FamilySearch Wiki:WikiProject Indians of North America

Contributors

 * Coach -- Jimmy B. Parker
 * Wiki Advisor -- Michael Ritchey
 * Content Specialists -- Joan Healey, JoLynne Harline
 * Contributors -- Rose Adams, Dixie Cragun, Norma Dalton, Jan Edwards, LaShelle Fisher, Tauna Hinckley, JoAnne Kartchner, Charles Smith, Karen Soliday, Frances Taylor, Robert Vann, Lana Whiting
 * Uploader -- Claudia Jean Heaston

Roles of Contributors
Wiki projects need people playing various roles. Here are some possible roles or skill sets that are needed in the Indians of North America Project. If you have a particular interest in one or more of these roles, please communicate those interests to the Project Coach.:

Volunteer: an entry-level member of the project, this person can handle simple assignments such as "copy and paste" tasks and adding links.

Googler: a team member who can do everything a Volunteer can do plus use search engines to find relevant Web sites and add links to those Web sites.

Uploader: a team member who is interested in locating images appropriate for the project and uploading those images to American Indian pages.

Researcher: A team member who can do everything Googlers can do plus be assigned to conduct research on a subject, make a list of references located, and recommend what should be written.

Writing Specialist/Editor: A team member who can do everything a Researcher can do, plus synthesize what was found by other team members into a succinct wiki page or section of a page. These folks are good at grammar, writing bridges between ideas, adding intuitive headings, etc.

Content Specialist: A team member who can do everything done by Researchers, plus review and recommend additional content.

Coach: Alternately called Team Lead, Mentor, Master (as in Master Craftsman), Craftsman, Subject Coordinator, Subject Moderator, Project Coach, Coach, or Team Coach, this person is knowledgeable about the subject in question. This person usually has a legacy of knowledge he desires to leave to the community, and could use some help fulfilling other project roles.

Scope of the project
There is much to learn of the Indians of North America, including their history, types of records, the location of those records, web sites of interest, and much more. The study is large enough to justify approaching this project in phases.

The purpose of the FamilySearch Wiki is to provide its users with enough information about the history of the group, locality, or record type to explain something of the content, location, and use of records. It is NOT the intent to have the Research Wiki be the end-all location of the history of all tribes, bands, etc. The focus for the Research Wiki is to be on records and their use. For that reason, we must focus on where known records exist, describe those records and their custodians, and explain the content of the records to those wishing to trace their ancestors.

Foundation: state pages
A foundation has been laid for the project by establishing a page for the Indians of each state of the United States. Those pages include a list of the tribes and bands of Indians currently residing in the state and those historically associated with it. The state pages also list reservations, Bureau of Indian Affairs agencies, Indian schools and health facilities, important web sites, and a bibliography for further reading. Each of these tribes, agencies, reservations, etc. are deserving of a page of their own.

Phase 1: Tribes and agencies
Phase One of this project will seek to address:


 * 1) The Indian tribes of the United States, a brief history of each tribe and its records, the location of tribal headquarters, the reservations and BIA agencies related to those tribes, and some significant web sites of interest.
 * 2) The BIA agencies in the United States, their history and name changes, changes of their jurisdiction, the tribes for which they were responsible, the types and locations of the agency records, especially those in the National Archives and its regional archives, with internal links to other records and their location.

Tribal pages
In the United States, there are 562 federally-recognized Indian entities, including nearly 200 Indian villages and other groups in the State of Alaska. In Phase One of this project, only the 364 tribes and bands in the "lower 48" will be addressed. In addition, there are some historical name changes of those tribes that must be addressed. Of these, stub articles have already been established for 394 of them, leaving only 6 more for which stub articles need to be established. Of the 400 tribes, approximately 15 of them have significant content already included in their pages, leaving content to be added to some 385 others. All of the stub articles will be added by 15 December 2009. Content will be added to the remaining tribal pages in sprints between 15 December 2009 and 1 April 2010.

Agency pages
There are approximately 368 BIA agencies which currently exist or have existed within the borders of the "lower 48" since their establishment in the 1800s. Some have undergone name changes, the tribes for which they have been responsible have changed, and some have ceased to exist. If records were created by those agencies, a separate page must be created, with cross-references to related agencies. Pages for 342 of these agencies have already been created, leaving only 26 more to be created. Most of the agency pages already have significant content, but many need some additions, and internal links to and from the tribal pages need to be established. The remaining agency pages will all be added by 15 December 2009. Content will be added to the remaining agency pages in sprints between 15 December 2009 and 1 April 2010.

Phase 2: Reservations
Phase Two will deal with the reservations, Pueblos of New Mexico, and California rancherias. Four hundred forty reservations and pueblos have been identified in the United States, with stub articles created for 285 of them. Of the 66 identified California rancherias, stub articles have been created for 61 of them. Content must still be added to virtually all of the pages in these categories.

Additional phases will be added in the future.

Current Sprint: 18 November to 5 January 2009
This table tracks the requirements the team is trying to fulfill in the current sprint. A sprint is a period of days in which a team seeks to fulfill certain project requirements. Several tasks may have to be done to fulfill a single requirement; hence the Task column. If there are instructions needed for the task, those instructions will be added to the "Notes" column. As you volunteer for a task, place three tildes like this  in the "Sign Up" column. This places your User Name in that column. More than one person may sign up for a single task, in which case, the task will be coordinated by the Team Coach. Team members should report their progress at least weekly to the Team Coach who will complete the final five columns. 

Upcoming Sprint: 7 January 2010 to 2 February 2010
Focus for this sprint will be on adding content to the Tribal pages, adding internal links between tribal pages, agencies, reservations, and states. 

Additional tasks will continue to be worked on over several sprints. Those tasks are reflected in the following chart. 

Requirements Backlog
This is a list of possible requirements or features of this project. Before each sprint, each member of the team may vote on his/her top 5 requirement and/or task (the most important gets a 5, the least important gets a 1). After the vote we cut and paste requirements from this table to the Current Sprint table and assign to a contributor. 