Cultural Heritage Preservation Institute
May 6-8 and June 21-23, 1999
Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians,
Bay Mills Indian Community, and
The School of Information, University of Michigan
|
|
Cultural Heritage Preservation InstituteMay 6-8 and June 21-23, 1999 Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians, |
 |
Final Report on the 1999 Cultural Heritage Preservation Institute
Professor Maurita P. Holland
Kari R. Smith
August 2, 1999
University of Michigan
The second Cultural Heritage Preservation Institute, a culture and technology summer institute for Native American
middle and high school students, community leaders and teachers, was held in Michigan during May and June 1999
. The May 7-8 session, held in Ann Arbor, focused on digital technologies and the Internet; the June 21-24 session,
held in the eastern Upper Peninsula, featured Native American culture, history and geography.
During the first session, there were twenty-two participants from the Bay Mills Indian Community and four communities
of the Sault Ste. Marie tribe of Chippewa Indians; they were joined by two participants in last year's Navajo Nation
Institute. The May workshop was held in the University of Michigan School of Information computer lab; it focused
on accessing the Internet and World Wide Web and using digital technologies to create and edit digital images and
web pages. Twenty-one people attended the second workshop held in Michigan's eastern Upper Peninsula; it featured
culturally and historically important geographic locations and their significance to the Chippewa people. The culmination
of the workshops was the production of a very rich website about the eastern Upper Peninsula's culture, history
and geography.
The Cultural Heritage Preservation Institute grew out of a conversation among Prof. Maurita Holland, graduate student
Kari Smith and a middle school teacher from the Navajo Nation in late December 1997 . Prof. Holland and Intern
Kari Smith developed a plan for the Cultural Heritage Preservation Institute and articulated three goals:
The School of Information acted as institute organizer, technology trainer and facilitator. Using the Kellogg supported
workshop class framework , SI students created technology instructional materials, led discussions about how the
projects could fit into classroom teaching, and worked one-on-one with the participants in the creation of the
projects. The challenges for the School of Information included:
Unlike last year's participants, who lived on the vast Navajo Reservation, many of this year's participants do not live on reservation land at all. They came from the Bay Mills Indian Community at Bay Mills, Michigan and from the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians in Sault Ste. Marie, Kinross, St. Ignace, Manistique, and Escanaba, Michigan. Overall, we worked with thirty-one people from these communities and two participants who were also at last year's institute from the Navajo Nation. Twenty-four people (nine adults and fifteen youth) attended the workshop in Ann Arbor and another eight people (two adults and six youth) were trained by the circuit rider in their communities. Of these thirty-three people, twenty-two (eight adults and fourteen youth) attended the June 21-23, 1999 session.
The Cultural Heritage Preservation Institute is directed by School of Information Professor Maurita P. Holland and managed by alumna Kari R. Smith. In addition to Holland and Smith, four School of Information graduate students were involved with creating training materials and instructing and supporting the institute participants. During the June session, several additional people provided valuable cultural knowledge and insight; they include those mentioned in the program description, Bucko Teeple, Robert Van Alstine, Bud Biron, and Tom Peters as well as Bill McDermott from Manistique. Working together, the Institute instructors and tribal leaders provided a multi-faceted and rich educational experience for the participants.
During the May workshop, the participants received instruction on accessing pages on the World Wide Web and
using basic and advanced searching techniques for searching the Web. They also learned to use the Kodak DC240 digital
cameras provided as part of the institute and to edit digital images. After learning how create web pages, each
participant demonstrated mastery by authoring a personal interest page.
The participants used the six weeks between institute sessions to practice their skills and to gather local cultural
content for the 1999 CHPI culture website. During this time, a SI graduate student intern worked with two communities
that had not attended the first workshop, giving them the training that had been conducted in Ann Arbor. This enabled
them to participate in the June culture and technology session.
Everyone was excited to become reacquainted in June. Students, cultural leaders and teachers stayed at the Sault
Tribe's Cultural Camp facility on Sugar Island. Built recently, the two-story camp sits on 40 acres of land. The
log building has a full kitchen, two upstairs bunk-style dorm facilities for men and women, and large meeting room.
There is also a nature trail around the camp that identifies local plants with signs written in English and Anishanabe.
