Contract: Videographer Services

Post Date: May 1, 2025

Proposal Due Date: May 11, 2025

Selection by: May 16, 2025

Contract Start Date: June 5, 2025

Contract End Date: June 7, 2025

Location: Wyandotte, Oklahoma

Budget Limit: $15,000

The National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition (NABS) seeks a qualified videographer to conduct oral history recordings and produce short documentary-style videos during the Seneca Indian Boarding School Annual Alumni Meeting, taking place in Wyandotte, Oklahoma from June 5 to 7, 2025.

About Us

NABS was founded in 2012 to lead the movement for truth, justice and healing for Indigenous peoples impacted by U.S. Indian boarding schools. We are Indigenous led with 100% of the Board of Directors and Officers being Native American and Alaska Native. Visit http:/www.boardingschoolhealing.org for more information about us, our strategic action plans, community impact, and resources.

Background

The National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition (NABS) was formed to address this lack of public awareness regarding the history of U.S. Indian boarding schools. As a coalition, we aim to develop and implement a national strategy with our various organizational, professional, and community partners that raises awareness about the impacts of these schools and cultivates new research and scholarship on this topic. As a foundational goal, NABS aims to make these records available in a single point of access and searchable to scholars who can initiate new paths of inquiry and to Native individuals and communities who are conducting research on their Tribes and family members. Using this grant, NABS will digitize 20,000 pages related to at least 9 Quaker-operated boarding schools in Indiana, Nebraska, New York State, Ohio, Oklahoma, and Pennsylvania. The coalition’s special project, the National Indian Boarding School Digital Archive (NIBSDA) represents an unprecedented achievement, serving as the first time that multiple digitized collections of boarding school materials will be made searchable through a single point of access. The implications that this holds for humanities scholarship is vast, as the limited narratives that have been composed regarding the Indigenous peoples of the U.S. have largely neglected this period, as well as their lasting impacts on modern Native Nations. These lasting impacts will be narrated and documented in a series of oral histories for this project which will provide crucial context as the public and scholars engage in these histories.

The Significance of Quaker Operated Indian Boarding Schools 

Our understanding of the early discourse around U.S. Indian policy, informed by Grant’s Peace Policy era, is limited. Consulting with records that pre-date notorious institutions such as the Carlisle Indian Industrial School–established 1879–will give historians a nuanced glimpse into how these assimilative institutions were devised and motivated. Quaker involvement in U.S. Indian policy is an area of growing interest but remains understudied. The records we will digitize relate to Quaker-operated boarding schools and Quaker organizations that funded this work. The collections range from 1852 to 1945—with anticipated limited exceptions prior to 1852–and include enrollment papers, financial information, correspondence, administrative records, and photographs. These records can inform us about the conditions that Native students lived in, how Quaker institutions were financed through the federal government, and will reveal the motivations behind U.S. assimilation policy design. These records reveal storied experiences and information that is too often absent from the public record, but that are increasingly sought by historians of American Indian and American history.

Project Goals

The videographer will record oral histories with alumni, capturing personal testimonies that provide critical insight into the lived experiences at the Seneca Indian Boarding School. These recordings will contribute to the National Indian Boarding School Digital Archive (NIBSDA) and will be edited into a series of mini-documentaries (5–10 segments, each 10–15 minutes in length) for public education and awareness. This project, including filming, editing, and delivery of finalized products is to be completed by December 2025.

For an example of product we would like to build from, please visit:

https://nibsda.elevator.umn.edu/search/s/6b2c21ba-dbdd-4dc0-9d61-25316bf0e80c

Timeframe

1. June 07-June 09, 2025: Orientation and filming
2. June 10-October 1st, 2025: Video editing and monthly check-in with NABS staff
3. October 01, 2025-November 01, 2025: Review and Further editing
4. November 15, 2025: Finalized deliverables due

Success Measures

Ultimately, success will be demonstrated by the unanimous approval by the project team and advisors of a comprehensive interpretive media plan. A well-prepared plan will include success indicators to measure outcomes.

Scope of Work

NABS will provide:

1. Direction on editing preferences, including guidance on sensitive content and segments to be excised.
2. Travel and lodging to and from the project site in Oklahoma will be provided.
3. File format specifications and delivery requirements.
4. Access to MHC audiovisual recordings and approved b-roll stock footage.
5. Contextual information and content for inclusion in documentary openings.

Proposal Requirements

Proposers should have knowledge of the U.S. Indian boarding school history, legacy, and impacts, as well as an understanding of the resulting intergenerational trauma. All proposals should include:

1. A brief cover letter summarizing experience relevant to this project.
2. Resume or CV.
3. Portfolio or sample links to previous video and oral history/documentary work.
4. Timeline for delivery of raw files and completed edited content.
5. Names and contact information for two professional references.

Note: Contractors are required to maintain General and Professional liability insurance including Workers Compensation insurance in compliance with applicable laws.

Proposal Evaluation

Proposals will be evaluated on the following criteria:

1. Completeness and adherence to the proposal requirements.
2. Demonstrated experience with oral history, documentary filmmaking, and working with Native communities.
3. Quality and relevance of past work.
4. Administrative and technical competence.
5. Approach for completing the work.
6. Preference is given to affirmative representation from Native American-owned businesses, Tribal enterprises, and individuals, as well as small and minority owned businesses, and women’s business enterprises.
7. Experience demonstrating effectiveness in delivering the same or similar services.
8. Team member qualifications.
9. Budget feasibility and value.

For Questions

If you have any questions, please contact Samuel Torres, Deputy CEO: storres@nabshc.org or

Fallon Carey, Digital Manager: fcarey@nabshc.org

To Submit Your Proposal

By May 11, 2025, email to Tom Kinley tkinley@nabshc.org with Videographer Services in the subject line.

NABS is an Equal Opportunity Employer committed to a work environment free of all forms of discrimination, harassment, and violence. All employment and contracting decisions are based on merit, competence, performance, and organization ne...