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(The fun is in the Gift       Shop right now.)     From the Department of "They're going to do WHAT??" Click picture for the Stewart Collection California Bloodlines was released in 1969 and became # 36 on Rolling Stone's list of 200 most important albums of all time. 38 years later it has been treated to an amazing re-mastering and the second pressing will credit the track notes to our Record Shelf. Of course, we're a tad bit proud. John Stewart, 2007 (Thanks Howard Brauensteiner)	Excitement at the record shelves! (Ok, "excitement" might be a little strong...) The first recording from the Archive Project itself, a live performance by legendary banjo man Billy Faier on the 50th anniversary of his first solo album is now available, in a Limited Edition release from Northern Plains Archive Recordings, Ltd.     and     John Stewart's classic first solo album has been re-issued with liner notes from the Archive Project   Click John's or Billy's picture for details and ordering     Work continues on the Gift Shop Record Shelves essays and identification of artists and recordings for	"Legends still move among us and giants aren't all 30 feet tall..." Click picture for the Billy Faier collection Billy Faier's first, essential, album was released in 1957. He was a pivotal figure in American folk music long before. He visited the Archive Project and gave a house concert in 2007. He allowed a bootleg recording from the audience. The rest is his story... Billy Faier, 2007 (Thanks Angela Henriksen)
	The American Basics Recordings Collection (Prewar "Blues" and "Folk") and The Gift Shop continues to feature  John Stewart & Jack Weatherford See the entire catalogue of "hard to find" published work by these two American creative giants. "Get it all in one place." We have almost everything they have done. We can help you find the rest. The Bookshelf also continues to offer  the "Medicine Shelf" with classics about traditional ways, and commentary, as well as other works about the hidden history of America.
	Substantial work has been completed to add more CDs to the Recordings Shelves. Next up will be more American Basics, including the roots of American "Folk" music.
	Elsewhere at the Archive Project
	Deep Map News—New: levels 5, 6 and 7 complete the core around the River Flats and downtown Saint Paul. Click the image to jump straight to level 5 in 1867 (time windows for the present and 1851 also available) or zoom in from the Deep Map buttons.	Quick Notes—The Archive Project: "What's it all about..."
	Reminder---The Towboat Contest can still be seen on-line in the Working River section.

"What's It All About?"

(If you are a return visitor, click here.)

No matter whether we marked the end of the millennium as 2000 or 2001, many of us seem to have been in a mood for summing up and looking back.

Since the mid-1980's, the Northern Plains Archive Project has been quietly laying the foundation for a place where we can turn for "the rest of the story."

The dream began as a home for the common history of the plains, available at the turning of the millennium and growing after. A place where regular folks could turn, on their own terms, for the questions of "How did we get here?" and "How do I fit into all of this?" The stories of the generals, industrialists, politicians and church leaders are easy enough to find. The archive is an environment for the tales of the privates and NCO's, carpenters and masons, beat cops and shopkeepers, farmers and ranchers, the "unofficial" community leaders, and other people without whom the "official" history could not have occurred. It is built around a "deep map" that allows us to drill down through place and time to the stories that didn't necessarily make it into the books.

Since a lot of the hidden history belongs to those who were here 600 years ago, those who were brought against their will, those whose options were limited by indenture or language, and those who were either running away from something or toward something on a personal level, there had to be room for all races, religions, and nationalities in both the archive and its planning. We found that if we looked at things from the point of view of the place that has nourished us all—what the land saw and heard—we could build on the things we had in common, across all the barriers. And the more we built, the more we had in common. Interesting.

There was also a consensus about the "building blocks" that had to be fitted together to hold up such a structure. It had to be open-ended, because we can never know everything that happened. It couldn't just be on computers, because some of us have to touch things to feel the past. It had to reflect the viewpoint of regular folks—cumulative, bottom-up historical information— because we wanted to be able to draw our own conclusions. It had to be sounds and pictures and people speaking, because a lot of us learn more from well-told stories than from books. It had to supplement existing institutions and organizations, because we're builders and makers and we're trying to bring something, not take something away. The pieces had to be built by regular people, because we wanted to leave a legacy of skills—as well as information— and some of us have to learn how to do things by actually doing them.

And it had to be inclusive, because those of us who live here are affected by those who came before.

It's an information environment, a technology hot-house that builds its own computers and creates its own processes, and a lot more. It has been described as an informational "quilt frame" to allow the inclusion and interconnection of "squares" relating to people, families, groups and organizations who have linked to the land. During 2000, there was a migration to this space of small portions of about 15 gigabytes of material that had been developed over more than ten years. During 2001 and 2002, additional and new material was added, and during 2003-2007 we drove the deep map down seven levels along the Mississippi river flats and began exploring the soundtrack to our hidden history. We hope to begin opening the environment to individuals, families and organizations who wish to tell their stories within the framework before the end of 2008.

The paradigm is different from an encyclopedia model, where you have to know what you're looking up. This is not going to be "top-down" history. Instead, the point of view is that of the common folks who did the work, tended the animals, sent their kids to war and hoped for the best. The interface doesn't start from "who, what, when, where... ."

Most of us don't think that way, really. To a greater or lesser degree, most people start with "where." And then "when." And then "what was happening?" We don't get to "who" until pretty late in the inquiry. And that's all right, because often the real purpose of our questioning and research is not to write a paper, but to relate ourselves to events and places, and try to figure out how in the world this whole thing came to be.

We know that historians have a vital role. Most of us come from cultures with traditions of oral history and its keepers, whether they were the Winter Count Society, or the Seanachies, or someone else. But we've found that a lot of what has been held out as history, and presented as truth, turned out to be something entirely different with scrutiny over time.

The project doesn't have a political agenda beyond our belief that all of us are affected to some degree by misinformation. And all these years of discussions, laughter, plans, coffee-making, sharing and hoping have told us that the real stuff is more likely to pull us all together, than to divide us up and push us apart.

Pulling together is what it's all about. And laughter. And sharing.

And hope.

—For return visitors—

With the most recent revision, the deep map has now reached seven levels, with at least two time windows at each level. We are now concentrating on adding more windows to the demonstration core in the River Flats area of Saint Paul, Minnesota, to offer an information environment for the decades between 1850 and 1950, and open it to stories of the families that lived on and around the flats. This work is on-going through the end of 2008. We recommend that you check the "Tell Me More" button to find out about the most recent revision increments. We are also actively pursuing grants to support the work on the area around the River Flats. Your comments at this time would be particularly welcome, via E-Mail at npapinfo@hiddenhistory.com.

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