Clara Sue Kidwell

Clara Sue Kidwell (July 8, 1941-November 26, 2025) was a Native American academic scholar, historian, feminist and Native American author. She was enrolled in the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma and of White Earth Ojibwe descent. She was considered to be a "major figure in the development of American Indian Studies programs."

Biography Kidwell was born in Tahlequah, Oklahoma, in 1941. Kidwell grew up in Muskogee, Oklahoma, and she was named for her two grandmothers, with whom she had a very close relationship as a child. Her paternal grandmother helped raise her while her parents worked as clerks at the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Kidwell attributes her focus on attention to detail to her childhood experiences learning from her parents to keep copies of everything and how to pay close attention to grammar from a high school teacher, Glady Nunn. She worked at Haskell for two years until she left to be an associate professor at the University of California at Berkeley where she worked until 1993. In 1980, she was a visiting scholar and associate professor at Dartmouth College.

In 2007, Kidwell started the American Indian Center (AIC) at the University of North Carolina (UNC). One of her major goals at AIC was to reach out to the many Eastern tribes such as the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina and Coharie Intra-tribal Council, Inc., who are unable to qualify for federal recognition with the Bureau of Indian Affairs for various reasons. Under Kidwell's leadership, AIC has had success in North Carolina increasing programs that address education, health, and child welfare for these kinds of state-recognized tribes. She has also helped increase the "visibility of Native history and culture on campus." Kidwell retired from her position as director of AIC in June 2011.

Selected bibliography