Douglas M. Kiel, 2005, Outstanding Recent Alumnus Award
April 10, 2016
The path from first-generation student transferring from a technical college to a being hired as the first Native American Studies faculty member at Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts, was an unexpected one for Doug Kiel.
Originally from Twin Lakes, the citizen of the Oneida Nation found himself on the UW-Whitewater campus unsure of what he wanted to study; he soon met faculty mentors who steered him toward the McNair Scholars Program, an individualized major in American Indian Studies and, eventually, a master’s degree and doctorate in history later earned at UW-Madison.
Kiel found the faculty and staff to be very supportive as he transitioned to campus. Roger Pulliam, director of Academic Support Services, walked him down the hall to meet Richard McGregory, the longtime director of the McNair Scholars Program. Kiel cites faculty members Steven Salaita, Paula Mohan and Tony Gulig as spurring him academically in English, political science and history, respectively.
As he developed his research interest in American Indian studies, advisers helped him create an individualized major that included traveling to UW-Green Bay for Oneida language courses.
On campus, Kiel co-founded the Native American Cultural Awareness Association with a few other Native students. The student organization was a big factor in Kiel’s positive experience on campus and led to an enduring friendship with another Oneida student, social work major Brian Wilson. It also launched the Native Pride Lecture Series, which Kiel returned to speak at in March 2016.
His article, “Untaming the Mild Frontier: In Search of New Midwestern Histories,” which was published in Middle West Review, was awarded the Dorothy Schwieder Prize for best article in Midwestern history published in 2014 by the Midwestern History Association. He is co-editing, with James F. Brooks, a special issue of the Middle West Review titled “Indigenous Midwests,” due out this spring. He is the recipient of grants and fellowships from the Ford Foundation, the Lyndon Baines Johnson Foundation, the American Historical Association and the American Philosophical Society, among others.
At Williams College, Kiel studies American Indian history and nation rebuilding, federal Indian law and policy, settler colonialism in the Midwest and race relations. He is working on a book manuscript titled “Unsettling Territory: Oneida Indian Resurgence and Anti-Sovereignty Backlash,” which explores the origins of recent litigation between the Oneida Nation and the Village of Hobart, a mostly non-Native municipality that exists within the boundaries of the Oneida Reservation and seeks to prevent the tribe from recovering land that was lost a century ago.
Kiel divides his time between Williamstown, Massachusetts, and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where his partner, Beatriz Reyes, is earning a doctor of public health from Drexel University. He also returns to Wisconsin to spend time with his parents, Brenda and Jim, and his brothers, Luke and Adam.
The University of Wisconsin-Whitewater has recognized Kiel with its Outstanding Recent Alumnus Award, which will be presented at the university’s annual Founders Day event on Saturday, April 16, 2016.