The Prints & Photographs Online Catalog (PPOC) includes descriptions of about 95% of the materials in the Division's collections and is the primary means of finding descriptions of images related to Native American history and culture. Please note that the online catalog is not a comprehensive listing of all of the images in the holdings of the Prints & Photographs Division.

Terms used to describe images portraying indigenous North American life in many cases reflect a European American perspective and may not reflect historical reality. Additionally, our records and descriptions are often lacking due to limited information and often do not include details about tribal affiliation, both in those cases where an image might relate to a Native person or community, and in those cases where a creator may have Indigenous heritage or affiliation.

See below for some keyword suggestions. Catalog records have varying levels of detail.

• Indians of North America Many records are assigned this Library of Congress subject heading, which you can add to your search string in quotes.
• Group Names e.g. Sioux, Zuni, Tlingit, etc. Keep in mind that there are spelling and name variations for many groups (e.g. Chippewa/Ojibwa/Ojibwe, Papago/Tohono O'Odham, Yakima/Yakama, Nespelem/Nespelim).
• Individuals e.g. Red Cloud, Maria Tallchief, Jim Thorpe, etc. You may benefit from doing research ahead of time to identify individuals whose names you can then use when searching the online catalog.
• Location e.g. Wounded Knee, Washington, Idaho, etc.
• Events, general and specific e.g. Million Indian March, Panama-California Exposition, Crow Fair Celebration, etc.
• Artist names e.g. Jaune Quick-to-See Smith, Kay WalkingStick, Felix Octavius Carr Darley, George Catlin, etc. You may wish to do research ahead of time to identify creator names that you can use when searching the online catalog.
• Subjects e.g. Dance, government relations, spiritual life, etc.
• Format e.g. poster, drawing, lithograph, cartoon, etc. You can try adding terms to focus on specific formats.

When you find a catalog record relevant to your research, it can be useful to click on the subject headings (e.g. Indians of North America--Spiritual life--1920-1930) in that record in order to find related images. You can also include “NOT India” to reduce irrelevant results.

Hundreds of groups of images, or LOTs, are described in Indians of North America: A Guide to Pictorial LOTs. A LOT is a cohesive body of material, maintained and cataloged as a group to preserve unity of subject, provenance, or format. A LOT can consist of a few items, an album containing photographs or prints, or a large number of loose items.

In addition to listing image groups in LOT number order, Indians of North America: A Guide to Pictorial LOTs includes a "Subject Index" listing tribal communities, geographic locations, activities, events and other subjects, and a "Name Index" listing photographers, copyright claimants and collectors. Researchers have found the indexes helpful because they provide a rough overview and list of how many groups of images the Prints & Photographs Division has in each category.

The physical images from LOTs are available for viewing in the Prints & Photographs Reading Room. Many of the LOT descriptions are also available online through the Prints & Photographs Online Catalog. See below for access to a digital copy.

Some collections, including the U.S. News & World Report Magazine Photograph Collection, the poster collections, and the fine print collections, have card indexes that contain more information than can be found in the Prints & Photographs Online Catalog. The card files are available for consultation in the Prints & Photographs Reading Room.

Several image files, listed below, are available for browsing in the Prints & Photographs Reading Room. Read this Picture This blog post for a quick introduction to the Prints & Photographs Division browsing files. The following browsing files may be of particular interest to those researching Native American history and culture.

• Stereograph File
• Specific Subjects File and Specific Subjects Graphics File
• Biographical File
• Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information Collection file prints