Cataloging Indigenous-related Pamphlets at the Chicago History Museum

These miscellaneous pamphlets are broad in scope and content. The items date from the 1820s through the 1990s on a range of topics, including tribal relationships with the US government, American Indian Days encampments, and Cahokia Mounds preservation efforts. 

Their formats include pamphlets, correspondence, essays, annual reports, maps, periodicals, brochures, and more. Almost all the items were created by non-Indigenous authors, except for materials published by the American Indian Center of Chicago.

One of the most crucial parts of critical cataloging work is to become informed by engaging with representatives of affected communities, listening carefully, and implementing their recommendations. Before reaching out to Indigenous community members, CHM staff researched the histories of Indigenous peoples in the United States. The aim was to better understand the ways communities continue to be impacted by systemic racism, the harmful narratives used to describe Indigenous peoples, and the results we see in our museum practices.

The pamphlet collection consists primarily of publications used in scholarly research. Therefore, we asked members of Indigenous academic communities for their input. Because the pamphlets contain information about the Great Plains and Eastern Woodlands peoples, we searched for scholars with midwestern Indigenous backgrounds who could help us better understand the histories of the region.

Several of the pamphlets reference American Indian Days, an event hosted each September in a Cook County forest preserve from 1920 until 1923. These gatherings centered on encampments of Indigenous peoples, intended for viewing by mainly white audiences. 

White organizers set the program and agendas for the Days, thus controlling the narratives about Indigenous peoples. The authors of the American Indian Day pamphlets used “exposition,” “display,” and “encampment” to describe these gatherings.

We asked an Indigenous subject matter expert about the appropriateness of the language historically used to describe the Days. Encampment, display, exhibit–these terms describe the gatherings for what they were, then and now. This language was kept because it  adequately reflects the intent of American Indian Days in Cook County.    

Ultimately, we described the article in the summary as “the American Indian Day exposition held in a Palatine, Illinois, forest preserve in September 1923. Indigenous representatives exhibited their culture for largely non-Indigenous audiences numbering in  the thousands. The encampment was organized by the Indian Fellowship League, the Forest Preserve of Cook County, and the Chicago Historical Society.”

While many of the pamphlets refer to Indigenous peoples by tribe or the overly broad “Indians,” some feature mentions of and/or photographs of individuals. For example, Walter Battice (Sac and Fox) appears in more than one item. Battice was  vice president of the Indian Fellowship League. He helped organize the American Indian Day gatherings that were held in Palatine, Illinois, in the early 1920s. Battice’s name does not appear in the Library of Congress Name Authority File.

There is scant information about him in CHM’s archival holdings or online. The caption here includes phonetic English translations of Indigenous names from oral traditions. We asked a subject matter expert to recommend how to accurately record Battice’s names in a catalog description and were advised to record all three: the “Christian” name (Walter Battice), the phonetic spelling (Pa-me-wau-sa-skuk), and the English translation (Sheet Lightning). The subject matter expert also emphasized consistent spelling across records to  ensure discoverability through keyword searches.

Through the addition of contextual information, catalogers can offer a disclaimer to alert users of sensitive or problematic content. In this photograph, Milford G. Chandler, a white man, is dressed in regalia. Regalia reflects Native culture and is not meant to be appropriated by non-Native peoples.

For this example, the catalog record’s summary note reads “Walter Battice (Sac and Fox), vice president of the Indian Fellowship League, appears in this image posed with Milford G. Chandler, president of the Indian Fellowship League and a white man. Both people are dressed in regalia.”

Several pamphlets reference mounds. Earth mounds in North America are the remaining traces of precontact cultures. The peoples who created them are listed as “Mound builders” in the LCSH. 

This heading could be deemed problematic due to its association with the “mound builders myth,” a false narrative popular in the 19th century. The myth credited the mounds to a fictional race of beings driven out by Native Americans. It served to justify white settler colonialism and was employed in the systematic erasure of Indigenous peoples.

Because of this association, we removed this heading and chose narrower terms like the LCSH “Mississippian culture,” referring to the Indigenous peoples who lived in the area. We recognize the limitations of this heading because it may imply a singular culture. Our search for a more appropriate LCSH continues.

For an alternative to the LCSH “Mound builders,” we looked for other relevant headings such as “Effigy mounds,” “Mounds,” and “Earthworks (Archaeology).” However, we needed more clarification than the scope notes offered to apply the terms properly.  We sought the advice of a subject matter expert who explained the difference among terms and confirmed that they are not interchangeable.

For the article “Mound Builders Works, Near Newark, Ohio,” we applied the LCSHs “Earthworks (Archaeology)—Ohio,” “Hopewell architecture—Ohio,” and “Hopewell culture—Ohio” because they more accurately describe the structures and the peoples who built them.

To reflect names and spellings preferred by Indigenous peoples, librarians at CHM devised local headings that highlight tribal endonyms to use in place of authorized LCSHs. These local headings are based on information sourced from official tribal nation  websites, documents and language dictionaries by Indigenous authors, and work done by other GLAM (galleries, libraries, archives, and museums) organizations. 

For example, when cataloging “The Delaware Indians in Ohio,” the local heading “Lenape (Delaware)” was applied instead of the LCSH “Delaware Indians.” The list of local headings is a living document, neither exhaustive nor definitive, and it will be updated as language changes