HIST388: American Indian History

Welcome to the Research Guide for HIST388: American Indian History! On this guide, you can find resources directly related to the topics you have been asked to research this semester. Use the navigation tabs on the side to help you find relevant sources. 

Still having trouble locating primary sources (or anything)? Feel free to email me for more help. 

Librarians use controlled vocabulary to make items in our collection findable. It can be especially helpful to find similar material using subject headings. However, these subject headings were created through the lens of systemic racism, meaning you might encounter racist and outdated terms in library catalogs. You also would potentially encounter these problematic terms when searching for primary sources. You often have to use terms from the time period to locate appropriate sources. It can be helpful to focus on broader terms when you search for primary sources. 

There has been an effort to change and update these terms. Institutions like UD actively are working to ensure that these terms and material is properly identified and changed. You can read more about this type of project by visiting this link to learn about the efforts of students at Dartmouth. 

It is also important to acknowledge that Indigenous researchers have often been kept out of traditional academic scholarship and publishing or have chosen to remain outside white, settler institutions. Scholarly research is being conducted by Indigenous scholars everyday that might not be found in traditional scholarly journals - I encourage you to find sources outside of academia that center Native voices. Librarians call this "grey literature." 

Is this peer-reviewed? I can't tell...

1. Limit your search to peer-reviewed articles only within DelCat (our catalog) and in databases! Sometimes this is referred as a scholarly article. 

2. Some databases have a link that will tell you more information about the journal, including if it is peer-reviewed!

3. Search for the journal title online and look at the publication process for submission...Does it say peer-reviewed in the description? Does it state a submitted article will go to readers? 

4. Peer-review generally is applied to articles and not books; however, books published by university presses almost always undergo a peer review process. University presses generally have two to three independent reviewers take a first pass through the book, then the press' editorial review board does a final review. You can find out who the publisher is for a book by going to DELCAT, clicking on the title of the book then scroll down to the page to find the section that says "Publication."

5. When in doubt? Talk to a Librarian!