Mapping Land History: Collaborating with the Oglala Lakota Nation on Land Research
Mentor 1
Sharity Bassett
Start Date
28-4-2023 12:00 AM
Description
To learn about relationships that the Oglala Lakota Nation has to their lands and how those lands have changed over time, we traveled to the Pine Ridge Reservation to engage directly with the community. During our trip, we presented samples from a 1936 book of plat maps and intersecting historical documents to tribal leadership where we learned that the maps are imperative to tribal community members understanding changes to their land base. We were given encouragement to continue with the project and a strategy for sharing information at a public tribal council meeting. By intersecting historical documents found in the National Archives and county offices of records and deeds, we deepened our understanding of a 1936 collection of plat maps of Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. We collected deeds from the county office housing Oglala county land records and tract maps from the NARA rolls, housed in the SD State Archives. Dr. Bassett presented our early findings from data collection to a public tribal council meeting, where a resolution was universally passed that the tribe will hire a researcher who will be trained in archival work. The overall goal of this research project is to create a website and database, so that the Oglala Lakota Nation in Pine Ridge can have better access to critical documents about their lands. As two Indigenous students (Ojibwe, Guatemalan) we learned methods that we will take to our communities. By engaging with the community, we are also able to see Indigenous feminist theories in practice. Returning information about land ownership is an incredible opportunity to learn minority-based advocacy skills. This project blends fieldwork, archival research, engagement with theoretical lenses grounded in Indigenous methodology, and undergraduate experiential learning.
Mapping Land History: Collaborating with the Oglala Lakota Nation on Land Research
To learn about relationships that the Oglala Lakota Nation has to their lands and how those lands have changed over time, we traveled to the Pine Ridge Reservation to engage directly with the community. During our trip, we presented samples from a 1936 book of plat maps and intersecting historical documents to tribal leadership where we learned that the maps are imperative to tribal community members understanding changes to their land base. We were given encouragement to continue with the project and a strategy for sharing information at a public tribal council meeting. By intersecting historical documents found in the National Archives and county offices of records and deeds, we deepened our understanding of a 1936 collection of plat maps of Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. We collected deeds from the county office housing Oglala county land records and tract maps from the NARA rolls, housed in the SD State Archives. Dr. Bassett presented our early findings from data collection to a public tribal council meeting, where a resolution was universally passed that the tribe will hire a researcher who will be trained in archival work. The overall goal of this research project is to create a website and database, so that the Oglala Lakota Nation in Pine Ridge can have better access to critical documents about their lands. As two Indigenous students (Ojibwe, Guatemalan) we learned methods that we will take to our communities. By engaging with the community, we are also able to see Indigenous feminist theories in practice. Returning information about land ownership is an incredible opportunity to learn minority-based advocacy skills. This project blends fieldwork, archival research, engagement with theoretical lenses grounded in Indigenous methodology, and undergraduate experiential learning.
