Land Acknowledgement
Indigenous-focused Key Resources
- Bibliography of Indigenous Peoples in North America This link opens in a new windowBibliography of Indigenous Peoples in North America covers all aspects of native North American culture, history, and life, including archaeology, multicultural relations, gaming, governance, legend, and literacy. Provides citations for books, essays, journal articles, and government documents of the United States and Canada from the sixteenth century to the present.
- Ethnologue: Languages of the World This link opens in a new windowExtensive information about the world’s 7000 living languages, including the number of language users, in a country or worldwide; information about writing systems, the official status of a language (if any) in a given country; related dialects; language typology (word order, phonological, morphological, and syntactic features. Dynamic maps allow exploring languages by country and region, and drilling down to greater levels of detail. Researchers can browse by country, language name, and language family. Includes an extensive bibliography.
- Indigenous Histories and Cultures in North America This link opens in a new windowThe wide range of material included in Indigenous Histories and Cultures in North America presents a unique insight into interactions between Indigenous Peoples in North America and European colonists from their earliest contact, continuing through the turbulence of the American Civil War, the on-going repercussions of government legislation, right up to the civil rights movement of the mid- to late-twentieth century. This resource contains material from the Newberry Library’s extensive Edward E. Ayer Collection; one of the strongest archival collections on histories of Indigenous Peoples in North America in the world. - Publisher
- Indigenous Peoples: North America This link opens in a new windowThis database allows users to trace 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, as well as video content from the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Indigenous Peoples of North America
- Native American Indians, 1645-1819 This link opens in a new windowEvery major book about Native Peoples from this period is included in Native American Indians, 1645-1819. This product also offers text and data analysis tools, author biographies, and suggested search paths for easy browsing and discovery. More than 1,600 publications offer unparalleled insight into the relationship between Native Americans and European settlers. - Publisher
- ProQuest History Vault - American Indians and the American West (1809-1971) This link opens in a new windowAmerican Indians and the American West, 1809-1971 features a number of excellent collections on American Indians in the 19th and 20thCentury, with a focus on the interaction among white settlers, the U.S. federal government, and Indian tribes.Included are Records of the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Major Council Meetings of American Indian Tribes.
- Race Relations in America This link opens in a new windowThis resource provides access to a wealth of documents highlighting different responses to the challenges of overcoming prejudice, segregation and racial tensions, including survey material, interviews and statistics, educational pamphlets, administrative correspondence, photographs and speeches from the Annual Race Relations Institutes during the 1940s, 50s and 60s.
- American Indian Histories and CulturesThis resource contains material from the Newberry Library’s extensive Edward E. Ayer Collection; one of the strongest archival collections on American Indian history in the world.
- American Indian Experience: The American Mosaic This link opens in a new windowThe American Indian Experience: The American Mosaic illuminates the historical and contemporary practices and tribulations of more than 150 Native American tribes from all regions of North America. Featuring articles and essays from Native American authors and contributors, it gives voice to the American Indian experience with respect to colonial conflict, trade economies, decisive wars, parsing of Native American land enabled by American policy, assimilation, and native claims to land, among other topics.
- Early Encounters in North America: Peoples, Cultures, and the Environment This link opens in a new windowDatabase of digitized letters, diaries, memoirs and other accounts relating to the early contact of Native Americans, Europeans, and Africans in North America. Currently contains about 40,000 pages of material. When complete, it will include more than 100,000 pages from over 1,000 published and unpublished items.
- Indian Claims Insight This link opens in a new windowThis resource provides researchers with the opportunity to understand and analyze Native American migration and resettlement throughout U.S. history, as well as U.S. Government Indian removal policies and subsequent actions to address Native American claims. Content includes decisions, transcripts, docket books, journals of the Indian Claims Commission, a judicial panel for relations between the U.S. Government and Native American tribes; and related statutes and congressional publications.
- Native American Tribal Histories, Series 1-4, 1813-1880 This link opens in a new windowOfficial record of encounters between Indigenous peoples and American Territorial officials as chronicled by the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Series 1-4, 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. 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. These primary source documents cover not only encounters between Indigenous people and the U.S. government, but also accounts of Native American cultures during a time when disease and forced relocation were transforming their lives. Now, these rare materials are available for the first time in a readily accessible digital collection, which also contains detailed historical background notes created by the curators of the National Archives. - Publisher - North American Indian Drama This link opens in a new windowFull text of plays by American Indian, First Nation, and Pacific Islanders playwrights of the 20th century; information about the plays and their production, and biographical data. The collection represents groups across the United States and Canada, including Cherokee, Métis, Creek, Choctaw, Pembina Chippewa, Ojibway, Lenape, Comanche, Cree, Navajo, Rappahannock, Hawaiian/Samoan, and others. Also includes issues of the Native playwrights' newsletter
- Territorial Papers of the United States, 1764-1953 This link opens in a new windowTerritorial Papers of the United States is 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. Readex’s Territorial Papers contains the entire corpus of the official papers held by the Departments of State and Interior, the two largest such collections in Washington, D.C. Instead of transcripts, it features high-resolution images of the original sources—many of which are hand-written documents—ensuring that scholars don’t miss a single detail from this vital period in American history. - Publisher
- American Indian Correspondence. The Presbyterian Historical Society Collection of Missionaries' Letters, 1833-1893The American Indian Correspondence is a collection of almost 14,000 letters written by those who served as Presbyterian missionaries to the American Indians during the years from 1833 to 1893.
