Indigenous Peoples of the Americas: History, Culture & Law

You may remember the story of the first Thanksgiving from your elementary school days, when you listened to the tale of the Pilgrims while you turned construction-paper cutouts of your hands into turkeys. But how much of that story is actually true? And how did Thanksgiving come to be an annual, national holiday? Feast with us on all of the information we dug up in HeinOnline regarding the history and controversy of Thanksgiving.

In this post, we will explore the deadly results of one nation’s relationship with allotments: the Osage Nation’s oil headrights and the subsequent Osage murders.

In true Hein fashion, we are constantly increasing the value of your subscription by adding new content each month. In the last 12 months alone, we’ve added nearly 800,000 pages from more than 700 new titles to the Indigenous Peoples of the Americas: History, Culture & Law database. This month, we are pleased to announce that we’ve added two important publications from the Native Nations Law & Policy Center.

November is nationally recognized as Native American Heritage Month, making it the perfect time to highlight the rich culture and history of America’s indigenous cultures that can be found within HeinOnline’s Indigenous Peoples of the Americas: History, Culture & Law database, formerly named the American Indian Law Collection. The collection brings together a wealth of content dedicated to indigenous law and life, sharing the tremendous influence that indigenous peoples and their culture have had on the development of our nation.

A treaty is an agreement between two or more nations. Sometimes also called accords, charters, conventions, pacts, or protocols, treaties can either be bilateral (between two countries) or multilateral (between three or more countries). Watch the video below or keep reading this guide to learn a few different methods for efficient treaty research in HeinOnline.

Critical race theory is a concept that has been around for decades but became a hot topic of discussion in 2020 after the killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and other African Americans by police officers. Join HeinOnline as we explore what Critical Race Theory is, and its history.

“Indigenous Peoples,” has recently come into popular usage, and many feel it more accurately acknowledges the diversity and heritage of native populations in both the United States and across the globe. This term—now used by the United Nations, as well—honors the wide-ranging diversity found throughout indigenous cultures and acknowledges the experiences and trials of all colonized people around the world. We recognize the troubled history surrounding the terms “American Indian” and “Native American.” For this reason, we have decided to rename the database to the following: Indigenous Peoples of the Americas: History, Culture & Law.

This summer, a landmark decision from the Supreme Court marked a historic win for Native American tribes, acknowledging their rights and forever transforming the justice system of the state of Oklahoma. Curious about how it all went down? Explore the landmark decision, its background, and what was actually affected by the ruling with HeinOnline.