The Labriola Center Book Award is national in scope and seeks to promote contemporary work by Indigenous scholars which benefits Indigenous peoples and nations. Books that have been submitted for consideration for the Labriola Center American Indian National Book Award have crossed multiple disciplines or fields of study but must focus on topics and issues that are pertinent to Indigenous peoples and nations.
Past winners of the Labriola National American Indian Center Book Award:
2024 Dr. Kailtlin Reed is an enrolled member of the Yurok Tribe in Northwestern California, with ancestral ties to Hupa and Oneida. Dr. Reed is an Assistant Professor of Native American Studies at Cal Poly Humboldt in Arcata, California. Her book "Settler Cannabis: From Gold Rush to Green Rush in Indigenous Northern California" won the 2023 Labriola Book Award. In 2018, Dr. Reed was awarded the Charles Eastman Fellowship of Native American Studies at Dartmouth College.
Honorable mention goes to Kasey R. Keeler, who is an assistant professor in the Department of Civil Society and Community Studies and American Indian Studies at the University of Wisconsin, for her book, “American Indians and the American Dream: Policies, Place, and Property in Minnesota”.
2023 Dr. Valerie Lambert is an enrolled citizen of the Choctaw Nation and is a professor of anthropology at the University of North Carolina–Chapel Hill. Her book "Native Agency: Indians in the Bureau of Indian Affairs” won the 2022 Labriola Book award. Valerie is also the author of "Choctaw Nation: A Story of American Indian Resurgence," winner of the 2007 North American Indian Prose Award.
Honorable mention goes to Dr. Charlotte Cote, who is associate professor in American Indian studies at the University of Washington, for her book A Drum in One Hand, a Sockeye in the Other: Stories of Indigenous Food Sovereignty from the Northwest Coast.
2022 Dr. Max Liboiron, Associate Professor of Geography at Memorial University of Newfoundland in Canada, for their 2021 book "Pollution is Colonialism".
Honorable mention goes to Dr. Helen Agger (Anishinaabe), who holds a PhD in Native Studies from the University of Manitoba, for their 2021 book "Dadibaajim: Returning Home Through Narrative".
2020 Dr. Dylan Robinson, Associate Professor and Canada Research Chair in Indigenous Arts at Queen's University for their 2020 book "Hungry Listening: Resonant Theory for Indigenous Sound Studies".
Honorable mention goes to Dr. Brittany Luby (Niisaachewan Anishinaabe Nation), Assistant Professor of History at the University of Guelph for their 2020 book "Dammed: The Politics of Loss and Survival in Anishnaabe Territory".
2019 Dr. Christopher Pexa, Assistant Professor of English and affiliate of American Indian Studies at the University of Minnesota, for "Translated Nation: Rewriting the Dakhota Oyate".
Honorable mention goes to Dr. Philip Deloria, Professor of History at Harvard University, for "Becoming Mary Sully: Toward an American Indian Abstract."
2018 Dr. Margaret Bruchac, Assistant Professor and Coordinator, Native American & Indigenous Studies at University of Pennsylvania for "Savage Kin: Indigenous Informants and American Anthropologists". Recording of Interview
Honorable mention goes to Dr. Cutcha Risling Baldy, for "We Are Dancing for You: Native Feminisms and the Revitalization of Women's Coming-of-Age Ceremonies".
2017 Dr. Elizabeth Hoover, Manning Assistant Professor of American Studies at Brown University for "The River is in Us: Fighting Toxics in a Mohawk Community". Recording of interview
Honorable mention goes to Dr. Leanne Betasamosake Simpson for "As We Have Always Done: Indigenous Freedom Through Radical Resistance".
2016 Dr. Delphine Red Shirt, Professor at Stanford University for "George Sword's Warrior Narratives: Compositional Processes in Lakota Oral Tradition".
Honorable mention goes to Dr. William Bauer for "California Through Native Eyes: Reclaiming History".
2015 Sarah Deer, Professor of Law at Mitchell Hamline School of Law for "The Beginning and End of Rape: Confronting Sexual Violence in Native America". Recording of interview
Honorable mention goes to Clint Carroll for "Roots of Our Renewal: Ethnobotany and Cherokee Environmental Governance".
2014 Dr. Brenda Child, associate Professor of American Studies and America Indian Studies at University of Minnesota for "My Grandfather's Knocking Sticks: Ojibwe Family Life and labor on the Reservation". Recording of interview
2013 Dr. Andrew Graybill, associate professor of history at Southern Methodist University for "The Red and the White: A Family Saga of the American West". Recording of interview
2012 Dr. Daniel Herman, professor of history at Central Washington University for "Rim Country Exodus: A Story of Conquest, Renewal, and Race in the Making". Recording of interview
2011 Dr. Cathleen Cahill, Assistant Professor of History at the University of New Mexico for "Federal Fathers and Mothers: A Social History of the United States Indian Service, 1869-1933". Recording of interview
2010 Dr. Malinda Lowery Assistant Professor of History at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill for "Lumbee Indians in the Jim Crow South: Race, Identity, and the Making of a Nation".
2009 Dr. Paul Rosier, Associate Professor of History at Villanova for "Serving Their Country: American Indian Politics and Patriotism in the Twentieth Century".
2008 Dr. Daniel Cobb, inaugural winner for his book "Native Activism in Cold War America: The Struggle for Sovereignty".
Award Criteria
Books submitted for consideration for the Labriola Center American Indian National Book Award may cross multiple disciplines or fields of study but must focus on topics and issues that are pertinent to Indigenous peoples and nations. Authors affiliated with a Native Nation or Tribal community, First Nation, or Indigenous/Aboriginal community will be considered for the award. Authors need not be affiliated with a university, though that is desirable. Scholars may also work as independent researchers, for research institutes, tribal offices, government agencies, and similar institutions. Please see the nomination form below for further information.
The author of the winning manuscript will receive a cash prize of $1,000 and an invitation to speak at the award announcement ceremony in Fall 2024. The judging committee will be chaired by ASU faculty Dr. Jerome Clark.
For each nomination, please send 4 copies of the book and a completed nomination form to the Labriola National American Indian Data Center, Attn: Vina Begay, ASU Fletcher Library, PO Box 37100, Phoenix, AZ 85069-7100. For questions please email labriola@asu.edu
Dedicated in 1993, the Labriola National American Indian Data Center in the ASU Library is one of the only repositories within a public university library devoted to American Indian collections. The Labriola Center holds both primary and secondary sources on American Indians across North America. The Center's primary purpose is to promote a better understanding of American Indian language, culture, social, political and economic issues. The Labriola National American Indian Data Center has been endowed by Frank and Mary Labriola whose wish has been that “the Labriola Center be a source of education and pride for all Native Americans.”
Arizona State University is committed to American Indian scholarship and offers several academic programs led by noted American Indian faculty including a Bachelors of Science and Masters of Science degree in American Indian Studies, an Indigenous Teacher Preparation Program, an American Indian nursing program, and the Indian Legal Program.
Book Award Nomination Form (PDF)
Book Award Nomination Form (Word Doc)