AMCS 227 - Introduction to Native American and Indigenous Studies - A Guide to American Culture Studies - Research Guides at Washington University in St. Louis

Reference Works - A Place to Begin

Johnson, Michael. Encyclopedia of Native Tribes of North America, 3rd ed. (Buffalo, NY: Firefly Books, 2007)
organized by geographic regions with a select bibliography. Available in the Brown School Library's Reference collection - noncirculating.
Crawford O'Brien, Suzanne J. and Kelley, Dennis F. American Indian Religious Traditions: An Encyclopedia (Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 2005)
This extensive work, with over 150 entries, goes beyond similar surveys that focus only on anthropology and history and explores the religious practices, movements, institutions, key figures, ceremonial systems, and religious accoutrements indigenous to North America, from the pre-Columbian era to the present. Taking a deep and informed look specifically at the religious and spiritual nature of Native Americans, the encyclopedia places traditions within their historical and theoretical context, examining their relevance within Native religious life and practice as well as within the academic study of religion.

Native Americans and the law

Book Searching

The main subject heading for Native Americans is Indians of North America. Tribes/nations, for the most part, are listed as "[group name] Indians," such as Osage Indians. There are exceptions to this rule, such as Eskimos; some are organized by language family, such as Algonquian Indians. There are other, unique categories such as Mound-builders as well as subject headings based on where Native Americans live such as Reservation Indians and Urban Indians -- North America.

Academic Journal Databases

America: History & Life (1964-)
Bibliographic reference to the history of the United States and Canada from prehistory to the present.

but, other EBSCO databases could be relevant, too, such as Academic Search Complete, Anthropology Plus, and the Gender Studies Database. Important Native Studies journals in the EBSCO suite include American Indian Culture and Research Journal, NAIS: Journal of the Native American and Indigenous Studies Association, (Anthropology Plus), American Indian Quarterly, (Education Full Text), Journal of the Southwest (America: History & Life), and Settler Colonial Studies (Academic Search Complete).

JSTOR
Journals, books, images and primary sources.

Legal databases

Nexis Uni
Up-to-date news, business, and legal information.
HeinOnline
Law journals and many legal resources, including the Code of Federal Regulations, United States Code, and U.S. Statutes at Large.

Primary Source Databases

Independent Voices
A digital collection of alternative press newspapers, magazines and journals, drawn from the special collections of participating libraries.
Ethnic Newswatch
includes Cultural Survival Quarterly
Indigenous Newspapers in North America
Publications produced in the United States and Canada from 1828 to 2016 by of a range of communities.
Native American Studies (Archives Unbound)
Includes political, religious, legal, medical, commercial, and military perspectives of Native American history, from 1800 through the late 20th century. Click Additional Info below for a list of collections included in Native American Studies.
- American Indian Correspondence: Presbyterian Historical Society Collection of Missionaries' Letters, 1883-1893
- American Indian Movement and Native American Radicalism
- Indian Trade in the Southeastern Spanish Borderlands: Papers of Panton, Leslie and Company
- Meriam Report on Indian Administration and the Survey of Conditions of the Indians in the U.S.
- War Department and Indian Affairs, 1800-1824
Indigenous Peoples: North America
Newspapers, periodicals, manuscripts, monographs, census records, legal documents, maps, drawings and sketches, oral histories, and photos from the 1600s to the 20th century. Also features video content from the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Major partners include the National Archives, Library of Congress, Princeton University, University of Alberta, Moravian Archives, Gonzaga University, Wichita State University, and more.

Native American Tribal Histories, 1813-1880
Through much of the 19th century, the education, land rights, treaty negotiations and other affairs of Native American tribes were overseen by a cadre of superintendents from the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA). BIA superintendents scrupulously recorded their interactions with Native American tribes, leaving behind an astoundingly detailed archive that is captured here in full. It contains all the manuscript letters and reports that the superintendents sent to Washington, D.C., as well as the responses and instructions received from the nation’s capital.
Territorial Papers of the United States 1764-1953
More than half of America’s states began as territories. From the 1760s to the 1950s the United States of America expanded southward and westward, acquiring territories that spanned from Florida to California to Alaska. Before they evolved into twenty-seven American states, these territories were managed by the U.S. State and Interior departments. The official history of their formative territorial years is recorded in the “Territorial Papers of the United States”—a collection of Native American negotiations and treaties, official correspondence with the federal government, military records, judicial proceedings, population data, financial statistics, land records, and more.
U.S. National Archives - Indian/Native American content
Includes: American Indians of the Pacific Northwest, Photographing the American Indian, Indian Peoples of the Northern Great Plains Digital Collection
Images of the Indian Peoples of the Northern Great Plains, Edward S. Curtis's The North American Indian, George Catlin and His Indian Gallery, Denver Public Library Digital Collections, and President Andrew Jackson's Message to Congress 'On Indian Removal'
Carlisle Indian School Digital Resource Center
This project aims to develop a comprehensive searchable database of Carlisle Indian School resources. Beginning with the school records housed at the U.S. National Archives as part of the Bureau of Indian Affairs papers, materials that tell the story of the school and the many thousands of students who were sent there are being digitized.
The Genoa Indian School Digital Reconciliation Project
The Genoa Indian School Digital Reconciliation Project is a space for telling the stories of the American Indian children who attended Genoa, the stories of their communities, and the stories of their descendants. To help in telling these stories, we are first digitizing government records of Genoa from various federal and state archives, materials which are often difficult to locate and access.”
The National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition Resource Database Center
The NABS Archive is a living project that will continue to grow and collect items related to the Indian boarding schools.
Native Land Digital
A scrollable, digital map that allows users to find what tribal lands exist in their region.
Tribal Treaties Database, Oklahoma State WashU Libraries
Database of tribal treaties between tribal nations and the U.S. from 1778-1886. Includes digitized treaty text and links to digitized treaties at the National Archive.

Open Access Collections

Retracing the Bell Route of the Trail of Tears
The Bell Route, one of several routes used during Cherokee Removal, was traveled by a group of about 650 Cherokee people from October 1838 to January 1839. This route takes its name from John Adair Bell, the conductor and organizer of the detachment, and signer of the infamous Treaty of New Echota (1835).
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The Bell Route of the Trail of Tears passed through what is now the greater campus of Sewanee—The University of the South. This digital archive is a project developed in Sewanee classrooms to better understand our local history of Cherokee Removal.