Tribes expand library services

IMLS Awards More Than $2 Million to Native American Tribes For Enhancements to Library Services"These grantees have been chosen for their commitment to offer the very best to their communities through expanded services, partnerships with local organizations, and increased access to important cultural knowledge," said IMLS Acting Director Marsha L. Semmel.

This year, grantees will tackle a wide range of projects, including:

The Cherokee Nation (OK) will establish the Virtual Library of Cherokee Knowledge, which is designed to provide Cherokee citizens and the general public access to a comprehensive digital repository of authentic Cherokee knowledge related to the Nations history, language, traditions, culture, and leaders.

The Jemez Pueblo Community Library (NM) is undertaking a project focusing on the preservation of the Towa language and Jemez Pueblo culture, traditions, and knowledge. The new "Towa Cultural Resource Center" in the library will serve as a central place to collect, house, and make resources available to tribal members.Comment:  A posting like this shows how far the stereotypes are from the reality. In SCALPED stereotype land, reservations are cesspools of crime, gangs, violence, drugs, poverty, filth, decay, and despair. The "savages" either never had culture or abandoned it for easy living on booze, welfare checks, and casino money.

In reality, they're undertaking tens of thousands of cultural and educational projects like the ones above. They're doing whatever they can to preserve their traditions--often with the help of gaming funds. The problems still exist, but so do solutions such as these.

But the mainstream media never shows Indians using computers, visiting libraries, or reading books. Heck, it doesn't show them at all except for historical dramas and murder mysteries on remote reservations. If you asked most people about Indians and computers, they'd say something ignorant like, "I thought John Wayne killed them all."

For more on the subject, see Creating a Native Facebook and Amazon Indian Students on the Net.