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Native American Studies

Finding Books

To find books within Vassar's collection, it's best to start with Library Search.  Browsing the shelf by call number works best after having already identified a specific title.

To find books beyond Vassar, try searching WorldCat.  Materials not owned by Vassar can be requested through Interlibrary Loan.

Browsing by call number

Relevant titles fall throughout our collection, but the E75 through E99 call number section houses a sizeable amount of material, organized as follows:

  • E75-E77 (General history)
  • E78 (By state, province, or region, A-Z)
    e.g., E78.A3 = Alaska; E78.N78 = Northwest Coast
  • E81-87 (Indian Wars and captivities)
  • E89-90 (Biography)
  • E91-93 (Government relations)
  • E96-97 (Education)
  • E98 (By special topic, A-Z)
    e.g., E98.A7 = Art; E98.E2 = Economic Conditions; E98.R3 = Religion
  • E99 (By tribe, A-Z)
    e.g., E99.C5 = Cherokee; E99.S28 = Seminole

 

Finding Books on a Topic/Subject

Start by using the Vassar Library Finder/Catalog. 

Records for books have a virtual browsing bar in the "full" view that links to print and ebooks that have adjacent call numbers (similar classification). You can also browse the books nearby on the shelf when you retrieve print books.

Notice that some records for scholarly journal articles have red arrows pointing up or down in the upper right corner. These arrows signal that you'll be able to find citations for other articles that cite or are cited by the article in the record. Open the full record and find links for these at the bottom.

 

WorldCat Discovery

The Library of Congress uses the heading "Indians of North America" to describe the broader Native American community.  This heading is usually qualified with a topical or geographic subheading:

 

"Indian" also qualifies many specific headings, either as a main heading (e.g., Indian Art ) or a sub-heading (e.g., American literature -- Indian authors.)

Birchbark Bookstore

Birchbark is an independent native owned and operated teaching bookstore in Minneapolis, Minnnesota. As a teaching bookstore, they maintain extensive bibliographies of books on native and indigenous subjects.

 

 

In additional to these broad headings, also try searching by individual native community or cultural topic: