The American Indian File is an artifically assembled collection
which includes miscellaneous pieces and four smaller groups of
papers concerning Indians east of the Mississippi River in the
17th, 18th and 19th centuries. The documents are primarily
concerned with the transfer of land from Indians to whites and
include deeds, indentures, treaties, proclamations and
mortgages. Nearly all the papers are dated from 1642 to 1815,
with a very few pieces from the late 19th and the 20th
centuries. Also included is information on military and
political affairs, negotiations and Indian ethnology, primarily
between 1780 to 1850. Tribes belonging to the Iroquorian
language family, including the Cherokees and Senecas, are most
fully represented, but tribes in the Algonquian family,
especially in the Great Lakes region are also represented. In
order to quote from, publish, or reproduce any of the
manuscripts or visual materials, researchers must obtain formal
permission from the office of the Library Director. In most inst