians were pretending to be Indians, and having a little headdresses. So, I definitely want to make sure that I stop that. Thank you. That's so important. That's what every educator needs to hear. That's what every librarian needs to hear. Yes, thank you. Dr. Lowry. Well, I would echo what everyone else has said. I think it, you know, I agree that it's an important opportunity but it's a shame that that it has to be there. I don't want to revisit all of the ways in which I think we've all been kind of. We're just, you know, we're in constant state of recovery, maybe from Native American Heritage Month sometimes because there is so much of a focus. The problem is really one in which we accept the fact that we are racialized beings. I mean, that everybody would get a day or a month or a period of the year. Like we, in our own communities, however small they might be, our individual schools, our families, you know, whether we are American Indians or not. Dog, whether we, you know, whether whatever small community we might be part of, I think we can begin to question. Just ask the question about why are we segmented into these categories, because American Indian nations are multitudes. I mean, we are everything and everybody at all times. And our nations are set up to function as diverse democracies often, or anyway, whichever form of consensus government that has worked for our communities over long, long periods of time. You might not call it democracy. You might call it something else, but we are set up to find unity out of diversity. That is how our nations function. The American nation has been, has plopped itself on top of all of that without anybody's consent to tell us that we are someone other than who we are. So getting back, so that's really, Kim, what you said about Indians dressing up as Indian for Thanksgiving. That's crazy. And that is the kind of symbol of the problem that I'm talking about, of a government coming in to tell you that you are not who you say you are. And I think American Indians, whether state recognized or federally recognized everywhere, are kind of dealing with some layer of that problem, especially when we are, when we occupy very small amounts of sort of political real estate in urban communities or in very large school systems that are dominated by non-natives. So my approach has been to encourage, especially my college students to just begin to ask the question in their own very, very small social circles. Why is it like this? And what do we have to do to remove the barriers around the silos essentially that have been placed around each of us as individuals? How do we make every day Native American Heritage Day or every month Native American Heritage Month? And doing so does not in any way disrupt the deep value we place on all the cultures and communities that we live alongside all of our neighbors. I think that there's a scarcity thinking which has dominated Indian policy, federal Indian policy for too, too long, that dictates that there's a pie and each of us has smaller and smaller pieces of the pie. And we do have to navigate that type of thinking, especially when we are finding allies, right, and to our work, we're finding allies and accomplices to our work. We have to navigate that kind of pieces of the pie thinking. But as we do that navigating work, we can also encourage people to dismantle this idea that there is one month for each of us. You know, I personally just think that's insane. But not only in the United States, but the type of governing systems that are currently at play here have a lot of us convinced that we just need to work and push harder, move more, and invest more in a very, very small amount of time. And in fact, that is that's not really the paradigm that's going to get us to the to the shared liberation that I think American Indian nations have exist to promote. Thank you. Yeah, I'm going to go off of that and just say that I think Native American Heritage Month should be about primary sources. And, you know, the documents that we find in the archives, the treaties, the maps, the land, you know, I think of all the geography that's documented in the interior. I only got to go to DC once when I work at NMAI as an intern and I was just blown away that all this information and documentation was there. I was seriously shocked and then I went to the interior library and was even more blown away by the information in the vaults of the interior building. All of that is education right there that is not being taught that it's not being shared. And that's exactly what our curriculums need is these primary sources that are in our archives and libraries that share the truth. They're not necessarily an easy truth to read or discover, but it's so important. If I could just echo that as a historian and also say Ashley, thank you for your establishing your collection at UMBC, because the more that there are those primary source materials in each of our local communities that people can almost immediately access and this is also a big plug for digitization work and things that I am LS is funding everywhere, you know, making that material more available means that we can actually harness it and begin to use it to turn it turn these paradigms around so any closing spots doctor coming. You know, I don't know how you add much to what the four of you have already said on this point. I guess I would would observe that I'm encouraged by just representation of native people that I continue to see increase, you know, in popular culture. I think it's slow and coming. But I think that, you know, it's, it's going to take more of that to get us away from, oh, it's November time to talk about Indians. But I mean that's, you just need more of that every day I