History - Native American: Primary Sources
About Primary Sources
Letters, interviews, photographs, and diary/blog entries are all examples of primary sources. Primary sources provide first-hand evidence of an event or subject, and they can be unpublished or published. PCC Library's collection incudes published primary sources including autobiographies and personal journals. The Internet provides a wealth of access to primary sources through websites of historical societies, museums, organizations, educational institutions, and governmental entities. Consult Using Primary Sources on the Web, published by the American Library Association.
Indian Removal Act
Indian Removal Act: Primary Documents of American History
Read President Andrew Jackson's Indian Removal Policy, congressional debate on the Indian Removal Act and more at this Library of Congress primary documents website.
Treaties
Treaties Between the United States and Native Americans
Read the texts of various treaties, including the 1778 Treaty with the Delawares, the 1791 Treaty with the Cherokee, and the 1868 Fort Laramie Treaty. Provided by the Avalon Project at Yale Law School.
Kappler's Indian Affairs: Laws and Treaties. Another fine gathering together of the actual language of treaties between the U.S. and first nations. This is a searchable online version from Oklahoma State University Library.
American Memory
Sponsored by the Library of Congress, American Memory presents thousands of primary sources, including photographs, recordings, pamphlets, and personal papers, that document the history of the United States.
Another excellent collection is the Gilder Lehrman digital archive. It has over 60,000 primary source documents, including letters written by Ulysses Grant from West Po9int (complete with a nice painting he made) and much else.