Native Turtle Island (North America)

"In 1984, a professor at Rutgers University stumbled upon a trove of historic data in a courthouse in Pointe Coupee Parish, Louisiana. Over the next 15 years, Dr. Gwendolyn Midlo Hall, a noted New Orleans writer and historian, painstakingly uncovered the background of 100,000 slaves who were brought to Louisiana in the 18th and 19th centuries making fortunes for their owners. Poring through documents from all over Louisiana, as well as archives in France, Spain and Texas, Dr. Hall designed and created a database into which she recorded and calculated the information she obtained from these documents about African slave names, genders, ages, occupations, illnesses, family relationships, ethnicity, places of origin, prices paid by slave owners, and slaves' testimony and emancipations. In March 2000, the Louisiana State University Press published published Dr. Hall's databases on a CD-ROM. The data has amazed genealogists and historians of slavery with the breadth of its information. Because the French and Spanish proprietors of Louisiana kept far more detailed records than their British counterparts at slave ports on the Atlantic coast, the records show valuable historical data. For historians who thought such information was lost or could never be collected and analyzed, the database is a once-unimaginable prize. Dr. Hall's work in creating the Afro-Louisiana History and Genealogy is far reaching. There are many who have a stake in being able to freely access this data, from historians, genealogists, anthropologists, geneticists and linguists , to Americans seeking keys to their past. Dr. Hall shares with others an interest in seeing that her research and databases reach the broadest possible audience. Together, Dr. Hall, the Center for the Public Domain, and ibiblio.org bring you the Afro-Louisiana History and Genealogy 1699 - 1820 Database, a user-friendly, searchable, online database that is freely accessible to the public."

Recommended resources drawn from journals by specialists in Native American history.

"Welcome to the American Indian Digital History Project, a Digital History Cooperative founded to recover and preserve rare Indigenous newspapers, photographs, and archival materials from all across Native North America."

This website contains thousands of documents archived by federal institutions from 1774 to the mid 1990s. It is important to note that not all documents in this website have been digitized or made available online.

"Established in 2006 by Dr. Debbie Reese of Nambé Pueblo, American Indians in Children's Literature (AICL) provides critical analysis of Indigenous peoples in children's and young adult books. Dr. Jean Mendoza joined AICL as a co-editor in 2016."

"American Journeys contains more than 18,000 pages of eyewitness accounts of North American exploration, from the sagas of Vikings in Canada in AD1000 to the diaries of mountain men in the Rockies 800 years later."

"Comprises 253 published narratives by Americans and foreign visitors recounting their travels in the colonies and the United States and their observations and opinions about American peoples, places, and society from about 1750 to 1920. Also included is the thirty-two-volume set of manuscript sources entitled Early Western Travels, 1748-1846, published between 1904 and 1907 after diligent compilation by the distinguished historian and secretary of the Wisconsin Historical Society Reuben Gold Thwaites. Although many of the authors represented in American Notes are not widely known, the collection includes works by major figures such as Matthew Arnold, Fredrika Bremer, William Cullen Bryant, François-René de Chateaubriand, William Cobbett, James Fenimore Cooper, J. Hector St. John de Crèvecoeur, Charles Dickens, Washington Irving, Benjamin Henry Latrobe, Sir Charles Lyell, William Lyon Mackenzie, André Michaux, Thomas Nuttall, Frederick Law Olmsted, and Robert Louis Stevenson. The narratives in American Notes therefore range from the unjustly neglected to the justly famous, and from classics of the genre to undiscovered gems. Together, they build a mosaic portrait of a young nation."

"We are a multidisciplinary research centre that targets the conceptual and practical potential of indigenous peoples’ collective ‘life projects’ to generate innovative regimes of environmental protection and alternative visions of development. We bring together the projects and programs of more than seventy regular members and collaborators, representing great depth of experience in partnered research with indigenous peoples globally. Particular comparative emphasis is placed on the Americas, the Circumpolar Region, Africa, and Oceania."

