Native American History Research Resources
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Date:
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Location: America
Surname/tag: native_americans
Location: America
Surname/tag: native_americans
Profile managers:
Jillaine Smith 
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This page of resources and general information on Native American historical research is an ongoing effort of the WikiTree Native Americans Project. Read the Comments and click through the Changes log to see its evolution.
For more Native American genealogy resources also see the Native Americans Project Reliable Sources page.
Contents |
Tribal Lists & Directories
- List of Federally Recognized Tribal Entities - Bureau of Indian Affairs Notice published 01/08/2024 in the Federal Register
- Bureau of Indian Affairs: Tribal Leadership Directory - list of current tribal entities and contact information (including websites) as officially recorded by BIA
- Tribal Directory - National Congress of American Indians
- List of federally recognized tribes in the contiguous United States on Wikipedia - with links to previous version of BIA list, and other lists of entities, organizations and reservations
Guides to Conducting Native American Genealogy & History Research
- Tracing American Indian and Alaska Native Ancestry - Bureau of Indian Affairs website
- A Guide to Tracing American Indian & Alaska Native Ancestry - Bureau of Indian Affairs PDF document
- Tracing Native American Family Roots - National Indian Law Library research guide
- Native Americans: Resources in Local History and Genealogy - Library of Congress Research Guide
- Teaching & Learning about Native Americans - good list of FAQs on Native American history and culture from the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian
- WikiTree How to Get Started with Genealogy page
FamilySearch Research Wikis
- Beginning Research of United States Indigenous Peoples
- Finding Your United States Indigenous Ancestor
- Indigenous Peoples of North America - A Beginner's Guide
- Indigenous Peoples of the United States Genealogy
- Native American Online Genealogy Records
- Starting Native American Research
WikiTree Resources
Remember a lot of questions can be answered by referring to the help pages link at the top right of all Wikitree pages.
Native Americans Project Resource Pages
- Native Americans Project Name Fields Guidelines for WikiTree profiles
- Native Americans Project Reliable Sources
- Native Americans Project Photo Page
- Apache Team Research Resources
- Cherokee Sources/Resources
- Choctaw Resources
- Crow Tribe Research Resources
- Lenni Lenape (Delaware) Team Research Resources
- Pueblo Team Research Resources
- Shawnee Team Research Resources
- Wyandot and Wyandotte Resources
More Space Pages
- Creek War, Battles and Forts
- Native Americans of the French and Indian War
- Native Americans in the Civil War
- Navajo Code Talkers
- Trail of Tears
National Archives
U.S. National Archives and Records Administration (NARA)
- National Archives Catalog main page and search
- NARA Resources for Genealogists
- History Hub - research support community to ask questions and get answers; community groups for Genealogy, Native American Records, Citizen Archivists, more
- American Indian and Alaska Native Records in the National Archives - National Archives research guides for locating records related to American Indian and Alaska Native tribes, bands, and communities.
- Researching an Individual or Family - National Archives guide to researching an individual and family in American Indian records.
Libraries, Museums & Digital Collections
Library of Congress
- LOC Digital Collections: American Indians
- LOC Indigenous Studies Research Guide
- Native Americans: Resources in Local History and Genealogy
- Indian Removal Act: Primary Documents in American History - digital materials related to the Indian Removal Act of 1830 and its after-effects, links to external websites, selected print bibliography
Other Collections & Museums
- American Indian Library Association
- Cherokee National Research Center - successor organization to the Cherokee Heritage Center in Tahlequah, OK
- Digital Public Library of America > Primary Source Sets: Native Americans
- Edward E. Ayer Collection in American Indian and Indigenous Studies - The Newberry Library
- Edward S. Curtis' The North American Indian - Northwestern University Digital Collections
- Gilcrease Museum - Thomas Gilcrease Institute of American History and Art in Tulsa, OK
- HathiTrust Digital Library - "largest digitized collection of knowledge allowable by copyright law"
- Kansas Memory - primary sources online from the Kansas Historical Society
- National Humanities Center - use search term "Native Americans" to find relevant materials
- Ohio Memory - digital library of Ohio History Connection and the State Library of Ohio
- Oklahoma Historical Society Genealogy Resources
- National Museum of the American Indian - Smithsonian Institution
- Wikipedia: Native American Museums in the United States by State or Territory
History, Culture & Language
- French-Canadian Heritage Society of Michigan
- Handbook of American Indian Languages by Franz Boas (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1911). Image copy (Public Domain Access) at HathiTrust
Language
Schools & Institutions
- Superintendents' Annual Narrative and Statistical Reports, 1910–1935 - National Archives; little information on specific individuals but interesting historical information about agencies and schools.
