Are there any accessible indigenous accounts of European colonizers that shed light on or center indigenous observations and interpretations of Europeans and their cultures/habits/beliefs etc.?
Hey!
à bit late but I can add a selection on the Aztecs/Nahua of central Mexico for colonial times, focus of my research. Most of them wrote in Spanish but luckily more good English translations have come out in recent years.
I also talk more about how Nahua scholars learnt European writing and languages over here, including some more important scholars (mostly in Spanish):
In addition I'd really rec our Latin America booklist, for different indigenous groups for pre-colonial and colonial times.
Some primary sources
Mesoamerican Voices edited by Matthew Restall: A recent collection of sources. It has good introductions for each section, and one section on the conquest period - with sources from the Nahua and other indigenous groups. This may be a good place to start as an overview.
The Native Conquistador by Fernando de Alva Ixtlilxochitl, edited by Amber Brian et al. Translated very recently with comprehensive introduction. It's an action packed account of the siege of Tenochtitlan focusing less on Cortés and mostly on one of his main Acolhua allies called Ixtlilxochitl. Written by one of his descendants who is one of our main sources on the Acolhua (part of the Triple Alliance), so he strongly takes their side. Students usually enjoyed reading this when I brought it to class; the whole book "Historia chichimeca" was translated recently.
Some secondary sources
These go more in-depth and give more context. From my profile which has some more sources,
Colonial Mexico - Native writers:
Adorno, Rolena: The indigenous ethnographer: the „indio ladino“ as historian and cultural mediator, in „Implicit Understandings“, Stuart Schwartz (Ed.), Cambridge 1994.
Ramos, Gabriela; Yannakakis, Yanna (Eds.): Indigenous Intellectuals. Knowledge, Power, and Colonial Culture in Mexico and the Andes, Durham & London 2014.
Villela, Peter B.: Indigenous Elites and Creole Identity in Colonial Mexico, 1500–1800, Cambridge 2016.
While Adorno's article serves as a great intro to native chroniclers of both colonial Mexico and Peru, Ramos' & Yannakakis' edited volume goes into more detail on the topic. On the other hand, Villela looks at a larger time-frame, comparing Mexican indigenous and creole elites.
Gruzinski, Serge: The Conquest of Mexico – The Incorporation of Indian Societies into the Western World, 16th-18th Centuries, Cambridge 1993.
Lockhart, James: Nahuas After the Conquest: a Social and Cultural History of the Indians of Central Mexico, sixteenth through eighteenth Centuries, Stanford, CA 1992.
Gruzinski focuses on the Spanish side, specifically on the religious orders and their conversion campaigns. Lockhart's work gives a contrasting view, drawing on a multitude of native sources to survey the continuing influence of Nahua structures and practices.
I'm less familiar with the Andes, the second major centrer of indigenous writing in colonial Spanish America. But you could look into El Inca Garcilaso de la Vega, translated as The Royal Commentaries... And Poma de Ayala whose mostly Spanish works are available online via the Royal Danish library.
Hope this helps!