The forced removals of the Lenni Lenape, or Delaware people, from their homelands in what is now Pennslyvania, New Jersey, Delaware, New York and Connecticut have caused a loss of cultural and historical artifacts.
This loss is to the extent that the Delaware Nation’s Director of Historic Preservation, Carissa Speck (Seminole), said the nation now has only about 50 artifacts.
A partnership with OU Libraries is helping to preserve the remaining items the Delaware Nation has left.
With help from OU’s 3D Scanning Lab, Speck said about 75 percent of the nation's artifacts will be digitized; the rest are either in the ground or in museums hundreds of miles away.
“Hopefully, with these changes in [NAGPRA] regulations and just creating good partnerships with museums back in the homelands, I hope we're able to get some of those objects back so that our tribal citizens can see them,” Speck said.
If all goes well, this 3D scanning method could bring more items back to tribal nations while allowing museums to showcase digital models of the artifacts.
For the Delaware Nation, this project will allow tribal citizens who live outside the area to view their artifacts and archives online through a cultural heritage repository. Those in the region, including the general public, can see the 3D artifacts in interactive kiosks in the tribe's museum in Anadarko.
Speck estimated the kiosks will be ready for public use in about a year.
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