This guide is intended to provide resources for research on Indigenous Studies, which is a multi-disciplinary approach to understanding the varied aspects of indigenous peoples around the world & their cultures. There is no single definition of the phrase "indigenous peoples." Nonetheless, indigenous peoples are generally considered to be descendants of the original inhabitants of a region that have become incorporated into a politically dominant larger society or nation state. Indigenous peoples self-identify as such & retain distinctive attributes of their own culture.
For interdisciplinary topics, the library's main search tool, Start My Research, is often your best bet:
The full-text materials in this collection cover 11 broad areas related to Indigenous peoples from the time prior to North American colonization to the 20th century Rights Movement. Areas covered, related to Indigenous peoples of the U.S., Canada, and Mexico, include culture, history, education, religion, government relations, treaties, wars, trade, and 20th century political activism.
Full-text database of newspapers, magazines, and journals of the ethnic and minoritized press. It includes historical coverage of Native American, African American, and Hispanic American periodicals from 1959-1989 and more than 2.5 million articles from over 340 publications.
For some projects in certain geographical regions, using the term "postcolonial" in your searches will possibly be even more useful than "decolonization." Make sure to try both if you're having trouble finding sufficient materials. As William Darity writes, "Postcolonialism is a generalized term used to describe the variety of events that have arisen in the aftermath of European decolonization since the nineteenth century. Among the events included under the rubric are social change, cultural redefinition, and political upheaval on both the small and large scale. The term implies a breaking free or a breaking away from a colonizing force, but essentially the study of postcolonialism addresses issues of power, subordination, race, gender inequity, and class— and examines how these issues linger far after the colonizer has exited."
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