look at stuff like you know not to bring it back to the federal government again but you know there are, I think, 52 political appointees in this administration who are native Right, that's, I mean that's huge if you if you and if you look at the Department of the Interior alone. It's not just, you know, Deb Holland who's the Secretary of Interior but you know interiors top lawyer, the person that's head of the Fish and Wildlife Service, you know so so many other government positions are headed by Indians. And at least within interior that you know that's that's a great step there's a lot more steps that have to be taken, but, but we're on the way. So I'm, I'll leave on that encouraging. Thank you. Dr. Chow this is completes our panel for this morning, and we do have a second panel coming up. Thank you. Please join me in thanking our distinguished panel for a wonderful conversation and again, all of this is recorded so we can be shared widely after this symposium. I would like to encourage our panelists to stay, if you can, because we would love to circle back to you at the end for any final thoughts, but yes thank you Naomi for also moderating that panel discussion. And actually, Naomi will be joining us now as a panelist for this next session, which really drills down to what can and should libraries be doing to better support the Native American community. One of the things that I discovered as the new director of the iSchool is how much reach we have nationally and globally through the nation's libraries. And so that's one of the reasons why all of you and your, your thoughts and reflections are so important to us. So the next panel is entitled best practices and library services for Native American communities. And we have three tribal librarians who are sitting on the panel. I want to introduce colleague Sheila virtue who is our student outreach specialist and also alumnus of the iSchool who also work closely with the circle learning project to introduce Valerie Kingsley. Thank you so much Dr. Chow. It's such a pleasure to be able to be here to introduce my friend Valerie Kingslin. Valerie Kingslin of little free library 501 C3 program manager is thrilled to inspire and promote access and literacy nationwide through the impact library program and to develop the native library initiative into a full and culturally responsive program. She works from home in Seward, the traditional region of the Chugach people of Alaska, which encompass the soup Piac and a luteak people. Valerie is I knew Piac tribally enrolled in the native village of you know, like, you know, luckily and uses pronounces pronouns she her. She worked for eight years paraprofessionally in an elementary school library before serving as director of the Seward Community Library and Museum for seven years. Valerie earned her master in library and information science degree from San Jose State University through the circle of learning scholarship program sponsored by the American Indian Library Association and the IMLS. She is an active member of the Alaska Library Association. Alaska native issues roundtable, the American Indian Library Association, and the Association of tribal archives libraries and museums. Valerie won the SJSU iSchool Ken Haycock award for exceptional promise in 2014 and currently serves as project co director for the bridging knowledge supporting indigenous scholars into the field of librarianship IMLS funded scholarship program, a partnership between ALA, the American, the Alaskan Library Network, the Alaska State Library and San Jose State University. So please join me in welcoming Valerie Kingsland. Wonderful Sheila. Welcome Valerie. So our next panelist is Lynette Dial, also Lumby so Lynette deserves a lot of credit for her tireless work behind the scenes to bring together this panel. Special shout out to the Lumby tribe for answering the call in coming to the table because we did invite a lot of different partners and friends in the, in the tribal community so thank you for all of you for for for coming forward. And who I consider a friend has worked as the youth librarian at Hope County Public Library for over 20 years is a and is the project manager for Reading Nation waterfall. And I'm delighted to say we'll be entering some way somehow the iSchools MLS program starting fall 2022. And the last thing I'll say is I'm proud to call her a friend because one of the things we are kindred spirits as far as not just talking about it but doing something about it. In the nets passion and tireless work on behalf of both children and the Lumby and the Native American communities is truly something that I've been extremely impressed by and touched by so please that Lynette has joined us as well as a member of the community and of course, Naomi, you know Naomi so she will be joining us as well so welcome to our panelists let me get to the questions here. So the first question is to Valerie in your work with the community, especially little free libraries how can the community and libraries best support the Native American communities. So first of all, I'm going to say thank you it's really an honor to be here. I'm especially thankful to my mother Carol my grandparents, James and Jenny sectoric starting from the native village of White Mountain. And it's really, it's, you know, because of them that that we're still here. So just appreciate to be able to honor them in that way to share this moment with you. And I want to clarify that I represent myself in my own lived experience. I can't speak for all Alaska native people which is extremely diverse there's over 22 distinctive languages. And just Alaska in itself is extremely diverse with a lot of other cultures represented. So that's, that's my comfort zone, as far