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Indigenous Studies

Finding Indigenous Studies Books at UofC

Our staff in Libraries and Cultural Resources are working hard to update our holdings to have more up to date subject headings for our material across libraries, special collections, and archives. However, because this is a large project it might still be necessary to search material under old or outdated terms. One of the former official subject headings for topics about Indigenous peoples on this continent is "Indians of North America" and we recommend typing this subject heading into your search along with with other keywords to describe your topic if you are struggling to find adequate resources.

As an example, to find information on how Europeans affected the health of Indigenous peoples in Canada, I might type in:
"Indians of North America" AND "disease" AND "history"   in the main search box

You can also type in the name of individual tribes or geographic areas to help focus your search.

If you are searching for topics in that may cover law and historical understandings of Indigenous populations in Canada using "Indian" or "Aboriginal" is still required due to the prevalence of the Indian Act and the difference between  Aboriginal Law and Indigenous Law in Canada.

Other  subject headings or keywords to consider using in the catalogue or in databases include:

  • Aboriginal
  • Indigenous
  • Native
  • Native Peoples
  • Indian
  • First Nations
  • Métis
  • Inuit
  • Indians of North America
  • Indians of South America
  • Eskimo

If you are searching for information on Indigenous peoples from countries other than Canada, try combining the country with the term , e.g.  aboriginal AND Australia.