Help Using the Archive

Thank you for visiting the Ella Deloria Archive! We have attempted to make searching and browsing the archive as easy as possible. However, if you don't understand why you're getting particular search results, this is the place to come.

 

How do I search?

The keywords of the archive are arranged by page and by document; each page has a set of keywords and each document has a set of keywords. The keywords of the document include EVERY keyword of the pages of that document.

The keywords are separated by commas, so you can search on phrases if you would like. In order to search on a phrase, just type that phrase into the keywords field on the search page. If you want to search on multiple phrases, type in the phrases, separated by a comma. For example: sun dance, body part will return all results that match both phrases. In this case, since no page has both phrases, a search of pages only will give you no results. However, if you search documents only, you will find that "Dakota Ceremonies" includes both phrases.

Think of it this way: anything separated by a comma will be a separate sub-search. When all of the sub-searches are complete, you are shown ONLY the results that were found in ALL of the sub-searches. Searching on sun, dance will search for pages and/or documents that match sun, then for the ones that match dance. Then, it will compare the two sets of results and show you those that matched both sun and dance. Searching on sun dance (note NO comma) will search for "sun dance" and show you all of the documents and/or pages with the phrase "sun dance" as a keyword.

 

 
   

Created by American Indian Studies Research Institute, Indiana University

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