UALR’s Sequoyah National Research Center initiated a new American Indian Student Internship Program this summer, providing research work experience for three members of the Yupik, Cherokee, and Seneca-Shawnee tribes.

The center initiated the outreach program this year following a successful pilot in 2009 with three undergraduate students from UALR, Hendrix College, and the University of Denver.

“The interns this year were asked to demonstrate the value of their experience by a report of work they did, finding aids they created for collections, or reports of their research that may be shared with their home institutions,” said Dr. Daniel Littlefield, director of the Sequoyah National Research Center.

This year’s interns included Erin Fehr, a Yupik studying for a master’s degree in musicology and library and information science at the University of Oklahoma following an internship at the National Archives and Records Administration’s regional archive in Seattle. At the Sequoyah National Research Center, she processed two major groups of records in the massive Paul DeMain Collection: The News from Indian Country office files and DeMain’s records as campaign manager for the 2000 Green Party vice-presidential candidate Winona LaDuke.

Kimberly Baker, a Cherokee student at Northeastern Oklahoma State University studying environmental health and safety management, was selected for the Sequoyah program following her work with the National Indian Women’s Health Resource Center developing a curriculum that focused on Native American health and spirituality education for teenagers. At Sequoyah, she processed the Choctaw Removal documents and the Chickasaw Removal documents in the Indian Removal Collection as well as the Fuller Bumpers Collection related to Seminole Removal.

Alex Tyner, a student at Haskell Indian Nations University majoring in indigenous and American Indian studies, worked at Sequoyah indexing the contents of records related to the removal of his own Seneca and Shawnee tribes from Ohio in the 1940s.

The Sequoyah Center provided the interns with university housing and a modest honorarium.

“Because of the enthusiasm and hard work of the summer interns during 2009 and 2010, the center intends to make the summer internships for Native American students a permanent part of its outreach efforts,” Littlefield said.

For more information about the Sequoyah National Research Center, contact Littlefield at 501-569-8336.