D’Arcy McNickle Center for American Indian and Indigenous Studies

We strive to connect Native communities with materials related to their cultures and histories at the Newberry. To inquire about a private group viewing of collection items, please email us.

In 2020, the Newberry revised its policy regarding access to culturally sensitive materials. The policy gives tribal nations more options for assigning protocols to specific items in the Newberry collection. Identification of these materials is still underway. We encourage researchers to review our policy closely, and we welcome input from tribal representatives.

The D’Arcy McNickle Distinguished Speaker Series celebrates Indigenous scholars, writers, and artists who consistently demonstrate excellence in their work concerning Indigenous peoples and histories and who actively address contemporary issues faced by American Indian and Indigenous communities. Usually held in November, past lectures have featured Ned Blackhawk, Leslie Marmon Silko, Winona LaDuke, and Nick Estes.

Rose Miron is the Director of the D’Arcy McNickle Center for American Indian and Indigenous Studies at the Newberry Library, as well as Adjunct Faculty in the History Department and Affiliate Faculty in the Center for Native American and Indigenous Research at Northwestern University. She holds a BA in History and a PhD in American Studies from the University of Minnesota. A non-Native historian, her research explores Indigenous history and public memory across the Great Lakes and Northeast regions of the United States. Her publications include a monograph, Indigenous Archival Activism: Mohican Interventions in Public History and Memory (2024) and several articles and books chapters on repatriation, digital projects, and representations of Indigenous history in the public. Dr. Miron has also worked on and written about several public history projects. At present, she is co-directing (with Meredith McCoy, Analú María López, and Blaire Morseau) a multifaceted public history project called Indigenous Chicago, which is an extended collaboration between the Newberry Library, Native community members, and tribal nations with historic ties to the Chicago region.

Haku Blaisdell is the Associate Director for Outreach and Strategy of the Newberry Library’s D’Arcy McNickle Center for American Indian and Indigenous Studies. In this role, she serves as the liaison between tribal nations and the Newberry. She’s honored and grateful for the opportunity to be a part of the work that reconnects Native communities with their materials that the Newberry currently stewards. She comes to this role with a B.S. in Education from Northwestern University and a background in Native American and Indigenous Studies. She also brings community engagement experience from her time interning at the Field Museum during the creation of the Native Truths exhibition. Ultimately, she credits her upbringing as a proud Kanaka Maoli (Native Hawaiian) for preparing her for this role.

Sarah Jimenez is a tribally enrolled member of the M’Chigeeng First Nation in Ontario, Canada. She has been the Program Coordinator at the McNickle Center since Summer 2019.