Jeffrey P. Shepherd received his Ph.D. from Arizona State University and specializes in American Indian History. He has written about Indigenous cultures, politics, economics, and confrontations with colonialism in the 19th and 20th century. He is presently revising for publication a book: “We are an Indian Nation: A History of the Hualapai People.” He has received grants from the American Philosophical Society, the Max Millett Research Fund, the Ft. McDowell Indian Nation, and the University of Texas at El Paso. He has also been a research fellow at the D’Arcy McNickle Center for American Indian Culture at the Newberry Library in Chicago. He recently received a grant and contract from the National Park Service to write a history of the Guadalupe Mountains National Park, and he is working with the Summerlee Foundation to create a travelling museum exhibit on the Guadalupe Mountains and environmental history. His future work involves a comparative study of Indigenous communities along the U.S. – Mexico and U.S. – Canadian borders. He teaches graduate and undergraduate courses on Indigenous, Western, Border, and Public History. In addition to these teaching and research objectives, Shepherd has worked with Native communities as they resist assaults upon their rights and resources. He has been a consultant for the Hualapai Nation as they file suit against the federal government for appropriation of water rights and access to the Colorado River. He has also conducted workshops on oral history and research methods within the community so that tribal members do not need to rely on outsiders for contract work. Shepherd has also assisted other tribes in Arizona as they created bilingual language materials, built culturally sensitive “criminal justice” policies, and in the case of the Tohono O’Odham, confronted the invasive policies of the Border Patrol and Department of Homeland Security. Recently he has testified in front of the Dona Ana County Commissioners and the city council of Las Cruces, New Mexico, to explain American Indian law and sovereignty.
Articles
At the Crossroads of Hualapai History, Memory, and American Colonization: Contesting Space and Place, The American Indian Quarterly (2008)
This essay argues that the colonization of the Americas involved not only physical and economic...
Thoughts on Creative Teaching in the Undergraduate Classroom, Perspectives on History: The Newsmagazine of the American Historical Association (2007)
This article discusses several innovative approaches to teaching U.S. History in undergraduate classrooms. It argues...
An Enduring Voice in American Indian Education: The Arizona State University Center for Indian Education, 1959-1999, The Journal of American Indian Education (1999)
This article provides a narrative analysis of the history of the Center for Indian Education...
Contributions to Books
Creating a Language Learning Environment: Salt River...Pima-Maricopa Indain Community...Language Program, One Voice, Many Voices--Recreating Indigenous Language Communities (2006)
This article analyzes a language revitalization program implemented in an elementary classroom on the Salt...
Land, Labor, and Leadership: The Political Economy of Hualapai Community Building, 1910-1940, Native Pathways: American Indian Culture and Economic Development in the Twentieth Century (2004)
Increasingly, scholars are exploring the complex interplay between economic change and cultural identity, in which...