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Native Americans

Resources for Native American Research

Government Information on Native Americans

Congressional & U.S. Agency Resources

Proquest (formerly Lexis Nexis) Congressional

  • Indexes all Congressional materials
  • Search by Subject
  • Serial Set Full Text– 1789-1969
    • Reprints many departmental annual reports, i.e. Bureau of Indian Affairs, and other departmental publications
    • Includes House and Senate reports and documents
    • UVA has materials in print or microfiche by request from Ivy stacks or in the Law Library
    • Use the Advanced Search, Limit the “IN” field to “full text”
    • Search can be limited to materials with illustrations
    • Serial Set – best resource for 19th century information

Survey of Conditions of the Indians in the U.S.  (click for list of volumes)


The Senate Committee on Indian Affairs held hearings from the late 1920s to the 1940s investigating the conditions of the Native Americans.  Avaliable in full text on LN Congressional.  UVA owns both microfilm and microfiche of this set. 
Microfiche - LexisNexis/CIS Senate Published Hearings microfiche collection at Shannon Library, Government Information Resources.
Microfilm - Micfilm S-1536
For much more detailed indexing and FULL TEXT access search in
Proquest (formerly Lexis Nexis) Congressional

Library of Congress American Memory -  Collection Finder      

  • History
    • Search for “Indians” or particular tribes
      • “Early Motion Pictures, 1897-1920” – Sioux Ghost Dance
      • Photographs,  Letters,  Advertisements
  • Political Science and Law
    • Official U.S. government documents
    • Congressional Record , Bills, Laws, Serial Set

Interior Department

Bureau of Indian Affairs  (formerly Commissioner of Indian Affairs)
Call number - I 20
Annual Report – I 20.1: 
Also consult
Proquest (formerly Lexis Nexis) Congressional Historical Indexes for the Annual Report included in the LexisNexis full text and microfiche collections.

Smithsonian Institution
            Bureau of American Ethnology

Condition of the Indian Tribes: Report of the Joint Special committee… 1865.
Y 4.IN 2/6:IN 2

Indian Conditions in the U.S. 1919-1920
CIS (LexisNexis) microfiche - H231-Pt.2-7, H231-Pt.2-8, H231-Pt.3-9  
Published Hearing. House Comm. on Indian Affairs

CIS Index to U.S. Executive Branch Documents, 1789-1909 : Guide to Documents Listed in Checklist of U.S. Public Documents, 1789-1909, not printed in the U.S. Serial Set.
Law Library
Z7164 .A2 C53 1990 -  Shelved in Microform Area on 2nd Floor.

  • Indexes many Executive branch materials not available in the Congressional Serial Set.
  • 1909 Checklist – Shelved in Government Information Reading Room
    Lists of all publications from the US government up to 1909