AIS 584: Federal Indian Policy

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Definitions    Online Tools     Print Tools   Microforms

Definitions

Bill:  Proposed general legislation (a bill) is designated by H.R. in the House of Representatives and S. in the  Senate. Public bills deal with general matters and, if signed, become public laws.( e.g. Public Law 91-111.  The first number is number of the Congress.) )Private bills deal with individual matters, such as a person's claim against the government, and become private laws, if signed.

• From Bill to Law   Full text explanations of how bills become laws in the modern era.  The process is esstentially the same as in historic times.

Committees:  Committees and their subcommittees examine Bills during hearings, and modify, accept, or reject them during markup.

Committee Prints:  This can be anything a committee wants to issue in support of its legislative and oversight functions. The whole Committee may issue a print or only a portion of the committee may issue it. The latter will have specific language on the cover stating that the print does "not reflect the consensus" of the committee.  Committee prints can contain draft legislation, situation reports, statistical information, historical information, or legislative analyses.

Congressional Record:  This is the official transcript of debates of the House and the Senate.  From 1789 until 1827 it was called the Annals of Congress. From 1824 until 1837 the Register of Debates in Congress was published.  In 1833 the Congressional Globe began.  It lasted until 1873 when the Congressional Record began.  The precursors of the Congressional Record are all in the Library on microfilm beginning in Microfilm number 2781a.  Each reel has indexes within the reel.  When the Record  begins in 1873, the indexes are placed after each Congress.  The Library has marked all the of reels containing the Indexes with BLUE tape. 

The Congressional Record is divided into four parts.  The debate and other floor action of the House and of the Senate are paged separately, with page numbers beginning "H" (as in H8793) for House debate and "S" (as in S3987) for Senate debate.  Material not spoken on the floor may appear in the “Extension of Remarks” (paged as in E2347) section that appears in the Record after the Senate and House floor debate sections. The fourth portion of the Record, known as the “Daily Digest”(paged as in D739), contains a brief synopsis of floor action in both the House and Senate and in all the committees that met on that day. The “Daily Digest” is especially useful for identifying each day's floor amendments and their disposition. The Congressional Record is found under Microfilm number 2781d

Hearings:   Published hearing transcripts are an official record of the committee's proceedings on pending legislation or national/international issues. Testimony from government and public witnesses at hearings typically is arranged in chronological order of appearance of witnesses. Official (i.e., GPO-printed) hearing transcripts usually include witnesses' written and oral statements; the transcript of the verbal question-and-answer (Q&A) session between the committee and the witnesses; related reports, exhibits, and other material submitted for the record; and correspondence. Hearings published before 1970 are primarily in microfiche.

House and Senate Reports: House and Senate reports are the designated class of publications by which Congressional committees report and make recommendations to the House or Senate as a whole. These reports concern the findings of committee hearings or outcome of committee deliberations. They can contain discussions of legislative intent, or a short history of a bill. Reports are assigned separate sequential numbers within each chamber (e.g., H.Rept. 99-1, S.Rept. 99-1).  Full text of Reports are found in the Serials Set 1789-1970 in Congressional Universe.

House and Senate Documents: Issued by the full chamber with the designation H.Doc. or S.Doc., this publication type can contain Presidential messages on new legislation or vetoes, special reports of executive branch agencies, or biannual reports on committee activities. Early documents (pre-1970) are in paper or microfiche in the Government Documents section of the Library.  Documents are found the Serial Set in Congressional Universe.

Statutes at Large: The Statutes at Large (Stat.)is printed annually and the laws within it are arranged by order of passage.  You may search the Statutes back to 1789 in Congressional Universe. (Statutes at Large number: 98 Stat 1331. This is volume and page number.)

United States Code: The official compliation of the public laws (USCS) arranged by Titles.  Most matters pretaining the American Indians are found in Title 25. The full text of the Code is searchable in Congressional Universe. USC number: 25 USCS § 2.  The code is constantly updated.

Online Tools

Lexis Nexis Congressional Universe
Also called simply Congressional Universe or CIS Congressional Universe this data base contains a variety of information much of it in full text.  For historic purposes it has the full text of the Serial Set (1789-1969). Guide to Congressional Universe

• Basic Search:  Works ok if you know your congress
• Advanced Search:  Recommended search.  It allows you to limit your search to certain publications eg the Serial Set and limit by dates or by congress.
• Search by Number:  Works well if you are looking for a particular House or Senate report, hearing or document.
• Legislative Histories, Bills and Laws: Histories only cover the dates 1970 to the present. NOT USEFUL FOR THIS CLASS.  BUT this is the place to find Statues at Large which go back to 1789 online.
• "How to Cite"  A special section in Congressional Universe on how to cite what you have found.

Indian Affairs: Laws and Treaties, Vols. 1-3 Edited by Charles J. Kappler. Washington, GOP, 1904.
Full text of the treaties provided by Oklahoma State University Library on the WEB. Also in print: Indian Affairs: Laws and Treaties (Kappler) - KF8203 1972 Main Ref. Compilation of treaties, laws, executive orders and matters relating to Indian affairs.

Documents of United States Indian Policy (Search the catalog for the link to electronic version) Edited by Francis P. Prucha. 3rd. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2000. Full text of key letters, treaties, reports and court cases covering the period from 1783 to 2000. Also in print at KF8205 .D63 2000 in Special Collections and the Law Library.

THOMAS  Legislative information from the Library of Congress.

National Indian Law Library run by the Native American Rights Fund

Lexis Nexis Academic Universe  Use the Legal Research Section to find Supreme Court cases and other federal and state court cases.  Congressional Universe and Academic Universe are linked on their respective home pages.

Index of Native American Legal Resources on the Internet
Searchable index to legal resources.

Print Tools

KF80 .S5 Info Commons Ref. (First Floor)
Shepard's acts and cases by popular names, federal and state.

KF8205 .A76 1998 Main Ref (Second Floor)
American Indian law deskbook.  Niwot, Colo.: University Press of Colorado, c1998.

KF8202 1999 Main Ref
Deloria, Vine and Raymond J. DeMallie, ed. Documents of American Indian Diplomacy, treaties, agreements, and  conventions 1775-1979.  Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, c1999.  2 volumes

KF8210.C5 E53 1997 Info Commons Ref and Main Ref.
Encyclopedia of American Indian civil rights.  Westport, Conn.; London: Greenwood Press, 1997. 

KF8204 .E53 1998 Main Ref
Encyclopedia of Native American legal tradition. Westport, Conn.; London: Greenwood Press, 1998.

KF8203.36 G76 1996  Main Ref
Grossman, Mark. ABC-CLIO companion to the Native American Rights Movement.  Santa Barbara, Calif.: ABC-CLIO, c1996.

KF8203 1972 Main Ref
Kappler, Charles Joseph, ed. Indian affairs. Laws and treaties.    [New York, AMS Press, 1971, i.e. 1972] Four volumes.   Volumes 1-3 available full text on the internet. 

E93 W27 Main Ref
Washburn, Wilcomb E. American Indian and the United States: a Documentary history.  New York: Random House [1973]  4 volumes

Microforms

Microfilm:  Back corner of B1.  Congressional Record et al is at film number 2781 in order by date.  Early years have the indexes within the reels.  Later ones have blue tape on the index reels.

Microfiche:  In Row 23.  Read the labels carefully.  The House and the Senate haearings are are separate. Published and unpublished hearings are separate.

For further assistance, contact Sara Heitshu.