Personal Summary

One of the focal points of my work is to identify and analyze American Indian agency in the course of tribal history. I am a historian with research interests in federal Indian policy, twentieth century American Indian history, tribal sovereignty, and urban Indian history. I have studied these fields in relation to the Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin, the southwest Oregon coast, and the Chicago American Indian community. In my teaching I attempt to provide students with the analytical tools and knowledge base to promote tribal community development.

Education

Ph.D., History, University of Illinois at Chicago
M.A., History, University of Illinois at Chicago
B.A., American Studies, Northwestern University

Courses Taught

Selected Publications

   UnFair Labor? American Indians and the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition  in Chicago. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2019.

  With Rosalyn R. LaPier: City Indian: Native American Activism in Chicago, 1893-1934. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2015. Paperback edition 2020. Winner, 2016 Robert G. Athearn Award for best book on the 20th century American west.

 

 Seeking Recognition: The Termination and Restoration of the Coos, Lower Umpqua and Siuslaw Indians, 1855-1984. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2009.

 

 

 The Struggle for Self-Determination: History of the Menominee Indians since 1854.Lincoln University of Nebraska Press, 2005. Paperback edition, 2007. Winner, Wisconsin Historical Society Book Award.

 

 Siege and Survival: History of the Menominee Indians, 1634-1856. Lincoln: Nebraska Press, 2002. Winner, Wisconsin Historical Society Book Award of Merit.

 

The Chicago American Indian Community, 1893-1988, Annotated Bibliography and Guide to Sources in Chicago.Chicago College Press, 1988.

Publications

"Fair Representation? American Indians and the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition." World History Connected 13:3 (October 2016)

“Reinterpreting Historical Evidence: The Existence of Numerous Menominee Bands at the Time of Earliest European Contact.” In Wendy Everham, ed., Probing the Past: Festschrift in Honor of Leo Schelbert. New York: Peter Lang Publishing, 2015 . Pp. 3-14

With Rosalyn R. LaPier. “American Indians Moving to Cities.” In Susan Sleeper-Smith, Juliana Barr, Jean M. O’Brien, Nancy Shoemaker, and Scott Stevens, eds., Why You Can’t Teach United States History without American Indians. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2015. Pp. 210-26.

With Bjørg Evjen: “Growing Indigenous Influence on Research: Extended Perspectives and a New Methodology? An Historical Approach.” In Kathryn Shanley and Bjørg Evjen, eds., Mapping Indigenous Presence:  North Scandinavian and North American Perspectives. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 2015. Pp. 27-56.

With Rosalyn R. LaPier. "'A one-man-relocation team': Scott Henry Peters and American Indian Urban Migration in the 1930s." Western Historical Quarterly 45:1 (Spring 2014): 17-36. Please contact me if you do not have access to JSTOR and would like a copy of this article.

With Rosalyn R. LaPier. "Crossroads for a Culture: American Indians in Progressive Era Chicago," Chicago History 38:1 (Spring 2012): 22-43.

"'Collecting among the Menomini': Cultural Assault in Twentieth-Century Wisconsin," American Indian Quarterly 34:2 (Spring 2010): 157-93. Please contact me if you do not have access to Project Muse and would like a copy of this article.

"'Standing out here in the surf:' The Termination and Restoration of the Coos, Lower Umpqua and Siuslaw of Western Oregon in Historical Perspective," Oregon Historical Quarterly 110:1 (2009): 6-37. Honorable Mention, 2010 Joel Palmer Award, Oregon Historical Society

“Developing a Voice: The Evolution of Self-Determination in an Urban Indian Community,” Wicazo Sa Review 17:2 (2002): 117-41.

"The Myth of the Vanishing Race,” Edward S. Curtis’s The North American Indian website, Northwestern University Library & Library of Congress.

“Protecting the Menominee: The Urban Setting as a Platform to Advocate for Justice,” in Susan Lobo and Kurt Peters, ed., American Indian Urban Experiences. Walnut Creek, CA: AltaMira Press, 2001. Pp. 155-62.

