Clifford Trafzer

Professor of History, Costo Historical & Linguistic Native American Research Center, College of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences, History, Center for Social & Behavioral Science
Office: HMNSS 7708
Phone: (909) 787-5401 x1-1974
http://history.ucr.edu/faculty/trafzer.html
clifford.trafzer@ucr.edu

Degrees

PhD History 1973 Oklahoma State University
MA History 1971 Northern Arizona University
BA History 1970 Northern Arizona University

Awards

Wordcraft Circle Book Award, Best non-fiction (1997)
Rockefeller Foundation National Endowment Research Fellowship (1995)
Humanities Research Institute Fellowship (1994)
Pen Oakland Josephine Miles National Literary Award (1994)
Washington Governor's Book Award (1986 & 1991)
Outstanding Faculty Award, Assoc. Students of San Diego State University (1989-90)

Research Areas

Native American Social- Cultural History; American West; Oral Traditions.

Publications

His Kit Carson Campaign: The Last Great Navajo War and Yuma: Frontier Crossing of the Far Southwest were published in 1981. His co-authored work, Renegade Tribe: The Palouse Indians and the Invasion of the Inland Pacific Northwest appeared in 1986 winning the Governor's Award for the best non-fiction in Northwestern history. In 1994 he won the Pen Oakland Award for Earth Song, Sky Spirit. His works include Grandmother, Grandfather, and Old Wolf: Tamánwit Ku Súdat and Traditional Native American Stories From the Columbia Plateau, Death Stalks the Yakama: A Social-Cultural History of Death on the Yakama Indian Reservation, 1888-1964, and Exterminate Them! He is currently completing books, The People of San Manuel and A Chemehuevi Song: A History of the Twenty-Nine Palms Tribe.

Former Institution

San Diego State University

Biography

Raised in Arizona, Clifford Trafzer was born to parents of Wyandot Indian and German-English blood. He earned a B.A. and M.A. in history at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff, where he also worked as an archivist for Special Collections. He earned a Ph.D. in American History in 1973 with a specialty in American Indian History and the same year became a museum curator for the Arizona Historical Society. Before joining the faculty of the University of California, Riverside in 1991, Trafzer taught at Navajo Community College, Washington State University and San Diego State University.