The Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA) Archives recently completed a major project to preserve, digitize, and make available the archive of the important New York-based radio program "Seeing Red," hosted by activist Suzan Shown Harjo (Cheyenne and Hodulgee Muscogee) and her late husband Frank Harjo (Muscogee) from 1968-1975. The project was titled "American Indian Activism on the Radio: Preservation of the 'Seeing Red' Archive" and was generously funded by the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR). The archive is part of the Recordings at Risk program of the CLIR. The "Seeing Red" Project is one of only twenty projects selected from a pool of seventy-seven applicants.The finding aid for the eighty-nine tape collection can be accessed on Rocky Mountain Online Archive, and digital copies of select programs are publicly available on the IAIA Archives website and in the New Mexico Digital Collections site hosted by the University of New Mexico. The IAIA Archives will continue to work on increased access to the collection through a large-scale transcription project to provide searchable text copies online.

"Seeing Red" Reel to Reel Tapes

The original quarter-inch reel-to-reel audio tapes are part of a donation by Harjo to the archives and are a significant piece of the narrative surrounding the rise of the American Indian Movement (AIM) and subsequent legislation in self-determination and sovereignty of Native nations. A content review of the programs revealed over 200 unique names, terms, places, and events related to the Red Power Movement -- all captured in a unique time capsule of interviews and news reports. Interviews with Clyde Bellecourt (White Earth Band of Ojibwe) , Chuck Trimbull (Oglala Sioux) , Wendall Chino  (Mescalero Apache),  Vine Deloria Jr.

(Standing Rock Sioux),  Dennis Banks (Ojibwe) , Russell Means (Oglala Lakota),  Hank Adams  (Sioux-Assiniboine),  and others are invaluable primary resources for teachers, scholars, and the public alike. By reformatting the tapes and making the digital files widely available, scholars and the public can better understand the current realities of American Indian politics through a historical lens.

 

The "Seeing Red" archive is an important resource that examines the development of radio as a voice for disenfranchised peoples. Many of the recordings focus on the "American Indian Press Association," formed in the early 1970s, and the importance of providing "news for Native peoples, by Native peoples." 

Ryan S. Flahive , IAIA Archivist and faculty member remarked: "Having these recordings available for free online will help teachers and scholars further understand and disseminate the motives and activities of the American Indian Movement, a critical piece of American History neglected by most textbooks. Considering the breadth of subject matter in each program, the research possibilities are very exciting."

For more information and access to the Seeing Red Radio Archive, please visit the IAIA Archives website at https://iaia.edu/academics/library/archives/ or email the archives at [email protected].  

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