The first two days were filled with trips to important cultural sites such as near Bay Mills, Tahquamenon Falls,
Sugar Island and Duck Island. Bucko Teeple, Bay Mills historian, lead a tour to a Lake Superior site where people
lived almost three thousand years ago. Robert Van Alstine, adjunct professor of history at Lake Superior State
University and Bay Mills Community College, described the several hundred-year history of the Anishinaabe people
on Sugar Island. The director of the Sugar Island Cultural Camp, Bud Biron, led a tour of Duck Island and explained
the sugarbush and the sweatlodge. Tom Peters and Josh Homminga, CHPI participants and members of a local Drum,
sang and taught a simple round dance.
The final day of the institute was reserved for creating the Upper Peninsula of Michigan: Geography, History &
Culture website. Participants began the site by drawing the layout of individual web pages as well as the links
of the mini-sites. They decided which images they wanted to include in the pages, and they wrote the text. Only
then were they ready to work in the computer lab to assemble the parts into web pages.
By mid afternoon the participants had created a rich, thirty-six-page website. They integrated images they had
taken with their digital camera or found on the web with information they had brought with them or learned during
the previous two days. The institute culminated with a public presentation of each person's work.
In addition to dividing the Institute into two sessions five weeks apart, we added the component of a circuit
rider to this year's CHPI. School of Information graduate student Matthew Martin joined the project with special
skills in computer technology and a lot of enthusiasm. After the first session in May, Martin visited each community
to learn about their computing environments and hardware and software configurations. He also held training sessions
on site for two communities, Escanaba and Manistique, that were unable to make it to Ann Arbor in May. He was also
able to give refreshers sessions to the other communities as well as learn more about their local programs and
suggest ways they could use their information technology.
Before the second session Holland, Smith and Martin met with the cultural leaders in the Upper Peninsula and organized
a robust culture program for June. During this meeting they also learned what ideas the local communities and the
cultural leaders had for developing a website based on geography describing the culture and history of the communities.
There are several measures of the Institute's success. The well-developed website created during the workshops
is one. Another is the effort by the community leaders to arrange future projects; each made a plan for developing
the local geography of their community. The participants also enjoyed meeting the Adson's from the Navajo Nation
and learning about their experiences at last year's Institute. The Adson's described their on-going projects, developing
a school computer club and documenting the history of Tuba City.
Participants evaluated both workshops. Twenty-four participants (nine adults and fifteen youth) evaluated the May
workshop about information technology, the World Wide Web, digital cameras and image editing, and creating web
pages. On a five-point scale , the evaluations showed that the instruction and direction from the School of Information
instructors was 4.8 for searching the Internet. Creating and editing webpages was scored at 4.8 also. The participants
felt that the instruction about the digital cameras rated 4.6, as did instruction in editing digital pictures.
Evaluating their level of confidence to teach other skills , they ranked searching the Internet highest at 4.7.
Their confidence with using the digital camera rated 4.4, creating and editing webpages at 4.2 and editing digital
images at 4.1. Presumably because many of the participants this year were already familiar with information technologies
and the Internet, their level of learning was rated lower than the 1998 CHPI participants. Learning to search the
Internet was rated at 4, creating and editing webpages 4.6, using digital cameras 4.5 and editing digital pictures
4.4. Overall satisfaction of the May workshop sessions was given an average of 4.6 while the over satisfaction
with the quality of the instruction was rated at 4.5.
The participants were also asked what they would say to a colleague about the quality and relevance of the institute.
Twenty-two attendees evaluated the June 21-23, 1999 session. Rather than a Likert ranking, this evaluation featured
open-ended questions. The questions and a summary of the responses follow.
Something I found interesting that I learned about my tribal culture this week: The teachings of Bud Biron, most especially the sugarbush (3) and the sweat lodge (6), captured the attendees' attention. Two people commented on the several thousand-year history of Native Americans and two on their interest in burial sites. Two also commented on the degree to which native land and culture is being 'invaded' by others. Gathering sweet grass was an activity of interest noted by one. Site visits noted of special interest were Duck Island, Half-a-Day Bay, Sugar Island, and Bay Mills.
I'd still like to learn about: Learning more about their culture was expressed in a number of ways: language (3), history, southern clans, burial sites, medicinal use of plants, craft, syrup making, and family history. One person wanted to know more about "cultural things in my area" and another about "my culture and how it affects me". Two participants thought about technology, wanting to learn more about web pages and about Internet layouts.
