Sources of historical information or evidence are often categorized as primary, secondary, or tertiary material. These classifications are based on the originality of the material and the proximity of the source or origin. This informs the reader as to whether the author is reporting information that is first hand or is conveying the experiences and opinions of others which is considered second hand. Determining if a source is primary, secondary or tertiary can be tricky. Below you will find a description of the three categories of information and examples to help you make a determination.

Primary Sources
Primary sources are the "raw materials" and  foundation of historical research and writing. They are the primary (basis) from which historians collect and start their historiography. These sources are records of events or evidence as they are first described or actually happened without any interpretation or commentary. It is information that is shown for the first time or original materials on which other research is based.  Primary sources display original thinking, report on new discoveries, or share contemporary or fresh information.

Secondary Sources
These sources offer an analysis or restatement of primary sources. They often try to describe or explain primary sources. They tend to be works which summarize, interpret, reorganize, or otherwise provide an added value to a primary source.

Tertiary Sources
Tertiary sources are based exclusively on secondary sources – i.e., on the research of others. These are sources that index, abstract, organize, compile, or digest other sources. Some reference materials and textbooks are considered tertiary sources when their chief purpose is to list, summarize or simply repackage ideas or other information. Tertiary sources are usually not credited to a particular author.

Find out more...
​https://www.crk.umn.edu/library/primary-secondary-and-tertiary-sources
https://history.berkeley.edu/sites/default/files/history_source_types.pdf
​

​Treaty Between the United States and Chippewa Indians (Red Lake and Pembina) Signed at Old Crossing, Red Lake River, Minnesota.

​The 1850 census list appearing in the following pages was found by the secretary in the Minnesota archives at St. Paul, and, as far as can be ascertained. has never before been printed. Pembina district includes the entire Red River valley in the United States and the Red Lake region.  Also included is a listing of personal property valuations for Pembina County from 1873.  Are your ancestors on this list?

Little Shell Band Annuities list from 1864-1878. Little Shell II died circa 1868. Little Shell III died in 1901.

A listing of the Chippwa and Metis who received annuities as members of Red Bear's band of Pembina Indians.

Pembina Chief Waykegekezhick (b. 1830) led a mixed band of Chippewa and Metis. Those receiving annuities in the late 1860s are listed.

Immediately following the US v. Bruce decision, over 100,000 acres of Turtle Mountain Public Domain Allotments (PDA) were taken away from the tribe and its members. The decision greatly impacted the tribe and relegated hundreds of tribal members landless under the 1904 agreement.  Below is the text of a memo following the court decision.

"The Act of Congress approved April 21, 1904 (33 Stat. at L. 189-194, chap. 1402), provides that all members of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians who may be unable to secure land upon the reservation mentioned in said act may take homesteads upon any vacant lands belonging to the United States, without charge. The Indians are not required to make settlement upon the land selected. All that is necessary for an Indian who is an enrolled member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewas to do to secure an allotment selection under this act of Congress, is to pick out the land he wants and file his application therefor. His application should be filed in the local land office of the district within which the land described in his application is located, and the same must be accompanied by a certificate from the Commissioner of Indian Affairs or the superintendent of the Turtle Mountain Indian School at Belcourt, North Dakota, that the applicant is a duly enrolled member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians.
 
Under this act, the Indian parent may have allotment selections allowed to each of his minor children, but on January 15, 1916, the Secretary of the Interior held that in order to entitle a member of said band of Indians to an allotment selection, it must affirmatively appear that the applicant was in being October 8, 1904, the date the Act of April 21, 1904, was ratified and accepted by the Indians. This decision has caused a great number of applications filed for children who were born since October 8, 1904, to be rejected, and about 100,000 acres of land has been thereby restored to the public domain and to entry under the various public land laws.
 
A Turtle Mountain Chippewa, however, is not entitled to receive both an allotment selection under the Act of April 21, 1904, and a regular homestead."

from: Rights of Indians on Public Lands, by Thomas J. Tydings, Washington, DC. (1917)