Information literacy. Bibliographic instruction. Research literacy. Information skills. Knowledge management. All of these terms fall under the concept of “library research skills” and may be more colloquially titled “library Day” or “Using Your library’s Resources” on a course syllabus. It is standard for every college and university library to provide assistance in utilizing their resources, and tribal college and university (TCU) libraries are no different. They are tasked with teaching their students how to identify, find, evaluate, use, and document information effectively and responsibly.

In light of the current political climate and the effortlessness of disseminating information across social media platforms, the national conversation on information literacy has been focused on combating “fake news.” While the urgency of this issue is also a concern in TCU classrooms, the librarians at our institutions have the added responsibility of helping students navigate information in both Western and traditional contexts. Among the challenges of building a tribal nation that is self-sufficient when seeking and using information is being cognizant of how technology has made the dissemination of knowledge much easier than in the past. Tribal librarians and educators have to consider the ethical incorporation of previously ignored forms of Indigenous knowledge—oral traditions, song and dance, art, and astronomy—into student academic work. Diné and pop cultural references are steadily being created and perpetuated online across social media channels in the form of memes, comedy pages, cultural-information pages, news sites, satirical sites, and language pages. While it is a good sign that elements of Diné culture are actively being utilized in this communicative format, not all cultural information is intended for these wires. A significant portion of the cultural information found on the internet deserves closer scrutiny.

CHANGING THE PARADIGM

Guided by its founding principles and Diné educational philosophy, information literacy instruction at Diné College in Tsaile, Arizona, is rooted in the very mission of TCUs, providing culturally based education by Native peoples for Native peoples. Schools and the educational system have exposed Native people to libraries on a greater scale than in the past. Before the establishment of the first tribally controlled college, however, this exposure was problematic. Prior to World War II, library services for Indigenous peoples were aligned with the U.S. educational system, which sought to “civilize” American Indians by converting them to Christianity (Rockefeller-MacArthur, 1998). Therefore, the first reading materials and literacy services made available to Indigenous patrons were primarily Bibles and vocational training manuals with complete disregard for traditional knowledge that had been passed down from generation to generation. Public library services were unavailable to those individuals who resided on reservations, and even those who had access to non-reservation library services did not see themselves or their history reflected in the resources offered to them. Even in Indian school libraries, one would be hard pressed to find materials that were not missionary minded or did not idealize Indigenous people to the point of mythologizing their existence.

After World War II and the creation of the Navajo Community College (now Diné College), library services to Indigenous populations emerged as an opportunity for significant change. Navajo Community College Press published materials for Native American studies, including a number of works on Navajo oral history, cultural curriculum development, and education by Ruth Roessel, who developed the Diné studies program and was a founder of Diné College. The library housed publications from Navajo Community College Press as well as many primary source documents such as pamphlets, brochures, lesson plans, reports, and translations that the college had created. Still, the amount of linguistic, anthropological, and fictitious works by non-Natives about Native people, language, and culture eclipsed these holdings.

It has been 50 years since Diné College was established, and the institution has since been a leader in American Indian self-determination in higher education. So too have its libraries provided materials and services that meet the informational, educational, and recreational reading needs of the campus and general community. Such information services have changed to accommodate the information and information-literacy needs of the Diné community to include traditional forms of knowledge.

Tribal librarians play an integral role in shifting attitudes among students and administrators on what the library can do for them. They are important in helping undo centuries worth of mistrust of the institution of education, which sought to eliminate tribal identities, cultures, and ways of knowing. They also help shift attitudes away from the Bureau of Indian Affairs and boarding school views of the library as a cold, static storage unit for books most likely written about Native culture and history by non-Natives. In addition to acquiring more appropriate materials on Indigenous peoples by Indigenous peoples, the Diné College library aims to help students identify and connect with information they may not necessarily find in a book. Technology has provided an alternative to the written form in capturing and curating traditional knowledge. These can be found in the form of video and audio recordings. The Diné College library holds original source material such as recorded lectures from our own Navajo studies professionals and practitioners, as well as oral history video recordings of notable Diné community members and cultural gatekeepers. our library also collaborates with other departments and programs to provide culturally relevant programming. For example, recent collaborations with the Navajo Cultural Arts Program (NCAP) allow for hands-on experience in cultural arts such as weaving, silversmithing, or moccasin making, which require practice and apprenticeships that books cannot provide. online digital repositories created and managed by Native institutions and governments for their communities are another way in which traditional knowledge can be created and stored. Although our college has not established such a repository yet, the potential is there to create one through collaboration with various tribal entities.

Library services to Indigenous populations have changed significantly since World War II, and tribal college libraries have played a role in this shift, as well as in how students identify and utilize information. TCUs have been instrumental in challenging the status quo on how scholarly research is conducted, especially in the context of incorporating traditional knowledge in the research process.

INCORPORATING TRADITIONAL KNOWLEDGE IN INFORMATION LITERACY

One of the main goals of teaching information literacy at TCUs is helping students critically reconsider their perception of library resources, especially books, which are often viewed as the ultimate source of authority when it comes to scholarly research. Students at many TCUs are often under the impression that library research equals book research. They are not aware that much of today’s scholarly output and publishing is done online and made available via e-books, e-journals, and electronic databases. online availability has made it easier to provide library resources to students at our satellite campuses. Although off-campus broadband accessibility still poses a significant issue for students, cellular and mobile access has offered another opportunity to reach them. Smartphone and touchscreen technology have provided additional options for accessing and utilizing library services and nonprint materials that may be of use to their research, including traditional or cultural knowledge.

