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Title: Randy Burns papers
Dates: 1968-2002
Collection Number: 1999-54
Creator/Collector:
Extent: 1 linear foot (1 carton)
Online items available
Repository:
GLBT Historical Society
San Francisco, California 94103
Abstract: The bulk of the collection consists of materials relating to LGBT American Indians, Two-Spirit people and American Indian
history collected by activist Randy Burns, co-founder with Barbara Cameron, of Gay American Indians (GAI). The collection
includes materials related to Burns, GAI and other LGBT Indian organizations across the United States and Canada, including
a typescript of “Living the Spirit: A Gay American Indian Anthology” by the GAI History Project.
Language of Material: English
Collection is open for research.
Funding for processing this collection was provided by the National
Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC). The collection has been digitized through a partnership with Gale/Cengage.
Contact the GLBT Historical Society archivist for information regarding access to the digital collection.
Copyright has been transferred to the GLBT Historical Society.
[Identification of item]. Randy Burns papers. Collection Number: 1999-54. GLBT Historical Society
Gift of Randy Burns on August 24, 1999
Scope and Content of Collection
The bulk of the collection consists of materials relating to LGBT American Indians, Two-Spirit people and American Indian
history collected by activist Randy Burns, co-founder with Barbara Cameron, of Gay American Indians (GAI). The collection
includes materials related to Burns, GAI and other LGBT Indian organizations across the United States and Canada, including
a typescript of “Living the Spirit: A Gay American Indian Anthology” by the GAI History Project. One major topic is AIDS,
communities of color and cultural competency. There are facilitator’s manuals for safer sex workshops, and materials from
the National Native American AIDS Prevention Center, the People of Color HIV/AIDS Advisory Committee and the Third World AIDS
Advisory Task Force. Newsletters in the collection include “In the Wind,” “Native AIDS Brief,” the American Indian/Alaska
Native Community AIDS Network Newsletter, and “Positively Native.” The collection also contains materials by and about Mohawk
poet Maurice Kenny, anthropologist Walter Williams and scholar Will Roscoe. The collection has drafts and typescripts of Roscoe’s
papers, including several pieces he wrote with Harry Hay, and correspondence and ephemera related to his work. Other topics
and organizations represented in the collection reflects Burns’ activism in the Indian, anti-racist and LGBT communities and
include materials from Gay Freedom Day and Bay Area Gay Liberation (BAGL), such as “Criticism of the June 28th Union.” Types
of materials include academic papers, correspondence and memos, fact sheets and statistics, flyers, meeting minutes, newsletters,
programs, reports and buttons. GSSO linked terms: http://purl.obolibrary.org/obo/GSSO_008283; http://purl.obolibrary.org/obo/GSSO_008285
Two-Spirit people
American Indians
Indigenous people
Native Americans
Kenny, Maurice, 1929-
Roscoe, Will
Gay American Indians (Organization)