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Primary Sources: Native Americans

This is a guide to primary sources in a number of disciplines and research areas.

Ethnographic Films


Hofstra University Library has an excellent film collection, many of are streaming video. This collection can be searched via the online catalog.

American Indian Film Gallery
Contains 450 films about, or by, Native Americans. It is maintained by the University of Arizona. The original films are preserved by the Library of Congress.

Smithsonian Online Resources on Native Americans

All of these resources can also be used as primary sources in the history of anthropology in the United Stares.

Biodiversity Heritage Contains ethnological works especially on Native Americans. Use search box on home page to find full-text materials on specific topics (e.g. Cherokee). Specific publications of interest are listed below. 

Annual Report of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution Note alternative titles.

Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology

Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology Continues above title.

Contributions to American Ethnology, Vol. I-VII, IX (Ed. by J.W Powell)

Smithsonian Institution, Bureau of Ethnology. Bulletin

Bulletin (Smithsonian Institution. Bureau of Ethnology) Continues the above title.

The following link, also from the Smithsonian, provides a partial index.

List of Publications of the Bureau of American Ethnology

Smithsonian Library: Digital Library Books and other materials. Included are the Annual Reports of the Regents of the Smithsonian Institution, Annual Reports of the Bureau of Ethnography, both going back to the 19th century. A rich collection of material on Native Americans and on natural history. Some of this is reproduced in the Biodiversity Heritage site.

The Internet Archive and HathiTrust contain many of the items listed above and can be searched for at least some of the Smithsonian materials. One can also extract authors' names and titles of works from the index and then search for specific items in the Smithsonian sites.

 

 

Other Resources

American Indian Constitutions and Legal Materials Maintained by the Library of Congress.

Documents Relating to Indian Affairs Maintained by the University of Wisconsin-Madison Libraries.

Duke Collection of American Indian Oral History Maintained by the University of Oklahoma.

Edward S. Curtis's The North American Indian Over 2000 photographs. Maintained by Northwestern University.

Indian Peoples of the Northern Great Plains Digital Collections Drawn the collections of the University of Montana system, Museum of the Rockies and Little Big Horn College.

 

 

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