FamilySearch Wiki:WikiProject Indians of North America

Contributors

Coach -- Jimmy B. Parker

Wiki Advisor -- Michael Ritchey

Content Specialists -- Joan Healey, JoLynne Harline

Contributors (roles to be defined) -- Jan Edwards, Lana Whiting, Norma Dalton, Rose Adams, Frances Taylor, Dixie Cragun, JoAnne Kartchner, LaShelle Fisher, Tauna Hinckley

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, 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.

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.

In the United States, there are 562 federally-recognized Indian entities, including nearly 300 Indian villages and other groups in the State of Alaska. In Phase One of this project, only the 264 tribes and bands in the "lower 48" will be addressed. Of these, stub articles have already been established for 184 of them, leaving 80 more for which stub articles need to be established. Of the 264 tribes, approximately 15 of them have significant content already included in their pages, leaving content to be added to some 250 others.  All 80 of the stub articles will be added by 15 December 2009. Content will be added to the remaining 250 tribal pages in sprints between 15 December 2009 and 1 April 2010.

There are approximately 357 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 334 of these agencies have already been created, leaving only 33 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 33 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 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.

Requirements and tasks

Current Sprint: 18 November to 18 December 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 need for the task, those instructions will be added to the "Notes" column. As you volunteer for a task, place a three tildes 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.

Requirement	Task	Notes	Sign Up by inserting three tildes here	Comments	No. est.	No. to do	% Done	Task  Done	Requirement Done
Add tribal pages	Identify tribes to be added	Tribes are identified	Jbparker		265	0	100%	yes	yes
Add tribal pages	Add stub articles for identified tribes (contact team coach for list)	This is simple "cut and paste" task. Instructions will be provided.			265	81	70%
Add content to tribal pages	Add names and addresses of tribal headquarters	Requires "Google" searches for official tribal addresses			265	230	13%
Add content to tribal pages	Add external links to important web sites	Requires "Google" searches to find the 5 most important web sites for each tribe			265	216	15%
Add cross-references to tribal pages from state Indian page	Check "Indians of _______" and add internal links to tribal pages	Requires finding tribal pages and cross-linking them, as instructed		Many internal links have already been made. None of the states are completely done.	49	49
Add Agency pages	Identify agencies to be added	Agencies are identified	Jbparker		357	0	100%	yes	yes
Add Agency pages	Add stub articles for identified agencies (contact team coach for list)	This is simple "cut and paste" task. Instructions will be provided.			357	33	91%

Additional tasks are being worked on and will take more time than this initial sprint. Those tasks are reflected in the following chart.

Requirement	Task	Notes	Sign Up by inserting three tildes here	Comments	No. est.	No. to do	% Done	Task  Done	Requirement Done
Add content to tribal pages	Add brief histories for each tribe				265
Add content to tribal pages	Add descriptions of records for each tribe				265

Requirements Backlog

NOTE: This section of the Project Page is under development.

This is a list of possible requirements or features of this project. Before each sprint, each member of the team votes on his/her top 5 requirements (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.

Requirement	Category	Priority score by Ritcheymt	Priority score by	Priority  score by	Priority score by	Priority score by	Priority score by	Priority Score (Total)