HST 680 Treaties, Land and Indigenous Governance

TMU Libraries Omni Search
For optimum use, sign in. This search engine searches for journal articles (many are available electronically), books, e-books, theses and dissertations, and newspaper articles from some recent and a selection of archival newspapers. It indexes digitized content such as out-of-copyright books and journals that are available from sources such as The Internet Archive and The Hathi Trust. Omni facilitates discovery and borrowing of print books from other universities in Ontario excluding the University of Toronto.

Refine your search using the filters on the left.

For more advanced searching across a more targeted set of resources, you may want to try a discipline specific indexing/abstracting database or collection as listed in the next boxes.

Note on Terminology: The Library recognizes that the words "Indian" and "Indians" are hold-overs from our colonial heritage. Libraries including this one are replacing subject headings of the type "Indians of North America" with headings such as "Indigenous peoples.North America." Some libraries are adopting terms such as First Nations for peoples who are indigenous to Turtle Island (North America) other than the Inuit and Métis. Historic books, documents and indexing tools continue to use the terms that were used at the time of creation. Therefore when looking for resources, you may have to use terms that may be outdated, inaccurate or offensive. 

Some subject headings that may be useful:
Indigenous peoples Canada Claims
Indigenous peoples Canada Treaties
Indigenous peoples Government relations
headings of the form: Great Britain Treaties, etc. Six Nations, 1768 November 5
headings by tribal group such as Micmac Indians Land tenure or Iroquoian Indians Land tenure or Missisauga Indians or Ojibwa Ontario Treaties or Cree Treaties History

Keywords and Phrases can be searched as keywords as in the following examples:
"toronto purchase"
"treaty 3"
"friendship treaties"
"proclamation of 1763"

Encyclopedias and dictionaries

remain useful sources of quick information.  In addition to free sources such as Wikipedia, consider some of our licensed electronic content from publishers such as Oxford University Press, as well as printed items. 

Try keyword searches in the main catalogue using subject or topical terms and either dictionaries, or, encyclopedias

Example keyword searches:

• canada encyclopedias
• indigenous north america encyclopedias
• indigenous north america dictionaries

Biographical information

Consider these resources:

• Dictionary of Canadian Biography (print for those who died 1930 and earlier; online includes new entries for those who died after 1931 and some and revised entries)
• The Canadian Who's Who (for living persons at time of publication)
• Who's Who in Canada (1949/50-2001, for living persons, especially lawyers and business leaders at time of publication)
• The Canadian Men and Women of the Time ... 2nd ed. 1912
• Native Peoples A to Z: A Reference Guide to Native Peoples of the Western Hemisphere.  2nd ed. (2009, 8 vols.)
• Encyclopedia of North American Indians (print and online)
• Current Biography (1941-2015)

You can also try searching the main catalogue using the following keywords:

canada biography dictionaries

Historical Maps and Atlases

• Canada Historical geography Maps
• Canada history maps

The W.H. Pugsley Collection of Early Canadian Maps from McGill University Library

The David Rumsey Map Collection contains historical maps of North and South America.

The Norman B. Leventhal Map Center at the Boston Public Library is digitizing many of the 200,000 maps in the collection. Search digital content under the Collections tab.

The Toronto Public Library (TPL) has ongoing subscriptions to many biographical resources as well other dictionaries and encyclopedias that are not available at TMU. Many of the resources are located at the Toronto Reference Library situated just north of Bloor Street on Yonge Street. All TMU students and employees are eligible for Toronto Public Library borrowing privileges.

Many items from Open Access Sources can be found using a TMU Library Search Everything search. To search specific sites, consider the following:

The Internet Archive  (Sample search using keywords: treaties canada indians) Some of the items are out of copyright and can be downloaded in full; others are still under copyright but can be "borrowed" under the controlled digital lending model. 

Canadiana Heritage Project (Sub collections include: Aboriginal History, and, Government Documents)

Canada's Local Histories Online

DOAB Directory of Open Access Books