Marilyn Scoville SAINT MICHAEL'S COLLEGE

Cultural Anthropology
“Guide for Research on Native Americans”

Locating Materials in the Library Collection

Search the online catalog to locate books, videos, maps, cd's, magazine title locations

      Use subject headings such as:
              Iroquois Indians
              Abenaki Indians
              Micmac Indians
              Algonquian Indians history
              Indians of North American New England
              Indians of North America Maine
              Indians of North America Vermont
              Indians of North America New York State
              Indians of North America Northeastern States
              Indians of North America Massachusetts
              Indians of North America New Hampshire
              Indians of North America California

      Search with keywords such as:

            indians and vermont
            indians and "new hampshire"
            "micmac indians"
            abenaki and indians
            abenaki and indians and vermont
            "abenaki indians" and "new hampshire"
            california and indians and missions
            "native americans" and "new york"
            "fur trade" and indians and california
             indians and connecticut
             disease and indians and northeast

Locating Magazine, Newspaper and Journal Articles through Online Databases

Multidisciplinary Databases available on the library web pages: http://www2.smcvt.edu/library/resources/databases.htm

            InfoTrac OneFile:
            Searches thousands of magazine, newspaper, and journal articles; lots of fulltext
            Narrows and fine tunes your searches when you use “and” …
                   example 1: micmac and indians and logging
            Quotation marks around phrases also helps to narrow your searches: "micmac indians" "fur trade"
            Allows use of “truncation;" place a “?” after the root of words to search for multiple word endings
                   example 2: algonquian?    obtains word variations such as: algonguian, algonquians

           Academic Search Premier
            Similar to the InfoTrac database called Expanded Academic ASAP; searches over 4,000 fulltext publications
            An extraordinary database which indexes magazines and journals with lots of fulltext

           Ethnic News Watch
           Searches hundreds of ethnic and minority magazines, journals, and newspapers with fulltext for everything
           Coverage begins in 1990; search in English or Spanish

           Lexis Nexis
           Searches newspapers and magazines back approximately 20 years
           Provides text for most articles
           Especially useful for fulltext newspaper coverage, laws and court cases
           Use "and" to connect keywords; “truncate” words with “!”
                   example 3: trad!    obtains these word variations: trade, trader, trading
           Use quotation marks around phrases: "northeastern indians"

          JSTOR
           Indexes six scholarly anthropology publications
           Provides fulltext for everything

          ProjectMuse
          Includes 3 Native American publications and several anthropology publications
         Provides fulltext for everything

Encyclopedias and Other Reference Sources Located in the Library
located in the reference collection: E 50 - E100's

American Indian: Tribes and Language Families North of Mexico (map). Greenville, SC:
Astronomical Workshop, Furman University, 1993.

Encyclopedia of Native American Religions, an introduction. Eds. Arlene Hirschfelder and Paulette Molin.
NY: Facts on File, 1992.

Encylopedia of North American Indians. Ed. Frederick E. Hoxie. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1996.

Native Americans: An encyclopedia of history, culture, and peoples. Ed. Barry M. Pritzker. 2 vols. Denver,
ABC-CLIO, 1998.

Native American Tribes. Ed. Sharon Malinowski and Anna Sheets. 4 vols. Detroit, Gale, 1998.

Tiller's Guide to Indian Country: Economic Profiles of American Indian Reservations. Ed. Veronica E. Velarde Tiller.
Albuquerque, NM: BowArrow, 1996.

Searching the World Wide Web: Anybody Can Publish on the Web!!

            Search the web with search engines such as Google (www.google.com)
            Provides access to millions of unfiltered, unedited documents, often with no authors or dates listed
                    * commercial (.com)
                    * education (.edu)
                    * government (.gov)
                    * organization (.org)
                    * military (.mil)

Comparison and Evaluation of Print and Electronic Resources:

Locate an encyclopedia article on your Native American group. Encyclopedias provide background information, present important issues and topics, and provide a timeframe and history. Articles in subject encyclopedias are often signed and written by scholars in the field and provide a bibliography of additional sources. To locate reference sources on your topic, browse the reference collection E 50 -E 100's.

Look for books using the SMC catalog. Search with the subject headings listed above or with keywords. If you have started your research several weeks ahead of the due date, you can take advantage of ordering materials from other institutions by searching catalogs such as UVM or WorldCat. WorldCat is a database of worldwide library catalogs and provides a link to Interlibrary Loan (ILL).

Step #4: Fulltext Databases for Magazine, Journal, and Newspaper Articles

Online electronic databases include Academic Search Premier, InfoTrac OneFile, and Ethnic News Watch for newspaper, magazine, and journal articles. Remember, these databases cover a broad selection of publications, some scholarly and some for a more popular audience.

Search for scholarly articles on your subject by selecting databases such as JSTOR and ProjectMuse which provide access to a number of anthropology journals with fulltext. Project Muse contains fulltext for 3 Native American journals.

Primary sources are valuable resources which provide first hand accounts of events and topics. Ethnic News Watch provides newpaper articles reporting on current issues and events back to 1990. Another excellent source for primary research is the New York Times Historical database which searches and provides fulltext for articles dating back to the 1800's.

To request books or articles not located at SMC, use our Interlibrary Loan (ILL) services: Inter Library Loan. Books from other institutions travel to our library through the mail so you will need to start your research ahead of time to take advantage of ILL for books. Magazine and journal articles may arrive electronically, by means of the UVM courier, or through the mail. Starting your research ahead of time allows you time to take advantage of materials located outside of SMC.

Evaluation Criteria	Database Articles	Web Pages
Currency: What's the date of the document?	Articles always dated in magazines, newspapers or journals.	Dates often not provided!
Authority: Who are/is the author(s)? Are the authors experienced with and knowledgeable about the subject matter?	Authors' names usually provided.	Authors' names are difficult to locate or not available.
Scholarship: What are the authors' credentials? Is the source scholarly or news or opinionated? Is there a bibliography which demonstrates research?	Authors' credentials sometimes provided. Source of article always available. Bibliographies indicate research completed by author (s).	Authors' credentials are usually unavailable or difficult to locate on web pages. Anyone can publish anything on the web--no editorial process for many sites.