Monacan Indian Nation

The Monacan Indian Nation will address the urgent need to organize and preserve its archival and museum object collections while integrating improved collections care practices with the revitalization of traditional Monacan pottery making. Project staff and student interns will stabilize, catalog, digitize, and rehouse the extensive suite of archival materials that were crucial to proving the Tribe’s continued existence and securing its federal recognition. The project team will also catalog and digitize the museum’s object collection, document workflows, and rehouse items in a temperature-controlled storage unit. To ensure continuity of the cultural practice of pottery making alongside proper management of the Tribe’s Monacan pottery collection, consultants with expertise in Monacan pottery will lead classes focused on the collection, and provide hands-on instruction in production, which will be filmed to document and preserve this knowledge for future generations.