Tribal Outreach and Collaboration
Building reciprocal relationships with Native communities is a cornerstone of the McNickle Center’s work.
Children running at Santa Ana Pueblo, BIA Relocation Records, Box 1 Folder 10, Newberry Library. This photo is one of the high-resolution images provided at the request of the Pueblo of Santa Ana, one of the tribal nations who partnered with the library as part of the Mellon-funded planning grant.
Community-Led Improvements to Stewardship and Access
Open to Collaborate
The Newberry Library is committed to the development of new modes of collaboration, engagement, and partnership with Indigenous Peoples for the care and stewardship of past and future heritage collections.
Opportunities for Collaboration
In 2026, the Newberry Library received a grant from the Mellon Foundation to fund community-led research, digitization, and training—ensuring that tribal nations have greater access to and control over the presentation of historical materials that contain their histories and knowledge. Through this work, we seek to transform the traditional archival relationship, in which Native nations must navigate institutional systems alone and have little to no power over how their histories are represented. In contrast, we aim to provide tools, resources, and infrastructure allowing for self-determined use of collections and enacting a transformative stewardship model in which Native nations determine who can access culturally sensitive knowledge.
This initiative builds on a previous Mellon-funded planning grant (2020-2023) and larger ongoing institutional initiatives to further align the library with the Protocols for Native American Archival Materials.
We are tremendously grateful to our past and present partners, including numerous tribal nations, Indigenous communities, and Native researchers, who have and continue to shape this important work.
Below, learn more about the different ways the Newberry can collaborate with your tribal nation.
The Newberry looks forward to collaborating with tribal nations on the digitization of library materials. More information on this is forthcoming.
Currently, the Newberry is completing the large-scale digitization of our Ayer North and Middle America Linguistics Collection (2,349 print and manuscript items in more than 300 Indigenous languages, 1500-1962), which has already been identified as a priority by existing community partners. Learn more about this effort here.
The Newberry is committed to working with tribal nations on the identification and stewardship of culturally sensitive materials in our collection.
We are proud to partner with Local Contexts on this effort. Through the Local Contexts Hub, tribal nations and Indigenous communities can apply Traditional Knowledge (TK) labels to Newberry materials. These labels identify and clarify community-specific rules and responsibilities regarding the items’ access and future use.
The Newberry can provide honoraria to Tribal Historic Preservation Officers (THPOs) and/or tribally authorized representatives for their time spent reviewing Newberry materials for cultural sensitivity.
Newberry staff are actively surveying our collection for potentially culturally sensitive materials and are reaching out to tribal nations to whom the materials can be attributed. However, we also welcome inquiries from tribal representatives and researchers who come across potentially culturally sensitive materials in our collection. If you come across a Newberry collection item you believe is culturally sensitive or in need of review, please contact us.
To learn more about this identification process, please visit our Access to Culturally Sensitive Indigenous Materials policy.
With support from the Mellon Foundation, the Newberry is excited to embark on in-depth projects with tribal nations. These projects will support tribally-led archival projects focused on community-identified priorities.
These projects, developed through collaborative listening sessions and site visits, may include the expansion of tribal archives through historical reclamation projects, the creation of digital repositories, language and cultural revitalization programs, or internships for tribal youth, depending on community priorities and in alignment with materials held in the Newberry’s collections.
In 2026, we are excited to continue partnerships with two of our longstanding partners, the Pueblo of Santa Ana and the Forest County Potawatomi Community. We will add updates to our Projects page as these collaborations develop.
If your tribal nation is interested in embarking on an in-depth project with the Newberry and our collection in the future, please contact us. We are prioritizing in-depth project inquiries from tribal nations with whom we have existing relationships, as well as nations who call the Chicagoland area home.
Beginning in spring 2027, the Newberry will offer an annual Historical Research Training geared towards tribal employees, including (but not limited to) archivists, librarians, Tribal Historic Preservation Officers, cultural specialists, and museum staff. The training will focus on how to navigate settler archives and interpret archival documents in ways that support the research priorities of your nation.
The training will complement the Indigenous Archival Training (IAT) program offered by the Society of American Archivists and the Institute of American Indian Arts.
More information about the inaugural Historical Research Training will be posted here in spring 2026.
The McNickle Center welcomes tribal delegations and representatives to visit the Newberry Library. With support from the Mellon Foundation, the Newberry can offset the travel and lodging costs of these visits. Whether for a collection presentation, meetings with Newberry staff, or other research purposes, we are eager to connect with your tribal nation in person. McNickle staff are also happy to travel to your community to meet with representatives and community members to share more about our collection and collaboration opportunities.
To schedule a visit, please contact us.
In summer 2026, the Newberry will open applications for short-term fellowships geared towards enrolled Native community members and tribal cultural workers, including knowledge keepers, artists, and others who are interested in doing research within the Newberry’s collection. Applicants do not need an advanced degree to qualify for these fellowships, and the fellowship duration can range from two weeks to two months depending on the number of representatives.
More information about the inaugural fellowship will be posted here in spring 2026.
To learn more about other fellowships offered by the Newberry Library, please visit our Fellowships page.
Have a Question?
Get in Touch
The McNickle Center staff are Madison Bastress, Director; Haku Blaisdell, Associate Director for Outreach and Strategy; and Sarah Jiménez, Program Assistant.