Contact info

For Library research help, please contact Moninder Lalli

Other guides:

• Indigenous Policy 

Essay  

Start Your Research Here -  This page gives you an overview of the research process, or in other words how to find materials for your essay.

Selected handbooks and encyclopedias

For an overview of a topic or to identify key authors, books, journal articles, debates or theories, start with the encyclopedias listed below.

• Canadian Encyclopedia: Indigenous Peoples. Examples of entries include: Idle No More, Indigenous Women's Issues in Canada, and The White Paper, 1969. 
• Encyclopedia of British Columbia -- under subjects look for articles titled: "First Nations of BC", "Art, Northwest Coast Aboriginal"; under index look for articles on " aboriginal demography", "aboriginal rights", "First Nations Languages", or names of individual groups, e.g. Bella Coola First Nation, Haida, etc. [online or print]
• Encyclopedia of Canada's Peoples
• Handbook of indigenous peoples rights 
• Routledge Companion to Global Indigenous History
• Routledge Handbook of Critical Indigenous Studies
• Routledge international handbook of Indigenous resilience 

Databases for journal articles

To find scholarly journal articles, search the databases for your discipline.

• Anthropology Plus - index for anthropological journals.
• Sociological Abstracts -- main database scholarly articles in sociology  
• Social Sciences Full Text -- for scholarly articles in social sciences. 
• Bibliography of Indigenous Peoples in North America - Academic articles and Indigenous news sources.  Covers all aspects of Native North American culture, history, and life from the sixteenth century to the present.
  • Subject term "Native Americans" sometimes used for Canada as well as First Nations
• America: History and Life
  "Literature on all aspects of U.S. and Canadian history, culture and current affairs from prehistory to present"
  • Sample subject terms: Indigenous peoples; First Nations
• Political Science Complete
  Full-text political science articles
  • Sample subject term: Indigenous peoples
• Google Scholar -- use the database through the Library to search for fulltext of articles

For more database suggestions see also: Top resources for First Nations
and: Top resources for Government of Canada - Federal

Find books

The Library Catalogue provides access to books, journal articles, videos, government documents and much more.  To limit the search results to "books", use the filter (left-hand column in search results) to "resource type" of "books."

Library Catalogue search guide

Search the SFU Library Catalogue, either the Basic or the Advanced search

Note: In the searches below, search results can been limited to "Resource type" of "Books" and selected "Subjects"

• indigen* AND (protest* OR resistance OR movement*)
• (Indigen* OR aborig* OR native*) AND (global  OR international) AND  politic* AND (justice OR rights)
• (Indian* OR Indigen* OR "Native American*) AND (Canad* OR "United States") AND (protest* OR resistance OR movement* OR struggle* OR rights)
  • results limited by "subject"
• (Aborig* OR Indian* OR Indigen* OR native*) AND (Japan* OR Indonesia* OR China) AND (protest* OR resistance OR movement* OR struggle* OR rights)
• (Indian* OR Indigen* OR native* OR aborig*) AND Mexico AND (protest* OR resistance OR movement* OR struggle* OR rights)
• Using Advanced search: (Indian* OR Indigen* OR native* OR aborig*) AND subject (Japan) AND (protest* OR resistance OR movement* OR struggle* OR rights)
• Using Advanced search: (Indian* OR Indigen* OR native* OR aborig*) AND subject (China) AND (protest* OR resistance OR movement* OR struggle* OR rights)

Combine different concepts using AND
Combine same concepts using OR
Use quotation marks to search for a phrase
Use brackets for synonyms
Use asterisk (*) for different endings of words

Note:  For Catalogue Search, when combining concepts, use CAPITAL letters ( "OR", "AND")

TIP: Use "subject headings" found within the library record of relevant titles to find other useful book titles.

Selected books

• After One Hundred Winters : In Search of Reconciliation on America's Stolen Lands
• Beyond Alterity : Destabilizing the Indigenous Other in Mexico 
• Cooperation without submission : indigenous jurisdictions in native nation-US engagements 
• Critical indigenous rights studies 
• Critically Sovereign: Indigenous Gender, Sexuality, and Feminist Studies
• Cultural and social division in contemporary Japan : rethinking discourses of inclusion and exclusion
• Decentralization and Adat Revivalism in Indonesia: The Politics of Becoming Indigenous
• Divided peoples : policy, activism, and indigenous identities on the U.S.-Mexico border [print]
• Emergence of Indigenous Peoples
• Frontiers of citizenship : a Black and Indigenous history of postcolonial Brazil 
• Indigenous struggle at the heart of Brazil state policy, frontier expansion, and the Xavante Indians, 1937-1988 
• Manifesting democracy? : urban protests and the politics of representation in Brazil post 2013
• Indigenous Mexico engages the 21st century : a multimedia-enabled text 
• Indigenous peoples and globalization : resistance and revitalization 
• Indigenous Places and Colonial Spaces: The Politics of Intertwined Relations
• Japan's Ainu minority in Tokyo : diasporic indigeneity and urban politics 
• On minority rights 
• Pipeline Populism: Grassroots Environmentalism in the Twenty-First Century
• Politics, identity, and Mexico's indigenous rights movements 
• Politics of indigeneity : dialogues and reflections on indigenous activism 
• Red nation rising : from bordertown violence to native liberation 
• Standing with Standing Rock: Voices from the #NoDAPL Movement
• Strong Hearts, Native Lands: The Cultural and Political Landscape of Anishinaabe Anti-Clearcutting Activism
• Unsettled Borders: The Militarized Science of Surveillance on Sacred Indigenous Land
• Weaving Solidarity : Decolonial Perspectives on Transnational Advocacy of and with the Mapuche

Browse search

NOTE: SFU Library recognizes that the term “Indians,” used in subject headings such as “Indians of North America,” is harmful in its use outside of legal contexts. Although we currently maintain these headings to adhere to descriptive standards used by libraries worldwide, we and other Canadian libraries are working to replace them with ones that are accurate and respectful to Indigenous Peoples.

Choose: Browse tab, change "title" to "subject"

Some useful subject headings for this course: 

• Indians of North America -- Government relations
• Indians of North America -- Canada
• Indians of North America -- Canada -- Government relations
• Indians of North America -- Canada -- Politics and government
• Indians of South America -- Brazil -- Government relations

Library guides

• Library Research Tutorials. Animated tutorials on search techniques for finding books and journal articles.
• Annotated bibliographies
• Evaluating sources
• How to find journal articles
• Library Catalogue search guide
• What is a scholarly (or peer-reviewed) journal?
• What is plagiarism?  Guide to common forms of plagiarism and how to avoid them

Writing help

Student Learning Commons provides assistance and numerous, helpful guides.

• Academic writing resources
• Library Catalogue search: Academic writing
  • E.g. Writing effective course assignments : a guide to non-degree and undergraduate students
• Book a consultation