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By Jean Cleveland
jclevela@uga.edu
An electronic collection of historical documents about the Native Americans of the Southeast is now available on the Web via the GALILEO Digital Library of Georgia.
More than 1,000 documents are now accessible. The number will double in late 2001 thanks to a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services, which provided funding for the digitization project. The institute recently agreed to provide a second grant of $204,000 to continue the work, a cooperative venture involving GALILEO, UGA, the University of Tennessee at Knoxville library, the Frank H. McClung Museum, and the Tennessee State Library and Archives. Documents from two additional collections, the Museum of the Cherokee Indian and the Tennessee State Museum, also will be incorporated.
The selected documents represent the most significant holdings from each collection and range in date from the early 1700s to the mid-1800s. Users can browse and search the online collection and view images of the original documents as well as transcribed text.
“This project is an important component in the development of the digital library,” says Stephen Miller, director of the Digital Library of Georgia, a virtual collection of digitized books, images, manuscripts and media important to the history and culture of Georgia. “Original manuscript material of this type and from this time period only exists in paper form, buried within vaults and closed stacks, available only to the persistent researcher. Digitization of these materials provides access to a substantially larger audience.”
The documents, selected by archivists at each participating institution, deal with how Native Americans viewed European settlers, from the first contacts to the time when they were forcibly removed from their lands. They range from treaties to bureaucratic correspondence between the tribes and federal agents to modern archaeological records. While the bulk of the materials in the collection is related to the Cherokee, Creek, Seminole, Choctaw and Chickasaw tribes, many other tribes—such as the Catawbas, the Delawares, the Osages, the Yamacraws and the Uchees—are also represented.
Additional information about the Native Americans of the Southeast can also be accessed via the site, including a historical overview, a list of readings, and links to other sites.
ON THE WEB
Southeastern Native American Documents collection
www.galileo.peachnet.edu
Select “Digital Library of Georgia,” then “Southeastern Native American Documents, 1730-1842.”
If asked for a GALILEO password, select “Public Databases” at the bottom of the password screen. |
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