as what I'm sharing. I've heard librarians say things like, well they don't come to the library, and I would say if you're not seeing groups of people in your space, whatever that space is your library, your museum, your archive, whatever that is. So I think it's important to ask why, and actually do want to share a resource and put it in the chat. These are the culturally responsive guidelines for Alaska public libraries that were developed with Lottie Patterson. She came to Alaska and worked with a committee of people and she's just amazing. We center around very concrete aspects of librarianship, the library environment, the services, the programs, the collections, you know, often that's like the first thing the programs and the collections are the first things that we think of, but also our staff, and I go back to that. It was developed in 2014. And I go back to this document pretty frequently because it kind of brings me back around and kind of recenters like what am I thinking about. And for me personally, it's being curious, being open. And I would encourage people who are interested in learning more about serving that their community members to do the homework to do their research on their community. For instance, in Alaska, Alaska native people represent 15% of our population, which is really extremely high. To know what that representation is in our community and to learn about these different cultures I think is really important. I mean, especially right now in the work that I'm doing to listen to really stop to set things aside and to really focus on people to focus on the relationship is a really important way to learn about what I need to know in order to provide better services to provide better programs, whatever that is. And to give it time, this work is ongoing. It's a long-term commitment. It's not something that you take, you know, even just half a year, a year to do it's something that you're constantly working on. And I find myself in in my library work that it's important to set my assumptions aside. It's normal to base what we do on on what we know. And as somebody who was raised in the middle class, you know, that's being mostly able having a living wage having a household income, food security, housing security, there's so many assumptions that we base what we do off of all these kinds of assumptions that other people have it's I don't know that it's intentional but it's just something that I think is very normal for us to do. And I find it comfortable to kind of take it out of that space, and to look at things maybe a little bit differently to think about what might be different other people's lived experiences might be, and to respect those difference. I think it's about trying to change others to fit this, you know, this box that whatever the programs are whatever the services are, but it's really about changing ourselves and it's about changing our work and what we do. So we can serve other people. And I'll give an example of that I was working as a low vision aid at the elementary school and I was going into a classroom to help my student. And there I was watching the teacher interact with another student who wasn't my student that he was an Alaska native boy, he was you big was new to the community, new to the school. And I would watch her ask my question and then like, quickly move on to the next person and so I told her, just privately that just give it a moment I said it's going to sound it's going to feel really uncomfortable like you're waiting forever. Just give him some time to respond, because we take longer to respond. And, and then I just left it at that and she stopped me the next day in the hallway she goes Oh my gosh it was so hard, but I did it. And you're right. He knew exactly he was able to answer the questions and I totally had no idea. And so sometimes it's learning about how people communicate with those needs are as well. I believe this is the work that all of us need to do the. It can be uncomfortable to look at ourselves in that way but I do think it's necessary. It's often left to the people who represent those of the libraries trying to reach which which can be hard on. I'm sure everybody on the panel can agree, you know, to be called upon to do that. And so I'm really grateful for all of the participants everybody who's here to listen to this and to take this home and to incorporate it, even if you take just a little bit of this, and you continue to work on it. That's so valuable. I really appreciate that. For me right now it's it is about the listening and the focusing on relationship because that's where you learn the most. And this is what I'm applying to my work to develop the culturally responsive program for the little free library nonprofit. You know, in order to have a goal to serve indigenous communities across the nation is that's huge. It's trying to apply these concepts to meet the needs of various indigenous communities that it's going to take time to figure that out and to really listen and it's really it's like stewards like doing. And so many of these other stewards that I'm meeting that I'm learning from and I'm figuring out how to do this, and I'm really appreciative of them to be able to do that. Thank you. Larry and yeah so many things that you said really resonate with with me and really the field, the point of listening, the point of not trying to push on to others what you feel is the right way to be a library and information science professional right and I think that that's fantastic and that really attracts very well with not only the leadership literature looking at the platinum rule, which is really again trying to get to know individuals as as individuals, unique individuals, and indefinitely, as far as far