{"id":18894,"date":"2021-12-06T18:19:52","date_gmt":"2021-12-06T23:19:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.indianz.com\/News\/?p=18894"},"modified":"2021-12-06T18:25:13","modified_gmt":"2021-12-06T23:25:13","slug":"msu-news-northern-cheyenne-author-wins-award-for-history-of-his-people","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/2021\/12\/06\/msu-news-northern-cheyenne-author-wins-award-for-history-of-his-people\/","title":{"rendered":"MSU News: Northern Cheyenne author wins award for history of his people"},"content":{"rendered":" \"Leo<\/a>
Leo Killsback, associate professor of Native American studies at Montana State University, recently received a Western History Association award for his two volume book on Northern Cheyenne history. MSU Photo by Adrian Sanchez-Gonzalez<\/figcaption>\r\n
Killsback\u2019s two-volume Cheyenne history wins second national book prize<\/div>\r\n
Monday, December 6, 2021<\/div>\r\n
By Carol Schmidt<\/div>\r\n
MSU News Service<\/div>\r\n
montana.edu\/news<\/A><\/div>\r\n

<\/p>\r\nLeo Killsback<\/a>, associate professor in Montana State University\u2019s Department of Native American Studies<\/a> in the College of Letters and Science<\/a>, has won the Western History Association\u2019s 2021 Donald Fixico Book Award for his two-volume history of the Cheyenne Nation.\r\n

<\/p>\r\nThe Fixico Book Award<\/a>, announced at the <\/strong>61st Western History Association Conference in Portland, Oregon, recognizes innovative work in the field of American Indian and Canadian First Nations\u2019 history.\r\n

<\/p>\r\nThis is the second major award this year for Killsback and his two books: \u201cA Sacred People: Indigenous Governance, Traditional Leadership and the Warriors of the Cheyenne Nation<\/a>\u201d and \u201cA Sovereign People: Indigenous Nationhood, Traditional Law and the Covenants of the Cheyenne Nation<\/a>.\u201d The books were published by Texas Tech University Press in 2020. Earlier this year Killsback received the 2021 Stubbendieck Great Plains Distinguished Book Prize<\/a>.\r\n

<\/p>\r\n\u201cCheyenne scholar Leo Killsback provides a remarkable history of the Cheyenne world,\u201d said Fixico Prize selection committee in the award announcement. \u201cHe does so with skill, conviction, and a determination to highlight Cheyenne voices and ways of knowing and being in his work. His use of a Cheyenne frame of understanding to tell the story is deeply rooted in who he is as a Cheyenne person and scholar of American Indian Studies.\u201d \r\n

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A Sacred People: Indigenous Governance, Traditional Leadership, and the Warriors of the Cheyenne Nation<\/a> by Leo Killsback. Texas Tech University Press<\/a><\/figcaption>\r\n<\/div>
\r\n \"A<\/a>
A Sovereign People: Indigenous Nationhood, Traditional Law, and the Covenants of the Cheyenne Nation<\/a> by Leo Killsback. Texas Tech University Press<\/a><\/figcaption>\r\n<\/div><\/div>\r\n

<\/p>\r\nKillsback, who is a member of the Northern Cheyenne Nation, worked for more than a decade researching the history of his tribe. The books\u2019 origins were in Killsback\u2019s doctoral dissertation, which he then expanded with extensive research. He combed archives at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., and the National Anthropological Archives in Maryland. He also interviewed and collaborated with more than 80 elders, teachers and spiritual leaders, resulting in the two award-winning volumes.\r\n

<\/p>\r\n\u201cIt is certainly gratifying to have my research and writing and contributions to the academy honored in this way,\u201d said Killsback, who researches federal Indian law and policy, tribal law, treaty rights, Indigenous rights and sovereignty. He emphasizes traditional concepts of leadership, law, sovereignty and nation building, he said.\r\n

<\/p>\r\nKillsback is completing two more books on Cheyenne history, oral traditions and language. The first will be published next year with the University of Nebraska Press and is titled, \u201cThe Man Who Cuts the Moon and Other Stories of the Cheyenne People.\u201d \r\n

<\/p>\r\n\u201cPart of being a professor at a research institution is the mission to research and publish,\u201d he said. \u201cThankfully, it is something that I enjoy.\u201d\r\n

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