ENGC01 - Indigenous Literature of Turtle Island (Canada)

This guide will help you find both books and articles related to indigenous literature, as well as guide you to resources useful in discovering more about indigenous societies and culture more generally and biographical information on well known indigenous figures.

An important note on language and terminology:

The various indigenous communities and cultures of North America have been described using a wide variety of terminology, much of which continues to be used to this day, in various contexts.  "First Nations", "Indigenous Canadians", "Native Americans", and "American Indians" are just some of the ways in which indigenous groups in North Amewrica have been described over the years.  Depending upon the databases that you are searching at any given time, one, or several of these terms may end up being the best term to use in order to find the most resources in that index.

In particular, the term "American Indian" is still widely used in the United States, and, in fact, the official Subject Heading established by the Library of Congress for indigenous groups in North America is still "Indians of North America".  While this terminology seems particularly odd to most Canadians, it is important to keep this vocabulary choice in mind, as many bibliographic resources, including the library catalogue at U of T, use the official Library of Congress Subject Headings in their databases.  Similarly, when you come across "Indian Authors" in the subject field of the library catalogue, keep in mind that this too is a reference to the Library of Congress nomenclature "Indians of North America", and therefore, "Indian Authors" refers to authors from one of the indigenous communities of North America, NOT to authors from the nation of India.

A short video about using our LibrarySearch search engine to find books (and other materials as well!).
 

Tips on choosing keywords to use in your searching: