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-) This link opens in a new windowA complete bibliographic reference to the history of the United States and Canada from prehistory to the present. Published since 1964, the database comprises almost 400,000 bibliographic entries. Learn more about this database
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).
- Google Scholar This link opens in a new windowUse Google Scholar to find articles from a wide variety of academic publishers, professional societies, preprint repositories and universities, as well as scholarly articles available across the web. While Google Scholar itself is free on the web, many of the citations it references are not. Accessing Google Scholar via the proxied link will enable Get It! and Web of Science Links from within Google Scholar citations. Learn more about proxying Google Scholar Having trouble accessing Google Scholar from off-campus? Use this research guide to access Google Scholar.
Legal databases
- Nexis Uni This link opens in a new windowContains more than 15,000 news, legal and business sources, including journals, television and radio broadcasts, newswires and blogs; local, regional, national and international newspapers with deep archives; extensive legal sources for federal and state cases and statutes, including U.S. Supreme Court decisions since 1790; business information on more than 80 million U.S. and international companies and more than 75 million executives.
- HeinOnline This link opens in a new windowFull text. Journal index. More than 900 searchable full-text law journals and many legal resources, including the Code of Federal Regulations, United States Code, and U.S. Statutes at Large. Campus-wide access is due to subscription by the WU Law Library.
Primary Source Databases
- Independent Voices This link opens in a new windowA digital collection of alternative press newspapers, magazines and journals, drawn from the special collections of participating libraries. These periodicals were produced by feminists, dissident GIs, campus radicals, Native Americans, anti-war activists, Black Power advocates, Hispanics, LGBT activists, the extreme right-wing press and alternative literary magazines during the latter half of the 20th century.
- American Indian Movement and Native American Radicalism (Archives Unbound) This link opens in a new windowFBI files with detailed information on the evolution of the American Indian Movement (AIM) as an organization of social protest and the development of Native American radicalism from 1968-1979.
- Indigenous Peoples: North America This link opens in a new windowTraces the history of Native Peoples in North America from colonial relations in the 1600s to twentieth-century issues such as civil rights. Includes manuscript collections, rare books and monographs, newspapers, periodicals, census records, legal documents, maps, drawings and sketches, oral histories, and photos. 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 America Indians, 1645-1819More than 1,600 publications - every major book printed in North America about indigenous peoples of that continent - regarding the relationship between Native Americans and European settlers.
- Native American Tribal Histories, 1813-1880Through 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 1764-1953More 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 contentIncludes: 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 CenterThis 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 ProjectThe 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 CenterThe NABS Archive is a living project that will continue to grow and collect items related to the Indian boarding schools.
- Native Land DigitalA scrollable, digital map that allows users to find what tribal lands exist in their region.
- Tribal Treaties Database, Oklahoma State University LibrariesDatabase 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.