Mellon Foundation Native American Scholars Initiative (NASI) Digital Knowledge Sharing Fellowships
The American Philosophical Society's Library & Museum in Philadelphia invites applications for short-term Digital Knowledge Sharing Fellowships to support digital projects that connect archives and Indigenous communities. These funding opportunities are part of the Native American Scholars Initiative (NASI), supported by the Mellon Foundation. Fellows will work with the Library & Museum’s Center for Native American and Indigenous Research (CNAIR), which aims to promote greater collaboration between scholars, archives, and Indigenous communities throughout the Americas.
Selected fellows will travel to the APS in Philadelphia in July 2025 to participate in a workshop to share their projects, and discuss opportunities and challenges for accomplishing their goals. Following the workshop fellows will continue to work with APS staff and affiliates to complete their objectives. Past projects have focused on materials housed at the APS as well as collections held at other archives and libraries, and have included language reclamation initiatives, recording oral histories, territorial and historical research, and the establishment and growth of community-based archives, among others.
The fellowship stipend is $3,000 plus the costs associated with visiting the APS for the summer workshop with other DKS fellows. The workshop will take place July 23-24, 2025.
These fellowships are open to people at any stage of their career, regardless of academic background, including those based in communities or universities, and scholars and researchers in any field. Preference will be given to those who have sustained personal engagement or lived experience with Indigenous communities. We particularly encourage applications from Native American and Indigenous Studies scholars in training, tribal college or university faculty, and members of Indigenous communities, as well as from scholars working closely with Indigenous communities on community-based and community-directed projects.
The Center for Native American and Indigenous Research works with Indigenous communities throughout North America and with scholars in many disciplines. The heart of CNAIR’s mission is working collaboratively to reconnect collections to communities. These efforts focus on enhancing access by providing digital copies of APS materials to Indigenous cultural centers, archives, language programs, and schools, and building lasting, collaborative relationships based upon our shared values of preserving knowledge of the past for the benefit of future generations. To learn more about CNAIR, available fellowship and internship opportunities, and to browse the APS's Library & Museum’s holdings related to over 650 different Indigenous cultures, visit www.amphilsoc.org/CNAIR.
Eligibility
This fellowship is open to applicants anywhere in the world, including those who are not US citizens or residents, but it does not provide visa sponsorship.
Terms
- $3,000 stipend
- Travel costs for attending summer DKS Fellows workshop in late July 2025
Application Instructions
The following materials should be submitted via the Application Form
- C.V. or Resume,
- A proposal (2 pages double-spaced) that outlines the work to be undertaken during the fellowship term
- Two letters of recommendation that offer support of the proposed project and speak to the credentials of the applicant. For those working on a community-based project, one of these letters should be from the Indigenous community where the project is based.
For questions, or if you have any problems accessing the application form, please contact us at [email protected].
Deadline: March 3, 2025
Current and Past Recipients
George Quinten Phoenyx Doxtater (Turtle Clan, Mohawk, Six Nations), Woodland Cultural Centre Language Department, "Cayuga Language Preservation via Reel-to-Reel Digitization"
Lauren Kelly, University of Southern California, “From the Archives to the Valley: Bringing Nüümü and Newe Interviews Back to Payahuunadü"
Louellyn White (Akwesasne Mohawk), Concordia University, "Children Lost to Indian Boarding Schools: Connecting Archives to Indigenous Communities"
Mikalen Running Fisher (Blackfeet Tribe), University of Montana, "Reindigenizing Amskapii Pikanni Artifacts"
Maureen Matthews, Manitoba Museum, "Anishinaabe Voices"
Laura Spann, Eyak Cultural Foundation, "Accessing Eyak: Connecting the Community to its Audiovisual Heritage"
Alexander Jimerson, Seneca Nation of Indians, "Onödowa'ga:' Gawënö' Wadwënödahöh - Seneca Language Database"
Sara Snyder Hopkins, Western Carolina University, "Eastern Cherokee Histories in Translation (ECHT)”
Sean Guistini, Nunavut Arctic College, “Returning Digital History to Nunavut Communities”
Eric Johnson, Brown University, “Mapping Munsee Lenape Landscapes”
Dawn Randazzo, Chugachmiut Heritage Preservation Archive, “Chugachmiut Heritage Preservation Archive”
Tressa Berman, Independent Scholar, “Voices of Fort Berthold: Mandan (Nueta)-Hidatsa-Arikara (Sa’nish)”
Cassandra Smith, University of Illinois, Chicago, “Telling History from the Land”
Robbie Jimerson, Rochester Institute of Technology, “Seneca Language Revitalization”
Dianne Hinkley, Cowichan Tribes Land Research, “Oral Histories with Cowichan Elders”
Hilary Leathem, University of Chicago, and Pedro Guillermo Ramon Celis, Indiana University, Bloomington, “Este Lugar Tiene Muchas Historias”
Laverne Demientieff, University of Alaska Fairbanks, "Digitizing Deg Xinag: Inspiring Connections Between Language Learning and Well-Being”
Amy E. Den Ouden, University of Massachusetts, Boston, "Herring Pond Wampanoag Tribal Archive"
Brandon Graham, Chippewas of the Thames, “Chippewas of the Thames First Nation Treaty Research”
X'unei Lance Twitchell, University of Alaska Southeast, “Tlingit Language Revitalization”
Patrick DeɁileligi Burtt, University of Nevada, "Reclaiming Wašiw History: Washoe Digital Archive Construction"
Ashley Cordes, University of Oregon, "Currency as Communication and Oregon Colonial Processes of the 1850s"
Maria Montenegro, UCLA, "What Makes Evidence Evidence? The Use and Interpretation of Records in the Fernandeño Tataviam Band of Mission Indians’ Federal Acknowledgment Petition"
Saul Schwartz, University of California, Berkley, "Unarchiving Chiwere Language Documentation: Recontextualizing the Marsh/Small Texts"
Holly Miowak Guise, Yale University, “World War II and the First Peoples of the Last Frontier”
Megan Lukaniec, University of California, Santa Barbara, “A Grammar of Wendat (Huron)”
Anna Naruta-Moya and Daniel Moya, “Indigenous Digital Archive”
Edward Noel Smyth, University of California, Santa Cruz, “Digital Archives of Natchez Oral Histories”