Native American Studies > Reference Tools By Topic

History

A rich new vein of historical publications, many by Native peoples, has emerged within the last twenty years. These works serve as a counterbalance to the years of histories written by non-Natives. Topics of immediate concern have been how to protect cultural patrimony (languages, arts, life ways), preserving the past, and documentation of Native contributions to North America. Most importantly, many recent histories are correcting inaccuracies about Native activities that appeared in earlier publications, and adding an essential Native perspective to new historical evaluations.

A Companion to American Indian History. Edited by Philip J. Deloria and Neal Salisbury. Oxford: Blackwell Publ., 2002. *R- RMRR E77 C74 2002
Scholarly compilation on key developments.

Horse Capture, George.  Powwow. Cody, WY: Buffalo Bill Historical Center, 1989.  HBC 92-19607
A work by a Native curator and educator that explains the significance of powwows to Native solidarity and pride.

I Have Spoken: American History Through the Voices of the Indians. Virginia Armstrong, comp. Chicago: Sage Books, 1971.  HBC 72-434
Important events in Native history described by those affected.

Keenan, Jerry. Encyclopedia of American Indian Wars 1492 – 1890. Santa Barbara; Denver: ABC-CLIO, 1992. *R- RMRR E81 K44 1997
Documents the many conflicts from first contact with Europeans to the settlement of tribes on reservations.

McNickle, D’Arcy. They Came Here First: The Epic of the American Indian. Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott Co., 1949.  HBC
Classic study by major scholar in the field.

Nabokov, Peter. Native American Testimony: A Chronicle of Indian-White Relations from Prophecy to the Present, 1492-1992. New York: Viking Press, 1991.
*R- RMRR N93 N3 1991
Authoritative and powerful compilation of oral history and back story.

Rajtar, Steve. Indian War Sites: A Guidebook to Battlefields, Monuments, and Memorials. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Co., 1999. *R- RMRR E81 R35 1999
Descriptive resource to battlefield and monuments that illuminate important moments in Native American history.

Sonneborn, Liz. Chronology of American Indian History. New York: Facts on File, 2007. *R- RMRR E71 S72 S66 2007
Up-to-date chronology of historical events.

Swanton, John R.  Indian Tribes of North America. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1979. *R- RMRR E77 S94
The classic anthropological compilation of all the many tribes by geographic location.

Through Indian Eyes: the Untold Story of Native American Peoples. Pleasantville, NY: Reader’s Digest Association, 1995.  HBC+ 96-12359
Useful for the Native perspective on history.

Weatherford, J. McIver. Indian Givers: How the Indians of the Americas Transformed This World. New York: Crown, 1988.  HBC 93-6493
Another classic study, this one on Native contributions to civilization.

Welch, James, with Paul Stekler. Killing Custer: The Battle of the Little Bighorn and the Fate of the Plains Indians. New York: W.W. Norton, 1994. 
*R- RMRR E83.876 W38 1994
Extensive study of the battle that changed white attitudes toward Indians and caused governmental reprisal and policy.