On a daily basis, Native people must deal with issues surrounding the suppression of their cultures, the survival of their languages, copyright protection and wealth of other problems. Issues such as these fall into the realm of cultural and intellectual property rights and are of great concern to indigenous peoples throughout the world. The concept of cultural property applies to areas such as real property, land, burials, and "ruins," while intellectual property applies to writings, languages, images and cultures themselves.1 Forced to protect their cultural and intellectual property, Native people must frequently deal with museums, archaeologists, anthropologists, schools, churches, commercial developers and even international law.2
This pathfinder serves as part of the Northwest Indian College Virtual Library and as an educational supplement to the film, Return of Navajo Boy.3 In this dual role, my pathfinder is intended to aid students in the Oksale Program in Lummi, Washington, as well as other Native people, students, educators and members of the general public who may be interested in protecting the cultural and intellectual property rights of Native people. People interested in this topic may have questions such as, Where can I find some general information about cultural and intellectual property rights? Where can I find information about cultural and intellectual property rights with an international perspective? Where can I find some information about legislation related to the cultural and intellectual property rights of American Indians? Where can I find a variety of viewpoints on Native American cultural property issues?
Since this pathfinder was created solely for a virtual environment, I limited my searching to resources that are available for free on the Internet. I further confined my searching to items related to cultural and intellectual property issues with a focus on those issues most identifiable with American Indians. I conducted my search using the Internet search engine "Google" <http://www.google.com>. The following search terms were used in various combinations: "Native American," "American Indian," "indigenous" "cultural property," "intellectual property," "cultural theft," "cultural identity," and "cultural appropriation." In order to evaluate and select the most useful resources from these searches, I used the following criteria:
1. Reliability of the Source: Is the creator of the website knowledgeable of the topic? Do they have a reputable standing in the Native American community?
2. Accuracy of the Content: Is the correctness of the content provided verifiable in some other source?
3. Comprehensiveness of the Content: Is the topic covered thoroughly?
4. Currency of the Content: If current information is needed, has the source been updated recently?
During the evaluation process, I additionally referred to Elaine Cubbins’ web page, "Techniques for Evaluating American Indian Websites." 4
Upon completion of the evaluation and selection process, I compiled an annotated bibliography and pathfinder, which can be found at this address: http://www.gslis.utexas.edu/~vlibrary/edres/pathfinders/eckenrode2
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(1) Strom, Karen M. "Cultural Property" (Feb. 2002) Online. Internet. 8 April 2002. Available FTP: http://www.hanksville.org/sand/cp.html
(2) Ibid.
(3) Return of Navajo Boy. Dir. Jeff Spitz. 2000.
(4) Cubbins, Elaine M., MA-IRLS. "Techniques for Evaluating American Indian Websites" (July 2002) Online. Internet. 8 April 2002. Available FTP: http://www.u.arizona.edu/%7Eecubbins/webcrit.html