History

The Indigenous Cultures Collection highlights materials from around the globe, including items related to the Lunaapeewak peoples on whose ancestral lands sits the campus of Princeton University. More than 200 digitized resources include language-related materials, such as dictionaries and translations, and other items such as land deeds.

The National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI) has one of the most extensive collections of Native American arts and artifacts in the world—approximately 266,000 catalog records (825,000 items) representing over 12,000 years of history and more than 1,200 indigenous cultures throughout the Americas. Ranging from ancient Paleo-Indian points to contemporary fine arts, the collections include works of aesthetic, religious, and historical significance as well as articles produced for everyday use. Current holdings include all major culture areas of the Western Hemisphere, representing virtually all tribes in the United States, most of those of Canada, and a significant number of cultures from Middle and South America and the Caribbean.

The National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI) Archive Center actively acquires and serves as a repository for the records of contemporary Native and Indigenous artists, writers, activists, and organizations. In addition, the Archive Center holds the records of the NMAI’s predecessor institution, the Museum of the American Indian (MAI), Heye Foundation.

From 1966-1975, philanthropist Doris Duke funded seven universities to record first-person narratives from Native people across the United States. The project resulted in more than 6,000 oral histories and hundreds of supporting documents. In 2020, the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation sought to revitalize the collections by supporting the work of the seven university repositories to digitize the collections, return copies of the recordings to the originating communities, and work with the represented communities to determine culturally appropriate access.

This is a massive collection (at Yale University) of New England Native American primary source materials in one virtual collection.

This collection (hosted by CSU-San Marcos) contains the narrative reports of the commissioner for Indian affairs from the 1870s, along with maps and allotment information.

This collection (at UW-Madison) contains a huge range of treaties and other documented interactions between European-Americans and native peoples, from the early 19th century through the early 20th century.

This guide (courtesy of Sam Houston State University) provides an extensive list of digitized resources (at other institutions) relating to Native American history.

This collection (through the University of Oklahoma) provides access to transcripts of interviews conducted between 1967 and 1972 with hundreds of Native Americans in Oklahoma.