Clara Sue Kidwell

Clara Sue Kidwell (born July 8, 1941) is a Native American academic scholar, historian, feminist and Native American author. She is enrolled in the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma and of White Earth Ojibwe descent.^[1] She is considered to be a "major figure in the development of American Indian Studies programs."^[2]

Kidwell was born in Tahlequah, Oklahoma, in 1941.^[3] Kidwell grew up in Muskogee, Oklahoma, and she was named for her two grandmothers, with whom she had a very close relationship as a child.^[4] Her paternal grandmother helped raise her while her parents worked as clerks at the Bureau of Indian Affairs.^[5] Kidwell attributes her focus on attention to detail to her childhood experiences learning from her parents to keep copies of everything and how to pay close attention to grammar from a high school teacher, Glady Nunn.^[5] In 1959 Kidwell graduated from Central High School and went on to attend the University of Oklahoma (OU). Kidwell received her bachelor's degree in 1963.^[5] While she was an undergraduate, she made the College Bowl Team which led to her receiving a fellowship in the history of science after she graduated with her bachelor's degree.^[5] She earned her master's in 1966 from OU.^[5] She finally received her Ph.D from the University of Oklahoma in 1970.^[3]

Kidwell began to teach American Indian studies in 1970 at Haskell Indian Junior College (now Haskell Indian Nations University).^[6] She worked at Haskell for two years until she left to be an associate professor at the University of California at Berkeley where she worked until 1993.^[5] At Berkeley, her "research and publication flourished" and she received fellowships from the Newberry Library and the Smithsonian Institution.^[7] In 1980, she was a visiting scholar and associate professor at Dartmouth College.^[7] After Berkeley, she took her career in a new direction as the assistant director for cultural resources at the National Museum of the American Indian.^[5] She helped move one million different pieces from the George Gustav Heye's Museum of the American Indian from New York to Washington, D.C.^[1] In 1995, she chose a tenured position at the University of Oklahoma as the director of the Native American studies program.^[5] She contributed the piece "Native Americans: Restoring the Power of Thought Woman" to the 2003 anthology Sisterhood Is Forever: The Women's Anthology for a New Millennium, edited by Robin Morgan.^[8]

In 2007, Kidwell started the American Indian Center (AIC) at the University of North Carolina (UNC).^[1] One of her major goals at AIC was to reach out to the many Eastern tribes such as the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina and Coharie Intra-tribal Council, Inc., who are unable to qualify for federal recognition with the Bureau of Indian Affairs for various reasons.^[1] Under Kidwell's leadership, AIC has had success in North Carolina increasing programs that address education, health, and child welfare for these kinds of state-recognized tribes.^[1] She has also helped increase the "visibility of Native history and culture on campus."^[1] Kidwell retired from her position as director of AIC in June 2011.^[1]

• Kidwell, Clara Sue (2009). "American Indian Studies: Intellectual Navel Gazing or Academic Discipline?". The American Indian Quarterly. 33 (1): 1–17. doi:10.1353/aiq.0.0041. S2CID 161214774.
• —— (2008). The Choctaws in Oklahoma: From Tribe to Nation, 1855–1970. foreword by Lindsay G. Roberston. University of Oklahoma Press. ISBN 978-0806140063.
• ——; Velie, Alan (2005). Native American Studies. Lincoln, Nebraska: University of Nebraska Press. ISBN 978-0803278295.
• —— (2003). "Native Americans: Restoring the Power of Thought Woman". Sisterhood is Forever. Washington Square Press. pp. 165–175. ISBN 9780743466271.
• —— (2002). "American Indian Studies at the University of Oklahoma". In Champagne, Duane; Stauss, Jay (eds.). Native American Studies in Higher Education: Models for Collaboration between Universities and Indigenous Nations. Oxford, England: AltaMira Press. pp. 29–42. ISBN 9780759101258.
• ——; Noley, Homer; Tinker, George E. (2001). A Native American Theology. Orbis Books. ISBN 978-1570753619.
• —— (1999). "The Vanishing Indian Reappears in the College Curriculum" (PDF). In Swisher, Karen Gayton; Tippeconnic, John (eds.). Next Steps: Research and Practice to Advance Indian Education. Eric Clearinghouse on Rural. pp. 271–292. ISBN 978-1880785218.
• —— (1997). Choctaws and Missionaries in Mississippi, 1818–1918. University of Oklahoma Press. ISBN 978-0806129143.
• —— (1994). "What Would Pocahontas Think Now?: Women and Cultural Persistence". Callaloo. 17 (1): 149–159. doi:10.2307/2932084. JSTOR 2932084. S2CID 163576497.
• —— (1992). "Indian Women as Cultural Mediators". Ethnohistory. 39 (2): 97–107. doi:10.2307/482389. JSTOR 482389.
• ——; Roberts, Charles (1980). The Choctaws: A Critical Bibliography. Indiana University Press. ISBN 978-0253344120.
• —— (1978). "The Power of Women in Three American Indian Societies". Journal of Ethnic Studies. 6 (3): 113–121.

• Biography at Vocal and Verbal Arts Archives