American Indian Studies: History

In studying the indigenous people of the Americas, you can focus on particular eras in American history and add those eras or significant events to your searches. Possible keywords for use in the Advanced Search in the SMU Libraries catalog:

• Settlement of the Americas
• European exploration and/or colonization
• Early republic
• Westward expansion
• American Revolution
• Civil War

We organize books by Library of Congress (LOC) Call Numbers, so when you find one book on your topic, the books around it are also on a similar topic. The Library of Congress Subject Headings below can also be used in the Advanced Search for our library catalog.

Sample Library of Congress Subject Headings:

• Indian art North America
• Indians of North America - Education
• Indians of North America - Washington - Education
• Indians of North America -- Newspapers
• Indians of North America -- New York (State)
• Six Nations
• Iroquois Indians -- Legal status, laws, etc. -- United States.
• Iroquois Indians -- History -- 17th century
• Iroquois Indians -- Government relations
• Iroquois Indians -- Social conditions
• Iroquoian Indians