National Archives - Native Americans

The bulk of these images can be found in the Record Groups associated with 15 principle agencies, including the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the Bureau of American Ethnology, and the United States Army. Though relevant materials may be clustered in these record groups and in a small group of donated collections, related series may be found throughout Still Picture Branch holdings.

Captions provided with these images were created at or about the time each image was made. Consequently, some of the terms used may now be considered outdated, inaccurate, derogatory, disrespectful, or culturally insensitive. Spellings used may also be outdated or no longer considered accurate. NARA does not alter, edit, or modify original captions, as they are part of the historical record and reflect and document the standard language, attitudes, and biases at the time. To learn more about this topic researchers should contact the individual tribal archives, museums, or libraries. For a list, see the National Directory of Tribal Archives, Museums and Libraries.

A curated listing of digitized Still Picture holdings related to Native Americans was created in the late 1980s/early 1990s and is available online, however the images listed are only a small subset of the materials available.

Some record groups with high concentrations of records related to Native Americans along with some of the relevant series within those record groups are listed below. While some of these series are fully digitized and available online, others are only partially digitized or not yet available online. Please note that generally these images document federal activities as related to Native Americans, and therefore include images of Native Americans, Native American activities, federal officials, and the activities of federal officials. These records are in no way representative of the Native American experience as a whole.