Some exciting developments on my project happened this week, namely, I now have a set structure for how I want to go about writing about my work and designing my exhibit. Before writing my web content, which will be a limited number of words, I am first reading up on how other historians have used digital technology, and how my project fits into other historical fields. These include things like public history, or historical pursuits that exist outside of academia, local history, or history that is focused on a limited geographic area, and Indigenous history, which emphasizes the experiences of Native Americans, Canadians, etc. What I’m finding is that this project is a mixture of several different fields that are all ultimately informing how I construct my project. I’ve also found that it can be viewed as a secondary source, that tells you information or a historiographical source that tells you about how history can be produced and written. In that sense, it has a meta component that is both making a historical argument and deconstructing how such arguments are made.
I also am in the process of waiting to hear back from the folks from the Wyandot nation, and I plan to send out additional communications to the Shawnee and Delaware nations as soon as I get some feedback on my email drafts. I want to ensure that my drafts are checked by another person before I send them to ensure that they are respectfully communicating my intentions to people whose perspectives will be highly valued in my project.