The Centre for the Study of the Legacies of British Slave-ownership has been established at UCL with the generous support of the Hutchins Center at Harvard. The Centre will build on two earlier projects based at UCL tracing the impact of slave-ownership on the formation of modern Britain: the ESRC-funded Legacies of British Slave-ownership project (2009-2012), and the ESRC and AHRC-funded Structure and significance of British Caribbean slave-ownership 1763-1833 (2013-2015).

"Collaborating with Reverend Samuel Worcester, the General Council of the Cherokee Nation established a printing office at New Echota in 1828. The Cherokee Phoenix was first published on February 21st, 1828 and was notable for its adjacent columns of English and Cherokee text. The paper's founding is rooted in the Cherokee Nation's response to pressure from Georgia and surrounding states to relinquish territory and move west of the Mississippi river; the Cherokee Phoenix was meant to function as a tool for gaining public support in keeping the Cherokee Nation united. In 1829, the publication became the Cherokee Phoenix and Indians' Advocate to make its efforts as an advocacy publication more explicit. The paper began publishing small fictional works, Christian living articles, and news of the Cherokee nation, but rapidly shifted towards focusing on the removal crisis. The first editor, a formally educated Cherokee named Elias Boudinot, ran the paper until 1832 when he was replaced for his increasing support of voluntary removal to the west. Boudinot's successor, Elijah Hicks, was a strong anti-removal advocate and edited the paper until its closure in May 1834. The Cherokee annuity was not paid in that year and the Georgia Guard ceased publication in 1835 to prevent the printing of more anti-removal sentiments. Elias Boudinot would be among several Cherokees who signed the New Echota Treaty of 1835 which gave up Cherokee Nation land east of the Mississippi River."

"The Early Americas Digital Archive (EADA) is a collection of electronic texts originally written in or about the Americas from 1492 to approximately 1820. Open to the public for research and teaching purposes, EADA is published and supported by the University of Maryland Libraries’ e-Publishing Initiative, and was originally developed with the support of the Maryland Institute for Technology in the Humanities (MITH). Intended as a long-term and inter-disciplinary project committed to exploring the intersections between traditional humanities research and digital technologies, it invites scholars from all disciplines to submit their editions of early American texts for publication on this site. To learn more about EADA, please see Introduction to the Archive. In order to search the database of documents housed at EADA, see Browse/Search the Archive. In order to find early American texts on the Internet, at the EADA and elsewhere, see Gateway of Early American authors on the Internet."

"This page contains maps that were drawn by American Indians or copied from Indian prototypes."

"Explores Aboriginal peoples' "fight for cultural survival and ... the wealth of their modern-day contributions." Relying on research and artifacts from the First Peoples Hall of the Canadian Museum of Civilization, the exhibition explores Canada's linguistic diversity (with more than 50 Aboriginal languages), the history of the First Nations, and relationships with the environment. Additionally, the exhibition's An Aboriginal Presence section includes brief biographies on prominent Indigenous community members. Readers can view the exhibition in its entirety by clicking through each page using the arrow icons or navigate to specific sections using the Index. The exhibition is available in English and French. Clicking "Back to Exhibitions" at the top of the page allows readers to explore some of the Museum's other offerings, including Inuit Prints from Cape Dorset and A History of the Native People of Canada." Copyright © 2017 Internet Scout Research Group - http://scout.wisc.edu

"Educators, librarians, and community leaders may enjoy this resource, a "Guide to Indigenous Land and Territorial Acknowledgements for Cultural Institutions." The guide is designed for "institutions such as museums, archives, libraries, and universities," to promote recognition and respect for "Indigenous homelands, inherent sovereignty, and survivance." Land and territorial acknowledgements "recognizes the Indigenous peoples who have been dispossessed from homelands and territories upon which an institution was built and currently occupies and operates in." On the site, readers can download the short guide as a PDF and browse additional resources highlighted on the right-hand panel. These resources include educational materials, news articles, and multimedia presentations on land acknowledgement. Felicia Garcia (Chumash) and Jane Anderson, both from New York University (NYU), created the guide in 2018. They received support from Decolonize This Place, NYC Stands with Standing Rock, the American Indian Community House, the Association of Tribal Archives, Libraries, and Museums, and several other departments within NYU. [EMB]" Copyright © 2017 Internet Scout Research Group - http://scout.wisc.edu

