Primary Sources
This list contains digital archives, containing many primary sources, please explore several of them related to your topic!
- American Indians of the Pacific Northwest Collection
Digital collection of original photographs and documents about the Northwest Coast and Plateau Indian cultures.
- Digital Public Library of America: Native Americans
Includes images, texts, and sound/video clips.
- Documents Relating to Native American Affairs
The collection currently includes "Documents Relating to the Negotiation of Ratified and Unratified Treaties With Various Indian Tribes, 1801-1869" and the "Office of Indian Affairs, Annual Report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs." Includes instructions to treaty commissioners, reports, letters, and in some cases copies of the treaties.
- Duke Collection of American Indian Oral History
"Provides access to typescripts of interviews (1967 -1972) conducted with hundreds of Indians in Oklahoma regarding the histories and cultures of their respective nations and tribes. Related are accounts of Indian ceremonies, customs, social conditions, philosophies, and standards of living."
- Edward S. Curtis's The North American Indian Photographic Images
"The North American Indian by Edward S. Curtis is one of the most significant and controversial representations of traditional American Indian culture ever produced... In over 2000 photogravure plates and narrative, Curtis portrayed the traditional customs and lifeways of eighty Indian tribes."
- First Nations Collection
The First Nations Collection of the Southern Oregon Digital Archives consists of documents, books and articles relating to the indigenous peoples of this bioregion.
- If You Knew the Conditions...: Health Care to Native Americans
The online version of an exhibit held at the National Library of Medicine 15 April - 31 August 1994, National Institutes of Health, USA.
- Indian Peoples of the Northern Great Plains Digital Collection
Includes photographs, paintings, ledger drawings, documents, serigraphs, and stereographs from 1874 through the 1940's.
- Kappler's Indian Affairs: Laws and Treaties
Kappler's Indian Affairs is an historically significant, seven volume compilation of U.S. treaties, laws and executive orders pertaining to Native American Indian tribes. The volumes cover U.S. Government treaties with Native Americans from 1778-1883 (Volume II) and U.S. laws and executive orders concerning Native Americans from 1871-1970 (Volumes I, III-VII).
- Missions of Alta California
The missions of Alta California were founded for the purpose of Christianizing the American Indian population in those vicinities. The first of the Franciscan missions, San Diego de Alcala, was founded by Father Serra at a temporary location on July 16, 1769.
- Native American Constitution and Law
Provides access to Constitutions, Tribal Codes and other legal documents.
- Native American Constitutions and Legal Materials
Historical constitutions and legal materials digitized from the Law Library of Congress collection.
- Native American Religions
Texts of Native American religion, mythology and folklore. Part of the larger Sacred Texts site.
- Plains Indian Ledger Art
Offers digital views of Plains drawing on paper created during the 1860-1900 period.
- Southeastern Native American Documents
Contains approximately 2000 documents and images relating to the Native American population of the Southeastern United States. The documents are comprised of letters, legal proceedings, military orders, financial papers and archaeological images relating to Native Americans in the Southeast.
- Treaties between the United States and Native Americans
Text of treaties adopted between 1778 and 1868.
- Tribal Treaties Database
Includes "agreements between tribal nations and the United States (1778-1886) published in the 1904 work “Indian Affairs: Laws and Treaties” (Volume II), compiled and edited by Charles J. Kappler. As you view the treaties in this database, editorial margin notes are included. Links to Kappler’s original text and digitized treaties held at the National Archives can also be found throughout the site. Finally, a recently updated, comprehensive index complements this work."
Books & eBooks
Use our HELM Catalog to find hundreds of books and ebooks in the MCLA library collection!
Books in the MCLA Stacks
Books about Native Americans can be found in the call numbers E51-99
- An Afro-Indigenous history of the United States / Kyle T. Mays. (E 98 R28 M39 2021)
- Indians in the United States and Canada : a comparative history / Roger L. Nichols. (E77 .N554 1998)
- Indian reservations in the United States : territory, sovereignty, and socioeconomic change / Klaus Frantz. (E93.F7313 1999)
- An American genocide : the United States and the California Indian catastrophe, 1846-1873 / Benjamin Madley. (E78.C15 M33 2017)
- Surviving genocide : native nations and the United States from the American Revolution to bleeding Kansas / Jeffrey Ostler. (E93 .O78 2019)
- Federal fathers & mothers : a social history of the United States Indian Service, 1869-1933 / Cathleen D. Cahill. (E93.C27 2011)
- Noble, wretched & redeemable : Protestant missionaries to the Indians in Canada and the United States, 1820-1900 / C.L. Higham. (E98.M6 H54 2000)
- The Pretend Indians : images of native Americans in the movies / edited by Gretchen M. Bataille, Charles L. P. Silet. (PN1995.9.I48P7)
eBooks
- Hollow justice : a history of Indigenous claims in the United States / David E. Wilkins.
- Indigenous peoples, constitutional states and treaties or other constructive arrangements between indigenous peoples and states / edited in cooperation with Bartolomé Clavero Salvador, Pablo Gutiérrez Vega, Luis Rodríguez-Piñero.
- Contact, colonialism, and native communities in the Southeastern United States / edited by Edmond A. Boudreaux III, Maureen Meyers, and Jay K. Johnson.
- Celluloid Indians : Native Americans and film / Jacquelyn Kilpatrick
- Reservation reelism : redfacing, visual sovereignty, and representations of Native Americans in film / Michelle H. Raheja.
- Native Americans and the environment : perspectives on the ecological Indian / edited and with an introduction by Michael E. Harkin and David Rich Lewis
Databases
- JSTOR This link opens in a new windowScholarly journals in the arts, humanities, general science and social sciences dating back to the late 17th century. JSTOR is great for historical research but not for current research.
MCLA's access to JSTOR is made possible by support from the Hardman Family Endowment. - Native American on JSTOR This link opens in a new window
The late 1960s and early 1970s saw an increase of Native American activism and the rise of "Red Power" as an activist movement demanding greater educational and economic opportunities and tribal rights. At the same time, U.S. policy toward Native American tribes provided greater opportunities for indigenous people to manage local government and local issues. This led to the establishment of an active Native American press, with publications like NARP Newsletter, Many Smokes, and Native Movement, that championed such key issues as Native American rights, religious freedom, equal education, and preserving community, language and tribal sovereignty.
- U.S. History (Gale In Context) This link opens in a new window
Contextual information on hundreds of the most significant people, events and topics in U.S. History - full-text magazines, academic journals, news articles, primary source documents, images, videos, audio files and links to vetted website.
- HeinOnline Academic This link opens in a new windowWith more historical content than any other database, HeinOnline provides access to 300+ years of information on political development and the complete history of the creation of government and legal systems around the world.
Boston Public Library eResources
eResources available through the Boston Public Library
BPL eCards are virtual library cards that allow users immediate entry to all of Boston Public Library's remotely-accessible electronic resources, including magazine databases, downloadable audio, video, eBooks, and music.
Students living in Massachusetts while attending school are eligible for a card. Click here to sign up for one.
Save your ecard number and PIN on your computer for quick access.
Recommended Resource Pages at BPL
- History and Political Science
- Government and Law
- Newspaper Databases: