LibGuides: Native American and Indigenous History at Duke: Native Americans at Duke

Native American Heritage Month bridge painting, Nov. 2019

Three students from the Native American Student Alliance (NASA) in front of a freshly painted mural celebrating Native American Heritage Month in November 2019, from the NASA Records, 2015-2020.

Contact the Duke University Archives

Duke University Archives

at the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library

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Secondary Sources

These secondary sources have been selected because they provide information about Native Americans at Duke (or at nearby institutions). You may also want to search the Libraries' catalog and scholarly databases more broadly for secondary sources about Native Americans and higher education.

Elliott, Walker. "'I Told Him I'd Never Been to His Back Door for Nothing': The Lumbee Indian Struggle for Higher Education under Jim Crow." North Carolina Historical Review XC (1), January 2013: 49-87.
Keene, Adrienne J. "College Pride, Native Pride" and Education for Native Nation Building: Portraits of Native Students Navigating Freshman Year. 2014. Harvard University, Ed.D. dissertation. Available through Proquest Dissertations & Theses Global.
- Chapter 6 relates the experiences of a first-year student at Duke ca. 2012-2013.
Peters, Brian. 2018. “Fighting Isolation: How Four Native Women Created Change at UNC-Chapel Hill.” American Indian Quarterly 42(3): 344–74.

University Archives Collections

The links below will take you to the collection guide for each collection. See the "Introduction" tab of this LibGuide for guidance on accessing these collections.

Please note that administrative office records are restricted for a period of twenty-five years from the origin of the material. To use these materials, permission must be obtained from the office of origin. Contact the University Archives for help with this!

Office of Intercultural Affairs Reference Collection, 2000-ongoing
The Office of Intercultural Affairs is the predecessor of today's Center for Multicultural Affairs. Within this collection, the Unity through Diversity proceedings include reports from NASC or NASA about Native American students at Duke.

The proceedings from the first and second Unity through Diversity events are also available on the Center for Multicultural Affairs' website.

Minister to the University (Dean of the Chapel) records, 1940-1984
Box 5 contains a folder titled "Indian Conference - October, 1971," which contains documentation about the October 18-20, 1971 conference on Native Americans sponsored by Duke's YM-YWCA and the Duke Union.
Native American Student Alliance records, 2015-2020
The records of this primary cultural organization for Native Americans at Duke include photographs of members at events; a PowerPoint presentation explaining cultural appropriation; NASA's constitution; general board meeting minutes; and newsletters.
Spectrum records, 1993-2004
An inter-community dialoguing and organizing group for Duke cultural student groups, Spectrum counted the Native American Student Coalition as one of its members. Spectrum's records include documentation about a small number of NASC events and projects.
Office of Student Activities and Facilities records, 1936-ongoing
Box 7 of this collection contains a folder of documentation about American Indians at Duke (AID), a group active during the 1970s. Box 30 contains a folder about the Native American Student Alliance--largely group charters and constitutions, as well as membership rosters.
Student Organizations Reference Collection, 1913-ongoing
This collection contains a slim file on the Native American Student Coalition (active in the mid-1990s-early 2000s). Navigate to the link titled "Native American Student Coalition" to view the digitized materials from this folder.
Trinity College of Arts and Sciences, Office of the Dean records, 1911-2006
Search this collection guide on "Native American" to find folders about a house course titled "Native American Issues," taught in the late 1990s.
University Archives Web Archive Collection, 2010-ongoing
Search this collection guide on "Native American Student Alliance" to find links to archived versions of NASA's website dating from between 2010 and 2015.

Native American and Indigenous Newspapers and Periodicals

The Carolina Indian Voice
Digitized by Digital NC, the Carolina Indian Voice is NC's Native American newspaper. Digitized issues date from 1977 (Vol. 5) to 2005. Try searching for articles about "Duke University" (which may give you the names of Duke students/faculty/staff) or "Durham."

Articles related to Native and Indigenous Students and Faculty at Duke

General Duke University Publications

Publications produced by Duke University departments and organizations provide contemporary accounts of campus events, and are often a good source for gauging student, faculty, and staff reactions to campus issues. Most publications are not fully indexed, or have indexes that are available only at the Duke University Archives, as indicated below.

The Duke Chronicle (library catalog records)

Our student newspaper began publishing as the Trinity Chronicle on December 19, 1905.
Issues of the Duke Chronicle from 1905 to May 2000 have been fully digitized.
Beginning around 1993, articles are available online at the Duke Chronicle's website. Please note that the online archives of The Duke Chronicle does not reproduce advertisements, including classified ads.

Chanticleer (library catalog record )

The Chanticleer—our student yearbook—published its first volume in spring 1912 (covering the 1911-1912 academic year).
Access to digitized copies of the Chanticleer is provided as part of the Duke University Libraries' Internet Archive collection.

DukEngineer (library catalog record)

DukEngineer, the student-run news magazine for the Pratt School of Engineering, published its first issue in May 1940.
Issues from 1940 to 2013 have been fully digitized.
Issues from 2014 to the present are available on Pratt's website.

The Trinity Archive and The Archive (library catalog record)

Before The Trinity Chronicle began to publish in December 1905, the school's literary magazine, the Trinity Archive, functioned as a source of campus news and thought. The Archive is still being published, but is now strictly a literary magazine.
An index to the Trinity Archive (covering November 1887 to May 1932) is available online as part of the Duke University Libraries' Internet Archive collection.
Access to digitized copies of the Trinity Archive and the Archive is provided as part of the Duke University Libraries' Internet Archive collection. Right now, it's tricky to discern issue dates for these digitized issues. Issues through 1924 can be accessed chronologically through HathiTrust. We're working on a better way to access later issues by date.

The Duke Alumni Register (library catalog record)

Published by Trinity College's—and later Duke University's—Alumni Association starting in April 1915, the Alumni Register contains articles on campus milestones, events, trends, and people, as well as alumni updates.
Subject and name indexes are available as card files in the Duke University Archives. Please contact University Archives staff for assistance.
Access to digitized copies of the Alumni Register (1915-1975) is provided through HathiTrust.

Duke Magazine (library catalog record)

The successor to the Alumni Register, Duke Magazine began to publish in 1984.
Access to digitized copies of Duke Magazine from 1984-2007 is available through HathiTrust. (Click on "Catalog Record" to see a list of digitized issues organized chronologically.)
Access to recent Duke Magazine articles is available on Duke Magazine's website.

Try searching the Libraries' catalog with the subject heading "Duke University -- Periodicals" or "Duke University -- Students -- Periodicals" to locate additional Duke publications.

Native American and Indigenous History at Duke