FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
OKMULGEE, Okla., – The Muscogee (Creek) Nation National Library and Archives will go live with a new digital archive on June 14th, 2023. The digital archive will be available to Mvskoke citizens and the public and will feature a wide variety of historical documents and resources pertaining to Mvskoke history, culture, and language, and will include video and audio interviews from our recent oral history project titled, “A Twenty-First Century Pandemic in Indian Country: The Resilience of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation Against Covid-19.” In January 2021, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation awarded the Muscogee (Creek) Nation Historic and Cultural Preservation Department a $100,000 community-based archives grant to fund the Covid-19 oral history project and the creation of a new digital archive.
Supported by Mukurtu (Mook-oo-too), meaning “dilly-bag” or “a place of safekeeping” in the Aboriginal Warumungu language, this Indigenous archival platform created in Australia was selected for its ability to provide a safe space to store and share heritage items, stories, and knowledge. Interactive features of the archive include a comment section to share information or ask questions. Visitors can also set up an account and create a personal “collection” from items found within the digital archive. The Muscogee (Creek) Nation National Library and Archives will continue to digitize archival collections and make them accessible on the digital archive.
As we launch the new digital archive, we want to highlight the forty Mvskoke citizens and community members who have shared their experiences with Covid-19 and the pandemic. Visitors can listen to amazing stories of Mvskoke sharing experiences of hardship, grief, resilience, and survival during the Covid-19 pandemic. The oral histories can also be accessed at the library’s new Oral History Research Station. According to MCN Oral Historian Midge Dellinger, “The digital archive is a game changer in how Mvskoke people can now access library resources online. I hope people engage with the archives as learners and teachers; it belongs to all of us, and we all have much knowledge to share.”
The digital archive is available at mvskokenationallibraryarchive.org.
For more information, please call the Muscogee (Creek) Nation National Library and Archives at 918-732-7733.
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