Native American Art of Oregon

About the Collection

Collection Description:

Our digital collection is focused on the topic of Native Americans in the contemporary state of Oregon and the greater Pacific Northwest. Our collection is themed around artworks created by Natives among various tribes in these areas with the main goal of amplifying their voices and perspectives. Our perceived main audience is Native groups who could use this to support cultural preservation or community education about their prominence and presence in the Pacific Northwest. Another intended audience for this collection is researchers such as anthropologists, art historians, or historians who are interested in analyzing Native art or focused on re-patriation of Native objects.

Course: Humanities Research Data Management (DSCI/LIB 350M) at University of Oregon

Date of Course: Fall 2025

Instructor: Kate Thornhill

Galleries, Libraries, Archives, Museums (GLAMs) Used:

• The Portland Art Museum
• Hallie Ford Museum of Art
• The Metropolitan Museum of Art
• Oregon Historical Society Museum
• Oregon Historical Society Research Library

Project Team and Responsibilities:

Quinn Enyart, Project Manager: As project manager, Quinn was responsible for facilitating communication within our group and with the instructor. She coordinated our team meetings and progress checks via Google Teams. Quinn also managed our Google Drive, helping create our deliverables: metadata sheet, group progress report, data management, and final presentation.

David Horwitz, Collection Development Manager: As Collection Development Manager, David approved the 24 objects that made up our digital collection. David helped our group narrow down our scope to Native tribes in the greater Pacific Northwest area. Additionally, David helped each of us confirm that each selected file met the correct format and quality standards.

Hunter Everton, Object Preservation Manager: Hunter was responsible for overseeing the storage space and documents folder. Hunter established our collection file naming standard and confirmed that each object met this standard. Additionally, Hunter ensured backup copies of our object are available.

Anna Wallin, Metadata Manager: Anna led the cataloging of all objects and ensured that metadata followed Dublin Core, CollectionBuilder, and group-specific standards. She maintained the master metadata spreadsheet and standardized data entry for consistency and accuracy across the collection. Anna performed metadata quality reviews and made final decisions about how each object was described.

Conner Birdwell, Repository Manager: As repository manager, Conner took notes at each of our meetings, updating our Group Notes and Decisions document accordingly. With his strong technical background, Conner led technical troubleshooting for each of our group members. Conner also managed our GitHub repository, ensuring that our website was formatted properly.

Acknowledgements: Our group would like to give a shoutout to our amazing instructor, Kate Thorhill, for her guidance during this project. She taught us all about metadata standards, copyright information, how to navigate GitHub, among many other skills that we used throughout this project. Kate provided patience and assistance whenever we had questions about our collection. We would also like to thank the librarians and curators of the digital objects that provided a great base of information and beautiful objects to reference.

Ownership Statement: Please note that we are not the owners of any of the objects in this collection. First and foremost, the Native tribes were the creators of the objects. If you have questions about the use of these objects, please look at our citations and reach out to the original curators of the item.