It’s the go-to site for a quick bit of information. Yet Wikipedia, an encyclopedia that anyone can edit, lacks entries about many notable women and people of color. One Oregon State Honors College class has filled in a few of those gaps.
Natchee Barnd, an associate professor in the College of Liberal Arts, frequently teaches an honors section of his Introduction to Native American Studies class. For winter term 2022, the class focused on writing Indigenous women into Wikipedia.
The project came to Barnd from the Smithsonian Institution and Wiki Education by way of Laurie Bridges, an outreach librarian at the Valley Library. The Smithsonian and Wiki Edu, which collaborates with universities on Wikimedia projects, had approached Bridges with a list of names and some preliminary sources. She, in turn, asked Barnd. It was an easy yes.
“I'm always looking for new, creative, engaging kinds of experiential learning for my classes,” he says. Barnd, his students and Bridges wrote nine new Wikipedia entries:
- Ramona Bennett (Puyallup), an activist involved in protests over fishing rights in Washington state during the 1960s and 70s.
- Mitchelene BigMan (Apsáalooke/Hidatsa), a U.S. Army veteran who established Native American Women Warriors, the first all-female Indigenous color guard.
- Diane Burns (Anishinabe/Chemehuevi), an artist and poet who became prominent in the New York City poetry community.
- Lena Frank Dick (Washoe), a basket maker known for her tight weaves and figurative designs.
- Lynnette Haozous (Chiricahua Apache/Diné/Taos Pueblo), a painter, printmaker, jeweler and actor known for murals that blend art and advocacy.
- Liliʻuokalani Trust, which executes the deed of trust of Hawaii's last ruling monarch, Queen Lili'uokalani (Kanaka Maoli), and provides social services for vulnerable native Hawaiian children.
- Ramona Lubo (Cahuilla), a basket maker who became famous from the 1884 novel “Ramona,” which was based on the controversial death of her husband.
- Patricia Whitefoot (Yakama), who served as President of the National Indian Education Association and the National Advisory Council on Indian Education.
- Mary Cornelius Winder (Oneida), who wrote a series of letters to the federal government related to the ancestral land claims of the Oneida Indian Nation.
Barnd says the six students in the class, a couple of whom identify as Indigenous, chose to write about people and topics “that spoke to them.” They cited references from credible sources such as library books, archives, newspapers and articles and followed Wikipedia’s protocol to write in a neutral voice.
That neutrality was challenging for some entries, particularly on Indigenous activism, so students incorporated
direct quotes from their subjects. Barnd says that approach helped ensure their voices were not stripped away, “an ongoing challenge that Indigenous communities face.”
Simply giving voice to these Indigenous women, some of whom are living, sends an important message, Barnd says. “I'm constantly having to convince people that not all native people have died. They actually exist. They’re right here.”
And they have stories that should be told.