HS 340 - Native American History: Primary Sources (Internet)

Among the billions of historical records housed at the National Archives throughout the country, researchers can find information relating to American Indians from as early as 1774 through the mid 1990s. The National Archives preserves and makes available the documents created by Federal agencies in the course of their daily business.

A resources created by the National Archives that provides access to digitized documents by type, subject, and time period

A chronological listing of documents related to the history of the Choctaw Nation, including text transcriptions.

The Dawes Act (sometimes called the Dawes Severalty Act or General Allotment Act), passed in 1887 under President Grover Cleveland, allowed the federal government to break up tribal lands. The federal government aimed to assimilate Native Americans into mainstream US society by encouraging them towards farming and agriculture, which meant dividing tribal lands into individual plots. Only the Native Americans who accepted the division of tribal lands were allowed to become US citizens. This ended in the government stripping over 90 million acres of tribal land from Native Americans, then selling that land to non-native US citizens.

Located in Washington, Connecticut, the Institute for American Indian Studies (IAIS)—formerly the American Indian Archaeological Institute (AIAI)—was incorporated in 1975 as an outgrowth of local efforts to recover New England’s then-largely-unknown indigenous history.

Site dedicated to the history of Lake Ronkonkoma, New York, that includes information about the indigenous tribes (Secatogs, Unkechaugs, Setaukets, and Nissequogues), who utilized the shores of the lake.

A list of over thirty guides that provide information on various topics related to indigenous communities, including tips on conducting research and accessing primary and secondary materials.

Tribally owned and operated, the museum brings to life the story of the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation. It serves as a major resource on the histories and cultures of Native Americans in the northeast and on the region's rich natural history. The Research Center houses collections, archives, and archaeology and conservation laboratories where ongoing work from the field is evaluated and studied. Multi-sensory dioramas and exhibits introduce visitors to the history of the Mashantucket Pequot Tribe and the natural and cultural history of the eastern woodlands. Films and videos, interactive programs, archival materials, ethnographic and archaeological collections, commissioned art, and traditional crafts by Native artisans are featured in the exhibits.

The Native Northeast Research Collaborative (formerly The Yale Indian Papers Project) is an inclusive digital humanities endeavor that engages tribes, scholars, educators, students, and the general public in the study of the Native presence in the Atlantic Northeast. With tribal partnerships extending throughout New England, New York, and the Mid-West, the Collaborative represents an innovative model of intercultural cooperation that brings research on Northeastern Indians into the 21st Century.

The Native Northeast Research Collaborative's Native Northeast Portal contains primary source materials by, on, or about Northeast Indians from repositories around the world. Documents are digitized, transcribed, annotated, reviewed by the appropriate contemporary descendant community representatives, and brought together with scholarly annotations and academic/community commentary into one edited interactive digital collection. The Portal currently contains thousands of records associated with scores of Native communities.

This blog post from Primary Sources Nexus at the Library of Congress features a selection of primary materials related to indigenous peoples from across the country and from different time periods.

For more than a dozen years, the Primary Source Nexus has served students and teachers across with country and the world by providing curated primary source sets on a myriad of subjects and topics, learning and teaching resources, and information and access to news, opportunities, and resources from the Library of Congress and members of Teaching with Primary Sources (TPS) Consortium.