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Native American & Indigenous Studies

A guide to resources for scholarship that engages with Indigenous issues and communities.

Search Strategies

Books and other media in the FSU Libraries are organized using categories and terminology that privilege a Western, European worldview. As a result, scholars often use multiple search strategies to find relevant materials, using a combination of Western and Indigenous names and keywords.

The Library of Congress system, which we use at FSU Libraries, has a system of subject headings, or standardized tags that we apply to materials to describe their contents. These, too, often use terminology that may not be used by the Indigenous peoples they describe. For example, library catalogs will use the term "Creek Indians" in most places instead of Muscogee Nation. Authors, however, may use other terminology or variant spellings, so it's a good idea to try multiple search terms.

Ask a librarian for help developing search terms if you need assistance.

Selected Subject Headings

It's often a good idea to start with search terms that are more specific to your subject and only move to these broader terms as needed.

How to Find Books using OneSearch

Finding Journal Articles

Journal articles are often organized into databases by discipline, like Psychology or History. Depending on your research topic, you may want to add one of these discipline-specific databases to your search strategy, and use keywords to discover the articles about Native topics. You can also use OneSearch to search across discipline, again using a combination of keywords to identify works relevant to your research topic.

Need help? Don't hesitate to contact a librarian for expert guidance on search strategies and relevant databases.


Select journals in the field of Native American & Indigenous Studies


Additionally, here are a few more specialized journals that are either discipline specific or more focused on Native American and Indigenous topics in the United States.

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