Language Lessons

What do you do when the descriptions of archival collections are outdated, even racist? Or when the collections themselves contain harmful content? A new initiative at the Bentley is tackling a strategic, long-term fix.

By Lara Zielin

The description of the black-and-white photo was buried in the Michigan Archaeological Society records’ finding aid and included three scant words: Native American chief.

Gideon Goodrich, archivist for archival processing at the Bentley, flagged the description as deeply lacking. Who was this “chief”? What was their story? How could the Bentley do better?

When Goodrich found the physical photo in the stacks, they turned it over to reveal a name: Blue Cloud. With help from Jakob Dopp, graphics division cataloger at U-M’s Clements Library, Goodrich uncovered that Blue Cloud was William Arapahoe, a member of the Oglala Lakota Nation, and was born around 1870 on the Pine Ridge reservation in South Dakota. Known to the media as “Chief Blue Cloud,” Arapahoe performed in Wild West shows and music and dance acts from the Lakota Nation, often alongside other Lakota music performers. Arapahoe died in Detroit in 1951.

Goodrich added this information to the finding aid—one of the primary tools for identifying what’s in a collection—and made notes about their updates. They also added language about how the collection contains descriptions of Indigenous lives and cultures in an archaeological context, described by primarily white archaeologists, and may contain offensive language as a result.

This kind of work is called reparative description, and the Bentley is among numerous archives revisiting the ways that people and collections have historically been described.

“We know that our older finding aids and catalog records include outdated, offensive terms that we no longer use,” says Olga Virakhovskaya, the lead archivist for collections management at the Bentley. The goal of the reparative description project is to ensure Bentley holdings are described respectfully and according to anti-racist inclusive principles.

This archived photo was labeled “Native American chief” until reparative description efforts recovered the full name of William Arapahoe, known as Chief Blue Cloud, a member of the Oglala Lakota Nation.

Another pillar of the project is to add context to the finding aid when appropriate.

“For example, a finding aid could highlight a male faculty member’s accomplishments, but nothing is said about the people who were the subject of his work, or his wife, or female members of the research staff whose materials are also presented in his collection,” says Virakhovskaya. Such “archival silences,” whether intentional or not, highlight and glorify the achievement of one group while downplaying or completely neglecting the role of others. “Identifying and naming all creators and subjects of records, and providing context about their roles in our finding aids, is a big part of reparative work,” says Virakhovskaya.

There is also an opportunity to edit the finding aid when the collections themselves contain harmful language or images that need to be contextualized. Think violent pictures or racist documents. In this case, Goodrich says, the finding aid could be revised with a warning, or a label placed on the boxes. “It’s like a movie rating,” explains Goodrich. “It doesn’t explicitly spell out everything a researcher might see, but they know that if they use the collection, it could cause harm.”

A Strategic Approach

Historically, finding aid descriptions in need of improvement have been brought to the attention of the archive by researchers. “Once we knew about it, we would take on the work of redescribing, reanalyzing, and editing our description,” says Virakhovskaya. “But it’s playing catch-up.”

Instead, Virakhovskaya and her team decided to take a different approach, working to create a comprehensive process for analyzing outdated descriptions and creating new practices that would allow the archive to get out in front of the descriptions.

In the new model, Virakhovskaya says, style guides could ensure consistent language and treatment from the moment the Bentley receives a collection. New policies could ensure collaboration with communities when the Bentley is not a subject expert. In the case of Arapahoe, for example, Goodrich reached out to an archivist for the Oglala Lakota tribe to ensure the accuracy of the new finding aid text—even though that type of collaboration, while a best practice, isn’t yet a mandatory process.

One change that’s already in place is that archivists like Goodrich, who organize and prepare collections for public use, are now hired full-time, instead of the previous temporary model. “Not having to train people every one or two years ensures we’re retaining the knowledge and skills to do the job well, and that there is time for the processing team to review public-facing materials,” says Goodrich.

The reparative description initiative was recently highlighted in the University of Michigan’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion 2.0 Plan, which outlined a roadmap for the ambitious work. Step one will be convening a committee that will tackle the years-long project in phases.

Virakhovskaya says that the committee will group finding aids for collections that are known to be harmful, and the groups will then be prioritized for review and reparative work. One group might be U-M collections, which would include the student organization Order of Angell, formerly Michigamua, which appropriated and disrespected Indigenous culture. The finding aid includes racist and harmful terminology, as does the collection itself. “It has to be completely redone,” says Virakhovskaya.

Order of Angell might be an obvious suspect, so another task is to continue to find collections where “archival silences” persist.

“There may even need to be an acknowledgment that, say, an anthropologist stole objects or information from a local community,” says Goodrich.

In the meantime, smaller changes to collection descriptions will continue. “To get the systematic work done, we still have to do reparative work as we find it,” explains Goodrich. “I’m glad we are building a committee around it because we can delegate to each other. It’s an enormous task, and you can’t just hang it on one person.”

The new reparative description strategy will also need to account for updates moving forward. “Times change, and it doesn’t mean the language we choose today won’t be looked upon as problematic at some point,” says Goodrich. “I want to help create a process that’s inclusive from the start, while allowing us to make changes when necessary.”