Indigenous peoples

Scope and Contents This collection consists of a rare late seventeenth-century broadside issued by Carlos López Torrija, a legal authority of the Real Audiencia of Mexico (the high court of New Spain), printed in Puebla de los Ángeles by Diego Fernández de León. The document addresses legal irregularities in the collection of ecclesiastical tithes ("diezmos") related to agricultural production on hacienda lands in the Puebla region. Specifically, Torrija seeks to regulate and halt exploitative practices...

Scope and Contents This collection contains a rare and significant royal decree issued by King Philip V of Spain on July 12, 1720, from San Lorenzo de El Escorial, abolishing the Encomienda system in the Spanish colonies of the Americas, with specific reference to Chile and Peru. The decree is signed in manuscript "yo el Rey" ("I the King") by Philip V and countersigned by several high-ranking Spanish officials. It references the minimal benefit derived from the Encomienda system in rewarding conquistadors and...

Scope and Contents This collection contains a five-page manuscript that transcribes three letters from Juan Félix de la Sierra, a Dominican priest, to Captain Francisco de Cárdenas, a Spanish military officer and overseer of mines. It is a bound, handwritten record of Juan Félix's objections to the forced labor of indigenous peoples, which he viewed as interfering with royal orders relating to Catholic conversion. The first letter is sent from Monclova and dated 1687. Like the second, it criticizes Cárdenas'...

Scope and Contents This collection consists of a printed Mexican government decree issued on February 24, 1836, concerning the ongoing military conflict with Apache tribes in the northern territories of Mexico. The decree, issued by the Secretaría de Hacienda and signed by President José Rafael Berruecos and secretaries José R. Malo and José Rafael de Olaguibel, establishes the regulated price of gunpowder for the Departments of Chihuahua and Sonora. These regions were the epicenter of battles and raids during...

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One illustrated manuscript depicting a local elite, Don Carlos Guevara, and his family. The unknown author uses intensely vulgar language to express his disdain for Guevara, whose circumstances have recently changed and left him in poverty.

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This collection consists of twenty black and white photographs depicting scenes from South American aboriginal village.

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This collection consists of twenty black and white photographs depicting unidentified aboriginal people from South America.

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Seventy-nine images of mainly African Americans from late nineteenth century and early twentieth century.