Frequently Asked Questions

Below is more information about some of the inner workings of this exhibit. If you have a question that is not on here, feel free to contact me.

How can I use this site? 

Why did you make this site?

Indigenous, First Nations, American Indian, or Native American?  

What advice do you have on partnering with Indigenous nations to research local history?  

I’m trying to research local Indigenous history but my local area does not have many sources on Indigenous people. What should I do?

Are you telling me I should feel guilty? 

Can I use this site for my land acknowledgment?  

What is a land acknowledgment? Should I have one?  

I’m from around the Ohio area. What are some sources to get me started?  

How did you make this site?  

How can I use this site? 

That is up to you, this exhibit has a broad range of uses! If you are not from Wooster/Wayne County, this site can serve as an example of how local historians in your area can research local Indigenous history and read local historical works critically. If you are from Wayne County, this exhibit can reveal new insight into a popular local historian, how he wrote, and the area you call home. This exhibit is suitable for secondary students and adults, and sections that contain harsh language and violence have been noted.  

For teachers:  

This website relates to the following Ohio State Social Studies Standards (as of 2023):  

If you are using information from this site for an academic or published project, please cite the source I utilized or cite my project with the following citation:  

Van Dyke, Glenna. “Page Title.” On This Land. The College of Wooster, 2023. https://on-this-land.collegeofwooster.net. 

Why did you make this site?

Last year, I wrote a paper on Benjamin Douglass’s use of stereotypes and omissions when discussing Indigenous history after a summer working with the Wooster Digital History Project. However, because it is a paper that was only shared with my advisor, there was really no way to share what I had found with anyone in the community. It felt strange to write about local history without giving the chance for the public to engage. It also felt strange to write about Indigenous communities without a great way for them to see the work that I had produced or for local people to connect with them. Last, I simply thought that this story would lend itself well to a style that was less linear in storytelling and that could let me include images, videos, quotes, maps, and interactive elements.

Indigenous, First Nations, American Indian, or Native American? 

This is a great question, and one that I had to do some research on myself. Throughout my work, I’ve used “Native American” here and there, but I mainly use “Indigenous” as it is the most inclusive, according to the University of California.

According to the National Museum of the American Indian, it is best to be as specific as possible and name which tribe you’re speaking about whenever possible. That way, you avoid making sweeping generalizations.  

However, just as it is important to not generalize when talking about separate Indigenous groups, who have very different cultures, it is also important to realize that there is no one label that appeals to every person who belongs to an Indigenous group. For example, in Canada, Indigenous groups prefer to use “First Nations.” Others prefer “American Indian,” which is used by the United States Government.

What advice do you have partnering with

Indigenous nations to research local history? 

Here are some words of advice from Carissa Speck, the Historic Preservation Office Director of the Delaware Nation:

First and foremost, actively consult with the Federally-Recognized Tribes either in your location or with history in your location. There will be a Tribe or multiple Tribes who once inhabited the land you are working on or the city/county/state you intend to research. It may take several attempts of getting in contact with the right person to consult with due to scheduling and workload but patience is a virtue in this case, so continue trying until you find someone available to work with you. Building a relationship during consultation is extremely important, just as you would with your classmates or co-workers. We need to know that we can trust you and that you will take our knowledge and words seriously and respectfully. Each Indigenous Community is unique, so once you start consulting with a Tribe, the person you are working with will let you know how to best represent their community, history, and culture in your work. Finally, transparency builds trust. Be open to critique, be available to listen and be honest. 

Carissa Speck, Historic Preservation Director, Delaware Nation, 2023.

I’m trying to research local Indigenous history but my local area does not have many sources on Indigenous people. What should I do? 

First, realize that it still important to investigate Indigenous history! If your area has a town or county history, a local historian may have written about Indigenous people noted by white settlers. Read these passages carefully and ask yourself what the author includes or excludes, and why. Other sections in local histories to check are sections on local archeology and “pioneer memoirs” that can shed light on settlers’ personal interactions with Indigenous people.  

Second, expanding your scope to more regional information can yield more information. If you live in a small area, what information can you find on the surrounding villages, towns, counties, etc.? Knowing more about the regional context can help you extrapolate on what Indigenous populations may have been in a given smaller area and will help you to avoid not discussing Indigenous people at all. Sometimes, historians have to read into the blank spaces in history to make sure that groups are not stereotyped or ignored.  

Third, if you have a local historical work at your disposal, it is important to separate pure numerical facts from interpretation. These works collected valuable local oral testimonies that may not be entirely reliable, but sometimes they are the only surviving account.

If you can’t find much from local history, nativeland.ca is a great resource to get you started. Native Land is an online database that lists information such as some potential Indigenous nations that lived in an area, and treaties that impacted a given locality. However, Native Land does not lend to list the full extent of tribes that lived in a locality, and as Wayne County was an area of trade, it does not list groups like the Shawnee, Delaware, and Wyandot that are discussed extensively in local histories.  

Fifth, place names are often a way to get started. According to Jean O’Brien, white settlers often named places after Indigenous people and groups to solidify the idea that they “replaced” them as the rightful owners of a given land.1O’Brien, xxiii Do some searching on town, river, county, and regional names, and see what you uncover.  

Lastly, remember that some areas will have more information than others. In Wayne County, there was a wealth of information on the treaties that impacted the area, the regional trade systems, the trails that ran through the area, and the histories of Indigenous groups, but there was less so on local settlements, Indigenous population numbers, and factors that caused Indigenous people to leave Wayne County. In some areas, I had to speak to absences in the record, rely on more regional accounts, or speak to the multiple ways that events could have played out.  

Are you telling me I should feel guilty? 

Reading through this exhibit, you may experience feelings of guilt, shame, sadness, and anger. I certainly did as I completed this project. However, instilling these negative feelings is not the point of this project. Rather, after reading through this exhibit, you should come away with new insight and motivation to give local Indigenous history more of the attention that it deserves. If you have other questions or concerns, feel free to contact me.

Can I use the information from this site for my organization’s land acknowledgment? 

You are welcome to use the information presented in this exhibit to guide the creation of your land acknowledgment. I would also encourage you to visit the Native Governance Center’s webpage on the topic to think about how you can go beyond a land acknowledgement to benefit today’s Indigenous communities and to not exploit Indigenous peoples’ knowledge and lived experiences.  

What is a land acknowledgment?  

A land acknowledgement is a researched statement that recognizes the Indigenous inhabitants of a certain area, past and present. They address the ways that forced assimilation, violence, and removal impacted local Indigenous populations, and emphasize the fact that Indigenous communities continue to exist. Land acknowledgments are usually written and shared by organizations (colleges, museums, nonprofits, etc.) and are about a paragraph long. See the National Museum of the American Indian or the Native Governance Center for more information.  

Local examples:  

The College of Wooster 

The Ohio State University   

Columbus Audubon Society  

Bowling Green State University  

I’m from around the Ohio area. What are some sources to get me started? 

See my sources page! I recommend that you use a mixture of tribal sources, Indigenous oral histories (if you can access them), and resources specific to your county, region, or state.

How did you make this site? 

The short answer to this question is that I used WordPress version 6.1.1 (hosted by The College of Wooster) and ArcGIS StoryMaps to construct this project. WordPress is a great tool if you are looking to tell a digital story based on text, images, sound and video: I was able to customize the platform to fit how I wanted to organize the information you see here without a ton of coding. I used the Twenty Twenty Two theme and Bluehost through the College to host the site. If you are looking for a more in-depth answer, see my blog posts about digital history and platforms such as StoryMaps and WordPress.