"Women have long been the creative force behind Native art. Presented in close cooperation with top Native women artists and scholars, this first major exhibition of artwork by Native women honors the achievements of over 115 artists from the United States and Canada spanning over 1,000 years. Their triumphs—from pottery, textiles, and painting, to photographic portraits, to a gleaming El Camino—show astonishing innovation and technical mastery. "

"While treaties between Indigenous peoples and the United States affect virtually every area in the USA, there is as yet no official list of all the treaties. The US National Archives holds 374 of the treaties, where they are known as the Ratified Indian Treaties. Here you can view them for the first time with key historic works that provide context to the agreements made and the histories of our shared lands. 374 Ratified Indian Treaties visible for the first time Thanks to an anonymous donation, the US National Archives conserved and digitized the Ratified Indian treaties in its holdings. Here you can see the original documents spanning more than a hundred years. Most are now available, and more will be added as the National Archives completes preservation and scanning."

Compiled and edited by Charles J. Kappler, this historically significant, 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). This digitization project was made possible by significant gifts from the AMIGOS Bibliographic Council, the Atlanta-based Coca-Cola Foundation and the Angie Debo estate.

"Films on this site can be streamed free of charge, or downloaded for your personal use for a small fee. We also offer educational works on a subscription basis to schools and institutions. Our Collection includes documentaries, animations, experimental films, fiction and interactive works. We showcase films that take a stand on issues of global importance that matter to Canadians—stories about the environment, human rights, international conflict, the arts and more. We also have a selection of animated films for both adults and children from talented filmmakers such as Cordell Barker, Chris Landreth, Ryan Larkin, Richard Condie, Ishu Patel, Caroline Leaf, and others. You'll discover new releases, old favourites and Canadian classics along with works from many of Canada's legendary directors. We have films for all ages, in both French and English"

"The Indigenous Digital Archive is here to help you explore the history of US goverment Indian boarding schools in the 19th and 20th centuries. Explore, annotate and learn from over 500,000 archival documents about Santa Fe Indian School and others, all kinds of boarding school records, yearbooks, and letters."

"Welcome to the project on Indigenous Stewardship of the Environment and Alternative Development (INSTEAD). We are a multidisciplinary research program that, in collabaration with indigenous partner communities from across the globe, focuses on indigenous people's attempts to implement their own visions of environmental and cultural heritage protection. We believe that indigenous views of socio-ecological community represent a vital base of political creativity, a 'place to stand' that favours the reproduction of diversity in human relationships to environment."

from the Cultural Heritage Informatics Initiative administered by the Michigan State University Department of Anthropology

The John Carter Brown Library holds one of the world's largest collections of books containing text in one or more Amerindian languages for the period before the nineteenth century. This searchable bibliography lists books in the library–whether they contain a one-page vocabulary list or an entire work–on native American languages. Besides the many grammatical studies, dictionaries, and thematic vocabulary lists, genres such as speeches, dramatic dialogues, scriptural excerpts, catechisms, and other religious texts are included, as are manuscript sources held by the library.

"How the United States funded land-grant universities with expropriated Indigenous land. Nearly 11 million acres of Indigenous land. Approximately 250 tribal nations. Over 160 violence-backed treaties and land seizures. Fifty-two universities. Discover the bloody history behind land-grant universities."

The Indian Removal Act was signed into law by President Andrew Jackson on May 28, 1830, authorizing the president to grant unsettled lands west of the Mississippi in exchange for Indian lands within existing state borders. A few tribes went peacefully, but many resisted the relocation policy. During the fall and winter of 1838 and 1839, the Cherokees were forcibly moved west by the United States government. Approximately 4,000 Cherokees died on this forced march, which became known as the "Trail of Tears."

"The National Archives launched a new web-based finding aid featuring digitized historical photographs from the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) records in Record Group 75. For the first time, you can explore digital copies of over 18,000 photographs through an engaging and easy to use interactive experience: the Bureau of Indian Affairs Photographs Finding Aid."

"The National Congress of American Indians, founded in 1944, is the oldest, largest and most representative American Indian and Alaska Native organization serving the broad interests of tribal governments and communities.",

"A diverse and multifaceted cultural and educational enterprise, the National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI) is an active and visible component of the Smithsonian Institution, the world's largest museum complex. The NMAI cares for one of the world's most expansive collections of Native artifacts, including objects, photographs, archives, and media covering the entire Western Hemisphere, from the Arctic Circle to Tierra del Fuego. The National Museum of the American Indian operates three facilities. The museum on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., offers exhibition galleries and spaces for performances, lectures and symposia, research, and education. The George Gustav Heye Center (GGHC) in New York City houses exhibitions, research, educational activities, and performing arts programs. The Cultural Resources Center (CRC) in Suitland, Maryland, houses the museum's collections as well as the conservation, repatriation, and digital imaging programs, and research facilities. The NMAI's off-site outreach efforts, often referred to as the "fourth museum," include websites, traveling exhibitions, and community programs. Since the passage of its enabling legislation in 1989 (amended in 1996), the NMAI has been steadfastly committed to bringing Native voices to what the museum writes and presents, whether on-site at one of the three NMAI venues, through the museum's publications, or via the Internet. The NMAI is also dedicated to acting as a resource for the hemisphere's Native communities and to serving the greater public as an honest and thoughtful conduit to Native cultures—present and past—in all their richness, depth, and diversity."

"Native American Ethnobotany offers visitors a comprehensive "database of plants used as drugs, foods, dyes, fibers, and more, by Native Peoples of North America." This searchable database is the result of more than 25 years of work and contains over 44,000 items, which "represents uses by 291 Native American groups of 4,029 species from 243 different plant families." Visitors can do a simple text search, but for more precision, they can also conduct a filtered search allowing them to specify tribe and plant use in addition to the text search. Visitors will also find lists of all the tribes and plant species contained in the database, each linking to all their documented plant uses. The database includes links to the USDA PLANTS database in the details of each plant-use documentation, thus providing immediate access to the plants' complete botanical information. The current version of Native American Ethnobotany is supported by Dan Moerman, Professor Emeritus of Anthropology at the University of Michigan-Dearborn, and Jason Best, Director of Biodiversity Informatics at the Botanical Research Institute of Texas, with funding from the National Science Foundation." Copyright © 2017 Internet Scout Research Group - http://scout.wisc.edu

Native Land Digital is a Canadian not-for-profit organization, incorporated in December 2018. Native Land Digital is Indigenous-led, with an Indigenous Executive Director and Board of Directors who oversee and direct the organization. Numerous non-Indigenous people also contribute as members of our Advisory Council. The Board of Directors govern finances, set priorities, and appoint staff members as required.

The Native Northeast Portal contains a rich array of primary source materials from American and British repositories that are able to be re-purposed for teaching, analysis, and research. Documents are drawn from the following repositories: The Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library (Yale University), The British Library, The Connecticut Historical Society, The Connecticut State Library, East Lyme Historical Society, Harvard University Libraries, Indian and Colonial Research Center, Leffingwell House Museum, The Lewis Walpole Library (Yale University), Manuscripts & Archives (Yale University), The Massachusetts Archives, The National Archives of the United Kingdom, and the New London County Historical Society.

"First Nations is pleased to announce its new Indigenous reading campaign called #NativeReads. #NativeReads will honor and celebrate Indigenous writers from a specific tribe or region. For more than 200 years, Native literatures have been shaped and influenced by individuals from outside our tribal communities. First Nations firmly believes that it is time for citizens of sovereign tribal nations to define and articulate their own iterary traditions."

The New York State Library holds a wealth of first hand descriptions of the Native American experience in New York. These resources span four centuries, beginning with the Dutch colony of New Netherland and continuing to the close of the American frontier in western New York and beyond. Original manuscripts and published accounts provide windows upon Native American life and serve as lenses through which cultural and historical interpretations can be made.

On The Land is a podcast created to center Indigenous voices and our experiences on the land.Our being is rooted in our relationship to the land despite generations of attempted and forced genocide, removal, and assimilation. On The Land offers a contemporary understanding of what it means to be Indigenous and live in relation to the land, water, and animal and plant relatives.

