Robyn Ward

LI818XO Arrangement & Description

Finding Aid Writing Assignment

Intermountain Indian School, Brigham City, Utah

Three distinct finding aids:

Utah State University Libraries Special Collections & Archives
http://library.usu.edu/specol/photoarchive/p0327.html
University of New Mexico Archive via the Rocky Mountain Online Archive
http://rmoa.unm.edu/docviewer.php?docId=nmu1mss596bc.xml
http://rmoa.unm.edu/docviewer.php?docId=nmupict000-596.xml
The National Archives – Rocky Mountain Region
http://www.archives.gov/rocky-mountain/holdings/rg-050-099.html

When I was a kid there was an Intermountain Indian School in Brigham City,

Utah. I met one of my best friends during my childhood through this program. Her name

was Jenny Jean Jim. I was so young and really didn’t know much about the school and

thought it would be interested to find out the history of it.

To me the Intermountain Indian School was always known as the Indian School. I

didn’t know the official name. So my very first search was to go to Google. I thought that

there was probably an archive that would have information about the school, but I really

didn’t know where. A good possibility would be Utah State University.

My Google search resulted in bringing up a finding aid from the Utah State

University Libraries Special Collections & Archives. The finding aid is for a photograph

collection. The collection is “Intermountain Indian School Photograph Collection, 1955-

1970”. http://library.usu.edu/specol/photoarchive/p0327.html. The finding aid is in html

on the special collections website. One can access the finding aid one of three ways: by

searching (1) Google, (2) the USU special collections & archives website, or (3) the USU

library online catalog. The library online catalog is not easily searchable and one cannot

access the finding aid itself through this method. The best access to the collection seems
to be through Google or special collections.

The finding aid itself contains a scope and content note, historical notes, research

note with related resources (two theses), inventory (item level description), and an

inventory addendum that includes photos from the Compton Photograph Collection. The

finding aid also includes the preparer and date. It does not reference any other related

collections...not even the items in their own collections. There were 4 other records for

items/collections relating the school represented in the catalog. The scope and content is

concise and inclusive. The historical note is very helpful as well gives a good overview

and context for the creation and existence of the school. The photos have been divided

into series relating to specific categories or functions related to student activities. The

item level description is helpful on some level but no dates are identified on the finding

aid. Another downfall of the finding aid is that it doesn’t make mention as to why there

are no photos from 1971-1984 included in the collection. If another photo collection

exists consisting of these years, then there is no reference to it. The school was not closed

for another 13 years past this collection. The finding aid did not indicate any use or

access restrictions. The photos have not been digitized. The collection also does not seem

to be promoted in any way or seem to be a priority. To improve this finding aid I would

include information about access and use even if there were no restrictions. The finding

aid also did not indicate expanse of the collection (boxes or cubic feet).

Upon finding the above finding aid I thought that Utah State might be part of a

consortium that may also include an institution that may have similar holdings or

collections. It was not immediately obvious that they were, so searched the main library

website, but this was not helpful. I did another Google search typing in ‘rocky mountain
library consortia’. This produced nothing of relevance for me so I adjusted my search and

found a link to Utah Academic Library Consortium. This wasn’t very helpful either, so I

then searched Rocky Mountain Digital Archive and found Rocky Mountain Online

Archive. I searched my string of terms in this database and two finding aids resulted from

the University of New Mexico Archive (

http://rmoa.unm.edu/docviewer.php?docId=nmu1mss596bc.xml main collection

http://rmoa.unm.edu/docviewer.php?docId=nmupict000-596.xml separated photos)

These links are for two finding aids: One titled “Inventory of the K. (Katherine) Wood

Papers, 1924-1992 (bulk 1945-1975) held at the University of New Mexico, University

Libraries, Center for Southwest Research. The finding aid is encoded in EAD. The

finding aid contains a collection summary, biography including a scanned photo of

Katherine, scope and content note, access and copyright restrictions, preferred citation,

separated material, related material, access terms, and a contents list with folder level

description. The Intermountain Indian School is mentioned in the scope and content note.

It looks like Katherine was involved in “vision, hearing, and speech [activities] that

consisted largely of materials pertaining to school testing, with general information as

well as data specific to Hobbs and Gallup public schools, the Santa Fe Indian School, and

the Intermountain Indian School (UT)” The second link is to the finding aid for the

photograph collection which had been separated from this main collection.

Again the finding aid does not make reference to the others. I think that further

communication or contact with the archive would be helpful in being able to find out

what was in particular folders regarding the Indian School. This is just a related collection

of a woman involved in education and social work. The finding aid seems to be pretty
complete or complete enough for the intent it was initially made.

I went back to my first Google search results and looked at the resources to see if

I could find other repositories. I don’t know why it didn’t occur to me to start my initial

search with the Utah State Archive. But didn’t find anything about the school when I did

a search on their archives website. So I thought about which government agency would

this particular subject fall under … the Bureau of Indian Affairs. I then was able to find a

record group for this with a finding aid to the collection (http://www.archives.gov/rocky-

mountain/holdings/rg-050-099.html

(related links: http://www.archives.gov/research/guide-fed-records/groups/075.html

Main National Archives site: http://www.archives.gov/research/guide-fed-records/groups/075.html#75.20.22)

Record group 75: Records of the Bureau of Indian Affairs. The collection is held in

Colorado at the National Archives Rocky Mountain Region. The finding aid consists of a

concise/detailed Administrative history, a records description, which consists of the date

range, volume of collection, and folder series descriptions, which may be an agency,

office or school. These also include dates. It also lists finding aids related to the collection

and monographs, and related microfilm publications, and provides access and restriction

information. Again this finding aid did not make mention of the other two collections. It

looks as if a more detailed finding aid may be available in print at the archive. The

National Archives would have to be contacted to confirm this.

In searching for these finding aids I did not use any special database. I thought

that the topic would be pretty difficult to find really anything on it, and this proved to be

true. All of the resources I used are open and free to the public. I would say in all cases

the topic of the Intermountain Indian School is not promoted in any way. The Bureau of

Indian Affairs collection I would imagine is probably utilized quite a bit and it a gigantic
collection, but the other two I can’t see being promoted. It would be nice to have the

photo collection digitized.