Katherine M. B. Osburn is an ethnohistorian focusing on gender, race, political activism, and identity. She has published articles on the Navajos, the Southern Utes, and the Mississippi Choctaws in a variety of scholarly journals and edited collections. Her first monograph, "Southern Ute Women: Autonomy and Assimilation on the Reservation, 1885-1934," analyzed how Ute women responded to gendered assimilationist policies and is in its second edition. Her second monograph, "Choctaw Resurgence in Mississippi: Race, Class, and Nation Building in the Jim Crow South, 1830-1977," examines Choctaw identity formation and performance in political activism. She is currently working on a study of the relationship between Arizona's Indigenous nations and their elected officials tentatively titled "Indigenous Citizens."
- Ph.D. History, University of Denver, Colorado 1993
- M.A. History, University of Colorado, Colorado Springs 1983
- B.A. History, University of Colorado, Colorado Springs 1979
American Indian ethnohistory: gender, race, identity and political activism, cultural ecology.
Institute for Humanities Research Cluster: Comparative Genocides
“Never again” and “never before” are equally powerful and problematic statements born out of the horrors of the Holocaust. Yet genocide was committed many times before and after the Nazi murder of the European Jewry. In view of different forms of genocide and the problem of finding meaningful ways to understand and commemorate them, our trans-disciplinary group seeks a framework to understand three instances of mass murder: the Holocaust, the massacre and displacement of Native Americans in the United States, and the slaughter of Tutsi in Rwanda.
Books
Choctaw Resurgence in Mississippi: Race, Class, and Nation Building in the Jim Crow South, 1830-1977. Indians of the Southeast. (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2014) http://www.nebraskapress.unl.edu/product/Choctaw-Resurgence-in-Mississippi,675890.aspx
This book was featured in the critically important Supreme Court case, Dollar General v. Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians. See my blog about it for the press: https://unpblog.com/2015/12/04/from-the-desk-of-katherine-m-b-osburn-dollar-general-v-miss-choctaws/
Southern Ute Women: Autonomy and Assimilation on the Reservation, 1885-1934. Second Edition, with a new historiographical introduction. (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2008). http://www.nebraskapress.unl.edu/product/Southern-Ute-Women,673995.aspx
Southern Ute Women: Autonomy and Assimilation on the Reservation, 1885-1934 (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1998). First Edition reviewed in: Western Historical Quarterly; Agricultural History; American Anthropologist; American Historical Review (review essay); Ethnohistory (review essay); The Journal of American History; Pacific Historical Review; Contemporary Sociology. Second edition reviewed in Southwestern Journal of Cultures.
Refereed Articles
“Tribal Remnants or State Citizens: Mississippi Choctaws in the post-removal South.” American Nineteenth Century History vol. 17, no. 2 (June, 2016):199-214.
“Any Sane Person’: Race, Rights, and Tribal Sovereignty in the Construction of the Dawes Rolls for the Choctaw Nation.” The Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era vol. 9, no. 4 (October, 2010): 451-471.
“The ‘Identified Full Bloods’ in Mississippi: Race and Choctaw Identity, 1898-1918.” Ethnohistory vol. 56, no. 3 (Summer 2009): 423-447.
“Mississippi Choctaws and Racial Politics.” Southern Cultures (Winter 2008): 32-54.
“How Did White Women Reformers with the Southern Utes Respond to Gendered Assimilationist Indian Policies?” Women and Social Movements in the United States, 1600-2000 (Summer 2004) http://www.alexanderstreet6.com/wasm
“’To Build up the Morals of the Tribe’: Southern Ute Women’s Sexual Behavior and the Office of Indian Affairs, 1887-1934.” The Journal of Women’s History, vol. 9, no. 3 (Autumn 1998): 11-27.
"The Navajo at the Bosque Redondo: Cooperation, Resistance, and Initiative, 1864-1868." New Mexico Historical Review, vol. 60, no. 4 (October 1985): 399-413.
