Clara Sue Kidwell

Clara Sue Kidwell
Born(1941-07-08)July 8, 1941
Tahlequah, Oklahoma, United States
DiedNovember 26, 2025(2025-11-26) (aged 84)
Owasso, Oklahoma
Alma materUniversity of Oklahoma
Scientific career
FieldsNative American Studies

Clara Sue Kidwell (July 8, 1941-November 26, 2025)[1] was a Native American academic scholar, historian, feminist and Native American author. She was enrolled in the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma and of White Earth Ojibwe descent.[2] She was considered to be a "major figure in the development of American Indian Studies programs."[3]

Biography

Kidwell was born in Tahlequah, Oklahoma, in 1941.[4] 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.[5] Her paternal grandmother helped raise her while her parents worked as clerks at the Bureau of Indian Affairs.[6] 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.[6] 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.[6] 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.[6] She earned her master's in 1966 from OU.[6] She finally received her Ph.D from the University of Oklahoma in 1970.[4]

Kidwell began to teach American Indian studies in 1970 at Haskell Indian Junior College (now Haskell Indian Nations University).[7] 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.[6] At Berkeley, her "research and publication flourished" and she received fellowships from the Newberry Library and the Smithsonian Institution.[8] In 1980, she was a visiting scholar and associate professor at Dartmouth College.[8] 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.[6] 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.[2] In 1995, she chose a tenured position at the University of Oklahoma as the director of the Native American studies program.[6] 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.[9]

In 2007, Kidwell started the American Indian Center (AIC) at the University of North Carolina (UNC).[2] 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.[2] 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.[2] She has also helped increase the "visibility of Native history and culture on campus."[2] Kidwell retired from her position as director of AIC in June 2011.[2]

Selected bibliography

  • 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.
  • —— (1995). 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.

References

  1. ^ https://www.moweryfs.com/obituaries/clara-kidwell/#!/Obituary. Retrieved 10 February 2026. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  2. ^ a b c d e f g Lee, Tanya (2 August 2011). "Mother of Native American Studies Programs Retires from UNC, Heads for Bacone College". Indian Country. Retrieved 11 June 2015.
  3. ^ "Clara Sue Kidwell - Biography". Vocal and Verbal Arts Archives. Retrieved 12 June 2015.
  4. ^ a b "Native American Authors: Clara Sue Kidwell, 1941-". ipl2. College of Information Science in Technology of Drexel University. Retrieved 12 June 2015.
  5. ^ Cox, Beverly; Jacobs, Martin (March 2004). "Oklahoma Feast". Native Peoples Magazine. 17 (3): 22. Retrieved 12 June 2015.
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h Scanlon, Jennifer; Cosner, Shaaron (1996). American Women Historians, 1700s-1990s: A Biographical Dictionary. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press. pp. 132–134. ISBN 0313296642. Retrieved 12 June 2015.
  7. ^ Kidwell, Clara Sue (March 2011). "American Indian Studies as an Academic Discipline". American Indian Culture & Research Journal. 35 (1): 27–31. doi:10.17953/aicr.35.1.04638323085j4659. ISSN 0161-6463.
  8. ^ a b Thiel, Mark G. (2005). Bataille, Gretchen M.; Lisa, Laurie (eds.). Native American Women: A Biographical Dictionary (Taylor & Francis eLibrary ed.). Taylor & Francis Books. pp. 171–173. ISBN 9781135955878. Retrieved 12 June 2015.
  9. ^ "Library Resource Finder: Table of Contents for: Sisterhood is forever : the women's anth". Vufind.carli.illinois.edu. Retrieved 2015-10-15.
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