No. 886 David Edmunds, 2016

File — Box: 80, Folder: 2

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

Dave Edmunds, Professor Emeritus of History at the University of Texas at Dallas, discusses his academic career, his thoughts on the writing of Native American history, and his longtime membership in and service to the Western History Association. Dr. Edmunds took his BA in chemistry from Milliken University, his MA in history from Illinois State University, and his PhD from the University of Oklahoma, where he worked with noted scholars of Native America Donald Berthrong and Arrell Morgan Gibson. He first attended a Western History Association meeting in 1968, at Tucson, and has missed only a few in the ensuing half century. Dr. Edmunds describes the shift in the WHA from a more casual, buff-oriented organization to a more staid academic footing, but credits WHA with promoting Native American history from an early date. He celebrates the tremendous rise in numbers of Native Americans teaching in academia, but is hesitant to dismiss earlier scholars. A founder of the Indian Scholars luncheon at WHA meetings, Dr. Edmunds discusses that event’s progress over the years, and pauses to briefly describe his tenure in 2007 as president of the WHA. He closes by emphasizing that the WHA remains a very “open and friendly organization” compared to other academic historical groups and cautions against the loss of its “Western” feel.
Project: Western History Association oral history project.
Interviewer: Gregory E. Smoak.

Dates

2016

Conditions Governing Access

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