Skip to Content

Iroquois Books of Marilyn L. Haas


In July 2001 the Law Library purchased a private collection of books and materials on the Haudenosaunee - People of the Longhouse, known to non-Indians as the Six Nations Iroquois Confederacy. Original inhabitants of northeastern North America, the Indian nations of the Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, Seneca and later the Tuscarora, formed a confederacy sometime between 1100 and 1500 A.D. Early relations between the Haudenosaunee and European nations, the United States, and Canada, including international treaties, continue to impact relations today. This collection offers cross-cultural insight to legal and historical researchers.

Marilyn Haas received her A.B. from the University of Missouri and her M.L.S. from the New York State University College at Geneseo. She was a member of the University Libraries faculty at the University at Buffalo from 1967 to 1992. As a Reference Librarian in Lockwood Library, she developed an expertise in American Indian sources. She authored Indians of North America: Methods and Sources for Library Research Law Ref E 77 H37 1983 and The Seneca and Tuscarora Indians : An Annotated Bibliography Law Ref Z 1210 S49 H33 1994

As she began compiling the book on the Seneca and Tuscarora Indians, Marilyn became enamored of the books themselves. She bought new works as they came out and haunted used bookstores for out of print titles. While hoping to find a copy of every title in her annotated bibliography, some she could not find and others were too expensive, but that is the genesis of her Iroquois Collection.

This collection was purchased to augment the Howard R. Berman collection on Native American and indigenous peoples.

The collection is rich in historical, anthropological and cultural sources. Researchers interested in cross-cultural issues in the legal context, human rights, or simply local historical background for legal disputes will find it useful.


The Collection

To identify books in the Haas Collection, search the University Libraries catalog for "Haas" and filter to Law Library Special Collections.

Items may also be located using an annotated bibliography.

See also: