There are numerous shifts being brought about by the development of digital tools for humanities and social science research. The facilitation of collaborations between scholars working in different locales is one of these. Digitization also makes it possible for scholars to share the basic primary sources on which their work is based. In the case of documentary materials born out of ethnographic collaboration, this can fulfill the crucial goal of making these documents, and the knowledge that they embody, more accessible to the source communities out of which they come. The shift to digital tools is also allowing scholars and others to establish virtual special-interest archives devoted to bringing together, and to interpreting, otherwise scattered-but-valuable cultural materials. While such efforts are essential to the contemporary work of museums and archives, it is being undertaken today in virtual collaborations that need not always proceed with formal institutional sponsorship.
Perhaps the best illustration of these trends for those concerned with the richness of Oklahoma’s cultural fabric is the Creek Language Archive project, a long-term effort being pursued by Margaret Mauldin and Gloria McCarty of the University of Oklahoma (OU) and Jack B. Martin of the College of William and Mary. Margaret and Gloria teach the Muskogee (Creek) language at OU. Jack is a linguist who has studied Muskogee and related languages since the 1980s. All three have collaborated intensively on the documentation, preservation, revitalization and analysis of Muskogee. Their work has included extensive use of unpublished archival materials assembled by Creek and non-Creek scholars such as Earnest Gouge, Mary Haas, and John R. Swanton.
In the Creek Language Archive, the project collaborators have made available a wealth of primary materials of great value for anyone interested in the Muskogee language, the oral traditions of the native Southeast, or early literary work in Muskogee by Creek authors. The site provides not only PDF documents, but many audio recordings related to the collections that are presented and interpreted. Of special interest are the primary text collections that the collaborators have devoted great energy to preparing for publication. For anyone aware of how much effort has gone into preparing the materials that it contains, the richness of the Creek Language Archive is truly staggering.
