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Abstract

This study examines motivations for adopting the Protocols for Native American Archival Materials (PNAAM), the factors that might impact implementation of PNAAM in practice, and an exploration of how and why new ethical standards are accepted or rejected. The researcher conducted a survey in 2023 of archivists and/or memory workers working at non-Tribal institutions that have some materials about Indigenous people. The study was designed around the respondent’s perceptions of authority, skills, knowledge, relationships, and resources both as individuals and within their repositories. The study also incorporated Albert Bandura’s framework for moral disengagement hypothetically as a mechanism for assessing ethical behavior in conjunction with ethical standards such as PNAAM. Questions were mapped to variables which were in turn constructed as dyad pairs. Using the hypothetical relationship between variables and the questions intended to measure them, the researcher was able to assess study limitations. Study limitations include the size of the response pool (n=35), lack of demographic or geographic information about respondents, and potential issues with question wording. Respondents indicated overwhelming support for PNAAM and provided no evidence of moral disengagement in their work. Primary barriers to implementation include discomfort with reaching out to Indigenous communities, a lack of relationships with Indigenous communities, limited knowledge, and limited staffing. The results of the study indicate that the profession may not succeed at PNAAM implementation until it can improve cross-cultural communication skills and/or offer practice with overcoming identity-based discomfort as part of graduate education or continuing education.

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