When Leadership Falls Short: The Crisis of Care in Library Work
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Commemorating National Native American Heritage Month with TIE and Choice Content
Highlighting TIE and Choice resources on Native American histories, art, and activism
Posted on November 4, 2025 in Blog Posts
Commemorating National Native American Heritage Month
In honor of National Native American Heritage Month, the Toward Inclusive Excellence team assembled TIE and Choice resources that spotlight Native history, literature, and activism. Choice, the publisher of TIE and a publishing unit at the Association of College & Research Libraries, a division of the American Library Association, provides book reviews to help librarians identify academic sources and professional development tools like webinars, podcasts, and white papers.
Officially established in 1990, Native American Heritage Month “celebrates the traditions, languages and stories of Native American, Alaska Native, Native Hawaiian, and affiliated Island communities to ensure their rich histories and contributions continue to thrive with each passing generation.” We hope these resources will aid in learning more about the culture and heritage of Indigenous communities this month and throughout the year.
Ask an Archivist
Ask an Archivist is a monthly editorial franchise produced by Choice that explores the research and production behind compelling special collections and exhibits through interviews with their curators, archivists, and directors. These interviews feature Amherst College’s Collection of Native American Literature and Oregon State University’s Oregon Multicultural Archives.
The Amherst College Collection of Native American Literature
In this interview, Mike Kelly, Head of Archives & Special Collections at Amherst College, joins Choice to discuss the Amherst College Collection of Native American Literature. Mike details the collection’s aim to center early texts from Indigenous authors, showcasing the breadth of Native literary history. Mike also shares how Amherst works directly with Indigenous communities and incorporates culturally sensitive cataloging into its collections. Further, Mike covers the development of the Native American Literary Atlas, highlighting several of its features. Read the interview with Mike Kelly.
Oregon State University’s Oregon Multicultural Archives and OSU Queer Archives
This Ask an Archivist takes a deep dive into two Oregon State University (OSU) archives—the Oregon Multicultural Archives (OMA) and OSU Queer Archives (OSQA). Curator Natalia Fernández, also an Associate Professor for the Special Collections and Archives Research Center (SCARC), walks through the background of the collections and their aims to center the voices of marginalized communities in Oregon. Fernández notes the value of oral history interviews and summarizes OSU’s myriad outreach efforts. Fernández further shares the benefits of archivist-professor partnerships and details how OSU incorporates anti-racist descriptions and decision-making. Read the interview with Natalia Fernández.
Review of the Week
Each week Choice highlights a review that addresses a topical issue, event, or holiday—or simply, a review we believe deserves more attention. These picks discuss ecotourism’s impact on Indigenous peoples, US plenary power over Native America, and more.
Webinar
Choice’s webinar program features industry experts who lead sponsored, 60-minute interactive presentations. We spotlight an upcoming webinar on the intersection of data science and Indigenous studies.
“Data” and Indigenous Studies: Entry Points for Academic Libraries
How can academic libraries navigate the meeting point between “data” and Indigenous studies, each an area with distinct priorities, methodologies, and cultural contexts? The relationship between the two is not straightforward: practices of data collection, organization, and sharing have often reflected colonial frameworks, privileging standardization and openness over community-specific values such as sovereignty, consent, and cultural protocols. At the same time, Indigenous studies emphasize the priority of protection, representation, and governance of Indigenous knowledges, which can clash with dominant approaches to research data and metadata. Learn more and register for the December 16 session.
TIE Blog
To keep up with upcoming TIE content, subscribe to the TIE newsletter. This TIE Blog content highlights upcoming reads on race and ethnicity, including titles on Indigenous youth in diaspora, urban Indigenous health activism, and more.
TIE Talks with Bethany Hughes
This TIE Talks features Dr. Bethany Hughes, Associate Professor at the University of Michigan in the Department of American Culture and faculty member in the Native American Studies Program. In this interview, we chat with Bethany about her book, Redface: Race, Performance, and Indigeneity. The first title to center on redface in American theater, the book reveals how the racialization of the “Stage Indian” perpetuates racist and settler colonist mythology to deny Native sovereignty. Here, Bethany delves into redface’s history, Native American representation, and the unique qualities of stage performance. In addition, she shares how she hopes her book contributes to her field and previews her forthcoming title on Indigenous theatre history. Read the interview with Bethany.
TIE Preview of Upcoming Reads on Race and Ethnicity, 2025
Find more posts on the TIE Blog, including:
- Core Titles to Commemorate Indigenous Peoples’ Day
- Jordan Clark on the Afro-Indigenous History of Martha’s Vineyard and Adopting a Decolonial Mindset on Campus
- Jordan Clark on Applying Decolonization Practices to the Library and AI Tools
- Preserving the Indigenous and African American Heritage of Martha’s Vineyard
Featured Review
Featured Reviews consider how a title exposes racist systems and inequities or proposes means of dismantling them. These important works from valuable perspectives are of use to undergraduates, faculty, and anyone interested in learning more about racism and racial inequalities. Recounting the lives of four Native American prophets, this featured review highlights useful spiritual lessons from each to help readers confront contemporary predicaments.
A Vision of Enduring Hope: Steven Charleston’s Latest Book Serves Those Seeking Spiritual Direction
Steven Charleston is a member of the Choctaw Nation and an Episcopal clergyman, theologian, and activist who has championed justice for Indigenous peoples as they confront the legacy of settler colonialism. In We Survived the End of the World, he provides a spiritual guide, a call to action, and a vision of enduring hope for all people beset by an unfolding environmental apocalypse and the societal apocalypse of racism, religious intolerance, misogyny, and economic inequality. Read the review of We Survived the End of the World.
Header image is a detail of This is Harlem by Jacob Lawrence. Courtesy of Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden. © 2021 The Jacob and Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence Foundation, Seattle / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. For more information, click here.