as community assessment and again serving the unique needs of the community members that actually use your library so thank you very much, Valley for for your thoughts and comments and to learn that. In many ways this question is redundant because I think Valerie answered. In many ways the question that I'm going to ask you but there does seem to be a disconnect so one of the privileges of being an evaluator and working on the on the reading nation project is working in the communities themselves. And I definitely hear from a number of tribal librarians a frustration themselves where it's not a lack of resources but rather a disconnect between what they're trying to offer. And the interest that the community has which oftentimes looks like not not a lot of people showing up for their program so. Lynette in your as a professional librarian. What are your thoughts in terms of what could should libraries do the best understand and serve their Native American community members. The first thing that I think is important to know is something that Valerie did touch on and actually a couple of the panelists as well. You must know that Native American community if you're going to serve it. You have to learn everything that you can about them. What's important to them. And once you're ready to approach them about service and I think it will have to be a personal approach. I think you have to pick the appropriate time and the appropriate voice to approach in that community that's very important because as many of the panelists have indicated there is a disconnect by virtue of the history of the Native American communities and the general public and the fact that public libraries have not necessarily seen Native American people as a community of patrons that they're serving. So and the Native American people they know that. So if if you're going to really serve them you have to find the voice that is there's always in one community one voice that is very respected. And if that voice makes a comment if you can convince that individual that you are there to serve them and you want to know what you need to do to serve them. And you build that relationship and you get that voice on your side. If you win that voice you will win the community. So that's the first thing that I think is important. I think that you have to as I had previously heard expect to step outside of the box to serve them. It's really important about making a connection. You have to communicate to them where they are. And that's not necessarily where you would do it for the general public. We do have access. We're not backward. We're just limited sometimes. But we do have access to technology. But again, you will have to go outside your comfort zone to communicate the programs and the services you have for them so that they get that information. Sometimes they're not going to get that information just because you can put it out in on a web page and Facebook and say we're having this doesn't mean that everybody there is going to get that information. So you have to go outside the box and you have to find out how you can reach them. And if you are sincere and you make it visible that you are there to serve and you want to know the needs and you're sincere about finding a way to meet the needs. I think it will be slow, but I think that you will get a response. And the second thing I think you need to do is put somebody in your library that looks like me behind your circulation desk. Because they will respond better to someone that looks like them. They just are going to trust that person more. And I will give an example. If you had a special needs child and you had cared for that child and knew the needs of that child. And you were working in the public say as a school teacher and you got a special needs child to work with. Then you would work harder with that child because you would personally understand the needs. And that is the way I feel about being providing library services to Native Americans. I had been a Native American child. I have felt what it's like to go need to do research on the term paper and not see anybody that looked like me in the whole facility. And I'm very grateful for the director of my library at this moment because I remember doing that when I was in my first year of college. And she was the lady that stepped from behind the counter and came and showed me how to do research. So if you really want to impact those lives, you will make a valid effort to get the people who look like them in there that speak their language and know them. And that person can lead and guide them over that chasm into pursuing either a career in library science or just their further education and finding an easier way to get there. Thank you, Lynette. And I first met Lynette when I was working with the Hope County Public Library on doing a community assessment. And Lynette really talked about building those relationships. In fact, I recorded our interview and I use that in my leadership class as really a role model for really good community assessment and understanding what your patrons need from you and then building those relationships. So thank you, Lynette, very, very much for that. I'm going to go off script just for a second and turn to Valerie and Sheila. Did you want to talk about the new grant program and recruitment of indigenous Native American librarians or give a plug out? Oh, I didn't realize I was going to the whole time. Sorry about that. Yeah, so the bridging knowledge. It's a three year grant project that that was awarded by I'm a last and we're partnering with San Jose State University, which is awesome in the American Indian Library Association and the Alaska State Library. So I'm a co-director. The other co-director is