This illustrated presentation will describe the origins and development of the Mukurtu platform, an open source platform built with Indigenous communities to manage and share digital cultural heritage, with a focus on the Niimíipuu (Nez Perce) Tribe’s presentation of the Spalding-Allen Collection. 

In 1847, missionary Henry Spalding shipped two barrels of “Indian curiosities”—exquisite Nez Perce shirts, dresses, baskets, horse regalia, and more—to an Ohio friend, Dudley Allen. Given just six months in 1993 by the Ohio Historical Society to purchase the collection, the Nez Perce Tribe launched a brilliant grassroots campaign and raised $608,100 to reclaim their exploited cultural heritage. 

Trevor James Bond, co-director of the Center for Digital Scholarship and Curation, and associate dean for Digital Initiatives and Special Collections at the Washington State University Libraries, will describe the process of adding the Spalding-Allen Collection to the Plateau Peoples' Web Portal, including the creation of community records and the sharing of research materials.

Anu Vedantham, assistant university librarian for research services at Princeton University Library, joins as respondent, and Keely Smith, PhD student in Princeton's department of history, joins as moderator.