Early Encounters in North America: Peoples, Cultures, and the Environment

Early Encounters in North America: Peoples, Cultures, and the Environment is a collection of digitized primary sources dating from 1534 - 1850 that depict the interactions between the indigenous peoples of North America, colonists, explorers, missionaries, traders, slaves, soldiers, and officials, including the perspectives of both men and women. These documents include narratives, diaries, journals, transcribed oral history accounts, letters, illustrations, and more.  Many materials focus on the environment and geography, including descriptions and illustrations of animals, plants, and land. It includes materials written by European colonists intended to persuade people in Europe to immigrate to the Americas. The collection includes materials relating to the Indigenous peoples of North America, including their own firsthand accounts of the coming of European colonists as well as European writers' accounts. In some cases, an Indigenous speaker's oral account has been transcribed by a European writer. 

Please note that some digitized items may contain views, imagery, or terminology now considered to be inaccurate, biased, or offensive. 

This collection may be searched along with some primary source collections covering U.S. history in U.S. History Collection (Alexander Street).