Crowd outside the Rock Creek Indian LongHouse, awaiting dismissal from Yakima Chief Oscar Billy, ca. 1954. Source: State Library Photograph Collection, 1851-1990.

What is now Washington State has long been the home of dozens of groups of American Indians, and some of their history is preserved by the Washington State Archives, Digital Archives. Finding what you need requires a little knowledge of our collections, and sometimes help from your friendly archivist. American Indian nations are sovereign governments with a special relationship to the United States federal government, so many records related to American Indians are held at the federal level rather than the state. However, individual American Indians are citizens of both the state where they live and their own tribe. So as individuals, American Indians appear in almost every collection housed at and hosted by the Washington State Archives.

EWU graduate student and archives assistant Alex Mikinaak created this Research Guide for American Indians in the Digital Archives. It is filled with tips on which collections on our website have the most information about Native peoples and how to find them. We hope that you find it useful!

Written by Alex Mikinaak