AIS370/HSTAA315: Researching Indians' History - spr 2014: Primary Sources: Images & Oral Histories

Photographs, drawings and other images provide information you can't always get from a text source. Images can provide details of everyday life such as clothing and material culture. Though we often take photographs at face value. It is important to keep in mind that photographs are not an unbiased reflection of reality -- the photographer chooses what and how to depict a certain scene.

Many photographs do not provide much context, may not even provide an exact date or location. You will need to analyze photographs for clues. The example above shows the the Nickens general store in located in the Coville Indian Reservation To date the photograph you may want to examine the car -- when was this type of cars made? Or perhaps search for the business name to find out when it existed. 

Historic images of Native Americans reflect the stereotypes and prejudices of the period during which they were produced. Many reflect a romanticized vision of the American Indian. For some background information see the Bancroft Library exhibit Images of Native Americans.

Help: Making Sense of Documentary Photographs, Analyzing Photographs, Analyzing Material Culture, Learning to do Historical Research: Photographic Images.

Oral histories provide a unique, personal angle on history and often gives voice to the everyday person. However it important to keep in mind the following:

• Oral histories are by their very nature subjective and individualistic.
  
  
• Oral histories are interviews and the interview questions, as well as the interpersonal dynamic between interviewer and interviewee,  shape the content of an oral history.
  
  
• Oral histories are based on memory and memory is both selective and fallible. Events may be collapsed and dates may be off as the interviewee attempts to tell a coherent and consistent story of the past.
  
  
• Because of the subjective and fallible nature of memory, the accuracy of oral histories needs to be weighed by comparing it with other evidence.

For more information on using oral histories as primary sources see: Making Sense of Oral History

For more information on images including citation and copyright see Finding and Using Digital Images. Also see the Native American history guide for other primary source and photographic collections.

Keep in mind that oral history interviews with local tribal members (Makah, Lummi, Tulalip, etc) are available in Special Collections. Additional published collections of oral histories can be found in book form by searching UW Worldcat. For information on conducting oral histories see the following books: The American Indian oral history manual: making many voices heard and Catching Stories: A Practical Guide to Oral History.