For conducting research from remote locations/ unable to come in to the ESL library. Some resources may require university or library log-ins for access, like proquest and ERIC databases (Ethnic Newswatch, Educator's Reference Desk).
All-Purpose Resources
Arts & Literature
California
Culture & Ethnology
Demography
Education
Genealogy
Geography/ Environment
Health & Medicine
History
Language
Law & Politics
Tribes, Nations, and other Organizations
All-Purpose Resources
This comprehensive source works for every category of interest as an all-around "Best" website. Designed primarily as a service to the Native American and education communities. Through cooperative effort this website is maintained by an individual, Dr. Karen Strom, with the assistance of hundreds of people who provide updates to their URLs and report new sites.
Digital dissertations [Electronic Database] Ann Arbor, MI: UMI Proquest
Other databases of dissertation abstracts available at SJSU & CSUF, check OPACs. Offers access to the Dissertations Abstracts International (print) and Dissertation Abstracts Ondisc (CD-ROM) via the web, with entries from 1861 to present. The web interface is not well designed, and the search form is very challenging. Search by name of tribe and major topic (do not attempt "American Indians" or "Native Americans"). Includes free abstracts and ability to order full-text for a fee.
UCLA American Indian Studies Center Library (AISCL)
For Los Angeles area students, this is a small but rich library of historical and contemporary materials. Unfortunately, a glitch in the university's current OPAC makes it impossible to limit searches to the AISCL, but this should be resolved soon. For now, one must use the card catalog onsite, and it is a non-circulating library. Of special interest is access to an online database Bibliography of Native North America,not found many places. Also rare is the collection's Hopi and Zuni katsina reference index. A 40-foot vertical file contains, among other riches, an extensive collection of bibliographies. Check their "websites" link for a list of useful web sources.
National Archives "ARC" Gallery- Native Americans: Highlighted Records
Also, another National Archives Native American records entry point: http://www.archives.gov/research/alic/reference/native-americans.html
These sites are useful for browsing and searching descriptions of the holdings of the National Archives. The Archives Library Information Center (ALIC) site has a lot of information about each resource, including some sources that are available online, but these sites should be used more as indexes than as primary sources.
American Indian Library Association 'Other Resources'
The "related links" list on the NAS homepage already has ailanet.org, but this links to the "Other Resources" page, which links to a number of relevant online resources. Some of the sites may be dated/ broken, but many of them are very useful.
RezNet: Reporting from Native America
Informative and well-organized news & current events about Native America. The site is a project of the University of Montana School of Journalism, training American Indian college students for careers in journalism.
National Congress of American Indians
The homepage of the National Congress of American Indians, a major national tribal governmental organization. It includes information about the organization as well as current events, goings-on, issues, and policies relevant to Native people on a national scale. Includes a tribal directory of federally recognized Indian tribes at http://www.ncai.org/Tribal-Directory.3.0.html.
Part of NCAI (above). Includes articles and news, with lots of information about information technology & Native communities, but seems to be dated to about 2002.
National Museum of the American Indian
Attractive site with general information about the museum and for visitors, which could be useful for getting a feel for what might be there, or maybe looking at how Native people are portrayed in a National museum. "Collections search" could be useful for more in depth research: http://www.nmai.si.edu/searchcollections/home.aspx.
Indigenous Internet Chamber of Commerce Business Directory
Includes listings for tribes/nations, non-profits, government, education, health and social services, etc. with addresses & information as well as links. Listing seem to be more current than those in available print directories. Also see iicoc.com for information about the organization.
"Indianz.com: Your internet resource"
News, current events, and resources for and about Native American communities. Based on the Winnebago reservation in Nebraska, funded by Ho-Chunk, Inc, the economic development corporation of the Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska and Noble Savage Media, a Native American-owned media firm.
Arts & Literature
American Indian Film Institute
The AIFI site has information about the organization, its annual film festival (including searchable lists of films in the last few festivals), information about its tribal touring program and its magazine, Indian Cinema Entertainment. For a print catalog of all films shown at the film festival 1975-2000, search for the ISBN at your library: 0971379408. It's also for sale on the AIFI site, and available at Berkeley's Ethnic Studies library (see the print resources guide).
ANPA (American Native Press Archive) Tribal Writers Digital Library Homepage
Includes a bibliography of works 1772-present as well as a small digital library that features "out of print literary efforts" and indexes to some of the collections at the archive at the Sequoyah Research Center in Little Rock, Arkansas.