Fire destroyed the War Department office in 1800. For decades historians believed that its files, and the window they provide into the early federal government, had been lost forever. This collection unites copies of the lost files in a digital archive that reconstitutes this invaluable historical resource.

"Canadian Geographic and its publisher, The Royal Canadian Geographical Society, with funding from the Government of Canada, created this interactive website as part of a larger initiative to raise awareness of residential schools in Canada and highlight the experiences of residential school students and their families. The Orange Shirt Society — an organization dedicated to supporting residential school reconciliation and to creating awareness of the individual, family and community intergenerational impacts of residential schools, and founders of Orange Shirt Day (September 30) — was a critical partner in this project. This map charts the hundreds of residential schools not recognized by the federal government’s Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement because they had been run by the provinces or other organizations. It also includes links to a series of first-hand accounts and related original-source materials from survivors and, in some instances, family members of survivors of these schools."

North American collections make up nearly half of the Museum’s collections. Archaeological collections include all phases from Paleo-Indian to historic, excavated on the Museum’s many expeditions or acquired through individual donations. Ethnographic collections from the seventeenth- to twenty-first centuries come from across the continent. Many rare objects from the late eighteenth- and early nineteenth-centuries came to the Museum from the collections of the Boston Museum, the American Antiquarian Society, the Massachusetts Historical Society, and the Boston Marine Society. Some important collections are highlighted below.

"RECLAIMED is a weekly series on CBC Music that explores the many worlds of contemporary Indigenous music. From traditional songs and acoustic sounds to Native hip-hop, R&B, and the dancefloor-filling beats of electric powwow, RECLAIMED is a one hour soundtrack to the Indigenous Next Wave: a new generation of Indigenous artists reclaiming their culture through music and song."

Shekon Neechie provides a venue for Indigenous historians to gather as an e-community and share their ideas or works in progress. “Historian” in this case is broadly defined as a person who researches and presents Indigenous histories in essays, stories, photographs, videos, podcasts, or through other means and whose work is based in oral history and traditions, archival research, archaeology, and material interpretation. The historians featured here are formally trained – either within the academy or in the community – or self-taught. We encourage well-established Indigenous historians, graduate and undergraduate students, and community historians from around the world to submit their works (written pieces should be between 500 and 2500 words). Those submitting to Shekon Neechie will be given feedback from other Indigenous historians. We consider Shekon Neechie a place for thoughtful and generous peer review, as pieces will be read to ensure quality of writing or other formats, as well as the argument presented. Shekon Neechie is entirely Indigenous conceived, created, and controlled. Though there are many history websites in Canada and abroad that attempt to convey Indigenous perspectives, their managing boards, advisory councils, editors, staff, and contributors are all (or nearly all) people who reflect the relative homogeneity and whiteness of the historical profession writ large. While these sites offer opportunities for Indigenous writers and scholars to contribute pieces for special Indigenous-focused issues or invite Indigenous scholars to act as guest contributors., they are not sites where Indigenous peoples have a stake in the production or curation of intellectual discourses. It is important for Indigenous historians to find our way into spaces dominated by non-Indigenous scholars. However, it is equally important for us to carve out spaces where our work is centered and in conversation with other Indigenous historians. Shekon Neechie is one such space.

Southeastern Native American Documents, 1730-1842, contains approximately 2,000 documents and images relating to the Native American population of the Southeastern United States from the collections of the University of Georgia Libraries, the University of Tennessee at Knoxville Library, the Frank H. McClung Museum, the Tennessee State Library and Archives, the Tennessee State Museum, the Museum of the Cherokee Indian, and the LaFayette-Walker County Library. The documents are comprised of letters, legal proceedings, military orders, financial papers, and archaeological images relating to Native Americans in the Southeast.

From the Digital Public Library of America: In the mid-eighteenth century, present-day California was the northernmost Spanish colony on the North American continent. In 1769, on orders from Spain’s King Charles III, Gaspar de Portolá and a group of Franciscans led by Junípero Serra traveled from Baja California to explore territory to the North. Their goal was to extend the missions (or religious settlements) from Baja California into the area that would become Alta California by establishing a string of new outposts a day’s journey apart.