Conflicts
- Chronological list of engagements between the regular army of the United States and various tribes of hostile Indians: which occurred during the years 1790 to 1898, inclusive by George W. Webb (St. Joseph, Missouri: Wing Printing and Publishing Company, 1939). Open Access image copy from HathiTrust.
- Indian battles and skirmishes on the American frontier, 1790-1898 - prepared by Historical Section, Army War College; image copy at FamilySearch.
- Indian Wars Campaigns - brief summaries from the U.S. Army Center of Military History
- United States Indian Wars, 1780s-1890s FamilySearch research wiki
- Wikipedia: List of American Indian Wars
- Wikipedia: List of U.S.–Native American treaties
General Reference
- Hirschfelder, Arlene B. and Paulette Fairbanks Molin, The Extraordinary Book of Native American Lists (Landham Maryland: Scarecrow Press, 2012). Image copy available for online lending from Internet Archive.
- Hodge, Frederick Wedd (ed.), Handbook of American Indians North of Mexico - Part 1 (A - M) (Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Bureau of American Ethnology, 1907). Image copy at Internet Archive.
- Hodge, Frederick Wedd (ed.), Handbook of American Indians North of Mexico - Part 2 (N - Z) (Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Bureau of American Ethnology, 1912). Image copy at Internet Archive.
- Swanton, John R., The Indian Tribes of North America (Washington and London: Smithsonian Press, 1979 [reprint edition].) Image copy available for online lending from Internet Archive.
Educational & Popular Media
- Biography.com
- History.com (A&E Network)
- HistoryNet
- History on the Net
- History News Network
- Indians.org from American Indian Heritage Foundation
- Legends of America
Images: 1
Collaboration
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I could see this page becoming more of a "companion" to Reliable Sources, with a broader focus on starting points and strategies for "learning how to learn" about conducting Native American historical research (at least to the extent that it could be addressed on WT). "Link rot" and links to unsecure sites also need attention. I'm happy to work on this while also honoring the legacy work done here, and just want to get any reaction before proceeding.
Cheers, Bob
I think this page was historically a strange mish-mash. I'm not even sure how useful it is in its current form.
If you think it could be repurposed in a useful way, I'd say go for it. Just know that Kathie has developed some how-to research pages for doing Cherokee research, so let's not duplicate that. But perhaps there is a more over-arching "how to get started on NA research" ? But even that, I've got to think there are other places (even familysearch's wiki) that might have that already.
Kathie's out for the rest of the month, so I don't expect her to weigh in on this (but see what she's already written below.)
The general idea would be to repurpose this page as a way to make resources like the excellent Cherokee research pages (and any other sources/resources pages actively maintained by project teams) easier to find - not duplicate effort, but promote it and make it more visible. So we'd have "Reliable Sources" for potential primary sources for use on profiles, and "History Resources" oriented more toward resources for general historical research. I'll take a pass at it to see if it's reasonable.
Later through member discussion, there were two famous lines they agreed should be given the last name they were popularly known by due to the continuation of multiple duplicates for these profiles. These were Moytoy and Doublehead. That part was changed after the project changed hands. It was a good idea and there were other famous lines that could have benefited from this idea due to the huge size of the Cherokee tribe and a few Plains Indian Tribes. Now, with the significant improvements with the matching system when adding a profile, that naming convention addition may no longer be needed. However, the name Moytoy is of great historical significance.
Naming Guidelines should be included on the NA Project Page.
Shirley