Penn State Launches Library Guide to Indigenous People in PA History

Penn State University Libraries has announced the launch of its new library guide to Indigenous People in Pennsylvania History.

The library guide provides links to resources from multiple depositories that cover the history of Indigenous people in Pennsylvania. Resources include books, scholarly articles, maps, and government documents and treaties. Of particular note is a section of resources that explore how the sale of Indigenous land funded the country’s land-grant institutions, such as Penn State.

In a press release, Librarian Eric Novotny said, “Whenever possible, we tried to highlight materials and resources that include Native American perspectives and voices.”

The library guide was originally create to support the work of Indigenous faculty, students, and staff who have been researching Native American residents of Pennsylvania. The group also lead an effort to get a land acknowledgment adopted by Penn State. In part the land acknowledgement recognizes that “the Pennsylvania State University campuses are located on the original homelands of the Erie, Haudenosaunee (Seneca, Cayuga, Onondaga, Oneida, Mohawk, and Tuscarora), Lenape (Delaware Nation, Delaware Tribe, Stockbridge-Munsee), Shawnee (Absentee, Eastern, and Oklahoma), Susquehannock, and Wahzhazhe (Osage) Nations.”