Book Chapters
“’In a Name of Justice and Fairness’: The Mississippi Choctaw Indian Federation v. the BIA, 1934,” Chapter Six of Beyond Red Power: Indian Activism in the Twentieth Century. Dan Cobb and Loretta Fowler, eds. (Santa Fe: The School for Advanced Research Press, 2007): 109-123
“Nellie Wiegel: ‘How About That!?’” in Ordinary Women: Extraordinary Lives. Kriste Lindenmeyer, ed. (Wilmington, DE: Scholarly Resources, 2000): 161-178.
“‘I Am Going to Write to You’: Nurturing Fathers and the Office of Indian Affairs on the Southern Ute Reservation, 1895-1932,” in A Shared Experience: Men, Women, and the History of Gender. Laura McCall and Donald Yacovone, eds. (New York: New York University Press, 1998): 245-270.
"’Dear Friend and Ex-Husband’: Marriage, Divorce and Women's Property Rights on the Southern Ute Reservation, 1887-1930," in Negotiators of Change: Historical Perspectives on Native American Women, Nancy Shoemaker, ed. (New York: Routledge Press, 1994): 157-175.
REPRINTS
1. “‘I Am Going to Write to You’: Nurturing Fathers and the Office of Indian Affairs on the Southern Ute Reservation, 1895-1932,” in A Shared Experience: Men, Women, and the History of Gender. Laura McCall and Donald Yacovone, eds. (New York: New York University Press, 1998): 245-270.
Reprinted as: “Fatherhood and Assimilation among the Southern Utes,” in Major Problems in the History of American Families and Children. Anya Jabour, ed. (New York: Houghton Mifflin, 2004): 240-248.
2. "Abenaki and Miami Recognition and Sovereignty." Fourth World Bulletin, vol. 2, no. 3 (July 1993): 10-13, 20.
Reprinted in, News From Indian Country, Late August & Mid-September, 1993.
3. "The Navajo at the Bosque Redondo: Cooperation, Resistance, and Initiative, 1864-1868." New Mexico Historical Review, vol. 60, no. 4, 1985: 399-413. (Winner of the national history honor society Phi Alpha Theta graduate student paper competition, 1983-1984.)
Anthologized in:
1. American Nations: Encounters in Indian Country, 1850 to the Present, Frederick E. Hoxie, Peter Mancall, James H. Merrell, eds. (New York and London: Routledge, 2001): 3-13.
2. The American Indian Past and Present, Fifth edition, ed., Roger L. Nichols. (New York: McGraw Hill College: 1998): 157-164
.3. The American Indian Past and Present, Fourth edition, ed., Roger L. Nichols. (New York: McGraw Hill College: 1992): 184-190.
Invited Articles and Encyclopedia Articles
“The General Allotment Act (Dawes Severalty Act, 1877) in International Context.” In, America in the World, 1776 to the Present: A Supplement to the Dictionary of American History. Edward J. Blum, ed. 2vols. (Farmington Hills, MI: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 2016): 401-402.
“Elias Boudinot,”(with Sharon Macphereson) in The Tennessee Encyclopedia of History and Culture (Nashville: The Tennessee Historical Commission, 1998): http://tennesseeencyclopedia.net/entry.php?rec=113.
”Major Ridge,” (with Jennifer Kimbro) in The Tennessee Encyclopedia of History and Culture (Nashville: The Tennessee Historical Commission, 1998): http://tennesseeencyclopedia.net/entry.php?rec=1129.
"Native Peoples of the Great Basin," in Encyclopedia of the American West Charles Phillips, Alan Axelrod, eds. vol. 3 (New York: Macmillan Reference, USA, 1996).
"Abenaki and Miami Recognition and Sovereignty." Fourth World Bulletin, vol. 2, no. 3 (July 1993): 10-13, 20.
"National Archives, Rocky Mountain Region." Organization of American Historians Newsletter, August, 1993.
