Contents
See also these guides: American West (originally created for a class), Oklahoma Environmental History (originally for a class), Oklahoma History, Native American Studies, Native American Law Research. The Western History Collections is also an important resource for studying this topic.
Databases
- American Indian Digital History Project (mostly 20th century; Univ. of Kansas)Digital History Cooperative founded to recover and preserve rare Indigenous newspapers, photographs, and archival materials from all across Native North America.
- American Indians and the American West (1809-1971; Proquest History Vault)The database contains a large variety of collections from the U.S. National Archives, a series of collections from the Chicago History Museum, as well as selected first-hand accounts on Indian Wars and westward migration.
- American West (Adam Matthew)Full text of manuscripts, maps, ephemeral material related to the American west.
- Behind the Scenes of the Civil Rights MovementsBlack, Latine, Indigenous, and Asian American/Pacific Islander communities. The program will include up to four collections, targeted for completion by the end of 2025.
- Denver Public Library Western History CollectionPhotographs, maps, broadsides, architectural drawings and other documents from the collections of the Western History/Genealogy Department chronicling the people, places, and events that shaped the settlement and growth of the Western United States.
- Doris Duke Collection (1967-1972; OU's Western History Collections)Typescripts of interviews conducted with hundreds of Indians in Oklahoma regarding the histories and cultures of their respective nations and tribes. Members of every tribe resident in Oklahoma were interviewed.
- Early Encounters in North America (1534-1850; Alexander Street Press)Full text of letters, diaries, memoirs, and accounts of early encounters with Native Americans.
- Ethnic Newswatch Complete (1959-present; Proquest)Newspapers, magazines, and journals of the ethnic and minority press.
- Exploring Race in Society (Ebsco)Cover important issues related to race, ethnicity, diversity, and inclusiveness in today's society. Resources include essays, journal articles, government agency reports, photographs, speeches, and other primary sources. A wide range of topics are covered, including affirmative action, food insecurity, environmental racism and environmental justice, the black lives matter movement, voting rights and voter suppression, police use of force, sports team branding changes, neighborhood gentrification, and much more.
- Fold3 Library Edition (Ancestry/Proquest)A Metropolitan Library (OKC public) database. Sign up for a library card if you don't have one. Provides access to historic U.S. military records, including the stories, photos and personal documents of the men and women who served. You can also search archives for African Americans, Native Americans and the U.S. Bureau of Investigation case files, historical newspapers, historical documents, U.S. Census records, U.S. naturalization records, and city directories.
- Frontier Life: Borderlands, Settlement & Colonial Encounters (1650-1920; Adam Matthew)Covers the lives of immigrants and Indigenous peoples in various European and colonial frontier regions of North America, Africa, and Australasia. Resources include correspondence, diaries, government papers, business records, land transactions, legal documents, speeches, books and pamphlets.
- Gateway to Oklahoma History (1850s-1920s+; Oklahoma Historical Society)Online repository of Oklahoma history. Originally covered newspapers up to the 1920s but later years are increasingly being added. Includes African American newspapers.
- Independent Voices: Native Americans (1960s-70s; JSTOR Reveal)Alternative press newspapers, magazines and journals.
- Indian-Pioneer Papers Collection (Western History Collections digital collections)The Indian-Pioneer Papers oral history collection spans from 1861 to 1936. It includes typescripts of interviews conducted during the 1930s by government workers with thousands of Oklahomans regarding the settlement of Oklahoma and Indian territories, as well as the condition and conduct of life there.
- Indian Claims Insight (Proquest)Allows researchers to understand and analyze Native American migration and forced resettlement throughout U.S. history, U.S. Government Indian removal policies, and subsequent actions to address Native American claims against the U.S. Government. Includes congressional publications, treaties, maps, and docket materials for all Indian Claims Commission cases, as well as cases that preceded and followed the existence of the commission.
- Indigenous Histories and Cultures in North America (16th-20th C.; Adam Matthew)Peoples of North and Central America. Materials include manuscripts, illustrations, newspapers, books, photos and maps.
- Indigenous Newspapers of North America (1828-2016; Adam Matthew)Includes national, local, and student publications from Indigenous peoples of what is now the U.S. and Canada. In English and Indigenous languages.
- Indigenous Peoples of North America (18th-20th centuries; Gale)Includes correspondence, pamphlets, draft legislation, manuscripts, monographs, newspapers, photographs, motion pictures, images of artwork, the papers of Indian Rights Association founder Herbert Welsh and more.
- Indigenous Peoples of the Americas: History, Culture & Law (HeinOnline)With nearly 3,900 titles and more than 2.3 million total pages dedicated to indigenous American life and law, this library includes an 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. (Formerly called American Indian Law Collection.)
- Native American Manuscripts (OU's Western History Collections)The Western History Collections has more than two hundred manuscript collections about Native Americans. Most of these collections date from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, although some include earlier materials. The collections focus on Indian history in Oklahoma, Indian Territory, and the southwestern United States.
- North American Indian Drama (20th C.; Alexander Street Press)Full text plays from American Indian and First Nation playwrights. More than half of the works are previously unpublished, and hard to find, representing groups such as Cherokee, Creek, Choctaw, Pembina Chippewa, Ojibway, Comanche, Cree, Navajo, Rappahannock, and others.
- North American Indian Thought and Culture (Alexander Street Press)Resources include autobiographies, biographies, Indian publications, oral histories, personal writings, photographs, drawings, and audio files. Biographies include works on Quanah Parker, Dennis Banks, Susan La Flesche Picotte, Crowfoot, Peter Pitchlynn, Sacajawea, Black Elk, Standing Buffalo, and others.
- Oklahoma Digital Prairie (1800s-present; State of Oklahoma)Documents, photographs, newspapers, reports, pamphlets, posters, maps and audio/visual content.
- Oklahoma Historical Society Research CenterThe OHS Research Center collects and preserves the history and culture of the state of Oklahoma and its people. Materials available in Oklahoma City and online through this site and the Gateway to Oklahoma History
- Overland Journeys: Travels in the West (1800-1880; Gale)Selections from the bibliographies, The Plains and Rockies: A Critical Bibliography of Exploration, Adventure, and Travel in the American West, 1800-1865 in the American West, 1800-1865 and The Trail West: A Bibliography-Index to Western.
- Sabin Americana: History of the Americas (1500–1926; Gale)Includes books, pamphlets, serials, and more.
- Sanborn Maps (From the Library of Congress)The Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps are a valuable resource for genealogists, historians, urban planners, teachers or anyone with a personal connection to a community, street or building. The maps depict more than 12,000 American towns and cities. They show the size, shape and construction materials of dwellings, commercial buildings, factories and other structures. They indicate both the names and width of streets, and show property boundaries and how individual buildings were used. House and block numbers are identified. They also show the location of water mains, fire alarm boxes and fire hydrants.
- Sanborn Maps, Oklahoma (Dates vary by city; Proquest)Access to detailed maps of Oklahoma cities from late 1800s to the mid 1900s. View street names, street and sidewalk widths, property boundaries, building use and physical features, house and block numbers, pipelines, railroads, wells and dumps. Special features include the ability to manipulate the maps, magnify and zoom in on specific sections, and layer maps from different years.
Resources from the Western History Association
In June 2020, librarians and archivists from the Western History Association held a webinar to assist graduate students with research during the COVID pandemic.