K. Tsianina Lomawaima

K. Tsianina Lomawaima (Creek; Ph.D., 1987, Stanford University) joined the AIS faculty on a full time tenured Associate Professor appointment in 1994, and was promoted to Full Professor in 1998. Her 1994 book, They Called it Prairie Light: The Story of Chilocco Indian School (U of Nebraska Press) received the 1993 North American Indian Prose Award, the 1995 American Educational Association's Critics' Choice Award, and was nominated for 2 other honors. She co-edited and co-authored Away from Home: American Indian Boarding School Experiences (Phoenix: Heard Museum, 2000); co-edited a special issue of The Journal of American Indian Education (Spring 1996 Vol. 35 #3) on boarding school experiences; and co-edited a theme issue of Anthropology & Education Quarterly on Indigenous Epistemoloigies and Education--Self-Determination, Anthropology, and Human Rights (Vol. 36, #1, 2005). Uneven Ground: American Indian Sovereignty and Federal Law, co-authored with David E. Wilkins, was published by University of Oklahoma Press in Fall, 2001, and issued in paperback summer, 2002. Professor Lomawaima teaches a number of the graduate courses including AIS 502, Dynamics of Indian Society; AIS 602, Interdisciplinary Research: Theory and Methods; AIS 696C, Native Scholars: Intellectual Heritage of AIS; and AIS 697A, College Teaching Methods. She developed AIS 677, History of Indian Education, and is one of the faculty who teaches the 677-678-679 Education Series. In addition, she provided leadership for the development of TRAD 101, Many Nations of Native America, a Tier One General Education course for freshmen. Professor Lomawaima is a member of various professional associations in education, anthropology, and ethnohistory. She served as the President of the American Society for Ethnohistory in 2005.

Her most recent book manuscript, To Remain an Indian: Lessons in Democracy from a Century of Native American Education, co-authored with Prof. Teresa L. McCarty, and was published in 2006 by Teachers College Press, as part of the Multicultural Education series edited by James Banks. Ongoing research projects include the research survey team who produced the 1928 publication The Problem of Indian Administration, commonly known as the Meriam Report; 20th century transformations in Indian homes, in architecture and in organization of domestic space, examining the impact of domestic education programs in boarding schools and on-reservation programs (such as field matron, agricultural extension, and “Better Home campaign” activities); and federal production and uses of photographic images to document and publicize programs to assimilate and “civilize” Native peoples and communities.