This article originally appeared on the DHPSNY website.
On February 1, we kicked off our 2024 antiracism Dialogue series with a program to introduce the 250th commemoration field guides from AASLH and APHNYS/Office of the New York State Historian: Building an Inclusive 250th: An Introduction to the NYS Field Guide and Indigenous History is New York’s History. Our co-facilitators, Scott Manning Stevens (Syracuse University), Devin Lander (NYS Historian), and John Diefenderfer (Archival Advisory Services, New York State Archives) helped us answer the question: How do we make our collecting organizations interdisciplinary and representative of the realities of our many New York histories? This program invited participants to grapple with Indigenous history and (historic/contemporary) experiences of Indigenous people and communities as an opportunity for organizations facilitating difficult and necessary conversations about their site’s and collection’s relationship to Indigenous communities in what is now New York State.
Devin Lander kicked off our program by introducing the New York State Association of Public Historians/Office of the State Historian-produced 250th commemoration field guide. He oriented us to the very first theme: Indigenous history is New York State history and the imperative to include authentic - actual - Indigenous experience in our organizations’ plans for the commemoration. You can review the field guide here. Read more...
