Research Guides: Native American Studies: Primary Sources

Primary Source Basics

About Primary Sources

Primary Source Search Tips

A primary source is a document or physical object which was written or created during the time under study. These sources were present during an experience or time period and offer an inside view of a particular event.

Newspapers
Almanacs
Novels
Government documents (e.g., treaties, proclamations, declarations, proceedings)
Diaries; autobiographies; memoirs
Letters
Advertisements
Artifacts (e.g., weapons, tools)
Scientific or Political Treatises
Census Reports
Government Documents (e.g., Senate and House hearings, testimony)
Manuscripts
Interviews; oral histories; personal narratives
Photographs; images
Speeches
Property Atlases (see also: Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps)
Papers (e.g., of politicians, presidents)
Music; sound recordings
Maps
Treaties
Visual Materials: art; motion pictures
Dissertations
Pamphlets; broadsides
Audio recordings
Rare Books

Don't use "primary sources" as a search term

Experiment with these types of primary sources as search terms along with your subject terms:

sources
personal narratives
documents
speeches
memoirs
diaries
documents
interviews
oral history
letters
biography (be sure the author is also the subject - writing about themselves)

WVU Subscription Primary Sources

WVU Subscription (may require login if off-campus)

American Indian Histories and Culture This link opens in a new window
American Indian Histories and Cultures features a wide range of materials including:Manuscripts (treaties, speeches, petitions, diaries, travel journals, ledger books, Artwork (illustrations, sketches, watercolours, oil paintings, American Indian art), American Indian Newspapers covering the 1960s to 1990s, Rare Printed Books, Photographs,and Maps.
Early American Imprints, Series I: Evans, 1630-1800 This link opens in a new window
37,000 books, pamphlets and broadsides provide primary source documents on nearly every aspect of life in 17th- and 18th-century America, from agriculture and auctions through foreign affairs, diplomacy, literature, music, religion, the Revolutionary War, temperance, witchcraft.
eHRAF World Cultures This link opens in a new window
The eHRAF World Cultures is an online cross-cultural database containing descriptive information on cultures and ethnic groups from around the world-- unique because each culture contains a variety of full-text source documents (books, articles, and dissertations) that have been indexed and organized according to HRAF's comprehensive culture and subject classification systems: the Outline of World Cultures (OWC), and the Outline of Cultural Materials (OCM). These retrieval systems extend search capability well beyond keyword searching, allowing for precise culture and subject retrieval, even in a foreign language. As a multicultural database, eHRAF appeals to many academic disciplines in the social sciences, humanities, medicine, and any other area with an interest in cultural diversity.
Fold3 This link opens in a new window
Historical documents collections, most never before available before on the Internet, relating to the Revolutionary War, Civil War, WWI, WWII, U S Presidents, historical newspapers and naturalization documents.
HathiTrust This link opens in a new window
HathiTrust is a partnership of academic & research institutions, offering a collection of millions of titles digitized from libraries around the world.
New York Times (Proquest Historical Newspapers)(Discontinued) This link opens in a new window
The Libraries' subscription to this resource ended Aug. 31, 2023. For assistance in identifying an alternative resource(s), please email researchservices@mail.wvu.edu.
ProQuest Congressional This link opens in a new window
Abstracts and indexing for congressional publications, legislative histories, member biographies, committee assignments, voting records, and financial data; and the full text of key regulatory and statutory resources. Full-text access to House and Senate Unpublished Hearings Parts A, B, & C.
ProQuest Congressional Hearings Digital Collection (Parts A-O) This link opens in a new window
ProQuest Congressional Hearings Digital Collection is a unique primary source collection presenting opinions and supporting materials on the issues of the day. Full-text coverage is available from 1824 to present.
U.S. Congressional Serial Set This link opens in a new window
Historic reports, documents and journals of the US Senate and House of Representatives, originally published in approximately 13,800 bound volumes. Digitization is on-going. When complete, coverage will extend through 1980.

State and Regional Primary Sources and Research

Primary Sources in the West Virginia and Regional History Collection

These links go to searchable finding aids for local resources. Materials and expert assistance in searching the catalog is available in the West Virginia and Regional History Center.

Archives and manuscripts - A search for the subject term "Native Americans" retrieves records of white immigrants to the central Appalachian region. To view these documents and get additional assistance with primary sources, visit the West Virginia and Regional History Center.
Appalachian Bibliography section about Ethnicity and Race, African Americans, Immigrants, Native Americans - use Ctrl + f to search for specific terms.
- 1994-2012 (HTML / PDF)
- 2013-June 2016 (H TML / PDF)

Free Online Primary Sources

Web Resources

Indian Land Cessions Maps from the 18th Annual Report of the Bureau of the American Ethnology, Smithsonian Institution.
Online Resource.
Maps are from the original book Indian Land Cessions in the United States, Compiled by Charles C. Royce.
Native American Women Playwrights
A collection of original materials by Native women playwrights of the Americas. Use the 'Resources' link on the right to access bibliographies. A new bibliography of plays by Native men may also be accessed.
An Interactive Biographical Dictionary Profiling the Men and Women Portrayed in 'The West'
These profiles offer additional details about the lives of these historical figures in Ken Burns's "The West" series.
Native Web
This forum offers information from and about indigenous nations, peoples, and organizations around the world; to foster communication between native and non-native peoples; to conduct research involving indigenous peoples' usage of technology and the Internet; and to provide resources, mentoring, and services to facilitate indigenous peoples' use of this technology.
Navajo Code Talkers' Dictionary
The cryptography used by the Navajo code talkers.
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.
Digital Public Library of America The American Indian Movement 1968-1978
Founded in July 1968 in Minneapolis, Minnesota, the American Indian Movement (AIM) is an American Indian advocacy group organized to address issues related to sovereignty, leadership, and treaties.
National Archives - Among the billions of historical records housed at the National Archives throughout the country, researchers can find information relating to American Indians from as early as 1774 through the mid 1990s.
National Museum of the American Indian Archive Center - A representative sample of NMAI's object and historic photo collections. Each item is accompanied by basic, standardized information.
Library of Congress - The Library of Congress is the largest library in the world, with millions of books, recordings, photographs, newspapers, maps and manuscripts in its collections. The Library is the main research arm of the U.S. Congress and the home of the U.S. Copyright Office.
Native American Heritage Month Cultural Resources - Selected exhibits and collections. Many have freely accessible online collections.