Julie Niederhauser of the Alaska State Library and the project manager is Cindy Hall, who is the past ALA president. So really, really thrilled to be a part of growing, I think, our indigenous librarianship. So this is specifically for 15 indigenous students. And I was going to share it a little bit later as well. But it's really focusing on bridging digital practices with traditional knowledge. So it's not just for like necessarily a digital asset management person that that's what they do. It's for anybody really. I don't know any librarians who don't work with digital materials anymore. But I'm really excited to be a part of this. So we're the application period has closed and the selection committee is doing their magic right now. And we'll be starting in January. She let it know if you have anything else that you want to add to it. She lives amazing. She was part of the circle of learning team. And I'm so thrilled to be working with her again. It's awesome. Nothing further to add except to say how we're so excited to welcome this new group of students in January 2022. And they're going to really benefit from all the mentoring that's going to be possible with the support of ALA so exciting. Thank you Sheila. Thank you Valerie. And I just wanted to reemphasize what Lynette had said, and really was echoed by the Chicago Public Library is the largest public library system in the country. It's critical that librarians look like the patrons they're trying to serve. And it's not to say it has to be unilateral but that there is a trust there and understanding a nuance. That's critical to bring that into your building and build those relationships. All right, the next question is to Naomi. First, congratulations on being the distinguished alumni winner for University of Washington high school. That's fantastic. Can you please discuss your work around the role of academic librarians in combating medical racism and then kind of extend that to all libraries in terms of combating racism towards Native Americans. Thanks for the question. I think this is a really big role for librarians and academic libraries but also in public libraries of combating racism. We all know that it is a racism is alive and well in our communities and in our libraries I know that growing up in an urban environment. Lots of people of color face racism on a daily basis even just trying to go to the grocery store or even your kids at school we just talked about curriculum and schools and education and so there's lots of instances where people in our families face racism. And nobody really pays attention to it. There's a lot of it actually embedded into the medical system with the way that you know treatment and care is given and who gets priority for what resources. I really became aware of this last year from some medical students at the University of Washington actually that wrote a paper about how much racism is embedded in medicine. And so the more I started to read and find out how these systems work, I realized that there's more we can do as librarians to share this information with faculty with deans with directors the CEOs of health care systems with our tribal governments. This information about how things work and who's getting care and who's getting you know a liver transplant or a kidney transplant really impact people's lives and people of colors lives who are disproportionately affected by systematic racism institutional racism. And so I think that this is embedded in our culture and we have to change that because we have access to these resources and information. It's our responsibility to make that visible and to make that part of what everybody learns and knows as part of education curriculum as part of, you know, training and careers and understanding, you know, of how deeply, you know the American Association said that racism is a public health crisis. Just like gun violence and so we know that it affects our health outcomes, people that have been displaced that have had, you know, poor outcomes gentrification, everything that's plugging our society's homelessness. So I think that there's a lot of opportunities to, to, to grow and learn and I think libraries can play a role in that because libraries have provided opportunities for people and making people aware of stories and history and information and so I think that's a much larger role. Maybe, maybe I'll do some research and find out which librarians actually did do some of this work in the past, some of my historians today have inspired me to go look. I know having peer reviewed a paper by a colleague for the Journal of Medical Librarianship that you know historically black native native indigenous Latino Hispanic people, Asian people were excluded from medicine, they weren't even included into the schools they weren't even allowed to study. And we know that history and we see it's documented we can read about these people that founded these medical schools are founded these higher institutions of higher education, how universities took land from native people. And that is all out there. That has come to light and all of our primary documents and sources and it's our responsibility to make sure that that information is shared and distributed and told to everyone. Because that is our history. And I studied German some of you may have noticed I studied German as my undergraduate degree just because I went to Germany as an exchange student in high school. And that one year in high school I realized that Germans learn so much more about America. And to their history than we ever do. And the history of the Holocaust is taught. And here in America, it's not taught about our history of Native Americans, our history of stolen land, our history of