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HIST 207: Global Indigenous Histories

Primary Sources

Primary sources are original sources, in which its witnesses or first recorders describe a time, person or event.

Some types of primary sources include:

  • diaries and journals
  • speeches, interviews, letters
  • memoirs and autobiographies
  • government documents
  • published materials,  e.g. magazine and newspapers articles written at the particular time

Library Databases

Early Encounters In North America: Peoples Cultures and the Environment

Frontier Life: Borderlands Settlement and Colonial Encounters

North American Indian Thought and Culture

American West
Documenting the westward expansion in the United States from the early 18th to the mid-20th centuries.

Indigenous Peoples of the Americas: History, Culture and Law (via HeinOnline)

Open Access Websites

Canadiana Online
Virtual full-text historical primary source content about Canada, including books, magazines and government documents published from the time of the first European settlers to the first half of the 20th century

Northwest Resistance Digitization Project

Historic and Modern Treaties (Government of Canada)

National Aboriginal Document Database

Indigenous Digital Archive Treaties Explorer
Digitized copies of 374 treaties throughout the United States.

Timelines and Maps
This series of maps illustrates the historical evolution of Canada through treaty-making between 1867 and 1999, particularly the Numbered Treaties

Independent Voices
An open access digital collection of alternative press newspapers, magazines and journals produced by various groups  including Indigenous peoples.

Relevant Guides

For more information:

Check the Primary Sources guide and the Canadian History- Finding Primary Sources pages.