- The American Indian Movement and Native American RadicalismThe American Indian Movement (AIM) was founded at a time of continuing social change and protest following achievement of national legislation of the Civil Rights Movement. The radical approach AIM adopted was based on its leaders’ perceptions that early Indian advocacy had failed to achieve any tangible results by lobbying activities with Congress and state legislatures. This collection includes the extensive FBI documentation on the evolution of AIM as an organization of social protest. In addition, there is documentation on the 1973 Wounded Knee Stand-off. Informant reports and materials collected by the Extremist Intelligence Section of the FBI provide unparalleled insight into the motives, actions, and leadership of AIM and the development of Native American radicalism.
- Indian Trade in the Southeastern Spanish Borderlands: Papers of Panton, Leslie and CompanyComprising the papers of the Panton, Leslie & Co., a trading firm, this collection is the most complete ethnographic collection available for the study of the American Indians of the Southeast. More than 8,000 legal, political and diplomatic documents recording the company’s operations for over half a century have been selected and organized for this collection.
- Meriam Report on Indian Administration and the Survey of Conditions of the Indians in the U.SThis collection comprises two sets of documents that helped the response to 40 years of failed Native American policies. The first is the full text of the report entitled The Problem of Indian Administration, better known as the Meriam Report. The second comprises the 41-part report to the U.S. Senate Committee on Indian Affairs detailing the conditions of life and the effects of policies and programs enacted by the Bureau of Indian Affairs on Native Americans.
- War Department and Indian Affairs, 1800-1824From 1789 until the Bureau of Indian Affairs was established in 1824, Indian affairs were under the direct control of the Secretary of War. This collection consists of the letters received by and letters sent to the War Department, including correspondence from Indian superintendents and agents, factors of trading posts, Territorial and State governors, military commanders, Indians, missionaries, treaty and other commissioners, Treasury Department officials, and persons having commercial dealings with the War Department, and other public and private individuals.
- Indigenous Newspapers in North America This link opens in a new windowIndigenous Newspapers in North America aims to present a diverse and robust collection of print journalism from Indigenous peoples of the US and Canada over more than 9,000 individual editions from 1828-2016.concerned.
- Ethnographic Video Online, Vols. I & II: Foundational Films This link opens in a new windowOnline in streaming videos. Contains classic and contemporary documentaries; previously unpublished footage from working anthropologists and ethnographers in the field; and select feature films.
- Ethnographic Video Online, Vol. III: Indigenous Voices This link opens in a new windowEthnographic Video Online: Volume III contains a strong emphasis on indigenous issues and perspectives, with much content made by indigenous filmmakers. Launching with nearly 100 hours of content and footage from the Oceanic regions of Polynesia, Melanesia and Micronesia, the collection will continue to expand with films from Australia, the Americas, Africa and Asia, encouraging a global perspective on the indigenous experience. – Publisher
- Edward S. Curtis's The North American IndianEdward Sheriff Curtis published The North American Indian between 1907 and 1930 with the intent to record traditional Native American cultures. The work comprises twenty volumes of narrative text and photogravure images. Each volume is accompanied by a portfolio of large photogravure plates. Search tip: shortcut to a list of just the text volumes by searching "illustrated books" in the search bar. Cultural Context: Content on this site is drawn from a historical source which includes materials that may contain offensive images or language reflecting the nature of Settler Colonialism in America. Such materials should be viewed in the context of the time and place in which they were created. The images and text in this site are presented as specific, original artifacts recording the attitudes, perspectives and beliefs of a different era. Northwestern University does not endorse the views expressed in this collection which may contain images and text offensive to some researchers.
Northwestern Community Resources
Metadata Coordinator
Key Resources
- Anthropology Plus This link opens in a new windowThe most comprehensive index of anthropological materials. Unites two premier indexes created in two hemispheres: Harvard University's Anthropological Literature and the Royal Anthropological Institute's Anthropological Index. Coverage: 1800s to today.
- America: History & Life This link opens in a new windowAmerica: History & Life is an index of literature covering the history and culture of the United States and Canada, from prehistory to the present. The database indexes journals from 1964 to the present and also includes citations and links to book and media reviews. Strong English-language journal coverage but also included are abstracts in English of articles published in more than 40 languages.
- Ethnic NewsWatch This link opens in a new windowEthnic NewsWatch indexes newspapers, magazines and journals of the ethnic and minority press, offering both national and regional coverage. Ethnic NewsWatch presents multi-ethnic and multi-cultural publications in one resource covering 1959-present. Individual publication coverage varies by title.
- Alternative Press Index This link opens in a new windowAlternative Press Index is a biannual subject index to over 300 alternative, left, and radical journals, newspapers, and magazines. The index is international and interdisciplinary, spanning the social sciences and humanities, with its central focus on the practice and theory of socialism, national liberation, labor, indigenous peoples, gays/lesbians, feminism, ecology, democracy, and anarchism.
- Alternative Press Index Archive This link opens in a new windowCovers the period 1969 through to 1990. This bibliographic database contains journal, newspaper, and magazine articles from over 700 international alternative, radical, and left periodicals. Covering theories and practices of socialism and revolution alongside ecology, democracy and anarchism, feminism and organized labor, indigenous peoples and gays/lesbians, the coverage is both international and interdisciplinary.