Libraries are at the heart of research at OU, a university founded and operating on Apache, Comanche, Kiowa and Osage land.
Yet, past and present information about Native American communities continues to fall under Western subject headings and categorization methods, which often misrepresent and undermine Native cultures and histories.
Maeci Crotts, president and clan mother of Gamma Delta Pi, OU's first and only Native American sorority, said racism toward Native Americans exists in many ways at OU, including it's mascots, the Sooner Schooner tradition and the systems used to organize Indigenous information in the libraries and databases.
Boomer, Sooner and the Sooner Schooner are reminiscent of the 1889 Oklahoma Land Run, a movement that significantly contributed to the destruction of Indigenous cultures.
OU Libraries, and most other academic libraries in the U.S., primarily use the Library of Congress subject headings online and congressional classifications for organizing materials on the physical shelves, Bailey Hoffner, metadata & collections management archivist for OU Libraries, wrote in an email to OU Daily.
These systems are the standards in the field, so any decision made by an individual library to stray from these standards can disrupt collaboration processes with other libraries, Hoffner said. Descriptive terms used for resources in the databases are also maintained and updated by outside vendors, meaning OU Libraries often don't have control over the terms that are used.
Occasionally, however, an individual library is able to incite change in the Library of Congress systems. Last year, an OU task force successfully petitioned the Library of Congress to change the subject heading of “Tulsa Race Riot” to “Tulsa Race Massacre.”
"We were successful in doing that work,'' said Todd Fuller, curator of western history collections. “We're trying to build off that success and get into a number of other either historical events or just historical labeling that needs to be shifted."
While the Library of Congress systems are meant to be accurate and objective, many of the headings and categorization methods — particularly relating to race and gender — are "outdated and biased," according to the MacPháidín Library at Stonehill College.
Under these systems, Native Americans are currently classified as "American Indians" or "Indians of North America," which places Native Americans under an inaccurate and culturally insensitive label, according to the Macpháidín Library.
"The term 'Indian' is completely false," Crotts said. "It is because these early colonial exploit explorers were searching for a faster route to India, and they thought that's what they found. They were wrong in calling us Indian, because they weren't in India. … The basis of the names themselves are what colonize us."
Crotts said it is important that Indigenous information is accurately labeled with "Native American" or specific tribe names, as those are the terms many Native Americans choose to identify with.
"It kind of takes back our identity because yeah, we are Native American, but we're also our tribe first," Crotts said.
Lexie McIntosh, president of the American Indian Student Association, said Native American people are actively rejecting the name "Indian." McIntosh said members of the American Indian Student Association are pushing to change its name to better represent Indigenous people, and she believes OU Libraries and research facilities need to do the same.
Placing Native communities under umbrella terms, like Native American, also fails to celebrate and distinguish between different tribes, which each have their own unique cultures and traditions, Fuller said.
In Oklahoma, there are 39 tribal nations, many of which are present on OU's campus. As of fall 2022, 3.7 percent of the student body is Native American and Alaska Native.
He said it is important that institutions distinguish between different cultures and that there should be more education at OU about the various tribes in Oklahoma.
Fuller said another issue with libraries' categorization systems is that Native American information often gets placed in the history section, which makes Native American cultures seem archaic, rather than contemporary. This, Fuller said, is an "act of colonization" in itself.
"Finding any sort of information on Native Americans and going to the history section automatically puts your mind in a sense of: 'This is past. The issues they're facing, the issues that they have faced, it's not a thing anymore, because they're not here,'" McIntosh said. "We are still here."
Classification numbers in the Library of Congress are based on the letters and numbers on the spine of a book, and they determine where each book is placed on the shelf in relation to other books and topics, Hoffner wrote.
"It’s obviously a problem that many of the materials related to Indigenous topics land in the (history section), but the scale of the issue is so large that it will require ... massive, collaborative, and deeply thoughtful work across the profession and/or imaginative, community-informed local solutions (to change it)," Hoffner wrote.
Placing Indigenous information in the history section promotes the stereotype that Native people no longer exist, Crotts said. Both Crotts and McIntosh said they have had interactions with people who said they didn't know Native Americans are real or that they still existed.
"Native people are very present in the modern world," Crotts said. “We aren't just some artifact that you look at in a box at the Smithsonian."
Not only is Indigenous information placed in the past, but much of the history presented is inaccurate or one-sided, McIntosh said.
In accounts of history, the colonization and conquering narratives are predominately shown, Fuller said. He said people need other perspectives.
At OU's Western History Collection, Fuller said they are working on including Native voices by building a collection of works by Native American authors. They now have six Native authors who have donated their papers to the collection, including LeAnne Howe, Adrian C. Louis, Lance Henson, Sly Alley, Devon Mihesuah and Carter Revard.
Fuller said these authors give the collection a good foundation to build upon. He said his goal is to have 30-50 authors by the time he retires.
Historical works in the Library of Congress system are also typically labeled according to the Western colonial view of events, Hoffner wrote. Because of this, several moments in history are inaccurately represented, such as the Sand Creek Massacre.
"The 'authorized' term for the Sand Creek Massacre in the Library of Congress Subject Headings was 'Sand Creek, Battle of, 1864,'" Hoffner wrote. So, when users searched for materials related to the massacre, they either couldn't find it or were met with a “white-centered and false” narrative of the event.
