Research Guides: Native American Studies: Primary Source Collections

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Primary Sources

Primary sources are documents from the time period, people, and events of the time under consideration. Primary sources can be:

diaries or correspondence
photographs
illustrations
newspaper articles (from the time period)
manuscripts
pamphlets, broadsides, or other ephemera

Primary Source Collections

A selection of digitized primary source databases providing access to historical collections of content from or about Native Americans. Please see the Local History, News and Streaming Media tabs for additional primary source content.

American Indians and the American West, 1809-1971 This link opens in a new window
This module consists of a large variety of collections from the U.S. National Archives, a series of collections from the Chicago History Museum, as well as selected first-hand accounts on Indian Wars and westward migration. It focuses on American Indians in the first half of the 20th Century. The two major collections on the 20th Century in this module are Records of the Bureau of Indian Affairs and records from the Major Council Meetings of American Indian Tribes, and there are a number of collections on American Indians in the 19th Century, with a focus on the interaction among white settlers, the U.S. federal government, and Indian tribes.
Early Encounters in North America: Peoples, Cultures, and the Environment This link opens in a new window
Documents the relationships among peoples in North America from 1534 to 1850. The collection focuses on personal accounts and provides unique perspectives from all of the protagonists, including traders, slaves, missionaries, explorers, soldiers, native peoples, and officials, both men and women. The project brings coherence to a wide range of published and unpublished accounts, including narratives, diaries, journals, and letters.
Independent Voices This link opens in a new window
An open access digital collection of alternative press newspapers, magazines and journals. 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.
Indigenous Peoples of North America This link opens in a new window
Covers political, social, and cultural history of native peoples from the sixteenth century well into the twentieth century. Topics include trade and communication, Arctic exploration and tribes, the Iroquois Confederation, Canadian Catholic Indian missions, Indian removal, Indian wars and the frontier army, establishment of the Canadian Indian and Aboriginal Department, Indian delegations and Indian-federal relations, Canadian Indian treaty policy, government boarding and missionary schools and curricula, Dawes Severalty and the allotment system, dances and festivals, Alaskan Indian policies, Indian languages and linguistics, assimilation and the Indian New Deal, relocation, termination, and the Indian Claims Commission, water and fishing rights, civil rights, radicalism, poverty, and the American Indian movement.
Indigenous Peoples of the Americas: History, Culture & Law This link opens in a new window
A collection of material available on indigenous American life and law, including indigenous treaties, treaty-related publications, federal case law, tribal codes, constitutions, jurisprudence, scholarly articles, Title 25 of the U.S. Code, Title 25 of the CFR, books and pamphlets, and more.
North American Indian Drama This link opens in a new window
Contains full text play scripts written by American Indian and First Nation playwrights during the 20th century. Playwrights represent groups such as Cherokee, Creek, Choctaw, Pembina Chippewa, Hawaiian, and others. Plays were written from 1920-present, although majority from 1990-present.
North American Indian Thought and Culture This link opens in a new window
This collection integrates autobiographies, biographies, Indian publications, oral histories, personal writings, photographs, drawings, and audio files from American Indians, Alaska Natives, and Canadian First Peoples, resulting in a representation of historical events as told by the individuals who lived through them.

Publicly Accessible Collections

American Indian
Primary sources and teaching materials from the National Archives.
The American Indian Movement, 1968-1978
From the Digital Public Library of America, this primary source set uses documents, photographs, videos, and news stories to tell the story of the first decade of the American Indian Movement.
The Doris 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.
IDA Treaties Explorer
Created by the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture in partnership with the National Archives, this collection conserved and digitized the 374 Ratified Indian Treaties in its holdings.
National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI)
Part of The Smithsonian, the NMAI cares for one of the world's most expansive collections of Native artifacts, including objects, photographs, archives, and media covering the entire Western Hemisphere, from the Arctic Circle to Tierra del Fuego.
Native Communities Program
The National Archives holds hundreds of thousands of records related to interactions between Native American and Alaska Native communities and the Federal Government. This program is an educational resource providing step-by-step instructions for locating these important records.

General Archival Resources

Calisphere This link opens in a new window
Aggregates digital collections of primary source material from all 10 UC libraries, as well as other libraries, archives, museums, historical societies, and cultural heritage organizations in California. The collections provide open access to photographs, documents, letters, artwork, diaries, oral histories, films, advertisements, musical recordings, and more.
Online Archive of California (OAC) This link opens in a new window
Provides public access to detailed descriptions and finding aids of primary resource collections maintained by more than 200 contributing institutions including libraries, special collections, archives, historical societies, and museums throughout California and collections maintained by the 10 University of California (UC) campuses.