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The Marquette University Libraries’ Department of Special Collections and University Archives recently completed two major online projects. One improves access for a large Native collection documenting historic Catholic relationships with Native Americans, many of which were established by recent European immigrants, whereas the other features K-12 social studies curricula about Native Americans.
Descriptive inventories for the Bureau of Catholic Indian Missions (BCIM) records have been mounted on the Marquette University Libraries’ Web site. The records, dating from 1839, document Catholic relationships with Native Americans, including missions many of which were established by recent European immigrants. The collection contains over 501 cubic feet of documents, 25,000 photographic prints, and 419 reels of microfilm on topics including human rights advocacy, cultural change, community welfare, and mission and school finances for African Americans as well as Native Americans. Over 22,000 correspondents are found in the collection, including Native Americans, high-ranking church and government leaders, and missionaries and their supporters, from Europe, the Caribbean, and Canada as well as the United States. Some materials are written in French and German. Marquette received the BCIM Collection in 1977 in large part because of the advocacy of Rev. Francis Paul Prucha, S.J., Emeritus Professor of History, who used the records in the Bureau’s Washington, D.C. headquarters while conducting research for his 1979 book, The Churches and the Indian Schools, 1888-1912.
Also, classroom-tested K-12 social studies curricula developed as part of the department’s 2000 NEH-funded summer institute, "America’s First Nations", are now available. The 12 lesson plans were begun during the institute and tested last year in the participants’ home classrooms. The curricula are written for a range of classes from early elementary through high school and a strong focus on history, but also include language arts, music, and art. Archivist Mark Thiel co-directed the $143,000 NEH project.
According to department head Matt Blessing, the new online inventories are "a gold mine" to researchers for borrowing materials via interlibrary loan and planning on-site visits. The BCIM project is part of the department’s on-going effort to put all of its collection inventories online. Descriptive narratives to augment the inventories will follow later.
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