displacement, relocation, everything that's in our history is not taught. And it's there though it's it's available for everyone to see and see the documents you know that are in the archives that are in your repository or your library. And so I really hope that this will inspire librarians and future librarians and library students to really pay attention to what's happening around us and in your community and advocate for these stories to be told and documented. I know with a lot of the social justice and protests that have been happening across the country. We know that black men are killed by police and indigenous men are killed by police. But those stories are not told, and those stories should be told. And I think we play a large role in making sure the media tells accurate and important stories. I think missing missing and murdered indigenous women is one story that we can tell that we can you know share with the world and we can find people that are missing and have gone missing from their families. There's a big role. I just think about like the post office in my reservation because the post office has all the signs on it and all the information and that's like their library is the post office because it has everybody has to go pick up their and it has all the all the information of what's happening and I don't think that my generation really recognizes that the elders and just word of mouth and the spread of communication can happen and misinformation is happening because there's so many trusted places and trusted sources and I think libraries can play a role of being those trusted sources of saying you know here is why this is the science is the information that is out there and really breaking it down for people to different a little young son and explain to him why he wants to get a shot and why it's important. I think kids can learn so easily when they have the right information and they want to be healthy and they want to protect their neighbors and so this is why we're wearing our I think that's the type of things that libraries can be doing that type of information sharing and advocacy and from from young to old I think thinking about intergenerational families and how we approach librarianship I think it's it's been lost a little bit to technology, and it needs to come back to relationships and families and that's all I have to say. I think I've listened to you forever. A couple of things to emphasize and when we said I think one, if libraries don't offer the scientific true version of things where else is the community going to get them. So I think that we don't want to turn this into a criticism of the K through 12 educational system. But the bottom line is libraries have a significant societal community role to bring the truth to the surface, right. The other is that when you when we think about systemic racism, we want to emphasize the fact that ultimately you do not we do not want to operate on false information. Right. And so, again, when we talk about systemic racism, we're talking about assumptions and ways of approaching individuals and entire cultures that are simply wrong. And so that is why systemic racism is so important to address because we none of us want to operate on in for misinformed invalid information so certainly librarians we have a role to play to put a to. I call it a counter narrative it's almost a counter narrative to the heaps of stereotypes that we are inundated with in movies and in media so so great. I appreciate that in the army. So this is a general question to the entire panel. Because again, when we think about the librarians here in attendance now and those that are going to be watching the recording. What can they do. So when we think about short term long term practices activities what can libraries do Lynette how do they move beyond the caricatures and stereotypes that we're we're used to to to embracing that this is kind of open to anyone on the panel both panels. What do you think what do you suggest libraries librarians do what can they do. Well, I did want to mention as other folks have pointed out the pandemic has really affected, you know, our ability to serve as we have served in the past. And we have to be original and our thinking we have unfortunately we're doing a lot of programming that is virtual and where I see the value in reaching everyone that cannot get to the library due to the pandemic. I, I feel a disconnect because I am very very used to serving children and other individuals in the library. On a personal basis, I feel that's my strength. But one of the things that I did mean to mention, and the previous comment was that outreach, I think, is going to be something that we have gotten away from it due to technology. But I think it is something that maybe we need to try to find a way to go back to, because a lot of children that I have reached over the years in specific communities Native American, let me just say, I'm a member of the underserved community. I've ever reached and got them into the library. I did it through outreach initially out into the community. And I did want to point out that some of the things that work best for us in our library, when we are reaching families and reaching children. A lot of them, the underserved Native American communities, African American communities. We've offered services that sometimes these families couldn't afford, like tutoring, and sometimes just reading programs, like with the reading dogs. And we actually got a big community group of community people that would come in from Thursday through Saturday afternoon with their children and allow their children to just sit and read with the dogs. And sometimes you can get into that when you hear a little problem with their reading and