Usually the best place to start searching for books is the Library's online catalog or WorldCat, a combined catalog of most US libraries:

As noted above, terminology used in library catalogs can be outdated, inaccurate and even offensive. Here are some strategies and terms that can be useful:

• Search for Native American, Amerindian, Indian, First Peoples or indigenous as keywords
• Search by the name of a particular tribe or cultural group (e.g. Hopi or Shoshoni); try variant names and spellings
• Combine a tribal name with a topical word (e.g. Hopi religion)
• To do a broad search, use Indians of North America as a subject term, or
• Browse the subject heading Indians of North America in the Library Catalog

Learn more here about how to navigate terminology related to Native American Studies in the Library of Congress Classification system: 

Books on Native Americans are scattered throughout the Library. The Library also uses two separate call number systems, Dewey Decimal and Library of Congress. This means that browsing for materials about Native American studies is somewhat difficult.

The following Dewey Decimal call numbers may be helpful:

• 016.97000497 Bibliographies
• 299.7 Mythology and Religion
• 342.73 Legal Issues and Problems
• 497-498 Language
• 709.7 Art
• 810-811 Literature
• 970.00497 History and comprehensive works, throughout North America
• 973.00497-979.00497 History and comprehensive work, U.S. by region and state

In the Library of Congress call number ranges, most materials on Indigenous peoples in North America will be shelved in these areas:

• E51-E135

Subject headings are terms or phrases used in the Library Catalog and most databases to identify and pull together under a common umbrella materials on a given topic, regardless of words in a title. The Library of Congress (LC) Subject Headings (LCSH) are used to identify subjects for items in the Library Catalog. 

Please see the note above about terminology. Although changes in terminology are slowly being introduced into LCSH, most catalog records use the term "Indians of North America" as a broad term, and a tribal name (this might NOT be the current name preferred by members of that group) plus the word "Indians" for specific cultural groups. For example: "Algonquian Indians," "Comanche Indians," "Dakota Indians," "Eskimos," and "Oglala Indians."

Examples of LCSH:

• American literature --Indian authors --Bio-bibliography.
• Native American Studies.
• Indians of North America.
• Indians of North America --Languages --Congresses.
• Indians of North America Religion

To limit your search to a specific tribe, replace the phrase "Indians of North America" with the tribe or groups name, plus Indians. For example, Cherokee Indians Religion and Hopi Indians Religion are subject headings in the Library Catalog.

Find published (or recorded) oral histories in the Library Catalog and in WorldCat, by searching for Indians of North America (or the name of the specific tribe or cultural group) as the subject and "oral history" OR "oral histories" as a keyword.

In the last two decades, mass digitization projects have led to the creation of large online digital libraries. Because of copyright restrictions, typically only materials in the public domain are freely available online. This includes, however, most works published before 1923, most government publications, and many works whose authors or publishers have released them into the public domain.