Native American Heritage Month Research Ideas

By Sharon Bowles

As this month highlights Native American ancestry, I became interested in many and varied resources I could find. For those of you who enjoy a personalized account of American Indian history, the library at the University of Oklahoma has a fascinating collection – the Western History Indian-Pioneer Papers. This collection holds transcripts of oral interviews done by government workers of Oklahoma citizens (both Native American and non-Native American) in the 1930s concerning the history of the settlement of Oklahoma and its Indian Territory.

An example of these files in the Indian-Pioneer Papers is an interview with Mrs. Tom Rattling Gourd, age 79 years, of Claremore, Oklahoma, conducted on 7-9-1937. In the discussion, the subject reported that “My mother and father were both born and reared in the Old Cherokee Nation in East Tennessee. My mother was a white woman, and my father was an Indian. They married in Tennessee. They came to the Indian Territory when the Cherokees were driven out of east Tennessee. They settled about 5 miles east of Claremore, where Lake Claremore is now…I was born there in 1859, 2 years before the Civil War.” You can read the complete transcript here.

NARA is featuring its many holdings of Native American records in honor of this special recognition month. They have numerous articles and videos on how to find individuals, families, tribes, locations. Since Veteran’s Day was also this month, they are highlighting the history of Native Americans in the military. This includes a project in which you could participate by transcribing Native American military personnel’s letters written while on active duty during WWII. You can find additional information here.