ArchiveGrid & CAMIO

I have not had a chance to play with either of these resources, so this challenge has definitely paid off. What a neat resource ArchiveGrid is. Although the majority of the items found in it I'm sure are not available for ILL, just the knowledge that they exist will be a boon for the genealogy folks. A number of genealogists are retired and plan their travels around searching for family history, so having a resource like ArchiveGrid will assist them in planning those research vacations. The summary on Sitting Bull hits the high points. I've actually read quite a few books on Native Americans and SD history, so the info was not new to me.

Out of curiosity, I typed in Verendrye, then Verendrye National, and Verendrye Plate to see if the Cultural Heritage Center would show up in any of the results. Alas, not so. However, I did learn that ND and Fort Pierre both claim a Verendrye National Monument. The State Historical Society of ND lists a Pierre la Verendrye in their record information, while the City of Fort Pierre lists the names Chevalier and Louis la Verendrye as the brothers who buried the plate. Different explorers from the same family? Good stuff! I'll have to go visit the Heritage Center now and look at the plate.


CAMIO: This would be a great resource to push to educators for student projects. Who knew Paul Revere made things like tea urns and sugar bowls? I certainly did not! It is things like this that would put a research paper or project over the top as far as information and effort. When I present to CUC English classes this fall, I am going to use this.

More than paintings, I enjoy looking at the Sioux items like beaded dresses, pipe bags, bowls etc. Amazing how resourceful these people were using every part of the buffalo that they harvested. Unfortunately, I'm not very artsy, so I don't have a favorite artist. I do, however, have a wonderful painting of Mt. Rushmore done by Del Iron Cloud. Del incorporates a lot of Native American icons like wolves, buffalo, dream catchers etc into his paintings, but you have to look closely at the painting to find them. CAMIO did not have any results for Del.

For #5 exercise, I did a search using just Arizona. I love art from the southwest, and found some great images of pottery and kachina dolls. If I were a student doing a report, picking a few of these, adding them to favorites, and creating a slideshow would add so much to the presentation. The images are very vivid and one can see the cracks in some of the pottery. Further, you've got the information as to when the item was created and some history of the creators and their culture. Neat resource.