Tribal Treaties Database continues to expand & improve

November 14, 2023

Interagency partnership with Oklahoma State University provides valuable Indigenous resource

The Oklahoma State University Library has partnered with the United States Department of Agriculture, the Department of the Interior and the Department of Defense to build the "Tribal Treaties Database." This free public resource is available at treaties.okstate.edu.

“This digital collection has been of great interest to citizens of Native American sovereign nations, researchers, journalists, attorneys, legislators, teachers and the public,” Dean of OSU Libraries Sheila Johnson said.

In 2021, the USDA and DOI approached the OSU Library to expand and enhance the library’s existing collection “Indian Affairs: Laws and Treaties,” a digitization of the landmark work of Charles Kappler. As the project progressed, the DoD joined in funding later phases.

“The OSU Library is honored to have been one of the first organizations to digitize and to make freely available the ‘Indian Affairs: Laws and Treaties,’” Johnson said. “We appreciate our partners’ interest in working with our library to expand and make this content even more accessible.”

The OSU Library provided personnel, expertise and equipment. The team at the OSU Library developed a web portal for the project, contracted the creation of an enhanced index so users could better navigate the content, and have worked with a team of experts, which included tribal members, to improve discoverability of the work based on feedback from stakeholders.

The first phase of the project focused on creating a database of more than 300 U.S. government treaties with Native Americans from 1778-1883. The treaties were indexed and can be browsed by tribe, treaty or location. In subsequent phases, the OSU Library improved behind-the-scenes data management, expanded and improved the index, identified and began processing additional treaties, and met with partners to encourage feedback.

Each phase was funded at $50,000 each. The project recently entered its fourth phase with plans in place for at least three more stages. Future work is planned to continue adding treaties to the database, improve the user experience, and conduct listening sessions in conjunction with federal partners and Tribal Nations to verify research, understand needs, and identify future directions.

For more information about digital resources at the OSU Library, contact Digital Resources and Discovery Services at 405-744-9161 or email at lib-dls@okstate.edu. 

RELEASE CONTACT:  Bonnie Cain-Wood, APR | OSU Library | 405-744-7331 | lib-pub@okstate.edu

About Oklahoma State University
Oklahoma State University is a premier land-grant university that prepares students for success. Through teaching, research and Extension, OSU engages communities and empowers servant-leaders to meet society’s most pressing challenges. OSU is the largest university system in Oklahoma and has more than 34,000 students across its five-campus system and more than 25,000 on its combined Stillwater and Tulsa campuses, with students from all 50 states and more than 125 nations. Established in 1890, OSU has graduated more than 280,000 students to serve the state of Oklahoma, the nation and the world.

URL: https://library.okstate.edu/news/latest-news/tribal-treaties-database-continues-to-expand-and-improve

Last Updated: 14 November 2023