'Facing History & Ourselves (previously featured in the 06-18-2021 Scout Report) provides resources, workshops, and seminars to help schools and educators promote student engagement with historical injustices and reflection on history as it relates to their own lives and roles as citizens. This educational approach encourages critical thinking, community action, and exploration of human behavior and individual choice. History teachers may find use in this recent feature based on the book Stolen Lives: The Indigenous Peoples of Canada and the Indian Residential Schools. The program explores the devastating legacy of residential schools and their long-lasting effects on Canada's Indigenous peoples, with lessons rooted in primary source material to inspire rich classroom conversations and invite connections between past and present. On the page linked above, visitors can find links to a table of contents outlining the book's themes and content ("Use the Table of Contents"), information on obtaining French or English digital versions of the book or print classroom sets ("Get the Book"), video testimonials from students and teachers, news about the program and book, and opportunities for professional development. As of this writing, the two-week unit of lesson plans is undergoing revision, but a link is provided for teachers who wish to find out more about building lessons around these materials. Facing History & Ourselves is a non-profit that "uses lessons of history to challenge teachers and students to stand up to bigotry and hate." ' [RMP, Copyright © 2021 Internet Scout Research Group - http://scout.wisc.edu]

The Thomas Gilcrease Institute of American History and Art, commonly known as Gilcrease Museum, located in Tulsa, Okla., is one of the country’s best facilities for the preservation and study of American art and history. The museum houses the world’s largest and most comprehensive collection of art and artifacts of the American West, including an unparalleled collection of Native American art and material.

Founded in 1997, the Tribal Court Clearinghouse hosts an abundance of resources on tribal courts and laws. As the resource notes, "tribes have always had, and continue to retain, the sovereign authority to establish and operate their own tribal justice systems." The Clearinghouse's Tribal Law hub provides ten topical sections to understand tribal court systems. The Tribal Courts section, the first option listed, is a great place to start. It begins with some background information on the establishment of sovereign authority under the Indian Reorganization Act. Additionally, this section lists all United States' Tribal Courts (cataloged by state). The remaining nine sections cover Tribal constitutions, codes, and case law, pertinent research articles, and other key actors (including federal, state, and law enforcement officials). Those looking for further information on tribal court systems will want to explore the other information hubs highlighted at the top of the site: Federal Law, State Law, Topics, Program Resources, and Native Resources. The Tribal Law and Policy Institute publishes the Tribal Court Clearinghouse, and links to other resources from the organization are provided on the right-hand panel of the website's home page. Copyright © 2017 Internet Scout Research Group - http://scout.wisc.edu

Funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), this project is "tribesourcing" educational films about the Native peoples of the Southwestern U.S. The films are from the American Indian Film Gallery, a collection of about 500 educational films at the University of Arizona. These films primarily date from the mid-20th century and reflect mainstream cultural attitudes towards Indigenous People at that time. Tribesourcing is providing the films online with at least one alternate narration from within the culture it portrays to provide context and place "historical materials with the peoples they represent in order to tell the untold or suppressed story." The films are arranged by community on the website, and readers will find the films by scrolling down the home page or navigating to the Browse Digital Heritage tab. To view those that have counter-narration recorded, limit to the category "Completed Alternate Audio Narration." For example, Arts and Crafts of the Southwest Indians, "Part 1, the Navajo" (originally produced in 1953) has a counter-narration that points out that the original film seems to view the Navajo/Dine crafts as recreational, or hobbies, while in reality, the silversmithing, weaving, and pottery depicted were important economic activities in the community. To listen to the counter narration while the original video is playing, the Tribesourcing recommends starting the video, then using the audio controls (blue lines on the right-hand side) to mute the original narration before launching the alternate narration. In addition to the films, readers will find complementary materials (e.g., a Dictionary and News archive) on the site. Copyright © 2017 Internet Scout Research Group - http://scout.wisc.edu

"UAINE is a Native-led organization of Native people and our supporters who fight back against racism and for the freedom of Leonard Peltier and other political prisoners. We support Indigenous struggles, not only in New England but throughout the Americas."