Your mission: Read the required readings for your region and use them to make a timeline showing the most important dates in land transfer in your region. To make the timeline, use a software program as shown below which lets you connect an image to each date. Then upload the timeline to your blog. Instructions follow, along with a sample. My sample has nothing to do with Native people, because I did not want to do anyone’s project for them. It is a timeline I prepared for a different class I teach.
You will be using the Timeline JS software designed by Knight Labs. This software permits you to upload photographs for each date, which makes it particularly beautiful. There is also a spot for you to cite the source of the photograph, a particularly important activity for a public blog. Make sure to review the following: http://coplacdigital.org/resources/guide-to-citations-copyright/.
Go to this website to start making your timeline. https://timeline.knightlab.com/, click on the tab that says, “make a timeline,” and before you do anything else, watch this video tutorial: https://vimeo.com/143407878.
Photos from the Web. The timeline video is self-explanatory, but there was one place where I ran into trouble. One you make a copy of their google spreadsheet as they suggest, you will see that Column L is media. If you use a photograph that is available on the web, then you right click on the image, and then scroll down to “open image in New Tab.” The new tab that opens will have a url that ends in .jpeg. You copy and paste that url that ends in .jpeg into column L of the timeline JS.
A second issue is citing the source of the image in column M, media credit. The image that I was interested in was of an Osage bride returning from Paris in 1725, and it is a painting in the Missouri State Capitol. The picture is available at the Wikipedia site for Fort Orleans, a French fort on the Missouri River back in the day. If you click on the small square underneath the image, you see that the image is from the mural of the Missouri State Capitol. The Wikipedia details also state that the image is in the public domain. I will repeat this information in my citation. For our class, it is important that you cite the source. If the image has a copyright on it, you cannot use it, unless you get the permission of the person who copyrighted it.
Using Your Own Photos. You can also put images from your own collection (photos you have taken, or obtained through your archival research) into the timeline. However, you cannot upload JPEG files directly to timeline, you need a url. The solution is to create a dropbox account, and then upload your image to the dropbox account. Hover over the image, choose share, and then select “create a link.” Then select “copy the link,” the link will appear, and copy that link with control c and paste it into your timeline js google spreadsheet with control c.
Again, put the source of the photo, even if it is yourself. If you obtained the photograph from the local historical society, state that society’s official name, and web address if they have one.
Publishing the Timeline on Your Blog. Once you make complete your spreadsheet, you follow the timeline JS directions by choosing file, publish to the web. You then close the box that appears and copy the URL of the google spreadsheet by highlighting it and using control c. You then go to the timeline js website, choose make a timeline, and scroll down to step 3, where you paste in the URL with control v.
You can now see your timeline by scrolling down to step 4, and selecting the preview button. That is an exciting moment, however, it is not our desired endpoint. Rather, we wish to publish the timeline on the blog. Please review this tutorial on how to do so: http://coplacdigital.org/resources/wp-tutorials/embedding-content/.
This exercise ground you in the turning points for native people and their land in your region.