Assistant Editor, Indigenous Peoples' Politics: An Introduction, Vol. 1 (Denver, CO: Fourth World Center, 1993).
Contributing Editor, Study Guide for "The World: A Television History". Robert E. Roeder, ed. (New York: Harper & Row Publishers, 1986). Essays in this volume include: "Hunting and Gathering Societies," "The Kingdom of Ghana," "The Kingdom of Benin," and "The Aztec and Inca Empires."
American Indian Activism in Arizona
My third monograph will be a cultural-political history of American Indian activism in Arizona beginning with the racial politics of statehood and ending with state-tribal revenue sharing under the New Federalism. I continue my interest in the intersections between indigenous identity and political activism in the context of power relationships under colonialism. My focus on the alliances between Indians and their elected officials at the state level is unique in a field dominated by studies of Indian activism at the federal level.
Courses
2022 Spring
| Course Number | Course Title |
|---|---|
| HST 591 | Seminar |
2021 Fall
| Course Number | Course Title |
|---|---|
| HST 337 | Amer Indian History to 1900 |
| HST 330 | Historical Thinking |
| HST 337 | Amer Indian History to 1900 |
2021 Spring
| Course Number | Course Title |
|---|---|
| HST 591 | Seminar |
2020 Fall
| Course Number | Course Title |
|---|---|
| HST 337 | Amer Indian History to 1900 |
| HST 306 | Studies in US History |
| HST 306 | Studies in US History |
| HST 337 | Amer Indian History to 1900 |
2020 Spring
| Course Number | Course Title |
|---|---|
| HST 306 | Studies in US History |
| HST 306 | Studies in US History |
2019 Fall
| Course Number | Course Title |
|---|---|
| HST 337 | Amer Indian History to 1900 |
| HST 330 | Historical Thinking |
2018 Spring
| Course Number | Course Title |
|---|---|
| HST 790 | Reading and Conference |
Invited Presentations for the NEH Teaching American History Grants
Teaching the Counterculture in Rural Tennessee. Tennessee Technological University, Cookeville, TN, May 2008.
New Frontiers: the New West and the New South. Nashville Metro Schools, Nashville, TN, June 2007.
Teaching Awards
Graduate Mentoring Award, School of Philosophical, Historical and Religious Studies, ASU, 2013
Dean’s Award for Innovative Teaching, 2004-2005, Tennessee Technological University.
Dean’s Award for Innovative Teaching, 2002-2003, Tennessee Technological University.
Nominated for Outstanding Teaching Award, 2000-2001, Tennessee Technological University.
Outstanding Honors Faculty Award, 1999-2000, Tennessee Technological University.
Grants and fellowships
Research Seminar for University Professors. Chapel Hill, NC: June 12 – July 15, 2011, Theda Perdue and Malinda Lowery, directors, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Amount: $3,900.00.
NEH Research Fellowship, Spring 2008. This is one of only fifty awards given nationwide to support a sabbatical for research. Amount: $25,000.00, for a half-year sabbatical.
Newberry Library Summer Fellow, 2003. The Lannan Summer Institute: American Indian Political Activism Before World War II. Amount: $4,000.00.
Recipient of a grant from the Phillips Fund for Native American Research from the American Philosophical Society, 2002-2003. Amount: $5,000.00.
Nominated for the Joan Jensen-Darlis Miller Award for the best article published in 1997 in the field of the history of women in the Trans-Mississippi West by the editors of the Journal of Women's History.
Teaching Awards
Graduate Mentoring Award, School of Philosophical, Historical and Religious Studies, ASU, 2013
Dean’s Award for Innovative Teaching, 2004-2005, Tennessee Technological University.
Dean’s Award for Innovative Teaching, 2002-2003, Tennessee Technological University.
Nominated for Outstanding Teaching Award, 2000-2001, Tennessee Technological University.
