Native American Heritage Month: Databases and Collections

This collection consists of photographs, manuscripts, correspondence, genealogies, audio-visual files, maps, and other artifacts collected by members of the Northwestern Band of the Shoshone and the Northwestern Band of the Shoshone Nation Tribal Library. A large collection of albums contains photographs of Washakie residents and their relatives. Artifacts span the years 1860 to the present day, representing over 150 years of Shoshone history.

This collection contains transcribed interviews of Northwestern Shoshone tribe members conducted between 2001 and 2007 and deposited in the Northwestern Band of the Shoshone Nation Tribal Library.

In 1948 Bushnell Hospital in Brigham City, Utah was transformed into what would become the Intermountain Indian School, or, the "world's largest boarding school." The school opened its doors in January 1950 to five hundred Navajo students. Today there is widespread interest in the school from former students, historians of educational practices, and those studying Native American assimilation policies. This collection provides access to a wide assortment of rare sources such as student publications, classroom material, publicity photos, and congressional correspondence.

The Willie Ottogary Collection includes copies of newspaper articles from the The Journal (1909-1929), Box Elder Journal (1925), and the Oneida County Enterprise (1924). These articles are letters written by Willie Ottogary to the various newspapers describing the events and well-being of the Shoshone people in Washakie. Also included in this collection are some copies of later correspondence (1929-1959) dealing with efforts to establish a reservation for the Shoshone in Idaho.

Native Knowledge 360° (NK360°) provides educators and students with new perspectives on Native American history and cultures. Most Americans have only been exposed to part of the story, as told from a single perspective through the lenses of popular media and textbooks. NK360° provides educational materials, virtual student programs, and teacher training that incorporate Native narratives, more comprehensive histories, and accurate information to enlighten and inform teaching and learning about Native America. NK360° challenges common assumptions about Native peoples and offers a view that includes not only the past but also the vibrancy of Native peoples and cultures today.