Honor Indigenous Peoples’ Day by Exploring Indigeneity in DH

As many places in the United States observe Indigenous Peoples’ Day this week, we are taking this week’s issue of the CDH newsletter to highlight Indigenous work and activism in and about Digital Humanities. Below, find readings, projects, activists, and additional resources that critique the relationship between Digital Humanities and Indigeneity, projects that celebrate Indigenous cultures past and present, and resources for scholars interested in learning more about Indigenous DH. This is by no means an exhaustive list, and if you know of other people or projects, please share them with @PrincetonDH, where we’ll help amplify them.

Books, Articles, and More

• Special “Decolonizing the Map” issue of Cartographica: The International Journal for Geographic Information and Geovisualization, edited by Reuben Rose-Redwood, Natchee Blu Barnd, Annita Hetoevėhotohke’e Lucchesi, Sharon Dias, and Wil Patrick (Fall 2020)
• Network Sovereignty: Building the Internet Across Indian Country, Marisa Elena Duarte (2017)
• Indigenous Statistics: A Quantitative Research Methodology, Maggie Walter and Chris Andersen (2013)
• A Digital Bundle: Protecting and Promoting Indigenous Knowledge Online, Jennifer Wemigwans (2018)
• Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants, Robin Wall Kimmerer (updated edition, 2020)
• Lo—TEK: Design by Radical Indigenism, Julia Watson (2020)
• “ Difficult Heritage and the Complexities of Indigenous Data,” Jennifer Guiliano and Carolyn Heitman (2019)
• “ Decolonizing the Digital: How to Bring Indigeneity to Online Spaces,” Lauren Tuiskula (2017)
• Dr. Zoe Todd, associate professor of sociology at Carleton University, has made parts of her fall course, “INDG 2015: Indigenous Ecological Ways of Knowing,” available to the public. Find the materials, including slides and reading assignments, on the public class site .

Digital Humanities Projects

• Plateau Peoples’ Web Portal, “a collaboratively curated and reciprocally managed archive of Plateau cultural materials”
• Native Land Digital, a map overlaid with Indigenous territories, languages, and treaties, along with resources including a teachers’ guide
• Recoding Relations, a brief podcast series on Indigenous new media and the politics and potentials of the Digital Humanities. Read more about the creation of the project, too .
• just fem things, a podcast by Lindsay Nixon for the Indigenous Digital Humanities Lab at the Centre for Digital Humanities, Ryerson University, asks “what makes a thing feminist, and the methodology and methods of knowing that thing Indigenous? What does it mean to love things, to be kin to things, to make kin through things?”
• @IndigiTikTok, a TikTok account led by Indigenous content creators (and supported by the Centre for Digital Humanities at Ryerson University) that launched this week
• Mukurtu CMS, an Indigenous publishing and archiving tool “aiming to empower communities to manage, share, and exchange their digital heritage in culturally relevant and ethically-minded ways”
• Mapping Indigenous LA, story maps that uncover layers of Indigenous community and history in Los Angeles
• Traditional Knowledge (TK) Licenses, inspired by Creative Commons, TK licenses are envisioned as “a new and complementary set of licenses that addressed the diversity of Indigenous needs in relation to intellectual property”
• Guide to Indigenous DC, a mobile app and walking tour

Indigenous Data and DH Activists to Follow

• Kim TallBear, @KimTallBear
• Lindsay Nixon, @notvanishing
• Indigenous Digital Humanities (Ryerson University), @IDH_RUCDH
• Charlie Amáyá Scott, @GrandmaSaidNo
• Sandy Littletree, @slittletree
• Collaboratory for Indigenous Data Governance, @IndigiDataLab
• Neha Gupta, @archaeomap
• Stephanie Russo Carroll, @scbegonias

Other Resources

• United States Indigenous Data Sovereignty Network, which works to “ensure that data for and about Indigenous nations and peoples in the US...are utilized to advance Indigenous aspirations for collective and individual wellbeing”
• Critical Race and Digital Studies Syllabus, edited and compiled by Lori Kido Lopez and Jackie Land
• Indigenous Technologies series at the Berkeley Center for New Media. Upcoming talks: “ World Re-Building: Aboriginal Territories in Cyberspace and the Initiative for Indigenous Futures,” “ Indigenous Cyber-relationality: Discerning the Limits and Potential for Connective Action,” and “ Indigenous Games ”
• Early Native American Digital Collections, a review essay with links
• A Tribe Called Geek, “an award-winning media platform for Indigenous Geek Culture and Stem”
• Nahuatlahtolli: A Beginner to Advanced Level Nahuatl Online Course, a project from the Teresa Lozano Long Institute of Latin American Studies and the Center for Open Educational Resources and Language Learning at the University of Texas, Austin

Carousel Image: A screenshot from the home page of the Plateau Peoples' Web Portal .