Native American Women Playwrights Archive
The NAWPA site includes a bibliography of plays by Native American women, directory of writers with works in the NAWPA, and links to Native theater & arts-related sites.
Voices from the Gaps: Women Writers of Color
Voices from the Gaps operates out of the University of Minnesota with the goal of sharing and promoting works by women of color. This link is to the page with 'Native Americans' keyword selected. You can also search by nation keywords (eg Creek, Lakota) or by artist last name.
An Internet Public Library Special Collection, browse by alphabetical listing of author, title, or tribe. From the site: "This website provides information on Native North American authors with bibliographies of their published works, biographical information, and links to online resources including interviews, online texts and tribal websites. Currently the website primarily contains information on contemporary Native American authors, although some historical authors are represented."
Storytellers: Native American Authors Online- NativeWiki
Biographic and bibliographical information about contemporary Native American writers, sorted by nation. This site is a wiki, so the information may not be as authoritative as other sites. Check for references and further reading at the bottom of each page.
VIRCONA a catalog of Native American artists
Vircona (Visual Resources Catalog Of Native American Artists) is a project of the University of New Mexico. It is intended to make a subset of the Native American entries in the electronic catalog to the collections of over 300,000 35mm slides in the Bainbridge Bunting Memorial Slide Library (BBMSL) accesible on the web. Search options allow you to get very specific with searches but the database is not populated enough to return specific results.
California
Native American collections on Calisphere
Also could be useful to search Calisphere in general, http://www.calisphere.universityofcalifornia.edu/ for more specific searches. With an index of "selected primary sources", the site seems to be meant for educational purposes, with some really cool resources viewable online.
Vol. 8, "Bibliographies" is available online through ERIC.
To access, you need UC or another university log-in. Other volumes are available in U.C. Berkeley's Ethnic Studies library (see the print sources guide), search other OPACs for availability elsewhere.
Bibliographies of Northern and Central Californian Indians
A comprehensive list of resources about California Indians that is now located at U.C. Berkeley's Ethnic Studies Library in the Native American Studies collection. The site includes a list of California tribal groups, maps, a list of the libraries where the California Indian Library Collections (CILCs) are located, and bibliographies by tribal group.
Part of the California Digital Library project, this site offers direct access to digitized documents and photographs from various libraries, museums and archives in California. It also has a number of records for items that are not digitized, so the site would also be useful as a finding aid to items in California libraries. Searches can be limited to items available online. Use this, as well as the UCB OPACs to find items in the Bancroft Library.
Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology -Native California Cultures exhibition
This is an online exhibition about Native California cultures from the Hearst Museum, which is located on the U.C. Berkeley campus. Mostly images of artifacts, the exhibition is meant to provide an overview of the museum's extensive Native California collection.
Johnston-Dodds, K. (2002). Early California Laws and Policies Related to California Indians. Sacramento, CA: California Research Bureau.
http://www.library.ca.gov/crb/02/14/02-014.pdf
Report summarizing and analyzing early laws and policies related to California Indians, compiled using sources from the California State Library in Sacramento and the Bancroft Library of U.C. Berkeley.
California Indians and Their Reservations: An Online Dictionary
According to the site, the dictionary is, "A resource that lists all the American Indian groups in California, giving their reservations, locations, acreage, population, and contact information. Also includes many cultural and historical terms, and population statistics, with links to the tribal web sites. Phillip M. White is a reference librarian at San Diego State University".
Culture & Ethnology
To access, you need UC or library log in. Organized by culture and ethnic group, with full-text sources subject-indexed at paragraph level, this is a rich collection of ethnographic material. Browse or search by tribe, using menus provided, or search by keywords and subjects. Materials included date back to 1949.
Ethnic Newswatch [Electronic Database] Ann Arbor, MI: UMI Proquest.
UCB | SJSU ** Does this link work??? | CSUF
To access, you need UC or university log in. An interdisciplinary and bilingual (English and Spanish) collection of full text articles from newspapers, magazines, and journals covering ethnic and Native American topics. With archives dating back to 1960, the producers seek to offer the "other side of the story" compared to the coverage minorities tend to receive in mainstream press. Excellent for cultural, historic, and demographic information. Limit searches by ethnic group to 'Native People', a menu selection on both simple and advanced search screens. As of this writing, the database contains nearly 100,000 items on this group. Note that the database offers a thesaurus and the results screen allows you to narrow by scholarly journal or other press types, as well as relevance, most recent, or oldest. Updated monthly.