“From Colonization to Self-Determination: American Indian Higher Education Before 1974,” Australian Journal of Indigenous Education, 27:2 (1999): 12-23. Originally pp. 16-24 in Joanna Brown, ed., Critical Issues in Indian Higher Education. Chicago: American Indian Press, 1995. ERIC number ED 388 478.

“The Chicago American Indian Community, An ‘Invisible’ Minority,” in Maxine S. Seller and Lois Weis, eds., Beyond Black and White: New Voices, New Faces in United States Schools. Albany State University of New York Press: 1997. Pp. 45-60. Reprinted in Terry Straus and Grant P. Arndt, Native Chicago. Chicago: McNaughton & Gunn, 1998: 167-181; reprinted in Terry Straus, ed., Native Chicago, 2nd Edition, Chicago: Albatross Press, 2002: 293-307.

“Return to Namä'o Uskíwämît, The Importance of Sturgeon in Menominee Indian History,” Wisconsin Magazine of History 79:1 (Autumn, 1995): 32-48. Reprinted in Menominee Tribal News, April 12, 1996, pp. 16-19.

 

Featured in the Media

"Unfair Labor? book discussion, New Books Network podcast with host Steve Hausmann, August 2020

"Sharing Knowledge, Sharing Stories: City Indian," talk at the American Indian Center of Chicago, with Rosalyn LaPier, 23 May 2015. Recorded on Chicago Access Network Television.

Cultural Survival story on World's Fair Research, 12 February 2105

Affiliations

Visiting Professor, Department of History, University of Illinois

Consultant, Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin Historic Preservation Department, Keshena, Wisconsin

Advisor, Saokio Heritage, East Glacier, Montana

Advisor, Americans for Indian Opportunity Ambassador Program, Albuquerque, New Mexico

Professional Experience

Professor, Department of Native American Studies, University of Montana, 2006-2022

Department Chair, Native American Studies, University of Montana, 2010-2014

Chair, Faculty Senate, University of Montana, 2011-2012

Associate Professor, Department of Native American Studies, University of Montana, 2000-2006

Dean and Senior Resident Faculty, NAES College, Chicago, 1997-2000

Director, Tribal Research Center and Professor of History, NAES College, 1992-1997

International Experience

Americans for Indian Opportunity Ambassador Program faculty, travel to visit indigenous communities and  people, and government officials in Peru (2011), Venezuela (1999), Guatemala (1998), Mexico  (1993, 1997), Bolivia (1994)

Field School, British Columbia and Northwest Coast, May 2012

Faculty Exchange Visit, University of Tromsø, Norway, May 2011

Field School, Mexico City, Hidalgo and Colima, Mexico, May 2010

Visiting Faculty, Universidad de Colima, Mexico, January 2010

Visiting Faculty, Universidad Tecnológica del Valle de Mezquital, Ixmiquilpan, Mexico, January 2010

NEH Summer Institute to study ancient Maya, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico (1997)

University of Montana FIPSE Tri-national (Canada-U.S.-Mexico) Mobility Grant representative

Honors / Awards

Visiting Scholar, East-West Center, 2022-23

University of Montana Humanities Institute Fellowship, 2021-22

Redd Center Western History Scholar Fellowship, Brigham Young University, March 2022

George M. Dennison Presidential Faculty Award for Distinguished Accomplishment, 2021

Robert G. Athearn Award for best history of the twentieth-century American West, Western History Association, for City Indian, 2016

Humanities Montana Fellowship, Spring 2015

Honored by Confederated Tribes of Coos, Lower Umpqua and Siuslaw Indians Education Department, July 2012

Short Term Visiting Researcher, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, June 2010

Honorable Mention, 2010 Joel Palmer Award, Oregon Historical Society, for “’Standing out here in the surf:’”

Short-Term Visiting Scholar, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, June 2009

Short Term Fellowship for Individual Research, The Newberry Library, Chicago, December 2008 – January 2009

Short-Term Visiting Scholar, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, June 2008

Visiting Faculty, Department of Anthropology, University of Hawaii, March 2008

Short-Term Visiting Scientist, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, July-August 2007

Wisconsin Historical Society Book Award of Merit, for The Struggle for Self-Determination, June 2006

Donald J. Sterling, Jr., Research Fellowship, Oregon Historical Society, Summer 2006