Putting students in touch with non-traditional print resources stems from faculty demand that students consult resources by Native peoples. In turning away from anthropological and linguistic works written from a Western and often ethnocentric perspective, we have to teach students to research in a way that reflects Indigenous approaches to seeking knowledge. TCUs and TCU librarians should encourage students to see traditional knowledge as an essential component of the research process.

Because the curriculum at Diné College is based on the model of Diné educational philosophy, it makes sense that it serves as a framework for teaching information literacy at the college. Building on the work of past Diné curriculum developers and former Diné College instruction librarian, Victoria Beatty (2011), teaching research and information-seeking at Diné College still utilizes the educational principles that make up Są’ah Naagháĭ Bik’eh Hózhóón, or the Diné traditional living system. The first principle, Nitsáhákees—or “thinking”— may encompass choosing, formulating, or selecting a topic for research. At this stage, students formulate questions and begin to identify the information they seek. The next principle, Nahat’á—or “planning”— involves focusing a topic and developing research strategies. At this phase, students are learning where to find the information they seek, as well as learning to maximize their search efforts by breaking their topics into the most essential concepts. They are learning to evaluate what they find and to determine whether it fits into their overall research. In Iiná—or “life”—students apply their findings to the activities in their lives. This could involve real-life demonstrations through presentation and writing. organization is an essential component for this principle because the researchers present their findings in a way that will benefit the people and the community. Effective communication through organization is essential in order to achieve real-life application. Finally, Siihasin—or “assurance”—is achieved by reflecting on one’s work by evaluating, documenting, and making sure that the information gleaned and the knowledge shared was responsibly accessed and utilized. Reflecting on one’s work also forces the researcher to carefully consider any unclosed loops and contemplate future directions, which leads back to the beginning of this research model.

JINÍ AND SOCIAL MEDIA

Social media has made it easier than ever to connect with an audience and to create and share information. In many ways, it has helped with pressing Indigenous issues such as activism and language preservation. There are a number of pages and profiles hosted by Indigenous groups, Native organizations, and advocates that aim to provide resources to their audiences. These may be in the form of news, events, language resources and tools, activities, pictures/photographs, and videos. While this form of knowledge dissemination can help reduce the deficit of Indigenous writing by mainstream academic and news publishers, it is our responsibility as educators to teach our people and students how to responsibly consume and facilitate such information. Because social media is not going away and younger generations will be getting their main news sources from social media, teaching information evaluation and ethics from a cultural standpoint is a priority for tribal librarians.

Inculcating a healthy bit of skepticism using Navajo linguistic nomenclature and humor is one way to get students to consider their news sources. The term jiní, for example, when utilized as a verb translates to “he/she/they said/say . . . ” Its modern use has an air of non-commitment in that the person should not be quoted or referenced when passing on that information. When used as a noun, jiní can also translate to “gossip” or “hearsay.” Many Navajo satire pages and websites purposefully utilize jiní in this context for their content. The ease with which anyone can share a catchy headline can create a wildfire of misinformation that often spreads unchecked. This has never been truer than in 2015, when panicked Navajo Nation citizens reposted a “news” article claiming that then- President Barack obama had ordered the placement of 250,000 Syrian refugees on the Navajo and Standing Rock reservations due to their remote locations. According to the article, federal authorities would be closely monitoring these reservations for “suspicious activity.” The reaction was so strong that the office of then-Navajo Nation President Russell Begaye had to issue a statement of their own denouncing the article as a hoax. The article and the website hosting it has since been a regular part of teaching resource evaluation (or spotting “fake news”) at the college.

Despite the negative modern connotation associated with jiní́, the original use of the word has to be carefully considered in the context of relaying cultural knowledge such as oral traditions and histories. Medicine people, elders, and cultural practitioners frequently use the word to begin or conclude stories, histories, and explanations of songs and other cultural practices. The “they” implied in the word refers to our people and ancestors; the knowledge that follows is a performative lesson that cannot be fully captured in written form. Social media and technology have provided another way of capturing and sharing oral histories, but we have to teach our students to be careful about what cultural information they consume and share. Although its modern usage tends to obscure credibility, creating an image of falsehood or “fakeness,” there is still power in jiní and in a library setting. It is a versatile concept that encompasses many aspects of learning and research settings.

Ultimately the goal of TCUs is to strengthen and empower the tribal communities they serve through education. At the heart and hearth of this mission is creating a nation of responsible information consumers and administrators who know how to navigate and negotiate the synapses between Western and traditional knowledge wherever they may appear—in print, online, in digital or spoken format, in person, or in practice. TCU libraries and Indigenous-serving libraries everywhere are essential partners in meeting these goals in working to make their facilities active campus and community hubs where various forms of knowledge exchange occur beyond the simple distribution of books.

Rhiannon Sorrell (Diné) is an instructor and digital services librarian at Diné College.

REFERENCES

Beatty, V. (2011). Empowering Indigenous Students in the learning library. In l. Roy, A. Bhasin, & S. K. Arriaga (Eds.), Tribal Libraries, Archives, and Museums: Preserving Our Language, Memory, and Lifeways (pp. 131–40). lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press.

Rockefeller-MacArthur, E., MacArthur, P., & Rockefeller, R. (1998). American Indian Library Services in Perspective: From Petroglyphs to Hypertext. london: McFarland.