Participant Info

First Name
Devon
Last Name
Mihesuah
Affiliation
University of Kansas
Website URL
http://www.aihd.ku.edu/exercise/AboutMeMihesuah.html
Keywords
American Indian, Native American, food history, indigenous health, food sovereignty, activism, stereotypes, Indian Territory, research methods, women
Additional Contact Information
Most recent books, contact Katie Baker, U of Oklahoma Press KATIE-BAKER@OU.EDU

Personal Info

Photo
About Me

BS; MEd; MA; PhD
Email: mihesuah@ku.edu
Humanities Program
University of Kansas
Bailey Hall
1440 Jayhawk Blvd., Room 308
Lawrence, KS 66045-7574

Mihesuah’s c.v.

Blogs:

Indigenous Food and Health Website

Facebook: Indigenous Eating

Tribal Enrollment

Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma
Chickasaw descendant

Link: Choctaw Success: Devon A. Mihesuah

BISKINIK July 2017

Education

Ph.D. Texas Christian University, American History (Minor Fields: Colonial Latin America; Spanish Borderlands)

Profile

Mihesuah’s career has been devoted to the empowerment and well-being of indigenous peoples. For the nine years she served as Editor of the American Indian Quarterly, Mihesuah attempted to bring indigenous concerns and voices to the forefront of academic writing. Her own research, writing and speaking focuses on decolonization strategies and she one of the handful of indigenous writers who successfully writes non-fiction and fiction. She regularly speaks nationally and internationally about issues pertaining to empowerment of indigenous peoples; her works are cited and reprinted in hundreds of publications and her books and essays are used in classrooms across the world.

Mihesuah is the recipient of grants, fellowships and awards from the Ford Foundation, National Endowment for the Humanities, Smithsonian Institution, American Council of Learned Societies, Newberry Library, Arizona Humanities Council, American Historical Association, Oklahoma Writers’ Federation, American Educational Studies Association, Phi Alpha Theta, Westerners International, Arizona Writers’ Association, Gourmand World Cookbook Awards, Wordcraft Circle of Native Writers, Oklahoma Historical Society, Flagstaff Live!, KU Crystal Eagle American Indian Leadership Award as well as finalist for the Oklahoma Book Award and Gustavus Myers Center for the Study of Bigotry and Human Rights Book Award. At NAU she received the Native American Students United Award for Outstanding Faculty, President’s Award for Outstanding Faculty, and Outstanding Faculty Woman of the Year Award.

Publications:

Over 100 refereed journal essays, book chapters, commentaries, editorials, and books

Recent Publications

Ed. with Elizabeth Hoover: Indigenous Food Sovereignty in the U.S.: Restoring Cultural Knowledge, Protecting Environments, and Regaining Health. University of Oklahoma Press, 2019, forthcoming.

Ned Christie: The Creation of an Outlaw and Cherokee Hero. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2018.

Document of Expectations. Michigan State University Press, 2011. Oklahoma Writer’s Federation Trophy Award for Best Book of Fiction

Choctaw Crime and Punishment: 1884-1907. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2009. Best Book on Oklahoma History Award presented by the Oklahoma Historical Society; Trophy Award for Best Book of Non-Fiction, Oklahoma Writers Federation; Finalist Oklahoma Book Award.

Big Bend Luck. Booklocker, 2008.

Recovering Our Ancestors’ Gardens: Indigenous Recipes and Guide to Diet and Fitness. University of Nebraska Press, 2005.  Special Award of the Jury of the Gourmand World Cookbook Awards; Finalist, Best in the World Cookbook.

So You Want to Write About American Indians? A Guide for Scholars, Students and Writers University of Nebraska Press, January 2005. Wordcraft Circle of Native Writers’ 2005 Best Research Book of the Year and Arizona Writers’ Association Best Book of 2005 Honorable Mention; Finalist, Gustavus Myers Center for the Study of Bigotry and Human Rights 2005

Grand Canyon Rescue. Booklocker, 2004. Winner of the Arizona Writers’ Association 2005 Book of the Year Award; Oklahoma Writers’ Federation Best Young Adult Novel Award; Finalist for the 2005 Oklahoma Book Award.

The Lightning Shrikes. Lyons Press, January 2004.

With Waziyatawin Angela Wilson: Indigenizing the Academy: Transforming Scholarship and Empowering Communities. University of Nebraska Press, February 2004.

American Indigenous Women: Decolonization, Empowerment, Activism. University of Nebraska Press, 2003. Winner of the Oklahoma Writers Federation Trophy Award for Best Non-Fiction Book of 2003.

‘First To Fight’: Henry Mihesuah NU MUU NU (Comanche) University of Nebraska Press, 2003.

Ed. Repatriation Reader: Who Owns Indian Remains? University of Nebraska Press, 2000.

Roads of My Relations University of Arizona Press Sun Tracks Series, 2000. Winner of the Oklahoma Writers Federation, Inc. Trophy Award for the Best Fiction Book of 2000.

Ed. Natives and Academics: Discussions on Researching and Writing About American Indians. University of Nebraska Press, 1998. Recipient of 1999 Critics’ Choice Award of the American Educational Studies Association.

American Indians: Stereotypes and Realities. Atlanta and Regina, Canada: Clarity International, 1996. Revised 2009.

Cultivating the Rosebuds: The Education of Women at the Cherokee Female Seminary, 1851-1909. University of Illinois Press, 1993. Reprint, 1997. Recipient of 1995 Critics’ Choice Award of the American Educational Studies Association.

RECENT Refereed Journal Essays and Book Chapters:

Book chapter: “Sustenance as Culture and Tradition: Teaching About Indigenous Foodways,” in Kristopher Ray and Brady DeSanti, Understanding and Teaching Native American History (University of Wisconsin Press) forthcoming.

“Searching for Haknip Achukma (Good Health): Challenges to Food Sovereignty Initiatives in Oklahoma,” for American Indian Culture and Research Journal’s Special Issue on Food Sovereignty. 41 #3 (2017): 9-30.

“Life in Second Sight” (Nephi Craig) in Indigenous Food Sovereignty: Restoring Cultural Knowledge, Protecting Environments, and Regaining Health. University of Oklahoma Press, 2019.

“Historical Research and Diabetes in Indian Territory: Revisiting Kelly M. West’s Theory of 1940,” American Indian Culture and Research Journal 40 #4 (2016), 1-21.

“Comanche Traditional Foodways and the Decline of Health,” Great Plains Journal 50 (forthcoming).

“Indigenous Health Initiatives, Frybread, and the Marketing of Non-Traditional “Traditional” American Indian Foods.” Native American and Indigenous Studies 3/2 (Fall 2016): 45-69.

“Nede Wade “Ned” Christie and the Outlaw Mystique,” Chronicles of Oklahoma 93#3 (Fall 2015): 260-289.

“Sustenance and Health among the Five Tribes in Indian Territory, Post-Removal to Statehood,” Ethnohistory 62:2 (April 2015): 263-284.

Media Coverage
Choctaw Success: Devon Abbott Mihesuah (July 6, 2017): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mVAmiGpX8Ko
Country Focus
United States, Latin America
Expertise by Geography
North America, United States
Expertise by Chronology
19th century, 20th century, 21st century
Expertise by Topic
Food History, Higher Ed, Indigenous Peoples, Pedagogy, Race, Women