Indigenous Peoples of North America, Part I provides researchers with a robust, diverse, informative source that will enhance research and increase understanding of the historical experiences, cultural traditions and innovations, and political status of indigenous peoples in the United States and Canada. Researchers will explore the impact of invasion and colonization on Indigenous Peoples in North America, and the intersection of Indigenous and European histories and systems of knowledge through the use of manuscripts, monographs, newspapers, photographs, motion pictures, images of artwork, and more. These are the primary sources that take students beyond the facts and figures of history and into a deeper understanding of indigenous peoples.

Indigenous Peoples of North America, Part 2: The Indian Rights Association, 1882-1986 provides a near complete record of the efforts of the first organization to address Native American interests and rights. This collection includes the contains incoming and outgoing correspondence; organizational records; printed material (including early pamphlets and publications both by the Indian Rights Association and other American Indian and Indian-related organizations); Indian Rights Association annual reports; draft legislation; administrative files, the papers of Indian Rights Association founder Herbert Welsh, photographs (often from Western field trips), materials from the Council on Indian Affairs, and manuscripts and research notes regarding social and cultural Indian traditions.

This collection comprises two sets of documents that helped the response to 40 years of failed Native American policies. The first is the full text of the report entitled The Problem of Indian Administration, better known as the Meriam Report. The second comprises the 41-part report to the U.S. Senate Committee on Indian Affairs detailing the conditions of life and the effects of policies and programs enacted by the Bureau of Indian Affairs on Native Americans. Both of these collections provide unique documentary insights into many major tribes: Sioux, Navaho, Quapaw, Chickasaw, Apache, Pueblo, Ute, Cherokee, Cheyenne, Arapaho, Kickapoo, Klamath, and many others.

"We must teach them to think, feel, act, and work. We must form their whole character—all their religious, moral, intellectual, social and industrial habits. This is the work to be done." Thus states a nineteenth-century Presbyterian missionary to the Indians describing his task. He was convinced that their only hope of survival was to abandon the past and accept Christianity and civilization. His striking words come from the American Indian Correspondence, a collection of almost 14,000 letters written by those who served as Presbyterian missionaries to the American Indians during the years from 1833 to 1893. The education of Indians, a chapter in the history of education in America, also invites examination in depth. The letters contain numerous reports on Indian students and detailed descriptions of mission school curricula and syllabi. This education of ten included a wide range of academic subjects, as well as religious and vocational instruction. Related to this is the question of language. What was the missionary attitude to the native languages? The assimilationist goals implied final rejection of the vernaculars, but during these centuries Indian languages and English were often used together. The board could even, at times, oppose U.S. governmental restrictions on teaching Indians through their own languages. The letters reveal some ambiguity on this subject.