General resource page, includes a list by topic of "annotated links". Reputable? Dated?
Demography
United States Census 2000 Washington, D.C.: U.S. Census Bureau
This is the primary source of demographic data for the U.S. Link from the top of the page to American FactFinder, which offers geographical access to census data, as well as an unfriendly, but highly useful, interface for constructing custom tables. Search American Indian to find pre-made tables on this population. Updated frequently (the Census conducts nearly one hundred surveys a year). Specifically, see: http://factfinder.census.gov/home/aian/index.html
Education
Educator's Reference Desk [Electronic Database] Syracuse, NY: Information Institute of Syracuse.
Formerly ERIC, this is the world's largest source of information about educational topics, containing nearly one million abstracts of documents and journal from 1966 to now. Updated monthly. Contains a separate page dedicated to American Indians, offering links to other topical websites and organizations; available from the home page by following the Special Populations link, or directly at: http://www.eduref.org/cgi-bin/print.cgi/Resources/Specific_Populations/Minority_Groups/American_Indians.html
American Indian Higher Education Consortium
AIHEC was established in 1972 as a support network for tribal colleges. The site provides a listing of tribal colleges, AIHEC programs, and relevant policy. Of note is the AIHEC virtual library, "a collection of resources by for and about Native Americans available online -- selected and reviewed by Tribal College librarians", available at http://www.aihecvl.org/.
Financial Aid for Native American Students
Provides information about different types of financial aid available for Native American students and their guidelines and requirements.
Similar to the above link, the site provides links to financial resources for Native American students attending college.
Genealogy
The most important offering of this site is its access to the Dawes Rolls, the most critical genealogical source for Native Americans. Includes links to other useful genealogical sources, as well as a pathway to other National Archives sources on Native American history. The Dawes Rolls are also available on microfilm in the NAS collection, though not cataloged.
Geography/ Environment
Geography [Electronic Database] New York: Elsevier Science, Inc.
Geography Electronic Resource Database
For access, you need a UC or university log in. Provides access to geographical indexes and abstracts from 2000 international journals, monographs, books, conference reports, and theses, from 1990 to now. Search the Index for the term Native to see which, if any, subject categories you could use to narrow your search.
The Indigenous Environmental Network
"A network of Indigenous Peoples empowering Indigenous Nations and communities towards sustainable livelihoods, demanding environmental justice and maintaining the Sacred Fire of our traditions."
The American Indian Environmental Office of the Environmental Protection Agency
Provides government (EPA) environmental resources like consultation, grant, and policy information. Also provides access to maps & data and other online environmental resources related to the EPA.
Health & Medicine
Government Reports on Issues in Native American Health:
(accessed through an OskiCat (Berkeley OPAC) search of "Native American Health" + Online resources. Also, try visiting the agency sites (gao.gov, gpo.gov) and searching "Native American Health", etc. for more relevant documents.) • Indian Health Service: HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment services for America.
United States. Government Accountability Office. [Washington, D.C.] : U.S. Govt. Accountability Office, [2007]
http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d0890.pdf
• Barriers to American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native American access to DHHS programs. [Washington, D.C. : U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services, 2006]
http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d0890.pdf
• Native American health care disparities briefing: executive summary. [Washington, D.C.] : Office of the General Counsel, U.S. Commission on Civil Rights,[2004]
http://permanent.access.gpo.gov/www.usccr.gov/pubs/nahealth/nahealth.pdf
• Broken promises: evaluating the Native American health care system. United States Commission on Civil Rights. Washington, DC : U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, [2004]
http://www.usccr.gov/pubs/nahealth/nabroken.pdf
U.S. National Library of Medicine site, "an information portal to issues affecting the health and well-being of American Indians." Homepage includes links to lots information about health topics (including common diseases), people and traditions, programs and services, and research and data.
"A database of plants used as drugs, foods, dyes, fibers, and more, by native Peoples of North America." Many (25) years in the making, the information collected for this database was used for the book Native American Ethnobotany. The database is maintained with the support of the University of Michigan-Dearborn.
A project of the University of New Mexico, the database provides a detailed search portal to documents about Native American Health as well as links to other resources.
History
America: History and Life [Electronic Database] Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO
SJSU: SJSU America: History and Life Login
CSUF:CSUF America: History and Life Login
Use this bibliographic database to find citations to articles on the U.S. and Canada from prehistory to now. Contains nearly 500,000 entries from more than 2,000 international journals. Using the advanced search mode, you may browse or search an index of subject terms (try Native, Indian, or American Indian, for example).
