All Guides: AMST 226/HIST 226 American Indian History since 1871: Primary Sources

What are primary sources?

Primary sources are documents that were recorded or written down at the time an event occurred. Primary sources can include diaries, letters, speeches, photographs, newspaper articles, government documents, and much more.

To find primary sources that are part of materials owned at Macalester (and other libraries), you can use a keyword search in the library catalog adding selected terminology such as archives, correspondence, diaries, manuscripts, personal narratives, personnel records, or other phrases such as "records and correspondence," or "notebooks, sketchbooks, etc."

Primary Source Collections

Subscription and Open Access Online Collections and Finding Aids

American Indian Histories and Cultures
Explore manuscripts, artwork and rare printed books dating from the earliest contact with European settlers right up to photographs and newspapers from the mid-twentieth century. Browse through a wide range of rare and original documents from treaties, speeches and diaries, to historic maps and travel journals. --Website
American Indians of the Pacific Northwest Collection
"an extensive digital collection of original photographs and documents about the Northwest Coast and Plateau Indian cultures, complemented by essays written by anthropologists, historians, and teachers about both particular tribes and cross-cultural topics."
David Rumsey Historical Map collection
The collection includes rare 16th through 21st century maps of America, North America, South America, Europe, Asia, Africa, Pacific, Arctic, Antarctic, and the World.
Digital Newberry
Digital collections of the Newberry Library.
Indian Affairs: Laws and Treaties (Oklahoma State Libraries)
Seven volume compilation contains U.S. treaties, laws and executive orders pertaining to Native American Indian tribes. The volumes cover U.S. Government treaties with Native Americans from 1778-1883 (Volume II) and U.S. laws and executive orders concerning Native Americans from 1871-1970 (Volumes I, III-VII).
Primary Sources (Michigan State University Native American Guide)
Links to several primary source collections organized as part of the research guide for Native American studies at MSU. Not all materials are available to non-MSU students. Please ask your librarian about alternative access methods in these instances.
Yale Indian Papers Project
The Native Northeast Portal is a scholarly critical edition of primary source materials about Native communities from the American Northeast gathered into one robust virtual collection.

Newspapers

American Indian Newspapers (Adam Matthew Collections) Includes 200 years of Indigenous print journalism from the US and Canada,1828-2016. This resource has been developed with, and has only been made possible by, the permission and contribution of the newspaper publishers and Tribal Councils concerned.
The Carolina Indian Voice Archive of the Carolina Indian Voice, a Native American newspaper published in Pembroke, North Carolina. Coverage begins in 1977 and continues through the mid-2000s.

Access World News: Research Collection This link opens in a new window Includes regional US news sources searchable by state. Coverage varies by publication, with some sources going back to the 1980s.
New York Times Archive This link opens in a new window Searchable full text of the New York Times from the first issue in 1851 to 4 years ago. Includes full page and article images. Most recent years of the Times can be searched in US Newsstream or New York Times - Digital Microfilm.

Rare Materials

Mac Weekly, The This link opens in a new window
Archive for Macalester's weekly student newspaper publication.

These materials and others may be viewed by making an appointment with Archives and Special Collections.

late 19th c books in the Neill collection
PIPE student org material
student activism around athletics and mascots, such as Ted Turner coming to campus, who was (part?) owner of the Atlanta Braves baseball team
material in the Walker McCannel Collection discussing the YMCA and their “Indian Guides” and “Indian Pricesses” programs in and around the 1970s