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Rewriting the Record

Kat Reichert, CLA Public Information Office
August 29, 2025
cla-pio@alaska.edu

When Assistant Professor of History Mary Ludwig’s essay, “Representing Indigenous Peoples in the Archive,” went live in the Newberry Library’s Digital Collections for the Classroom in August 2025, it landed with the clear voice of a teacher who invites students to look harder and ask better questions. “Throughout much of American history, museums, libraries, and historical institutions have collected Indigenous materials and featured artwork portraying Indigenous life,” the essay opens. “However, non-Natives created much of the artwork and collected Indigenous materials without the input and insight of the very people they presented.” The piece asks readers to reckon with who created the records we inherit and who gets to interpret them.

Ludwig’s path to the Newberry began as a graduate student at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. “I got involved with the Newberry because I had the fortune of being a student and UNLV is a member of the Newberry Consortium in American Indian and Indigenous Studies (NCAIS). NCAIS provides amazing opportunities for emerging scholars to study at the Newberry and apply to scholarships.” That consortium, coordinated by the Newberry’s D’Arcy McNickle Center, offers workshops, fellowships, and a summer institute that trains graduate students in close work with primary sources.

The Digital Collections for the Classroom (DCC) is designed precisely for teachers who want students to analyze original materials with scholarly framing. Essays, curated image sets, and discussion prompts make the Newberry’s collections teachable across grade levels. Ludwig’s contribution joins that resource, pairing 19th- and 20th-century artworks with guiding questions that ask learners to evaluate how power shaped what was created, collected, and displayed.

Asked about the responsibility of libraries, archives, and museums, Ludwig is direct: “Archival institutions and museums have historically prioritized settler narratives over Indigenous narratives in their collections, but many are working to change this. There are significant efforts to collaborate with Indigenous communities and prioritize perspectives that have previously been ignored. I think it's the institution's responsibility to reach out to Indigenous communities and invite their feedback into the process.” She also points readers to historian Amy Lonetree’s Decolonizing Museums for practical guidance, noting that the Newberry “actively practices this by not only incorporating the perspectives of historians of Indigenous history, but also incorporating Indigenous art and collections with the consent and advice of Indigenous people.”

For Ludwig, the heart of the work is what students carry with them after the page is closed: “I hope that readers of the essay learn to recognize that power dynamics exist in institutions and their collections. Once we recognize that collections often reflect outsiders' perspectives and goals more than the people they claim to be about, we can do the work of changing that situation and creating institutions that incorporate information in new and more accurate ways. I also hope that my essay is accessible, and teachers can readily use it in their classrooms. The DCC collections are meant to be teaching resources for K-12 to lower division college courses.”

By pairing archival materials with the perspectives of Indigenous communities, Ludwig shows students that research is not only about uncovering sources but also about listening, engaging, and sharing authority. It is work that strengthens our understanding of the past and helps shape institutions that respond with care and respect to the communities they represent here in ���Ϻ�����Ƶ and across the country.