American Indian Culture and Research Journal

Indian Peoples of the North American continent were, in the broadest sense, literate before books and other media came into their lives. Native Ammicans have always been gatherers of information, sharers of knowledge, skilled users of symbols, and transmitters of cultural heritage and experience. Like the Greeks, Indian People vested the world with elaborate meanings, told stories of courage and heroism, and passed the wisdom evolved from assimilated knowledge and experience to succeeding generations. -Bureau of Indian Affairs, Plan for the Improvement of Library/Media/Information Programs, 1977 From the mid-1970s to mid-1980s a series of federal grants, born of one woman's vision and determination, set the groundwork for the establishment of tribal libraries across this nation. The fertile political environment of the late 1960s championed initiatives designed to reach underserved populations. While libraries in the dominant culture were establishing outreach departments and finding ways to build bridges to neglected populations, educators Charles Townley and Lotsee Patterson lobbied and applied for federal monies to establish libraries on tribal lands. Townley and Patterson were among the first to take meaningful action toward the development of tribal libraries as Native American communities began to emerge from a totally oral tradition into one that sought to find ways to preserve, transfer, and disseminate cultural traditions through print and new media formats.