The American Folklife Center (AFC) has numerous collections that pertain to the communities and cultural traditions of Indigenous Peoples of the Americas. These collections may be identified by a general - sometimes outdated - tribal affiliation (e.g., Ojibwe or Anishinaabe or Chippewa), by the name of a specific community (e.g., Leech Lake), or by cultural heritage keywords relevant to the collection (e.g., hoop dance). Often a combination of search terms is necessary to find all of the relevant materials. When searching for collection items related to tribal communities, be aware that the tribe in question may appear in the catalog record under multiple names.

To research American Folklife Center (AFC) resources, a good place to start is the Library of Congress Online Catalog. Each AFC archival collection, published book, and serial has an individual catalog record. Due to the limitations within the LOC Subject Headings, there is no one consolidated way to search for the Indigenous resources within the Center's collections.

To conduct a search of the Library's catalog:

• Go to the Library's Catalog search page and click "Advanced Search."
• Enter the search term. The Advanced Search page allows up to three keywords. You can set the search to include any of these terms by selecting "OR" between the keywords, or produce narrower search results by selecting "AND."
  • You can currently use problematic umbrella terms such as "Indians of North America" plus a geographic location such as a state, province, or region
  • If you are seeking materials specific to a given tribe, once the location limit has been set it is more effective to use the name of that group plus the word "Indians," and refine the search with subject terms such as "Music." Example: "Omaha Indians -- Music" or "Karok Indians -- Dance." It is also possible to add a geographic location: "Kiowa Indians -- Oklahoma -- Music."
  • Researchers will find that the subject headings do not have all of the current terminology for Native communities, so it is useful to use historic names, such as "San Juan Pueblo" AND "Ohkey Owingeh," or "Yuma" AND "Quechan."
• Add Limits. First select "Location in the Library" and then choose "American Folklife" from the dropdown menu (not "American folklife reference collection," since the latter refers only to books on the reading room shelves). Following this, you can further narrow down your search by adding additional limits, such as type of material (film, book, etc.) or date range of publication.

Many Nations: A Library of Congress resource guide for the study of Indian and Alaska native peoples of the United States is an overall introduction to indigenous resources in the Library of Congress published in 1996. The section on the American Folklife Center describes some of the larger and prominent groups of resources. This is followed by an alphabetized list of communities represented in Folklife Center collections. The list, then, is not focused on individual collections, many of which contain documentation from multiple communities. So users of the list will see call numbers for individual items rather than an identifier for the overall collection. Since some collections were not accompanied by specific identifications of the communities involved, some of the listings are very general historic labels such as "Iroquois" and "Sioux."

Many Nations is available online. Once any of the full-text options are accessed, the researcher will see a "Jump" command in the lower right of the webpage. Entering "300" in the resulting search box takes the reader to the beginning of the American Folklife Center section (page 276 as the book is paginated); "308" goes to the beginning of the tribal list.

Finding aids provide a gateway to a wealth of Library of Congress treasures. These guides provide comprehensive overviews of unique Library resources. Progressively detailed descriptions of a collection's component parts summarize the overall scope of the content, convey details about the individuals and organizations involved, and list box and folder headings. The link below is a customized search of Library of Congress Finding Aids limited to finding aids in the American Folklife Center archival collections relating to Indigenous collections.

This guide provides research strategies for using American Folklife Center collections.