help them. So a lot of these Native American communities and families, they do have access to internet, but it's not going to be on the same level that, and technology, it's not going to be on the same level that most middle American families have that access. And where you can reach them through these services, that's great, but where you can't, you're going to have to go out and find them. You can offer them a way for their children to get some tutoring in the library that doesn't cost anything, you know, but that would dramatically help them. I think you just have to find the need and make the need. Sometimes it's not going to be so easy to put it out online and say, hey, here it is, utilize it. They don't have access to that. Always. They do have access to a lot, but they don't always have access to that. So it sounds ambiguous, I know, but it's a trial and error process many times. So you just have to try some whatever works wherever you see the need. It may be a very unusual thing you have to do to meet that need. Just like I am so impressed with Naomi and all that she is able to bring to the surface. I had no idea the medical information that was available. I'm very impressed with that. And there are many elements within the Native American community where they just basically need good information. Just like you said, who's going to bring it to them if it's not a source that is going to be tried true and dependable like the public library. Thank you Lynette. What I would say is that people really need to listen and this kind of goes back to relationships. If you're in a good relationship, you're going to be a good listener. You're going to be an active listener. And as far as the relationships that we have with all of our patrons, all our clientele, whether they're very young or the elderly or anyone in between. We really need to take the time and be active in having those rich conversations. Talk to our patrons, talk to our clientele, ask them and ask them and ask them again. What is it you're looking for? What is it you think you need? Not just you, but what about our neighbors? What about other community members, people who are soft spoken and will not say anything at all? What do you think they need? How can we help them? And when we can answer those questions and these questions are constantly ongoing, those of us in library services, we know that collecting data and data collection is crucial to who we are if we're going to continue to exist. We always want to know what's pushing our services and asking those questions, having those conversations with our clientele and being an active listener and trying to be as responsive as we can is why we're here. And we know that the needs are great, whether they're related to something in healthcare or education. Those two things are always at the very top of our buckets, but there are so many things under the surface that we need to pull and pull and try to grab and help ourselves gravitate toward those things. And then we pull others along with us. So it's always asking, and again, it's that relationship. How do we find out what our users need? Well, we have to have those conversations and we have to build those relationships, even with those who normally would not say anything. Wonderful Duane. Great, great points. Kim, did you? Yes, I wanted to say something real quick. I'm thankful for what Lynette shared and Naomi shared. Whenever you think about libraries and the relationships that individuals have, it comes to what was, what is their first experience? What is that, what was that environment like for them? There's a time in my life I can't even remember whenever I wasn't reading. My reading has always been important. The Hote County Library where Lynette is a librarian, that was my library. My parents would take me there and I'd have the best experiences. I remember going there, the librarians would read to us and it was a positive environment. We were invited, we were welcome, and I always had that. You've got to think from a perspective, if you have individuals who've never been respected, never been invited or valued, why would they be comfortable going into that space if they don't feel that way? So, if you can go be present in communities, go to events, go to activities, be visible, be involved where people can say, oh, they actually care about us in our community. Huh. And they're having, they have programs that are actually relevant to us. I might go there because sometimes people will not go unless they feel, okay, am I valued, am I seen, am I welcomed? You've got to work from that space of would I want to go to my library if I was from that frame of reference that this individual has? Would I feel welcomed going into the library as it is now? And to me, that's, I mean, come from that space of, you know, representing what you would want others to do to you. I mean, that's a great space to think about. You know, when they go into your library, do they see a reflection of themselves? Do they see a reflection of their community? I remember whenever I was a teacher in the public school setting, our librarian, she was so unwelcoming to the kids. She did not want them there. She had want her books touched. And it was, it was pristine and everything was organized. But later on, I would say a couple years later, we had another library and she wanted the kids to come. And she never complained about the shelves. She's like, that's what books are there for. I want them to read. And she would read to the kids. She wanted them to stay around. The kids loved going there. But it's a matter of being welcomed and wanted. Great. Thank you, Kim. And I did want to clarify that the contemporary leadership theory or principle was looking at the