We have created this guide to help you explore resources related to indigenous peoples throughout the world. Use the tabs (above) to navigate to various locales. On the front page, you'll find more general resources. For help locating books in the library, consult this guide and/or ask for directions at the library's information desk. If you have resources to suggest, please feel free to email us. Finally, although you'll find a wealth of information here, this guide is not intended to be comprehensive. Please search the library's catalog or chat with a librarian to find additional resources.
We'd also like to draw your attention to issues revolving around naming. Searching for information about indigenous peoples can be complicated by the politics of naming. Do catalogers use the word Sami, Sapmi, or Lapp? What about Eskimo versus Inuit? Dakota or Sioux? Ojibwe, Anisinaabe, or Chippewa? As you search, be aware that the names of groups have changed over time and subject headings or database descriptors may use a name that seems incorrect or even offensive.
The land Gustavus occupies was home to the Dakota people until the Treaty of Traverse des Sioux was signed in 1851. A student-curated exhibit, Commemorating Controversy: Dakota-U.S. War of 1862, created for the 150th anniversary of the Dakota Conflict, is available in digital form via GustieScholar. We also recommend The U.S.-Dakota War of 1862 educational resource from the Minnesota Historical Society, as well as Little War on the Prairie, an episode of This American Life, which is narrated by Gustavus graduate John Biewen.
The Gustavus Library is committed to fostering an inclusive and welcoming environment for all our patrons. We acknowledge that harmful and outdated language or terminology exists in catalog records for our materials, though, and we would welcome your help in identifying such instances.
If you encounter any language that you consider to be harmful or offensive to yourself or others, please use this form to report it and suggest alternative language. We will contact the Library of Congress to request that changes be made whenever we come across items under their purview and will supplement our own descriptions with more respectful terms as necessary. We also direct you to our entire Harmful Language Statement for more information.
This work is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0