UNREPATRIATABLE: NATIVE AMERICAN INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY AND MUSEUM DIGITIAL PUBLICATION
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Authors
Lord, Patricia M.
Issue Date
2014
Type
Capstone
Language
en
Keywords
Alternative Title
Abstract
Museums across the United States are digitizing material in order to increase public access to their collections and archival holdings via web publication. However, museums may be inadvertently digitizing and publishing content that contains Native American intellectual property without fully understanding the legal and cultural ramifications of doing so. For decades, misconceptions about Native American traditional material have pervaded museums. Inexperience with intellectual property laws which protect it have resulted in the denial of due intellectual property rights for many Native Americans. A thorough understanding established rights that Native American artists and creators are given through United States legal statutes is critical for any museum professional responsible for the care and management of Native American material. Federally recognized Native American tribes are sovereign nations (Colwell-Chanthaphonh, 2011 p. 453; Nason, 2001, p. 262; Torsen, 2006, p. 183-184) and digital publication may be subject to tribal law in addition to U.S. law (Hirtle, Hudson, & Kenyon, 2009, p. 36). Adhering to legal obligations when digitizing and publishing Native American material is the standard to which all museum professionals must adhere. However, thinking beyond legal frameworks, we must also consider whether our management practices adequately respect the laws that Native communities use to share and protect for their intellectual property.