The Rupert Costo Library of the American Indian consists of about 7,000 volumes and over 9,000 documents, pamphlets, tape recordings, slides, and art work. The Library was formed by Rupert and Jeannette Costo when they merged their private collections after their marriage in 1954. The material was collected over a period of fifty years. In 1964 the Costo's founded the American Indian Historical Society in San Francisco. The library is one of the most important collections of research materials relating to the Native Americans in the United States and the world. The Costo's generously gave their collection to the University of California, Riverside in 1986.

The Costo Library is of great significance to scholars and researchers in American Indian history and supports the chair in American Indian History endowed by the American Indian Historical Society and the Costo's. The books and archival materials in the collection cover the span of Indian history from the arrival of the first settlers, over 55,000 years ago, up to the present day. The materials chiefly deal with Indian history and culture of the past four centuries after the settlement of America by Europeans. Most of the materials are scholarly books published in the last fifty years. There are reprints of older classic works which are very scarce today. These items are shelved in the Reading Room. The rarer items-old books, art albums, scarce booklets, issued by individual tribes and researchers-are shelved in Special Collections & Archives.

Documents and private correspondence have been collected directly from individuals and Indian tribal leaders and are shelved in Special Collections & Archives. Among these are nine boxes containing documentation about Indian water rights. Framed pictures of original artwork, historic prints and photos are part of the treasure (along with baskets and pottery on display in the Library). These materials make the library extremely useful to the researcher.

The Rupert and Jeannette Costo papers, housed in Special Collections & Archives of the Tomás Rivera Library at the University of California, Riverside, is a collection consisting of printed material (correspondence, typescripts, original manuscripts and ephemera), film and photographs collected by Jeannette and Rupert Costo. This collection is largely dedicated to information on American Indians with an emphasis on California Indians and contemporary issues. Water, land, hunting and fishing rights, sovereignty, gaming, language and education are among the major subject areas.

A portion of this collection remains unprocessed. Please contact Special Collections & Archives for additional information regarding this material.