Early encounters in North America: Peoples, cultures, and the environment [Electronic Database] Alexandria, VA: Alexander Street Press.
Produced in collaboration with the University of Chicago and compiled from several vetted bibliographies, the database includes prints, drawings, paintings, maps, bibliographies, letters, photographs, and original facsimile pages concerning North America from 1534 to 1850. All materials depict either natural features of the landscape or relationships between the peoples there. Easily browsed by general topic area, with simple and advanced search forms.
A PDF document of the guide, which indexes the records relating to American Indians that are available in the National Archives. This would be a good source for finding out what sorts of records exist about a given topic and for learning about the history of the record-keeping process, as many of the records and their histories are described in detail.
This is a reprint of Bulletin 200, the final, comprehensive index to articles published by the Bureau of Ethnology (BAE) between 1877 and 1970. Includes list of publications with author and title indexes appended. For a subject guide to articles published between 1879 and 1931, see the General Index listed in the print sources guide. Reader should keep in mind that these publications were written and compiled by U.S. government-sponsored anthropologists and archaeologists. For digitized copies of the BAE annual reports: http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/cb37575968z/date
Portrayals of Native Americans
Online exhibition from UCB's Bancroft Library, including color plate books, mass market items, early ethnograpy, and European portrayals.
First Peoples Online Exhibitions
The First Peoples page of the Canadian Museum of Civilization, with links to 2 online exhibits: "First Peoples of Canada" ("Presenting the history and continuing presence of Aboriginal people in Canada" and "Gateway to Aboriginal Heritage" ("Native material culture in Canada"). Language
Indian Languages
Native American Language Net: preserving and promoting indigenous American
This site has basic resources about Native American languages, including vocabularies and pronunciation guides for a number of languages. In its FAQ, it says that it is not an "official publication of any tribe or nation", but that the authors of the site collaborate with, correspond with, and ask permission from tribal webmasters as much as possible.
Society for the Study of the Indigenous Languages of the Americas
From the home site, you can access their bulletins and newsletters as well as language learning aids and internet resources relevant to indigenous languages of the Americas.
"Teaching Indigenous Languages"
From the site: "This "Teaching Indigenous Languages" web site is an outgrowth of a series of annual conferences started in 1994 at Northern Arizona University to help achieve the goals of the Native American Languages Act."
Law & Politics
This site has a digitized version of a book that your library might have.
Lexis-Nexis Academic [Electronic Resource]
Contains full text and abstracts of all kinds of legal documents and articles. Guided search form is useful. Search by name of tribe or legal case. Updated daily.
Native American Constitution and Law Digitization Project
Access to the constitutions, Tribal Codes, and other legal documents of a number of Native American tribes.
Native American Rights Fund, National Indian Law Library, Catalog
From the site, "The collection consists of Native American legal materials ranging from books and journal articles to tribal self-governance documents, such as tribal codes and constitutions. Many of the records in the catalog contain abstracts and tables of contents that provide detailed information about the document. The NILL catalog is updated on a regular basis."
American Indian Ritual Object Repatriation Foundation
The Foundation is a not-for-profit, non-governmental national organization for the repatriation of American Indian ceremonial material. Resources on the site include PDF files of Mending the Circle, a NAGPRA (Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act) resource guide, and PDF files of their newsletter, "News & Notes",from 1994-2003, as well as a number of PDF files of published articles and other information in the "Resources" section.
National Park Service Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act
The NAGPRA site under the National Park Service has a number of informative resources having to do with repatriation in terms of the federal government. These resources include PDF files of a number of relevant laws and regulations, PDF files of NAGPRA maps and reports, and several databases that include consultation contacts, Federal Register notices, and inventories. Direct link to the online databases page: http://www.nps.gov/nagpra/ONLINEDB/INDEX.HTM
Treaties between the United States and Native Americans
The Avalon Project at Yale digitizes "documents in law, history, and diplomacy". This URL links to the collection of treaties between the U.S. and Native Americans, organized chronologically. It seems that the documents on this site largely pertain to Eastern, plains, and Midwestern tribes.
Tribes, Nations, and other Organizations
1. OskiCat [OPAC]
An easy interface for searching UCB's catalog. Search tribe name, clicking on subject keyword button.
SJSU - Search tribe name as subject.
CSUF - Search tribe name as subject.