Much of the Mayan stonework found in their cities were historical records of royal lines and events in their lives.

Additionally, you have works such as The Annals of the Cakchiquels by Francisco Hernández Arana Xajilá which were written by Mayans who learned to read and write in Latin who recorded their history and mythology. The Chilam Balam is one of a few works that were undertaken to maintain a written record of Mayan spiritual and medical practices, as well as what history they could recall from before contact. the Popul Vuh is a collected work of Mayan mythologies which include histories of the Mayan people to include royal lineages. Finally the Título de Totonicapán is a written copy of an orally produced history of a ban of Mayans to include their origins.

Unfortunately, most actual pre-Columbian works by the Mayans were destroyed shortly after contact by zealot Spanish priests. We know that there is a high likelihood that some of these works included books that recorded the histories of the Mayan people, but are now forever lost.

In Creek society, the role of historian used to belong to the owalv (owala) and the kērrv (kila / kithla / kitha; the Mvskoke r is hard to render in English since it doesn't correspond with an English sound). The owalv are often called "prophets," because they endeavored to employ their historical knowledge into predictions concerning the future. Their "prophecies" are were less mystical visions and more like the projections of social scientists. Over time the role of the owalv has been muddled with and largely subsumed by the kērrv, the "knower." While the owalv was concerned with linking the past to the future, the kērrv is more concerned with linking the past to the present, explaining how past events have led up to current events. Some owalv and kērrv specialized in medicine, turning their skills to prognosis and diagnosis respectively. One who has obtained all four degrees within their chosen field might serve as an educator for others. A typical Creek community in the colonial era might have four master owalv and kērrv, each of which would typically have 1-4 apprentices at a time. On a related note, at the time of Contact, the Apalachee (another Muskogean people) had a position known as the heniha who served as the primary assistant to the nico and the holata, the principle and subsidiary chiefs respectively. Among the Apalachee heniha's responsibilities were to serve as a sort of court historian, memorizing the history and traditions of his community. The Creeks had heniha (henehv) too, their responsibilities seem to have been a bit different. They advised their mekko (micco, cognate to Apalachee nico though not quite the same position) too, but seemed more concern with managing public works of their community. Of course nothing prevented a henehv or any of the other advisory positions that assisted the mekko from receiving owalv or kērrv training.

In Iroquoian society, in addition to being taught "practical" skills like hunting and craftsmanship, boys were expected to memorize famous speeches, treaties, and histories. Girls also had their own education, but we know less about. Among the histories learned by these children included accounts of events that went back long before Columbus, most famously including the founding of the Haudenosaunee (the Iroquois Confederacy), in 1142 CE -- though I'll admit that some archaeologist still favor the later date in the 1450s, based on what I consider out-dated and incomplete information. The confusion regarding the founding of the confederacy hints at a common problem in indigenous conceptions of history. We very often know very specifically where events occurred but have a much harder time pinpointing when. The 1142 date is a rare exception thanks to a confluence of events including a solar eclipse that could be calculated with considerable accuracy.

Another exception are the Winter Counts of the Great Plains. Each community appointed an individual to be the calendar keeper. The keepers job was to maintain and expand upon the community's winter count and train individuals to take up the work after him. A winter count is a pictographic record of the communities history, usually with one or two images per year (a winter image and possibly a summer image). Early winter counts are spirals of images painted on bison hide; later ones were painted on imported canvas, and in the reservation era they were put on paper. Instead of being numbered like our years, each year had a name which the image depicted, which the keeper chose after consulting with his community's elders about important events in the community. Since each communities history is different, each one had different names for their years. Thankfully, some events are shared between them allowing the various Winter Counts to be synced up with known dates and provide a larger picture of Plains history from an indigenous perspective. The most important date for syncing the various calendars is the Stars Fall Winter in 1833-34, which corresponds to a spectacular Leonid meteor shower since it was witnessed throughout North America. The Smithsonian has a great online exhibit on some of the more famous Lakota Winter Counts. The one spanning the longest history is the Battiste Good Winter Count. In the exhibit it begins in 1700, but technically Battiste Good goes back even further to the early 900s, with the arrival of White Buffalo Calf Woman. Unfortunately, until about 1700, the Battiste Good Winter Count only hits the highlights and doesn't go year-by-year like normal. Items similar to winter counts, like calendar sticks or calendar wheels were used elsewhere in North America.

Regarding the history of European explorations, if we go by the speeches Tecumseh made, it would seem that such knowledge was widespread. In 1811, while making a speech to a joint Chickasaw and Choctaw council in what's now Mississippi, Tecumseh - a Shawnee from Ohio with ties to the Creeks in Georgia - called upon the Chickasaw and Choctaw to recall what had happened to the Pequot and Wampanoag, among others, in 17th Century New England. It's telling that not only did Tecumseh know this history, he also expected his audience - a thousand miles and almost two centuries removed - to know it too. Equally telling is the peculiar New England-centrism exhibited by both this speech and his brother Tenskwatawa's metaphoric account of the arrival of Europeans, which he placed in the Boston area. If they had learned this information from Euroamerican sources (which is possible) it seems odd that those sources would leave out the earlier English colonization of Virginia, especially since a large portion of the Euroamericans in Ohio would have been from Virginia themselves. But Tecumseh doesn't mention Virginia or the fate of the Powhatans in his speeches, nor does Tenkswatawa. It's also interesting that they don't refer to Philadelphia, which is where Lenape and Wyandot (by way of the Lenape) traditional history, both of whom the Shawnee in Ohio had considerable interactions with, puts the first encounter with Europeans.

A more ambiguous example is the account of the oral histories of the Natchez as recorded by the contemporary French historian du Pratz. Seeking to learn more about the Natchez history, du Pratz visited with one of their priests who kept "ancient word," their oral traditions. Among the things the priest related to du Pratz was a war between the "ancients of the land" (the generic term for the people who lived south and west of the Natchez, some of whom lived in stone houses large enough to contain whole villages). One of the "ancients of the land" had proclaimed himself lord over everyone, while resisting this would-be emperor other ancients allied with the "warriors of fire," who are explicitly identified as the Spanish. Other ancients sought to bring the Natchez into this alliance, but the Natchez refused saying that once the warriors of fire are done fighting this common enemy, they would conquer all the rest of ancients. "Which is what we have heard has happened," the tale ends. This could easily be an account of the Spanish conquest of Mexico, though its a bit unclear how or when the Natchez would have learned of this considering how difficult travel was between the Mississippi Valley and Mexico in the 1500s. Perhaps it came by way of other sources (Spaniards captured at various times, perhaps as early as de Soto's entrada in the 1540s) was incorporated into their history at a later time. Ending with "which we have heard has happened" does imply that at least some of this information arrived to them 2nd+ hand, and was not directly confirmed by them.