Encounters at the Heart of the World: A History of the Mandan People, a book by Elizabeth Fenn. Image from Amazon. Photo from University of Colorado

University of Colorado ethnic studies professor Elizabeth Fenn won the Pulitzer Prize for history for her book about the Mandan Tribe.

Fenn received $10,000 for Encounters at the Heart of the World: A History of the Mandan People. The award committee described the book as "an engrossing, original narrative showing the Mandans, a Native American tribe in the Dakotas, as a people with a history."

Fenn worked on the book for 10 years. She said the tribe, whose descendants are a part of the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation in North Dakota, faced serious challenges after helping the Lewis and Clark Expedition.

"They had to deal with a whole series of environmental challenges -- drought, infectious disease from Europe including whooping cough, smallpox and measles, and they also had to deal with Norway rats, a new species from China arriving via Europe," Penn said in a press release.

Get the Story:
Elizabeth Fenn, CU-Boulder prof and Longmont resident, wins Pulitzer Prize for history (The Boulder Daily Camera 4/21)
Elizabeth A. Fenn wins Pulitzer Prize for history (AP 4/20)