Yes, you most certainly can (and are encouraged to) access books to support your research!
Does it take a little more planning and a bit more work on your part? Yep, it sure does. It will typically take us longer to get a book to you than it will articles, but books provide a different type of resource to support your research and should not be overlooked.
You would be responsible for getting the book back to us, of course. (See the Have Books & Articles Sent to You tab in the Education Program - Distance Students guide for more info!)
Read the Searching for Books Tips for more information.
As you are searching the online catalog and databases, always take note of the Subjects being used to describe the source you are viewing. This can give you great ideas of terms to use in your next search! For your project, keep these terms in mind:
Indians of North America
Native Americans
Dakota Indians
Ojibwa Indians
We have several books available in the Education Curriculum Library (ECL) about or by Native American/Indigenous authors. Here's a link to the catalog so you can browse through those materials: ECL Native American OR Indigenous
The following titles are in the SMSU Book Collection. This is a small sampling of what is available to you; search the MnPALS catalog for additional resources. You can request to have books sent to your home address for free...although you'd have to pay to send them back to SMSU.