Huluniixsuwaakan: The Role of the Library in Munsee Delaware Language Revitalization and the Development of Community Relationships on Lenape Land

Abstract

Abstract: Since 2021, Munsee community members have joined historians and library staff from the Institute for Advanced Study (IAS) and Princeton University (PU) for an annual language and history symposium on Lenape (Delaware) lands in Princeton, New Jersey, located on the traditional homelands of the Munsee people (or "Lunaapeew"). Informed by symposium conversations, PU faculty, students, and library staff, IAS faculty and researchers, and Munsee community members have been involved in a long-term project to locate, digitize, describe, and make accessible Munsee (or "Lunaape") language materials, currently comprising over two dozen rare manuscripts and printed books, to Munsee community members, the campus community, and the broader public. This article discusses the goals of the project for both Lunaape language teachers and library staff and explores the challenges encountered, including problems using existing standardized terminology and controlled vocabularies for describing library materials, difficulties encountered when working with a wide range of stakeholders, and institutional barriers to making materials freely accessible to community members. While this article is descriptive rather than prescriptive, it offers a series of questions and recommendations to assist academic libraries in developing relationships with Indigenous communities and implementing best practices to nurture such relationships.