Browsed by
Tag: Native American Heritage Month

Washington State Library honors Native American Heritage Month

Washington State Library honors Native American Heritage Month

Earlier this fall, a team of WSL staff members worked together to create a few displays in the library to honor Native American Heritage Month.  As a state and a federal depository, the Library houses many documents of historical value and significance, such as tribal treaties and maps. Highlights from our Pacific Northwest collection include poetry, fiction and nonfiction by Indigenous authors as well as books on Native art traditions and artists. Many of Washington’s Indigenous communities also publish their…

Read More Read More

Native American Bounty

Native American Bounty

Not long ago when I visited Judith Moses, the tribal librarian for the Colville Confederated tribes, she shared with me, a great way that she had come up with to promote foods which were the staples of the tribes before the white man arrived.  Judith produces a calendar which contains pictures of the food and recipes as to how to prepare them. This calendar wasn’t cheap to produce so Judith reached out to the WSU extension service.  They were happy to partner…

Read More Read More

Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce

Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce

Chief Joseph Washington State Library continues to celebrate Native American Heritage month by focusing on the history of Chief Joseph and the Nez Perce. The Nimi’ipuu (meaning “The Real People”) founded their villages in a 17 million acre swath of land that extended from the Bitteroot to the Blue mountains, especially along the banks of the Clearwater, Salmon, and Snake River drainages.  Their language is a part of the Sahaptian sub division of the Penutian linguistic family found  in the…

Read More Read More

Library jewel #3: Collection of Native American papers & photos

Library jewel #3: Collection of Native American papers & photos

(Photo courtesy of Washington State Library) With November being Native American Heritage Month, the third and final “candidate” for our most recent “Library jewels” series is fittingly about a State Library collection related to Washington’s Native American history. This amazing collection of papers and photos is from Alanson Wesley Smith.  The collection, which began in 1876, covers 1853 to 1935. It includes Bureau of Indian Affairs correspondence and records, mostly correspondence between Smith and the Indian agents at Neah Bay…

Read More Read More