Visual Evidence Ledger
Visual Evidence Review Policy
This ledger gathers verified museum, archive, and government-source records connected to Muur/Moor visual history, Black Seminole / Seminole Negro Indian Scouts records, and Black-Indigenous archive records.
No-certification boundary: This section does not certify identity, ancestry, tribe, nationality, DNA conclusions, legal status, descent, membership, or sovereign status. It separates catalog language from project interpretation.
Why a review policy is part of the evidence
Visual records can be persuasive even when they are not conclusive. This policy explains the review steps that keep persuasive images from becoming unsupported public claims. The goal is not to hide uncertainty; it is to make uncertainty visible enough that readers can use the record responsibly.
Required gates before stronger wording
- Catalog gate: record the official title, creator, institution, date, object ID, archive ID, and source URL without rewriting the institution’s language.
- Rights gate: decide whether the image may render publicly, should be a source-preview card, or must stay out of public display.
- Claim gate: write what the record supports and what it does not support, especially around identity, ancestry, tribe, legal status, DNA, descent, membership, or sovereign status.
- Lane gate: decide whether the item belongs in the Muur/Moor visual record lane, Black Seminole lane, Black-Indigenous archive lane, or hold-review lane.
- Correction gate: keep a path open for source updates, rights updates, caption corrections, and safer wording changes.
Why some cards are metadata-only
A metadata-only card is not an empty card. It tells the reader that the source record matters but image reuse is not assumed. That is a safer public posture than copying museum or archive images before the rights basis is clear.
Public proof rule: visual records can support source review, terminology review, and public-memory questions. They do not certify identity, ancestry, tribe, nationality, DNA conclusions, legal status, descent, membership, or sovereign status.
Low-depth value guardrail
This policy is meant to make every visual-evidence card stronger. A card should help a reader distinguish the official source language from TheFoundations interpretation, the rights status from the claim status, and a useful source lead from a proof claim. If the card cannot do that yet, the item should stay in hold review or metadata-only display.
The review policy also protects RPM strategy. The site should earn ad readiness through trust, depth, source discipline, visual integrity, and useful reader paths, not by turning sensitive records into high-click image pages. Ads remain disabled until approval, and sensitive source-review sections should not be designed around ad placement.
Review Policy
How visual records enter the ledger
Records enter this ledger only when they can be tied to a public museum, archive, government, institutional, or scholarly source.
Evidence gates
- Record the official catalog title, institution, date, creator, object ID, archive ID, and source URL.
- Separate catalog language from TheFoundations project interpretation.
- Name what the record supports and what it does not support.
- Check image rights before rendering or self-hosting media.
- Hold records when source status, rights, privacy, cultural sensitivity, or wording risk remains unresolved.
Rights policy
Pending metadata does not mean delete. It means preserve the source trail and avoid promotion until rights are resolved. Museum and archive images are not self-hosted unless reuse rights are verified.
Claim boundary
This section does not certify identity, ancestry, tribe, nationality, DNA conclusions, legal status, descent, membership, or sovereign status. Visual resemblance and catalog labels are source leads, not public proof of peoplehood or private identity.
Origin-claim rule
This ledger does not publish broad Serbian origin or Siberian origin claims. Any origin claim requires a separate claim-review page with public, reviewable sources.