Each week we will present web referrals to provide you with additional information for both your research and your classrooms. This week the websites featured are from Louisiana State University Library and The Library of Congress. Read through the brief tutorial on primary sources, and then proceed to view the online collection.
The online digital collections give us a snapshot of what was known about the Northwest region before European exploration of the region. Because of the absence of written documentation there are no major archives of maps or documents from the Northwest prior to 1790, except along the coast.
Our Top ‘Suggested Reading’ Picks
Cronon, William, George Miles, Jay Gitlin. "Becoming
West: Toward a New Meaning for Western History" in Under an Open
Sky: Rethinking America's Western Past. New York: W.W. Norton, 1992.
Milner, Clyde A. "The View From Wisdom: Four Layers
of History and Regional Identity" in Under an Open Sky: Rethinking
America's Western Past. New York: W.W. Norton, 1992.
Mann, Charles C. 1491: New Revelations of the Americas
before Columbus. New York: Knopf, 2005.
Calloway, Colin G. One Vast Winter Count: The Native
American West before Lewis and Clark. Lincoln: University of Nebraska