"Creating Indigenous subject headings from an Indigenous-informed perspective is absolutely necessary when working within the confines of a controlled vocabulary which preferences and gives ‘authority’ to white perspectives and ways of knowing," Hoffner wrote.
Crotts said she and some of her friends have also found it difficult to find specific Indigenous information in OU's online database, as they have to be very particular with their vernacular. Rather than searching "Indigenous" or a specific tribe name, Crotts said users often have to search "American Indian" and use specific keywords to find the information they need.
"It's a little harder, and there's no kind of tag system in the advanced search that makes it simple for people who, like me, use words like Indigenous or Indigeneity, or like other words that would fall within those that (would bring up) a decolonized work," Crotts said.
Hoffner said she and her colleagues at OU Libraries regularly discuss solutions to this issue. Through a College of the Muskogee Nation workshop on creating correct subject headings for Indigenous topics, Hoffner said they have worked on creating subject headings for tribal entities that are not yet listed in the Library of Congress Subject Headings.
As systems continue to update and improve, Crotts and McIntosh said it is important to include disclaimers on information that misrepresent Native history or excludes Native perspective.
"Having those books and stories out there is important so you can see what other people did and why it's wrong," Crotts said. "(But) there should definitely be some kind of label or disclaimer that says 'Just so you know, this is not an accurate depiction of contemporary Native peoples.'"
People who are searching for Indigenous information, especially non-Native people, don't always know what is or isn’t an accurate depiction of history, McIntosh said. It's important that libraries make distinctions and ensure their resources are updated.
"Library classifications (are) one of the starkest, most concrete examples of structural discrimination," Hoffner wrote. "We are all thinking regularly about the many ways in which we can do better to mitigate harm and not perpetuate traumatic experiences for our users."
The Inclusive Metadata Task Force is working on identifying and remedying problematic or outdated terminology in OU Library's descriptive fields in ArchivesSpace, Hoffner wrote. Users can also contact the Metadata Justice Group to report problematic and outdated terminology, ask questions and voice concerns.
To counter negative stereotypes and inaccurate understandings of Native American people, Crotts and McIntosh said Indigenous information and education also need to be more accessible to those who are not in OU’s Native American Studies program.
As the student assistant for the Native American studies department, Crotts said she sees emails all the time from students trying to find resources on Native American people.
"It's cool that we do have a collection that's very exclusive to us, but at the same time, when you think about it as a racial issue and an issue that people aren't educated on … we shouldn't have an exclusive Native collection. Everyone should have access to it, and everyone should be aware," Crotts said.
Crotts and McIntosh agreed OU Libraries needs to make Indigenous information more accessible, both on the shelves and databases, and visually across the library.
Native American artwork lines the walls of the OU Bizzell Memorial Library, but there are only small cards next to them with the name of the artist and tribe. McIntosh said there should be a larger plaque telling the story of the artist and artwork so people who see it can learn about the artist's culture and the significance of the art.
Fuller said there's also a lot of unnamed Native artwork at OU because white documentarians viewed Native Americans as one being, rather than individuals with their own names and stories.
Pointing to a photograph of the Madonna of the North hanging on a wall in his office, Fuller said, "That individual is not named, neither is the baby. (That's a) huge problem, historically."
Fuller said the library has people visit in from all over the state to look at photos of or from their tribe to try to identify the subjects of artwork. The more specific and accurate a description can be, the better, he said.
"(We're trying to) provide an obvious humaneness to people and to lived experiences. … All of us (at the library) feel that is extremely important," Fuller said.
Across all areas, OU Libraries are working to better and more accurately represent Native American cultures, histories and people, Hoffner wrote. There is a significant debate happening in the field currently around whether libraries should continue working to improve the Library of Congress’ systems or create entirely new systems, she wrote.
Hoffner said she is inspired by the University of British Columbia's X̱wi7x̱wa Library and its approach to Indigenous knowledge organization.
The X̱wi7x̱wa Library uses an adapted version of the Brian Deer Classification system, which was developed by A. Brian Deer, a librarian from the Kahnawake Mohawk Territory, in the 1970s. Using this system, the X̱wi7x̱wa Library labels materials based on tribes' preferred names and organizes its collection based on geographic location, rather than alphabetically.
OU Libraries is in the midst of a year-long Inclusive Metadata Task Force, which includes reviewing practices and working toward making a list of recommendations for future projects to improve the experience of a number of minority groups, Hoffner wrote.
To ensure any future Indigenous-related metadata and description projects are created and carried out from an Indigenous-informed perspective, OU Libraries will reach out to relevant student groups, as well as Indigenous students, faculty and staff for future paid consultancy work.
"Listening is the most important thing that we can do," Fuller said.
In order to counter colonial bias in its systems, OU Libraries needs to hear the concerns of those most affected and work toward implementing solutions, he said.
Native Americans want their voices to be heard, McIntosh said. There are two sides to every story, but only one side is being told.
"The name Oklahoma is literally Choctaw, like that's a Choctaw word for 'red people,'" Crotts said. "We are the university of red people and you're not even supporting the red people that are here."
This article was updated Dec. 9 at 2:27 p.m. to correct the names of the Native American authors who have donated their papers to OU's Western History Collection.
