Karuk Cultural Information & Knowledge Policy Statement: Sípnuuk Digital Library, Archives and Museum

Year

U.S. Copyright Laws privilege western intellectual property systems and function as an enforcement tool for ongoing colonial rule over our documented traditional Karuk knowledge. Karuk cultural heritage documentation is currently and has historically been subject to United States Copyright laws, which has resulted in legacies of legal dispossession of these records from the Karuk Tribe and Karuk People. Non-Karuk institutions and individuals claim legal ownership and/or possession of the vast majority of documented Karuk cultural materials, actively or passively maintaining these legacies that leave the Karuk Tribe and Karuk People without legal rights to control the circulation of, access to, and control over documented knowledge.

Native Nations
Citation

Karuk Cultural Information & Knowledge Policy Statement: Sípnuuk Digital Library, Archives and Museum. March 10, 2016. Karuk Tribal Council. https://sipnuuk.karuk.us/system/files/atoms/file/ATALM17_Cultural%20Information%20Policy_final.pdf

Related Resources

Image
Revitalizing a Traditional Seed to Revitalize Osage Culture

Vann Bighorse, director of the Wah-Zha-Zhi Cultural Center in Pawhuska, Oklahoma, is keenly aware that Osage traditions are getting closer to slipping away–permanently. A current project to preserve Osage culture and revive a millennia old tradition is now three years in the making. The Cultural…

Image
Seneca Nation Implements Native Plant Policy

The Seneca Nation of Indians are spearheading a movement to reintroduce more indigenous flora to public landscapes on tribal lands in Upstate New York. The tribal council unanimously approved a policy that mandates all new landscaping in public spaces on Seneca lands exclusively be comprised of…

Image
Sustaining Indigneous Culture: The Structure, Activities, and Needs of Tribal Archives, Libraries, and Museums

Sovereignty, self-determination, and self-governance are primary goals of Indigenous nations worldwide and they take important steps toward those goals by renewing control over their stories, documents, and artifacts.  To better support it, a core team of Native professionals formed the…