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DONALD L. FIXICO AWARD

In 2018 the Western History Association presented the first Donald Fixico Award. The Donald Fixico Book Award ($1000) recognizes innovative work in the field of American Indian and Canadian First Nations History that centers Indigenous epistemologies and perspectives. The award honors Dr. Fixico's prolific scholarly legacy and celebrates the vibrant future of the field. Books that address Indigenous history in the United States and Canada are eligible for the award.  

All submissions must have a 2023 copyright date. Presses should submit nominations and a copy of the volume to each member of the award committee listed below. While the formal process requires presses/journals to submit the work of their authors, the WHA strongly recommends that authors check with the award committee chair a week before the deadline to see if they received a copy of their work.

-2024 Awards Cycle opens January 15, 2024

-2024 Award Submission (Postmark) Deadline: April 15, 2024

The WHA office sends notifications to selected award recipients at the end of August. 


FIXICO AWARD COMMITTEE

Julie Reed, Chair
Pennsylvania State University

108 Weaver Building
Department of History
Penn State University
University Park, PA 16802
jlr6454@psu.edu


Julia Lewandoski
University of California, San Diego


3668 Polk Ave. 

San Diego, CA 92104

jlewandoski@ucsd.edu


David Chang

University of Minnesota 


4245 Garfield Ave. S

Minneapolis, MN 55409

dchang@umn.edu


PAST RECIPIENTS:

DONALD L. FIXICO AWARD

2023 | Charlotte CotéA Drum in One Hand, a Sockeye in the Other: Stories of Indigenous Food Sovereignty from the Northwest Coast (University of Washington Press, 2022)

2022 Farina King, Michael P. Taylor, and James R. Swensen, Returning Home: Diné Creative Works from the Intermountain Indian School (University of Arizona Press, 2021)


2021 | Leo Killsback, A Sacred People: Indigenous Governance, Traditional Leadership, and the Warriors of the Cheyenne Nation and A Sovereign People: Indigenous Nationhood, Traditional Law, and the Covenants of the Cheyenne Nation (Texas Tech University Press, 2020)


2020 Philip J. DeloriaBecoming Mary Sully: Toward an American Indian Abstract (University of Washington Press, 2019) 


2019 | Lisa Brooks, Our Beloved Kin: A New History of King Philip’s War (Yale University Press, 2018) 


2018 | Rosalyn R. LaPier for Invisible Reality: Storytellers, Storytakers, and the Supernatural World of the Blackfeet (University of Nebraska Press, 2017)

BACKGROUND:

DONALD L. FIXICO

Donald L. Fixico (Shawnee, Sac and Fox, Muscogee Creek, and Seminole) is Regents and Distinguished Foundation Professor of History. He is a policy historian and ethnohistorian. His work focuses on American Indians, oral history and the U.S. West. Professor Fixico has worked on 25 historical documentaries. He has published 15 books: "American Indians in a Modern World" (2008); "Treaties with American Indians: An Encyclopedia of Rights, Conflicts and Sovereignty, 3 volumes," (Ed, 2007); "Daily Life of Native Americans in the Twentieth Century" (2006); "The American Indian Mind in a Linear World: American Indian Studies and Traditional Knowledge" (2003); "The Urban Indian Experience in America" (2000); "The Invasion of Indian Country in the Twentieth Century: Tribal Natural Resources and American Capitalism" (1998), 2nd ed., 2011; "Rethinking American Indian History," (Ed. 1997); "Urban Indians" (1991); "An Anthology of Western Great Lakes Indian History," (Ed. 1988); and "Termination and Relocation: Federal Indian Policy, 1945-1960" (1986). His books also include, "Call for Change: The Medicine Way of American Indian History, Ethos and Reality" (June 2013) and "Indian Resilience and Rebuilding: Indigenous Nations in the Modern American West" (2013), see Cspan and "That's What They Used To Say: Reflections on American Indian Oral Traditions" (2017) and "Indian Treaties in the United States" (Ed. 2018).   

Prior to Arizona State University, Professor Fixico was the Thomas Bowlus Distinguished Professor of American Indian History, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Scholar and founding director of the Center for Indigenous Nations Studies at University of Kansas. He has received postdoctoral fellowships at University of California-Los Angeles and The Newberry Library, Chicago. Professor Fixico has been a visiting lecturer and visiting professor at University of California-Berkeley; University of California-Los Angeles; San Diego State University and University of Michigan. He was an exchange professor at University of Nottingham, England and Visiting Professor in the John F. Kennedy Institute at the Freie University in Berlin, Germany. In 2000, President Clinton appointed Professor Fixico to the Advisory Council of the National Endowment for the Humanities and in 2002 he was the John Rhodes Visiting Professor of Public Policy in the Barrett Honors College at Arizona State University. In 2006, the Organization of American Historians awarded a short-term residency award to Professor Fixico to give lectures for two weeks in Japan. Professor Fixico has given lectures nationally and internationally and works with tribes and indigenous organizations. In 2012, he lectured at Sichuan University in China and Auckland University in New Zealand in 2013.


Western History Association

University of Kansas | History Department

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Lawrence, KS 66045 | 785-864-0860

wha@westernhistory.org 


The WHA is located in the Department of History at the University of Kansas. The WHA is grateful to KU's History Department and the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences for their generous support!