Arizona State Museum (ASM) at the University of Arizona is the oldest and largest anthropological research museum in the U.S. Southwest, with expansive collections that are exceptional resources for the teaching, study, and understanding of the region’s 13,000-year human history. The ASM Library and Archives is a research collection open to the public specializing in the anthropology of the southwestern United States and northern Mexico, including archaeology, ethnology, ethnohistory, and material culture.
At the Arizona State Museum, the Doris Duke Native American Oral History Project was funded from 1967 to 1973. Anthropology graduate students, professors, and tribal members conducted interviews and other recordings with 417 individuals from 55 different cultural designations on approximately 615 reel-to-reel tapes and transcribed 282 of the interviews. The bulk of the recordings are with Tohono O'odham and Apache interviewees. Other tribes from Arizona, New Mexico, California, and Mexico are also represented. The interviewees discuss personal and family histories, along with topics such as social culture, education, health, history, language, politics, and religion. The following tribes and cultural groups are represented in the collection:
- Chemehuevi Tribe (Colorado River Indian Tribes)
- Chontal
- Comanche Nation
- Crow Tribe of Montana
- The Fort McDowell Yavapai Nation
- Fort Yuma Quechan Indian Community
- Genízaro
- Gila River Indian Community
- Havasupai Tribe
- Hualapai Tribe
- Iñupiat
- Mexican/Chihuahuan
- Mexican/Sonoran
- Mexican-American
- Mohave Tribe (Colorado River Indian Tribes)
- Navajo Nation
- Non-native
- Oglala Lakota Nation
- Ohkay Owingeh
- Pascua Yaqui Tribe
- Picuris Pueblo
- Pima Bajo
- Pueblo of Acoma
- Rarámuri
- Salt River Indian Community (Pima and Maricopa)
- San Carlos Apache
- Seri - Comcáac
- Standing Rock Sioux Tribe
- Tiwa
- Tohono O'odham Nation
- Tonto Apache Tribe
- White Mesa Utes
- White Mountain Apache Tribe
- Yavapai-Apache Nation
- Yavapai-Prescott Indian Tribe
Current project staff are improving descriptions and access to the collection and are collaborating with tribal partners on the project.
Contact Information
Arizona State Museum Library and Archives
Second Floor, Arizona State Museum North
1013 E. University Blvd
P.O. Box 210026
Tucson, AZ 85721-0026
520-621-4695