Sípnuuk is a community-centered digital repository and special collections archive. We provide access to materials that contain áraar (Karuk) knowledge and cultural heritage, including topics like araráhih (Karuk language), traditional practices, land management, and more. Personal and community collections stewarded by our Tribal People hold most priority for our collections. We also repatriate materials held in other institutions/private collections to provide Karuk community better access to Karuk cultural knowledge.
Like storing our traditional foods, medicines, and regalia, Sipnuuk provides a place for safe-keeping of our collective knowledge as a Tribe. Sipnuuk allows digital access to culture and information due to the way this knowledge has been taken from our community - it should never substitute or replace the relationships and responsibilities required to hold certain knowledge according to Karuk cultural law and tradition. Sipnuuk seeks to balance protecting our personal intellectual rights as Tribal individuals and the collective intellectual rights as a people. Sipnuuk acknowledges the connection Karuk people have to our neighboring Tribes, including overlap within our cultural practices and material culture, along the Klamath River Basin and Karuk Ancestral Territory. We acknowledge multi-community stewardship of some of these items.
