William Brandon, The Rise and Fall of North American Indians: From Prehistory through Geronimo (2003).
The subtitle is indicative of the vast historical sweep of Brandon's last work, which deals little with law, but instead recounts (in pronounced essentialist terms) the subjection of American Indians to the expanding New World empire. Brandon wrote both fiction and non-fiction for several decades. The value of this work, something of a "popular" history, will be as a source for accounts of discreet historical events. Index.
Location: KF8205 .B73 2003
A Century of Lawmaking for a New Nation: U.S. Congressional Documents and Debates, 1774-1875.
The Library of Congress has posted records and acts of Congress from the Continental Congress and Constitutional Convention through the 43rd Congress, including the first three volumes of the Congressional Record. Among the Special Presentations comprising the site is Indian Land Cessions in the United States, 1784 to 1894, the Schedule of Land Cessions published as the United States Serial Set Number 4015.
Documents of United States Indian Policy (Francis Paul Prucha ed., 3d ed. 2000).
A compact collection of 238 documents "that marked significant formulations of policy in the conduct of Indian affairs by the federal government." (Preface, xi.) In addition to key legislation and cases, the documents range from a 1783 letter from George Washington to James Duane setting forth his ideas about government relations with Indians, through a 2000 Federal Register publication of a list of federally recognized Indian tribes. Prof. Prucha briefly summarizes each entry, some of which are excerpts.
Location: KF8205 .D63 2000
Encyclopedia of American Indian Civil Rights (James S. Olson [et al.] eds. 1997).
"[B]rief descriptions of the major concepts, court decisions, congressional acts, and individuals involved in the history of Native American civil rights." (Preface, vii).
Location: KF8210.C5 E53 1997
Mark Grossman, The ABC-CLIO Companion to the Native American Rights Movement (1996).
In spite of the references in its title and preface to Native American social movements, this encyclopedic work includes entries for cases, legislation, and organizations not necessarily directly involved with activism, while entries for individuals tend to focus on reformers and activists. Many entries add references for further reading. The work is filled out with a chronological arrangement of historical landmarks, a bibliography, index, and several black and white photographs.
Location: KF8203.36 .G76 1996
Handbook of North American Indians (William C. Sturtevant gen. ed. 1978-).
As described on the Smithsonian Institution's web site, this projected 20-volume encyclopedia summarizes "knowledge about all Native peoples north of Mesoamerica, including cultures, languages, history, prehistory, and human biology. Standard reference work for anthropologists, historians, students, and the general reader. Chapters by the main authorities on each topic. Area volumes include separate chapters on all tribes. Heavily illustrated, extensive bibliographies, well indexed."
Location: KF8205 .H35
The Making of Modern Law: Legal Treatises 1800 – 1926, Thomson Gale (UCB only).
A fully searchable collection of 19th and 20th century legal treatises, casebooks, local practice manuals, form books, pamphlets, letters, speeches, and other historical legal works, covering a wide range of topics of US and British law. Includes approximately 10 million pages of over 21,000 works. The results of a search for "indian tribes" include the full, scanned texts of numerous titles.
Native American Constitution and Law Digitization Project.
A joint project of the University of Oklahoma Law Library and the National Indian Library of the Native American Rights Fund, this site compiles Codes, Constitutions, and Indian Reorganization Act Era Constitutions and Charters. Unfortunately, many links are broken, but several remain active.
Native American Legal Materials Collection (1979-) (Law Library Microform Consortium) [microform].
Microfiche reproductions of 1,668 titles comprising a "compilation of documentary material and monographs on the legal condition and history of the American Indian." Works include basic legal documents of Native American tribes, councils, and courts; treaties with the US; US legislative and executive documents; federal and state judicial material; state government documents; academic publications; periodicals and newsletters; and reference works and books by individuals. An index to this collection, Native American Collection: A Bibliography Describing the Microfiche Collection Assembled and Marketed by the Law Library Microform Consortium (Jerry Dupont chief comp. and ed. 1990), includes author, subject, geographic, and tribal indexes. The online version of the collection is growing. Presently, only Basic Legal Documents (including tribal laws) and General Treatises are populated.
Location: Both titles are shelved in the Microform Room on 1M, the microfiche in Case LL3.
Location: KF8204.5 S68 2005
Francis Paul Prucha, American Indian Treaties: The History of a Political Anomaly (1994).
A comprehensive historical study of "the treaty system" (Preface, xiii), the process by which treaties with Indian tribes were negotiated and enforced. As in his other works, Father Prucha approaches his subject "largely from the white perspective," (Preface, xiv), emphasizing US national interests and strategies. Appendices include a succint account of treaty documentation and promulgation, and lists of ratified and unratified treaties.
Location: KF8205 .P75 1994
Francis Paul Prucha, The Great Father: The United States Government and the American Indians (1984).
A massive two-volume history of US policy in Indian affairs, from the colonies through the early 1980s. Although one reviewer remarked that "Father Prucha concentrated on the creation and implementation of federal policies and offered very little attention to the people for whom those policies were designed" (Tim Alan Garrison, Review Essay: Recent Works on the History of U.S. Indian Policy, 36 Tulsa L.J. 415, 416 (2000), available from HeinOnline (UCB only) (PDF)), he and others also routinely note its comprehensiveness vis-à-vis its federal focus. Being a work of history, its primary utility to legal researchers is as a detailed source of context.
Location: KF8205 .P781
Readings in American Indian Law: Recalling the Rhythm of Survival (Jo Carrillo ed. 1998)
Editor Carillo compiled this collection "to communicate the unspoken, unnamed, excluded aspects of the field," and to supplement "the casebook with readings meant to inspire conversation, not doctrinal recitation." (Preface, xi.) Several readings comprise each chapter, and each features a thematic introduction by Carillo. Chapter topics cover identity, land, cultural property, governance and gender, and religious practices. Contributing authors include American Indians, legal scholars, historians, practitioners, anthropologists, and others. Index.
Location: KF8204.5 .R424 1998
Reference Encyclopedia of the American Indian (Barry T. Klein ed., 19th ed. 2014).
There is very little on law here, per se—the section enumerating college courses and programs, for example, fails to include law school offerings—but researchers seeking a directory to government agencies, organizations, sources of financial aid, museums, libraries, biographical information, and more, should consult this title. Includes a section devoted to Canada and an extensive bibliography.
Location: KF8203.36 .R4 2014
Tribal Nations: The Story of Federal Indian Law (Signature Media Prod'n 2006).
Location: DVD 132 (Reserve Collection)
United States National Archives and Records Administration, Native American Heritage.
"The National Archives holds information about American Indians who maintained their ties to Federally-recognized Tribes (1830-1970). Most records are arranged by tribe."—Introduction.