Access Policies for Native American Archival Materials in the National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution

Abstract

This case study contributes to the history of collections access protocols by examining one repository’s policies and practices over a fifty-year period— those of the National Anthropological Archives at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History. It describes a series of archival programs and projects that occurred before, during, and after the development of the Protocols for Native American Archival Materials in order to view changes in the archives’ access policies within a broader cultural and institutional milieu, presenting a more complex narrative than previously available. The case study assesses the influence of the Protocols as well as some challenges to the adoption of several recommendations. Finally, we make several proposals for archival repositories with comparable collections and constituencies.