The D'Arcy McNickle Center for American Indian History was founded in 1972. Its goals are to encourage the use of the Newberry collections on American Indian studies (see the American Indian History Collection); improve the quality of what is written about American Indians; educate teachers about American Indian culture, history, and literature; assist American Indian tribal historians in their research; and provide a meeting ground where scholars, teachers, tribal historians, and others interested in American Indian studies can discuss their work with each other.
The McNickle Center's staff, affiliated research projects, and fellows have played a major role in shaping modern scholarship on American Indian history. In its first two decades the Center hosted nearly one hundred pre- and post-doctoral scholars on long-term fellowships, generally of six to eleven months duration. During the same period nearly two hundred short-term fellows spent between two weeks and two months conducting research at the Newberry. These long and short-term fellows have produced nearly forty books and dozens of scholarly articles.
These initiatives broaden the McNickle Center's mission and compliment our other activities. The Center offers sponsors conferences, seminars, and workshops for scholars and teachers; administers several fellowship programs; and publishes Meeting Ground, a national newsletter.
Seminar in American Indian Studies 2008-2009
In fall 2008 the D'Arcy McNickle Center launched a new Seminar Series in American Indian Studies. Each seminar will feature scholarly discussion of papers based on work-in-progress. Faculty, graduate students, and independent scholars are urged to plan to attend and to circulate news of this forum to colleagues. The Seminar will meet from 4:00-5:30 p.m. at the Newberry Library, Towner Fellow's Lounge. Additional information will be forthcoming closer to the date of each seminar. Interested parties should contact Scott Stevens at stevenss@newberry.org.
Past seminars:
- December 9, 2008 , Jessica Cattelino, University of California Los Angeles, "One Hamburger at a Time": Revisiting the State-Society Divide with the Seminole Tribe of Florida and Hard Rock International".
- February 26, 2009, Scott Stevens, Director, D'Arcy McNickle Center, "Bodies of Evidence: Inuit Encounters and the Autoptic Imaginary."
-May 14, 2009, LeAnne Howe, University of Illinois Urbana Champaign, "My Life after, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, and other fantastic tales from the Choctaw!"
Indians of the Midwest and Contemporary Issues Website
The Newberry Library has received a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities to fund "Indians of the Midwest and Contemporary Issues." The McNickle Center will construct this multimedia website designed to marry the Library's rich collections on Native American history with state-of-the art interactive web capabilities to reveal the cultural and historical roots of controversial issues involving Native Americans today. These include conflicts over gaming and casinos, fishing and hunting rights, the disposition of Indian artifacts and archeological sites, and the use of Indian images in the media. In addition to historical collections, the site will also feature interviews with contemporary Native Americans, interactive maps, links to tribal and other websites, and social networking.
Newberry Consortium in American Indian Studies (NCAIS)
At the end of its partnership with the thirteen Committee on Institutional Cooperation (CIC) universities in June 2008, the Newberry Library inaugurated a new Consortium in American Indian Studies. NCAIS began accepting members earlier this summer and will launch programs in July 2009. The consortium will draw on the Newberry Library's collections and the resources of the McNickle Center to offer a series of annual workshops, institutes, symposiums, conferences and fellowships to graduate students and faculty at member institutions. Membership in the new Newberry Consortium will be limited to 18 institutions and is currently being offered to universities in the United States and Canada.
Meeting Ground Newsletter
Find here our latest edition of our Meeting Ground Newsletter
Susan Kelly Power and Helen Hornbeck Tanner 2009-2010 Fellow
Stephanie Fitzgerald
Ph.D. Candidate in English, University of Kansas
Land Narratives: Native Women's Histories of Land and Law
Frances C. Allen Fellows 2009-2010
Julie Reed
Ph.D. Candidate in History, University of North Carolina Chapel Hill,
A Nation's Charge: Cherokee Social Services, 1835-1907
Kellie Mosteller
Ph.D. Candidate in History, University of Texas , Austin Place, Politics, and Property: Negotiating Allotment and Citizenship for the Citizen Potawatomi,
20010-2011 Fellowships opportunities : Frances C Allen Fellowship for Women of American Indian Heritage
: Susan Kelly Power and Helen Hornbeck Fellowship
Newberry Library Collections: American Indian History
Newberry Library Collections: American Indians and the History of the American West
Native American Resources on the Web
From 2002 to 2007, the McNickle Center entered into a partnership with the thirteen Committee on Institutional Cooperation (CIC) universities, dedicated toward constructing a nationally-recognized, innovative, graduate program in American Indian Studies. Each year, the CIC and McNickle Center collaborated on graduate student programming (conferences, seminars, and workshops), a national conference, and offer graduate student fellowships as well as a CIC faculty fellowship.
To Join our Mailing List:
Send us e-mail with your preferred email address, or mail the information to: D'Arcy McNickle Center for American Indian History, 60 West Walton Street, Chicago, IL 60610-3380. Phone: (312)255 3564.
Staff
Scott Stevens, Director, Phone: (312) 255 3563, Email: stevenss@newberry.org
Loretta Fowler, Editor Indians of the Midwest project: Email: mcnickle@newberry.org