Indian Leadership . Sunflower University Press, 1984

Introduction:

As a result of my book Southeastern Indians Since the Removal Era, and several influential articles (especially “United States Indian Policy and the Debate over Philippine Annexation” published in the 1980 Journal of American History), I was becoming known for pathbreaking scholarship on the position of Indigenous Americans after the passing of the frontier. My unique approach to teaching my University of Cincinnati classes on Indigenous American history led to an invitation for me to teach as a visiting professor in the American Indian Studies Center at the University of California, Los Angeles, in 1982 and again in 1984.  Being at UCLA, in turn, led to me becoming Guest Editor of a special issue of American Indian Culture and Research Journal in 1985). 

At the same time, the editor of the Journal of the West asked me to be Guest Editor of a special issue (vol. 23, n.3) on Indian leadership in the twentieth century.  I wrote an Introductory essay for the volume, and attracted major scholars like Professors Terry Wilson and Loretta Fowler. But I also arranged a publication opportunity for two of my former students, Melissa Meyer and W. Dale Mason, to contribute articles drawn from their dissertation research. The quality of the essays, as well as my analysis of what qualities are evident in effective tribal leaders, resulted in this special issue being re-published in late 1984 as a book by Sunflower University Press.