818 Finding Aid Research For Inter Mount Ian Indian School

Robyn Ward LI818XO Arrangement & Description Finding Aid Writing Assignment Intermountain Indian School, Brigham City, Utah Three distinct finding aids: Utah State University Libraries Special Collections & Archives http://library.usu.edu/specol/photoarchive/p0327.html University of New Mexico Archive via the Rocky Mountain Online Archive http://rmoa.unm.edu/docviewer.php?docId=nmu1mss596bc.xml http://rmoa.unm.edu/docviewer.php?docId=nmupict000-596.xml The National Archives – Rocky Mountain Region http://www.archives.gov/rocky-mountain/holdings/rg-050-099.html When I was a kid there was an Intermountain Indian School in Brigham City, Utah. I met one of my best friends during my childhood through this program. Her name was Jenny Jean Jim. I was so young and really didn’t know much about the school and thought it would be interested to find out the history of it. To me the Intermountain Indian School was always known as the Indian School. I didn’t know the official name. So my very first search was to go to Google. I thought that there was probably an archive that would have information about the school, but I really didn’t know where. A good possibility would be Utah State University. My Google search resulted in bringing up a finding aid from the Utah State University Libraries Special Collections & Archives. The finding aid is for a photograph collection. The collection is “Intermountain Indian School Photograph Collection, 19551970”. http://library.usu.edu/specol/photoarchive/p0327.html. The finding aid is in html on the special collections website. One can access the finding aid one of three ways: by searching (1) Google, (2) the USU special collections & archives website, or (3) the USU library online catalog. The library online catalog is not easily searchable and one cannot access the finding aid itself through this method. The best access to the collection seems

to be through Google or special collections. The finding aid itself contains a scope and content note, historical notes, research note with related resources (two theses), inventory (item level description), and an inventory addendum that includes photos from the Compton Photograph Collection. The finding aid also includes the preparer and date. It does not reference any other related collections...not even the items in their own collections. There were 4 other records for items/collections relating the school represented in the catalog. The scope and content is concise and inclusive. The historical note is very helpful as well gives a good overview and context for the creation and existence of the school. The photos have been divided into series relating to specific categories or functions related to student activities. The item level description is helpful on some level but no dates are identified on the finding aid. Another downfall of the finding aid is that it doesn’t make mention as to why there are no photos from 1971-1984 included in the collection. If another photo collection exists consisting of these years, then there is no reference to it. The school was not closed for another 13 years past this collection. The finding aid did not indicate any use or access restrictions. The photos have not been digitized. The collection also does not seem to be promoted in any way or seem to be a priority. To improve this finding aid I would include information about access and use even if there were no restrictions. The finding aid also did not indicate expanse of the collection (boxes or cubic feet). Upon finding the above finding aid I thought that Utah State might be part of a consortium that may also include an institution that may have similar holdings or collections. It was not immediately obvious that they were, so searched the main library website, but this was not helpful. I did another Google search typing in ‘rocky mountain

library consortia’. This produced nothing of relevance for me so I adjusted my search and found a link to Utah Academic Library Consortium. This wasn’t very helpful either, so I then searched Rocky Mountain Digital Archive and found Rocky Mountain Online Archive. I searched my string of terms in this database and two finding aids resulted from the University of New Mexico Archive ( http://rmoa.unm.edu/docviewer.php?docId=nmu1mss596bc.xml main collection http://rmoa.unm.edu/docviewer.php?docId=nmupict000-596.xml separated photos) These links are for two finding aids: One titled “Inventory of the K. (Katherine) Wood Papers, 1924-1992 (bulk 1945-1975) held at the University of New Mexico, University Libraries, Center for Southwest Research. The finding aid is encoded in EAD. The finding aid contains a collection summary, biography including a scanned photo of Katherine, scope and content note, access and copyright restrictions, preferred citation, separated material, related material, access terms, and a contents list with folder level description. The Intermountain Indian School is mentioned in the scope and content note. It looks like Katherine was involved in “vision, hearing, and speech [activities] that consisted largely of materials pertaining to school testing, with general information as well as data specific to Hobbs and Gallup public schools, the Santa Fe Indian School, and the Intermountain Indian School (UT)” The second link is to the finding aid for the photograph collection which had been separated from this main collection. Again the finding aid does not make reference to the others. I think that further communication or contact with the archive would be helpful in being able to find out what was in particular folders regarding the Indian School. This is just a related collection of a woman involved in education and social work. The finding aid seems to be pretty

complete or complete enough for the intent it was initially made. I went back to my first Google search results and looked at the resources to see if I could find other repositories. I don’t know why it didn’t occur to me to start my initial search with the Utah State Archive. But didn’t find anything about the school when I did a search on their archives website. So I thought about which government agency would this particular subject fall under … the Bureau of Indian Affairs. I then was able to find a record group for this with a finding aid to the collection (http://www.archives.gov/rockymountain/holdings/rg-050-099.html (related links: http://www.archives.gov/research/guide-fed-records/groups/075.html Main National Archives site: http://www.archives.gov/research/guide-fed-records/groups/075.html#75.20.22)

Record group 75: Records of the Bureau of Indian Affairs. The collection is held in Colorado at the National Archives Rocky Mountain Region. The finding aid consists of a concise/detailed Administrative history, a records description, which consists of the date range, volume of collection, and folder series descriptions, which may be an agency, office or school. These also include dates. It also lists finding aids related to the collection and monographs, and related microfilm publications, and provides access and restriction information. Again this finding aid did not make mention of the other two collections. It looks as if a more detailed finding aid may be available in print at the archive. The National Archives would have to be contacted to confirm this. In searching for these finding aids I did not use any special database. I thought that the topic would be pretty difficult to find really anything on it, and this proved to be true. All of the resources I used are open and free to the public. I would say in all cases the topic of the Intermountain Indian School is not promoted in any way. The Bureau of Indian Affairs collection I would imagine is probably utilized quite a bit and it a gigantic

collection, but the other two I can’t see being promoted. It would be nice to have the photo collection digitized.