MAILED: April 27, 2001
EAU CLAIRE —The Newberry Library,
an independent research library in Chicago, awarded a University of
Wisconsin-Eau Claire professor a National Endowment for the Humanities
fellowship to support individual research and promote serious intellectual
exchange through the library's scholarly activities.
Dr. James Oberly, professor of history, was awarded
$1,500 for spring 2002 to supplement his UW-Eau Claire sabbatical. The
sabbatical is titled "After the Treaties: Natural Resources, History, Cultures
and Sovereignty in Wisconsin Indian Affairs."
Oberly is working on two long-term book projects about
the Stockbridge-Munsee Band of Mohicans of Central Wisconsin and the Mille Lacs
treaty rights case.
The first book on the Mohicans, who settled in Wisconsin
in 1856, is already in progress. The Mohicans have been an organized tribe for
more than 400 years. "I have been working with the Stockbridge-Munsee tribe
for several years on their own history," Oberly said. "No one has written a
book on their history or their story in Wisconsin so I intend to do that."
Oberly will work with the Minnesota Historical Society on
a book about the Mille Lacs spear fishing treaty case next year. "It will be
about both the history of the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe and their struggle
against the state of Minnesota to get their off-reservation treaty rights
recognized," Oberly said. "I think the Mille Lacs story needs to be told.
There's not yet a book out on that topic."
The Newberry Library received about 100 entries for the
fellowship. Fewer than one in ten received funding. Applicants must be
established scholars who hold doctorates in their fields.
The library is one of two foremost libraries and archives
for the study of American history and culture in the United States. Its holdings
number more than one million volumes and five million manuscripts in the
humanities.
The library also is a place where scholars working on
similar topics can get together, share papers and have discussions. "One of
the areas in the library is called the center for American Indian history,"
Oberly said. "I think my work can benefit from talking to and working with
those people."
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RM/NW
[Administrative Offices]
[News Bureau]
Janice B. Wisner
UW-Eau Claire News Bureau
Schofield 201
(715) 836-4741
newsbur@uwec.edu
Updated: April 27, 2001
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