Outstanding Honors Faculty Award, 1999-2000, Tennessee Technological University.
Honor Societies
1979, Phi Beta Kappa
1976, Phi Alpha Theta
H-AmIndian, H-Net, Humanities Online
H-SHGAPE, H-Net, Humanities Online
American Society for Ethnohistory Organization of American Historians Native American and Indigenous Studies Association
Graduate seminars and readings courses HST 598: American Indian Identity: Race, Gender, And Nationhood HST 598: The New “New Western History HST 790: Readings in American Indian Borderlands History. Graduate Students Mentored John Goodwin, Ph.D, 2016 Kathryn Sweet, PhD, 2014 Chelsea Mead, Ph.D, 2013 Farina King, PhD, 2016 Erica Cottam, PhD. 2014 Laura Keller, MA, 2015 Jon England, Ph.D in progress Lori Martinez, Ph. D in progress
Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ Associate Professor of History, School of Historical, Philosophical, and Religious Studies, 2011-present. Tennessee Technological University, Cookeville, TN. Professor, Department of History, 1996-2011. Fort Lewis College, Durango, CO Visiting Assistant Professor, 1993-1994.
Service to Professional Scholarly Organizations
I have reviewed manuscripts for the following journals and scholarly presses:
Western Historical Quarterly; Ethnohistory; Journal of Women's History; New Mexico Historical Review; Journal for the History of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era; Pacific Historical Review; Oxford University Press; University of Oklahoma Press; University of North Carolina Press; University of Georgia Press; University of Nebraska Press; Bedford St. Martin’s Press.
American National Biography Online, American Council of Learned Societies, Editor for Native American Biographies, 2014-Present
Western History Association: Weber-Clements Prize for the best book in the history of the Southwest, 2015-2017; Indian Student Conference Scholarship Committee, 2003-2005; chair, 2005; Program Committee, for the 2004 Annual Meeting; John C. Ewers Award Committee, for the Best Book in Indian History 1999-2002.
Southern Historical Association, Chair, the C. Vann Woodward Dissertation Prize, 2011.
Editorial Board for the Journal of the History of the Gilded Age, Progressive Era, 2008-2010
SHGAPE, (Society for the History of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era) Governing Board, 2008-2010.
H-SHGAPE, (Society for the History of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era) Online editor, 2001-present; Senior editor in charge of coordinating editing schedules.
Editorial Board, Women and Social Movements Web Site, Center for the Historical Study of Women and Gender, S.U.N.Y. Binghamton, 2000-present.
Appalachian Studies Association, Steering Committee for Academics Who Work with Citizen's Groups, 1999-2000.
The Barbara Sudler Award Committee for the Best Book on Women in the West, The Colorado Historical Society, 1998.
Service at Arizona State University
Committee Member, History Unit Undergraduate Committee, 2011-Present; Co-Director of Undergraduae Studeies, 2015-2017
Committee Member, Labriola Center American Indian National Book Award for the Best Book in American Indian History, 2012-2015
History Personnell Committee, 2015
Committee Member, Working Group for Indigenous Studies, 2011-2015.
Revitalization of H-AmIndian: I have re-booted this H-Net scholarly list-serve based at ASU by hiring new editors and a blogger on Indigenous issues, and bringing back the book reviews.
Graduate Student Recruitment Fair, 2011-Present.
Mentor, Preparing Future Faculty, 2011-Present.
Faculty advisor to History for the People, A graduate student project, 2011-2013.
Max Millet Graduate Student Travel Award, Chair, 2012, 2013. In addition to allocating funding for research travel, this service also involves sending a report to the widow of the donor, an ASU history alumnus.
Committee Member, Women and Gender Studies Graduate Student Award, 2012.
Service to Tennessee Technological University, 1995-2011.
Curriculum and University Development and Governance
Interdisciplinary Committee to design a Sustainability Studies Major, 2010-2011. We succeeded in creating this new major—the first in Tennessee.
