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Native American and European Contact Web Resources

"Towne of Secota," engraved by Theodor de Bry, plate 20 in Thomas Hariot, "A Brief and true report of the new found land of Virginia...," London, England, 1590.Any Internet search for information on Native Americans will yield an astonishing number of sites to explore. No matter what category of information you're looking for—Native American culture in general, details on specific groups or regions of the country, the European contact period, primary sources, anthropological information, museum artifacts, etc.—much of it can be located on the Internet. Some Web sites provide indepth information, while other s offer basic information and links for further exploration. So where do you begin? This article offers a starter list of Web sites with content and links dealing with Native Americans and the European contact period.

You may also wish to have students research Native American groups in your area or state. For example, the Department of Anthropology at the College of Williams and Mary maintains the American Indian Resource Center, a Web site dedicated to Virginia Indians.

Whatever the focus of your Native American research, you'll certainly find a wealth of wonderful information. Enjoy the exploration!

Virtual Jamestown
http://jefferson.village.virginia.edu/vcdh/jamestown/
Using the first permanent English settlement as its foundation, Virtual Jamestown houses a wealth of information on America in the 1600s, including first-hand accounts, official records from the colony, and interactive maps.

Virginia's Indians Past and Present
http://falcon.jmu.edu/~ramseyil/vaindians.htm
Links and original content on the history of Indians and Indian life in Virginia.

Plymouth Colony Archive Project
http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/users/deetz/
Sponsored by the University of Virginia, this site collects period documents from the 17th -century settlement and studies them in light of recent archeological findings and social science analysis.

America's Story: Colonial America
http://www.americasstory.com/cgi-bin/page.cgi/jb/colonial
This Library of Congress site depicts such key events of exploration as the Spanish establishment of St. Augustine, Cartier's exploration of the St. Lawrence River and the British settlement of Jamestown.

Sainte-Marie Among the Hurons
http://www.saintemarieamongthehurons.on.ca/english/index.htm
An interpretive living-history museum on the site of a 17th-century French Jesuit mission in Ontario, Canada.

Archiving Early America
http://www.earlyamerica.com
Online archive includes information on colonial Indian policy, treaties, and affairs.

1492: An Ongoing Voyage
http://lcweb.loc.gov/exhibits/1492/intro.html
Companion website to a Library of Congress exhibition that takes a multifaceted look at European-native encounters and traces the lingering effects of that initial interaction; illustrated with maps and artifacts and supplemented by an extensive bibliography.

David Rumsey Map Collection
http://www.davidrumsey.com/
Thousands of globes and browseable maps, most dating from the 18th- and 19th-century with broad continental and more modest state and local maps represented.

Hargrett Rare Map Collection: Colonial America
http://scarlett.libs.uga.edu/darchive/hargrett/maps/colamer.html
Excellent map site from the University Of Georgia.

Reed College
http://academic.reed.edu/am_studies/museum/earlyamart.html
Collection of Early American art, including European maps and engravings of the New World.

WWW Virtual Library-Index of Native American Resources on the Internet
http://www.hanksville.org/NAresources/
A comprehensive listing of sites from all over the Web dealing with all things Native American.

American Historical Images On File-The Native American Experience
http://www.csulb.edu/projects/ais/nae/
A collection of images relating to Native Americans from pre-contact to the late twentieth century. Part of the American Indian Studies Program at California State University, Long Beach, California. Please note copyright restrictions stated throughout the site.

Native Web-Resources for Indigenous Cultures around the World
http://www.nativeweb.org/
An international, nonprofit, educational organization dedicated to using technology and the Internet to disseminate information from and about indigenous nations, peoples, and organizations around the world. Includes an extensive list on Internet links.

National Museum of the American Indian
http://www.nmai.si.edu/
The official Web site of the National Museum of the American Indian at the Smithsonian Institution, the first national museum dedicated to the preservation, study, and exhibition of the life, languages, literature, history, and arts of Native Americans.