Skip to Main Content
Ask Us!Toggle Chat Widget

Microtext Collection

Microtext Subject Guide: American Indian History

Draper Collection MFM 1339
Students focusing on Indian-white relations will find valuable material in this collection; also includes The Tecumseh Papers.

  • Format: 123 microfilm reels
  • Access: Guide to the Draper Manuscripts in the MFM guides.
  • Review: Journal of American History 74 (March 1988): 1397.

  • File on the Osage Indian Murders MFM 952
    During the early 1920's between one and two dozen Osage Indians were murdered or simply "disappeared" from their oil-rich lands in northeastern Oklahoma. As wards of the federal government, their special status brought investigators from the Federal Bureau of Investigation who met fear and suspicion from the Osage and friendly whites alike. Despite the difficulties, the FBI, under the young director J. Edgar Hoover, avidly pursued the murderers and eventually secured life-term convictions in what became one of its most celebrated cases. Compelling source material can be found here concerning the Osage people, Oklahoma, early 20th century politics and law enforcement.

  • Format: Microfilm - 3 reels
  • Access: Printed Guide to the Microfilm Edition of the FBI File on the Osage Indian Murders in MFM Guides

  • John Collier Papers, 1922-1968 MFM 794
    John Collier (1884-1968) was a social reformer and professor of sociology and anthropology. He was executive secretary of the American Indian Defense Association 1923-1933, U.S. Commissioner of Indian Affairs 1933-1945, and founder of the Institute of Ethnic Affairs in 1945. This collection contains much source material from his correspondence; the correspondence of others concerned with Indian issues; subject files of speeches, circulars, newsclippings, etc. which he maintained; printed and mimeographed materials issued by AIDA including a nearly complete set of its newsletter, American Indian Life; memoranda (1933-1937) and bi- weekly reports (1933-1945) from the Indian Service; and many addresses, editorials, and other writings by Collier. Notable topics covered include the Flathead Indian powersite controversy, the Wheeler-Howard Bill which formed the basis of Collier's "Indian New Deal", much material on the Pueblo Indians and other tribes, and Collier's work with the Institute of Ethnic Affairs concerning non- self-governing territories and underdeveloped countries including Guam and North Africa and the Point Four Program of President Truman.

  • Format: Microfilm - 59 reels
  • Access: Printed The John Collier Papers, 1922-1968; A Guide to the Microfilm Edition, 1980, in MFM Guides

  • Letters Received by the Office of Indian Affairs, 1824-80 MFM 609
    The complete set of 962 reels of this microfilm publication reproduces the greater part of the correspondence received by the central office of the Bureau of Indian Affairs during 1824-1880. Todd Library has only a part of the collection.

  • Format: Microfilm - 81 reels
  • Access: Printed Letters Received by the Office of Indian Affairs, 1824-80 in MFM Guides

  • Major Council Meetings of American Indian Tribes MFM 724
    Included in this collection are records of Tribal Council Meetings, speeches, letters, committee hearings, Constitutions, conference summaries, etc. Part One covers the years 1911-1956 and Part Two covers 1957-1971.

  • Format: Microfilm - Pt. 1 - 26 reels; Pt. 2 - 26 reels
  • Access: Printed guides to Parts 1 and 2 in MFM Guides

  • The Native American Reference Collection: Documents Collected by the Office of Indian Affairs MFM 1273
    Includes 8000 documents issued from 1840-1948. Includes 5,500 congressional documents, reports, and committee hearings; 2,500 pamphlets, annual reports, and other materials from private and noncongressional government sources

  • Format: Microfilm - Part 1 - 29 reels; Pt. 2 -47 reels
  • Access: Printed guides to Parts 1 and 2 (MFM 1273 Guides) include detailed indexes.

  • The Papers of William T. Sherman MFM 455
    The papers of William Tecumseh Sherman (1820-1891) consist of correspondence, a journal of Mexican War service, military documents, printed matter (broadsides, circulars, pamphlets, and newspaper clippings), maps, photographs, memorabilia, and manuscripts of his Memoirs. They cover 1810-1896, with most dated between 1848 and 1891. Over half of the collection deals with his post-Civil War army career, and are particularly numerous during the period when he was Commanding General of the Army (1869-83). The greater part of this correspondence relates to the military expeditions against the Western Indians, problems of maintaining Indian reservations, and military territorial government matters. There are also detailed reports of new developments in ordnance and tactics by American military men traveling or stationed abroad. Close to a quarter of the papers cover the period of Sherman's retirement (1883-91). Material relating to his early army career (1840-53) and civilian careers in banking, law, business, and education (1853-61) make up about a tenth of the collection and only about a tenth dates from the Civil War years. The Memoirs and a long narrative of wartime experiences supplement the correspondence for this period.

  • Format: Microfilm - 51 reels
  • Access: Printed William T. Sherman; A Register of His Papers in the Library of Congress in MFM Guides

  • Records of the Cherokee Indian Agency in Tennessee, 1801-35 MFM 473
    This collection contains records of the agency, including its correspondence with officials, private individuals, and chiefs and other members of the Cherokee tribe. Subjects discussed include economic and social conditions, trade and travel, work of missionaries, friction between whites and Cherokee and within the tribe, the treaty of July 8, 1917, and the Cherokee migration westward.

  • Format: Microfilm - 14 reels

  • Report Books of the Office of Indian Affairs, 1838-1885 MFM 509
    Todd Library has volumes 17-19, 1867-1870. Includes transcripts of outgoing communications from the Office of Indian Affairs, mostly to the Secretary of the Interior. Part of the records of the Bureau of Indian Affairs at the National Archives.

  • Format: Microfilm
  • Access: Chronological arrangement

  • Survey of Conditions of the Indians in the United States MFM 360
    Over 23,000 pages of reports of Senate hearings in the 70th-74th U.S. Congresses, 1928-1943. Table of contents listing those giving testimony at the beginning of each part and index at end of each part.

  • Format: Microfilm - 8 reels
  • Access: Tables of Contents and Indexes on film

  • Survey of Indian Reservations MFM 359
    Compiled by the South Dakota Emergency Relief Administration in 1935, this survey gives much information on economic conditions among the Indians of South Dakota. This collection covers the Sisseton Agency; Pine Ridge Agency; Rosebud Agency; Crow Creek, Lower Brule, and Flandreau Reservations; Cheyenne Agency; and Standing Rock Agency.

  • Format: Microfilm - 3 reels
  • Access: Printed guide in MFM Guides lists the agencies on each reel