The Sugar Island Culture Camp is: The uniform response about the Sugar Island Culture Camp was "wonderful" and "fun". Two commented on the very peaceful, comfortable and relaxing environment. Three also noted that it was a great place for learning about culture and was full of opportunities for building relationships. Probably this satisfied student best sums up the Sugar Island Culture Camp: "really neat because you get away from noisy stuff and have fun."
Back home when we continue developing our website, I'd like to work on: There was a lot of enthusiasm for continuing work on the website. Some considered honing their technical skills and learning about centering images, wrap around text, and creating links. Others thought of enhancements such as getting more graphics and gathering new ideas and creating more pages. Several cited interests in collecting history from their own area and one wants to interpret "what my culture means to me".
I (or other people) would probably look at the Website we've been developing for the various UP regions if: The attendees thought that others would be attracted to the website if they were looking for materials about the UP and Native American culture. One noted that people would look at it if they wanted to find family and friends' pictures and histories because "there's something about seeing someone you know!"
Overall, what I liked best this was: The CHPI workshop and Culture Camp scored high with everyone. Making new friends was often mentioned along with learning about culture, taking tours, working with the computers and digital cameras, and having good food. One person captured our goal well with this I-liked-best comment: "The building of relationships which stretch across the Eastern UP. This dimension adds to the specialness of the Website!" Finally, we're grateful to the person who said that best was: "The opportunity to learn and work with such a quality group of students and excellent staff from U of M."
The School of Information graduate students also evaluated their overall experience. Their comments included a
number of positive suggestions for improvement and a good deal of enthusiasm for the experience.
The work began in May continues in many forms. The webpages will be housed
on the School of Information webserver to serve as a record of the Institute.
However, we will also be copying the webpages to servers of the two tribes so
that they will have local control over their updates, changes and additions.
During July and August, the participants from Sault Ste. Marie, St. Ignace and
Kinross had planned activities for continued work on their community's webpages.
Martin is continuing his work as circuit rider by giving technical assistance
with the website and by making an inventory of equipment and determining software
needs of each community. Once the software gifts are received from Microsoft,
Martin will visit the communities to assist with the installation process. The
next phase of technical support will be during the coming nine months. Based
on our experiences it is critical to maintain the relationships built during
the Institute, encourage project continuation, trouble-shoot equipment and further
develop the website at their locations. As we have learned, it is not enough
to just give software and hardware to communities; it is necessary to also provide
installation and training support.
There are several directions our work can go from here. Each participating community
will be developing their webpages at their own pace and based upon their own
requirements. We see the potential to do more, both within the state of Michigan
and nationally. A gathering of this summer's participants in the Winter would
be a good way of measuring success and allowing them to learn from each other
and further grow their programs. Organizing an alternative Spring Break for
School of Information graduate students based on our successful NAES
(http://www.si.umich.edu/PEP/NAES/)experience last year . This could take the
form of additional technology workshops and advanced topics in website design
culminating in the production of more culturally based webpages.
Taking a much broader view, we can envision holding a national conference to
discuss cultural heritage preservation using information technology at the School
of Information. This conference could be multi-cultural and draw people from
diverse communities with the same goal of cultural preservation. The expertise
of the faculty and staff at the School of Information would provide a rich basis
for discussions and learning opportunities.
During the time we spent with the cultural and community leaders we learned some very important information.
First was that the leaders are very concerned with the disconnect between the elders and the youth in the tribes.
They see the CHPI as a method through which to stimulate and encourage interactions and sharing among them. Second
is that they want to have reasons to bring together communities across tribal and community boundaries. Again,
the CHPI and the extension projects provide a mechanism for having cross-community and cross-tribal events and
workshops.
The second Institute has helped us to further develop our model for future extensions and collaborations. This
model is based on partnerships with the institutions of higher education, museums and cultural institutions, and
K-12 teachers and schools. There is enormous benefit to each of these organizations to work together. For the tribal
college it becomes a recruitment device, promoting the technology program and strengthening the teacher education
program. The cultural institutions benefit from an extended audience that learns of its collections, and through
information technology, benefits by extending its walls to the Web. K-12 teachers and students work together to
shape new curriculum and a deeper understanding of their heritage while giving voice to their culture via the Web.
The School of Information provides a rich experience in training its students and attracts the enrollment of Native
American students while carrying out research and building sustainable information technology programs.
Overall, the Institute: empowers organizations and individuals; stimulates another venue for cultural heritage
sharing and preservation; provides a bed for distance independent learning; and strengthens and promotes best practices
of information technology use.
| Back to Top | Michigan CHPI 1999 |