Guides: Indigenous Studies: Find Online and Primary Resources

What are Primary Sources?

Primary sources are original materials or documents. In Indigenous studies, they could refer to a direct, first-hand account of an event; usually something that was created at the time of an event, or shortly thereafter. Examples include:

Diaries
Letters
Speeches
Interviews
Archives and manuscript material
Newspapers and magazines from that time
Photographs
Art
Video and audio recordings
Oral histories
Government publications

A secondary source would be something that interprets, analyzes, or comments on a primary source. Examples include:

Journal articles
Essays
Theses and dissertations
Academic books
Biographies
Stories or films produced about an historical event

Finding Primary Sources in Sofia (the library catalogue)

In WorldCat Discovery try combining your topic keywords with one of these terms:

biography
autobiography
"first person"
interview
perspective
diary OR diaries
autoethnography
narrative
photography

For example: "residential schools" AND diary

Primary and Historical Sources

McGill users have access to many collections that include primary sources relevant to Indigenous Studies. Be aware that many of these collections are written about, rather than by, Indigenous people; be sure to keep this in mind when analyzing these sources.

Indigenous Histories and Cultures in North America (Adam Matthew)
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Explore manuscripts, artwork and rare printed books dating from the earliest contact with European settlers right up to photographs and newspapers from the mid-twentieth century. Browse through a wide range of rare and original documents from treaties, speeches and diaries, to historic maps and travel journals.
Indigenous Newspapers in North America (Adam Matthew)
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Contains historic pressings and contemporary periodicals covering nearly 200 years of Indigenous print journalism from the US and Canada. Highlights how events were reported by and for Indigenous communities.
This resource has been developed with, and has only been made possible by, the permission and contribution of the newspaper publishers and Tribal Councils concerned.
Includes the Navajo Times, Cherokee Phoenix, Kamloops Wawa, and more.
Caninuit
CanInuit is an annotated source of information about the magazines, journals, newspapers and newsletters of Canada's Inuit communities. Most entries in the CanInuit database reference periodical publications which deal predominantly with Canadian Inuit and their communities. Other entries describe library catalogues, art catalogues, indexes & abstracts, and bibliographies, that are sources of information about Canadian Inuit periodicals.
Indigenous Peoples of North America (Gale)
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Digital collection of primary sources containing manuscripts, monographs, newspapers, photographs, motion pictures, and artwork exploring the impact of invasion and colonization on Indigenous Peoples in North America, as well as the intersection of Indigenous and European histories and systems of knowledge.
Early Encounters in North America (Alexander Street Press)
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Contains published and unpublished items by 1,482 authors including letters, diaries, memoirs and accounts of early settlers' encounters with North American Indigenous peoples.
North American Indian Thought and Culture (Alexander Street Press)
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Integrates autobiographies, biographies, Native American and Canadian First Peoples publications, oral histories, personal writings, photographs, drawings, and audio files.
North American Indian Drama Second Edition (Alexander Street Press)
Contains 244 plays by 48 playwrights representing the stories and creative energies of American Indian and First Nation playwrights of the twentieth century. More than half of the works are previously unpublished. Represented groups include: Cherokee, Métis, Creek, Choctaw, Pembina Chippewa, Ojibway, Lenape, Comanche, Cree, Navajo, Rappahannock, Hawaiian/Samoan, and more. Together, the plays demonstrate Indigenous theater’s diversity of tribal traditions and approaches to drama—melding conventional dramatic form with ancient storytelling and ritual performance elements, experimenting with traditional ideas of time and narrative, or challenging Western dramatic structure.
American Indian Law Collection (HeinOnline)
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Expansive archive of treaties, federal statutes and regulations, federal case law, tribal codes, constitutions, and jurisprudence. This library also features rare compilations edited by Felix S. Cohen.

Canadian Parliamentary Historical Resources
Search or browse the senate or parliamentary debates and more.
Indigenous Services Canada: Publications of Historical Interest
Indian Affairs Annual Reports from 1864-1990, Statement of the Government of Canada on Indian Policy (The White Paper, 1969), A Survey of the Contemporary Indians of Canada, 1966 & 1967, and nineteenth-century historical legislation.
Our Homes Are Bleeding (Union of BC Indian Chiefs)
Includes the records of the McKenna McBride Royal Commission (1913-1916) - transcripts of testimonies given to the Commission, photographs and maps. Additional historical records, including maps, documents, newspaper articles, photographs, audio and video clips, show the continual assertion of aboriginal title and rights.
Project Naming: Voices from Nunavut
The goal of Project Naming is the identification of Inuit portrayed in some of the photographic collections of Library and Archives Canada (LAC).
Indigenous Studies Portal (University of Saskatchewan)
University of Saskatchewan site with links to published research on all aspects of Indigenous studies.
Hoʻolaupaʻi: Hawaiian Language Newspapers
Collection of historic Hawaiian-language newspapers published between 1834 and 1948, hosted by Bishop Museum (Honolulu, Hawaii).

Treaties

Treaties, Surrenders and Agreements (Library and Archives Canada) Selected full-text treaties and statutes from the National Archives of Canada, as well as links to land claims-related issues.
Maps of Treaty Making in Canada (Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada)