Penobscot Indian Nation

The Penobscot Nation will support and train members of 16 Native American tribes around intellectual property law to build understanding about tribal governance law. The Penobscot Nation has developed a multi-directional strategy to address and negotiate the legal and cultural control over cultural heritage, including identifying and inventorying collections in museums and archives, drafting and negotiating memorandums of understanding about conditions for future access, legal research on the ownership of specific collections and developing internal tribal documents, protocols and policy to help support the digital return of collections; and establishing processes for assessing future research on tribal lands. This project's education and training for tribal archivists and library and museum staff at the interface between tribes and institutions that hold valuable cultural heritage will enhance tribes' capacity to address critical legal and governance issues in the ongoing management and preservation of Native American collections that reside in cultural institutions across the United States.