Member of the Green Fee Committee, 2010-2011. This involved allocating student fee money to energy conservation projects on campus. My student environmental club ran a campaign that led Tech students to vote to institute this new student fee.
Scholarship Committees, Department of History, 2003—2011.
Stonecipher Symposium on Technology, Communication, and Culture. 1999-2007. This committee put together a symposium to draw students and faculty of the College of Engineering into a dialogue with students and faculty in the humanities.
Dean’s Committee to create an Interdisciplinary Master’s Program, 2002. We succeeded in creating this MA program.
Academic Council and Faculty Senate, 1999-2003.
The Dean's Advisory Committee on Environmental Studies. Fall 1999. We created an Environmental Studies Minor.
President, Women in Higher Education, TTU Chapter, 1995-1996. I helped initiate an employment services office for trailing spouses whose job opportunities were limited in rural Tennessee.
TTU Women's History Month Conference, Planning Committee, 1995-1996.
Service to the Honors Department
Honors Council, 2002-2004.
Workshops for "Big Sib" Retreat, “Organizing for Effective Social Change,” 1998-1999.
Parents' Honors Day presentations: "Dances with Stereotypes: Native Americans in Film," September 21, 1996 & 1997.
Invited Presentations for Honors Forums:
“Student Activism in the New Millennium,” 2001. This presentation was an overview of student activism in Appalachia and the opportunities for students to get involved in public decision-making.
“Higher Education and Tax Policy,” 2000. This presentation explained how the state apportioned funds for higher education and how a proposed state income tax could benefit college students.
“The Battle for Fall Creek Falls," 1998. This presentation was an overview of a citizens’ campaign I worked on to win a Lands Unsuitable for Mining Petition to protect the state’s most beautiful park from proposed strip mining nearby.
Faculty Advising for Student Clubs.
Advisor, Honors Ecology Club, 1998-2003; 2010-2011.
Advisor, TTU Lambda, 2000-2011.
Advisor, Students for Human Rights Club, 2004--2011.
Advisor, Student Environmental Action Coalition, (SEAC), 1997-2010.
Advisor, Alpha Phi-Omega Fraternity, 1997-2004.
Co-Advisor, Phi Alpha Theta History Honor Society, 1995-2001
American Association of University Professors
President, Tennessee State Conference of AAUP, 2004-2006.
TTU Chapter:
Chair of Committee "W" (The Status of Women), 1996-2000.
Vice president, Tennessee Tech Chapter, 2004-2011.
Committee "R" (Government Relations), member, 1998-2002; Co-chair, 1998-1999.
Regional and State Community Service in Tennessee
Advisory Council on Tennessee Indian Affairs, 2007- 2011. This council reported on issues relevant to Indians in Tennessee to the Executive Branch of the Tennessee Government.
Save our Cumberland Mountains, a grassroots organization promoting environmental, economic, and social justice in Appalachia, 1995-2003.
The Tennessee Alliance for Progress, 2000-2010. Board member representing higher education, 2006-2009.
Tennesseans for Fair Taxation, Board member representing higher education, 1999-2009.
Published Research for work with citizens' groups
Final Petition Evaluation and Environmental Impact Statement of the Fall Creek Falls Lands Unsuitable for Mining Petition. (Knoxville, TN: The Office of Surface Mining: Knoxville Tennessee, 1999).
Review of the Permitting Process of the Big Brush II Strip Mine, (Knoxville, TN: The Office of Surface Mining, 2001).
RESEARCH AND CONSULTING FOR MEDIA
TTU Sociology Department, October 2003
Commentator, Indian-White Relations in the Southeast, for the video recording, The Peoples of Appalachia.Gannett Productions, KUSA-TV, Denver, CO
Director of Research "How the West Was Lost," 1992, which won the ACE (Award for Cable Excellence) Award for best educational series on cable television.
Alternate View International Television, Denver, CO
Research Associate, 1989.