MVSKOKE RESERVATION – The Muscogee (Creek) Nation Department of Culture and Humanities hosted an oral history workshop on Saturday, May 11 at the College of the Muscogee Nation. The free event was the first ever workshop on oral history held at the tribe.
The workshop is part of an on-going oral history project that is seeking to raise the visibility of women’s voices in interpretive centers at National Park sites. The project is funded through the National Park Service and the National Park Service Foundation’s “Empower Indigenous Women to Share Their Story, Their Way” grant.
The workshop was led by MCN Oral Historian Midge Dellinger in collaboration with Oklahoma Oral History Research Program (OOHRP) Head and Oklahoma State University Professor Sarah Milligan, OSU Associate Dean of Special Collections and Professor Dr. Mary Larson, and OSU History PhD student Teagan Dreyer.
The Saturday event offered participants training in the oral history process and gave a walk through of methodology and best practices. These included question formation, consent form training, and deep listening techniques.
“Our memories, our words, our knowledge, our teachings, our stories. It’s all golden. Our practice of oral tradition, those really have sustained us throughout our history, throughout our existence.” – Muscogee (Creek) Nation Oral Historian Midge Dellinger
One of the central goals of the project is to train Indigenous women in oral history techniques and develop skilled interviewers, leading to oral histories for the NPS and the MCN archive. While the funding is in partnership with the NPS, the resulting interviews will remain property of the tribal nations involved. Those nations will control how and in what manner they are shared and displayed at NPS sites and interpretive centers.
Conducting an oral history interview was not a requirement of participation in the workshop, but one of the project’s goals is to give women the opportunity to share their stories. Before delving into the process, the workshop began with the history of oral history and its significance within American Indian communities. Participants were also given a chance to share their project ideas and get feedback from facilitators.
Currently, there are no plans for other MCN workshops for this particular project, but Dellinger has hopes in future workshops. She stated, “My first and foremost goal was for participants to walk away from the workshop with a general, basic understanding about oral history and oral history methodology. I wanted participants to be able to leave the workshop excited about oral history and the work, and confident. I hope they feel confident in going out and doing an oral history.”
The team will also facilitate other workshops for the grant project and plan to hold one for the Chickasaw Nation in June.
For MCN citizens interested in oral history or conducting their own interviews, Dellinger encourages them to reach out to the MCN National Library and Archive or visit the online searchable archive at https://mvskokenationallibraryarchive.org. Dellinger can be reached by email at ddellinger@muscogeenation.com and phone at 918-732-7618.