platinum rule. So the golden rule plus one. So the golden rule is treat others as you want to be treated in our pluralistic society. We are moving to the platinum rule, which is that, guess what, treating someone else like you want to be treated may actually be the exact wrong thing to do. And so the platinum rule is treat others as they want to be treated. And it goes back to what Dwayne said, and all of you said, which is to get to know the community to understand what they want, not what I want for them. Right. And that's a, that's a huge difference. Right. So, Linda, did you have a comment? Okay, yes, Naomi, go ahead. I think one thing that I wish I saw more in public libraries and even academic libraries was more representation of native art, native culture, native language. The first time I actually went to interview at an academic library in Denver, it was a private college, but I walked in the library and I saw pictures of native people on the wall. And I looked at them for like five minutes I was like who are these people, they were people from Denver in the community and a student did a project and her art her art was a photography and it was called real life Indian. And for me that made me seem like this library would value me, but listen to me. They represent the community and there was a lot of work still to be done but just little steps in making people feel seen and visible goes a long way. I think that that's something that every library can do there's so much native art and culture in your home communities and in urban communities and across the nation. I think I see a lot of this in Alaska that I really love is all of the art and all of the beautiful culture that is shared and it's shared so freely with just everyone like see Alaska heritage has done this amazing job of just sharing the Alaska culture beyond Alaska and in Arizona I never knew much about Alaska but just reading some of their books that they published and reading about their culture and their different tribal nations like and then Molly of the valley came along it was just amazing to see how you could learn so quickly about other native cultures just through books and television and having accurate representations out there in your communities and I think that's exactly what librarians can do is find those accurate and real native voices in your community and amplify them and boost them and partner with native nonprofit organizations are so many in every urban area that I've ever been to. I always ask where's the Indian Center where's the you know, IHS or whatever and there has to be something that I can relate to, even in a big city. And so I think that's what I wish libraries would actually help people connect to to see oh native people are still here, the neighborhoods that that Ashley was talking about that the neighborhoods that are historic neighborhoods in your city and town like put those on display. There are so many cultural significant places here in the valley where I live. I've never really seen them talked about in my public library or I mean you have to go to a museum to see that but I wish that they would do more. These these county and library systems that have a lot of money and people to really boost native people native organizations. There are researchers that the native people at the universities that they could ask to come and talk and, you know, do educational programming and things like that but nobody really asks or extends that invitation and so that that would be something just the recognition and not in November but like we're here in March and April and May in July. And so I think that's really what I would encourage public libraries academic libraries. Just to see more artwork more native language and culture in your library. Well thank you know me so we are at the end of our time, please join me in thanking all of our panelists all of our speakers for their time their wisdom, their passion, their service for all of us really. I wanted to say that our proceedings will be transcribed. This will be posted on the YouTube channel, and we will be giving a summary version YouTube video of this as well so and then stay tuned for our next heritage month which will be Black History Month, where I've invited my good friend and colleague, Wanda Brown, former LA president to to be our keynote speaker for that event and then final thoughts. Hopefully, really, many of the ideas brought up here align quite well with the Hispanic Heritage Month symposium, and I'll draw on two points one that the statistics cannot define your services if they're not being used and serving the community that you're trying to serve in other words from a case study, a Denver public library. The question is not, why should we serve a community that's not using our library, or rather why are we not offering the services that would generate usage from the community that you're trying to serve as equity diversity inclusion. There's nothing easy about it. And you have to really dig in deep and work extra hard to build those relationships. And so and then the last thing would be the importance of equity diversity inclusion. And remember, across the board discrimination being treated poorly because of the color of your skin, or your last name or your background is not only rude and disrespectful but also is harmful especially for young kids and children. So there is an imperative there where, again, as a nation we must work together to do better to prevent those situations from happening. So, so with that being said, again, a great pleasure and privilege to host this symposium from San Jose State University's high school and there'll be much more to come. So that being said, thank you again for your time and have a great day.