Research Guides: Research and teaching with digitized archives: 2. B. Digitized archives 10 m

Oral histories

Oral histories: content notes

Oral history

aligns to indigenous ways of recording history and transmitting knowledge
is sometimes mixed in with collections of other formats
may or may not have written transcripts available

Oral traditions include stories meant for specific people, or intended to be told at specific times. The oral histories and videos here are understood to be those Native people have chosen to share widely.

Oral histories: American Indian boarding schools

Cante Sica Boarding School Stories
Collection of interviews on video from the Autry Museum of the American West with former American Indian Boarding School students

La Plant Oral History Project: American Indian Boarding Schools

Edited from series of interviews conducted from 2014 to 2015 in the town of La Plant on the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe Reservation, located within South Dakota. To view the entire project, visit: http://www.simplysmiles.org/la-plant-oral-history.

Oral histories: Indigenous voices

Duke Collection of American Indian Oral History online
Provides access to typescripts of interviews (1967 -1972) conducted with hundreds of Indians in Oklahoma regarding the histories and cultures of their respective nations and tribes

Agnes Baker-Pilgrim: Indigenous Voices

Tony Johnson, Part I: Chinook Culture and Educational Philosophy, Center for Columbia River History

Curated source sets and digital collections to explore

Digitized Indian Boarding School archives

Carlisle Indian School Digital Resource Center
Represents an effort to aid the research process by bringing together, in digital format, a variety of resources that are physically preserved in various locations around the country.
Chilocco Indian Agricultural School Oral History Project
Includes YouTube videos and transcripts of oral history interviews
Indigenous Digital Archive
Explore the history of US government Indian boarding schools in the 19th and 20th centuries. More than 500,000 archival documents about Santa Fe Indian School and others, all kinds of boarding school records, yearbooks, and letters.
Archives at the National Center for Truth and Reconciliation
The NCTR is a place of learning and dialogue where the truths of the residential school experience will be honoured and kept safe for future generations.
Sherman Indian Museum collection
Documents the history of the Perris Indian School, Sherman Institute, and Sherman Indian High School as well as the Native American experience in the US and within government-run American Indian boarding schools.

Curated primary source sets for Native American Studies

Browse images at the National Museum of the American Indian Archives Center
Search results from the Smithsonian Institution
First Nations Collection
From the Southern Oregon Digital Archives
Indian Land Cessions Maps from the 18th Annual Report of the Bureau of the American Ethnology, Smithsonian Institution.
Maps are from the original book Indian Land Cessions in the United States, Compiled by Charles C. Royce.
Indian Peoples of the Northern Great Plains Digital Collection
Photographs, paintings, ledger drawings, documents, serigraphs, and stereographs from 1874 through the 1940's
Kappler's Indian Affairs: Laws and Treaties
Seven volume compilation of U.S. treaties, laws and executive orders pertaining to Native American Indian tribes
National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI) Archive Center
A repository for the records of contemporary Native American artists, writers, activists, and organizations
Native American Constitution and Law Digitization Project
Tribal constitutions, codes, and other legal documents
Native American Documents Project
Many of the documents on this site were taken from microfilmed collections of reports and letters published by the National Archives. Documents are limited in scope.
Native American Women Playwrights Archive
A collection of original materials by Native women playwrights of the Americas including performance photos, vidoes, and promotional materials
Plains Indian Ledger Art Project
Scans of over 40 ledgers, requires registration for a free account (instant upon email confirmation)
Treaties Between the United States and Native Americans
From the Yale Avalon Project, full text of treaties arranged chronologically

Library of Congress sample searches and items

Omaha Indian Music
Sound recordings include 44 wax cylinder recordings made in the 1890s at the Library of Congress
Corporate name United States Indian School (Carlisle, Pa.) issuing body.
Displays results of a "corporate author" search in the Library of Congress
Digitized newspapers filtered with "Indians of North America"
From the Library of Congress Chronicling America digitized newspapers

Sample digitized books from the Internet Archive

Away to school = ʼÓltaʼgóó
A children's book published by the United States Indian Service for English instruction. From the Center for Southwest Research.
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Subject descriptions: Navajo language Readers; Off-reservation boarding schools; Juvenile literature; Navajo children; Education