Clara Sue Kidwell

{{Short description|Native American academic scholar, historian, feminist and author}}

{{Infobox scientist|name = Clara Sue Kidwell|birth_date = July 8, 1941|birth_place = Tahlequah, Oklahoma, United States|fields = Native American Studies|alma_mater = University of Oklahoma}}

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.{{Cite web|title = Mother of Native American Studies Programs Retires from UNC, Heads for Bacone College|url = http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2011/08/02/mother-native-american-studies-programs-retires-unc-heads-bacone-college-45404|website = Indian Country|date = 2 August 2011|access-date = 11 June 2015|last = Lee|first = Tanya}} She is considered to be a "major figure in the development of American Indian Studies programs."{{Cite web|title = Clara Sue Kidwell - Biography|url = http://www.vovarts.org/bio/clara.shtml|website = Vocal and Verbal Arts Archives|access-date = 12 June 2015}}

Biography

Kidwell was born in Tahlequah, Oklahoma, in 1941.{{Cite web|url = http://www.ipl.org/div/natam/bin/browse.pl/A114|title = Native American Authors: Clara Sue Kidwell, 1941-|access-date = 12 June 2015|website = ipl2|publisher = College of Information Science in Technology of Drexel University}} 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.{{Cite journal|url = http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=f5h&AN=34101272&site=ehost-live|title = Oklahoma Feast|last1 = Cox|first1 = Beverly|date = March 2004|journal = Native Peoples Magazine|access-date = 12 June 2015|last2 = Jacobs|first2 = Martin|url-access=subscription |issue = 3|volume = 17|page = 22}} Her paternal grandmother helped raise her while her parents worked as clerks at the Bureau of Indian Affairs.{{Cite book|title = American Women Historians, 1700s-1990s: A Biographical Dictionary|last1 = Scanlon|first1 = Jennifer|publisher = Greenwood Press|year = 1996|isbn = 0313296642|location = Westport, Connecticut|pages = 132–134|last2 = Cosner|first2 = Shaaron|url = https://books.google.com/books?id=XJSdT_4NWTMC&q=clara%20sue%20kidwell&pg=PA133|access-date = 12 June 2015}} 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. 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. 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. She earned her master's in 1966 from OU. She finally received her Ph.D from the University of Oklahoma in 1970.

Kidwell began to teach American Indian studies in 1970 at Haskell Indian Junior College (now Haskell Indian Nations University).{{Cite journal |title = American Indian Studies as an Academic Discipline |last = Kidwell |first = Clara Sue |date = March 2011 |journal = American Indian Culture & Research Journal |doi = 10.17953/aicr.35.1.04638323085j4659 |issn = 0161-6463 |volume = 35 |issue = 1 |pages = 27–31}} 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. At Berkeley, her "research and publication flourished" and she received fellowships from the Newberry Library and the Smithsonian Institution.{{Cite book|title = Native American Women: A Biographical Dictionary|last = Thiel|first = Mark G.|publisher = Taylor & Francis Books|year = 2005|isbn = 9781135955878|pages = 171–173|url = https://books.google.com/books?id=9eaSAgAAQBAJ&q=clara%20sue%20kidwell&pg=PA172|access-date = 12 June 2015|editor-last = Bataille|editor-first = Gretchen M.|editor-last2 = Lisa|editor-first2 = Laurie|edition = Taylor & Francis eLibrary}} In 1980, she was a visiting scholar and associate professor at Dartmouth College. 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. 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. In 1995, she chose a tenured position at the University of Oklahoma as the director of the Native American studies program. 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.{{cite web|url=http://vufind.carli.illinois.edu/vf-dpu/Record/dpu_536804/TOC |title=Library Resource Finder: Table of Contents for: Sisterhood is forever : the women's anth |publisher=Vufind.carli.illinois.edu |access-date=2015-10-15}}

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

Selected bibliography

{{Cite journal|title = American Indian Studies: Intellectual Navel Gazing or Academic Discipline?|last = Kidwell|first = Clara Sue|date = 2009|journal = The American Indian Quarterly|doi = 10.1353/aiq.0.0041|volume = 33|issue = 1|pages = 1–17|s2cid = 161214774}}
{{Cite book|title = The Choctaws in Oklahoma: From Tribe to Nation, 1855–1970|last = Kidwell|first = Clara Sue |author-mask=2 |publisher = University of Oklahoma Press|year = 2008|isbn = 978-0806140063|others = foreword by Lindsay G. Roberston}}
{{Cite book|title = Native American Studies|last1 = Kidwell|first1 = Clara Sue |author-mask=2 |publisher = University of Nebraska Press|year = 2005|isbn = 978-0803278295|location = Lincoln, Nebraska|last2 = Velie|first2 = Alan}}
{{Cite book|title = Sisterhood is Forever|last = Kidwell|first = Clara Sue|author-mask = 2|publisher = Washington Square Press|year = 2003|isbn = 9780743466271|pages = [https://archive.org/details/sisterhoodisfore00morg/page/165 165–175]|chapter = Native Americans: Restoring the Power of Thought Woman}}
{{Cite book|title = Native American Studies in Higher Education: Models for Collaboration between Universities and Indigenous Nations|last = Kidwell|first = Clara Sue |author-mask=2 |publisher = AltaMira Press|year = 2002|isbn = 9780759101258|location = Oxford, England|pages = 29–42|chapter = American Indian Studies at the University of Oklahoma|editor-last = Champagne|editor-first = Duane|editor-last2 = Stauss|editor-first2 = Jay}}
{{Cite book|title = A Native American Theology|last1 = Kidwell|first1 = Clara Sue |author-mask=2 |publisher = Orbis Books|year = 2001|isbn = 978-1570753619|last2 = Noley|first2 = Homer|last3 = Tinker|first3 = George E.}}
{{Cite book|title = Next Steps: Research and Practice to Advance Indian Education|last = Kidwell|first = Clara Sue |author-mask=2 |publisher =Eric Clearinghouse on Rural |year = 1999|isbn =978-1880785218 |pages = 271–292|chapter = The Vanishing Indian Reappears in the College Curriculum|chapter-url = http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED427914.pdf|editor-last = Swisher|editor-first = Karen Gayton|editor-last2 = Tippeconnic|editor-first2 = John}}
{{Cite book|title = Choctaws and Missionaries in Mississippi, 1818–1918|last = Kidwell|first = Clara Sue |author-mask=2 |publisher = University of Oklahoma Press|year = 1995|isbn = 978-0806129143}}
{{Cite journal|title = What Would Pocahontas Think Now?: Women and Cultural Persistence|last = Kidwell|first = Clara Sue |author-mask=2 |date = 1994|journal = Callaloo|doi = 10.2307/2932084|volume = 17|issue = 1|pages = 149–159|jstor = 2932084|s2cid = 163576497}}
{{Cite journal|title = Indian Women as Cultural Mediators|last = Kidwell|first = Clara Sue |author-mask=2 |date = 1992|journal = Ethnohistory|doi = 10.2307/482389|volume = 39|issue = 2|pages = 97–107|jstor = 482389}}
{{Cite book|title = The Choctaws: A Critical Bibliography|last1 = Kidwell|first1 = Clara Sue|author-mask = 2|publisher = Indiana University Press|year = 1980|isbn = 978-0253344120|last2 = Roberts|first2 = Charles|url-access = registration|url = https://archive.org/details/choctawscritical0000kidw}}
{{Cite journal|title = The Power of Women in Three American Indian Societies|last = Kidwell|first = Clara Sue |author-mask=2 |date = 1978|journal = Journal of Ethnic Studies|volume = 6|issue = 3|pages = 113–121}}