An Evening With Dr. Donald L. Fixico

The Department of History and Center for Tribal Studies at NSU and Too Fond Of Books is pleased to welcome Dr. Donald L. Fixico to Tahlequah! Dr. Fixico will be discussing and signing his book "The State of Sequoyah: Indigenous Sovereignty and the Quest for an Indian State".

About the Book:

Few people today know that the forty-sixth state could have been Sequoyah, not Oklahoma. The Five Tribes of Indian Territory gathered in 1905 to form their own, Indian-led state. Leaders of the Cherokees, Chickasaws, Choctaws, Muscogees, and Seminoles drafted a constitution, which eligible voters then ratified. In the end, Congress denied their request, but the movement that fueled their efforts transcends that single defeat. Researched and interpreted by distinguished Native historian Donald L. Fixico, this book tells the remarkable story of how the state of Sequoyah movement unfolded and the extent to which it remains alive today.

Fixico tells how the Five Nations, after removal to the west, negotiated treaties with the U.S. government and lobbied Congress to allow them to retain communal control of their lands as sovereign nations. In the wake of the Civil War, while a dozen bills in Congress proposed changing the status of Indian Territory, the Five Tribes sought strength in unity. The Boomer movement and seven land dispensations—beginning with the famous run of 1889—nevertheless eroded their borders and threatened their cultural and political autonomy. President Theodore Roosevelt ultimately declared his support for the merging of Indian Territory with Oklahoma Territory, paving the way for Oklahoma statehood in 1907—and shattering the state of Sequoyah dream.

Yet the Five Tribes persevered. Fixico concludes his narrative by highlighting recent U.S. Supreme Court decisions, most notably McGirt v. Oklahoma (2020), that have reaffirmed the sovereignty of Indian nations over their lands and people—a principal inherent in the Sequoyah movement.

Did the story end in 1907? Could the Five Tribes revive their plan for separate statehood? Fixico leaves the reader to ponder this intriguing possibility.

About the Author:

Donald L. Fixico (Shawnee, Sac and Fox, Muscogee Creek and Seminole) is Regents and Distinguished Foundation Professor of History. He is a policy historian and ethnohistorian. His work focuses on American Indians, oral history and the U.S. West. Professor Fixico has worked on 25 historical documentaries. He has published 15 books: "American Indians in a Modern World" (2008); "Treaties with American Indians: An Encyclopedia of Rights, Conflicts and Sovereignty, 3 volumes," (Ed, 2007); "Daily Life of Native Americans in the Twentieth Century" (2006); "The American Indian Mind in a Linear World: American Indian Studies and Traditional Knowledge" (2003); "The Urban Indian Experience in America" (2000); "The Invasion of Indian Country in the Twentieth Century: Tribal Natural Resources and American Capitalism" (1998), 2nd ed., 2011; "Rethinking American Indian History," (Ed. 1997); "Urban Indians" (1991); "An Anthology of Western Great Lakes Indian History," (Ed. 1988); and "Termination and Relocation: Federal Indian Policy, 1945-1960" (1986). His books also include, "Call for Change: The Medicine Way of American Indian History, Ethos and Reality" (June 2013) and "Indian Resilience and Rebuilding: Indigenous Nations in the Modern American West" (2013), see Cspan and "That's What They Used To Say: Reflections on American Indian Oral Traditions" (2017) and "Indian Treaties in the United States" (Ed. 2018).

Prior to Arizona State University, Professor Fixico was the Thomas Bowlus Distinguished Professor of American Indian History, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Scholar and founding director of the Center for Indigenous Nations Studies at University of Kansas. He has received postdoctoral fellowships at University of California-Los Angeles and The Newberry Library, Chicago. Professor Fixico has been a visiting lecturer and visiting professor at University of California-Berkeley; University of California-Los Angeles; San Diego State University and University of Michigan. He was an exchange professor at University of Nottingham, England and Visiting Professor in the John F. Kennedy Institute at the Freie University in Berlin, Germany.

At the undergraduate level, Professor Fixico has taught a survey history of "American Indians Since 1900" and a pro-research seminar for history majors. He has directed independent studies, honor theses for Barrett, The Honors College and theses at the Arizona State University West Campus. At the graduate level, he has taught seminars on "Federal Indian Policy, Laws and Treaties," "American Indian History Research Seminar," "An Oral History of the American West," and "Readings in the American West." Professor Fixico has directed master's theses and doctoral dissertations and serves as an advisor to several graduate students. He has been a mentor to students as well as to junior faculty in the Provost's Mentoring Program.

In 2000, President Clinton appointed Professor Fixico to the Advisory Council of the National Endowment for the Humanities and in 2002 he was the John Rhodes Visiting Professor of Public Policy in the Barrett Honors College at Arizona State University. In 2006, the Organization of American Historians awarded a short-term residency award to Professor Fixico to give lectures for two weeks in Japan. Professor Fixico has given lectures nationally and internationally and works with tribes and indigenous organizations. In 2012, he lectured at Sichuan University in China and Auckland University in New Zealand in 2013.

Education

Postdoctoral Fellowship, Newberry Library, Chicago, 1981-1982

Postdoctoral Fellowship, University of California-Los Angeles, 1980-1981

Ph.D. History, University of Oklahoma, 1980. Dissertation: “Termination and Relocation, Federal Indian Policy in the 1950s”

M.A. History, University of Oklahoma, Norman 1976. Thesis: “The Seminole Wars: A Study of Indian Nationalism”

B.A. History, University of Oklahoma, Norman 1974

Bacone Junior College, Muskogee, Oklahoma, 1969-1970

Host or Publisher Too Fond of Books