There are multiple ways to use this guide. The resources are listed alphabetically. Use the Index on the left to jump to a particular microform. Clicking on the call number will open a link to the full catalog record in UMD's online catalog. Clicking on the 'Full Description' will expand the text for an overview of that collection. Print and online indexes and finding aids, as well as digitized versions of the collections, are listed under other sources when avalible. (Some of these are outside links not maintained by the University. To report broken links, please click on the 'comment' link at the top of the page or contact the author of the Guide.)
Location Code & Call Number: CK-PER M-FILM E75.C6 (18 Reels)
The collection includes forty-nine Native American newspapers from twenty-three states and the District of Columbia. The material addresses problems and concerns of Native Americans and is confined to the twentieth century. Emphasis is placed on the decades of the sixties and seventies.
The newspapers were filmed in alphabetical order by title, then chronologically under each title.
The index provides access by title and by geographical area. In addition, there is a master index to the newspaper titles and their contents.
The printed index is reproduced on reel one of the collection. There is no index to individual articles within the newspapers.
Because this library has current subscriptions to some, but not all, of the newspapers in this collection, individual titles should be checked in the online catalog if recent information is sought.
Call Number: Microfilm E99.M9M6 (40 Reels)
The Moravian Mission Records chronicle the activities, observations and opinions of the workers in the Moravian Mission and the Indians with whom they came in contact. The records, covering the period from 1700-1810, consist of diaries, church registers, catalogs of missionary records, and correspondence.
Access to the collection is provided through the two-volume guide, which reproduces the more than 30,000 cards that index the collection. The cards, prepared by Carl John Fliegel, provide detailed subject access to the boxes and folders of the original papers. The cards are divided into sections dealing with individuals (both Indians and whites), Indian Nationals, the land, everyday life, the mission and general topics about Indians. Within the sub;ect arrangement, each card provides box, folder and date information, which the user can then locate on the appropriate reel.
The Index is arranged under certain major categories:
The following source provides more detailed information about the contents of each microfilm reel in the collection:
Location & Call Number: MCK Microfiche E77.5.V5 (52 M-fiche)
This collection reproduces the National Anthropological Archives collection of photographs, drawings, watercolors and engravings of North American Indians. The black and white prints include portraits of individuals, groups, dwellings, costumes, domestic activities, industries and the arts. Any information that is known about the print such as: photographer, date, name of person, subject (council meeting, burial house, etc), and ownership of original illustration (ex. British Museum) is included.
The prints are arranged in groups alphabetically by tribe name. The last fiche also contains prints of Indian schools, Custer Battlefield and Wounded Knee.
The first m-fiche lists the Indian Tribe names and the corresponding fiche and frame number.
Black and white glossy or matte prints of the photographs that appear in this collection can be ordered from: Customer Service Office, Office of Printing and Photographic Services, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., 20560.
Publishing or reproducing photographs without written permission and payment is prohibited.
There is no separate index/guide to this collection. A list of tribes included and corresponding fiche and frame number are listed on the first m-fiche.
Location & Call Number: Microfiche E93.U71 (Approximately 400 fiche)
Note: As of this writing (June 1992) except for 1834, we seem to be missing the reports for the years 1824-1835.
This is a collection of the annual reports of the U.S. Commissioner of Indian Affairs from 1824 through 1949.
Reports in this collection are arranged in chronological order. Within each report, as a general rule, the first part of each report is a narrative discussion of policy matters. The second part is a compilation of statistics.
The annual reports assembled in this collection are concerned with far more than the year to year opeartions of the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Primarily, in fact, they are policy documents and lengthy ones at that, usually being several hundred pages in length. They constitute an official record of one hundred and twenty five years of United States government policy towards the various North American Indian nations. As a result, this collection is an extremely detailed source of information on the history of the American Indian and, also, on the westward expansion of the American nation.
In addition to discussing matters internal to the Bureau of Indian affairs, the narrative sections of these documents discuss, frequently in great detail, United States government dealings with various tribes.
The statistical sections of these documents, particularly in the later years are massive and constitute a primary source of statistics on the American Indian.
The lack of any overall index or guide to this collection means that any individual wishing to use it will most likely have to approach its use by selecting a time period and then scanning through the reports covering that period. While, at least in later reports, a table of contents is generally included for each report, there seems to be little indexing for these documents.