The most comprehensive record of Native America in the 17th, 18th and early 19th centuries
More than 1,600 publications offer unparalleled insight into the relationship between Native Americans and European settlers
Features text and data analysis tools, author biographies, and suggested search paths for easy browsing and discovery
Overview
By the late 17th century, Britain had established colonies along the New England coast and Chesapeake Bay, alongside small groups of Dutch and Swedish settlers. Many of the region’s Indigenous inhabitants were pushed West, where they joined hundreds of other tribes whose lives were irrevocably changed by the arrival of Europeans. Likewise, the presence of Native Americans influenced almost every element of early American settler life, and an enormous number of books were printed about this relationship over the next century and a half. Every major book about Native Peoples from this period is included in Native American Indians, 1645-1819. This product also offers text and data analysis tools, author biographies, and suggested search paths for easy browsing and discovery.
A comprehensive record of Native America
The documents in Native American Indians, 1645-1819, include treaties, transcribed letters from Native American leaders, the minutes of tribal meetings, histories of numerous tribes, missionary reports, captivity narratives, firsthand accounts of battles, trading records, military rosters, expedition logs and maps, trial records, legislative bills, books on Native American languages and grammar, military rosters, governors’ and legislators’ reports, ballads, songs, plays and more. While such documents are invaluable for scholars and students of Native American studies and early American history, they also offer insight into numerous other fields, including natural history, border studies, military history, political science and linguistics. Additionally, a suite of tools aimed specifically at the Digital Humanities provides word frequencies, keywords in context and other functions that bring this unique content to life in ways never before possible.
Foundational works for understanding Native history
The documents in Native American Indians, 1645-1819, are derived from the holdings of the American Antiquarian Society, Library Company of Philadelphia and many other institutions. Among the seminal works included in this collection are “The Conference with the Eastern Indians, at the ratification of the peace…in July and August 1726,” “A Bill to Authorize the President of the United States to select such tribes of Indians as he may think best prepared for the change, and to adopt such means as he may judge expedient in order to civilize the same,” “Travels and adventures in Canada and the Indian territories between the years 1760 and 1776…” “A Treaty with the Shawanese and Delaware Indians…,” “A history of the voyages and adventures of John Van Delure. Giving an account of his being left on the N.W. coast of America…where he lived almost seven years and married the daughter of an Indian chief,” and more than 1,500 others.
The complete records of the Bureau of Indian Affairs superintendents
The most detailed documents available about the encounters between Indigenous people and American Territorial officials
A must-have digital resource for students and scholars of Native American history, culture, and law
Overview
Through much of the 19th century, the education, land rights, treaty negotiations and other affairs of Native American tribes were overseen by a cadre of superintendents from the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA). BIA superintendents scrupulously recorded their interactions with Native American tribes, leaving behind an astoundingly detailed archive that is captured here in full. It contains all the manuscript letters and reports that the superintendents sent to Washington, D.C., as well as the responses and instructions received from the nation’s capital. These primary source documents cover not only encounters between Indigenous people and the U.S. government, but also accounts of Native American cultures during a time when disease and forced relocation were transforming their lives. Now, these rare materials are available for the first time in a readily accessible digital collection, which also contains detailed historical background notes created by the curators of the National Archives. Native American Tribal Histories, 1813-1880, is a powerful new resource for anyone interested in the past, present and future of Native America.
A vivid picture of a tumultuous era
As U.S. settlers pushed farther west, Native Americans were confined to increasingly small parcels of land which restricted their autonomy, impacted cultures and traditions, and led to numerous conflicts. The BIA superintendents and agents tasked with managing tribal affairs covered these issues through a series of handwritten reports and records. In addition, the documents in Native American Tribal Histories cover the history of Indian boarding schools, including attendance and curricula; the enforcement of treaties and federal laws; forced relocations and “Indian removal” policies; goods, supplies, medical care and payments provided to tribes; military conflicts; trading; and much more. Together, these primary source documents paint a vivid picture of the changes impacting Native Americans as a whole, as well as how these broader changes affected individual tribes and people.
Indigenous history from around the country
Native American Tribal Histories, 1813-1880, is sourced from the Bureau of Indian Affairs Field Office and Central Office Records at the American National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). It includes documents related to dozens of Native tribes from every region of the contiguous United States, including Apache, Arapaho, Blackfeet, Cherokee, Chippewa, Choctaw, Creek, Kickapoo, Kiowa, Klamath, Lummi, Mandan, Mojave, Navajo, Nez Perce, Osage, Potawatomi, Pueblo, Seminole, Sioux, Ute and numerous others. Additionally, a customized user interface ensures that students and scholars are able to easily navigate, browse and filter documents by territory, date, tribe, topic, document type and more.
The most important early American content not yet digitized—until now
The history of more than half of America’s states when they were still territories
A crucial resource for anyone seeking to understand the formation of modern-day America
Overview
More than half of America’s states began as territories. From the 1760s to the 1950s the United States of America expanded southward and westward, acquiring territories that spanned from Florida to California to Alaska. Before they evolved into twenty-seven American states, these territories were managed by the U.S. State and Interior departments. The official history of their formative territorial years is recorded in the “Territorial Papers of the United States”—a collection of Native American negotiations and treaties, official correspondence with the federal government, military records, judicial proceedings, population data, financial statistics, land records, and more. For the first time, the Territorial Papers are available in a digital online collection, offering unparalleled research opportunities for anyone interested in the creation of modern-day America.
Never before digitized records from the American frontier
Until now, researchers who wanted to explore the rich history captured in the Territorial Papers were forced to dig through a multitude of disparate collections at the National Archives, or were resigned to using a 28-volume collection of transcribed records that left out nearly 98% of the original source material. By contrast, Readex’s Territorial Papers contains the entire corpus of the official papers held by the Departments of State and Interior, the two largest such collections in Washington, D.C. Instead of transcripts, it features high-resolution images of the original sources—many of which are hand-written documents—ensuring that scholars don’t miss a single detail from this vital period in American history.
Designed to make the content easy to find, and to use!
A product comprised chiefly of digitized manuscripts does not respond to “search and retrieve” interface models the same way as a product comprised of printed books or newspapers. Why? Because there is less “text” to search. The solution? Metadata—and user tools to make metadata meaningful. To make Territorial Papers easy and efficient to use, Readex has incorporated metadata from a range of authoritative sources, including the National Archives and Records Administration, the invaluable “Parker Calendar,” and Readex’s team of editors who assign subject terminology (and more) to the records.
A wealth of multi-disciplinary research and teaching opportunities
For political historians the Territorial Papers include all of the official correspondence between territorial officials and the federal government, providing insights into how actions in the territories related to political forces in the capital. For scholars of Native American history they contain not only tribal treaties but the correspondence related to their negotiation and signing. For military historians they provide detailed records related to official orders, troop movements, and battle accounts. For economic historians they contain detailed reports on agricultural, mining, and industrial production, land ownership, and shipping. In addition, researchers looking for firsthand accounts of life on the American frontier will find a wealth of information in letters, petitions, judicial records, and population data.
Native American Indians, 1645-1819
Native American Tribal Histories, Series 1-4, 1813-1880
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